These people, who are the ancestors of the present day Kalinago/Caribs who live near Castle Bruce still, made farms and settlements on the beautiful and fertile valley lands and hillsides of Castle Bruce. In those days however they called the place Kouanari and the name appears on the early European maps of Dominica as Couanary.
A map of 'Couanary' before it was called Castle Bruce. Made by British map-maker Thomas Jeffreys c1765
Kalinago life at Kouanari
These Amerindian people made full use of the bounties of nature that were found
in the area: in the river, fish and crayfish, crabs and eels. In the sea, the
conch (lambi), lobsters, reef fish and deep water fish such as dowad, ton and king fish. On the land they planted fields of cassava, pawpaw, yams, tannia,
sweet potato, peas, beans, zanana and cashima among others. Up in the forest
behind their settlements they found all sorts of natural resources for their
lives: palm thatch 'zel mouch', 'yanga' and 'palmiste' for their roofs, wood
for their houses and for building their canoes, plants for medicines and food.
They made their tools out of stones and bone and wove baskets to hold their
possessions. All these things were freely available in the area of Kouanari and
surrounding mountains and valleys.
All this was to change from the morning of 3
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