Official Document (copy)
*On this date in 1626, the charter of Compagnie de Saint-Christophe was affirmed. This slave-trading company was chartered by France to exploit the island of Saint-Christophe, which is present-day Saint Kitts and Nevis.
In 1625, a Pierre Bélain sieur d'Esnambuc, landed on Saint-Christophe with slaves. Returning to France in 1626, he applied to and received a charter from Cardinal Richelieu to create the Compagnie de Saint-Christophe. Richelieu was a major stockholder, contributing some 10,000 livres out of the company's capital stock of 45,000 livres. Though an active participant in the middle passage, the company was unsuccessful.
In 1635, Richelieu directed his councilor François Fouquet to reorganize the company under Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique, French for "Company of the American Islands." The company was charged with colonizing Sainte-Christophe, Martinique, and Guadeloupe. On September 15, 1635, Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc, French governor of the island of St. Kitts, landed in the harbor of St. Pierre with 150 French settlers after being driven off St. Kitts by the English.
D'Esnambuc claimed Martinique for the French King Louis XIII and the French "Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique" (Company of the American Islands) and established the first European settlement at Fort Saint-Pierre (now St. Pierre). His nephew Jacques Dyel du Parquet assisted him and, in 1637, became governor of the island. The company went bankrupt in 1674.
