Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"Barbados (...) is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of North America. . . . Barbados is outside the principal Atlantic hurricane belt. Its capital and largest city is Bridgetown. . . . The Portuguese claimed the island in 1536, but later abandoned it, with their only remnants being an introduction of wild hogs for a good supply of meat whenever the island was visited. An English ship, the Olive Blossom, arrived in Barbados in 1625; its men took possession of it in the name of King James I. In 1627, the first permanent settlers arrived from England, and it became an English and later British colony. As a wealthy sugar colony, it became an English centre of the African slave trade until that trade was outlawed in 1807, with final emancipation of slaves in Barbados occurring over a period of years from 1833. On 30 November 1966, Barbados became an independent state and Commonwealth realm with Elizabeth II as its queen. It has a population of 287,010 people, predominantly of African descent." [Wikipedia]