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H © Stephen J. Pavlidis 2010 |
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A Brief History of Saba
Columbus first spied Saba on this second voyage to the New World in 1493, but he never landed on the uninviting island. It is said that Arawak Indians inhabited the island in 800 A.D., and possibly later on Caribs as well. Since Saba had no harbor European settlers ignored the island although fishermen from nearby Statia landed on the island during the 1630s on their way to their fishing grounds on the nearby Saba Banks, but it wasn’t until the 1640s that Dutch colonists from Statia first settled on Saba. The colonists had a unique method of defense that has come to be known as the Rolling Stones Defense. The colonists kept huge piles of boulders and rocks restrained by timbers atop the hills above the shoreline, and when attackers charged up the hill the timbers were removed and the “rolling stones” did their damage.
In 1665, the famous Captain Morgan seized the island and booted out all non-English speaking settlers. The English, Scots, and Irish who remained were the ancestors of today’s 1,400 inhabitants, most of whom are named Hassell, Johnson, and Simmons. Over the years The French, British, Dutch, and Spanish struggled for control over Saba with the island changing hands a dozen times before 1816 when the island was handed over to the Dutch. Today Saba is still part of the Netherlands Antilles.
© Stephen J. Pavlidis 2010