Like many of its neighbours, Barbados was settled by Amerindian Arawaks and, later, Caribs. Yet the Caribs uncharacteristically abandoned it for reasons unclear. Even more, Barbados was never visited by Columbus, but rather by Portuguese explorers, who made no substantive claims. By the time a party of 80 English settlers and their slaves landed on the island in 1627, the land was uninhabited. With their feet firmly planted, the English decided to import more slaves. Indentured labourers from the working classes of Scotland and Ireland also fled the British Isles for Barbados.