Les Cayes (Haitian Creole: Okay), is a town and seaport in southwestern Haiti, with a population of approximately 45,904 people (1995 estimate). Estimates from 2008 place the population at close to 70,000 people. Due to its isolation from the political turmoil of the capital, Port-au-Prince, it is one of Haiti's major ports, with export trade concentrating on mostly coffee and sugarcane. As the world's largest supplier of vetiver, it exports 250 ...
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Les Cayes (Haitian Creole: Okay), is a town and seaport in southwestern Haiti, with a population of approximately 45,904 people (1995 estimate). Estimates from 2008 place the population at close to 70,000 people. Due to its isolation from the political turmoil of the capital, Port-au-Prince, it is one of Haiti's major ports, with export trade concentrating on mostly coffee and sugarcane. As the world's largest supplier of vetiver, it exports 250 tons annually of this ingredient of perfume and fragrance manufacturing. Minor exports include bananas and timber.
The island of what was known by the Spanish as Hispaniola was inhabited for thousands of years by indigenous peoples. The first European settlement in the southwest area was the town of Salvatierra de la Sabana, founded by the Spanish explorer Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar in 1504. This settlement was abandoned in 1540.
The area was uninhabited until the French colonial administration founded the town of Aux Cayes ("On the cayes"),...
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