| Vieux Fort | |
| |
| Nation: | France |
|---|---|
| Region: | Antilles |
| Info: | Conquerable Port |
| Resources: | Fertile Soil Fertile Soil (Sugar) River Granite |
| NPC Level: | Unknown |
Missions found in Vieux Fort run from level 28 - 31. There are three interweaving storylines in this port. All relate to the threat posed by privateers working for the British East India Company. The Magistrate has few ships or men to fight off the English privateers. He asks you to "hoist the black flag" and enfiltrate the local pirate hang-out to dupe them into fighting his battles. A local sugar plantation owner has similar problems with the privateers choking off his business. He needs the farmers' cargoes escorted and the privateers driven off. The Academie Nationale decries the preditations of their favorite creatures of study, Loggerhead Sea Turtles (Caretta caretta) by the same privateers who see them as an easy food source.
History[]
Saint Lucia is an island nation in the eastern Caribbean Sea on the boundary with the Atlantic Ocean. Part of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north of the islands of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, northwest of Barbados and south of Martinique. It is also known as the "Helen of the West Indies" because it switched between British and French control so often it was likened to the mythical Helen of Troy. Saint Lucia is one of the Windward Islands, named for Saint Lucy of Syracuse.
Pre-European people[]
Saint Lucia's first known inhabitants were Arawaks, believed to have come from northern South America around 200-400 A.D. Numerous archaeological sites on the island have produced specimens of the Arawaks' well-developed pottery.
Caribs gradually replaced Arawaks during the period from 800 to 1000 A.D.[citation needed] They called the island Hiwanarau, and later Hewanorra, which is now the name used for the Hewanorra International Airport in Vieux Fort. The Caribs had a complex society, with hereditary kings and shamans. Their war canoes could hold more than 100 men and were fast enough to catch a sailing ship. They were later feared by the Europeans because of stories of violence and cannibalism, but much of this was probably exaggeration on the part of the Europeans. The Caribs were usually generous until attacked or deceived (which are situations common to much of European colonial history).
European invasion[]
Europeans first landed on the island in either 1492 or 1502 during Spain's early exploration of the Caribbean. The Dutch, English, and French all tried to establish trading outposts on St. Lucia in the 17th century but faced opposition from Caribs whose land they were occupying.
17th century[]
Although the French pirate Francois le Clerc (also known as Jamb de Bois, due to his wooden leg) frequented Saint Lucia in the 1550s, it was not until years later, around 1600, that the first European camp was started by the Dutch, at what is now Vieux Fort. In 1605, an English vessel called the Olive Branch was blown off-course on its way to Guyana, and the 67 colonists started a settlement on Saint Lucia but after five weeks only 19 of them remained due to disease and conflict with the Caribs, so they fled the island.
The French officially claimed the island in 1635 but it was the English that started the next European settlement in 1639, which was wiped out by the Caribs. It was not until 1651 that the French came, this time from Martinique, commanded by De Rousselan, who held the island until his death in 1654.
In 1664, Thomas Warner (son of the governor of St Kitts) claimed Saint Lucia for England. He brought 1,000 men there to defend it from the French, but after two years there were only 89 left, mostly due to disease. For years after this, the island was official traded back and forth between the English and the French in various treaties, as a bargaining chip in negotiations.