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Sint Maarten #1. History.
700 years in 3 minutes...
Sint Maarten/St Martin
is a beautiful 37 sq mile, ½ Dutch, ½ French, sub-tropical
island in the NE elbow of the Caribbean Sea. Columbus sailed by on 11
Nov 1493 - the feast day of St Martin of Tours. It has a colourful landscape
& history. Before 1493 Amer-Indian people lived here. From Amazonia
they came, first the Arawaks, later the Caribs.
The Caribs called it "Soualiga", salt island. Natural ponds
produced abundant salt, attracting European settlers, first the Dutch,
in 1631. Harvested from the Great Salt Pond, Sint Maarten salt grew famous
& reached Boston, Brussels & Brazil. (In 1733 the main settlement
was named Philipsburg after first Dutch Governor, John Philips, a Scot.)
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