The Black Carib Wars: Freedom, Survival, and the Making of the Garifuna

2. Good Friends, Cruel Enemies

25 Chapter 2 Good Friends, Cruel Enemies “Thou hast driven me, says this poor people, out of St Christophers, Mevis, Montserrat, St Martins, Antego, Gardeloupe, Barbouthos, St Eustace’s, etc, neither of which places belong to thee, and whereto thou couldest not make any lawful pretence: And thou threatnest me every day to take away that little which is left me: What shall become of the poor miserable Caribbian? Must he go and live in the Sea with the fishes? Thy Country must needs be a wretched one, since thou leavest it to come and take away mine: Or thou must needs be full of malice, thus to persecute me out of a frolick.”1 —Charles de Rochefort, The History of the Caribby-Islands, 1666 In January 1723 two British ships called at St. Vincent on a special mission. The commander of the expedition, John Braithwaite, was under orders to inform the island’s inhabitants that they should consider themselves “natural born subjects of Great-Britain” and to sound them out about admitting British settlers. Braithwaite’s expedition began inauspiciously. The “Indian chief ” he lavished with presents turned out to be nothing of the sort but an impostor sent to test the extent of British largesse. When he was surrounded by an armed group and taken inland to meet the natives’ “General”—who, alarmingly, appeared to be advised by a Frenchman—he was met frostily and denied the customary wood and water for his vessels. Taking his leave, Braithwaite had to push his way back to his boat through threatening crowds of Indians, who now included a number of gun-toting black men (“Negroes, all armed with fusees [flintlock rifles]”). Undeterred, Braithwaite sent gifts of rum, beef, bread, and some cutlasses and tried again. On this occasion he “found the brother of the chief of the Negroes was arrived with five hundred Negroes, most armed with fuzees.” He again found them suspicious—with reason—that his little Good Friends, Cruel Enemies 26 Detail from “A New and Correct Draught of the Caribbee Islands” taken from John Montagu’s 1725 book, A Relation of the late intended settlement of the Islands of St. Lucia and St. Vincent, in America, which includes an account of Braithwaite’s expedition. Note the “Indian Hutts” marked on the leeward coast of St. Vincent and the “Negro Habitations” to windward. Good Friends, Cruel Enemies 27 force represented the advance guard of a pretended British colonial enterprise but, keeping his counsel for the time being, was otherwise well received. The “Indian General” and “chief of the Negroes” were eventually persuaded to come on board ship where Braithwaite gave them gifts and plied them with wine—for they disdained to drink the rum he offered. Finally he plucked up the courage to reveal the true nature of his mission. At this point, the mood changed abruptly. “They told me it was well I had not mentioned it a-shore, for their power could not have protected me; that it was impossible; the Dutch had before attempted it but were forced to retire. They likewise told me . . . they would trust no Europeans; that they owned themselves under the protection of the French, but would as soon oppose to their settling amongst ’em or any act of force from ’em, as us; as they had lately given an example, by killing several. . . . They advised me to think what they said was an act of friendship.”2 On that menacing note the meeting broke up. In the face of this defiant statement of independence, Braithwaite sailed off to report back to his commander , Nathaniel Uring, who was having his own problems at the nearby island of St. Lucia. Having read Captain Braithwaite’s report, Uring “judged there was like to be little good done at St. Vincent”3 and sailed back to England. And that, for the time being at least, was the end of that. The names of the “Indian General” and the “chief of the Negroes” are unrecorded but this episode is revealing in a number of other ways. First, it shows that by this time the island of St. Vincent was inhabited by two distinct groups: one Amerindian, the other of African descent. Second, the British coveted the island and wished to add it to their Caribbean possessions. Third, the French had already established close relations with the natives and a small number were living alongside...