Pirates Ahoy!: On This Day... - Pirates Ahoy!

In the early 1600s, an English captain, Thomas Warner, set sail with a crew to found a colony on the Guiana coast. His colony proved a failure as his crew was ravaged by disease, unfamiliar weather conditions, and Carib raids. A friend of Warner's then suggested that he should instead try to colonise one of the islands in the Lesser Antilles because of their favourable conditions. In 1623 Warner abandoned his Guiana post and set sail North through the archipelago. After checking each island, Warner decided that Saint Kitts would prove to be the best-suited site for an English colony, because of its strategic central position ideal for expansion, friendly native population, fertile soil, abundant fresh water, and large salt deposits. He and his family landed on the island and made peace with the local Kalinago peoples, whose leader was Ouboutou Tegremante. Warner then left his family behind and returned to England to gather more men to officially establish a colony. In 1624, he returned and established the colony of Saint Christopher, the first English colony in the Caribbean. They established a port town at Old Road, downhill from Tegremante's capital village.

The Kalinago Genocide of 1626 occurred in St. Kitts at Bloody Point. The Caribs realized that many more Europeans came and settled in St.Kitts. The Caribs had decided that the European settlers had to be destroyed. Large numbers of Caribs from Dominica and other neighbouring islands were invited to St. Kitts to help get rid of the settlers. However, the plan was told to one of the English settlers by a woman named Barbe.