Barbados is the eastern-most Caribbean island. It is located at 13.4N, 54.4W. The island, which is less than one million years old, was created by the collision of the Atlantic crustal and Caribbean plates, along with a volcanic eruption. Barbados is approximately 1200 miles south of Miami From the arrival of the first British settlers in 1627-28 until independence in 1966, Barbados was a self-funding colony under uninterrupted British rule. Nevertheless, Barbados always enjoyed a large measure of local autonomy. Its House of Assembly, which began meeting in 1639, is the third-oldest legislative body in the Western Hemisphere, preceded only by Bermuda’s legislature and the Virginia House of Burgesses.