Antigua Hotel
People who visit the island of Antigua often want to see the culture, history, tourist attractions, society, and scenery of the island. Some may want to use the island to see the famous tourist attractions. Some may want to see the entertainment and sports of the island. Some may want to see the beaches of the island. Some may want a hotel for short term accommodation. Some may require a large hotel or small hotel. Some may want to use a luxury hotel or a cheap hotel.
Antigua is an island in the West Indies, in the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region, the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua means ancient in Spanish and was named by Christopher Columbus after a church in Spain, Santa Maria La Antigua, St. Mary the Ancient. It is also known as Wadadli, which comes from the origninal Amerindian inhabitants, and means approximately our own. The island's circumference is roughly 87 km and its area 281 km2. It is the largest of the Leeward Islands, and the most developed and prosperous due to its upscale tourism industry, offshore banking, internet gambling services and education services, including two medical schools.
English Harbour is a settlement on the island of Antigua, in the extreme south of the island. It takes its name from the nearby harbour in which the Royal Navy established its base of operations for the area during the eighteenth century. English Harbour on the southeastern coast is famed for its protected shelter during violent storms and as the site of a restored British colonial naval station called Nelson's Dockyard. Captain Horatio Nelson, in correspondence made while stationed at the garrison, made it clear he would prefer to be facing the French. Today English Harbour and the neighbouring village of Falmouth are an internationally famous yachting and sailing destination and provisioning centre. At the end of April and beginning of May, Antigua Sailing Week, an annual world-class regatta started in 1967, brings many sailing vessels and sailors to the island to play sports.
The highest point of the south-western Shekerley Mountains, is Boggy Peak. It is here that the runaway slaves congregated while hiding in the forest. In 1687, 27 runaways were known to be encamped in a palisaded ‘maroon’ camp at Boggy Peak. There had been a revolt of slaves, hunted down and taken dead or alive. The Militia stormed the camp and the leaders were burned in the following year.
The high rocky coast is indented by many bays and arms of the sea, several of which form excellent harbours. The surface is comparatively flat, and there is no central range of mountains as in most other Caribbean islands, but among the hills in the southwest an elevation of 1,319 feet feet is attained on Boggy Peak.
Antigua history, rich in intrigue, is well-known among Maritime buffs and English scholars. Prior to European exploration, however, the first residents in Antigua history were the Ciboney Indians, who inhabited the island for several thousand years before mysteriously departing. Pastoral Arawak Indians settled here before being replaced by the war-like Caribs, the last group in Antigua history to inhabit the island before it was 'discovered' by Europeans. That occurred in 1493, when Christopher Columbus spotted Antigua on his second voyage. Antigua history did not change dramatically for nearly 150 years after, though, as the Caribs resisted any efforts to colonize.
The Arawaks were the first well-documented group of Antiguans. This group paddled to the island by canoe (piragua) from Venezuela, ejected by the Caribs, another people indigenous to the area. Arawaks introduced agriculture to Antigua and Barbuda, raising, among other crops, the famous Antiguan Black pineapple. They also cultivated various other foods including:
Corn, Sweet potatoes (White with firmer flesh than the bright orange sweet potato used in the USA), Chilis, Guava, Tobacco, Cotton, Mangos
Some of the vegetables listed, such as corn and sweet potatoes, still play an important role in Antiguan cuisine. For example, a popular Antiguan dish, dukuna (DOO-koo-NAH) is a sweet, steamed dumpling made from grated sweet potatoes, flour and spices. In addition, one of the Antiguan staple foods, fungi (FOON-ji), is a cooked paste made of cornmeal and water.
The bulk of the Arawaks left Antigua about A.D. 1100. Those who remained were subsequently raided by the Caribs.
The Catholic Encyclopedia does make it clear that the European invaders had some difficulty identifying and differentiating between the various native peoples they encountered. As a result, the number and types of ethnic/tribal/national groups in existence at the time may be much more varied and numerous than the two mentioned in this Article.
Finally, in 1632, the first permanent European settlement was established by an Englishman, Sir Christopher Codrington. Antigua history from that point on took a dramatic and profound turn, seeing the island become a profitable sugar colony under the guidance of Codrington. For a large portion of Antigua history after this time the island was considered Britain's "Gateway to the Caribbean", poised along the major sailing routes that twisted and turned among the region's resource-rich colonies. A major figure in Antigua history, Lord Horatio Nelson, arrived in the late 18th century to preserve the island's commercial shipping prowess.
European and African diseases, malnutrition and slavery eventually destroyed the vast majority of the Caribbean's native population. No researcher has conclusively proven any of these causes as the real reason for the destruction of West Indian natives. In fact, some historians believe that the psychological stress of slavery may also have played a part in the massive number of native deaths while in servitude. Others believe that the reportedly abundant, but starchy, low-protein diet may have contributed to severe malnutrition of the "Indians" who were used to a diet fortified with protein from sea-life.
The indigenous West Indians made excellent sea vessels that they used to sail the Atlantic and Caribbean. As a result, Caribs and Arawaks populated much of South American and the Caribbean Islands. Relatives of the Antiguan Arawaks and Caribs still live in various countries in South America, notably Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia. The smaller remaining native populations in the West Indies maintain a pride in their heritage.
Christopher Columbus supposedly named the island Antigua in 1493 in honor of the Santa Maria La Antigua Cathedral in Seville. Unfortunately, this data seems to be inaccurate since this cathedral actually exists in Castilla y León, Spain. A common practice for Spanish explorers was to name newly discovered areas after Catholic saints. San Juan in Puerto Rico, Santo Domingo in Hispaniola, Santa Barbara in the USA and others follow the same trend.
In 1632, a group of English colonists left St. Kitts to settle in Antigua. Under Edward Warner, their leader, they grew cash crops of tobacco, ginger, indigo and sugar.
Sugar became Antigua's main crop from about 1674, when Christopher Codrington settled at Betty's Hope Estate. He came from Barbados, bringing the latest sugar technology with him. Betty's Hope, Antigua's first full-scale sugar plantation, was so successful that other planters turned from tobacco to sugar. This resulted in a huge increase of slaves, as sugar requires so much labor.
Today, collectors prize the uniquely designed colonial furniture created by West Indian slaves. Many of these works feature what are now traditional motifs in slave made West Indian furniture. These details include pineapples, fish and stylized serpents. The popular decorating magazine, Veranda, features a fascinating article on this subject; peppered with interesting photographs of the uniquely West Indian furnishings.
Despite the arbitrary murder of slaves being made illegal by the Slave Act of 1723, unrest among the slaves became increasingly common. In 1729, a slave named Hercules was hung, drawn and quartered, and three others burnt alive, for conspiring to kill a slave owner named Crump and his family. In 1736, a slave called Prince Klaas (whose real name was Court) planned an uprising in which the whites would be massacred. In a pasture outside the capital, St. John's, in what white observers thought was merely a colourful spectacle, but which was in reality a ritual declaration of war on the whites, Court was crowned King of the Coromantees. Due to information obtained from other slaves, the plot was discovered and put down. Prince Klaas and four other accomplices were caught and executed by the breaking wheel. Six other slaves were hung in chains and starved to death, and another 58 were burned at the stake. Ironically, the location of this torture and execution is now the Antiguan Recreation Ground.
The American War of Independence in the late eighteenth century led to a decline in the sugar industry, and at the same time public opinion in Britain gradually turned against slavery. The slave trade was finally abolished in 1808, and all existing slaves emancipated in 1834.
Nelson's dockyard was started in 1725, to provide a base for a squadron of British ships whose main function was to patrol West Indies and thus maintain Britain's sea power.
Lord Nelson was Senior Naval Officer of the Leeward Islands from 1784 to 1787 on HMS. Boreas. During his tenure, he tried to enforce the Navigation Acts. These acts prohibited trade with the newly formed United States of America. Most of the merchants in Antigua depended upon American trade, so many of them despised Lord Nelson. As a result, he was unable to get a promotion for some time after his stint on the island.
Conversely, the British considered Nelson a hero. The following quote from The Life of Horatio Lord Nelson by Robert Southey sums up his views about the controversial Navigation Acts:
The Americans were at this time trading with our islands, taking advantage of the register of their ships, which had been issued while they were British subjects. Nelson knew that, by the Navigation Act, no foreigners, directly or indirectly, are permitted to carry on any trade with these possessions. He knew, also, that the Americans had made themselves foreigners with regard to England; they had disregarded the ties of blood and language when they acquired the independence which they had been led on to claim, unhappily for themselves before they were fit for it; and he was resolved that they should derive no profit from those ties now. Foreigners they had made themselves, and as foreigners they were to be treated.
In 1967, with Barbuda and the tiny island of Redonda as dependencies, Antigua became an associated state of the Commonwealth, and in 1981 it achieved administrative independence from Britain.
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