In the wake of the British conquest of Jamaica in 1655, the colonial forces found themselves at odds with formerly enslaved Africans who had escaped and formed Maroon communities in the mountains of the island. The guerilla war which ensued ended with a treaty signed in 1739 which provided the Maroons with land and some autonomy. However, in July-August 1795, the Trelawny Maroons and the colonial forces were once again at war: on this occasion, the Maroons were defeated and subjected to a disadvantageous treaty. In June-July 1796, this resulted in 549 Jamaican Maroon men, women and children being exiled to Nova Scotia (Hinds, 2001; Robinson, 1969). While there was some trepidation among Nova Scotian authorities regarding the deported Maroons, the concerns were initially allayed by the group's willingness to work on the fortifications at Citadel Hill in Halifax (known thereafter as the Maroon Bastion) and to settle in parts of Preston, which had been previously occupied by the departed Black Loyalists. By the end of 1796, however, disagreements between the provincial authorities and the Assembly of Jamaica with regard to financial support for the Maroons, the group's cultural practices and growing determination to leave Nova Scotia led to an array of confrontations, petitions and negotiations. Allister Hinds argues that for the next three years, as the costs related to their settlement mounted, the Maroons resisted the authorities' efforts to integrate them into the colony and, well aware of the possibility of removal from the inhospitable climate and poor land, instead seemed to make organized and calculated attempts to force the colonial authorities to send them to Sierra Leone (Hinds, 2001, pp. 214-215). As a result of the pressure from their petitions and activities, by August 1800, the authorities were convinced to facilitate the transportation of 551 Jamaican Maroons to Sierra Leone, where the latter joined the Black Loyalists who had already settled there. According to Hinds, their departure