By The Eleuthera Tourist Office (http://www.briland.com)
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 settler's fleeing persecution in Bermuda and England, called themselves the Eleutheran Adventurers. 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 put ashore near Governor's Harbour. Disputes rose among the group, and Sayle and his faction headed off toward the northern part of the island by boat. Their boat foundered on the treacherous reefs and their supplies were lost. Many of them starved, but they made do, even living and worshipping in a cavern that is now known as Preacher's Cave. Sayle journeyed to the US to find help to support his fledgling colony. The hard pressed colonists in Virginia sent a shipment of supplies. As time progressed, many if not most, of the original Adventurers drifted away, but the commitment cut had had been made. This hilly, verdant isle became the "birthplace of the Bahamas" and eventually the most developed of the Family Islands.

Just over one mile wide, Eleuthera is 100 miles of magnificent pink-white beaches, sheltered coves, dramatic cliffs and incredible blue-green water. Here you can swim, snorkel and enjoy some of the finest diving anywhere, with exceptional dive facilities. Explore the steamship wreck off North Eleuthera and the unusual train wreck, the site of a barge, which sunk years ago, filled with train cars bound for Cuba.
Stop at Preacher's Cave where shipwrecked Eleutheran Adventurers once took refuge and held this island's first religious services. Taste the sweet and uniquely delicious Bahamian pineapples grown in Gregory Town. This settlement is also where Atlantic waves roll against the shore, providing some of the best surfing in the Atlantic Ocean. Between North Eleuthera and Gregory Town, you'll find the Glass Window Bridge. This is one of the few places where you can compare the Atlantic with its rich blue waters on one side of the road, to the calm green waters of the Caribbean on the other side, separated by a strip of rock Just wide enough to drive a car through safely.

Harbour Island
As you approach Harbour Island (or Briland, as residents know it), you'll see a quaint little village whose houses reach down to the shore. Only three miles long and a half-mile wide, the first settlement on this island was founded before the United States was a nation. Its resourceful residents made their way in the world as skilled shipbuilders and farmers. While the island itself has little at-able soil, Harbour Islanders were given land to firm oil the "mainland" (Eleuthera), in 1783. Much of that original grant is still being tilled by Brilanders today. By the 1800s, Dunmore Town became a noted shipyard and sugar refinement center. That skill gave the Islanders all-important secondary industry rural. With the advent of Prohibition, Harbour Island became very popular indeed. Today the island's solid popularity is founded on its tropical island greenery stretching out to meet the warm, pink-hued sand beaches this island is famous for. Its intimate resorts, and the warm Briland hospitality, housed in the quaint New England architecture of the island's Loyalist history, add to Nature's palette. Rows of century-old trees border narrow flower-lined streets. It is a sight not to be missed. You can choose from a number of Harbour-Island hotels offering tennis, fishing and diving.

Spanish Wells
A short water-taxi ride from North Eleuthera, is St. George's Cay and Spanish Wells, the quiet comer of the Bahamas. While the Eleutheran Adventurers were the first settlers of the Cay, it was the Spanish who first put on the map. The Spanish conquistadors designated it the final landing point before attempting the big crossing back to their homeland, loaded down whit the riches of the New World. It was here that they sunk a well to provide their ships with a final load of potable water for their arduous last leg of their journey. Like their Brilander brethren the residents of Spanish Wells are noted seamen and farmers. They also break ground to produce crops on the "mainland."