administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.^273 La Tortue, or Tortuga Island as it is
known in English, is located to the north of Haiti. It was claimed like the other surrounding
islands by Dessalines as part of his “empire” but had been offered to the United States in
exchange for American protection against other powers. The island remained in Haitian hands,
but Haitian President Salomon had initiated such discussions with the United States in 1883.
During the same time period, Salomon had also approached France about protectorate status.^274
The most serious set of negotiations involved the promontory of Mole St. Nicholas.According to Brenda Plummer, Haitian President Hyppolite’s campaign in 1889 had been largely
funded by American navalists. She states that
[...] in the burst of enthusiasm for large navies that characterized the period, the
U.S. government empowered an admiral to aggressively demand from Haiti the
promontory [...] repayment of Hyppolites’ political debt was implicit in the
brusque request.^275Anténor Firmin, Haitian secretary of state for finance and foreign affairs, hadsuccessfully maneuvered Haiti’s refusal to cede Mole St. Nicholas to American control in 1893.
He cited the Haitian constitution, which forbade cession of territory to foreign hands. Talks,
however, had begun two years earlier, when the American Admiral Gherardi anchored his
flagship in Port-au-Prince in January, 1891 and sent for Frederick Douglass, American
ambassador to Haiti, to begin negotiations. According to Brenda Plummer, Douglass considered
the bid imperialistic and resented being superseded in the negotiations. At the close of the affair,
both Douglass and Firmin resigned from their posts. In the end, no ceding of Haitian territory
took place, but the area continued to be a topic of negotiation in international diplomacy. Le
(^273) CIA – The World Fact Book, March 2008, http://cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-
factbook/geos/bq.html.
(^274) Nicholls 139.
(^275) Plummer 27.