Page 44 - The British Big Four
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he sea was a better food source than the island’s barren land was Proprietors had difficulty imposing their authority on the independ-
ent-minded residents of New Providence. The early settlers contin-
T for the farming Eleutherans. The Bahamians probably developed ued to live much as they had in Bermuda, fishing, hunting turtles,
whales, and seals, finding ambergris, making salt on the drier islands,
the commerce of wrecking, i.e., salvaging goods from wrecked ships. cutting the abundant hardwoods of the islands for lumber, dyewood
They were intense at their work and nothing stood between them and medicinal bark; and wrecking, or salvaging wrecks. The Bahamas
and fortune, often even the surviving crew members. The wreckers were close to the sailing routes between Europe and the Caribbean,
made temporary harbors throughout the 700 islands, but Gnaws was so shipwrecks in the islands were common, and wrecking was the
their home port. most lucrative occupation available to the Bahamians.
I n 1666 other colonists from Bermuda settled on New Providence, T he Bahamians soon came into conflict with the Spanish over the
which soon became the center of population and commerce in salvaging of wrecks. The Bahamian wreckers drove the Span-
the Bahamas, with almost 500 people living on the island by 1670. ish away from their wrecked ships, and attacked Spanish salvagers,
Unlike the Eleutherians, who were primarily farmers, the first set- seizing goods the Spanish had already recovered from the wrecks.
tlers on New Providence made their living from the sea, salvaging When the Spanish raided the Bahamas, the Bahamians in turn com-
(mainly Spanish) wrecks, making salt, and taking fish, turtles, conchs missioned privateers against Spain, even though England and Spain
and ambergris. Farmers from Bermuda soon followed the seamen to were at peace.
New Providence, where they found good, plentiful land. Neither the
Eleutherian colony nor the settlement on New Providence had any
legal standing under English law. In 1670 the Proprietors of Carolina
were issued a patent for the Bahamas, but the governors sent by the
