Part 27
The parish of St. Ann is rich in associations with the aboriginal inhabitants, the Spaniards, and with the early history of the British occupation of the colony. It was in St. Ann that Columbus discovered Jamaica; it was in St. Ann that he spent a twelvemonth while waiting for help from Hispaniola; it was in St. Ann, at Ocho Rios, that two engagements of note with the Spaniards were fought; it was from St. Ann that the last remnants of the Spaniards left the island, while the last battle of importance was fought at Rio Nuevo in St. Mary, but a few miles across the border.
A kitchen midden of peculiar interest was opened up in 1912, situated at the top of the hill, some 980 feet high, on which stands the great house of =Liberty Hall=, commanding a view from Seville, the old Spanish settlement, on the west, to Port Maria on the east, and overlooking the little creek to the east of St. Ann’s Bay, known as Don Christopher’s Cove, where Columbus spent twelve weary months, from June 1503 to June 1504. The thick foliage must in those days, however, have precluded any more than mere peeps at that sea over which the dreaded Caribs might at any moment arrive.
It is highly probable that the Liberty Hill Arawâks supplied Columbus and his companions with food while he lived on board ship in the creek some three miles distant, into which the Spanish Lookout river runs, through land which afterwards became Drax Hall property and whence Beckford of “Vathek” fame later obtained much of the wealth he spent lavishly at his Gothic residence in Somerset. It is possible that some of the pottery recently dug up by the turn of the fork may have been used to cook this food, and it is conceivable that some of the vessels may have been handled by the great discoverer himself.
The area of the midden or shell-mound is, roughly speaking, about half of an acre, consisting of the brow of the hill on which the great house stands. The richest collection of remains was found just outside the garden gate on the carriage drive, where a few days before some pieces had been unearthed in the preliminary work of grading the drive to facilitate the turning of motor cars—a strange link between the old world and the new. Investigation in the banana walk at the back of the house, and in the garden on the one side and the pastures on the other, yielded proof that the midden extended all round the brow of the hill, as was the usual custom.
[Illustration:
Dry Harbour ]
The remains resemble in the main the usual results of search in such middens—as described in Dr. Duerden’s “Aboriginal Indian Remains of Jamaica” published by the Institute of Jamaica in 1897, and in Mr. T. De Booy’s more recent pamphlet, “Certain Kitchen-Middens in Jamaica” (1913)—land and marine shells, some pierced for the purpose of carrying them, fish bones, coney bones, broken pottery, broken stone implements, flint flakes and chalcedony, from which their beads and other ornaments were made. The Jamaica arawâk pottery, Professor Mason tells us, lies between the Porto Rican and that of Florida to Carolina. The pieces unearthed at Liberty Hill afford good examples of its decoration, in the handles especially. One is distinctly fashioned like a parrot’s head. The borders show the usual indentations made, before the pottery was baked, by cross-hatching and otherwise. But one has a curious serrated edge not hitherto found in Jamaica. Examples of this collection are in the museum of the Institute of Jamaica.
Although from the nature of things only fragments of pottery were obtained, it is not difficult, in the light of previous experience, to reconstruct the bowls of which they formed part. Dr. Duerden mentions as the greatest size hitherto found, a circular basin with a diameter of about eighteen inches. That must have been approximated by one found at Liberty Hill. The bowls vary in thickness from three-sixteenths of an inch to half an inch, but pieces of flat cooking slabs were found as thick as one inch. The pottery on the whole seems better baked than that usually found.
Additional interest attaches to the Liberty Hill mound from the fact that clay from which some of this pottery was made is to be found at Lime Hall hard by, where there was in recent times a pottery in operation, and also from the fact that in the St. Ann’s Great River, which runs bordering the property to the east, are to be found stones from which aboriginal hatchets were made, and alongside a supply of sandstone which the Arawâks conceivably used for the shaping and polishing of their implements. A slab of stone was found on the midden itself, suggesting that perhaps Liberty Hill may have been the site of a factory of both earthenware bowls and stone hatchets. But it would seem that its greatest interest lies in its possible close association, during a twelvemonth, with the life of the great Columbus.
Other kitchen middens have been discovered at =Moneague=, on the hotel grounds; at =Friendship=, near by; at =Belle Vue=, on the banks of the White River; at =Retreat=, at =Orange Valley=; and at =Cranbrook=. Further investigations would doubtless reveal others.
There are Arawâk rock-carvings in a cave at Coventry.
On September 12, 1492, Columbus, after encountering oppositions and difficulties which would have deterred all but very resolute men, was the first European to set foot in the New World—landing on that day at Guanahani (Watling Island) in the Bahamas. The important discovery of Cuba and Hispaniola was made on his homeward voyage.
On May 4, 1494, while on his second voyage of discovery, he was the first European to land in Jamaica, running his lateen-rigged caravel, the _Niña_, and her two consorts into =Dry Harbour= Bay on the north side of the island.
On April 24 he had left his new-founded city of Isabella in Hispaniola, and started on a further voyage of discovery. He sailed westward along the north coast of Hispaniola, and, leaving the point we now call Cape St. Nicholas, stood across to Cuba, and anchored in a harbour (Guantanamo), to which he gave the name of Puerto Grande. Leaving on May 1, he coasted along the southern shores, admiring the beauty of the landscape, noting the rivers, and receiving visits from numerous Indians in their canoes, with whom he exchanged beads and hawks’ bells for cassava bread, fish and fresh water. But soon, on the advice of his Guanahani guide (whom he had taken to Spain on returning from his first voyage) he stood due south in order to visit a large island of which the natives spoke. As he neared the island a number of carved and painted canoes, one nearly ninety feet in length, crowded with Indians, came out to meet him a league’s length from the shore. After giving them presents, Columbus sailed on and dropped anchor in a place which he named Santa Gloria, on account of its extreme beauty. Passing the night there he sailed westward to find a closed port in which he might careen and caulk up his vessels. About four leagues further on he found a very singular port, to use the words of Bernaldez, or, as Fernando Colombo describes it, resembling a horseshoe in shape, which he named Puerto Bueno. Here two canoes full of Indians met him, but after six or seven of the natives had been wounded by bolts from the Spaniards’ crossbows they retreated.
On anchoring Columbus saw “so many Indians that the earth was covered with them,” all painted, chiefly in black, wearing nothing but plumes on their heads and aprons of leaves round their waists. Wishing to assert his authority and instil a fear for the arms of Castile into the hearts of the natives, Columbus, as the caravels could not reach the shore owing to the shallowness of the water, sent three boatloads of men, who, aided by the pioneer of those hounds which afterwards did fearful execution amongst the poor Indians, drove them off so that there was not a man or woman left in the neighbourhood. On the following day six Indians came as ambassadors from the caciques or chiefs, begging Columbus not to go away; and later on the caciques themselves and many followers came and brought provisions, which probably consisted of cassava, arrowroot, guavas, naseberries, cocoa-plums and star-apples. During the time they were there the Spaniards had everything in abundance, and the Indians were very pleased with the objects (hawks’ bells, beads and the like) which the admiral gave them. When the vessels had been repaired and the crews were rested, Columbus left Puerto Bueno after a three days’ stay, and skirted the northern shore, being visited from each village by canoes full of Indians, who exchanged native products for hawks’ bells and beads, till he came to Point Negril, which he named “Cabo del Buen Tiempo.”
Owing partly to contrary winds and partly to the impression that there was “no gold in it, or any other metal, although the island was otherwise a paradise and worth more than gold,” Columbus now left Jamaica and returned to Cuba.
The historians of Jamaica and the West Indies generally have thrown but little light on the subject of the Jamaica landing. For a time the honour was about equally divided between St. Ann’s Bay and Port Maria. So far, however, as the somewhat scanty information warrants one in coming to a conclusion, it may be assumed that Columbus’s Santa Gloria was probably St. Ann’s Bay and that his Puerto Bueno was what is now known as Dry Harbour, for it is said that he called the first port he touched at Santa Gloria; that he stayed at Santa Gloria in 1504; that Sevilla arose near Santa Gloria, and Sevilla, we are told, was near St. Ann’s Bay. The horseshoe shape of Puerto Bueno, as well as other evidence, points to Dry Harbour as the place of Columbus’s first landing in Jamaica. It may be mentioned that the identification of Puerto Bueno with Dry Harbour was dealt with by the present writer at greater length than is possible here in “The Story of the Life of Columbus and the Discovery of Jamaica” (Kingston, 1894). There was a Fort Columbus at Dry Harbour in and about 1783.
It is not here necessary to follow Columbus in his further voyaging—through “The Queen’s Garden,” as he named the islands off the southern coast of Cuba, back to Jamaica, where on the south side he had, as we have seen in the account of St. Catherine, an interview at Old Harbour with an important cacique, thence to Isabella, on the north coast of Hispaniola, and so home. But Dry Harbour was once again visited by the admiral on his fourth and last voyage.
On his way back from the continent of America, which he saw for the last time on May 1, 1503, while making for Hispaniola for succour, as his two worm-eaten caravels the _Capitana_ and the _Santiago de Palos_ were in no fit state to cross the Atlantic, after passing the Cayman Islands, which he named Las Tortugas, and encountering a storm at the west end of Cuba, he ran for Jamaica and reached Dry Harbour on June 23, 1503; when, finding no water there, he went on to Puerto Santa Gloria (St. Ann’s Bay) and ran his caravels on the beach in a cove, possibly in that which is still called =Don Christopher’s Cove=. Why another cove in St. Mary received the same name is not evident.
Being unable to keep the ships afloat any longer he stranded them as best he could, one near the other, and propped them up on both sides so that they could not move.
The lower parts soon filled when pumping ceased, and cabins had to be built on deck thatched with straw to supplement the accommodation now only found in the cabins under the poops and forecastles. There, in the words of Mendez, they were “not without considerable danger from the natives, who were not yet subdued, and who might easily set fire to our habitation in the night, in spite of the greatest watchfulness.”
[Illustration:
Don Christopher’s Cove ]
The natives, however, soon showed that they were inclined to be friendly, and Columbus endeavoured to see that nothing was done to abuse their confidence. They brought in provisions such as cassava, fish and birds, which they willingly exchanged for cheap ornaments; and we are told that Columbus’s youthful son, Fernando, took great interest in these barterings, which were organised on a large scale by Diego Mendez, who had ever been a good and faithful follower of the admiral.
The following is Mendez’s account[11] of what he did:
It was there that I gave out the last ration of biscuit and wine; I then took a sword in my hand, three men only accompanying me, and advanced into the island; for no one else dared go to seek food for the Admiral and those who were with him. It pleased God that I found some people who were very gentle and did us no harm, but received us cheerfully, and gave us food with hearty goodwill. I then made a stipulation with the Indians, who lived in a village called Aguacadiba, and with their cacique, that they should make cassava bread, and that they should hunt and fish to supply the Admiral every day with a sufficient quantity of provisions, which they were to bring to the ships, where I promised there should be a person ready to pay them in blue beads, combs and knives, hawks’-bells and fish hooks, and other such articles which we had with us for that purpose. With this understanding, I dispatched one of the Spaniards, whom I brought with me, to the Admiral, in order that he might send a person to pay for the provisions, and secure their being sent. From thence I went to another village, at three leagues distance from the former, and made a similar agreement with the natives and their cacique, and dispatched another Spaniard to the Admiral, begging him to send another person with a similar object to this village. After this I went further on, and came to a great cacique named Huareo, living in a place which is now called Melilla, thirteen leagues from where the ships lay. I was very well received by him; he gave me plenty to eat, and ordered all his subjects to bring together in the course of three days a great quantity of provisions, which they did, and laid them before him, whereupon I paid him for them to his full satisfaction. I stipulated with him that they should furnish a constant supply, and engaged that there should be a person appointed to pay them. Having made this arrangement, I sent the other Spaniard to the Admiral with the provisions they had given me, and then begged the cacique to allow me two Indians to go with me to the extremity of the island, one to carry the hammock in which I slept, and the other carrying the food.
In this manner I journeyed eastward to the end of the island, and came to a cacique who was named Ameyro, with whom I entered into close friendship. I gave him my name and took his, which amongst these people is regarded as a pledge of brotherly attachment. I bought of him a very good canoe, and gave him in exchange an excellent brass helmet that I carried in a bag, a frock, and one of the two shirts that I had with me; I then put out to sea in this canoe, in search of the place that I had left, the cacique having given me six Indians to assist in guiding the canoe. When I reached the spot to which I had dispatched the provisions, I found there the Spaniards whom the Admiral had sent, and I loaded them with the victuals that I had brought with me, and went myself to the Admiral who gave me a very cordial reception. He was not satisfied with seeing and embracing me, but asked me respecting everything that had occurred in the voyage, and offered up thanks to God for having delivered me in safety from so barbarous a people. The men rejoiced greatly at my arrival, for there was not a loaf left in the ships when I returned to them with the means of allaying their hunger; this and every day after that, the Indians came to the ships loaded with provisions from the places where I had made the agreements; so that there was enough for the two hundred and thirty people who were with the Admiral.
Footnote 11:
Mendez wrote in 1536.
In spite of Mendez’s efforts, it was evident to Columbus that the present state of affairs was highly unsatisfactory. Neither of the caravels could be made fit for sea, and it became necessary to seek aid from Hispaniola. After a conversation with the admiral, and when no response had been made to an appeal for volunteers for such a risky journey, which appeal Columbus had made publicly at Mendez’s suggestion, Mendez offered to go, saying:
“I have but one life, and I am willing to sacrifice it in the service of your lordship, and for the welfare of all those who are here with us; for I trust in God, that in consideration of the motive which actuates me, he will give me deliverance, as he has done on many other occasions.”
It was decided that he should be accompanied by Bartolomé Fiesco, in a second canoe, who was to return and announce Mendez’s safe arrival in Hispaniola, while the latter was to go on to Spain and let the sovereigns know of the results of the voyage, and for that purpose Columbus entrusted Mendez with a long letter descriptive of the voyage.
In the meantime hope of assistance deferred, their crowded quarters on shipboard, and want of occupation and exercise began to have their effects upon the health and spirits of the little settlement at Santa Gloria. Discontent led to open rebellion. The brothers Porras (Francisco the captain of the _Santiago_, and Diego the accountant) led the revolt, followed by Juan Sanchez, the pilot Ledesma, Barba the gunner, and some fifty others, who were moved to rebellion by Porras’s false representations. On January 2, 1504, when Columbus was confined in bed by gout, Francisco de Porras burst into his small cabin and accused the admiral of having no intention of returning to Spain. Remonstrances were useless, and, to quote the “Historie”:
“Porras replied, that it was not now time to talk, and that the Admiral must either embark immediately or stay there by himself; and turning his back upon the Admiral he called out in a loud voice, ‘I am bound for Spain with those that are willing to follow me.’ On this all his followers who were present shouted out, ‘We will go with you! we will go with you!’ and running about in great confusion crying, ‘Let them die! let them die! For Spain! for Spain!’ while others called on the captain for his orders, they took possession of the poop, forecastle, and round tops.
“Though the Admiral was then so lame of the gout that he could not stand, he yet endeavoured to rise and come out upon deck on hearing this uproar; but two or three worthy persons, his attendants, laid hold upon him and forcibly laid him again in bed, that the mutineers might not murder him; they then ran to his brother, who was going out courageously with a half-pike, and wresting it from his hands, they forced him into the cabin beside the admiral, desiring Captain Porras to go where he liked, and not commit a crime for which they might all suffer; that he might be satisfied in meeting no opposition to his going away, but if he killed the Admiral he must lay his account with being severely punished for what could not possibly be of the least benefit to his views.”
The rebels seized some stores and ten canoes which Columbus had purchased at Maima, a native village near where the caravels were grounded, and which perhaps stood by Mammee Bay, and made several futile attempts to follow Mendez to Hispaniola; proving themselves such wretches, it is said, as to force into the sea when the waves ran high, in order to lighten the canoes, those poor Indians whom they had taken with them to navigate their canoes.
Foiled by their own cowardice and want of enterprise from leaving Jamaica, they ran riot throughout the island, ill-treating the natives, and thereby upsetting the reputation for kindness and fair dealing which the admiral had carefully been building up. The result was that the natives, not able to distinguish between the followers of Columbus and his renegades, began to change their regard for their visitors; the consistent and steady labour necessary for the due supply of food also was unusual and proved irksome to them, and the Spanish trinkets with their loss of novelty lost much of their value in their eyes. Supplies therefore were not now forthcoming, and Columbus found himself and his companions, many of whom were with him owing rather to sickness than to loyalty, in danger of starvation. Once again his resourceful nature stood him in good stead, and he made use of an approaching eclipse to bring them to reason in the manner related by Mendez.
But Columbus’s troubles were by no means over. In March, just as discontent amongst his followers was again becoming formidable, a caravel hove in sight, and all hearts were raised in thanksgiving in anticipation of being removed from their disagreeable position. Bitter must have been the disappointment when, the ship anchoring outside the bay, a boat put off, and Escobar, the messenger sent by Ovanda, handed a letter to Columbus, with a present of a bottle of wine and a piece of bacon; and it was found that the letter contained merely condolences for their sufferings, and regret that no vessels could be spared for the purpose of bringing them from Jamaica. It was a sorry jest on Ovanda’s part, and there seems reason for believing that Escobar had been sent rather in the hope of finding that the admiral was dead, than to render succour. Still Columbus’s dignity and courage did not desert him. He sent an answer asking for assistance, consoling himself with the reflection that Mendez was safe, and that sooner or later succour would come: and Escobar left that same night.
At this time Columbus endeavoured to pacify the rebel party by sending to tell them of the arrival of Escobar, giving them a piece of the bacon as token; and he offered, if they returned to obedience, to give them a free pardon and a passage to Spain. Porras persuaded his followers to decline this offer and to demand permission to reside where they liked in the island and a promise of half the room on ship board and half the stores when help should arrive. On being told that these demands would not be complied with, they said they would take them by force.