Page 14 - ARUBA TODAY

A14 LOCAL
Tuesday 11 June 2019
The Bay at Savaneta II

Episodio XXII

There are many documents that refer to Savaneta as a place to throw anchor, were Each week we share the most interesting and revealing
you could get to shore using a small boat. There was a small beach where a na- articles regarding Aruba, a destination to be explored,we
tive chief, ruler over a village, assisted by his lieutenants from the surrounding area can find,and so doing uncover amazing and informative
resided. It was precisly the reason that the Spaniards befriended the Amerindian, in stories along the way.
order to start a settlement there.
land, named Coro, who
preaches to them, and ad-
ministers the Sacraments in
the Roman fashion.

These native arubans trad-
ed with the robbers who
arrived at their costs and
exchanged sheeps, goats,
horses corn, beans, mani-
oc, pumkins and peanuts
for linen, yarn, tools, weap-
ons or something else that
Pic. 4. Alexander O. they needed. Aruban na-
Exquemelin tives also provided their
There is a valuable descrip- brothers with items not
tion extant of Aruban life available on the mainland
about the middle of the at the Spanish colonies
seventeenth century. The from time to time. The is-
pirate Henry Morgan, the land is not fertile, but very
later lieutenant-governor barren, and mostly over-
of Jamaica, was com- grown with
Pic. 1. and 2. Willen Janz and his ship the Duyfken
missioned in 1668 by Sir
From documents as such we obtained Despite the fact that the name of the Thomas Modyford, gover- Brushwood. There is a
the following information, that as early commander in question is not mentioned nor of that island, to cruise great quantity of sheep
as 1727 this spot bore the official name of in the 1727 document, he should have against the Spaniards so and goats, which the in-
Commanders ‘ Harbour, or Comanduers been no other than Willem Jansz, who as to obtain intelligence habitants use for their sus-
Baai and that the Dutch commander had appears from official records, was com- about a Spanish attack on tainance together with
his dwelling-house in the neigbourhood mander from 1714 to 1739. But it is not sure Jamaica. Morgan acted Spanish wheat, which they
where the chief used to have his larger if there were more than one Willem Janz like a true buccaneer. He sow there. There are also
communal house and his personal Bohio or Janzoon. Continuing our story. After the took Puerto Principe and many horses, which the
or smaller house. So the only logical ex- peace of 1648 the activities of the Dutch Porto Bello. inhabitants use, for what-
planation is that the bay was thus called concentrate more than ever on Curacao. ever they do on horse-
simply because of the Commander resid- Bonaire’s importance as well is decreas- One of his pirate ende- back, even though they
ed there, to distinguis it from Horses’ Bay, ing. Contacts between Aruba and Cura- vours as many was record- go but five hundred yards
where the horses were disembarked, and cao were scarce. The company bothered ed by, A.O. Exquemelin, from their houses to fetch
from the Bay of Westpunt an other settle- little about Aruba, but that there was some in the adventures of this water. Many rattlesnakes
ment in the vicinity of Noord, where the communication after all, is proved by the voyage to Aruba on re- and spiders which are
other Indians lived. presence of a company ship off Aruba in cord. To this story we owe very venomous lifed here
1659. our principal information and whenever someone
concerning life on Aru- is bit by this vermin he is
ba in the second part of put tied up in a hammock,
the seventeenth century. remaining in it for twenty-
“Morgan put to sea and four hours without food
laid his course for the island and drink. The inhabitants
of Curacao: having this in affirm that when a man is
sight he proceeded to lee- bit by these beast he must
ward, to Ruba, which is an obstain from drinking, or he
island about twelve miles will die.q
from the westerly point of
Curacao, and belongs to
the West India Company
of Dutch, who appoint a
sergeant there as governor
with fifteen soldiers. Further
the island is inhabited by
Indians speaking Spanish
and Caquetio, and who,
as to religion, are subordi-
nate to the Spaniards; ev-
ery year a Spanish priest
comes there, from a village
opposite it on the Main-
Pic. 3. The dispecable Henry Morgan and Thomas Modyford Pic. 6. Native o horse back