Castries was founded by the French in 1650 as
"Carenage" (meaning safe anchorage), then renamed in 1756 after Charles
Eugène Gabriel de La Croix, marquis de Castries, commander of a French
expeditionary force to Corsica that year. The earlier settlement across the
harbour at Vigie, started in 1651, was abandoned after a devastating hurricane
in 1780. From 1803 to 1844 the British made the town a major naval port and
built fortifications on Morne Fortune, the mountain that overlooks this
important harbour. By 1844, Castries had a population of 4,000. By the end of
the century it had become a
