ACKNOWLEDGMENT :

I am the poet Kenvil Atkins Lewis, also an author, if you know my history you would not be amazed at my voyages from my infancy into the twilight of my years, this is a true extract of my sweet home Canelles, my parents left me when I was just a mere tot, I was carried here there and everywhere, but the greatest pleasure I have known was when I was placed in the custody of my grandmother who lived in canelles, that was a long time ago, this is my story as I remember it. HISTORY OF OLD CANELES. ( Saint Lucia ) Author: Kenvil Atkins Lewis The true history of a sleepy Hamlet called Canelles between the north lies a bridge, and lower down South lies another bridge, lonely Canelles falls right in the middle. An area as large as the eye could see, for you could not see much, green lush bushes to the North, that dwarf the secret below, a canopy of twigs from the ocean to grandma's door, she called it the Mang. Canelles is a steep hill, and at the top lies its only inhabitants two pioneering adventurous citizens, one Leslie we will call Mr. Leslie, and the other Safe, whom we will call Mr. Safe. Leslie was married he had fourteen siblings, while Safe was a bachelor, that is in the year of fifty-two. The two residents of Canelles live within half a yard of each other, farming their respective choice of dirt land, those two men were fishermen by trade. There were no shops to be found for miles around, no church or school, no hospital, no lamp post or roads, but there was a highway that led to the town of Vieux-Fort in the South and ran its course to Castries in the North. Now let us take a walk from the North bridge, momentarily stopping at Leslie and Safe, it’s a stiff climb from the North River till you reach the top, along the climb you can see what the two farmers cultivated Peagon peas, cassava, and sweet potato now and then a pawpaw tree, those were the vegetation grown below the highway till you reach the hilltop. At the top, the soil was much too hard to plant but was consumed with cashew nuts, guava, tamarind, a few mango trees, sour sop, and sugar apples, as you proceed at a decent the lovely ocean welcomes you to a lush tropic of twigs that run right into the sea. continue below

Chapter Two

THE TRUE HISTORY OF OLD CANELLES As told by eye witness of no other than Kenvil Atkins Lewis author / poet his life with his grandmother living in Canelles

WHO WOULD BE KING

Making a living was hard work indeed, in the little Hamlet of Canelles, even though the land was dry, it yielded other resources important enough to make some needed cash, wood was plenty, charcoals were manufactured regularly, parm leaves were plentiful and brooms were made from its dried leaves, other products that were made were ferine from the cassava collected, peas gumbo by the bundle, honey, molasses, cassava bread, fresh fish, cashew nuts, tamarin and much more. Nightlife in Canelles was an adventure, the fire torches made out of a special tree bark kept one from stumbling in the dark, high tide would bring up the fishes to the brink of the river, and many would be nestled in the grass near the edges, which made them an easy target to catch, there was also plenty of blue crabs just walking up to from their borrow trying to escape the salty water, which became an easy catch. WHO WOULD BE KING? The two pioneers Leslie and Safi were the only occupancy of the little Hamlet called Canelles, one would think that they would fight over kingship in this little Hamlet, but far from it those two men were as different as different could be, there was never a quarrel between them, there was equality harmony and togetherness, eventually Safi would woe Cecilia one of Leslie daughter, giving birth to two handsome boys, Herbert the oldest and Joseph, this two boys would grow up to find their niche right next to their parents. The two matrices went about their daily business, Leslie a fisherman by trade, would walk down the narrow path located behind his home, that leads directly to the bay at Pwindaykye, at the water's edge was his small continue below.

Visit Canelles When in Saint Lucia visit little Canelles

HISTORY OF CANELLES CONTINUE

modest

fishing

boat,

he

would

carefully

pack

his

lunch

in

a

box

located

under

the

seat,

then

he

would

gather

the

hooks

check

the

baits,

his

fishing

net

which

he

made

out

of

nylon

strings

anchored

with

lead

balls.

One

more

check

in

the

box

that

housed

the

tackles

and

spare

parts,

his

lunch

bag,

and

a

change

of

shirt,

making

sure

everything

was

fine

before

rowing

into

the

bay.

When

he

was

on

dry

land

as

the

fishermen

would say, he tended to his animals, a small fence corral of several sheep and goats not necessarily pen together, large pigs the size of hogs, and one cow which he milked occasionally.

Grandfather’s

clothing

fishing

attire

was

much

to

behold,

wrapped

around

his

loins

was

simply

a

cloth

that

sheltered

his

private

parts

in

the

shape

of

an

infant

diaper,

all

the

fishermen

dressed

this

way

in

Grandfather’s time.

Certain

months

of

the

year

there

was

a

high

concentration

of

sardines,

they

swam

near

the

shoreline,

in

that

particular

month

if

the

day's

catch

was

merger,

the

sardines

made

up

for

revenue,

to

catch

those

little

fast-jumping fishes not bigger than two inches, the fishermen use the home-made nets with the led balls to anchor and trap the sardines inside it, sometimes a boat full of sardines was the days catch.

It

is

no

wonder

that

Grandfather's

diet

lunch

would

be

a

helping

of

those

roasted

sardines

or

some

other

pot

fish,

farina

made

out

of

the

cassava

plant,

the

tree

sprouts

under

the

ground

a

huge

root

like

yam,

which

is

harvested,

this

yam-type

root

would

be

scraped

with

an

old

spoon

until

its

white

as

snow,

then

it

would

be

ground

upon

a

large

home-made

grater

until

it

is

a

mere

powder,

this

powder

substance

would

be

filled

into

fine

netted

bags,

the

bags

are

set

on

boards,

the

bag

would

then

be

topped

with

other

boards,

the

top

boards

would

be

weight

down

with

heavy

stones,

therefore

extracting

the

juices

from

the

raw

powder

until dry or for three hours or more.

Removing

the

bag

from

under

the

boards

its

powdered

contents

would

be

dry,

which

makes

it

ready

to

be

cooked

in

an

iron

skillet. You can read more about Farina in my book later.

So

grandfather's

delicious

lunch

was

farina

topped

with

a

stew

of

pigeon

peas,

roasted

sardines

sautéed

in

coconut

oil,

hot

pepper sauce two slices of avocado, and a jug of fresh cow milk.

On

the

other

hand,

Safi

grows

to

produce

from

a

little

sport

he

inherited

next

to

the

river

bank,

a

very

rich

soil

that

produces

such

plants

as

plantain,

bananas,

yellow

and

white

yams,

sweet

potatoes,

cassava,

sugar

canes,

breadfruit,

and

a

whole

mess

of

other

plants,

one

would

say

he

was

the

richest

man

in

Cannels,

he

also

herd

cattle

such

as

cows,

horses,

sheep,

goats,

pigs,

yes

this

lucky man had it all.

continue below.

SAFI AN HONEST MAN

Safi lived in a modest home located right at the top of the Pwindaykye dirt track road, at the back of his house he raised herds of sheep, goats, donkeys, cows, and some chickens, the place was fenced all around so that the animals could not escape, he build a shed for the comfort of sheltering his animals from the rain, and to store bales of dry grass for the animals. The dirt track that leads to the river runs from behind the shed and down to the guava field until it reaches the bottom of the hill near the river’s edge, to get to the river on this side one has to pass near Safi's house, at the back of the house has a fence and a makeshift gate, you must go through before having access to proceed on the path that leads to the river below the hill, Safi had no problem with Leslie or his children using this track road to retrieve water from the river below. At the top of the track road the road parallel one went straight down, and the other pared to the right, the road to the right was barely bolder which formed a clearing that led to the bottom of the hill, at the bottom one would continue moving, straight forward into Safi farm or right to another track road, that would take you to the estuary, walking over the rocky cliff and down to the bay. Safi was a man with many talents, he did not do much fishing but he spent much of his time caring for the cattle that grazed near the honeymoon bay. To transport the feed from his home to the bay, Safi built big carts able to carry several bags of wheat with no effort at all, the road to the bay was an adventure in itself. Walking down the dirt road to the Bay of Honeymoon, a two-and-a-half mile distance, the first part of the road was well maintained until it came to a stop at a fenced with a large gate, the remaining road down to the bay was rough and covered with medium stones, tree roots and bushes, but due to the constant trafficking of the fishermen that commute this way it became manageable. GEOGRAPHY OF THE AREA In my assumption canelles was a very large place, judging from the distance of grandmother's house to the West lies a steep hill that runs two miles straight up, to the South behind grandmother's house one could only see dense bushes that lead down to the mange and into the sea, to the north the highway runs right next to grandmother door steps, forming a bend several hundred yards below, going pass Safi house and continue downwards to the river and beyond, to the East of grandmother house the land mass was huge roughly five miles down slop to a hidden beach well out of sight. Either way, you turn the area is void of houses nothing but bushes, on occasion a cashew nut tree, plenty of cedar trees, bushes, and more bushes till you reach the top of the beach, you can find lots of palm trees, lots of raisin trees. Grandmother took us on many trips to gather palm leaves there at the edge of the bay. THE ODD HOUSE OUT BACK to be continue

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