Exuma

Pirates used the deep, sheltered water of Elizabeth Harbour in the 17th century, but permanent settlement came in or around 1783, when Loyalists fleeing the American Revolution brought enslaved Africans and a cotton plantation economy to the islands. Planters from Virginia laid out George Town in 1793. The best-known Loyalist landowner, John Rolle, gave his name to the settlements of Rolleville and Rolletown on Great Exuma.

The plantations failed, as they did across the Bahamas, and the islands turned to the sea. During the Second World War the US Navy used the port of George Town. In 1958 the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park was established in the northern cays, with the newly created Bahamas National Trust set up to oversee it. The cays later reached a wider audience when scenes of the James Bond film Thunderball were filmed at a grotto off Staniel Cay.

Between 2000 and 2010 the district's population more than doubled as large and small resorts were built and direct flights began from cities as far away as Toronto. George Town's historic straw market burned down in 2015, and in 2020 the National Family Island Regatta was cancelled for the first time in 67 years because of COVID-19. Moriah Harbour Cay National Park, created in 2002, was expanded in 2015.

Sailing is Exuma's great tradition. George Town hosts the National Family Island Regatta, the biggest of the many regattas held across the Bahamas, and other events such as the George Town Cruising Regatta and the Black Point Regatta continue the tradition. George Town also holds an annual Winter Residents' Reception to welcome the seasonal residents and boaters who fill the harbour each winter.

The Bahamian Music and Heritage Festival, Junkanoo and the homecoming events of the smaller settlements are eagerly awaited by islanders and visitors alike, and the Run for Pompey marathon starts and ends in George Town each year.

Settlements are small and close-knit, and church is central to community life. Until recently the tourist population was very small, and the islands kept a reputation for privacy.

Fishing is part of island identity as well as a draw for visitors: guides take anglers after bonefish on the flats around Great and Little Exuma, boats head into Exuma Sound for mahi-mahi, wahoo and tuna, and local fishing still mainly feeds island households.

Exuma had about 6,900 people at the 2010 census, more than double the figure a decade earlier, and George Town had about 2,500 by a 2012 estimate. Most people live on Great and Little Exuma, along the main road through settlements such as Rolleville and Rolletown; the northern cays have only small villages such as Staniel Cay and Black Point.

Tourism is the main source of income — resorts, a golf course that has hosted a professional tour event, guesthouses, boat tours and the yachts that winter in Elizabeth Harbour — alongside fishing, which mainly feeds local households. George Town has a hospital, schools, a police station, grocery stores and fuel.

Life follows the water and the weather: boats carry people and goods between the cays, the mail boat and the plane connect the islands to Nassau, and the hurricane season is watched closely each year. Staniel Cay and Black Point have small airstrips of their own, served by charter flights.

Exuma's cooking is built on the sea. Conch is eaten as conch salad, chopped raw and "cooked" in lime and citrus juice with onion, sweet pepper and tomato; as cracked conch, battered and fried; as fritters; and as conch chowder. Fried and grilled fish, spiny lobster and grouper are everyday fare, and the deep water of Exuma Sound supplies mahi-mahi, wahoo and yellowfin tuna to sport fishermen and restaurants.

Plates come with peas 'n' rice, baked macaroni "pie" and coleslaw. Breakfasts bring souse, a lime-and-pepper broth, with johnnycake, and guava duff is the classic dessert, a boiled pudding with guava folded into the dough and served with a sweet sauce. On Stocking Island, a beach bar and grill across the harbour from George Town is reached by water taxi.

Kalik and Sands beer and Bahamian rum are the usual drinks, and rum punches are a fixture of the island's beach bars and marina restaurants.