I'd like to write about the history of the Bahama's so you can learn more about them as I have. So the following is something that was written in my chartbook that I thought was a good commenetary.

Whether you first approach these islands from the air or from the sea, you will find the breathtaking scenery majestic. You'll instantly see why the Spanish named the shallow area jutting out of the ocean "Bajamar" or low tide. The varied colors of the water will catch and hold your eye--a graduated spectrum from the pale aquas of the shallow banks through the deeper teals and on to the midnight blues of the ocean depths. The water colors, combined with sparkling beaches, swaying palms and azure skies give the Bahamas a unique stamp. An archipelago of abvout 7000 islands and nearly 2400 cays and rocks., the island nation stretches for almost 750 miles off the southeast coast of Florida. Its estimated 2005 population was of Nassau. About 85 percent of these people are decendants of West African slaves, with the remaining progeny coming from the first English settlers by way of Bermuca and the Loyalist expatriate Americans. This islanfd nation is a special one, bobbing in the sea and affected by whatever political, social, and economic streams flow its way. Like an anchored ship, it has ridden out many storms.

EARLY COLONIZATION

The Arawak Indians were the first of many currents affecting the islands. They arrived from present-day South American via the Antilles, then they were forced northward by the canibalistic Carib tribes. In the last tide of their migration, the "island people" (Lukku-cairi) or Lucayans came to the southern and central Bahamas in the 6th and 7th centuries.

A thousand years later, the next stream of influence in the formation of the peoples of the Bahamas was the arrival of the Spanish conquerors in the 15th and 16th centuries. The gentile, peace-loving Lucayan Arawaks were overpowered by the Conquistadors, who were greedy for cold and supposed spices.

The landfall of the first exploring Spaniard, Christopher Columbus, is the object of some debate. Though the Bahamian government celebrated the 500th anniversary of Columbus' October 12th 1492, arrival in the New World in present-day San Salador, there is convgincing evidence that Samana Cay was actually the spot. Even so, residents of Cat Island and Rum Cay will tell you that he landed on their islands. first.

Any, Columbus voyage introduced a wave of colonization that led to the establishment of a large Spanish Empire in the New World. However, as Michael Cration's History of the Bahamas indicates,...."There is no evidence that the Spaniards ever made a permanent settlement in the Bahamas" Though the Spanish ruled the islands for more than a century, the main result of their visitations was the decimation fo the Lucayan population. By 1520, those Indians who had not succumbed to disease and starvation were taken to other Caribbean islands as slaaves to work the plantations and mines. Their cigvilization virtually vanished. Though Columbus' personal motives were, by all accounts, pure, the long-range effect of his trips to the islands devastated an entire culture.

THE ENGLISH INFLUENCE

In the wake of the Spaniards came the English wave, which washed over the Bahamas beginning in the late 16th century, with interest sparked by trade in brazil wood, ambergris, and salt. Yet, it was not until 1647 that the first permanent settlement (also the first republic in the New World) was made on Eleuthera by Puritans escaping a religious squabble in Bermuda. Another group, the lords Proprietor of South Carolina, goverened the Bahamas beginning in 1670, in 1695 a fort was built on New Providence to protect the growing town of Nassau from the marauding Spanish.

Meanwhile, bucaneers, privateers and pilates provided considerable influence through the period. At one time there were reportedly 1,000 pirates in Nassauu alone. The infamous Blackbeard, Henry Morgan, and Annie Bonney dominated the area for almost a century, but the tide was stemmed by the 1718 arrival of Govenor Woodes Rogers, whom the British sent in to assume direct control, bolster the locals, develop a plan to defend Nassau, and restore civil law. His administration did much to calm the turbulent seas and steer the Bahamas to the calmer waters of English rule with its system of parliamementary law still in effect today. In fact, though the Bahamas gained independence in 1973, English influence remains evident in the stately architecture, starched policemen, governmental pomp and ceremony, and sculpted shrubbery.

Storms in other areas washed up on Bahamian shores-the American Revolution brought blockade and gun running and even capture of Fort Montagu for a short period of time. Its aftermath saw a flood of those loyal to the British attempt to transplant the plantation economy to the Bahamas. Unfortunately the poor soil and shortfall of raid doomed that to failure. The Loyalsist decendants and their slaves remain as boatbuilders, fishermen and pothole farmers today. Far a long period of time, many generations survived from "wrecking" as booty came to their shores in the form of ships that foundered in the uncharterd waters. It wasn't until the mid 1800's that the Imperial Board of Trade began placing lighthouses to warn of these reefs and shoals, thereby putting an end to wrecking.

Slavery was halted with the Emancipation Act of 1834. After an apprenticeship, slaves were completely freed by 1838. Many were given land, but their problems were not over as they had no resources or training to prepare them for the personal freedom of supporting theselves.

A brief wave of prosperity came to Nassau during the Americal Civil War. The city's location was ideal as a Confederate suupply base. but as the tide of war receded, Nassau's economy went into a half-century slump, further weakened by poverty, epidemics and hurricanes.

It took the successive tidal waves of two World Wars, with the highly profitable rum-running days of the Prohibition era, to bring the Bahamas truly into the twentieth century. Strides in communication and transportation coupled to bring the economic salvation of tourism to the inviting palm-lined beaches of these emerald isles. All other courses of livelihood-fishing, farming, sponging, salt mining, privateering, bucccanering, pirating, wrecking, and shipbuilding-have been surpassed by the success of the tourism industry, which brings in over half of the gross national product today. The twenty-first century is making its mark with huge development by foreign interests.

An enormous political wave affecting the country's direction came with Bahamian independence from Great Britian. Unfortunately, the bright prospects were marred by 25 years of rule by the corrupt Pinding government. It fell to the second Prime Minister, Hubert Ingraham, and the Free National Movement party to attempt to lift the country into prosperity of the 21st century through electrification fo most islands, better roads, and telephone service. In 2002 the PLP took over again with Perry Christie as the new Prime Minister. the PLP's focus is on extensive development to shore up the Bahamian treasury. All of this not only aids the tourism industry but also brings in more revenue to the country from foreign development dollars. Favorable tax laws have allowed the country to become an international banking center as well.

As you trace the marks on the various waves on the island nation, you can have a better understand of where it stands today and what makes it and its people so distinctive.