Eleuthera is an island in the Bahamas, lying 50 miles (80 km) east of Nassau. It is very long and thin—110 miles (180 km) long and in places little more than a mile wide. The population is 8,000 (2000 census). The name "Eleuthera" is derived from the Greek word for "free."
The original population of Taino, or Arawaks, was mostly deported by the Spanish to work in the mines of Hispaniola, where they died out by 1550. The island is believed to have been unoccupied until the first European settlers—puritan pilgrims- arrived in 1648 from Bermuda. These settlers, known as the 'Eleutherian Adventurers,' gave the island its current name -- "eleutheria" means 'freedom' in Greek, while Eleuthera means 'free.' Some people think that Chistopher Columbus may have come to Eleuthera before any other islands in the West Indies.
Wording courtesy of http://www.wikipedia.org/
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