Princess Cays History - Cruise Line Fans: Cruise Forum, Reviews and Chat From Real Cruisers

Ziggy7 · 09-10-2008, 12:02 AM

General Info : More than 300 years ago, English Adventurers in search of religious freedom founded the Western World’s first true seat of democracy and named it Eleuthera, the Greek word for freedom. Its settlers, fleeing persecution in Bermuda and England, called themselves The Eleutheran Adventurers and time and circumstances would prove that tag more accurate than they ever expected.

Eleuthera is located near the edge of the Caribbean Sea, about 60 miles from Nassau at its nearest point, Current Island, and about 200 miles from Florida. This sickle-shaped island, with a hump-back ridge, is 110 miles long, an average of 7 miles wide and its highest elevation is 168 feet. Sand dunes were blown into heaps on the eastern shore of the island, eventually consolidating into powder and forming natural cement. Much of the island’s architecture and way of life were influenced by Loyalist settlers in the late 1700s. Miles of glistening pink and white sand beaches, serene colonial villages, and rolling acres of pineapple plantations.

Commonwealth of The Bahamas - The Country of 700 Islands
Population estimate for 2007 was 305,655. Almost 60% of the population lives on New Providence, which includes the capital city of Nassau.Language: English, Currency: Bahamian $
Government: Independent State within the British Commonwealth

Map of the Bahamas: Map of the Bahamas
http://www.peterloud.co.uk/bahamas/bahamas.html

Ziggy7 · 09-10-2008, 12:04 AM

Geography: Located adjacent to the US and Cuba, the Bahamas is an extensive island chain of which 23 are inhabited. Being the closest island-chain to the US, the airport seems to handle non-stop flights from Florida taking advantage of quick getaways or vacation specials.

The people who live in the Bahamas are predominantly of West African descent. Their ancestors were slaves brought to the islands to work the cotton plantations until 1834, when Britain abolished slavery in all its territories. Most white residents of are descendants of the first English settlers, who emigrated from Bermuda in 1647 to gain religious freedom. Some are also related to the Loyalists who fled the southern United States during the American Revolution and built enormous plantations here. After the abolition of slavery, life in the islands changed drastically. The plantations were dissolved, and both blacks and whites turned to the bountiful sea (sponging and fishing) or tried to farm. The lack of fertile cropland prompted the islanders to become a nation of seafarers, and Bahamians used these skills to great advantage during the days of shipwrecking, gun running, and Prohibition.

Religion is an integral part of Bahamian life. Even the tiniest village has a church. The people's religious ardor and high regard for education are evidence of their Puritan heritage, derived from the Eleutheran Adventurers. Music is also in the very bones of the people. African rhythms, Caribbean Calypso, English folk songs and the uniquely Bahamian Goombay beat echo in the air. The fast-tempoed "goom-bahhh" resonating from the drums can be traced back to the days of slavery and is used both for story-telling and dancing. The legal and political institutions of the country reflect its Anglo-Saxon heritage. It has a bicameral parliamentary government composed of a Senate and a House of Assembly, a Prime Minister, an Attorney General, and an independent Judiciary, including a Supreme Court and a Court of Appeals. The Changing of the Guard ceremony, held every two weeks, continues the British tradition, and Bahamian policeman pride themselves on their starched uniforms.

Between the poles of Grand Bahama and Great Inagua are 23 inhabited islands and thousands of unpopulated islets and cays (pronounced "keys"). Cosmopolitan Nassau, the capital city, once ruled by pirates, seems a world away from the desert-like wildlife sanctuary of Inagua.These beautiful islands lie only 50 miles off the Florida coast - far closer than any destination in the Caribbean. With more than 5% of the planet's reef mass, The Bahamas offer inexhaustible pleasures and challenges to snorkelers and divers. BiminiIsland - Being the closest Bahamas island to the coast of Florida (you can see the glow of Miami Beach at night) has made these Islands a popular destination for American visitors. The waters surrounding The Bimini Islands are known the world over for top big-game fishing.

History: In 1492, Christopher Columbus made his first landfall in the New World on the island of San Salvador in the eastern Bahamas. After observing the shallow sea around the islands, he said "baja mar" (meaning low water or sea), and effectively named the area The Bahamas, or The Islands of the Shallow Sea. Baja Mar, the name the Spanish bestowed on the islands. it means shallow sea, but the islands are really mountain plateaus that emerged from the Atlantic hundreds of thousands of years ago. As they grew, they hosted countless generations of coral, which today comprise the islands' limestone base.

The island people, were the first settlers. Originally from South America, they meandered up through the Caribbean and finally arrived in The Bahamas around the Ninth Century AD. Over the years Nassau became notorious for pirates, like Blackbeard, Sir Henry Morgan and Calico Jack. They used false lighthouses to lure ships onto the reefs and then confiscated the cargo. In 1695. Spanish troops destroyed the town of Nassau in retaliation for these raids. A few years later, settlers rebuilt Nassau with the goal of making it a privateering capital. However, the French and Spanish navies joined forces and wiped out the town for the second time in 1703 because British privateers continued to plunder their countries' merchant ships. Looting rich cargo ships as they passed by on the nearby shipping lanes was a lucrative business, so it wasn't long before pirates overran Nassau once again. Word of this piracy reached the King, so in 1718, Woodes Rogers, was appointed as Royal Governor of the islands to restore order. Rogers, a former pirate, offered amnesty to all those who surrendered. After a brief battle, more than 300 pirates surrendered and the rest fled. In 1964 Great Britain granted the Bahamas limited self-government and in 1969 the the Bahamas became part of the Commonwealth. On July 10, 1973, the Bahamas was granted its independence.

canarymoon · 09-10-2008, 09:30 AM

Wow!
What great information... veryinteresting!

Thank you so much for posting it, Ziggy!