For a general overview of Bahamas history, dip into The Story of the Bahamas, by Paul Albury, which traces events up to independence, and A History of the Bahamas, by Michael Craton, which focuses on the islands' political development.The Lucayans, by Sandra Riley, relates the sad tale of the extermination of the indigenous population by ruthless Spanish conquistadores. The islands' slave era is recounted in Gail Saunders' Bahamian Loyalists and Their Slaves.Buccaneers of America is a famous 17th-century eyewitness account by John Esquemeling of the sordid carryings-on of the infamous peg-leg and parrot set.Weigh down your coffee table with Dragan and Nicholas Popov's The Bahamas Rediscovered, which covers the islands' history and contemporary scene, and Harvey Lloyd's Isles of Eden, which describes life in the southern Family Islands.Out Island Doctor, by Evans Cottman, is an excellent profile of the life of a US teacher who becomes a doctor in the Crooked Island District in the 1940s.Nassau's Historic Buildings, by Seighbert Russell, provides a detailed review of the city's architecture.