Page 8 - AHATA

Saturday 15 July 2023 locAl
A10

Episode 21

The Bay at Savaneta

There are traditions enough and to This bay did not receive its name
spare about Aruba’s history. Ac- because of a commander being
cording to one of them, there is chased into the water there, but
supposed to have been a Com- because of the fact that the com-
mander Jahrman, who was so cru- manders were living on its shore
el as to force the native arubans until the close of the eighteenth
to carry cactuses, in the manner century.
of guns, on their naked shoulders.
One has to admit that this does Historical evidence about the
not seem pleasant to the skin. But man-handling or violent death of
the people are supposed to have Aruba’s governors is in abeyance.
tied Jahrman to a horse and rider But it is an incontrovertible histori-
perishing there. Another account cal fact that the chiefs of our island
known is that they put Jahrman un- used to live for centuries before the
der a spell so that made him jump colonial era on this southern coast.
on his horse of his own will and Commanders’ Bay, consequently
spurred into the sea with the same became the neighbourhood that
result. The bay is alleged to have is now called Sabaneta, for a least
been called Commanders’Bay a some centuries. For proof we ap-
ever since. The name Sabaneta peal to traditions, it is true, but only
did not originate before the latter to be confirmed by official docu-
part of the previous century. mets.
still encounteres masoned graves, (mines), and Wouter Droncker and
That the natives had gotten rid of a In a manuscript by Father H.J.de in a state of decay, of him and his Isaac van den Woestijne, master
certain man on horseback at at this Vries from 1853 the following may family.” This time the Rev. Bosch and boatswain of the schooner
spot would not be a surprise. How- be read: “On Commanders’Bay, is justified in noting down about Elizabeth & Martha, in which they
ever that this event gave the bay situated at a three hours’ distance 1825 another piece of informa- depose that their ship was seized
it name is totally unfounded. The east of the Playa, that later be- tion which he received by word of in Aruba roads by two Spanish ves-
bay got its name from the Com- came Oranjestad. There stood mouth from the Native Arubans: sels, The Young Balthasar and the
manders who had their residence but one stone house: the com- “Formerly the commander and his Colebra.
there. The thing is that the story co- mander’s; in the wilderness one household used to live on Com-
incidentally matches the name in manders’ Bay, which still bear his From this document of 1727, which
Papiamento which meant, “Com- title. It is situated a few miles mere will later be of importance in an-
mander go a way”. eastward. They only mark of there other connection, we quote the
The Commanders lived in the only having been once on its shore the following particulars: The last two
stone house, known at that time, to principal residence of the island witnesses affirm upon oath:” that
be found on Aruba. I found to be some graves, ma- they were sent to Aruba by order
soned round an lying close togeth- of His Honour the Director to fetch
Old documents quoted historians er, which, according to the names from there the manager of the
saying that no Commander Jah- and dates inscribed, appeared to mountain-works, Mr.Paulus Printz,
rman is known. Evidently he means be a centuries old.” together with the materials and
that no Commander Jahrman is slaves of the Honourable Com-
known from the time the com- There’s one document removing pany, and to transport the neces-
mander settled on the bay. In 1837 the last vestige of doubt. In the sary victuals to the above island”,
Aruba does get a Commander Public Record Office, Letters and and that, while they were there,
Jacobus Jarman, without h, but Documents relating to Curacao, “on the 16 th of July there arrive off
then the capital city of Oranjestad there is in the volume Protocols of Commanders’ Harbour two Span-
already exists. This Jarman has no 1727, under No. 112, a sworn dec- ish privateers,” etc.etc. After hav-
connection with Commanders’ laration by Paulus Printz, manager ing related divers particulars one of
Bay. of the Aruban mountain-workings the witnesses deposed as follows:
“The Spanish captains forced the
commander to send some one to
his house to fetch the letters which
he had received from His Honour
the Governor of Curacao, and to
deliver them up to them intact, the
which was done”

Source; Island Insight column by Etnia
Nativa.