What is Turtle Island?

Country Haiti

Location Caribbean Sea

Area of 190 km².

Coast 80 km

The highest point... 459 m

Population:Density 30.000 inhabitants. 2004, 160 inhabitants/km².

Photo by Ubey Ahmed on Unsplash

Tortuga Island is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, 37 km long and 7 km wide. Located in the northwest of the current Republic of Haiti. It was a stronghold for pirates who roamed the Caribbean Sea in the 17th century.

The island owes its name to a mountain whose shape resembles a resting turtle from afar. The island is part of a different tectonic block from the rest of the island of Hispaniola.

Very steep with a central ridge, terraces to the north, sandy bed on the coasts and clay/acid soil at heights reaching 450 m. The southern coast has exceptional beaches and reefs.

With its geology, its natural sites of exceptional beauty, its beaches (one of them, "La Pointe-Ouest", has been designated by the tourism magazine Condé Nast as one of the 10 most beautiful beaches in the Caribbean), its reefs, its mountains, its historical and cultural vestiges, its authentic history of the buccaneers and the snipers, the island has an evident and extraordinary tourist potential.

It also has clay soils that would easily lend themselves to the manufacture of ceramics and bricks for the construction of houses and other works of art.

History and Flibuste

No place has more legends of treasures taken from galleons than this island. However, it was not a pirate island, but a sniper's fortress. The legend has obscured history, which is even more exciting.

La Tortuga develops in the north of the cliffs hit by the waves so inaccessible that it was called the "iron coast".

Its southern coast "to the leeward" offers excellent protected shelters. In the 17th century, Basse-Terre was a traffic center for the tobacco grown on the island. The leather prepared by the buccaneers of the island of Hispagnola, and the booty made at the expense of the Spanish.

This gave the Turtle a reputation as the best hiding place for snipers in the Caribbean. It is on this island that the Brotherhood of the Brothers of the Coast, formed by buccaneers, buccaneers and inhabitants or planters, was born to protect itself from Spanish attacks.

In 1640, François Le Vasseur took control of the island for the King of France Louis XIII, with the title of governor.

Accompanied by many buccaneers, he expelled the English and constantly pushed the Spanish, which allowed the development of French diving.

It became easy to get supplies of food and ammunition as soon as the adventurers. Deposited their catches that the French and especially the Dutch ships came to get.

Española Island

Thus, from La Tortuga the western coasts of the island of Hispaniola, a Spanish possession, which the French called Santo Domingo, were occupied.

In 1665 Louis XIV appointed Bertrand d'Ogeron as the new governor of the "Isle de la Tortue et Coste Saint Domingue". D'Ogeron had led the life of the buccaneers on the Côte au Petit-Goâve, and as a planter in Leogane and Port Margot.

He contributed to the settlement of Santo Domingo by transporting hundreds of recruits (called up for 36 months, the duration of their contract) from La Rochelle, first to Leogane and then to La Tortue. He worked to organize the colony.

Only around 1670 was order established. The turbulence was to continue, but there was no longer any question of real insubordination. The snipers received a commission for going to the races and paid 10% of the booty to the governor (in principle).

Anecdotes

In September 2004, following Hurricane Jeanne, the international media (including the French) announced for several days that Turtle Island had disappeared.

The island had been flooded, but it was only temporary. However, it suffered very significant damage.

You may be interested:

Aristotle Short Biography for Schools – Life, Story, Death

Homo Sapiens Origin? Dates and Places

Who was Thomas Jefferson Short Biography for Schools.

If you want to know other articles similar to What is Turtle Island? you can visit the category History.