La Tortuga Island (
Isla La Tortuga in
SpanishSpanish or Castilian is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that originated in northern Spain and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile, evolving into the principal language of government and trade in the Iberian peninsula...
) is an uninhabited island dependency of the government of
VenezuelaVenezuela , officially titled Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It is a continental mainland with numerous islands located off its coastline in the Caribbean Sea...
. It is part of a chain of islands that include the Tortuguillas, the Palaquines, and others.
It was discovered in 1499 by
Alonso de OjedaAlonso de Ojeda was a Spanish explorer born of noble parents in Cuenca. His name is sometimes spelled Alonzo and Oxeda....
. On his second trip, together with Amerigo Vespucci, the island was named
La isla La Tortuga by
Amerigo VespucciAmerigo Vespucci was an Italian explorer, navigator and cartographer. The continent of America is popularly believed to have derived its name from the feminized Latin version of his first name .-Expeditions:Amerigo Vespucci was born and brought up by his uncle in the Republic of Florence in what is...
because of the enormous presence of turtles on the island.
It used to be a refuge of pirates in the 17th century, although it must not be confused with Tortuga (
Île de la Tortue) near
HaitiHaiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Creole- and French-speaking Caribbean country. Along with the Dominican Republic, it occupies the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago...
, which is famous in the literature of
piracy in the Caribbean] The era of piracy in the Caribbean Sea began in the 16th century and died out in the 1720s after the navies of the nations of Western Europe with colonies in the Caribbean began combating pirates. The period during which pirates were most successful was from the 1690s until the 1730s...
.
Discussion
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La Tortuga Island (
Isla La Tortuga in
SpanishSpanish or Castilian is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that originated in northern Spain and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile, evolving into the principal language of government and trade in the Iberian peninsula...
) is an uninhabited island dependency of the government of
VenezuelaVenezuela , officially titled Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It is a continental mainland with numerous islands located off its coastline in the Caribbean Sea...
. It is part of a chain of islands that include the Tortuguillas, the Palaquines, and others.
History
It was discovered in 1499 by
Alonso de OjedaAlonso de Ojeda was a Spanish explorer born of noble parents in Cuenca. His name is sometimes spelled Alonzo and Oxeda....
. On his second trip, together with Amerigo Vespucci, the island was named
La isla La Tortuga by
Amerigo VespucciAmerigo Vespucci was an Italian explorer, navigator and cartographer. The continent of America is popularly believed to have derived its name from the feminized Latin version of his first name .-Expeditions:Amerigo Vespucci was born and brought up by his uncle in the Republic of Florence in what is...
because of the enormous presence of turtles on the island.
It used to be a refuge of pirates in the 17th century, although it must not be confused with Tortuga (
Île de la Tortue) near
HaitiHaiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Creole- and French-speaking Caribbean country. Along with the Dominican Republic, it occupies the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago...
, which is famous in the literature of
piracy in the Caribbean] The era of piracy in the Caribbean Sea began in the 16th century and died out in the 1720s after the navies of the nations of Western Europe with colonies in the Caribbean began combating pirates. The period during which pirates were most successful was from the 1690s until the 1730s...
. The pirate
Henry MorganAdmiral Sir Henry Morgan , was a Welsh privateer, who made a name in the Caribbean...
prepared some of his famous incursions on the coasts of Venezuela on the island.
The island was seasonally populated by the
DutchThe Netherlands is a country in Northwestern Europe, constituting the major portion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east...
who came there to exploit the salt evaporation ponds on the east of the island as of the 1550s. They constructed a fort on the island to guard their salt works and reapers against the Spanish who were eager to keep the Dutch off the island. They were definitively expelled in 1631 when the Spanish governor of Cumaná destroyed their facilities and flooded the
salt pansNatural salt pans are flat expanses of ground covered with salt and other minerals, usually shining white under the sun. They are found in deserts, and should not be confused with salt evaporation ponds.A salt pan is formed where water pools...
.
Since then the island has not had a permanent population and its location and
morphologyGeomorphology is the scientific study of landforms and the processes that shape them...
have remained untouched, which makes the island one of the last somewhat virgin places of Venezuela. There is tourism in this island.