OLD TIMES

Arawaks and Caribs inhabited Union Island where one may see pre-Colombian stone carvings, but there is no track of this period in Palm Island which in fact was named Prune Island until thirty years ago.


The island was probably inhabited temporarily by French hunters and fishermen coming from Grenada, between 1650 and 1750.
In 1777, a Sir "De l'Isle" (French for "Of the Island"), who owned as well Frigate Island and the Tobago Cays, set a business of making lime for construction, burning the corals on the shores, but burning as well all the primary forest of the island.


In 1778, Prune was defended from the French Navy and American privateers by the 16 pound guns of Fort Hill and a 9 pound gun at Clifton Hill, which had been installed by the company S&J SPAN, owner of Union Island, and a cotton producer.


Between 1783 and 1834 (end of slavery), Prune Island had been the leprosy for Union population, people living here in a total autarchy.


A sea salt plant has been active for some years before the two world wars, but was abandoned according to the problems of sand permanently invading the canal to the sea, which has been very recently reopened.