nchorage
and abundance of provisions, this northern shore could not fail to
induce some to remain. In time we find there scattered groups of
hunters, mostly French and English, who gained a rude livelihood by
killing wild cattle for their skins, and curing the flesh to supply the
needs of passing vessels. The origin of these men we do not know. They
may have been deserters from ships, crews of wrecked vessels, or even
chance marooners. In any case the charm of their half-savage,
independent mode of life must soon have attracted others, and a fairly
regular traffic sprang up between them and the ubiquitous Dutch traders,
whom they supplied with hides, tallow and cured meat in return for the
few crude necessities and luxuries they required. Their numbers were
recruited in 1629 by colonists from St. Kitts who had fled before Don
Federico de Toledo. Making common lot with the hunters, the refugees
found sustenance so easy and the natural bounty of the island so rich
and varied, that many remained and settled.

To the north-west of Hispaniola lies a small, rocky island about eight
leagues in length and two in breadth, separated by a narrow channel from
its larger neighbour. From the shore of Hispaniola the island appears in
form like a monster sea-turtle floating upon the waves, and hence was
named by the Spaniards "Tortuga." So mountainous and inaccessible on the
northern side as to be called the Cote-de-Fer, and with only one harbour
upon the south, it offered a convenient refuge to the French and English
hunters should the Spaniards become troublesome. These hunters probably
ventured across to Tortuga before 1630, for there are indications that a
Spanish expedition was sent against the island from Hispaniola in 1630
or 1631, and a division of the spoil made in the city of San Domingo
after its return.[83] It was then, apparently, that the Spaniards left
upon Tortuga an officer and twenty-eight men, the small garrison which,
says Charlevoix, was found there when the hunters returned. The Spanish
soldiers were already tired of their exile upon this lonely,
inhospitable rock, and evacuated with the same satisfaction with which
the French and English resumed their occupancy. From the testimony of
some documents in the English colonial archives we may gather that the
English from the first were in predominance in the new colony, and
exercised almost sole authority. In the minutes of the Providence
Company, under date of 19th M