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Roatan and Bay Islands Discussion List Archive
| Posted On: | 15-Feb-2006 |
| From: | dkevans [dkevans....edu] |
| Subject: | [roatan] Old island place names |
*Good morning: In doing a bit of research lately I've been coming across a lot of old place names...most, I would say, far more "romantic" and colorful than the ones in use today, and thought I would share them with the list members. There is always that delete button, folks, if you really don't want to bother. The map is labeled simply RATAN (Most spellings about this time (end of 17th and beginning of 18th centuries) would spell the island either RATTAN or Ruatan...no accent marks. (There was once an Indian village in the early 1600s near Port Royal named "ROA":...so perhaps this explains the prefix in the others and the ROA in Roatán...the accent mark is much later and is Spanish) Now back to my RATAN map...it is hand drawn, and has several changes made on it later...it is dated 1742, and I suspect it was the prototype (or rough sketch) for Lt. Barnesly's map also dated 1742. (note...his name itself appears on the map and was used well into the late 18th century, to later become "Caribe Point Bight": [note the "Caribes", the ancestors of todays 'Garifuna' people at Punta Gorda, were not brought to the island by the British until 1797]...so I suspect Lt. Barnesly simply picked an un-named bight and stuck his name to it...(like writing on a freshly made cement sidewalk)...why not? On the South Coast only I'll give you the place names then and now...or at least as I know them now...I am fully aware that people who have just arrived in the last decade or so have changed names all over the place and I see no reason trying to keep up with them all...every newcomer wants to "make history"...can you believe that someone actually wants to change "Neverstain Bight" to "Mystic Harbor"? WEST to EAST _OLD NAMES_ Pyrats Cove Caulkett's Hole Kemps Hole Pointsetta or Dixon's Cove English Harbour Port Quarré New French Harbour Old French Harbour Thomson's Lagoon Coachman's Creek Dalrymple's Bay ------- _CURRENT NAMES P_yrats Cove Coxon's Hole Kemp's Hole Dixon's Cove Brick Bay Sarah Key French Harbour First Bight Second Bight Neverstain Bight (or Prigby's Bay) (or Gibraltar) (or Brig Bay) _OLD NAMES_ Barnesly's Cove Falmouth Harbour Welsh's Lagoon Pitt's Lagoon Casack's Island New Port Royal Fort George Old Port Royal (or Fitt's Lagoon?) ------- _CURRENT NAMES_ Caribe Point Bight Jonesville Harbour Bowden Bight Oak Ridge Harbour Lime Key Port Royal Harbour Fort Key Old Port Royal Helene (Spanish= Santa Eleña) Note: This old map also lists a number of interesting site names that no longer exist...for example, "William Stadt", which was apparently the Dutch pirate stronghold just above and between what is today Neverstain Bight and Caribe Point Bight. If so it would have been built right after the Spanish (under Francisco Diaz de Pimienta) destroyed the English Providence Company's venture in 1640, and would have been itself destroyed by the Spanish about a decade later around the middle of the 17th Century. This e-mail just covers this one map's place names for the South Shore of Roatán only...I'll get around to the North Side some other day...hopefully. All the best...dke http://www.thejudasbird.com http://www.wfu.edu/~dkevans * Adventures on Roatan: An exciting tour of the island on DVD http://www.roatanvideo.com To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/roatan/ roatan- : | |
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