ETHNOLOGY: J, W. FEWKES 
49 
Three groups of artificial caves, supposed to have been the work of 
historic aborigines, were seen by me on my visit to Barbados. One 
of these, and the most problematical, has been known for several cen- 
turies from its site as Indian Castle; the others are pit-like excavations 
near Bridgetown on the right bank of Indian River, and at Freshwater 
Bay. 
The so-called Indian Castle is situated northeast of Speightown, on 
the Pleasant Hill Estate, about three miles due east of Six Mens Bay. 
As one leaves the town above mentioned the road rises gradually to a 
hill and passes the ' Castle,' reveahng the entrance to the cave on the 
right-hand side in the cKff above the road. The cave opens through 
the archway with a key -stone on which is cut a rude figure in rehef. 
Both entrances and arch have smooth perpendicular walls with well 
made angles in each corner, the whole chamber cut out of the solid rock. 
The subterranean room has lateral recesses in its walls and smaller mural 
niches. An opening in the right-hand wall communicates with a well, 
also excavated in rock, but open above to the sky. 
The whole appearance of this excavation, especially the conical apex 
of the second chamber, led me at my first visit to regard it a lime- 
kiln made by Europeans, but it greatly differs from one of these pits 
in several particulars. This cave has been known for many years. 
The Reverend Griffith Hughes speaks of this place in 1750, or about 
125 years after the island was colonized, as follows: ''A very commodious 
one [cave] in the side of a neighboring hill called to this day Indian 
Castle and almost in a direct line from Six Mens Bay, . . . 
''Among several broken fragments of idols said to be dug up in this 
place," continues the Reverend Hughes, ''I saw the head of one which 
alone weighed 60 pds. weight." An adjacent pond, he writes, ''since 
the memory of oldest inhabitants has been called Indian Pond." We 
have in fact circumstantial evidence that the cave is aboriginal, and 
yet not ample data to prove that the cave was excavated by Indians in 
prehistoric times. 
There is, however, more trustworthy evidence that the other exca- 
vated chambers in the Barbados ascribed to prehistoric man were made 
by the aborigines. Unlike the Indian Castle cave and natural caves 
above mentioned, the 'Indian excavations' are dug into the surface 
rock hke pit dwellings. They lie near undoubted Indian middens or 
sites of aboriginal settlements which tells in favor of their aboriginal 
character. Like the Castle cave they also are ascribed by some authors 
to early colonists, but the majority call them Indian excavations and 
Carib graves. It is instructive to note that abundant evidences of 
