Eleuthera/Harbour Island

Eleuthera

More than 300 years ago, English Adventurers in search of religious freedom founded the western world’s first true seat of democracy and named it Eleuthera, the Greek word for freedom. Its settlers, fleeing persecution in Bermuda and England, called themselves "The Eleutheran Adventurers” and time and circumstances would prove that tag more accurate than they ever expected.

Led by Captain William Sayle, the 70-member band of adventurers first went ashore near Governor’s Harbour. Disputes arose among the group and Sayle and his faction headed off toward the northern part of the island by boat. Their boat floundered on the treacherous reefs and their supplies were lost. Many of them nearly starved, but they made do, living and worshipping in a cavern that is now known as Preacher’s Cave.

Harbour Island

Harbour Island was a noted shipyard and sugar refinement center in the late 1800s, and the resourceful residents have also made their way in the world as skilled shipbuilders and farmers. The island itself has little fertile soil, but residents were given land to farm on the “mainland” (Eleuthera) in 1783, and much of that original grant is still being tilled by Brilanders today.

Shipbuilding and farming of citrus, pineapples and tomatoes made Harbour Island fairly prosperous until World War I.  The first regular tourist business, which provides the bulk of the island’s livelihood today, began in 1941 with weekly flights on Bahamasair’s predecessor, Bahamas Airways.