The natives of Jamaica found the shipwrecked Colombus off their coast in 1504. He had gone as far as Honduras on his fourth and last journey to America. Diseases, warfare and slave labour between 1508 and 1511 decimated the native population of West Indies. Ten of thousand died and some tribes such as the Carab and Arawak of Hispaniola more or less disappeared. The Christian Church, in 1511, was debating if the Indians could be classified as human beings. The first book describing the cruelty of the Spaniard was written by Bartolome de Las Casas in 1515.
In 1520 the Arawaks, under Guayocuya (Enrique for the Spanish), began a rebellion that was to last for 14 years. Finally the Spanish granted them land on which to live independently.
