Italy and the colonization of the Americas

The area that Thornton considered as a possible site of a Tuscan or Italian colony now lies in modern French Guiana, near Cayenne,[2] which would be colonised by France in 1630.

[4] Indeed, Thornton was ready to sail back to the area between the rivers Orinoco and Amazon in the summer of 1609 with nearly one hundred Italian settlers from Livorno and Lucca to create a settlement in the bay of actual Cayenne, but the project was scrapped.

[5] Thornton's galleon 'Santa Lucia' returned to Italy in 1609 with plenty of information (after exploring the area between Trinidad island and the delta of the Amazon river), some indigenous natives of the Americas and a few tropical parrots.

[8] The Order's proprietary rights were confirmed in a treaty with France two years later: while the king would remain sovereign, the Knights would have complete temporal and spiritual jurisdiction on their islands.

It is believed to have been the property of Genoese merchants Domenico Grillo and Ambrogio Lomellini (holders of the Asiento de Negros in 1662–1671) and to have been the seat of the black slave trade in the ancient city.