FEWKES] CULTURE AKEAS IN THE WEST INDIES 79 



places for landing on the whole lee shore. The names Indian River 

 and Six Mens Bay can also be instanced as evidence that there were 

 Indian residents in Barbados when these names originated.''^ 



The opinion advanced by some writers that Barbados was visited 

 from time to time by Carib from St. Vincent*" in order to raid 

 the island may have some foundation. There must have been a 

 motive for these A'isits, which were probably for attacks on pre- 

 existing people, the agricultural race, signs of which occur in all the 

 Lesser Antilles. Whether populated or not at the time the whites 

 came, it is evident that many islanders must have lived in Barbados 

 jiermanently before these visits, for it can hardly be supposed that 

 transient visitors would have brought with them the nudtitucle of 

 implements, pottery, and like objects now found in Barbados. The 

 fact that the natives had few stone implements does not mean that 

 there were few people, but that there was no stone suitable for the 

 manufacture of celts, axes, and the like. The implements were 

 made by permanent residents from the sliell which was abundant. 



On Ligon's map " of the island, published in 1657, 31 years after 

 the settlement of Barbados by Warner, there is figured not far from 

 the place now called "Three Houses" an Indian named "Smyago" 

 carrying a bow and accompanied by a canoe " 35 feet long." The 

 position on the map where the Indian is placed and the legend 

 " Three Houses," which takes its name from Indian dwellings found 

 there in early times, prove that men were living on tlie island in 

 1657."* It must be confessed that this argument loses some force, 

 as camels and hogs are also figured, and these were undoubtedly 

 brought to the island by white men. 



There is indicated on this same map of Ligon the name of the 

 early proprietors of the island, and the legend " 5 houses " on the 

 coast not far from the present estate " 3 houses," which latter, how- 

 ever, does not appear on Bryan Edwards's map, where likewise is 

 the legend " 16 men " not far from the bridge which appears on 

 Ligon's map and apparently gave the name of Bridgetown to the 

 main city of the island. On none of these early maps is there any 

 indication of the Indian castle, which is not strange, as all the 

 localities are not indicated. 



•' The origin of the name Barbados is doubtful. Some authors have supposed it to 

 have been given by the Portuguese on account of the epiphytic plant, hangins like beards 

 from the trees, but other writers have sugge.sted that the natives were bearded. 



*2 St. Vincent has been seen from Mount Gilboa, but no one has stated that Barbados Is 

 visible from St. Vincent, which is quite natural and explained by the low altitude of 

 Barbados. 



" Richard Ligon, A True and Exact History of the Island of Barbados, 1657. 



"The evidence that there was formerly an Indian settlement near "Three Houses" Is 

 supported by the many shell chisels formerly found in this neighborhoo<l. One informant 

 told the author that he had seen bushels of these implements from that place, and that 

 they were formerly ground up and thrown on the roads to improve them. 



