Colony of Lucayan Archipelago and Bermuda

*Consists of the Bahamas, the Turk and Caicos islands and Bermuda*

*Dominant culture: British*

## History

After being stripped of it's native population by the Spanish, the Bahamas were unofficially settled by British colonists.
In later years they became a nest for pirates and British privateers. Famous pirates like Blackbeard had their home on the Bahamas until they relocated when British authorities took over government of the colony.
The Bahamas are close to the sailing routes between Vespuccia and Europe, and shipwrecks are common there. Wrecking those ships can bring in a lot of money for the lucky person finding the ship. By law all salvaged goods are required to be sent to Nassau to be auctioned, the colonial government takes a rather large percentage on every sale.. The Bahamians are taking a very aggressive approach to wrecking, driving others away with violence if needed. They have also started wrecking in the Florida Keys, a Spanish colony.
The Bahamas colony is in a continuing legal dispute with the Bermuda colony over who can collect salt on the Turks and Caicos islands.

The Turks and Caicos islands are a very popular pirate hideout, but there is no permanent settlement. Salt collectors from Bermuda built a permanent settlement on Grand Turk island, but they only live there for 6 months every year while collecting salt.
There has been massive deforestation by those salt collectors in order to improve their yields. The salt is sold an the whole Vespuccian coast, even up to Newfoundland.
The islands are frequently hit by hurricanes.

Bermuda has quite a different story. When the Flagship of the London Company, the Sea Venture, was caught in a storm they were forced to deliberately drive the ship on the reefs in order to save the crew and colonists aboard.
The shipwrecked people succeeded in returning to Virginia colony, leaving two men behind to keep the English claim on the island, but they arrived in the middle of a huge famine. They were only saved by an English relief fleet. In later years an official colony was established in Bermuda.
In 1684 the colonial company governing Bermuda was dissolved and the colony became a self-governing colony with the House of Assembly ruling over it and the president of the council being the de-facto governor.
In 1681 the Bermudan salt collectors started building their first permanent settlement on Grand Turk Island, which they only inhabited for 6 months every year. They are in a legal dispute over these islands with the Bahamas Crown Colony over the rights to collect salt on those islands.
The British government views the Turks and Caicos islands as uncolonized islands for common use because legally a colony can't colonize other places.
Bermuda relies on the indigenous Bermuda Cedar trees for shipbuilding but they only engaged in privateering and whaling for additional profits.

## Points of Interest

* Nassau, New Providence Island, Bahamas. Capital of the colony.
* The Healing Hole, Bimini island, Bahamas. A pool that gets filled with mineral-laden fresh water from underground tunnel during outgoing tides.
* Andros Island, Bahamas. An island that consists of hundreds of smalls islets and cays connected by mangrove forests and tidal swamp lands. It is famous for it's Blue Holes, although those Holes appear all over the Bahamas. It was a pirate's hideout in earlier years.
* Pig Island, Bahamas. An uninhabited island populated by feral swimming pigs.
* Conception Island, Bahamas. An uninhabited island where birds and sea turtles make their nests.
* Kidd's Cove, Great Guana Cay, Bahamas. Named after pirate William Kidd.
* Great Inagua, Bahamas. A large island with several reefs around it. Several treasure laden ships got sunk on those reefs including Spanish galleon Santa Rosa and French Le Count De Paix.
* Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas. Became a pirate hideout when the British took control of Nassau.
* Dean's Blue Hole, Long Island, Bahamas. A very deep blue hole about 200 meters deep.
* Acklins island, Bahamas. Contains various Lucayan native sites from before the islands were depopulated of it's natives.
* Town of St George, Bermuda. Oldest city and capital of Bermuda.
* Fort Cunningham, Paget Island, Bermuda. This fortress protects the route from St George Town to the Atlantic. Extensive fortifications have been built there.
* Tucker's Town, Bermuda. Small village of 35 families, has a whaling station.
* Natural Arches Beach, Bermuda. A beach filled with several natural stone arches.
* St David's Island, Bermuda. An island where many Native slaves were brought to and where they were eventually absorbed into the population. They are called 'Mohawks', although there were very few slaves of Mohawk ancestry imported.
* Turks and Caicos islands. More than 300 small islands of mostly marches and mangroves.
* Ambergris Cay, where many valuable deposits of ambergris are found.
* Cockburn Town, Grand Turk Island, the capital of the Turks and Caicos islands.
* Salt Cay, and island in the middle of the annual migratory route of the humpback whales from and towards their nursing grounds north of the island Hispaniola.

## Notable Inhabitants

* John Tinker, governor of the Colony of Lucayan Archipelago and Bermuda

## Link Sites

* Nassau, Bahamas
* Natural Arches Beach
* The Healing Hole, Bahamas
* St David's Island
* Morgan's Cove, Andros island, Bahamas
* Cockburn town, Grand Turk Island
* Kidd's Cove on Great Guana Cay
* Town of St George