Piracy in the Caribbean in the New World were violated with greater frequency by the merchants of other nations. The Spanish port on the island of Trinidad off the northern coast of South America, permanently settled only in 1592, became a major point of contact between all the nations with a presence in the Caribbean. In the early 17th century, expensive fortifications and the size of the colonial garrisons at the major Spanish ports increased to deal with the enlarged presence of Spain's competitors in the Caribbean, but the treasure fleet's silver shipments and the number of Spanish-owned merchant ships operating in the region
Piracy in the Caribbean of Hispaniola for privateers, buccaneers and outright pirates. The main French colony on the rest of Hispaniola remained the settlement of Petit-Goâve, which was the French toehold that would develop into the modern state of Haiti. French privateers still used the tent city anchorages in the Florida Keys to plunder the Spaniards' shipping in the Florida Channel, as well as to raid the shipping that plied the sealanes off the northern coast of Cuba. For the Dutch in the 17th century Caribbean, the island of Curaçao was the equivalent of England's port at Barbados. This large, rich, well-defended free port,