Port Louis, Falkland Islands

The original French settlers named the settlement Port Saint Louis, which was changed to Puerto Soledad after capture by Spain.

In October 1820, following damage to his ship Heroína in a storm, Colonel David Jewett was forced to put into the islands to shelter in Puerto Soledad.

With many of his crew disabled by scurvy, Jewett sought the assistance of the British Antarctic explorer James Weddell in preparing his ship for sea once more.

In 1823, the United Provinces of the River Plate granted fishing rights to Jorge Pacheco and the Hamburg-born merchant Luis Vernet.

[citation needed] The consul dispatched the warship USS Lexington to Puerto Luis to retake the confiscated property, as well as the Superior and Breakwater which had also been seized.

The Lexington destroyed the guns and powder of Puerto Luis in 1832, an act later condoned by the American ambassador in Buenos Aires, who declared the Falkland Islands to be res nullius ("free from any power").

A British officer was next sent, unsupported by any power: and when we arrived, we found him in charge of a population, of which rather more than half were runaway rebels and murderers.Admiral George Grey conducted a survey of the islands in 1836, and his view was a little more positive.

In November 1846 he wrote: Today the weather was beautiful and Port Louis or Solidad [sic] seen to advantage as soon as I had finished my breakfast I landed in company with the Governor to inspect the state of his little Colony, which is situated overlooking a small basin or inner harbour, the principal house of which is that inhabited by Lieut.

Smith and among the miserable huts by which it is surrounded looks respectable by comparison, it is white-washed, has a flag staff before it and looks like a preventative station on the coast of Northumberland.After they transferred the administration to Stanley in 1845, it became the quiet sheep farming settlement it is today, known for its nineteenth-century houses, waterfowl and wading birds.