ABSTRACT
The terrain of Barbados is relatively flat, and it rises gently to a central highland region. The lowest point is the Atlantic Ocean, and the highest point is Mount Hillaby. Probably originally inhabited by Arawaks, Barbados was first visited by Europeans in the 16th century. First claimed by England in the early 17th century, it was first settled under the auspices of William Courteen, circa 1625. The coordinate systems of Barbados seem to be somewhat of an enigma for a Commonwealth nation. According to a statement found on the Barbados Land Surveyors Association some years ago, they stated that triangulation “was used to establish the major control stations in Barbados in the 1920’s”. The original topographic mapping of British Commonwealth nations was undertaken by the Directorate of Overseas Surveys, after World War II. The grid is easy to recover if one is familiar with the standard BWI grid conventions, but the defining parameters are unfortunately obscure.
