ABSTRACT
The coral-girt islands of San Andres and Providencia stand alone in the vastness of the Caribbean Sea, 300 miles from the Colombian coast, 110 miles from the mainland of Central America, and 250 miles southwest of Jamaica. To the English and Dutch freebooters, who were roving about the western Caribbean in increasing numbers at the beginning of the seventeenth century, San Andrés and Santa Catalina must have been conspicuous landmarks. When the first English colonists were set down on them, in 1629, they found several Dutch smugglers and privateers already on the islands. For nearly 30 years after the ousting of the Puritans from Providence, Spain maintained a presidio there. This was the only period in the island's history in which it was occupied by a predominantly Spanish-speaking, Catholic population. The neighboring coasts of Central America, although visited by Columbus on his third voyage and later reconnoitered by occasional coasting expeditions, were left alone by the Spaniards.
