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8. Aftermath
- University Press of Mississippi
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146 Chapter 8 Aftermath “Who can avoid melancholy sensations on a whole race of mankind transported forever from their native land inhabited by them for many generations and not conceive there has been something radically wrong in the principles of that government necessitated to that act?” —Alexander Anderson The ten-strong convoy of ships1 headed first for Grenada where they took on water. From there the flotilla, which also carried three hundred British military invalids, sailed to Port Royal in Jamaica where it spent two weeks taking on supplies and troops and conducting repairs. One ship, the John and Mary, was so disabled that the Caribs aboard were transferred to other vessels . The voyage was not without incident. Two ships, one Danish and one Spanish, were captured and one of the transport ships, the Prince William Henry with some three hundred Caribs aboard, was lost to the Spanish near the island of Guanaja and taken to the nearby port of Trujillo. On Tuesday 11 April the island of Roatán was sighted and the following day, faced with this floating expression of British military might, the commander of the Spanish garrison at Port Royal prudently decided to surrender. At sunset the Black Caribs of St. Vincent were set ashore on Roatán.2 The 2,026 Black Caribs who landed at Roatán included 664 men and 1,362 women and children. That number was 222 fewer than the 2,248 who had set out from Baliceaux3 just over a month earlier. It is likely that disease had continued to take its toll on the voyage (although it may possibly reflect the number of Caribs carried off to Trujillo aboard the Prince William Henry). This small band represented virtually all that was left of the Black Carib people , less than half the number who had surrendered in St. Vincent just a few months earlier. The number who had died in the period since war broke out in 1795 is unknown but the doctor treating the survivors on Baliceaux believed their prewar population was between eight and nine thousand (Anderson Aftermath 147 estimated the latter figure).4 If that were the case, up to 77 percent of the Black Carib population may have died in the space of two years. Of the chiefs who had distinguished themselves during the war, Du Vallée, young Chatoyer, and Durant made the journey to Roatán.5 The Sambula listed in Spanish records is apparently the son of the Carib general who was said to have been killed in the war.6 With them the British landed supplies deemed sufficient to last the Caribs six months. Among the food items were flour, beef, saltfish, biscuits, sugar, oatmeal, and rum. Indian corn, guinea corn, “pidgeon pease,” sweet potatoes, yams, okra, pepper, and cassava were provided for the Caribs to grow in their new lands. Livestock included fifty hogs, thirty goats, and a variety of poultry.7 They also had fishing tackle, griddles, graters, and other tools, plus three hundred muskets with ammunition.8 The British officer in charge of the operation, Colonel John Wilson, considered the provisions “very inadequate.”9 The British flotilla headed to the mainland port of Trujillo where the captured Prince William Henry had been taken. After a confused engagement against the Spanish forces in the fortress there the vessel, with the Caribs, was recovered on 27 April. The British said they received assurances from the Spanish that the Caribs would not be disturbed in their new settlement. En route back towards Roatán Captain John Barrett of the Experiment sighted enemy ships and ordered his flotilla to sail at once to Nova Scotia, simply abandoning the Prince William Henry, “which I was obliged to leave with the Caribs.”10 The vessel reportedly foundered on reefs at Roatán and oral tradition suggests a number of Caribs died as a result.11 The British intended that the Black Caribs should build on Roatán a settlement based on agriculture supplemented by fishing and hunting. The surrounding sea was said to be full of fish and the woods contained a few wild hogs. Only a very small part of the island had been cleared for cultivation but British officers reported that in their first days on Roatán “the Charribs had begun clearing the Woods and appeared extremely active and indefatigable.” But Wilson warned that it would be a long time before the Caribs’ crops could provide sufficient for their sustenance, and worryingly...