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HomeNewsArchivesIN THE BEGINNING - THE FRENCH ARRIVE IN THE ANTILLES

IN THE BEGINNING – THE FRENCH ARRIVE IN THE ANTILLES

Pierre Belain, Sieur d'Esnambuc was born in Allouville, Normandie, France, on March 9, 1585. He was the youngest son in a family of the Lesser Nobility.
The family had lost most of its wealth during the unending local wars and were deeply in debt. Land and other properties had been sold to satisfy creditors.
Young Pierre, ambitious to regain some of the lost wealth, took what was left of his inheritance and in 1620 he bought the Marquise, an 80-ton ship, and became a privateer.
Pierre sailed to the Atlantic along the routes of the Spanish galleons. On his ship, d'Esnambuc he had as ensign, Henri de Chantail, who had previously grown tobacco on Saint-Christophe, (now St. Kitts).
Not satisfied with the performance of the Marquise, d'Esnambuc sold it and purchased a larger vessel, a four-gun brigantine which he called, L'Esparance. De Chantail was made lieutenant and Jean Le Vasseur became the new ensign.
Le Vasseur had been an engineer in France and had designed some of the fortresses, including the one at La Rochelle. But Le Vasseur was also a Huguenot, so he had fled the persecutions, taking berth in privateers and pirate ships.
In 1625, d'Esnambuc landed on the island of Saint-Christophe for minor repairs and no doubt, to see for himself the tobacco fields of which de Chantail had spoken.
At the landing on Saint-Christophed'Esnambuc he was met by the English commander, Warner, along with the Frenchmen who resided with the natives, the Carib Chief Tegreman and some of his subjects.
The French who were on Saint-Christophe had been driven from Guiana by the aborigines. Henri de Chantail had been Captain of the ship which had taken the exiles to Saint-Christophe. But after staying on the island for some time, growing tobacco, de Chantail got restless for the sea, so taking a load of tobacco, he had returned to France.
Some of his companions had elected to remain on the island where they were happily living with the natives. Now they were here present to welcome d'Esnambuc and their former ship's captain, Henri de Chantail.
D'Esnambuc had not been very successful as a privateer so with a little encouragement from the English commander, Warner, he made his decision to start a French colony on Saint-Christophe and to become a planter, a cotton and tobacco grower.
For his new enterprise, d'Esnambuc would need colonists and supplies. He would need backers and supporters. With his crew and the French already on Saint- Christophe, he had a total of 80 men. He would have to return to France and try to obtain the funds and supplies to start and sustain a colony.
Soon after d"Esnambuc had landed on Saint-Christophe, a friend with whom he had served in the French Navy, Urbain Du Roissey, Sieur de Chardonville, limped into Saint-Christophe for repairs to his ship after having been bested by a Spanish galleon, while on a privateering expedition.
In 1626 d'Esnambuc sailed to France, leaving a small band of French planters on Saint-Christophe. He took a load of tobacco and cotton as proof of the crops that could be grown on the island. Du Roissey also sailed to France where he joined with d'Esnambuc in partnership for the new venture.
Cavaley de Razilly, a ship owner, helped d'Esnambuc make contact with Armand Jean du Pleissis, Duke and Cardinal de Richelieu, the king's minister. The influential cardinal agreed to help d'Esnambuc because as advisor to King Louis XIII, he was very interested in the expansion of French territories. The cardinal persuaded the pope to grant France the right to establish colonies in the new world. The pope decreed that France had the right to colonize "Saint-Christophe and the islands not already colonized by any other Christian Prince" D'Esnambuc and du Roissey had sold their cargo of cotton and tobacco. Now, dressed in their fine new clothes, they hired a carriage and set out to impress the bankers and rich merchants of Paris. After they had recruited backers for their venture, the two partners set out to recruit colonists.
D'Esnambuc went to Havre where he enlisted 322 men for his ship, La Catholique. In Brittany, du Roissey recruited 210 men for La Victoire and La Cardinale. The ships sailed from France on February 24, 1627.
After a very hard crossing, during which nearly half the recruited settlers perished at sea, they arrived at Pointe du Sable on May 8, 1627 with only 250 men out of the 532 who had set sail just over two months before.
With these 250 men, in poor health, along with his crew and the men whom he had left to tend the newly planted fields of cotton and tobacco, Pierre Belain, Sieur d'Esnambuc established the first French settlement in Saint- Christophe. Out of this colony, a group of 52 persons would eventually be sent to settle the tiny island of Saint-Barthelemy.

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