In August 1665, when the 'Mayflower'--not the
famous one, but an English pirate ship from Jamaica--captured Saba, it found
87 Dutchmen, 85 Negro slaves, 54 Englishmen as well as some Irishmen, Scots
and Indians living there. The 87 Dutchmen and their 85 slaves were deported.
It seems that Irishmen, Scotsmen and Indians did not count much in those
days, because apparently no census was taken of them. At least we must say
that we have not discovered any mention of their number yet in our research.
What interested us most, though, was that among the residents the records
mention Indians still living on the island as late as 1665. This would seem
to confirm some of the tales handed down to us by our forefathers about
their encounters with Indians.
Some of them (such as the one asserting that my grandfather Daniel Johnson,
born 1867, shot the last Indian chief in 1890, and threw his body over the
Pirate Cliff) can be discounted as being spurious. Another one which tells
about a lady, around 1850 going to English Quarter wearing a red bonnet, and
who was attacked by a wild Indian who stole her attractive bonnet, can also
be ascribed to fiction.
However, the tale about Johnny Frau probably has some historical truth to
it. It was told to me by my grandmother. As a boy I was always interested in
all these stories about Saba's past, and my grandmother told me that her
grandmother told her it happened in her grandmother's time, which therefore
would have been around 1670 to 1700.
Richard Austin Johnson who wrote the legend of Johnny Frau for the Saba
Herald, tells us that as a boy he too used to question old people about this
legend, and they too said that their grandparents told them it really did
take place.
The story itself circulated among residents of Hell's Gate, and the pond
named after Johnny Frau is located near the airport. The spring at Spring
Bay was the only source of fresh water for the first residents of Hell's
Gate and also Windwardside.
In geological research done by Dr. J.P.B. de Josselin de Jong on Saba in
1923, some shards of pottery and other objects used by Indians were found
near the Spring where Indians used to live. Many of the settlers recorded in
the census of 1665 probably already were living in Hell's Gate.
Recently I discovered a small cistern in lower Hell's Gate. A new home was
being built next to it, and I asked the owner if his father had built the
cistern. He told me that his grandfather, who had lived in that same area,
said he found it there, and nobody then could remember who had built the
cistern.
