May 2005

One of the best towns on the little island. The capitol of the French side has good shopping and food.

Quoted from a sign a Ft. Louis… “From the 17th Century, some French families settled in the northern part of the great pond of Simpson Bay. They named this place Marigot because of the swamp and mangroves that bordered the pond.

There, they were cultivating tobacco, some cotton and indigo, but their crops were usually destroyed by incursions of British privters and pirates.

It was only the arrival of the knight Descoudrelles, commander of the islands of Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthelemy, in 1764, that led to the development of prosperity of this little town during the 18th century.

As soon as he arrived, Descoudrelles wrote: ‘the biggest impediment for a solid establishment in Saint-Martin is the crel way that the British always treated the inhabitants of this island that has always been taken by force of privateers or individuals, who evicted the inhabitants every time after having plundered and burned everything that they possessed.’”