The Bermudas were from the earliest times recognized as an important marine station. During the Revolutionary war Washington wrote: "Let us annex the Bermudas, and thus possess a nest of hornets to annoy the British trade." But the place was undisturbed, and remained loyal to the king. Sidenote: The landfall of Columbus. The first American soil trod by Columbus was an island in the fruitful Bahama group. "This country," he wrote, "excels all others as far as the day surpasses the night in splendor." The natives were numerous; "their conversation is the sweetest imaginable; their faces always smiling; and so gentle and so affectionate are they that I swear to your highness there is not a better people in the world." Yet (commencing in 1509) the Spaniards almost depopulated the islands; forty thousand of these innocent aborigines were carried away to a wretched death in the mines of Cuba. Sidenote: Spanish and French opposition to English settlement. In 1629, an English colony was planted on New Providence, in the then deserted archipelago. But the French and Spanish persisted in harrying the settlement, which was frequently the scene of stormy conflicts. At last, in 1718, the English government drove out the pirates who had come to resort there in great numbers, resettled the islands, and an era of progress opened. Sidenote: Americans capture the colony. During the Revolutionary war many wealthy Tories went from the continental colonies to the Bahamas and opened up large plantations, with slave labor. The colony was captured by the Americans (1776),--the only conquest of British territory during the Revolution, except the Canadian campaign of 1775 and the occupation of the Northwest by Virginia troops in 1778. The Spanish took it in 1782, but it was soon retaken by the English (1783). Three quarters of a century later the islands became famous as the point of departure for blockade-runners bound into Confederate ports. 102. Jamaica (1655-1750). Sidenote: England captures the island. Jamaica was under Spanish control until 1655, when an English fleet under Admirals Penn and Venables--the former, father of the founder of Pennsylvania--compelled the surrender of the island to the Commonwealth. The opposition of the Spanish planters and their negro slaves--the latter were called Maroons--long made English government difficult; the Spaniards were finally driven off, but the Maroons, fleeing to the mountains, were troublesome until the close of the eighteenth century. Much annoyance was also suffered in the seventeenth century from the buccaneers, who infested the Jamaica coast and preyed indiscriminately on all West Indian commerce; they were suppressed with great difficulty. In 1728, English laws and statutes became applicable to the island. Sidenote: The Tory element.