Caribbean Tales - The Bahamas - Eleuthera
Eleuthera
The island is 110 miles long and only two miles wide along most of its length.
60 miles east of Nassau. Just offshore are Harbour Island and Spanish Wells.
Site of the first successful European settlement in The Bahamas. It all began
in 1648 when Puritan Pilgrims under the command of Captain William Sayle sought
religious freedom in a place they were to call Eleuthera, the Greek word for
freedom. The Company of Eleutherian Adventurers came ashore in the Cupid's
Cay area. They put up quite a struggle for survival, at one point being rescued
by aid from fellow Puritans in the then-Colony of Massachusetts. When the
pioneers got back on their feet, they sent a gift of braziletto wood to help
the folks at Harvard University. It was the biggest and most valuable present
ever received by the university, up to that time. When the adventurers settled
in, they changed the island's aborigine name, Cigatoo, to Eleuthera. Puritans
frowned on royal pomp and circumstance and preferred a republic. Their constitution
thus established the first republic in the New World, long before the George
Washington-Thomas Jefferson crowd came into the picture.
Preacher's Cave, near The Current, is a subterranean cave where Eleutherian
Adventurers took refuge after a shipwreck ended their exploration of the north
tip of the island, the happy few pilgrims who first landed here, took refuge
and held religious services upon their arrival. If Preacher's Cave was a chapel
in the wilderness, the magnificent Cave at Hatchet Bay gives the appearance
of a vaulted cathedral. It is more than a mile long, with stalagmites and
stalactites that gleam in the torchlight. Another magnificent sight is the
Glass Window Bridge, which spans a gap in which the turbulent waters of the
Atlantic meet the calmer seas of the Exuma Sound on the island's leeward side.
Nearby Windermere Island is an exclusive resort, often frequented by members
of the Royal Family (British?).
On Harbour Island, off the north coast of Eleuthera, is Dunmore Town, the
oldest and most charming settlement in The Bahamas complete with white picket
fences and friendly residents. All of Harbour Island is rimmed by pink, sugar-sand
beaches, but Dunmore Town has some of the best of them. The "Hill Steps,"
which were cut out by prisoners, with an underground tunnel leading from the
cove to Rock House, a nearby home. Also on Harbour Island is Titus Hole, a
cave with an open mouth that overlooks the harbour and is said to be the first
jail of Harbour Island.
A short boat ride from Eleuthera, Spanish Wells, aptly named, is where sailors
came ashore from Spanish galleons to fill their casks with fresh water after
long sea voyages. The people of this prosperous fishing village are renowned
for their seamanship.