The advent of the English and Dutch, followed half a century later by the French, led to the settlement of some of the unoccupied islands. They rapidly became something more than mere provisioning depots, though several of them, and notably the island of Tortuga, were nothing else than the lairs of desperate crews of pirates, as reckless of their own lives as of those who were unfortunate fall into their clutches. But Barbadoes and St. Christopher, St. Eustatius and Curaçoa, Martinique and Guadalupe, became the center of something more legitimate, if quite as illegal, as sinking galleons and purloining their treasure, though that business was never missed either when the opportunity presented itself; and the Dutch West India Company alone is said to have been responsible for the capture of between five and six hundred Spanish vessels. The English secured their first foothold in the neighborhood by occupying the Bermudas in 1621, though this hardly brought them into direct contact with the West Indies. This was speedily followed by settlements in some of the unoccupied islands further south. Barbadoes was taken possession of in 1625, and the same year St. Christopher, or St. Kitts, as it is now called, was divided between the English and French. The former continued to add to their territory, taking Nevis in 1628, Antigua and Montserrat in 1632; and all these islands are so essentially English, as to prove conclusively that, although once nominally owned by Spain, Spanish influence was never exerted in them.