Eugenia Campo.

Auguste Agostini, another son of Simon the Cedulant, was born in 1816....

There is a charming tale told of him, that one day he was riding through the dusty main street of Arima, which had been the Indian Mission, when he cast his roving eye on a beautiful Amerindian young woman. He immediately alighted from his horse and swept the young lady off her feet, married her, and began the lifestyle of a new breed of Agostinis. Since at this time, Auguste was over fifty years of age we may choose to believe that he had earlier been married and that his wife having died and left him without issue, he was searching for a new companion for his middle age.

We may presume that they enjoyed marital bliss if we are to judge by her fecundity, for Eugenia Campo bore him at least eleven children. We can only trace the descendants of two sons - Cedar, born in 1875, and Auguste, named after his father and born in 1883. Cedar married Lavenia Dean and they were blessed with eight children.

Source: Anthony de Verteuil C.S.Sp., The Corsicans in Trinidad, p.76.


It has often been related in family circles that Eugenia was a "Carib Amerindian", or Island Carib, and there no reason to doubt that, but with a qualification I'll add later.

The Caribs are believed to have migrated from the Orinoco River area in South America to settle in the Caribbean islands about 1200 AD, according to carbon dating. Over the two centuries leading up to Christopher Columbus' arrival in the Caribbean archipelago in 1492, the Caribs mostly displaced the Maipurean-speaking Taínos by warfare, extermination, and assimilation....

In the early colonial period Caribs had a reputation as warriors who raided neighboring islands. Early Europeans claimed that they practiced cannibalism – the word "cannibal" derives from a corruption of their name. However, Europeans may have embellished these aspects to rationalize enslaving the Caribs....

The Caribs were skilled boat builders and sailors. They appeared to have owed their dominance in the Caribbean basin to their mastery of warfare....

Several hundred ethnic Carib descendants live in Puerto Rico, U. S. Virgin Islands, St. Kitts & Nevis, Antigua & Barbuda, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Dominica, St. Lucia, Grenada, Trinidad, Aruba as well as in St. Vincent....

Also from The New World Encyclopedia, Carib :

Carib, Island Carib, or Kalinago people, after whom the Caribbean Sea was named, live in the Lesser Antilles islands. They are one of the two main tribes of Amerindian people who inhabited the Caribbean at the time of Christopher Columbus' discovery of the New World, the other being the Taino (also known as the Arawak)....

Often the Carib are remembered for being ferocious warriors and for cannibalistic customs. Although it may be true that they were warlike, fighting and displacing other tribes such as the Taino, they have often been maligned by exaggerated early European propaganda that over-looked their many accomplishments and skills, such as sailing, navigation, and basket weaving....

The social structure of Carib tribes were mostly patriarchal. The men trained as warriors, traveling by canoe on raiding parties. Women primarily carried out domestic duties and farming, and often lived in separate houses from the men. However, women were highly revered and held substantial socio-political power. The Caribs usually lived in small groups, but these groups were often not exclusive from one another.

An important point to remember in regard to Eugenia Campo:

After successfully conquering parts of the Caribbean, the Carib language quickly died out while the Arawakan language was maintained over the generations. This was the result of the invading Carib men usually killing the local men of the islands they conquered and taking Arawak wives who then passed on their own language to the children. For a time, Arawak was spoken primarily or exclusively by women and children, while adult men spoke Carib.[9] Eventually, as the first generation of Carib-Arawak children reached adulthood, the more familiar Arawak became the only language used in the small island societies. This language was called Island Carib, even though it is not part of the Carib linguistic family. It is now extinct, but was spoken on the Lesser Antilles until the 1920s (primarily in Dominica, Saint Vincent, and Trinidad). (1) 

The Amerindians of Arima, from where Eugenia hails:

The Santa Rosa Carib Community (SRCC) is the major organization of indigenous people in Trinidad and Tobago. The Caribs of Arima are descended from the original Amerindian inhabitants of Trinidad; Amerindians from the former encomiendas of Tacarigua and Arauca (Arouca) were resettled to Arima between 1784 and 1786. The SRCC was incorporated in 1973 to preserve the culture of the Caribs of Arima and maintain their role in the annual Santa Rosa Festival (dedicated to Santa Rosa de Lima, the first Catholic saint canonized in the New World).

In regard to the subject of cannibalism, noted in both sources with caution about "European propaganda" for the purpose of enslavement, it's worth reading Cannibal Stories: The Carib Indian & Human Cannibalism European myth, not Caribbean reality...


Dominica's Caribs Embrace the Entrepreneurial Spirit In Modern Times: 




Notes:

(1) I have a photo of Eugenia Campo taken in 1927, so it's possible she was one of the last who may have been able to speak Arawakan. And, given the history, it seems very likely that her ancestry was in fact Arawakan. ​