The runaway slaves of Portland, called the Windward Maroons were particularly fierce and bold. In the early days of British settlement they would swoop from their mountain strongholds to raid the coastal settlements, and for more than a century the Rio Grande was the scene of guerrilla warfare. 

For a long time the Windwards were led by a woman, the legendary Champong Nanny or Grande Nanny, a fierce lady, reputed to have magical powers. It is said that she kept a cauldron of water boiling without any fire into which unwary British soldiers fell and perished. The first and most famous Jamaican matriarch, Nanny was made a national heroine during the Feminist 1970s although there is no documentary proof of her existence. 

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