Cap-à-Foux (English: Cape Foux) is a hilly cape in northwestern Haiti on the Atlantic Ocean. It is about 200km (125 miles) northwest of Port-au-Prince and marks the northern limit of the Gulf de la Gonâve. Cap-à-Foux includes the city of Port-de-Paix and the towns of Jean-Rabel, Môle Saint-Nicolas, and Bombardopolis.
Etymology[]
Cap-à-Foux is located in the borough of Môle Saint-Nicolas, at 19.8048° N, 73.3753° W, and takes its name from huge bands of birds named "foux". They have established their refuge, and they produce guano, and are easily domesticated and of medium size. The peninsula of Môle covers this cape to the south.
Colony history[]
The French colony at Cap-à-Foux was first founded in 1764. It was the third colonizing effort in Hispaniola after La Isabela, Dominican Republic and La Navidad, on the north coast of present-day Puerto Plata. Ships of a Spain Company brought 1,300 in number under the watch of Bartolomeo Colombus as overseers of a colonization operation and the plantation, respectively. This colony predated the town of Nueva Isabela, destroyed in a hurricane after being founded in 1496. For that reason, it was rebuilt on the opposite side of the Ozama River and called Santo Domingo, the oldest permanent European settlement in the Americas. The first point of contact by voyagers in Hispaniola was on the site of the future town of Môle St. Nicolas. This town was fortified on the orders of the French following the Seven Years' War, owing to its excellent shelter provided by its bay which is strategically located on the Windward Passage. When navigators arrived in this area, they found its characteristics constituted a true "Gibraltar of the Caribbean". Thus, in 1764 a small town with a squared plan named after the bay is created, it is the current village of Môle-Saint-Nicolas.
By 1492 the name of Saint-Nicolas was already established, as it is mentioned and depicted as the day, December 6, that Christopher Columbus arrived with his men for the first time on the island he named "Hispaniola". Saint-Nicolas is the patron saint of boatmen and mariners.