Q 01/05

Jamaica is the third-largest island in the Caribbean. Which two are bigger?

A) Cuba and Hispaniola

B) Cuba and Puerto Rico

C) Hispaniola and Trinidad

D) Puerto Rico and Trinidad

Answer · why

A) Cuba and Hispaniola

Hispaniola is shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic; all three lie in the Greater Antilles.

Q 02/05

The island's indigenous name, Xaymaca, is usually translated as what?

A) Mountain by the sea

B) Land of wood and water

C) Island of the sun

D) Place of many birds

Answer · why

B) Land of wood and water

'Land of springs' is the other rendering; Jamaicans today call home 'yaad', 'Jamrock' or simply 'Ja'.

Q 03/05

Christopher Columbus became the first European to see Jamaica in which year, on his second voyage?

A) 1494

B) 1502

C) 1519

D) 1533

Answer · why

A) 1494

He named the bay 'Saint Gloria'; the first Spanish settlement, Sevilla, followed in 1509 near St Ann's Bay.

Q 04/05

Under Spanish rule the island was known by what name?

A) Isabela

B) San Juan

C) Trinidad

D) Santiago

Answer · why

D) Santiago

England seized it in 1655 after failing to take Santo Domingo, and renamed it Jamaica.

Q 05/05

Which two commanders led the English invasion of Jamaica in 1655?

A) William Penn and Robert Venables

B) Francis Drake and John Hawkins

C) Oliver Cromwell and Robert Blake

D) Henry Morgan and Thomas Modyford

Answer · why

A) William Penn and Robert Venables

The Maroon leader Juan de Bolas switched sides in 1660 and helped secure the Spanish defeat.