Official Name: Barbuda Capital: St. John's Flag: Population: 85,632 Language: English Currency: Eastern Caribbean Dollar (XCD) Government Website: www.ab.gov.ag Chamber of Commerce: Emergency Info:

Barbuda is an island in the Eastern Caribbean, and forms part of the state of Antigua and Barbuda. It has a population of about 1,500, most of whom live in the town of Codrington.

Barbuda is located north of Antigua, in the middle of the Leeward Islands. To the south are the islands of Montserrat and Guadaloupe, and to the north and west are Nevis, St. Kitts, St. Barts, and St. Martin.

The Ciboney were the first to inhabit the island of Barbuda in 2400 B.C., but Arawak and Carib Indians populated the island when Christopher Columbus landed on his second voyage in 1493. Early settlements by the Spanish and French were succeeded by the English, who formed a colony in 1666.

The island was leased in 1685 to brothers Christopher and John Codrington, who had founded the town of Codrington. The Codrington family produced food on their land in Barbuda, and also transported slaves as labor for their sugar plantations on Antigua. There was more than one slave rebellion at Codrington during the 1740s, during which slaves rose against tyrannical managers. All the slaves were freed in 1834.

In 1719, Codrington and the island of Barbuda had its first census (of both people and livestock), conducted by Sir William Codrington (1715-1790).

In the second half of the 18th century, the first map of Barbuda was made. This indicates:

- substantial buildings in the Highland area
- a castle in Codrington
- a fort at River, now known as the Martello Tower
- houses at Palmetto, Coco Point, and Castle Hill
- eight catching pens
- several defensive cannon gun battery units in the south, north, west, and east
- two large plantations in the Meadow and Guava area and in the Highlands area
- Barbuda is home to the Frigate Bird Sanctuary, which is located in the Codrington Lagoon. Other points of interest include Highland House (the 18th century home of the Codrington family) and the Indian Cave, which contains ancient Amerindian petroglyphs.

Barbuda is one of those very few islands in the Caribbean that remains--and probably will remain for some time--so undeveloped as to seem positively deserted at times. With the exception of the guests of the island's small number of accommodations, the population seems largely to consist of the graceful Fregata magnificens, or frigate bird. As the birds possess a marked preference for the northwest lagoon, Barbuda's seemingly endless white and pink sand beaches are left to the peaceful wanderings of those lucky enough to sojourn here.

Activities on Barbuda are appropriately relaxed, including beach combing (on the northeastern Atlantic coast), fishing and hunting and, at the island's resort hotels, golf, tennis, snorkeling, diving, or simply soaking up the sun and the calm. Points of interest include the Frigate Bird Sanctuary, the truly noteworthy pink and white sand beaches, and an abundance of shipwrecks and beautiful reefs. Barbuda can be reached easily from Antigua, either by air (a 20-minute flight, twice daily) or by boat (in three hours). The island is home to the luxurious K-Club, Coco Point Lodge and Hotel Palmetto resorts, as well as to a number of other hotels and comfortable guest houses.

Barbuda's history has been intimately tied to that of Antigua for centuries. The first early attempts to settle Barbuda (by both the British and French) were failures, and it wasn't until 1666 that the British established a colony strong enough to survive the ravages of both nature and the Caribs. In 1680, four years before he began cultivating sugar on Antigua, Christopher Codrington was granted (with his brother John) a lease to land in Barbuda. With subsequent leases that granted them additional rights to the substantial wreckage along Barbuda's reefs, they became the island's preeminent family. For much of the eighteenth century the Codrington land on Barbuda was used to produce food and to supply additional slave labor for the Codrington sugar plantations on Antigua, and so the Barbuda's fortunes rose and fell with those of its larger neighbor. Testament to the influence of the Codringtons remains today, both in the island's place names and in its architectural remains. On Barbuda's highest point (124 feet) are the ruins of the Codrington estate, Highland House, and on the island's south coast still sits the 56-foot high Martello castle and tower, a fortress that was used both for defense and as a vantage from which to spot valuable shipwrecks on the outlying reefs.

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