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.