HISTORY Chacachacare Island received its name by the Amerindians who populated the area. In 1498 Christopher Columbus named it El Caracol (the Snail). Presently it is part of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, and it lies in the Bocas del Dragon (Dragon’s Mouth), only seven miles from the coast of Venezuela. It encompasses approximately 900 acres. Between the period of 1777 and 1794, Spaniards established cotton plantations on the island, as well as whaling stations. By 1797, Chacachacare came under the control of the British. During the French revolution émigrés or Creoles from Santo Domingo and the surrounding islands settled here. Coconut, cocoa and sugar were also grown, with the biggest sugar mills in the British Empire being located on the island. The last remaining structure on the island is the ruins of the house pictured above and it has a varied and very interesting past! The Warhols heard about its history as a whaling station and even a hospital for POS's growing leper colony!
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