Derived from an ancient Greek word for "freedom", the name ELEUTHERA was given to the island by a small band of European settlers who landed on its beaches in 1648, fleeing religious persecution in Bermuda. A set of four closely related islands, the Eleutheran group's most prominent member is the long, thin island of Eleuthera itself, over a hundred miles long but less than two miles wide. The most populous of the Out Islands, Eleuthera has ten thousand residents scattered in a dozen fishing villages spread along its coastline, though not much goes on, outside of some ocean activities and laid-back solitude.