The first signs of slave rebellion began in the 1530s, when the maroon gangs organized to attack plantations, some of which were abandoned. A formal complaint was lodged by local Portuguese authorities in 1531 lamenting that too many settlers and black citizens were being killed in the attacks, and that the island would be lost if the problem remained unresolved. In a 1533 'bush war', a 'bush captain' led militia units to suppress the maroons. A significant event in the maroon fight for freedom occurred in 1549, when two men claiming to be free-born were taken in from the ''macambos ''by a wealthy mulatto planter named Ana de Chaves. With the support of de Chaves, the two men petitioned the king to be declared free, and the request was approved. The largest population of marroons coincided with the sugar boom of the mid-16th century, as the plantations teemed with slaves. Between 1587 and 1590, many of the runaway slaves were defeated in another bush war. By 1593, the governor declared the maroon forces almost completely extinguished. Nevertheless, maroon populations kept settlers away from the southern and western regions.  