![The back deck of the "front porch"?!?](http://photos.travelblog.net/371766/974688/s/9251946-the-back-deck-of-the-quot-front-porch-quot-0.jpg "The back deck of the "front porch"?!?")
Arawak Indians inhabited the islands when Christopher Columbus first set foot in the New World on San Salvador in 1492. British settlement of the islands began in 1647; the islands became a colony in 1783. Since attaining independence from the UK in ...more history