Archaeology Magazine - July/August 1988 - 47

The

Redoubtable
Dr.

Hodges

is a man of medium build with graying hair and fair
skin. In the field, he is recognizable by an everHe present straw hat, checkered short-sleeved shirt
and sandals. He gives the impression of having seen everything; his humor is wise and weary; and yet he is also an intensely curious man. He is revered by the local people as a
doctor and man of knowledge. He is also a major presence
in Haitian archaeology.
A medical missionary from California who came to Haiti
almost 30 years ago, WilliamHodges is the director of the
Hôpital le Bon Samaritain in Limbé, a remote inland town
southwest of Cap Haitien that did not even have electricity
until recently. It does now, thanks to Hodges and his family
who helped to establish the electrical station which supplies
both the town and the family-run clinic. The Hôpital le Bon
Samaritain treats up to 100,000 people a year- as many as
2,000 patients a week. Even the houngan, or local witch doctors, sometimes refer their patients to Hodges.
But medicine is only part of Hodges' remarkable life. As an
American Baptist missionary, he writes long, regular letters
to his constituency and supporters of the mission effort back
home. Hodges is also an immensely busy family man. He
and his wife Joanna have four children of their own, and have
also adopted five Haitian children. They form a trilingual
family who slip easily from English to Haitian Creole to
French and back to English again.
Hodges has also discovered more than 100 archaeological
sites in Haiti, several of them major ones. They include
Puerto Real, Bayahá and the Indian town in which Columbus's ill-fated first settlement, La Navidad, was built. This
site is known today as En Bas Saline -literally, "below the
saltflat," so named because of its location adjacent to the
coastal saline basin.
But Hodges has done more than just discover these sites;
he has also seen to it that the principal ones have been properly excavated. He has done test excavations and assessments of several important sites, and has worked closely
with members of the Haitian government to bring archaeologicalresearchers into Haiti. He has also collaborated with
the invited archaeologists in the actual day-to-day fieldwork.
No one would think of doing archaeological work in Haiti
without consulting Hodges. Widelyread on the Caribbean as
a whole, he also happens to be an expert on Haitian culture
and natural history as well as on French colonial history in
the region. Archaeologists, historians and scientists working at sites both in Haiti and on other islands routinely make
the trek to Limbé to visit him and to consult about their
projects.
Most of the sites that Hodges has discovered have not yet
been excavated, but they have been located and recorded. In
many cases, patients who have come to the hospital have
shown him artifacts that have led him to these sites.
The discovery of Puerto Real in 1974 was serendipitous.
Hodges had been actively looking for the site of La Navidad;
and he became excited when some farmers from the village

of Limonade showed him some sixteenth-century coins they
had found. On examining the area Hodges noted, in addition
to the surface artifacts, several low mounds, one of which
proved to be square, and one rectangular. The rectangular
mound yielded a limestone gargoyle, a stone drainspout
which projected out from the buildingand a large quantity of
building rubble. The gargoyle-which had the head of an
elephant -proved to be a rare and remarkable example of
late Medieval construction in the New World. It is believed
to have been brought to Puerto Real from the site of La
Isabela, founded by Columbus in 1493 near present-day
Puerto Plata on the north coast of the Dominican Republic,
about 70 miles east of Puerto Real.
Hodges realized that a substantial sixteenth-century
Spanish settlement had existed at this site. He contacted M.
Albert Mangones, an architect and sculptor who is director
of Haiti's Institut de Sauveguarde du Patrimoine National,

Physician , historian and avocational archaeologist William
Hodgesfounded Limbé's Musée de Guahaba in the mid-70s.
the agency which was at that time responsible for administering archaeological research in Haiti. (Todaysuch work is
administered by Max Paul of the Bureau National d'Ethnologie). Hodges and Mangones, in turn, invited Charles
Fairbanks of the University of Florida at Gainsville to become involved in the project. Working together, they and
then-graduate student Ray Willis eventually succeeded in
identifying and verifying the site as the lost Puerto Real.
What is it like to work with Hodges? Like all strong individuals with a vision, Hodges sometimes draws criticism for
what appear to be uncompromising attitudes. When he
does, Joanna is his ardent defender; as strong a person in
her own right as her husband, she brings to her life the same
dedication, energy and spirit.
In his mid-60s now, Hodges has not slowed his pace. He is
still energetically involvedin his missionary work, his medical concerns, his archaeological and historical research, and
his voluminous correspondence. He has also founded the
Musée de Guahaba in Limbé, the only public museum outside of Port-au-Prince that exists for the purpose of increasing awareness of Haiti's archaeological legacy. Hodges has
been so vital a presence that it would be hard to imagine
Haiti without him.
Kathleen Deagan , Florida State Museum and Jennifer
Hamilton , South Florida Museum .

July/August1988

Archaeology Magazine - July/August 1988

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