The Island, The Colony
It was on a vacation to San Andres Island – only 50 miles from Providence Island - that I first discovered the history of Providence Island. While on San Andres I found a history book that mentioned the expulsion of English Puritans from Providence Island in 1641. I read that the island had been home to a Puritan colony that lasted only eleven years - 1630 to 1641. I learned that the Massachusetts Bay Colony was a spin off of the Providence Island Colony. In the 1630s it was hoped by Puritan leaders in England that many of the Massachusetts Bay colonialists would leave cold and rocky North America and settle on wealthier Providence Island. I read further and learned that the first colonialists from England sailed on the Seaflower and, like their North American coreligionists, were dedicated to building a strong religious community based on a direct relationship with God and the pursuit of profit through trade.
These Puritan colonialists were cut from the same cloth as the Elizabethan pirates Francis Drake and John Hawkins (who preceded the Puritans by 60 years and terrorized Spanish Colonies in the Caribbean) in their hatred for the Catholic world. However, the colonialists were different from Drake and Hawkins in that they believed so strongly in community and God. They were imbued with a religious mission that gave them a sense of higher purpose; they were not calculating pirates. In fact, one of the founders of the colony, the Earl of Warwick, who was a leader in the Puritan community in England, supported the English parliamentary forces that executed the English King Charles I in 1649 - this marked the end of the English Civil War and the rise of Oliver Cromwell’s Puritan dictatorship.
The story of Providence Island intrigued me like most of the history of Central America and the Caribbean. It intrigued me because of the parallels with the founding of the United States: the remote colony, the harsh environment, the reformed religion, the drive for money. And as I researched more into the island’s past I realized there had been traffic in people between the Providence Island Colony and Massachusetts Bay Colony, so knowledge about one would have spread to the other: that intrigued me. I learned so much in my youth about the Massachusetts Bay Colony, but never even heard a whisper about Providence Island until I was far into adulthood, and yet they were tied to one another. And so I read more.
Providence Island is a small volcanic island that lies 110 miles off the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua; it is today part of Colombia. Its sister island San Andres is only a 20 minute flight away. The island has some connection to Nicaragua as the Moskito Indians who live on Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast were known to turtle in the waters around Providence Island. The island is very mountainous; the mountains start right at the sea; the highest peak is 1,190 feet high. In the high mountain valleys there is very rich soil which was used to plant tobacco by the Puritan colonialists. There is also a very large and beautiful coral reef which surrounds the island and makes the approaches to the island very difficult to navigate for those who don’t know the waters well. A small island – Santa Catalina - is located right next to Providence.
When I first read about the colony I was surprised it even existed, especially since it was founded at a time when the English were relatively weak in the Caribbean. The only other English colonies in the hemisphere at the time were Jamestown, Bermuda, Association Island (Tortuga, off Haiti’s northern coast) and Barbados – all far from Providence Island. The Puritans chose the name providence because they thought they would need God’s providence to even survive in such dangerous waters. You have to remember that at this time Jamaica was still Spanish and everything in Central America was Spanish. Jamaica was part of the Central American providence of Veragua which was ruled by the Duke of Veragua, the first of which was Columbus’s grandson Don Luis. Everything around the island was Catholic Spain. In other words, the colonialists were surrounded and far from help.
The island was originally chosen because it was thought it could be defended. San Andres Island, which, because it is flat, was better-suited to the kind of plantation economy the Puritan colonialists wanted to establish, was not chosen because it was seen as too hard to defend. The Puritan colonialists liked Providence because it looked like a natural fortress, with its mountains and surrounding coral reef. The colony began at the end of 1629 and the first colonialists arrived from Bermuda. Philip Bell who had been governor in Bermuda was one of the first to arrive and was chosen to be the first governor.
The colony never really succeeded as a trading state. The tobacco produced on the island was of a very poor quality. There were several attempts to bring different crops from the Central American mainland that might grow on the island and be tradable. A kind of flax seed called Camock flax, which when pressed created oil, was found near Cape Gracias a Dios but did not flourish as a tradable crop. Sugarcane had not arrived to the Caribbean via the Dutch in Brazil as of yet, so it was not an option. Fruits and other crops did not succeed either.
Besides the economic difficulties, the island was always very fearful of a Spanish attack and in fact was attacked by Spanish ships in 1635, 1640 and finally in 1641, the year the Spanish took the island for good. In the end, what had appeared to be a natural fortress was often very hard to govern and protect because of the steep terrain and rough shoreline. 
The other problems that led to the demise of the colony were found in England. The directors of the colony insisted on two things that would help to destroy the colony: no private property and no representative bodies or self-government. This led to two other problems, slave trading and piracy.
Without property the colonialists turned to slave trading as a form of property. African slaves were bought in Association Island and from the Dutch on the Spanish Main. There were English slaves as well but for them slavery was just one step in their life which would eventually lead them to full recognition as English citizens. African slaves could not expect any such relief. They were feared as a potentially dangerous and rebellious force as their numbers grew. That fear would create tensions on the island, and eventually, to a slave uprising in May of 1638, the first in the English colonial world.
Many of the slaves on Providence Island escaped and created communities high in the mountains beyond the reach of the English. The English knew they were there by the smoke from fires the Africans lit in the high mountains. The English would send out “hunting parties” to capture lost slaves but they were rarely successful.
Piracy was introduced to the colony in 1636 after the first attack on the island by the Spanish was rebuffed. But piracy did not lead to success either. There were contacts made on the island of Roatan and there was a hapless attack made on the Honduran town of Trujillo. But neither Roatan nor Trujillo offered hope. There was also an attempt to develop and exploit a gold mine in the Bay of Darien, along Panama’s Caribbean coast, near the Island of Pines. That also led to a dead-end. And as the Puritans tried to survive more and more through piracy, the Spanish authorities in Cartagena became more determined to run the Puritans off the island which they did in 1641.
After the colony was destroyed the island became a hideaway for pirates like Henry Morgan who would sail in the waters around Providence Island in the 1660s; it was from here that he conducted his early raids on Nicaragua. Morgan, unlike the Providence Island Puritan pirates, had Jamaica to fall back to - the English took Jamaica from the Spanish in 1655.
The collapse of the island occurred right as the English Civil War began and many of the founders of the colony were pulled into events in England. Some blame the civil war in England for the destruction of the colony.
The colonialists on Providence Island disappeared. There are some historians who think that many of them went on to Belize where they cut logwood for dye. But there is no real evidence that the Providence Island colonialists ever made it to Belize. Belize was founded twenty years after the Providence Island colony had been overrun by the Spanish.
Travel To Providence Island
It was the death of my best friend in Panama that finally sent me to Providence Island. My friend told me about how in the early 1950s he had traveled as a young boy with his father to San Andres from Panama. His visit would have occurred just at the time San Andres was being developed by Colombia; it must have been around the year 1953. Cef was also the person who told me how important the Archbald family was to San Andres. I was glad to have a name, if I needed one. “Always easier to travel in Latin America if you have a name, any name”, Cef had said.
One of the taxi drivers on San Andres told me about how the island had been developed by Colombia: his description made me think that the development must have occurred during the dictatorship of Gustavo Rojas Pinilla in Colombia: 1953 to 1957. The taxi driver told me about how the Spanish had come – he said a man came – and how they had cut a ring road around the island, put in an airport, created a free zone and built a hotel, the first on the island; it was named Isleño. It was still there. On my first visit I had stayed at the hotel; it was now part of the Decameron Hotel chain. The cabdriver told me that the first people to set up shops on the island were Turks. 
I had been on San Andres before and liked it. As mentioned above, on our first visit we stayed at the Decameron Isleño. There were four or five Decamerons on San Andres – Marazul, and San Luis were two – and the best part about staying at the Decameron was catching a shuttle bus to each Decameron hotel, all were very different from one another, each had its own unique atmosphere. But we didn’t stay at the Decameron on this visit; rather we stayed at a very nice small hotel called Casa Blanca that we booked through a travel agent in Panama. I liked the Spanish/Portuguese green in the front lobby. And the pool area had little cabañas and fun games around happy hour – 7:00pm. Guests were from Brazil, Colombia, Canada, USA and Costa Rica: very nice place with friendly guests and staff and very affordable.
So we caught a plane in Panama for San Andres. The flight was short and the airport customs in San Andres were quick. After passing through customs we waited outside in the sun and heat for a taxi. Sweaty and pissed off we headed for the hotel, which we didn’t know anything about.
The driver was stoic and quietly friendly. After Gabi and Pascal sat in the backseat of the cab I climbed into the front seat, and immediately asked the cab driver about Providence Island: did he know when the planes left San Andres for Providence? I had no information so wanted to be sure I could get to the island. He said he could help me. He then handed me a tourist portfolio for Providence Island that he pulled from a stack of papers he had on the front seat: In the portfolio people in Carnival-like outfits danced, and in the middle distance were small green hills sheared of vegetation and blue sky beyond.
I then asked if he could help me get a plane ticket to Providence – or just tell me how to get one. He said he could arrange something but to do so I needed to take down a phone number. I found some paper in my wallet and picked up a pen he had on the seat between us.
The car was a very large crimson colored American car from the 1980s; the valor interior was the same color as the exterior. I learned later that most of the cars on the island were imported from Miami. The front seat was a bench seat. I sat straight and was ready to write the number down. He began to read out the numbers very slowly. My face tightened up when the first four numbers he read off to me were the same first four numbers of my phone in Panama. But that surprise faded when the numbers totaled up to something like 11 or 12 in all. That sounded like a few too many numbers for a phone. He was having fun with me: he had liked Gabi and Pascal and had no real reason to clear my way to Providence Island.
He took us straight to the Hotel Casa Blanca and helped us in. We waited a little and were taken to a very nice room with a balcony view of the beach and the walkway on San Andres; you could see Johnny Cay in the distance. We had a nice meal and crashed. The next day I arranged through a local Tourist agency a plane ticket to Providence Island and a day tour of the island. I would only be able to stay for the day.
I didn’t sleep. No sleep because I never can when I have to catch a flight in the early morning. I had a taxi take me to the airport at 5 in the morning. I didn’t need the taxi; the airport was closer than I realized. The gate was closed at the airport when we arrived. The taxi driver and I spoke about what to do, and decided to go to the Texaco station which I could see. Ran to the nearby Texaco station and paid the taxi cab’s fare in gas. Then back to the airport and good-bye to my taxi driver, and then the counter agent at the Santena Airline desk showed up on a small motorscooter, she parked the scooter, said good morning to me, and walked into the open air airport. A Colombian family showed up on scooters and a taxi: they were five. The Colombian family went to the counter to check in. They went first and I was right behind.
Then a family jumped in front of me in the line. I was pissed, but they realized what they had done and let me go. I got to the counter and the girl at the counter checked my papers and processed my ticket – she stapled it, folded it, and presented it to me. She was very pretty and very polite. She said to me, as she tapped the ticket on her jacket and looked beyond me, and in a very friendly way, that I couldn’t board the plane because I didn’t have my tourist card. Severe panic came on top of me. So off I ran to the hotel in a taxi, which, luckily, had just dropped someone off at the airport. Then bang on the hotel door and Gabi and Pascal woke up and let me in. I found the tourist card. Walked out and then started to frantically check my front pockets and back, because I thought I had left my passport in the room while I was looking for the tourist card. Knocked on the door, Gabi answered, I then realized I had the passport and went quickly down the elevator and out the front door of the hotel. I made the plane.
We took off, the Colombian family, a man in a rugby shirt who I thought was from Providence, a young girl whose family had jumped in front of me and then allowed me to go, and me. We were in the clouds and the ride to the island was smooth. The island appeared in early morning sunlight; white thin clouds stretched across the skies around the island; I could see the high mountain peaks. We landed in a small airport. The airport building reminded me of the kind of pavilions that as a kid I picnicked in during my summers camping at Pennsylvania State Parks. Funny to find it here, but the building was cool and dark which made it comfortable. Lot’s of dark wood and cool shade. Caught a ride with Walter one of the taxi drivers and headed for Henry Morgan’s Hotel. I liked the island as soon as we started driving around. Walter pointed out Morgan’s Head and Morgan’s Butt. The descriptions were accurate, very accurate. We arrived at the hotel. Had a quick breakfast and laid down on the bed – part of the tour was a day room to rest in.
I didn’t sleep but rolled around uncomfortably on the bed for an hour or so. I woke up and headed down to the shop next to Henry Morgan’s Hotel. On the way down I saw one of the members of the Colombian family in the second-story lobby and said hello. I walked to the shop and bought a bottle of water. I waited for the day tour to begin; it was leaving from the front of Henry Morgan’s Hotel. We all gathered. It was nice to see the Colombian family. They were a very beautiful family. I liked the mother who wasn’t scared of me. After gathering, we all walked down the road in front of the hotel and cut through some low houses and then walked to a small beach. There were a number of small boats in the calm ocean and they filled up very quickly with visitors to the island.
We all jumped into our boat: the Colombian family, a Colombian man, two women from Colombia, a priest and what looked to be two young priests who came at the last minute; another priest dressed in a white Cossack yelled to us to wait for the three priests, me and the driver of the boat and his Second-in-Command. We headed out into the ocean in the direction of Morgan’s Head; it was at the far end of Santa Catalina Island.
The sun was hot and high in the sky and I was getting plenty of sun. We docked at a colorful walking bridge that connects Santa Catalina and Providence Islands. I wandered over to the Santa Catalina side of the bridge. There were mangroves and the wind carried the sent of sulfur from the mangroves. Very nice place. Then headed back across the bridge and took a picture of the three priests, with their camera, and went back to the boat.
We headed off for Cayo Cangrejo (Crab Cay). The water was rough on the way to the Cay and everyone in the boat got wet. Everyone was enjoying the open water and view of Providence Island; Crab Cay approached as a shadow in the distance. As we approached you could see people diving around Crab Cay; the water around the Cay was as clear as water from a spigot. There was a little bar with people having drinks and drying off. People sunbathed on the wood dock. The Cay is a national park so you have to take care. There was a Park Ranger who told us not to worry, nothing would be stolen and we could enjoy the Cay without worrying about our personal property being stolen. He told us to walk to the top of the Cay where you could look out over the coral reef that extended about a kilometer or more to the open sea. A Park Ranger was at the top to make sure everyone was safe and no one fell off the rocky peak.
I began to talk with the mother in the Colombian family as we looked out over the beautiful view of the coral reef. As we talked another woman came up and said how wonderful the view was. She also told us how much she liked the security she felt on the island. The mother in the family said she felt the same way and laughed and swung her head back and then said with exaggerated expressions and movements how much she would like to drive down the road with the windows down and the music blaring and with sunglasses – she felt that free and secure, something unusual in Colombia. It was a great thing to say and while I laughed I noticed a piece of rebarb sticking out of a stone near the top of the Cay. 
Next to the rebarb and embedded in the stone was a small round metallic engraving; it looked like the back of a bullet to me. I leaned down and looked closely at it and saw there was an engraving on it that read Univ. of Connecticut 1992-93. One of the books I had used to research the story of the island was published by the University of Connecticut in that year. I looked out over the open sea and breathed in the salt air. The wind was strong and the sun beat down on all of us. There were lots of very beautiful Colombians on the Cay sunbathing and snorkeling. Everyone was friendly and relaxed. There were lots of tropical fish underneath the dock. And boats pulled up as we left. We moved quickly through the rough water and rode parallel to Providence Island. The island was beautiful, it had hills that led to highland meadows and then went up again. At certain angles it looked like the English countryside to me. We stopped at a small restaurant and had red pargo and then headed back to the hotel. It was late in the afternoon, near 5:00, the sun would set quickly.
Walter took me to the airport on the part of the ring road that I had not seen in the morning. Very quiet and relaxed. There was a police training school we went by. Walter told me June was a good time to visit. We picked up a girl on the road who had just taken some people hiking into the mountains. They had walked to El Pico, she pointed to the rocky hill. Walter dropped me off at the airport; I said goodbye and had my passport and tourist card checked. You pay when you arrive. There was a small soda stand and a policeman and the girl at the soda stand talked. Some more police showed up and there was an interesting mural painted on the wall of the airport that showed a man riding a horse on the beach. 
I had been told riding horses on the beach was something people liked to do on the island. A friend from Panama who had visited Providence in 1975 told me he remembered that and how green the eyes of the women were.
The plane arrived and we hurried to get on the plane and out. The pilot wanted to make it back to San Andres before one of the large flights from Colombia landed. We arrived just before and ran through customs. The rest of our stay was great and I liked both islands; neither island was overly expensive.
Information:
http://www.oldprovidence.com.co/index.html
Sol Caribe Hotel: http://www.solarhoteles.com/web/scprovidencia/index.php?pid=1
Satena Airlines: http://www.satena.com/
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