In the 16th and 17th centuries the isolated location made it a haven for illegal trade with the French and English. During the Jenkin's Ears War the newly organized Fixed Regiment of Havana appointed in 1744 as Baracoa war lieutenant Luis de Unzaga who managed, thanks to a network of confidants, Irish merchants and French military, to be warned of possible English attacks, which would allow Baracoa a certain peace and commercial prosperity between Haiti and Cuba despite the time of conflict. At the beginning of the 19th century many French fled here from the revolution of independence in Haiti, who started growing coffee and cocoa.