|
At 6000 kilometres squared, Andros is the largest island in the Bahamas. It
is 167 kilometres long and 64 kilometres wide, and boasts the world’s
third-largest barrier reef, which is 225 kilometres long. This moderate zone
is prone to hurricanes, and Andros is no exception, being hit approximately
every 2½ years.
Andros has a long history of settlement, home to the native Lucayans, descendents
of the Taino-Arawaks, and, since the 1400s, to settlers from Africa and South
America. The Spanish first arrived on Andros in 1550, in a search for slaves,
and in the following years managed to wipe out the indigenous Lucayan people
through violence and imported European diseases.
The island was first called Espiritu Santo, and later given the name of San
Andreas. The current name of Andros is believed to derive from Sir Edmund Andros,
Commander of English troops on Barbados in 1672 and later governor of New York,
Massachusetts, and New England in the United States of America. Another theory
claims that the island was named after immigrants from St Andro Island on the
Mosquito Coast, 1400 of whom settled here in 1787.
Throughout the 1800s, pirates shared occupation of the island with Loyalists
settlers. Today, Andros has a population of over 6000 people, although due to
its size has the fewest percentage of people per square kilometre in the Bahamas.
Most of the population is concentrated in the island’s three major towns,
Nicholl’s Town, Congo Town, and Andros Town.
|
