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Isla de Providencia or Old Providence is a mountainous Caribbean island part of the Colombian department of Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina and the municipality of Providencia and Santa Catalina Islands, lying midway between Costa Rica and Jamaica. Providencia's maximum elevation is 360 m above sea level. The smaller Santa Catalina Island is connected by a 100-metre footbridge to its larger sister Providencia Island. The island is served by El Embrujo Airport. The island was the site of an English Puritan colony established in 1629 by the Providence Island Company, and was briefly taken by Spain in 1641. The pirate Henry Morgan used Providencia as a base for raiding the Spanish empire, and rumours suggest that much of his treasure remains hidden on the island. Many parts of the island are named after Morgan. Forts and cannons dating back hundreds of years can be found scattered all over Santa Catalina Island. ==Early times of the colony== (詳細はPlymouth colony that later became Plymouth, Massachusetts. Though the small colony was English, the island had a significant Dutch population. The colony is now known for its involvement in the trade in slaves, who were sold and traded in exchange for tobacco, but not for monetary profit, in accordance with the colonists' Puritan values. Some of the more famous characters were the governors Nathaniel Butler and Philip Bell, Bell’s father-in-law Daniel Elfrith, William Rous and Thomas Gage. Philip Bell was the first governor and was replaced by Robert Hunt, due to conflict with another colonist resulting in ungodly behavior. Nathaniel Butler later replaced Hunt. Many of these men had already had experience with England’s colonizing and economic expeditions with the Virginia Company and the Somers (Bermuda) Company. It is possible to infer what life was like on the island based on the accounts of slaves and letters written by the colonists. They reported that some of the Englishmen who wanted to leave said "this place is no way to live". Life included church services, trade with English ships, and hopes for corsair raids against the Spanish. The slaves say that they were considered heretics on account of their Catholicism, and their rosaries were destroyed. Much tobacco was grown on the island and traded for slaves, clothing, shoes, liquor, beer, fabric, and household goods. Occasionally ships from England would bring women. Before the English had adequate ships for raiding the Spanish, they traveled around the island’s freshwater streams and surrounding waters for fishing and finding turtles. They sometimes brought back Indians from their expeditions. The principal trading port had about nine small forts and several little fortresses along the bay’s entrance. There was one inside the mouth of the bay and one also by the governor’s house. These testimonies are thought to have provided the Spanish with key information on the colony’s logistics and defenses that enabled the attack on the island. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Isla de Providencia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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