Over a hundred years afterColumbusbrought the first waves of Europeans to the Caribbean,Anguillaremained unsettled. In 1631, the Dutch built a small ‘fort’ overlooking Dutch St Maarten on what is now Fort Hill atSandyHillBay. Caught in the power play of giants, the fort was dismantled after only three years and the artillery carried toPhillipsburgfollowing the Spanish attack on that island.
In 1650, the first group of settlers came toAnguillafrom St Kitts.St Kitts and Nevishad been settled a generation earlier in 1623. The island was now crowded and Anguilla promised a new beginning, even a refuge during the throws ofEngland’s Civil War. We do not know the names of these adventurers but that they can without official sanction and were most likely former indentured servants and freed slaves seeking a new life on a lawless frontier.
The fledgling colony was attacked by Amerindians in 1656 that raided St Barths and thenAnguillain 8 large pirogues, or canoes. The survivors appointed Abraham Howell as their leader and used the resources at hand to rebuild. They grew corn to eat and tobacco to sell, settling around a pond in the middle of the island. Ten years later a French force under Du Tertre came on the Harmonieand Concorde from (French) St Kitts andattacked the new settlement. The settlers had no choice but to burn their homes and escape into the forest.
Yet for every settler that died, two more arrived to take his place. The forest these settlers found had not yet been cleared for large-scale agriculture. Plots cleared by the settlers were productive. The livestock, goats and cattle they introduced multiplied rapidly, grazing on local plants that had never seen an animal larger than the iguana.
Information about the early history ofAnguillahas been provided by Don Mitchell whose dedicated research has revealed these treasured tidbits of our cultural history.
Next week: Abraham Howell’s 1688 eye-witness description of a Spanish assault onAnguilla…
