Undated: (Nord-Ouest, One of Haiti’s Ten Départements, Formed From Northern and Western Territory in the Nineteenth Century, an Arid and Largely Barren Regio…

Undated: (Nord-Ouest, One of Haiti’s Ten Départements, Formed From Northern and Western Territory in the Nineteenth Century, an Arid and Largely Barren Region That Includes Tortuga Island, With Its Capital at Port-de-Paix): The Nord-Ouest is one of Haiti’s ten départements, carved from portions of the Nord and Ouest during the nineteenth century. Covering roughly 840 square miles, it is predominantly arid and barren, a landscape that tells the story of centuries of deforestation and agricultural extraction. Tortuga Island, the legendary base of French buccaneers who preceded formal colonization, falls within its territory. The département is subdivided into three arrondissements and ten communes, with its capital at Port-de-Paix, the settlement France established on the northwestern coast in 1665 as one of its earliest permanent footholds in what would become Saint-Domingue.