ay 1631, we find that a committee was
"appointed to treat with the agents for a colony of about 150 persons,
settled upon Tortuga";[84] and a few weeks later that "the planters upon
the island of Tortuga desired the company to take them under their
protection, and to be at the charge of their fortification, in
consideration of a twentieth part of the commodities raised there
yearly."[85] At the same time the Earl of Holland, governor of the
company, and his associates petitioned the king for an enlargement of
their grant "only of 3 or 4 degrees of northerly latitude, to avoid all
doubts as to whether one of the islands (Tortuga) was contained in their
former grant."[86] Although there were several islands named Tortuga in
the region of the West Indies, all the evidence points to the identity
of the island concerned in this petition with the Tortuga near the north
coast of Hispaniola.[87]

The Providence Company accepted the offer of the settlers upon Tortuga,
and sent a ship to reinforce the little colony with six pieces of
ordnance, a supply of ammunition and provisions, and a number of
apprentices or _engages_. A Captain Hilton was appointed governor, with
Captain Christopher Wormeley to succeed him in case of the governor's
death or absence, and the name of the island was changed from Tortuga to
Association.[88] Although consisting for the most part of high land
covered with tall cedar woods, the island contained in the south and
west broad savannas which soon attracted planters as well as
cattle-hunters. Some of the inhabitants of St. Kitts, wearied of the
dissensions between the French and English there, and allured by reports
of quiet and plenty in Tortuga, deserted St. Kitts for the new colony.
The settlement, however, was probably always very poor and struggling,
for in January 1634 the Providence Company received advice that Captain
Hilton intended to desert the island and draw most of the inhabitants
after him; and a declaration was sent out from England to the planters,
assuring them special privileges of trade and domicile, and dissuading
them from "changing certain ways of profit already discovered for
uncertain hopes suggested by fancy or persuasion."[89] The question of
remaining or departing, indeed, was soon decided for the colonists
without their volition, for in December 1634 a Spanish force from
Hispaniola invaded the island and drove out all the English and French
they found there. It seems that an