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In August 1665, when the 'Mayflower'--not the famous one, but an English pirate ship from Jamaica--captured Saba, it found 87 Dutchmen, 85 Negro slaves, 54 Englishmen as well as some Irishmen, Scots and Indians living there. The 87 Dutchmen and their 85 slaves were deported.

It seems that Irishmen, Scotsmen and Indians did not count much in those days, because apparently no census was taken of them. At least we must say that we have not discovered any mention of their number yet in our research.

What interested us most, though, was that among the residents the records mention Indians still living on the island as late as 1665. This would seem to confirm some of the tales handed down to us by our forefathers about their encounters with Indians.

Some of them (such as the one asserting that my grandfather Daniel Johnson, born 1867, shot the last Indian chief in 1890, and threw his body over the Pirate Cliff) can be discounted as being spurious. Another one which tells about a lady, around 1850 going to English Quarter wearing a red bonnet, and who was attacked by a wild Indian who stole her attractive bonnet, can also be ascribed to fiction.

However, the tale about Johnny Frau probably has some historical truth to it. It was told to me by my grandmother. As a boy I was always interested in all these stories about Saba's past, and my grandmother told me that her grandmother told her it happened in her grandmother's time, which therefore would have been around 1670 to 1700.

Richard Austin Johnson who wrote the legend of Johnny Frau for the Saba Herald, tells us that as a boy he too used to question old people about this legend, and they too said that their grandparents told them it really did take place.

The story itself circulated among residents of Hell's Gate, and the pond named after Johnny Frau is located near the airport. The spring at Spring Bay was the only source of fresh water for the first residents of Hell's Gate and also Windwardside.

In geological research done by Dr. J.P.B. de Josselin de Jong on Saba in 1923, some shards of pottery and other objects used by Indians were found near the Spring where Indians used to live. Many of the settlers recorded in the census of 1665 probably already were living in Hell's Gate.

Recently I discovered a small cistern in lower Hell's Gate. A new home was being built next to it, and I asked the owner if his father had built the cistern. He told me that his grandfather, who had lived in that same area, said he found it there, and nobody then could remember who had built the cistern.

White settlers consequently were living there quite a long time ago. It is quite possible that due to the scarcity of fresh water, battles had to waged with Indians over water rights by the first settlers. And so this is the story handed down to us by our ancestors:

THE LEGEND OF JOHNNY FRAU AND THE GREAT INJUN

The early settlers, in their search for fresh water, discovered a spring on a rocky beach on the east end of the island. Because of this spring the beach became known as Spring Bay. In order to have drinking water, the settlers would have to bring it on their heads in wooden tubs and kegs, uphill to their village, located about two miles away and fourteen hundred feet above sea level. Near the Spring Bay there also lived Carib Indians in makeshift huts and caves. The white settlers often had to go without water, because of fear of fierce Indians, especially one, known as the Great Injun because of his huge size. One of the settlers, named Johnny Frau, decided that they had taken enough from this Indian, and also being a giant in size, he went alone, carrying his water keg, in order to entice the Indian to fight with him. Sure enough the Indian saw him coming down the hill, and thinking this was a fine chance to kill the white man, he hid himself on a ridge, which later became known as Fair Play Ridge, and attacked Johnny Frau with a club. A fearful struggle ensued. They fought and battered each other until eventually they reached the sea at Spring Bay. Entering the sea the continued fighting until, overcome with exhaustion and loss of blood, both of them drowned. The body of the Indian was never found, but Johnny Frau's body was cast in a pond near the airport, and this spot is known as Johnny Frau's Pond to this day.

For many years afterward the superstitious settlers at Hell's Gate declared that on the night of the anniversary of the body, a tiny blue light could be seen moving along the sea edge near the pond. This, they explained, was the ghost of Johnny Frau, still searching for the Great Injun.

This page was last updated on 10/10/2004