85 Year-old Barbados born Eagle Clan Lokono-Arawak Elder tells us about Bussa, the pond & cave

Older brother of my mother Audrey Cecille Corbin-Corrie, my Uncle George Cecil Corbin Jr. (Named after my Grandad), who at 85 is the oldest pure-looking Amerindian male of the currently living 100 Barbados born Eagle Clan Lokono-Arawaks, tells us about the stories his father - George Cecil Corbin Sr. (1913-1979) told him, which were told to him by his father - Julian Alban Corbin, who in turn heard it from his father - Fotheringham Corbin - who's father was alive when the Bussa rebellion occurred.

ACCORDING TO THE STORIES GRANDAD PASSED ON:
There was a pond that still held water year-round up until my pre-teen years in the mid-1980's - in Sandford St. Philip. I grew up calling it 'Jacket Pond', it was to the immediate East of my Grandfather's (George Cecil Corbin Sr.) 2 acre Triangle farm on the north end, and to the immediate East of my grandfathers land to the south end is Mapps Cave, aka Bussa Cave, aka Salymingo Cave ancient Amerindian Sacred site. To the immediate south of Grandads Triangle farm (so named because the 2 acres is literally in a Triangular shape - sacred to most Indigenous tribes) - is the former plantation house residence of infamous Barbadian Pirate Sam Lord (aka 'Mapps Plantation House' today).

When the British Regiment marched from the Garrison Savanna area of Bridgetown St. Michael parish, to do battle with African slave General Bussa and his rebel army in 1816 in St Phillip Parish, one of the last battles was held in this very area, a British soldier either drowned or was killed by the rebels - and his body was either dumped or fell into the pond in the course of the battle after the battle his Army Jacket was seen floating in the pond, his fellow Regiment peers attempted tp retrieve it with a pole, but it sank under the water, never to be seen again - except on the same day each year in April on the anniversary of the soldier's death in the pond, his jacket would mysteriously be seen floating in the middle of the pond, but every attempt to retrieve it - met with the same result, it always sank below the surface into the murky depths before it could be touched by anything.

Not from the pond, but from the nearby cave complex a mere 100 meters away southeast from the pond, there IS a cave tunnel that leads towards Baiyleys plantation, and we can still see proof that it was indeed deliberately backfilled with mud, just as the oral history says - but it says the British back-filled it after the rebellion. There is also a great amount of debris evidence of slave pottery in the open subsurface area between the main cave to the west, and the cave tunnel to the east, ample area for planning meetings to have been held near to Bayleys Plantation - totally unseen (as the area is below ground level hidden by thick foliage and completely out of sight) - As CARICOM Ambassador David Commission noted when I took Minister of Culture John A. King MP and himself there to see the location in November 2021.

Additionally, I myself have found 2 early 1800's era round lead musket ball bullets in the area of the cave mouth, near to what remains of a possible Bussa rebel army/slave built limestone block wall, which extends into the cave forming a semi-circular wall near to the most sacred point in the far western end of the main cavem where at midday - a beam of light penetrates the gloom - to illuminate a mound of earth directly beneath the natural hole in the cave roof at this location, and I have also found a brass button from a Regiment Jacket in the same area as well. Evidence of Amerindian use of this cave complex location as a sacred site goes back over 1,000 years.

We are ALL pushing for the Government to recognize the tripartite historical importance of this pond-cave complex area, which currently belongs to famous singer Eddy Grant, and move to protect and incorporate it into a new historic tourist attraction for Barbados - in the parish of St. Phillip.

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