Barbados

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We docked in Barbados and took a water taxi over to the nearby port of Bridgetown. This is not too impressive a town and reminds one of a giant Dollar store with street after street of cheap goods. National Heroes Square is located near the quay. In it is located a statue of Lord Nelson, hero of the Battle of Trafalger, which was built in 1813 following Nelson's visit to the island in 1805. There is also an obelisk monument which was built to honor the Barbadians in two World Wars. However, I noticed only the dates of the first world war on the monument. There is also a fountain built in memory of the introduction of piped water to the town in 1861. Opposite the National Heroes Square is the Parliament Buildings which were closed on the day that we visited. A sign on the fence advertised it as the Museum of Parliament.

A short history of the islands goes like this. The first inhabitants were the Arawak Indians who were later driven off by the Carib Indians from Venezuela. The island was abandoned by the time the first Europeans arrived. In 1536, Pedro a Campos, a Portuguest explorer, discovered the island while en route to Brazil. He named the island Los Barbados, meaning the 'Bearded One', after the island's fig trees whose long hanging aerial roots have a beard like resemblence. In 1625, Captain John Powell landed and claimed the island for England. Two years later, his brother landed with a party of eighty settlers and ten slaves. By 1628, the population was around 2000.

The original crops were tobacco and cotton but, by 1640, the settlers had discovered the potential of sugar cane. This led to large amounts of slaves from Africa being brought to the island in order to meet the labor demands of the sugar cane plantations. In 1663, Barbados was made into a British Crown Possession. Later, in 1816, the slaves staged a revolt because of poor living conditions and treatment. Following this, slavery was abolished in 1834. The island gained internal self-government in 1961 and, in 1966, gained full independence but retained its status as a commonwealth country.

Barbados does have quite a few old and colorful buildings. One worthy of mention is St. Marys Anglican Church which was built in 1825.

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