A search through old texts helped this reporter understand why the name of a coastal community is associated with a saurian.
French filibuster and surgeon Alexandre Olivier Exquemelin, author of Buccaneers of America—the autobiography that provides more details on 17th century pirates—wrote, “(…) After having refreshed and provided ourselves as best we could (in Jamaica), we left for the Isle of Pines,
which we reached in 15 days (…). We ate abundantly, without fear of any enemy, because the Spaniards were our good friends, but we had to stand guard all night because of the abundance of crocodiles that run free on that island, aware that when they are hungry they fight men to eat them”.
The text, published in Amsterdam in 1678, is the oldest written testimony that describes why the seamen conveniently called the south of this island “Crocodile”.
Since June 13, 1494, when Christopher Columbus arrived in these parts on his second voyage, until the early 20th century, this area was at the mercy of corsairs, pirates and other predators of the Caribbean region. History has it that in 1902, William Atkin Jackson, a young fisherman from the Cayman Islands, was the first to settle there, captivated by the beauty of the place and its pleasant environment, which drew other fellow citizens who founded Jacksonville two years later.
For centuries, since the arrival of Christopher Columbus until the first years of the Revolution, the southern zone was disconnected from the north, due to the existence of the Lanier Swamp, a wetland of international interest that divides the island.
Some 50 kilometers of roads link these points, currently under repair as part of the municipal investment program designed to transform the reality of this community, minimize its vulnerability—in terms of water quality, electric power supply and housing, among other projects—and protect the Acutus (an endangered species) is one of the important actions that the inhabitants of this community could promote from the point of view of conservation and environmental education.
The indiscriminate hunting by poachers bent on marketing its meat and skin was perhaps one of the main reasons that the name of this enclave has not taken root in our oral traditions.