SXM Island

Just off Orient Bay on French St. Martin is the small island of Tintamarre. Diederik Charles van Romondt was acting Lieutenant Governor of St. Maarten between the years of 1864 and 1900. His son, Diederik Christian van Romondt or D.C. Jr. acquired some fame in Europe as the King of Tintamarre as the island was his property and he moved there in 1902.

Mr. D.C., as he was known, set up a cotton plantation on Tintamarre, raised cows and sheep and made cheese and butter. At one point he had some one hundred people working for him on his island. He created a shop for his people and imported 30,000 new cents from Curacao as “Tintamarre currency”. When in 1913 an article appeared in Le Journal de Paris about the “King of Tintamarre” idling on his Caribbean island and playing Mozart, the unmarried Mr. D.C. received marriage proposals from French Mademoiselles who fancied becoming “Queen of Tintamarre”