Tortuga
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Tortuga or Isla Tortuga, officially Île de la Tortue after the French takeover, is a Caribbean island that is part of Haiti, off the northwest coast of Haiti, constituting the commune of Île de la Tortue, Port-de-Paix arrondissement of the Nord-Ouest Department of Haiti. It has an area of 180 km² (69 mi²)[1] and its population was 22,080 in 1982 (Britannica online 2006). Its name in both Spanish and French means "Turtle Island" or "Tortoise Island", and it is sometimes called that in English. In the 17th century, it was a major center of piracy.
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[edit] History
Tortuga was discovered by Europeans in 1494, during the second voyage of Christopher Columbus into the New World. Columbus' sailors called it Tortuga ("Turtle") because its humped shape resembled a turtle.
Tortuga was originally settled by a few Spanish colonists. In 1625 French and English settlers arrived on the island of Tortuga after initially planning to settle on the island of Hispaniola. The French and English settlers were attacked in 1629 by the Spanish commanded by Don Fadrique de Toledo. The Spanish were successful and fortified the island, expelling the French and English men. As most of the Spanish army left for Hispaniola to root out French colonists there, the French returned to take the fort and expanded on the Spanish-built fortifications. In 1630, the French built Fort de Rocher in a natural harbour. From 1630 onward, the island of Tortuga was divided into French and English colonies allowing buccaneers, often erroneously called pirates, to use the island more frequently as their main base of operations. In 1633, the first slaves were imported from Africa to aid in the plantations. The new slave trend did not stick, and by 1635, the use of slaves had ended. The slaves were said to be out of control on the island, and at the same time there had been continual disagreements and fighting between French and English colonies. In the same year, the Spanish returned and quickly conquered the English and French colonies, only to leave again, due to the island being too small to be of major importance. This abandonment of Tortuga allowed the return of both French and English pirates. In 1638, the Spanish again returned to take the island and rid it of all French and newly settled Dutch. They occupied the island, but were soon expelled by the French and Dutch colonists.
By 1640, the buccaneers of Tortuga were calling themselves the Brethren of the Coast. The pirate population was mostly made up of French and Englishmen, along with a small number of Dutchmen. In 1645, in an attempt to bring harmony and control over the island, the acting French governor imported roughly 1,650 prostitutes, hoping to regularize the unruly pirates' lives. By the year 1670, as the buccaneer era was in decline, many of the pirates, seeking a new source of trade, turned to log cutting and trading wood from the island. At this time, however, a Welsh pirate named Henry Morgan started to promote himself and invite the pirates on the island of Tortuga to set sail under him. They were hired by the French as a striking force that allowed France to have a much stronger hold on the Caribbean region. Consequently, the pirates were never really controlled, and kept Tortuga as a neutral hideout for pirate booty. In 1680, new Acts of Parliament forbade sailing under foreign flags (in opposition to former practice). This was a major legal blow to Caribbean pirates. Settlements were finally made in the Treaty of Ratisbon of 1684, signed by the European powers, that put an end to piracy. Most of the pirates after this time were hired out into the Royal services to suppress their former buccaneer allies.
[edit] Geography
L'ile de la Tortue, shaped as a sea-tortoise, stands off the northern coast of Haiti. It is very mountainous and full of rocks; yet, it is hugely dense of lofty trees that grow upon the hardest of those rocks. The rocks are abundant on the northern part of the island. At the beginning of the 17th century the population lived on the southern coast of the island. This part contained a port that allowed several entries to ships.
The southern part of the island was divided into four; the first part was called Low Land or Low Country. This was the main part of the southern coast because it contained the island's port. The town was called Cayona, and there lived the richest planters of the island. The second was called the Middle Plantation. Its territory could only grow Tobacco. The third part was named Ringot. These places were situated towards the Western part of the island. The fourth was called the Mountain; it is there that the first cultivated plantation was established upon the island.
L'ile de la Tortue's best beach is Pointe Saline at the western tip of the small island. This area is very dry and offers little shade. At the Les Palmiste on the eastern coast visit a pre-Columbian rock carving of a goddess at La Grotte au Bassin and two big caves at Trou d'Enfer and La Grotte de la Galerie. Basse-Terre, on the southeastern coast, is home to the remains of Fort de la Roche, once the island's biggest fortress. Along with a 15m high lime kiln, three cannons and the foundations of a wall are all that is left of Fort Ogeron, built in the mid 1600s.
[edit] Tortuga in fiction
Tortuga was portrayed in many works containing Pirates of the Caribbean in the 17th and 18th century.
[edit] Pirates of the Caribbean
Tortuga features in the two Pirates of the Caribbean films and one of the prequel books (The Coming Storm). In the Pirates of the Caribbean series Tortuga is depicted as a place full of pirates and other criminals. In Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Tortuga is referred to as the last free port, which means that it is one of the few places in the Caribbean that is not under the control of the East India Trading Company. Although Tortuga has a reputation as a place where pirate ships such as The Black Pearl dock, honest ships such as the Edinburgh Trader often make port there and conduct their business.
Tortuga is the place where the book series starts. Jack Sparrow searches on Tortuga for the sheath for the Sword of Cortez, he find it as well as a ship (the Barnacle) and his first two companions - Arabella and Fitzwilliam.
Captain Jack Sparrow and Will Turner, in hot pursuit of Barbossa, docked the stolen ship, HMS Interceptor, in Tortuga and began searching for a crew. Their conscripts included Joshamee Gibbs, Anamaria, Cotton (and his parrot), and Marty.
Tortuga made a second appearance near the beginning of the second film; Will Turner, released to find Jack Sparrow, made Tortuga his first stop. He was ultimately successful in finding Sparrow on Pelegosto Island, but it was not revealed if he got the information from a denizen of Tortuga or not.
Jack Sparrow returned to Tortuga after escaping Pelegosto's cannibals. His goal appeared to be the enlistment of one hundred pirates, so that he could barter their souls to Davy Jones in exchange for his own. However, the crew he found proved useful instead in a final confrontation with the Kraken, Jones' monstrous secret weapon. Besides securing a replacement crew, (as most were lost on Pelegosto Island) Jack also found his past ally, Elizabeth Swann. Jack also enlisted the aid of the down-and-out James Norrington who had gone into hiding in Tortuga after a disastrous military maneuver cost him his commission.
In this video game, the player can replay the Tortuga-scenes from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
[edit] Tortuga in Rafael Sabatini’s works
Tortuga features in Sabatini’s Captain Blood series and the movies based on it. (The most famous one is Captain Blood with Errol Flynn) It’s the place where Blood and his crew finds refuge after their escape from Barbados in 1685. Blood receives a Letter of Marque from Tortuga’s governor, D’Ogeron, and the island becomes his main base for the next four years; He start his raids from Cayona, and several events in the books take place on Tortuga itself or on ships anchoring in the harbour of Cayona. Sabatini used Exquemelin’s History of the Bouccaneers of America as a main source for his description of Tortuga, and therefore the island is portrayed as as a place where many buccaneers, prostitutes and other dubious suspects operate, but the French West India Company, which rules Tortuga make priofit of those affairs. Tortuga also features in Sabatini’s novel The Black Swan and the 1942 movie based on it.
[edit] Other appearances
Tortuga also has been featured in the movies Double Crossbones from 1950 Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd from 1952 and Pirates of Tortuga from 1961, Pirates of the Caribean Curse of the Black Pearl, Pirates of the Carabean Dead Man's Chest, It has been featured in the video games Sea Legend, Tortuga - Two Treasures ,Tortuga-Pirates of the New World, Sid Meier's Pirates!, and Age of Pirates: Caribbean Tales as well.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Schutt-Ainé, Patricia; Staff of Librairie Au Service de la Culture (1994). Haiti: A Basic Reference Book. Miami, Florida: Librairie Au Service de la Culture, 20. ISBN 0-9638599-0-0.
