THE GAIRY YEARS<br >Grenada and the Grenadines were discovered for Europe by Columbus<br >during his third voyage in 1498. Although the native Carib Indians<br >made full use of the mountainous terrain and dense bush to repel<br >would-be colonisers in an era when the tiny Caribbean island of Nevis<br >was worth more in terms of value of produce than the nascent New<br >York state， their eventual defeat was inevitable. This was accomplished<br >by the French after a bloody war in 1651 which ended when the Carib<br >leadership jumped over a cliff into the sea， preferring death to slavery.<br >The name of the nearby village， Sauteurs， or leapers ， bears witness to<br >this defiance to the present day. War between Britain and France led<br >to Grenada s formal annexation by the British in 1763. Slaves from<br >Africa had first been imported in the late seventeenth century and， by<br >the time of the British take-over， totalled nearly 12，000 as against<br >1，250 Europeans. By 1934， as many as 23，600 transplanted Africans<br >toiled in the hot sun of Grenada.<br > Anglo-French rivalry in the Caribbean did not cease with the end of<br >the Seven Years War; indeed， it was given added impetus by the rever-<br >berations of the French and Haitian revolutions. From their head-<br >quarters in Guadeloupe， the French revolutionaries planned the recap-<br >ture of Grenada through subversion and insurrection. A revolutionary<br >edict of 1792 had declared the equality of all races: it was not therefore<br >surprising that slaves supported a rebellion raised by Julien F6don， a<br >French coloured planter. For two years his forces held the north and<br >east of the island， being defeated only when the British called upon<br > Spanish assistance from Trinidad. Although F6don s struggle was<br >essentially against the hated British， he was later venerated as a cam-<br > paigner for the rights of the slaves， although none were ever formally<br > freed. Popular resistance， although sporadic， did not stop with emanci-<br > pation in 1834. In 1848， wage reductions consequent upon sharp falls<br > in the London sugar price triggered revolt in the island， as did un-<br > employment and destitution for returning soldiers who， in 1920， tried<br > to destroy the capital， St George s， by fire.<br > These developing political and economic pressures， exacerbated in<br > the inter-war years by world economic depression， prompted two<br > Grenadians， Uriah Buzz Butler and T. Albert Marryshow， to take action.<br > Although born only a decade apart - in 1897 and 1887 respectively -<br >q~<br >Q<br ><br >