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the Bahamas
the Bahamas , officially Commonwealth of the Bahamas, independent nation (2005 est. pop. 301,800), 4,403 sq mi (11,404 sq km), in the Atlantic Ocean, consisting of some 700 islands and islets and about 2,400 cays, beginning c.50 mi (80 km) off SE Florida and extending c.600 mi (970 km) SE almost to ...
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Freeport
Freeport city (1990 pop. 25,115), Grand Bahama Island, Bahamas. A popular resort area, it developed out of a 1955 agreement between the Bahamian colonial government and a private development company to create a free port and business area. The venture was a rapid success, resulting in the additiona...
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San Salvador
San Salvador island of the Bahamas , West Indies. Many historians believe that it was the first land sighted by Columbus in the New World in 1492. The indigenous population called it Guanahani, and it has also been named Watling or Watlings Island. It was formerly confused with what is now known a...
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John Murray Dunmore, 4th earl of
John Murray Dunmore, 4th earl of 1732-1809, British colonial governor of Virginia, a Scottish peer. Appointed governor of New York in 1770, he remained there for about 11 months before being transferred to Virginia. In 1774 he led the Virginians in a campaign against Native Americans usually known ...
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Abaco and Cays
Abaco and Cays , island group, c.780 sq mi (2,020 sq km), most northerly of the Bahamas. It includes Great Abaco (the largest), Little Abaco, and the surrounding cays. The low islands, composed mainly of coral limestone, have native pine forests. Fish and sponges are taken from surrounding waters. G...
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Woodes Rogers
Woodes Rogers 1679?-1732, British privateer and colonial administrator. A romantic figure, Rogers plundered (1708-9) Spanish commerce in the Pacific and rescued Alexander Selkirk from the Juan Fernández islands. He later (1717) leased the Bahama islands and served as the first governor the...
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Sir Lynden Oscar Pindling
Sir Lynden Oscar Pindling 1930-2000, prime minister of the Bahamas (1967-92). The son of a policeman, he received a law degree (1952) from London Univ. As leader of the Progressive Liberal party, he represented the large black majority in the Bahamas and became the country's first prime minister of...
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Arawak
Arawak , linguistic stock of indigenous people who came from South America and, at the time of the Spanish Conquest, occupied the islands of the Greater Antilles, the Bahamas, Trinidad, and other areas of Amazonia. Before the arrival of the Spanish they were driven from the Lesser Antilles by the C...
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Blackbeard
Blackbeard d. 1718, English pirate. His name was probably Edward Teach, Thatch, or Thach. He probably began as a privateer in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14), then turned pirate. In 1716-18 he preyed on shipping and coastal settlements of the West Indies and the Atlantic coast of North ...
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Esek Hopkins
Esek Hopkins 1718-1802, American Revolutionary naval hero, b. Scituate, R.I.; brother of Stephen Hopkins . He commanded a privateer in the French and Indian War, and in Dec., 1775, he was appointed commander in chief of the newly established Continental navy. In 1776 he made a successful raid on N...
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