Charles Liénard de L'Olive
Charles Lienard, squire and sieur de L'Olive, was the son of Pierre Lienart and Françoise Bonnart of Chinon.
[2] The private venture had the mandate to settle Saint Christophe, Barbados and other neighboring islands at the entrance to Peru that were not possessed by any king or Christian prince.
They engaged over 500 men to work on the islands for three years, sailed in three ships in February 1627, and after a difficult crossing landed in Saint-Christophe almost three months later.
He sent his capable young assistant Guillaume d'Orange to visit the nearby islands of Guadeloupe, Dominica and Martinique and determine their potential as colonies.
[4] Spanish attempts to colonize the Guadeloupe archipelago in the first half of the 16th century had failed, and since then European sailors had only used it as a resting place.
[9] The partners remained subordinate to d'Esnambuc, whom King Louis XIII of France named governor general of the French Antilles on 7 March 1635.
His wife was a daughter of Jean Philibert, former advisor to the king at the royal seat of Chinon, and Marie Poulain.
[7] Those who paid for their voyage would be given concessions to grow tobacco or sugar in the island, which they would work using slaves from Africa and hired hands from France.
[8] They reached Martinique on 25 June 1635, which they claimed for the king, then moved on because they found the island mountainous, cut by precipices and gullies and infested with poisonous snakes.
[6] L'Olive established himself west of Pointe Allègre on the banks of what became the Vieux-Fort river, so called because Fort Saint-Pierre was built there.
[12] D'Enambuc saw the Guadeloupe venture as a threat to his authority, and took 150 picked colonists from Saint Christophe to Martinique, which he reached on 1 September 1635.
[13] Father Jacques du Tetre records that they failed to stop in Barbados, where they could have bought food, and had only enough to eat for two months when they reached Guadeloupe.
He wrote, "The Sieur d'Olive did everything to gain the affection of the savages in this island ... he gave them crystals, mirrors, combs, whistles, needles and pins and other bagatelles.
[17] Charles Houël du Petit Pré, named governor in place of Aubert, reached Fort Royal on 5 September 1643.
[21] In October 2011 the Paris council decided to eliminate the reference to colonialism, and renamed the road to Rue de L'Olive.
