The War of Jenkins' Ear (known as Guerra del Asiento in Spain) was a conflict between Britain and Spain lasting from 1739 to 1748, mainly in New Granada and among the West Indies of the Caribbean Sea, with major operations largely ended by 1742. Its name, coined by British historian Thomas Carlyle in 1858, refers to Robert Jenkins, a captain of a British merchant ship, whose ear was cut off by sailors of the Spanish coast guard when they boarded his smuggling brig, Rebecca, in April 1731. Seven years later, in support of mongering for war, Jenkins was paraded before the British Parliament, without his ear.