early references
Map indicating the location of the 'Turtle Ponds' north of the Moneague Barrack.
The existence of lakes or ponds in the Moneague
area had been recorded from the early years of the
British presence in
Jamaica, although it must be assumed that both the Spaniards, and
earlier the
Tainos had also been aware of their existence.
Stanley's map of 1678 indicates a "Tortois pond" and
other maps up to
the end of the 18th century also indicate a pond or ponds, and
specifically a Turtle
Pond or Ponds. Sir Hans Sloane in his History of 1707 refers to "'Lagunas', or great Ponds" and
Edward Long's History of 1774 speaks of "a large Lake of immense depth". In a letter to the Gleaner
in January 1917 Oscar Plummer wrote:
"It
may further interest your readers to know that in 1723, Mr. Job
Williams, of St. Mary and St. Ann,
writing to his friend, Mr. George
Balch of Bristol, invited him to come and recoup his health in the
Garden of the Western Paradise, where he would gather new lungs by
inhaling the healing perfume
of aromatic plants wafted o'er the Monesca
of the Indians from whence could be seen the placid
waters of an inland
lake, 'a smile of the Great Spirit.' Moneague is said to be the
'Monesca' or
'Monkey Hill' of the Indians."
The name
That explanation of the name Moneague was challenged by three other explanations given in
the Gleaner
in 1934: A. S. Byles said that it was probably a corruption of two
Spanish words
"monte" and "agua", therefore meaning mountain water,
which explanation was slightly modified
by G. R Machado who suggested
that it came from the Spanish word "Managua" meaning a
place where there
is water; J. L. Peietersz thought that it probably came from the word
"manigua"
commonly used by the Spanish in Cuba for bush or jungle.
Plummer also referred to the lake
appearing in 1780 "after the great
storm'', tantalizingly deciding to give no further information,
but this appearance of the lake was also mentioned by H. E. Henderson-Davies in 1934.
