The Caribs Lept

Our next stop on last week’s whirlwind island tour was Carib’s Leap.

(Sheesh, has it been a week already?!)

While currently a well-kept touristy destination, it isn’t quite the happiest place on earth. Here’s the story.

The Caribs were the second civilization to inhabit Grenada. According to what I read, they weren’t very nice – especially to the native Amerindians. They liked to kill those poor natives then eat them. Yuck.

But the pesky Caribs probably still didn’t deserve what happened next.

The English came. The Caribs thought they were pretty tasty hunting too. So the English didn’t last long.

After that the French came. Although they were also in the Carib’s crosshairs, they were a little moe persistent. The French wanted to farm Grenada for all it was worth and they weren’t about to let a few pesky natives get in their way. So in true European style, they bought the island for a few bags of beads and a bunch of brandy.

When the Caribs realized that they got the raw end of the deal in 1650, it was full-scale war. Eventually no Frenchman could leave his house without being butchered and the Carib population was getting pretty thin with the help of French muskets. One day, the Caribs came in force against the French fort with every able body they could find – about 800 people. After being massacred by the French, the 40 Caribs left alive were chased to the top of the island to this precipice.

Rather than give themselves up, they all jumped.

Unlike the story I had heard before, this leap didn’t mean the end of the Caribs. There were still a handful left, but eventual inbreeding with others put the final end to Grenada’s Caribs, leaving the island to the French and, eventually, the African slaves.

And that is why there is now a tourist shop on this remote old cliff.

P.S.

There is also a graveyard that sits on the cliff where the first man with diagnosed sickle cell disorder rests, providing an interesting stop for those in medical school.