New Providence Island, the heart of the Bahamas, is a palm- and mahogany-shaded flat stretch of limestone and white sand. The island holds an incongruous mix of glitzy casinos and quiet, shady lanes; trendy resorts and tiny settlements that recall a distant, simpler age; massive land-development projects and vast stretches of untrammeled territory. In the course of its history, these islands have weathered the comings and goings of lawless pirates, Spanish invaders, slaveholding British Loyalists who fled the United States after the Revolutionary War, Civil War–era Confederate blockade runners, and Prohibition rumrunners. The latest group to arrive isn't here to pillage and plunder. Each year more than a million cruise-ship passengers arrive at Nassau's Prince George Wharf, on short trips from Florida or as a stopover on cruises to ports farther south in the Caribbean. Many head across the graceful bridge to the aptly named Paradise Island.