ANTROPOLOGICA 97-98, 2002: 71-207 Amerindian–European Encounters on and around Tobago (1498–ca. 1810) Arie Boomert When in the first decades of the nineteenth century the last of the local Amerindians left the West Indian island of Tobago in order to take up residence in neighbouring Trinidad, there remained few material relics reminding of the original inhabitants of the island. Indeed, as a contemporary noted, the Tobago Amerindians ‘have passed from the land and from the living, without leaving in any a recollection of their existence’ (Woodcock, 1867:67). This essay intends to reconstruct the vicissitudes of the various Amerindian peoples who lived in Tobago throughout historic times, recording their gradual numerical decline and patterns of interaction with the subsequent European invaders of their territory as well as outlining their lasting cultural heritage amongst the island’s present inhabitants. Introduction Situated on the northern margin of the South American continental shelf, Tobago represents one of the southernmost islands of the Lesser Antillean archipelago (Fig. 1). It is more or less elliptical in shape and measures 43x12.5 km across, encompassing in all 302 km2. Tobago consists of two major physiographic units, i.e., the Main Ridge, a heavily dissected central dorsal ridge of highland which forms the backbone of the island, and the Acknowledgements: The completion of this study owes much to the encouragement the author received from Mr. Edward Hernandez, The Tobago Museum, Scarborough, Tobago, as well as from Professors Bridget Brereton and Keith O. Laurence, his former collegues at the Department of History, The University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad. Furthermore, for valuable assistance in the course of the research, the author is indebted to the late Dr. Edgar Anderson, San José, CA, Dr. Christopher O. Clement, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, Mr. Peter O’Brien Harris, Gainesville, FL, all in the USA, Ms. J. Patricia Elie, Arima, Trinidad, Mr. Humphrey Almandoz, Bacolet Point, Mr. Miles Almandoz, Government House Road, and Dr. Jacob D. Elder, formerly of Charlotteville, all in Tobago, Dr. H. Dieter Heinen, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas, Caracas, Venezuela, Mr. Martin van Wallenburg, The Hague, The Netherlands, and Mr. Léonid Kameneff, ‘Karrek Ven’, c/o Essômes sur Marne, France. Finally, thanks are due to Professor Keith O. Laurence and the author’s wife, Mrs. Marion Boomert-Heukelom, who critically read the manuscript and suggested improvements to the English text. 71 Figure 1 Map of the eastern Caribbean, showing the situation of Tobago and neighbouring islands. 72 Coral Lowlands, an elongated coral limestone platform adjoining the foothills of the Main Ridge to the southwest (Fig. 2). The Main Ridge represents Tobago’s major divide, reaching up to 565 m above mean sea level. It rises gradually on all sides except for the northeast where its precipices descend abruptly to the sea. Especially its southern and eastern flanks are typified by wide, open valleys containing perennial streams, although only the Courland River, Tobago’s largest stream, has developed an extensive basin. The island’s shoreline is heavily indented, showing an alternation of rocky cliffs and promontories, lagoonal swamps and marshes, next to bays with dunes and sandy beaches. Due to its orientation, Tobago has no clear-cut windward and leeward shores such as are shown by the Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles. An imaginary line crossing the island half-way, between Granby Point and Castara Bay, is generally taken to divide the northern, windward, and southern, leeward, portions of Tobago, locally known as the ‘Top Side’ and the ‘Low Side’ of the island, respectively (Boomert, 1996:9–15). Tobago’s fauna and vegetation cover reflect the entirely continental character of the island. Its mammalian fauna is less diverse than that of Trinidad (Boomert, 2000:31–38). Originally most of the island was covered by Tropical Rain Forest of which three types can be distinguished, i.e., lowland evergreen forest, lower montane forest and xerophytic forest. Unfortunately, by now much forest has become severely affected by man due to clearing operations for monocropping, logging and slash-and-burn cultivation. Lowland evergreen forest covers most of the Main Ridge, grading into lower montane forest beyond an elevation of about 250 m above mean sea level. Traditionally much lowland evergreen forest was under cocoa, coffee and/or citrus cultivation. Xerophytic rain forest is restricted to the south-central part of the Main Ridge. Originally the Coral Lowlands were covered by deciduous seasonal forest, but most of this has disappeared since the area was brought under sugar cane and, afterwards, coconut cultivation in colonial times. Littoral woodland forms the typical shoreline vegetation of the island. Extensive stands of mangrove woodland, finally, are to be found in the coastal portions of the Coral Lowlands as well as in the river estuaries on Tobago’s windward coast. Live coral is growing directly offshore around most of the island; the most extensive coral reef complex, Buccoo Reef, encloses Bon Accord Lagoon at Tobago’s southwest end. This part of the island is susceptible to severe droughts and formerly the inhabitants of the Coral Lowlands had to rely mainly on rain water kept in ponds and cisterns throughout the dry season. Tobago is situated at the southern fringe of the Caribbean hurricane zone and revolving tropical storms of hurricane force struck the island at various times during the past few centuries, most recently in 1847 and 1963 (Niddrie, 1980:50–60). Tobago is separated from Trinidad by the 32 km wide Galleons’ Passage or Tobago Sound. Formerly communication among Tobago, Trinidad, the Windward Islands and the South American mainland was largely determined 73 74 Figure 2 Map of Tobago, showing the main topographical features. Legend: (1) 1000-feet contourline; (2) main town. Inset: geographical situation of Tobago offshore the South American mainland. Abbreviations: Gall. Ps., Galleons’ Passage; GP, Gulf of Paria. by the prevailing winds and the system of oceanic circulation in the region. Interaction between Trinidad and Tobago is facilitated by the circumstance that the southern portion of the latter island is practically always within view from Northeast Trinidad and vice versa. The crossing by pirogue from Trinidad to Tobago required quite some effort and navigating. If all went well, it took a day and a night to accomplish (Dauxion-Lavaysse, 1820:364–365; Escobar, TTHSP 84, 1637; Wise, 1934/1938, I:60). In Amerindian times the route most frequently taken by dugouts apparently led from the northeast coast of Trinidad to La Guira and Canoe Bay in Southwest Tobago, both of which names are significant.1 As a result of the wet-season outflow of the Orinoco River the crossing from Trinidad to Tobago is easiest in this part of the year. This is exemplified by the fact that objects drifting with the current from the mainland reach Tobago especially during the wet season. For instance, canoes lost by Amerindians in the Orinoco Delta or Northwest Guyana occasionally wash ashore on the windward coast of the island. Profiting from the current, Grenada, the southernmost of the Windward Islands, and Los Testigos, a group of tiny islands offshore the Paria Peninsula of East Venezuela, can be reached easily by canoe from Tobago, although the return journey would have been difficult. Indeed, such is the current’s velocity that formerly sailing-ships were easily driven from Tobago’s windward coast to Grenada (Young, 1812:89–90). Finally, the Northeast trade winds and main ocean current favour travelling from the shores of the Guianas to the Windward Islands, using Tobago as a midway station. The Tobago Amerindians in Early Contact Times The first references to Tobago and its indigenous inhabitants are to be found in a Spanish royal order of 1511 giving permission to the citizens of Hispaniola to wage war upon and to enslave the Amerindian people que se llaman los caribes. The Crown accused these Indians of resisting the Spanish and fighting Indians favourably disposed to the latter, taking them prisoner and eating them ‘as they really do’. According to this document, the caribes inhabited most of the Windward Islands, Trinidad, Tobago (Tavaco), and parts of the South American mainland (Alegría, 1981:47–48; Jesse, 1963; Jiménez, 1986:129–130; Spanish Crown, TTHSP 75, 1511). The decree confirmed and elaborated royal orders of 1503 and 1505, authorizing the enslavement of the Indians que se dizen canyvales (CDU, 1890, V:110–113, No. 29). It was repeated in 1512 (CDU, 1890, V:258–262, No. 61; Sauer, 1966:161–162,193). The Amerindians mentioned in these Spanish documentary sources, are 1 See Boomert (n.d. 2). Canoe Bay is first mentioned as Kano Baeij on the seventeenth- century Dutch maps of Tobago (Anonymous, 1677; Keulen, 1683). Obviously it formed the most frequently used landing for dugouts and Spanish sailing craft from Trinidad in early historic times. At present only the easternmost portion of this bay is known as Canoe Bay while its 75 variously called canima, caniba, caníbales, caríbales or caribes in Columbus’ journal of his first voyage of discovery. Tales of the Taíno Indians of the Greater Antilles, possibly mixed with some of the Admiral’s own preconceived images suggested by medieval thought, led Columbus to believe that the Lesser Antilles were inhabited by an anthropophagous race which instilled the Taíno with deadly fear. The name he recorded for these Indians, perhaps only signifying ‘distant and fearsome islanders’ in Taíno, was to become synonymous to ‘man-eaters’ in the European languages. The original form may have been caniba which was modified to caníbal, perhaps by addition of the Romance suffix -al; the difference with caribes may reflect dialectical variation (Allaire, 1996; Friederici, 1960:143–145; Taylor, 1977:25).