Pre-Colombian Jamaica: Caribbean Archeology and Ethnohistory

Aboriginal Indian Remains in Jamaica by J. E. Duerden / 217
ing to the fact, that, previous to the present investigations, relics were mainly
known from the south side, it has been supposed that this part of Jamaica was
more thickly populated by the Indians than was the northern border. The extensive
kitchen- midden accumulations and other evidences, such as the burial
caves and rock- carvings, now known in the parishes of St. Ann, Trelawny,
St. James, and Hanover, prove that this northern part of the island had, in the
past, its full proportion of inhabitants.
Though up to the present shell- heaps are known only along the sea- border,
proof exists, from the finding of implements and other objects, that the interior
likewise was not devoid of inhabitants. Mr. D. Campbell’s images, confined in
a vessel, were obtained from near Ewarton, a position about midway between
the north and south borders. Implements have also been collected at such an
inland spot as Moneague.
Again, both eastern and western extremities have yielded antiquities, collections
being known from Bath and Priestman’s River on the one hand, and Negril,
Green Island, and Lucea on the other. Nevertheless the fact remains that
by far the bulk of the relics is found near the sea- border. By all historians—
Bernaldez, Fernando Colombo, and Peter Martyr— Jamaica is reported to have
been very populous at the time of its discovery in 1494. It is considered by some
to have been one of the best peopled of all the Antilles (Leslie 1740). Columbus,
in his first landfall of Jamaica at Santa Gloria (St. Ann’s Bay?), and in his
first voyage round the north side of the island from Puerto Bueno (Dry Harbour?)
as far as Negril Point (Cabo del Buen Tiempo), was visited from different
villages by canoes of Indians, and likewise afterwards round the south side.
It is stated in the “Historie” that “all the coast was full of towns, whence the
natives followed the ships in their canoes.” Especially does the district around
Old Harbour Bay (de las Vacas) appear to have been thickly populated, and
confirmatory relics are not few. Again, when stranded, on his fourth voyage, in
the neighbourhood of St. Ann’s Bay, Columbus found the country around well
peopled— the Indians living in villages. Lately relics have been found within
sight of Don Christopher’s Cove.
Food of the Indians
In the kitchen- middens we have, of course, only those indications of the food
of the Indians left us which admit of natural preservation for a long time, such
as bones and shells. The remains of the Indian coney are universally met with,
as also the spines and bones of various species of fish, both fresh- water and marine.
The turtle does not appear to have been so often eaten, fragmentary bones
being found only now and again. No manatee bones have yet been revealed.