Heritage Research Group Caribbean (HRGC)

Figure 1: Du Chaffault’s Plan de la Petite Ance , 1751. This bay, known today as Tyrrel Bay, was referenced by Father DuTertre in 1656 (courtesy of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France) The name Carriacou has intrigued us all, especially because its origin, like Camáhogne for Grenada, is indigenous and remains one of several islands that have retained or reverted to their original names (or some version of it, including Bequia, Tobago, Jamaica, Cuba and Haiti). Carriacou is, in fact, the Anglicized spelling of the Carib/Kalinago name for the island, which was recorded by Father Jean-Baptiste DuTertre as Kayryouacou in 1656 when he sailed past the island on his way to Grenada and observed: “The most beautiful of all the little isles is Kayrioüacou, where I stopped long enough to note its peculiarities. It is a very beautiful and good isle, capable of supporting a colony: it is about eight or nine leagues in circumference, and on a line of land to the north (sic) it has a v