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In 1664 the
French West India Company took possession, established a garrison, and
appointed as governor an energetic man, D'Ogeron, under whom the
country rapidly advanced in prosperity and commerce. With the idea of
encouraging permanent settlement, D'Ogeron had women brought over from
the slums of Paris and portioned out as wives to the rude colonists.
The rapidly increasing population caused settlements to be made on
the Haitian mainland, and the city of Port-de-Paix was founded on a
beautiful bay opposite Tortuga. The city flourished to such an extent
and the advantages of settlement on the mainland were so superior that
the settlers of Tortuga gradually left the smaller island and settled
along the Haitian coast. Within twenty years Tortuga was practically
deserted and it so continues to this day.
A better class of people now arrived from France. Families were
brought in from Anjou and Brittany, and the French settlements
continued to spread all the way down the western coast of the island,
the French settlement at Samana being withdrawn.


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