36 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 92 



RoATAN Island 



Roatan, the largest island of the group, appears to have been the 

 least exploited archeologically. The Mitchell-Hedges collection from 

 Roatan is small and seems to have been acquired mainly by gift or 

 purchase. The Boekelman Shell Heap Expedition worked one site in 

 Jonesville Bight, visited Port Royal, and purchased a small collection 

 from the vicinity of Coxen Hole. We visited the same places and, 

 in addition, excavated a hitherto untouched offertory site near 

 French Harbor. In the present discussion these sites will be described, 

 commencing with Port Royal near the eastern end of the island, and 

 proceeding west to the vicinity of Coxen Hole. 



PORT ROYAL 



If the buccaneer period in the Caribbean ever becomes the subject of 

 direct archeological investigation, Port Royal will not be neglected. 

 Once the most important harbor in the islands. Port Royal in 1933 had 

 a population of one American and a scant handful of native Hondurans. 

 Here is a setting that for beauty and romance rivals Stevenson's 

 " Treasure Island ". Backed by steep, jungle-covered hills, the great 

 empty harbor is defended by encircling coral reefs, through which 

 only two narrow deep-water entrances penetrate. Old stone forts 

 guard the channels, the ruins of a buccaneer town are hidden in the 

 dense bush on the mainland, and, as a final touch, there is even a 

 " pirate's cave " located on a small creek, whose bed is full of old 

 broken rum bottles (see map, fig. 8). Since no aboriginal remains 

 could be found at Port Royal we spent only one day here. However, 

 with adequate time for exploration, native sites could probably be 

 located, and the colonial remains in themselves merit a much more 

 extensive examination than we were able to give them. 



With the beginning of the seventeenth century, Spanish domination 

 of the Bay Islands began to be disputed by a horde of freebooters of 

 English, French, and Dutch nationality, and in the ensuing struggle 

 Port Royal, as the most easily defended harbor, became the scene of 

 repeated violent struggles. The first important raid on the islands 

 came in 1639, when a party of Dutch buccaneers under Van Home 

 ravaged Utila and Bonacca. It was at this time that the Spanish 

 began seriously considering the removal of the Indian population from 

 the Bay Islands, which was finally effected in 1650. (Conzemius, 

 1928, pp. 64, 65.) Meanwhile, in 1642, Port Royal was occupied by 

 a considerable number of English logwood cutters and illicit traders 

 from the region that is now British Honduras, and the harbor was 



