Isla de Pelegostos

"There's an island just south of the straits, where I trade spice for&hellip;delicious long pork. Cannot say about Jack, but you'll find a ship there. A ship with black sails."

- Shrimper to William Turner

Pelegosto, also known as Isla de Pelegostos, was a remote island, home to a cannibalistic tribe known as the Pelegostos. The island was located far from all normal shipping routes and was missing from most ocean charts.

Geography
Pelegosto was dominated by a tropical rainforest that spanned much of the land mass. The remainder was taken up by deep ravines, mountain ranges and beaches. The native Pelegosto tribe used body paint and fearsome masks to blend in to the jungle environment, in order to catch prey or the few unwanted visitors the island recieved.

The tribe built their village high up on one of the flat tops of a mountain peak, and was connected by rope bridges strung over the ravines. The village huts were woven from plant fibers, and despite their fragile appearance, provided shelter from fierce tropical storms. Prisoners were known to be held in cages made from the bones of those the Pelegostos deemed unworthy to keep alive, and hung from the deep ravines.

The Pantano River ran through the island, and following it upriver would lead to the bayou shack of voodoo priestess Tia Dalma.

History
It was believed that Captain Jack Sparrow first happened upon Pelegosto in the years prior to his arrival in Port Royal prior to the kidnap of Elizabeth Swann. While there, he picked up the native language, and the Pelegostos made him their chief. He managed to escape the island, but, following his escape from a Turkish prison, Sparrow and the crew of the Black Pearl attempted to hide from the Kraken on Pelegosto, but again fell afoul of the natives. The Pelegostos were convinced Jack was a god in human form, though unfortunately for Jack, the Pelegostos believed that, as a deity, he was trapped inside his fleshy body&mdash;and the highest honor they could bestow upon him was to ceremonally kill and eat him to release his spirit. Jack and the surviving members of his crew managed to escape the cannibals after William Turner arrived on the island in a rescue attempt.



Following their escape, Jack and his companions made their way upriver to visit Tia Dalma, from whom they gleaned information concerning Davy Jones. The crew would later return here after the Kraken devoured Jack. It was from here that the rescue attempt to World's End was launched, and was where Hector Barbossa was revealed by Dalma to have returned to life.



The East India Trading Company and Pelegosto
While fleeing the Pelegostos, Captain Sparrow noticed that even on this extremely remote island, the East India Trading Company had extended its corporate tendrils. The natives had been trading for silverware, china, and spices marked with the EITC logo. Jack recognized this as a bad sign for piracy. As more and more of the globe came under the EITC's control, there would be fewer free ports open to pirates or even free traders.

It was known that some sailors, merchants and shrimpers traded spices and other supplies from the civilized world for "long pork"&mdash;an euphemism for human meat. It was possible that such men steered unwary travelers towards the island in order to keep up the flow of trade. Those who knew of this appeared to resist setting foot on the island itself, and would not escort travelers further than the coast.

Behind the scenes

 * The scenes for Pelegosto were mostly filmed on the island of Dominica, on an aerie called High Meadow (south of the Dominican capital of Rosseau) and the nearby Twin Peaks.
 * The island is extremely undeveloped and the filming company had to build their own roads out to the filming sites. The waterfall area that the bone cage falls into is Ti Tou Gorge, and the only way in is by swimming.

Appearances

 * Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
 * Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (video game)