By 1773, the Black Carib was the dominant population of St. Vincent. But, European politics began to exert its influence throughout the Caribbean. A series of wars between the French and British on St. Vincent culminated in a final battle on June 10th, 1796, where the French and their Carib allies where forced to surrender and leave the island. Thus would start a journey by the exiled Caribs in search of a home.
The British deposited the Caribs on the island of Roatan, Honduras. Shortly after, the entire marooned population migrated to the mainland of Honduras and allied with the Spanish in the fortress town of Trujillo. Unfortunately, a brief civil war in 1832 found the Caribs on the wrong side and once again many were forced to flee to neighboring British Honduras.
The archives at Belize record a Major Caulfield in command
of Roatan as early as 1745. On August 2nd of that year, the Major wrote a letter to
a Mr. Trelawry, Govenor of Jamaica, describing Spanish harassment of English settlements
(Archives, vol. I: 15). These settlements appear to have been well established on
the island of Roatan by 1775. A map of that year, drawn by Thomas Jefferys,
Geographer to His Majesty, Clearly shows essentially all of the present older settlements,
bearing their current names, with the exception of Calkett's Hole (now Coxen's Hole) and
Falmouth Harbour (now Oak Ridge). The Spanish, as soon as the early dawn provided enough
light, directed a well-coordinated attack against the English at Port Royal on the early
morning of March, 2nd 1782. "After a heavy cannonade, detachments of the troops
landed and opened regular trenches against the forts, which were so closely invested and
hotly pressed that on the 16th of the month they surrendered at discretion. The
lives of the defenders were spared, but all their dwellings, to the number of 500, were
destroyed" ( quoted by Squier in 1858: 616-617). Six years later, in 1788, England completely evacuated all
of her settlements in the Bay Islands as well as on the Miskito Shore. The islands
then lay deserted of Europeans for almost fifteen years until 1797, when the English
removed by force some 5,000 "Black Caribs" (a mixture of African Negro and Carib
and Arawak Indians) from the Windward Island of St. Vincent, and marooned them on the then
empty beaches of Port Royal on Roatan (Squier 1858:172 and Taylor 1951: 36).
Conzemius tells us that these unhappy GARINAGU people were first taken from St. Vincent to the
small island of Balliceaux, then to that of Bequia, both in the Grenadines. At
Bequia they were loaded aboard H.M.S. EXPERIMENT under the command of Captain Barrett, and
then shipped to Roatan. They were landed on Roatan on a stormy day of February 25,
1797 (Conzemius 1928: 189). According to the Honduran historian, Duran, the British
employed two men-of-war and a brigantine, landing the deportees in April, not February, in
1797 (Dur?n 1927:99). Research both in Belize and in Berkeley
indicates that this landing was indeed in the winter months, and most likely February.
The History of the Garifuna, as well as the history of their most famous dance,
"La Punta", seems to spiral outward from this day, whatever month it was in. Except for these "Black Carib" now known as the
Garifuna, and a few Spanish attempts to settle colonists from Spain and exiles native to
the Canary Islands, the Bay Islands remained unoccupied for almost thirty more years
(Parsons 1956: 9), until in 1821, the newly-founded Central American Federation claimed
the Bay Islands, and declared the independent of Spain. No serious attempts were
made to settle them, however, or to protect them from encroachment by other powers. We next hear of British interest in 1825, when a Mr. Marshall
Bennett, on a visit from Honduras to England, wrote a letter to the Colonial Office.
He stressed the great strategic importance of possible British settlements on Roatan, at that time being claimed
by Guatemala. Bennett felt the latter, not being a maritime nation, presumably did not
regard the islands of any great importance. No immediate action followed this
letter, and we know the Bay Islands were still unoccupied by Europeans when visited by
Roberts in 1827 (Roberts 1827: 276). At some time between 1827 and 1834, English settlers began
arriving on the island of Roatan. A memorandum, drafted in Belize, dated November
24th, 1834, noted that at this time the islands of Roatan and Bonacca (Guanaja) were
inhabited by 50 people only, mostly English (Archivesm, Vol. II: 361).
According to tradition, the first Garinagu arrived in then British Honduras on November 19th, 1802. This day is now a national holiday in Belize celebrated with drums, dancing and pageantry. Today, there is one town in Toledo - Punta Gorda - that is considered a Garifuna town, and two Garifuna villages - Barranco (the oldest Garifuna settlement in Belize) and tiny Punta Negra. 1997 the Black Carib culture known, as the Garifuna were reminded of their
ancestors? resilient struggle to overcome the brutal racism put forth by
the European settlers in the New World. This day marked the 200th
anniversary of the arrival of the Garifuna on the shores of Central America
after being forcibly removed by the British from the island of St. Vincent
located in the Caribbean. Though this culpable relocation of their
entire culture by the British was meant to circumscribe the Garifuna, they
have survived like members of their ancestry did when they were enslaved
and brought from Africa during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade of the 17th,
18th, and 19th centuries. Today the Garifuna populations can be found in
Guatemala, Honduras, Belize and many have migrated to the United States.
The Garifuna, also known as the Garinagu, are direct descendants of the
?Island Caribs? and a group of African slaves who escaped two ship-wrecked
Spanish slave ships near St. Vincent in 1635(Garinagu Early History, 1).
At a convention held in Guatemala on April 30th, 1859,
England, under a great deal of pressure from the United States, agreed to surrender the
Bay Islands and the Miskito Coast of both Honduras and Nicaragua, if allowed complete freedom of action in the
territory known at that time and until recently as British Honduras, now independent since
1974 and known as Belize. On July 9, 1860, in a message to the Superintendent at
Belize, the British Consul at Comayagua (Honduras), acknowledged receipt of a dispatch
informing him that the Colony of the Bay Islands were to be ceded to the Republic of
Honduras. In this same letter, however, he asks that this be delayed on the request
of the Honduran government, because General William Walker, the American Filibuster,
intended to take possession of the islands and use them for operations against the
mainland. [ The islanders were alarmed about this, and one can read a copy of the
letter they themselves wrote to Queen Victoria at the Museum at Anthony's Key in the IMS
building, Roatan. Many of the names of families still on the island were attached
to this letter. Its worth your while to drop into the museum and read it].
{see Roatan Activities for details} On July 14th, 1860, the Government Gazette of Belize ran a
notice that the Colony of the Bay Islands had been ceded to the Republic of Honduras, and
noted that an offer was included to island inhabitants of free grants of Crown Land, as
well as transport of any movable property to any of Her Majesty's Colonies in the British
West Indies. There is no evidence that any Bay Islanders took up the Queen's offer.
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