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Legends of Indians and Pirates |
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The first English-speaking Afro-Caribbean family to make its home on the Talamanca Coast was the family of William Smith, "Old Smith", as he is remembered, by the few people alive today who knew him, rowed and sailed north from his home in Bocas del Toro, Panama (then part of Colombia). With fellow fishermen, following the northward immigration of green and hawks bill turtles. The fisherman made temporary camps for themselves along the Talamanca Coast near the shallow reef areas where the turtles gathered to feed.
 They planted provisions (cassava, plantain, yam, coconuts) that they' would harvest each season when they returned to the camps. 1828 in Costa Rica, William Smith decided to make one of his fishing camps his permanent home. He brought his family to a calm bay protected by a broad coral reef on the north side of Cahuita Point. There he built a "ranch" and planted the lime trees that mark his spot until today. Old Smith is the founder of the early settlement of Cahuita, and Selles Johnson, born in the house by the lime trees in 1894, called him grandfather.
The history of the settlement of the Talamanca Coast begins, then, in 1828. But there are stories which have been handed down through generations of Afro-Caribbean settlers, which tell of events along the coast before their arrival. The legends are of Indians and pirates.
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People and Society 
