Accounts by long-ago visitors to the Territory provide an intriguing glimpse into who we were way back when. Hazel Balance Eadie stayed here in the 1920s and wrote Lagooned in the Virgin Islands about her experiences. The following are extracts from her account of a visit to the marketplace on market-day. The area is now known as the Sir Olva George’s Plaza.
"A row of brown sloops from the islands lay moored alongside the white glare of the wharf, their sails furled, lazily rocking in the blue-lit waters. And above the noisy mart, where the many-coloured tide of human life swirled to and from, above the little white winding street bordered with native homes, upcurved the domes of the mountains, mute, withdrawn into the blue infinities.
The women-sellers wore picturesque white bandanas, one of the most sensible headgears for a tropical clime for it protects the back of the neck as well as the head. Some wore above the bandana a ring of soft-twisted material. These are called cottas, a name of African origin. A cotta helps to relieve the pressure and correct the balance of heavy weights upon the head. A few of the women flaunted crimson-hued bandanas. The men wore wide-brimmed sun-hats, woven of native rush, often artistically frayed at the edges.
Some of the women also wore these sun-hats perched atop their bandanas. Everyone appeared radiant as the sun and sea, exchanging the greetings of the marketplace, chattering and gesticulating whether anyone attended or no. [On sale were such fruits as] granadillas, limes, sugar apples, native pawpaws [and] bananas."
