Page 359 - The Dutch Caribbean Isles

Aruba: One Happy Island

A ruba is an island in the southern Caribbean prevented any violent slave revolt. Aruba is one
Sea, located about 1,600 kilometers (990 mi) of the very few Caribbean islands on which the
west of the Lesser Antilles and 29 kilometers (18 Indian population was not exterminated although
mi) north of the coast of Venezuela. It measures there are no full-blooded Indians now. The Aruban
32 kilometers (20 mi) long from its northwestern today is a descendant of the Caquetio Indians, with
to its southeastern end and 10 kilometers (6 mi) a mixture of Spanish and Dutch blood from the
across at its widest point. Together with Bonaire early colonizers. The Indians supervised the raising
and Curaçao, Aruba forms a group referred to as of cattle, horses, goats and sheep, and their deliv-
the ABC islands. Collectively, Aruba and the other ery to the other Dutch islands. They were generally
Dutch islands in the Caribbean are often called the left alone and maintained regular contact with
Netherlands Antilles or the Dutch Caribbean. the mainland Indians. The last Indians to speak an
Indian language were buried in about 1800; later
Aruba is unusual in that it did not have a Indians lost their language and culture. Remnants
significant African slave population. Only in of their culture can still be found at a number of
the 19th century were African slaves imported different sites around the island: pottery, earthen-
with any consistency and they mainly served as ware, and other artefacts at the Archeological Mu-
craftsmen or agricultural laborers for their Dutch seum in Oranjestad and at the Historical Museum
masters. In the absence of the large plantations of Aruba at Fort Zoutman and William III Tower;
that dominated the European economies through- and cave drawings and petroglyphs in the Fontein
out the rest of the West Indies, concentrated and Guadiriki Caves and at Arikok National Park.
populations of slaves on Aruba were rare and this