Tortuga

Tortuga Island, known in French as Île de la Tortue, in Haitian Creole as Latòti, and in Spanish as Isla Tortuga—all meaning "Turtle Island"—lies off the northwest coast of Hispaniola and is part of Haiti. It forms the commune of Île de la Tortue within the Port-de-Paix arrondissement of Haiti’s Nord-Ouest department. During the 1600s, the island served as a major hub and safe harbor for Caribbean pirates. Today, its tourism and frequent appearances in books and films have made it one of Haiti’s most famous regions.

Spanish explorers were the first Europeans to reach Tortuga in 1492, during Christopher Columbus’s initial voyage to the New World. On December 6 of that year, three Spanish ships sailed into the Windward Passage between Cuba and Haiti. At dawn, Columbus spotted an island rising from the morning fog, and its shape reminded him of a turtle’s shell, leading him to name it Tortuga. A few Spanish colonists from the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo initially settled there. In 1625, French and English colonists from Saint Kitts arrived, having originally planned to settle on mainland Hispaniola. Spanish forces under Don Fadrique de Toledo attacked in 1629, driving them off, building a fort, and stationing a garrison. Most of that garrison later left for Hispaniola to expel French colonists there, allowing other French settlers to return in 1630 and take over the fort.

From 1630 onward, Tortuga was split into French and English colonies, giving buccaneers a base of operations. In 1633, the first African slaves were brought in to work plantations, but by 1636 the use of slaves had ended—they were considered uncontrollable, and ongoing disputes and fighting between French and English colonists plagued the island. In 1635, the Spanish expelled both groups again, then left. When English and French settlers quickly returned, the Spanish came back to drive them out once more, but soon abandoned the island as too small to matter. This allowed the colonists to return yet again. In 1638, the Spanish made a third attempt to secure the island, expelling French and Dutch settlers. They occupied it until 1640, when French and Dutch colonists drove them out and built Fort de Rocher in a natural harbor; the fort helped them defeat a Spanish invasion the following year.

By 1641, Tortuga’s buccaneers had formed the Brethren of the Coast, mostly French and English with a few Dutch members. In 1654, the Spanish attacked for the fourth and final time, defeating a Franco-English force. The next year, English and French colonists resettled the island under Elias Watts, who obtained a commission from Jamaica’s governor, Col. William Brayne, to act as Tortuga’s governor. In 1664, French buccaneer Jeremie Dechamps sold the island for 15,000 livres to the French West India Company, after first trying to sell it to the English for 6,000 pounds. That same year, 400 French colonists arrived from Anjou and established Hispaniola’s first sugar plantations since early European colonization. These settlers spread to the mainland coast, forming the nucleus of the French colony of Saint-Domingue.

By 1670, the buccaneer era was fading, and many pirates turned to logging and wood trading. Welsh privateer Henry Morgan then promoted himself and invited Tortuga’s pirates to sail under him. Morgan and about 2,000 privateers attacked and sacked Panama the following year. The French hired them as a strike force, strengthening France’s hold on the Caribbean. The pirates never truly controlled the island, instead using it as a neutral hideout for their loot. In 1680, England’s Parliament banned English subjects from sailing under foreign flags, a major legal blow to Caribbean pirates. The 1684 Treaty of Ratisbon, signed by European powers, further curbed piracy. Most former buccaneers were then hired by European powers to suppress their old allies. Saint-Domingue’s capital had already moved from Tortuga to Port-de-Paix on the mainland in 1676.

Geographically, Tortuga lies off Haiti’s northern coast. It is very mountainous and rocky, especially on the north side. In the early 1600s, the population lived along the southern coast, which had a port for ships. The northern shore was described as unreachable by land or sea. The inhabited area was divided into four parts. The first, called “Low Land” or “Low Country,” held the port and was considered the most important; its town, Cayona, housed the island’s richest planters. The second region, the “Middle Plantation,” was used only for tobacco by farmers unfamiliar with the soil. The third, “La Ringot,” lay on the western part of the island. The fourth, “La Montagne” (the Mountain), was where the first cultivated plantations were established.