Providencia Island - People

People

The Mosquito Indians first came into contact with the English when the Earl of Warwick established his colony at Providence Island in 1639, off the Central American Coast. He persuaded their King to send his son to England. This prince, known to his descendants as Oldman (or Oldham in old documents), was received in audience by King Charles I, who invested him with a hat of state and some instruments of insignia. He returned to the Mosquito Coast to find that his father had died during his absence, and that he was now King. His son and successor, Jeremy, visited Jamaica in February 1688 and placed himself and his people under English protection. Thereafter, all his successors were confirmed in their successions by virtue of a certificate of recognition from the Governor of Jamaica.

In the years that followed, small numbers of English and American settlers, escaped convicts and slaves, settled in several centres along the coast. Many of them intermarrying with the local tribes of Indians and leaving offspring who took part in the military and administrative affairs of the Mosquito kingdom. Relations between the Mosquitos and the Spanish had always been poor, but the increasing number of settlers increased tensions further. English commercial interest in hardwood logging in nearby Honduras exacerbated Spanish antagonism and apprehensions. Consequently, official British involvement in the region steadily increased. The Mosquito King and the British concluded a formal Treaty of Friendship and Alliance in 1740, followed by the appointment of a British Superintendent resident on the coast in 1749. His brief tenure included the establishment of a more formal protectorate over the Mosquito nation, advising the King, codifying the laws and formalising a system of land grants.

The local population consists of Raizals, a Protestant Afro-Caribbean ethnic group, speaking the San Andrés–Providencia Creole, an English Creole, although most speak Spanish as well. Spanish-speaking immigrants from Colombia have increased the use of Spanish, although they remain a minority, unlike the significantly more Spanish sister island, San Andrés.

A forum titled "San Andres & Providencia" Islands of Colombia reads “…This heritage goes back to pre-colonial times, to the days of the Dutch sea captains who inhabited San Andres and Old Providence, one of whom founded Bluefields, naming it after himself…”