Evening star., 1941-11-18
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory, Field
And Study
BIZ Thomas r. henry.

Inc HTSC dTCNcOIOBlCdl IeCOIludlSSdIlCc
; OF a forgotten New World city, buried
under jungle vines for nearly two cen
turies has been carried out by Dr..
Alfredo Metraux, Smithsonian Institu-
ton anthropologist.
The ruins are those of Basse Terre, on
the island Of Tortuga, about 10 miles OF
the north coast of Haiti, which in the
late 17th and early 18th centuries was
capital of the Kingdom Of the Pirates.
1t was the headquarters Of the French
and to some extent of the British
privateers who preyed on the Spanish
main.
To Basse Terre, fortified city Of thatch
houses. the cutthroats OF the Caribbean
returned after their raids. There they
deposited their treasures They were as
bad bunch Of scoundrels as the world
has known. Basse Terre was one Of
history's wickedest cities-scene Of
drinking orgies and gambling beyond
description.
Yet. judging from old accounts found
by DR.. Metraux and checked with some
of the actual remains, life there had its
softer side Nearly every pirate had his
home. where an Indian or colored wife
and children awaited him. There were
two churches-one Catholic and the
other Protestant. Communicates of the
rival faiths had bitter quarrels to while
away the time between throat cutting
expeditions.
Today there is only q small native
village on the site. The houses of the
pirates have disappeared completely, but
the ruins Of their fortifications remain
They were apparently. DR.. Metraux says
masterpieces of military architecture
Seventeenth-century brass cannon are
strewn around the site buried in mud
or covered with vines. Colored children
play with the ancient cannon balls.
Basse Terre was the armory of the pi.
rates and their chief supply center.
British and French captured the town
from each other nine times 1t finally
was razed by the French after thev made
peace with Spain. and nobody was al
lowed to live there. The present in
habitants have drifted in since. Wild
descendants Of the pigs of the pirates
holders with gardens and everything
during their brief vacations from buc-
caneering-still roam the jungle.
DR.. Metraux's chief interest. however
was in the Indian sites. Tortuea was
inhabited by Arawaks, relatives of the
Indians who welcomed Columbus to the
New World. 1t abounds, he found. in
archaeological material which hitherto
has passed unnoticed. He found several
large caves filled with skeletons-all In
dian. They presumably were Aravak
Durlal caves, not places where the pirates
stored the remains Of their victims.
-
Possible discovery of the remains of
the fabled Province of Quivira" of the
Spanish conquistador Coronado has been
reported by DR.. Waldo r. Wedel, Smith
sonian Institution archeologist
This native kingdom, supposedly rich
in gold was one OF the dreams of the
! early Spanish explorers. together with
the seven cities of Cibola and the foun-
tain OF perpetual youth. 1t lay, they be-
1ieved. somewhere in the great plains
which stretched northward from Mexico.
Coronado sought it in the summer of
154l. Instead of great and wealthy
kingdom, the Spaniard found q land
dotted with grass house villages whose
inhabitants supported themselves by
hunting and by cultivation Of corn, beans
and melons. The land. they reported.
was very fat and black" but there was
no gold or silver.
The exact location of the province
remained indefinite, but the name grad
ually shifted westward until it came to
rest in Eastern New Mexico
1t now generally is believed, DR.. Wedel
says, that the natives of Quivira were
the Wichita Indians and that several
large village sites near the great bend
of the Arkansas River in Central KAN
sas are remains of the province
Archaeological verification has been
lacking.
He reports excavations at one of these
sites. locally termed council circles" :"
He found post holes, freplaces, refuse
and in one case, disarticulated human
bones. There was no certain evidence
of house sites, but numerous large stor-
age pits and refuse mounds indi-
Gated relatively permanent occupation.
Charred corn and wild fruit pits, along
with quantities Of bison, antelope and
other bones. show that subsistence was
based partly on hunting and partly on
horticulture.
He found distinctive type OF pottery
and abundant small, triangular flint ar
rowheads, as well as many stone and
bone tools. Far-flung trade contacts
were evidenced by obsidian from yellow
stone or the Southwest, turquoise from
New Mexico, and banded ebert from
Oklahoma. Glass. iron and similar evi-
dence Of trade with white men was very
scanty. A badly rusted mass of inter-
locking iron rings, identified as chain
mail, may be attributable to Spanish
contact.
THE investigations show" reports Dr.
Wedel, that in very early historic days
Central Kansas was dominated by a
semi -sedantary, partly horticultural
people with comparatively uniform and
somewhat distinctive material culture
The marked scarcity Of European trade
goods, coupled with rare but consistent
occurrence of datable peblo shards
suggests that these sites may have been
inhabited during the early period of
Spanish exploration in the 10th and
early 17th centuries. Further studies
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