Juan de Bolas
Juan de Bolas (b. 1604?, d. 1664) (his African name was Lubolo) was a 17th-century warrior and political thinker He was one of the first leaders of the Jamaican Maroons. He helped his people transition from Spanish to English rule after the English captured Jamaica in 1655. Juan de Bolas and his Maroon community was based primarily around the town of Lluidas Vale. The Spanish attempted to retake the Colony of Jamaica, and to this end Don Christobal de Ysasi relied on his alliance with the Spanish Maroons to secure this victory. However, Governor Edward D'Oyley succeeded in persuading one of the leaders of the Spanish Maroons, Juan de Bolas, to switch sides and join the English along with his Maroon warriors. In 1660, when Ysasi realised that de Bolas had joined the English, he admitted that the Spanish no longer had a chance of recapturing the island, since de Bolas and his men knew the mountainous interior better than the Spanish and the English. Ysasi gave up on his dreams,...