Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, 146 mi in length and as much as 50 mi in width situated in the Caribbean Sea. It is about 385 mi northeast of the Central American mainland, 90 mi south of Cuba, and 120 mi west of the island of Hispaniola, on which Haiti and the Dominican Republic are situated. Its indigenous Arawakan-speaking Taíno inhabitants named the island Xaymaca, meaning the "Land of Wood and Water", or the "Land of Springs". sFormerly a Spanish possession known as Santiago, it later became the British West Indies Crown colony of Jamaica.