Pre-Colombian Jamaica: Caribbean Archeology and Ethnohistory

Aboriginal Indian Remains in Jamaica by J. E. Duerden / 247
lected about 1670, referring to the destruction of the Indians by the severity of
the Spaniards, by sending to mines, says (page iv.):
“I have seen in the woods, many of their bones in caves, which some people
thought were of such as had voluntarily inclosed or immured themselves, in
order to be starved to death, to avoid the severities of their masters.”
Again (page lxx.) he refers to a Mr. Barnes, a carpenter, who lived on the
Red Hills, four miles from Guanaboa, St. Johns, having “found a cave in which
lay a human body’s bones all in order, the body having been eaten by the ants.
The ants nests we found there, the rest of the cave was filled with pots or urns,
wherein were bones of men and children, the pots were oval, large, of a red(d)ish
dirty colour. On the upper part of the rim or ledge there stood out an ear, on
which were made some lines, the ears were not over an inch square, towards the
top it had two parallel lines which went around, being gros(s)ly cut in the edges
near. The Negroes had removed most of these pots to boil their meat in. The
cave was about eight or nine foot diameter, roundish, and about five foot high,
it was on a sufficiently high precipice of nine foot steep ascent before one came
at it. It was before opening curiously shut in on all sides with thin, flat stones.
The ants had eat one carcass to the bones, and had made holes in their ends,
whereat they enter’d, I suppose, thus to eat the marrow.”
Other historical writers furnish similar evidence, which may best be inserted
here. Long, writing in 1774 (History of Jamaica, Vol. II., p. 153) refers
to the caves in the mountains of County Surrey: “In most of them are found
large quantities of human bones, almost consumed by time, the teeth alone being
in a tolerably perfect state. Some have conjectured, that these places were
either used by the Indians as ossuaries, or else as occasional retreats, to elude
the search of an enemy. The most probable account is, that the bones belonged
to those poor Indian natives who fell victims to the barbarity of their Spanish
conquerors.”
Bryan Edwards, in his History of the West Indies, written in 1793, mentions
(Vol. I., p. 169) that in his day, in Jamaica, “caves are frequently discovered in
the mountains, wherein the ground is covered with human bones; the miserable
remains, without all doubt, of some of the unfortunate aborigines, who, immured
in these recesses, were probably reduced to the sad alternative of perishing
with hunger, or bleeding under the swords of their merciless invaders.”
Goat Island.
From a deep cave on this island in Old Harbour Bay, Mr. Leo E. Verley obtained
the perfect oval- shaped vessel, with expanded ornamental handles, shown on
Plate V, Fig. 5.
The flattened skull of a young individual was inside the vessel, and associated
with it were two imperfect limb- bones. Nothing more is known of the aboriginal
remains from this, at present, almost unin-[29]habited spot. Consid-