Turtle Island
Country Haiti
Location Caribbean Sea
Area 190 km²
Coasts 80 km
Highest point -
459 m
Population
Density 30,000 inhab. 2004
160 inhab./km²
Turtle Island (in Spanish Tortuga) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, 37 km long by 7 km wide, located northwest of the current Republic of Haiti. It was a stronghold for pirates who scoured the Caribbean Sea in the 17th century.
The island owes its name to a mountain whose shape resembles a resting turtle from a distance. The island is part of a separate tectonic block from the rest of the island of Hispaniola; very rugged with a central ridge, terraces to the north, sandy-loamy soil on the coasts and clay/acid on the heights which reach 450m. The south coast has exceptional beaches and reefs.
With its geology, its natural sites of exceptional beauty, its beaches (one of them, "La Pointe-Ouest", was designated by the tourism magazine Condé Nast, 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 Filibusters, the island has an obvious and extraordinary tourist potential. It also has clay soils that would lend themselves easily to the manufacture of pottery and bricks used in the construction of houses and other works of art.
History &Freebooter
No place has more legends of treasures snatched from galleons than this island. It was however not an island of Pirates but a bastion of Buccaneers. The legend has masked the History which is however even more fascinating.
La Tortue develops cliffs to the north beaten by the swell so inaccessible that it was called the "iron coast". Its "leeward" south coast offers excellent well-sheltered refuges. Basse-Terre was in the 17th century a traffic center for tobacco grown on the island, leather prepared by the buccaneers on the island of Hispagnola, and booty made at the expense of the Spaniards. This earned La Tortue a reputation as the best haunt of Caribbean buccaneers. It is on this island that was born, to protect itself from the Spanish attacks, the brotherhood of the Brothers of the Coast, made up of Buccaneers, Buccaneers and Inhabitants or planters.
In 1640, François Le Vasseur took control of the island for the King of France Louis XIII, with the title of governor. Accompanied by numerous buccaneers, he drove out the English and constantly pushed back the Spaniards, which allowed the development of the French buccaneer. It became easy to get supplies of food and ammunition there as soon as the adventurers deposited their catches there, which French and especially Dutch boats came to fetch. This is how since La Tortue the western coasts of the island of Hispaniola were occupied. , Spanish possession, which the French called Santo Domingo.
In 1665 Louis XIV appointed Bertrand d'Ogeron new governor of "Isle de la Tortue and Coste Saint Domingue". D'Ogeron had led the life of a buccaneer on the coast in Petit-Goâve, and of a planter in Léogane and Port Margot. He contributed to the settlement of Saint Domingue by transporting hundreds of recruits (called 36 months, the duration of their contract), from La Rochelle, to Léogane first and then to La Tortue. He worked to organize the colony. It was not until around 1670 that the order was established. The turbulence would certainly continue, but there was no longer any question of real insubordination. The buccaneers received a commission to go on a race and paid 10% of the spoils to the governor (in principle).
Anecdotes
In September 2004, following the passage of hurricane Jeanne, for several days the international media (including the French) announced that Turtle Island had disappeared. The island had indeed been flooded, but it was only temporary. It nevertheless suffered very significant damage.