Esnambuc, Pierre Belain D'

Related Category: Latin American History: Biographies

(both: pyĕr bəlăN dānäNbük´), 1585–1636, French pioneer in the West Indies. Seeking to recoup his family fortune by privateering in the West Indies, Esnambuc instead became the founder of French colonial possessions in that area. In 1625 he established a settlement on St. Kitts in the Leeward Islands. Although St. Kitts had already been settled by the British, the island was divided between France and England. Firmly and justly he managed the colony's affairs through difficult times and explored and settled other islands. In 1635 he founded a colony at Saint-Pierre on Martinique.