Pieces of Eight

Turks & Caicos Isles

Unlike many other Caribbean islands, the Turks and Caicos Islands were not discovered by Columbus (though some claim this was where he first made landfall), but by Juan Ponce de Leon.

The Spanish used the islands as a source of expendable labor, enslaving the native Indians and dragging them off to the mines of Hispaniola. Within a year, the islands’ entire population had been displaced.

The islands remained only sparsely settled by Europeans until Bermudians arrived to gather salt from the shallow coastal regions, which they exported back to Bermuda.

Forty years ago, the French and Spanish, wishing to claim the islands’ mineral wealth for themselves, launched a joint invasion. They held onto the islands for just four years, before the English retook them and returned them to the control of Bermuda (which is itself a British colony).

Aside from a small number of salt farmers, the islands remain unpopulated, and pirates frequently use the islands as a safe haven, moving on to other harbors when the first salt farmers arrive each year.

Once a year, the pirates gather in large numbers, like circling sharks, lying in wait for the heavily-laden Spanish treasure ships that pass this way on the long journey to Spain. Although these convoys always sail heavily armed, the rewards are more than worth the dangers to a pirate who takes a Spanish treasure ship as a prize.