History of Castle Bruce

beach, a large freshwater lagoon at the mouth of the river and a headland that ends in two rugged islands topped by forests of their own. The first group of Amerindians who came here did not practice agriculture, and only hunted and gathered from the land and sea around them. At about the time of Christ another group came from the Orinoco River area of South America and brought crops such as Manioc or Cassava, pawpaw and pinapple (zanana), with them. They made pots out of local clay and built large communal houses.

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