Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Nassau & New Providence Highlights
Hurtling down a 200ft-long waterslide at Atlantis' high-octane
Aquaven-
ture water park
(
Click here
)
chatting with the real-deal cuban cigar rollers at the
Graycliff Cigar Co
(
Click here
), then buying a stogie or three to take home
Learning about the original
Pirates of the Caribbean
at the interactive
Pir-
ates of Nassau museum
(
Click here
)
Munching cracked conch, sipping on Sky Juice and shaking your bootie with
the locals at the
Arawak Cay Fish Fry
(
Click here
)
Sun-worshipping at
Cable Beach
(
Click here
)
Praying to Lady Luck at the blackjack tables at the
Atlantis Resort &
Casino
(
Click here
)
Strolling the photogenic pink-and-white colonial
downtown Nassau
(
Click
here
)
Shopping til you drop at the duty-free palaces of
Bay St
(
Click here
)
History
The island's colorful early history is steeped in rum-running and roguery. Nassau (initially
known as Charles Town) was established in 1666, its dirt streets pounded by pirates and
wreckers, and lined with brothels and taverns. Fed up with relentless attacks by Charles
Town's pirates on their ships, the Spaniards attacked the town in 1684, followed by an as-
sault by a combined Spanish and French force in 1703, which didn't help the city's devel-
opment much either.
Fifteen years later the pirates were ousted by the British but by the middle of the 18th
century Nassau still simply consisted of a church, jail, courthouse plus an Assembly House
on Bay St. In the 1760s Governor William Shirley, who had been a governor of Massachu-
setts, brought a Yankee sense of order and ingenuity: the swamps were drained, the land
was surveyed and tidy new streets were laid.
The American Revolution boosted the city's fortunes, as citizens took to running the
English blockade and a flood of entrepreneurial loyalist refugees arrived. In 1787 the
haughty and inept Earl of Dunmore arrived as governor of the Bahamas in a state of dis-
grace, having failed to halt the American colonist rebellions as governor of Virginia. Dun-
more's legacy is evident today in several fine buildings. These include Fort Charlotte and
Fort Fincastle. The governor was saved from the axe for his extravagance by the outbreak
of Britain's war with France in 1793.
By the late 18th century Nassau had settled into a slow-paced, glamorous era in which
the well-to-do lived graciously and were served by slaves who resided in Over-the-Hill
shanties. Following the abolition of the slave trade by the Brits in 1807, numerous public
