Raid on Nassau

[1] A year later, Sir Edward Birch, the new English governor, upon landing in Nassau, was so distraught at the ruin he found, that he returned to England after only a few months, without "unfurling his company-issued commission".[2][5] Leaders of the island colonies of Santiago de Cuba and Saint-Domingue viewed Nassau as a menace, and raised a joint expedition of Spanish soldiers and French boucaniers, sending them to Nassau in October 1703 aboard two frigates in the command of the officers Blas Moreno Mondragón and Claude Le Chesnaye.Edward Birch was appointed as new governor, but when he went to Nassau found it entirely abandoned; so he was obliged to return home without having opened his commission.[5] Another enemy raid in 1706 left only twenty-seven families still cringing inside makeshift huts on New Providence Island, and no more than 400 to 500 English residents scattered considerable distress from more descents during the remainder of this conflict, while their scant overseas trade dried up and no new governors or assistance came out from England.[4][6] John Graves (who had come to the Bahamas with Thomas Bridges in 1686 and served for at time as colonial secretary) reported in 1706 that the few New Providence survivors "lived scatteringly in little hutts, ready upon any assault to secure themselves in the woods.
An 1803 map by Aaron Arrowsmith showing the Island of New Providence (center of map; settlement of Nassau not visible), situated in the Gulf of Providence, with the Providence Channels to the immediate north. Other islands of the Bahamas , e.g., Grand Bahama and Abaco Islands, are further to the north, with Andros Island is to the west, and Eleuthera (island) to the east.
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