Lundh, J. P.

English

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NOTICIAS DE GALAPAGOS No.55
A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF SOME EARLY INHABITANTS OF SANTA CRUZ ISLAND
By: J. P. Lundh
In 1953 the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition, led
by Thor Heyerdahl, found pre-Columbian potsherds on
the northwest shore of Santa Cruz (\Mhale Bay). In the
following year, the Walt Disney Expedition found similar
remains at Cerro Colorado, on the northeast side of the
island. These shards have been identified as originating
from the coast of Ecuador and northwest Perú. Their
Indian makers possibly visited Galápagos for limited
duration as there is no evidence of colonization from this
time. I originally agreed with many people who thought
that the shards may have been carried to Galápagos by
later visitors after the spanish discovery of the archipela-
go. However, rrry opinion has changed after carefully
reading a paper published by Heyerdahl and Skjølsvold
(1956). The material seems too abundant and comes from
several types of pottery sparuring several cultural peri-
ods. My conclusion after going through the paper is that
indigenous people from the mainland probably visited
the islands over a considerable period, until the Inca con-
quest of north west Perú. While it is true that some of the
more recent pottery belongs to styles that overlap the Inca
presence in northwest Perú, no Inca pottery shards have
been found in Galápagos. If indigenous pottery was
brought over in colonial times, Inca pottery should have
beenpresent. I do notbelieve, as do Heyerdahl and Skjøls-
vold, that pre-Columbian fishing activities in Galápagos
survived into colonial and post-colonial times. They most
likely died out with the fall of the Chimú kingdom in
Perú.
Humans probably first inhabited Santa Cruz during
the time of General Villamil in the 1830's. At this time
there were two or three shacks at the foot of the hill in
\zVhale Bay. In 1846, Henri Louns (Compte de Gueydon),
commanding the French vessel Le Genie, visited this site
from February 7 - 77. He writes of people living near the
shore and mentions a trail leading inland to a spring. The
spring is most likely the one at Santa Rosa. He makes no
mention of the occupation of the inhabitants. Flowever,
it is likely that they were engaged in hunting tortoises for
Generals Villamil and Mena.
General Villamil had a long history in Galápagos. He
resigned as governor and left the islands but came back
several times and had General Mena there to look after his
interests. In fact, in 1852 he gave Captain (later Rear
Admiral) Christian Adolf Virgin written permission to
supply himself with cattle on Floreana, for the crew of His
Swedish Majesty's Frigate "Eugenie". Villamil was twice
governor of Galápagos and he returned with a six-month
leave (he was then Commandant General of the Guayas
District) 1n1847. In 1854 he sailed out with an expedition
that was to confirm whether guano really existed on the
islands. He was bitterly disappointed.
General Mena's record in Galápagos is harder to trace.
I have not even found the gentleman's first name. There
is very little on record about him, though his name keeps
appearing everywhere in the 1840's and 1850's when the
Galápagos are mentioned. He most likely had distin-
guished himself in the War of Independence and may
have served together with General Villamil 
- 
they cer-
tainly were good friends.
In May 1852 Nils Johan Andersson, traveling onboard
the Swedish frigate Eugenie, collected the first botanical
specimens from Santa Cruz at \rVhale Bay. He found two
dilapidated shacks at the foot of the hill above the beach.
\¡\trhenhe andhis companions approached shore they saw
a few men fleeing inland. Upon landing they discovered
a woman in one of the dwellings, but could not commu-
nicate with her, as none of them knew Spanish.
According to San Cristóbal tradition the orchards and
crop plantations found at Santa Rosa and Salazaca, inland
from Whale Bay, were planted upon orders from don
Manuel j. Cobos in the late 1800s, in order to provide food
for his tortoise hunters when they worked in the area.
\Âtrhale Baywas thenknownto the settlers of SanCristóbal
as "Puerto de las Chacras//- f{¿1þs1 ef the Farms, and the
hills irrland were called "Sierra de las Chacras".
In the 1940's oranges, limes, cassava, taro, sugar cane,
plantains andbananas were still to be found at Santa Rosa.
Donkeys brought to the island by the tortoise hunters had
not yet spread from the lowlands, and pigs and goats,
introduced in the late 1920's to the south side of the island,
still remained near their area of introduction.
Around 1910 the first long-term settler established
himself near what is now called Bellavista. This was an
old Mexican called Felipe Lastre, one of Sr. Cobos'previ-
ous foremen. Some time later, an American and an
Englishman came to live on the island. In1925, five men
arrived at Bellavista from San Cristóbal. They brought
with them a fewhead of cattle purchasedby a Guayaquil
businessman who hoped to begin a cattle ranch on Santa
Cruz. One of the men optimistically named the place
where they settled "Hacienda Fortuna".
In 1926, shortly after the first Norwegians founded
Puerto Ayota, the men at Hacienda Fortuna (Bellavista)
returned to San Cristóbal. Lastre also left about that time.
Elías Sánchez was the only original settler to remain, tend-
ing a smallfarmbeside the trail to Hacienda Forttma until
1938.
July 1995 NOTICIAS DE GALAPAGOS
SOURCES
Andersson, N.J. 1854. En Verdensomseiling. J.W. Cap-
pelen. Christiania.
Heyerdahl, T. & Skjølsvold, A. 1956. Archaeological Ev-
idence of Pre-SpanishVisits to the Galápagos Islands.
Society of American Archaeology 12. Saltlake City,
Utah.
Hoff, S. 1985. Drømmen om Galápagos. Grøndahl &
Sonn, Oslo, Norway.
Lundh, J.P. Galápagos: A Brief History. In preparation.
Slevin, J. 1959. The Galápagos Islands. A History of their
Exploration. Occassional Papers of the California
Academy of Sciences XXV. San Francisco.
|.P. Lundþ Lofsrudhøgda 35-8, N-128L Oslo, Norway.
ELECTRONIC MAIL COMES TO GALÁPAGOS
By: Jim Pinson
lElectronic mail (e-mqil) is a mailing system thøt raorks
thr ough telephone lines connecting a network of comput er s ( the
Internet, n.k.a. thelnformøtion Super Highwny). It øllowsmøil
to be sent around the woild to anyone with a computer connect-
ed to the network. It is much faster thøn postal møil ønd often
instantaneous. E-møiI conaersntions can be cørried back and
forth almost øs quickly øs if tnlking oaer the phone. Hozneaer,
unlike the telephone, seroice costs for long-distønce e-mail ser-
aice are subsidized by participøting goaernments. E-mail
messages are stored so that the recipient need not be sitting at
his or her computer when the originator sends the message.
This storage system nlso preaents loss of messøges in the eaent
of a p ow er o ut øg e or b r e nkd own of ø c omput er . - Editorial Staff l
Two years ago, electronic mail (E-mail) seemed like
only a dream for the Charles Darwin Research Station
(CDRS). The station's existing communication system
desperately needed improving. The phones seldom
worked, and long distance service was unreliable and
expensive. Postal mail was slow and also unreliable. Use
of satellite dishes was prohibitively expensive. A fast,
reliable and affordable means of communicatingwiththe
rest of the world seemed out of reach. Those of us who
were accustomed to using E-mail dreamed of having it in
Galápagos.
Prospects for getting E-mail improved one day in
October \992, with an unexpected visit to the station by
Xavier Baquero, from the Banco del Pacifico (BP), Ecua-
dor, and Steve Goldstein of the National Science
Foundation (NSF) of the United States of America. As a
service to the community, the Banco del Pacifico was of-
fering free Internet access to nonprofit organizations. The
staff at CDRS needed little convincing and readily accept-
ed the generous offer.
E-mail did not become a reality at CDRS until May,
L993. Although the Banco del Pacifico in Puerto Ayora
would provide access to the Internet, the station had to
find a means of connecting with the bank about 1 km
away. The most obvious method was to dedicate a phone
line for the purpose, but that would be expensive and
unreliable.
David Anderson, a long time proponent of E-mail at
CDRS, searched for both the the appropriate technology
and the necessary funds. He found that NSF could fund
the equipment, but only if it was added as a special re-
quest to a pre-existing NSF grant. Howard Snell came to
the rescue by offering to buy two radio modems on his
NSF grant. These modems would provide fast and reli-
able communication to the bank. Dave Anderson hand
carried the modems and antennas to the station on his
next research trip. The modems were soon installed, and
the antennas aligned by two communications specialists
from BP. At long last the station was on-linel
After a few months, it because obvious that the origi-
nal system of software wasn't filling the needs of the
station. Because I had experience in computer program-
ming for networks, I was drafted to design a new system.
Galápagos Mail, or G-Mail is the result. It is a fusion of the
original system with two free software packages. The
Pegasus mailer was linked to the Ham radio package
KA9Q using special software developed at the station.
G-mail has the special ability of allowing messages to
be created and read on a floppy diskette. The diskette
must then be taken to the computer center at the station
in order to actually send and receive the messages. Mail
stored on the diskette can thenbe read and new messages
can be composed on a computer outside the station if
need be This system is especially useful for visiting scien-
tists. Mail messages can be written on a personal laptop
computer in the field, then copied onto a diskette which
can be sent by boat to the station, from where they can be
mailed. Conversely, incoming mail canbe copied onto a
diskette and returned to the scientists in the field where it
can be read on their personal computer.
E-mail quickly became a part of every day life at the
station. Scientists used E-mail to arrange trips with the


A brief account of some early inhabitants of Santa Cruz Island

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A brief account of some early inhabitants of Santa Cruz Island

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