Less welcome visitors then arrive in the shape of British pirates, who make a living by trading or stealing sandalwood.

First, though, there were British pirates, up to 5,000 at a time.

During the late 16th and 17th centuries, the region suffered many attacks by French and British pirates.

A seventeenth-century British pirate who turned respectable and became the governor of Jamaica.

Used as a hub to transport gold and silver to Spain, it was sacked and burned to the ground by British pirates in 1671.

Henry Every (born c. 1653), British pirate.

Often, they were forced to fly the Confederate insignia since the Union had imposed the death penalty on British "pirates" captured in the region.

Thomas Walton (also known as Purser) was a 16th-century British pirate.

Clinton Atkinson (also known as Clinton) was a 16th-century British pirate.

It is a tiny place, covering no more than five square miles, with about 1,100 people, some proudly claiming to be descendants of British pirates.