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THE ISLES OF SUMMER," 
 
 OE 
 
 (D 
 
 'A listless climata that, where, sooth to say, 
 No living wi-ht could work, nor cared e'en to play." 
 
 Thompson's Castle of Indolenco. 
 
 ^lln^iXMts^& (BaVilvn. 
 
 3By CHi^E-LiES I'V'E.S, M. J^., 
 
 A SI33IEEK OI" THE NEW HAVES EAK. 
 
 /^?7- 
 
 JMew J^aven, poNN. :• 
 
 PUBLISHED EV THE AUTHOR, 
 
 iCCo, 
 

 -3- 
 
 "3. 
 
 ■ ■ a)(WCs^ (0 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the j'ear 1S80, -^ 
 
 Bt CHARLES IVES, ^ 
 
 In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
 
 £• 
 
 ^-/2^g^/ 
 
 nl Hoggson & Robinson, Printers, n] 
 LJ New Haven. l^ 
 
 E. B. Sheldon & Co., Electrolypers, 
 New Haven. 
 
; . 
 
 13^ 
 
 TO HIS WIFE, 
 
 /77 
 
 THE COMPANION OF HIS TKAVELS, 
 
 WHO GBEATLY INCEEASED THE PLEASTTEES TO WHICH 
 
 NEW SCENES GAVE BIKTH, 
 
 ENOOUEAGED AND AIDED HIM IN HIS LITERAEY LABOES, 
 
 AND HELPED TO INSPIRE HIS BEST THOUGHTS, 
 
 THIS BDOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DSDIOATBD, 
 
 BY ITS AUTHOR. 
 
FKEF^CE. 
 
 In offering this book to the reading public the author of the Isles of Summeb 
 is not unmindful of the maxim that "silence is golden." But silence is often 
 -a grave mistake, and may be a crime. The gift of speech has rendered possi- 
 ble the intellectual development which distinguishes the human race. The 
 different stages in the progress and perfection of language are the tide marks 
 of civilization. Take from man the power to express his thoughts, and you 
 degrade him to a beast. There is a time to speak and a time to abstain from 
 speaking. More than golden are those gems of thought which inspired genius 
 has in by-gone times wedded to imperishable language and given as a rich 
 legacy to the ages. But he is a wise man who knows how properly and when 
 to address the great public and challenge its attention. The loud din of a 
 garrulity stale and insipid, is ever mingled with the elevated and ennobling 
 notes of inspired voices. Many of the utterances that evidence man's divine 
 origin, to which the Present listens, broke the stillness of dim and distant 
 ages in the morning of civilization, while the genius of each succeeding age 
 has imparted to the literary air vibrations of itd own, that mingle with those 
 of the past, and a great tide of melody that never ebbs, rolls grandly down 
 to our own times. 
 
 It would seein to be sufficient for the Present to sit at the footstool of the Past 
 and listen. The public ear is not only filled but trained, educated and critical, 
 so that a new voice has no more chance of being heard, than a little ripple of 
 attracting attention when ocean's great heart throbs with the quickening 
 breath of a hurricane. A new book by a new author is like a new leaf amid 
 the evergreen and varied foliage of a tropical forest. When one unknown to 
 fame, takes his first born literary child in manuscript sheets to any of the 
 notable publishers in either of our great cities, the cordiality with which he is 
 received is like that with which a tramp is welcomed at the front door of a 
 palatial dwelling. The chance that the latter is an angel in disguise, is con- 
 sidered -equal to the probability that the former is inspired. In many cases, 
 
t PREFACE. 
 
 probably in most, the publisher is too busy to even look at the literary bant- 
 ling, although, for aught he knows, it is a little, live, genuine literary Moses, 
 nestled among the reeds and bulrushes of the river of immortality. 
 
 It sonietimes happens that in the firmament of letters, brilliant with the light 
 of stars unfading and quenchless, great intellectual luminaries appear unher- 
 alded, 
 
 " WhoBe sudden visitations daze ttie world, 
 And flash lilce liglitning ; while they leave behind 
 A voice thai in the distance, far away, 
 ■;■■ Wakens the slumbering ages," 
 
 and, as publisher's are not infallible, and do not hy intuition know every 
 thing, it has occasionally happened that they have found out, when it was too 
 late, that they have ignorantly confounded these celestial wanderers with the 
 countless fire-flies that rise from literary meadows, and disappear with the 
 warm summer night that gave them birth and made their short-lived existence 
 possible. 
 
 Publishers are book-brokers, or middle men, who bring producers and con- 
 sumers together. They are the merchants of literature, and merely dispose 
 of the brain crop. Generally indemnified against loss, theirs is the lion's 
 share of the profits when profits are realized. Authors, even the most suc- 
 cessful, receive but a very small percentage of the profits realized from the 
 sale of their works. Great publishing houses accumulate great fortunes ; 
 while great authors die poor, and leave to their families only a brilliant and 
 enduring name, which is impotent to keep the wolf of hunger from their doors. 
 But publishers are to authors a convenience if not a necessity. They supply 
 the wings whicli arc required to enable a new candidate for literarj^ honors to 
 ascend sufficiently high in the world of letters to be seen. As notable pub- 
 lishers have at times fastened to dead weights, they have become exceedingly 
 incredulous and cautious, and look with great suspicion upon all who have not 
 demonstrated their ability to float and flj^ in the upper air of popular favor. 
 As doorkeepers they guard the entrance of that great stage upon which the 
 new author must stand in order to be widely known, but they are so chary of 
 their favors that only an occasional novice is allowed to tread the boards, and 
 take his chance of being hissed or applauded bj^ the great public whose atten- 
 tion he presumes to challenge. 
 
 As the author of the Isles of Summer was well aware of these facts, and 
 had no standing place in the great world of letters, why did he not continue 
 
PREFACE. 7 
 
 to devote himself exclusively to the law ? Why did he presume to write a 
 book, and having written it, fossilize it with type, and coffin it in gilded 
 covers ? 
 
 These questions are legitimate, and they shall be honestly and frankly an- 
 swered. 
 
 While treading the deck of a Nev/ York and Savannah steamer, after hav- 
 ing been a day or two at sea, and while gazing with a pleasing awe upon an 
 ocean mysterious, restless and sky-bound, he heard, like the author of Revela- 
 tion, a voice saying unto him "TFnie/" and without pausing to think or 
 inquire whether the injunction came from heaven or elsewhere, he obeyed 
 with alacrity. It did not appear to be a matter of choice, but of uncontrolable 
 necessity. He had taken with him neither ink nor paper, but the ship's 
 purser kindly provided him with both and with a seat at his table. When 
 the author's pen was fairly started, it was like the artificial leg which an in- 
 genious German invented — it could not be stopped ; so he continued to write 
 as he traveled, and to travel as be wrote, and this volume is the result. 
 
 Visiting for the first time "the home of summer and the sun," the author 
 was constantly surprised and charmed with new phases of that wondrous 
 beauty which ever, in the vicinity of the tropics,- rests lilie an atmosphere upon 
 sea and land. His nerves were soothed and quieted by a climate which the 
 Gulf Stream and trade-winds delightfully tempered and medicated. Lulled, 
 soothed, and pleased by such novel surroundings, it was a relief to the mind 
 to give expression to its agreeable sensations, and shed some of its thoughts. 
 To gratify and amuse his friends at home, many of his impressions and pen- 
 pictures were forwarded for publication in the New Haven Journal and 
 Courier. They met with unexpected favor, and if his vanity had not, as he 
 trusts, departed with his youth, he would have been proud, as he certainly 
 was gratified at the warm, hearty and general commendation with which his 
 published letters were received. Much enlarged, and to some extent re- 
 written, they are now issued in book-form at the request, frequently and ur- 
 gently expressed, of many of the readers of his newspaper communications. 
 The author has the more readily yielded to these requests because he beli;;ve3 
 his book will meet an unsupplied want, there being no work in the market 
 which gives the information it contains. A literary tent has only at long in- 
 tervals been pitched for a few days upon the Bahamas, and the coral isles 
 have yielded to letters very meagre though valuable harvests. Enjoying to 
 some extent the fruits of the labors of others, the author has also cropped new 
 fields, and while he has not exhausted or very much impaired the fertility of 
 
g^ PEEFACE. - 
 
 the soil, lie trusts his book will not only minister to the pleasure but be of 
 some practical value to those of his fellow citizens who, for any reason, desire 
 to avoid the severity of the Aveather at the north during the winter and early 
 spring months. It is but a chance seedling, but valuable fruit is sometimes 
 found upon trees by the wayside and in hedge-rows which no professional 
 pomologist has planted. II in the fruit gardens of literature the Isles of 
 Summer shall take root and flourish in the warm sun of popular favor, its 
 author will be gratified; and he believes he will not be greatly troubled should 
 it be consigned as rubbish to the brush-heap — 
 
 'For he wrote not for money, nor for praise, 
 Kor to be called a wit, nor to wear bays." 
 
 He seems to timself not so much an actor as a spectator having little inter- 
 est in the result. The freedom of his will has in this matter, to a large de- 
 gree, been dominated and controlled by circumstances. The movements of 
 the pen which recorded his thoughts seem like yesterday's heart-beats — they 
 left so little impression upon mind and memory. 
 
 Seven of the wood cut illustrations in this book, being those which in the 
 table of illustrations are numbered respectively 4, 5, 7, 10, 11, 13 and 14, are 
 by permission of C. H. Mallory and Company of New York, the proprietors 
 of the steamship line now running between New York, Nassau and Matanzas, 
 copied from an illustrated pamphlet which they have printed for the benefit 
 of the patrons of their line. The other wood engravings have been made for 
 this work and are with two exceptions from photographs taken in Nassau by 
 Mr. J. F. Coonley of New York, The lithographic plates arc from drawings 
 made by Mr. J. H. Emerton of New Haven, and are mostly from specimens 
 which the author's wife collected in the Bahamas. The author takes pleasure 
 in acknowledging his indebtedness to Prof. A. E. Yerrill, of the Sheffield 
 Scientific School, for valuable suggestions and for the scientific names of the 
 specimens in natural history pictured upon the lithographic plates 
 
 IvESTON, near New Haven, Ct. 
 December 13, A. D., 1880. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Chap. I.— Man and the Migratory Birds. An Ocean Voyage in Mid-Winter. A Wasted 
 Snow Storm. A Model Steamer. Savannah. The Route between the Sea-Islands and 
 the Mainland. The Cumberland Islands. Ruins of Dungenness. St. Mary's, Fer- 
 nandiua. Amelia Beach. Arrival at Jacksonville. Crossing the Gulf Stream. Arrival 
 at Nassau p. 1.3 
 
 Chap. II.— A Break-water of Islands, Rocks, Reefs and Banks over 2,000 miles long. The 
 Bahama Archipelago. The Gulfs, Sounds and Ship Channels that penetrate and sur- 
 round the group. Hidden Chapters of the Earth's Autobiography Discovered by Mod- 
 ern Scientists. Monuments of Buried Lands. Ocean Thoroughfares. The Bermudas — 
 their Gradual Subsidence p. 31 
 
 Chap. III.— New Providence. Killarney and Cunningham Lakes. Caves and Cave Earth. />^ 
 The Mermaid's Pool. Nassau— its Streets, Public and Private Buildings, and Popula- 
 tion. The Poor but Happy Negroes. Fort Fiucastle; its Marine Signals. Grant's 
 Town and other Suburban Villages. Fort Charlotte; its Subterranean Rooms and 
 Charming Outlook. Lunching at the Expense of the British Queen. The Removal of 
 the Old Barracks. Fort Montague. A Luxuriant Growth of Titles. The Harbor and 
 Barof Nassau. The Breakers. Shells and Shell- work. Nassau's Public Library, p. 43 
 
 Chap. IV.— The Royal Victoria Hotel. Scenes daily witnessed in its Court. Sacred /-^ 
 Songs of the Negroes p. 69 
 
 Chap. V.— Flora of the Isles of Summer. Fertilizing Air. Large Trees on the top of 
 Stone Walls and in Limestone Quarries. Trees that will not Die and cannot be killed. 
 Trees Within Trees. The Monkey Tamarind, the Wild Fig, and the Ceiba or Silk 
 Cotton Trees. Thompson's Folly. Palm Trees— the Cocoanut, the African, the Cab- • 
 bage and the Palmetto. The India Rubber Tree. The Singing Tree, Tamarind 
 Trees, and Trees Valuable for Timber, for Dyes, for their Spicy Bark, and for .Medic- 
 inal Purposes. The Natural more Wonderful than the Supernatural. , . p. 79 
 
 Chap. VI.— Fruits and Flowers of the Bahamas. Fruits in Bills of Fare. The Orange, 
 the Pine Apple, the Sapodilla, the Cocoanut, the Hog Phim, the Shaddock, and the 
 Forbidden Fruit. Other Bahama Fruits. Flowering Trees, Shrubs and Vines, p. 99 
 
 Chap. VII.— Soothing, Languid Air; its Effects. Ambition Dies. The Bahamns not in- 
 cluded In the Primal Curse. The Island of Indolence. Soothfd Sharks. Lazy air and 
 Lazy blood Putting Insect Plagues to Sleep. Mice and Men alike Affected. A large 
 
10 CfONTEKTS. 
 
 Fish Story. Sea Turtles Ecsignod to their Fate. Contented and Happy Neo-roes. 
 Good Order in Nassau. How a iNIineniuni can be Secured. AirricuUural and Manu- 
 factnring Indu-^try not Rno;ed in tlic Uucks. Sugar miliing. Small Islands unfavor- 
 able to lutulltctual Development p. 113 
 
 Chap, Till.— Absence of Wild Animals upon Coral Islands. Pleasures of the Chase Un- 
 known. Diet of the Aborigines. IIow Alligatora Taste. The Guanas as a Table 
 Luxury. They arc Intoxicated with Whistling Music. Vassar Girls Charming 
 Turtles. Mountain Crabs. 'J he Hermit Craba Freebootvr. The Lizards; Clanging 
 their Color and Hunting Game. Animals upon the Wes". India Islands when Discov- 
 ered. Snakes. S. a Turtles. Turtle Shells. IIow Sponges Grow and form Commu- 
 nistic Communiiies. The Sponge fisheries. Value and Quantity of Bahama Sponges 
 Exported p. 1:^5 
 
 Chap. IS.— Amusements. Small and Isolated Communities thrown upon 1 heir Own Re- 
 sources. Vi.-it ofa circus Comijany to Kassau. lis Effecu upon the Negroes. Whist 
 and Boating Clubs. Base-bill and I'olo. Miliiary and i\larblc-i. Religion Utilizing 
 the Idle Hours. Streets Placarded with Notices of Solemn Fasts. Absence of a Color 
 Line in Churches. Amateur Fishing. The Boatmon Canvassingfor Customers. Capt. 
 Sampson a Fisher of Men. He Describes and Discusses the Sharks. . . p. 143 
 
 Chap. X.— Yachting in Bahama Waters. Sampson and his Triton. Testing a Sail-boat. 
 Searching Outside in a Good Wind for the LiucStorin. Sampsna's Visit; to New York. 
 Ilia Experiences and Impressions. lieliable Wind— Delightful Views— Congenial 
 Friends. The Log of the I'leasurc Seekers. Kewly Discovered Poets. The Gulf 
 Weed. . p. 155 
 
 Chap. XL— Nassau as a Sanitarium. Its Mild and Generally Salubrious Climate. Its 
 Freedom from Cold Waves of Air and Cold Currents of Water. Its Vulnerable Points. 
 No Absorbing and Filtering Sands. Impurities Endangering its Water Supply and 
 Poisoning the Air. A High Degree of Heat in the Sun. Di-eases upon the Islands. 
 ^mall but Crowded Human Ant Hills. The Yellow Fever in Nassau in 1S80. Tho 
 Pestilence in other Neighboring Cities at Other Times. -The Angel of Health Rides 
 Upon Hurricanes. Cleansing the City. Constant Vigilance and Activit}' of Nassau's 
 Board of Health Essential toits Safety. Who may Ilopcfor Relief and Cure in Nassau. 
 Not the Best Place in which cither to be very Sick or to Die. Frost a Factor in the 
 Problem of Civilization. Human Development and Progress Dependent upon Ice. 
 Sea Bathing all Winter p ITl 
 
 Chap. XII.— Corals and Coral Reefs. The Marvelous JJcanfy of the "Marine Garden." 
 Its Corals, Coralines, Gorgonias, Alga;, Sponges and ^\'onderrully Colored Fishes. 
 Water Glasses. Natural Aquaiiums. Coral Bowers and Grottoes. Sea Urchins, 
 The Colored Divers. Lfe in the Rock p. -209 
 
 Chap. XIII.— The Extent of the World of Waters and its Wonderful Fauna. Bahama 
 Fishes. Sr.me Eminently Distinguished for their Brilliant Colors, and Others for 
 their Singularity, described. Fish that arc Poisonous. Tabic Fish. The Bahamas 
 Rich in Beautiful Mollusks. They Harmonize with the other Esqusite Forms of Life 
 
C6XTE]!tTS. 11- 
 
 and mth the Brilliant Waters. The Shores Paved with Shells Wonderfal In Form 
 and Color. The Conch. , p. S25 
 
 Chap. XIV.— Moonlight and Starlight in the Bahamas. New Ucavens. The Crescent 
 and the Cross. The Starry Cross of Southern Skies. Midnight Watchings, with their 
 Eesults. . p. 241 
 
 Chap. XV.— The Coral Isles the- Home of Beautiful Birds. Their Scarcity in Nassau and 
 Its Causes. The Necessity of Le<ra] Enactments to Protect the Birds. The Flamingo. 
 The Bahama Mocking Bird. A Brief Account of the Visitant and Resident Birds of 
 the Bahamas, .....,..,,,,, p. 847 
 
 Chap. X\^.— The Influence of the British Court and Aristrocracy upon the People of 
 Nassau. The Landing of Prince Alfred upon the Island of New Providence. Nassau 
 and the British G vcrnment During ihc Late War of thj Rebellion. Blockade Run- 
 ning. Nassau Practically a Coiifederate Port. International Laws Construed and 
 Enforced, so as to Greatly Damage the United States. Fortunes Rapidly Made, Squan^ 
 dered and Lo-t. Wild Excitement and Great Dissipation. Great Increase of Disease 
 and Crime in Nassau. . . . . . ... . , . . p. 263 
 
 Chap. XVII.— The Bahama Constitution. Opening of the Colonial Legislature. Imposing 
 Ceremonies. The Negroes Made Happy. The Governor and his Military Guard of 
 Honor. "Parliament" Prorogued. Martial Music and Booming Cannon. Engrossed 
 Bills Approved and Signed. Small Annu:il Crops of New Laws. No Color Line in the 
 House of Assembly. Wrecks and Wrecking iu the Bahamas. Salvors and Salvage, 
 Bahama Hurricanes p. 275 
 
 Chap. XVTIL— The Social Life of Nassau. Society Pervaded by Natural Chrystalizing 
 Laws. English Forms and Titles well Rooted. Citizens of the Griat Republic Am- 
 bitious to Mix and Mingle in High-toned Society. Social Gayeties— Picnics and Balls, 
 Wine and Waltzing, the "Sound of Revelry at ^'ight." Hi-hways Made and Repaired 
 to Accomodate the Victims of a tio Generous Hospitality. A Governor who Appre- 
 ciates the Dance, and docs r ot L'^ndercslimate the Value of His Titles. A Doctor of 
 Divinity Made Happy. In What Places Hospitality is Indiijenous. , . p. 287 
 
 Chap, XIX.— The First Great Voyage of Columbus. He Solves the Dark Problem of the 
 Ages. His Landfall. The Who!e Group Made Forever Memorable. The Spirits of 
 Columbus and Ulack Beard Indelibly Impressed Upon the Islands. Emiuently Good 
 and Bad Men 'Not Dead When They Die. The Natives As Columbus Found and De- 
 scribed Them. The West India I^rlands Occupied by Substantially One People. The 
 Caribs. The Search Among the Bahamas for the Fountain of Youth, . p. 293 
 
 Chap. XX.— Spanish Perfidy and Cruelty. The Natives by Force and Fraud are CaiTied ' 
 to Hispaniola and Perish iu its Mines. The Islands without Inhabitants. An English 
 Captain Discovi rs New Providence. George HI of England makes a Royal Grant of 
 the Bahamas to Six Proprietors. Pirates Infest th« Inlands. Black Beard. He Es- 
 tablishes Himself Upon New Providence. The Early Governors. Summary Punish- 
 ment Inflicted by the Spaniards, and by the French and Spaniards. Nassau Built and 
 
1^^ C6iS"TeW^. 
 
 Named in 1694. The British Government Purchase the Proprietary Title to the Islands. 
 Nassau is Captured and Abandoned by the Americans Under Commodore Hopkins . 
 In 1781 it is Captured and Garrisoned by the Spaniards. It is Re-taken by American 
 Loyalists. The Abolition of Slavery . p. 313 
 
 Chap. XXI.-^Nassau Revisited. Lack of ConfTdence in the Northern March. Missing 
 Trunks; Man and His Clothes. The New York and Nassau Steamboat Line. The 
 Western Texas. Notable Passengers. The Fountain of Youth on Litchfield Hill. 
 Femandina. Picturesque Shores. Sea-birds. The Mouth of the St. John's. The Bar 
 and Breakers. A Visit to St. Nicholas. Incidents and Scenes in the Gulf of Florida. 
 "Bank Sharks." Porpoises. Crossing the Gulf Stream. Dolphins. Sun-eet Views. 
 Arrival at Nassau , , , . . . . , p. 327 . 
 
 Chap. XXII — Pleasant Return Voyages. Waiting in Florida the Arrival of Summer at 
 - the North. Making Apologies to a Tropical Sun. The Steamer City of Austin— Capt. 
 Stevens. A Leaf from the Chapter of the Captain's Nautical Experiences. Little 
 Sankey Transported and Transplanted. Reciprocal Welcomes. . . , p. 349 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 WOOD ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 1. Frontispiece— View from high ground back of Nassau. 
 
 2. Map. pp. 12-13. 
 
 3. Screw Steamer City of Savannah, pp. 16-17. 
 
 4. Glass Window at Harbour Island, pp. 32-33. 
 
 5. Fort Fincastle. pp. 50-51. - > y , cT 
 
 6. View in Grant's Town. pp. 56-57. ' ' ' 
 
 7. View from Fort Fincastle. pp. 64-65. 
 
 8. The Roj'al Victoria Hotel, pp. 72-73. 
 
 9. The Cciba or Silk Cotton Tree. pp. 90-91. 
 
 10. Shore View west of Nassau, pp. 112-113. 
 
 11. Nassau from Hog Island, pp. 160-161. 
 
 12. George Street and the Government House, pp. 288-289. 
 
 13. A Private Residence in Nassau, pp. 296-297. 
 
 14. Bay Street, west end of Nassau, pp. 312-313. 
 
 LITHOGRAPHS. 
 
 15. Bahama Reptiles, pp. 1,30-131. 
 16. 
 
 17 
 18, 
 19 
 20 
 
 Sponges, pp. 140-141 
 Corals. ) „,,. .-,,.. 
 
 Flexible Corals. fPP''^'"-''- 
 Echinoderms. pp. 224-225. 
 Fishes, pp. 232-233. 
 
 21. Biihama Fishes, pp. 2,32-2;33. 
 
 22. Squid. Octopus, pp. 234-235. 
 
 23. Bahama Shells. J pp2g„_233_ 
 
 25. Flamingo, pp. 218-249. 
 
 26. Dolphins, pp. 344-345. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 Man and the Migratory Birds. An Ocean Voyage in Mid-winter. A 
 Wasted Snow Storm. A Model Steamer. Savannah. A Pleasant run be- 
 ticeen the Sea-Islands and the Mainland. The Cumberland Islands. Dun- 
 genness. St. Mary. Fernandina and its Amelia Beach. Ariival at Jack- 
 sonville. Crossing the Gulf Stream. Landing at Nassau. 
 
 "The sails were filled, and fair the light winds blew, 
 As pleased to waft him from his native land." — Bteon. 
 
 Nature's special favorites are the birds. With the speed of 
 the Avind, and a flight almost as noiseless, they ever follow Sum- 
 mer where she leads, bask in her sunlight, and repose in her 
 grateful shadows. As Winter, snow-clad ajid frozen, advances 
 or retreats, they follow in his footsteps, and sport in the forests of 
 verdure, and in the fields and bowers of bloom, that soon clothe 
 his track of desolation with wondrous beauty. 
 
 What nature denied, man has acquired for himself — a speed 
 superior to thai; of the birds and outstripping the wind. His 
 thoughts travel with the lightning, and, practically, space is 
 almost annihilated by his steam chariots upon iron roads. 
 
 Science, meanwhile, has explored and mapped the great ocean 
 world, sounded its profoundest depths, discovered and described 
 its shoals and rocks and Avinding shores, and, wedded to mechan- 
 ical ingenuity, has enabled man, in the glowing language of the 
 east, to •• take the wings of the morning and fly to the uttermost 
 parts of the earth." 
 
 13 ^ 
 
14 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 Hence, after tlie dwellers in the nortli have eacli in liis genera- 
 tion for untold thousands of years been snow-bound and ice- 
 anchored, their descendants in our day are able at winter's 
 approacli, to migrate with the birds, and thus secure perfect 
 exemption from its discomforts. To many, suffering from dis- 
 ease, or with blood which age has made sluggish, this is a great 
 boon. 
 
 In the winter of 1S79, and again in 1S80, the author influenced 
 mainly by sanitary considorations, fled from frost to the islands 
 of unending summer, spending sometime in Florida wlien going 
 and returning in 1879, and again on his way home in 1880. The 
 knowledge he was thus enabled to acquire, is in part contained 
 in those pages. Most of his notes upon Florida may perhaps 
 form the ground work of a future volume. 
 
 On a clear morning in January, A. D. 1879, the author looked 
 out of his office wnidow upon ISTcw Haven's beautiful " Green," 
 and saw its noble elms in their maturity, lifting their long bare 
 brown arms towards heaven as if in supplication, while a white 
 and beautiful carpet of snow revealed the shadows and reflected 
 the sunlight. Three driys afterwards, he sat upon the deck of 
 an ocean steamer, in a pleasant summer atmosphere, within one 
 hundred and fifty miles of the city of Savannah, with nothing 
 in view but the blue dome of the sky, the restless ocean waves, 
 and some daring sea birds which hovered high in air above the 
 steamer's foaming track, and watched with their telescopic eyes, 
 and waited for their share of the noon-day meal. The contrast 
 was most striking; the change from a life of care and of continu- 
 ed moil and toil, to a state of calm and peaceful rest, was as 
 agreeable as it was marked and sudden. But life i^ivAi of start- 
 ling and unexpected contrasts. Tliere is seemingly no stability 
 but instability, nothing constant but unrest. Change itself be- 
 comes changeless in its unvarying mutability. 
 
A 3nD--WINTEE OCEAN' VOYAGE. 15 
 
 Friday has acquired a bad name, csioecially among those "who 
 have their ''home npon the rolling deep." But for the author, 
 it had no terrors — loarticularly as he never made it a matter of 
 conscience to keep its fasts or to diet exclusively upon its fish, 
 lie did not therefore hesitate to take passage on board the steamer 
 Elm City for JSJ'ew York, on Friday evening, the 17th of January, 
 A. D. 1879, Never in summer' did he more comfortably pass 
 over Long Island Sound, or a^vakon after it feeling more invigor- 
 ated and refreshed. A short v/hile previous the little light snow- 
 flakes had noiselessly fallen upon the great city of New- York^ 
 effectually barricaded its immense net work of streets and ave- 
 nues, and more effectually held it in subjection than could a 
 great and powerful army Avitli banners. With a feeling of great 
 relief wo soon exchanged its dirty and slippery sidewalks for 
 the busy deck and luxurious saloons of the screw steamer City 
 of Savannah, a floating palace of the sea. 
 
 At about half -past three o'clock, p. m., on Saturday, the 18 th 
 of January, we left pier No. 43, North Eiver, steamed down 
 the harbor of Ncav York, between the pleasant but then cold 
 shores of Long Island and New Jcrse}^ into the broad Atlantic, 
 and fancied its gentle, murmuring, dancing and slightly foam- 
 crested waves gave us a triendly greeting, and as warm a Avelcomo 
 as was possible at that frigid season of the year. 
 
 At the mention of a winter's voyage, before a blazing fire or 
 near a comfortable steam radiator, one involuntarily shudders, 
 shivers and recoils. But had we not just got to the end of a 
 long series of storms, and iierce, cold winds ? Had not the wind 
 god of winter exhausted himself, and vv^ould he not now stop to 
 take breath? "We thought so, and soon found that wo were right. 
 Saturday afternoon and night the Atlantic Avas in one of its mild- 
 est moods. Sunday the wind took us directly aft, rounded out 
 our foresail, foretopsail and foregallant sail, billowed the water's 
 
16 ISLES OP smrMEE. 
 
 surface just enough with snow-white crests to please the eye, but 
 not enough to awaken feelings of danger even m timid minds. 
 The clouds gradually thickened overhead, a few snowflakes with 
 seeming reluctance noiselessly descended, and were instantly lost 
 in the mysterious depths of the ocean — for a snowflake and a 
 steamship are alike insignificant so far as old ocean is concerned. 
 Soon we experienced the pleasure of seeing, what is not very often 
 witnessed, a heavy snow storm off the capes of Virginia, and it 
 seemed so queer to see the snow fall hour after hour and leave 
 not a trace behind. ISTo rocks, no shrubs, no evergreen trees 
 were glorified by it, but ocean, with cold indifference, received 
 this gift from heaven unmoved and unaffected. Earth may well 
 welcome the snow storm which protects and saves its priceless 
 floral treasures,' =but what is the use of wasting snow storms upon 
 the ocean? 
 
 At half-past six o'clock on the evening of January 19th, the 
 snow storm being over, Ave saw at a distance of some fifteen miles, 
 the revolving light of Hatteras. Can it be, we inwardly ex- 
 claimed, that this is the place that navigators of the sea would 
 be so glad to avoid ; the home of the strongest and most fitful 
 winds, and of wildest storms; a place loved only by wreckers? 
 Our steamship still spread her sails to the wind, and her rocking 
 was so gentle that not a passenger's seat was empty at the supper 
 table. It Avas not long before spittoons commenced a game of 
 ten-pins upon the floor of the main saloon, the wind howled and 
 hissed at us as it passed; the propeller uttered its cry of alarm, 
 as, in the rolling and pitching of the vessel, it protruded out of 
 the water; strong men staggered and reeled, while during the 
 short momentary intervals of comparative repose, they moved 
 from one holding-on place to another; the ladies sought refuge in 
 their state-rooms, and, devoutly thankful that he had not broken 
 any of his or his fellow-passengers' bones, the author soon fol- 
 
A MID- WINTER OCEAl^ VOYAGE. 1? 
 
 lowed tlieir good example. We were steaming away from. Plat- 
 teras, when the demon of the stormy cape sent some of his 
 specimen blasts after ns. Our captain deemed it best to " lie 
 to" aAvhile until that "'little spell of weather" was over. 
 
 During the night nearly all the passengers were more or less 
 sick, and the cold Avas sufficient to freeze water on the deck of the 
 steamer from stem to stern. The next day the weather was all 
 that could b® desired ; the atmosphere calm, agreeably cool and 
 bracing, while the sea was as smooth, quiet and peaceful, as if it 
 had not yet been awakened from a night of profound repose and 
 quiet sleep. 
 
 The " City of Savannah " is one of a line of steamers built and 
 owned by the Georgia Central Railroad Company, for the trans- 
 portation of passengers and freight between Savannah and N"ew 
 York. At an expense of one million of dollars — being one-fifth 
 of its capital — it secured the building at Chester, Penn., of four 
 steamei's, named respectively, the "''City of Macon," the " City 
 of Columbus," the *•' Grate City," and the '' City of Savannah." 
 They are all substantially alike, and the last was placed upon the 
 line in the summer or fall of 1878, and the first about a year 
 previous. 
 
 Our steamer was almost a novice upon the ocean. A few months 
 before in the State of Pennsylvania, and from the west bank of 
 the river Delaware, it first took to the water. Yet how grandly, 
 with an air of conscious power, it made its way over the path- 
 less, fathomless and boundless sea ! When no land-m^arks are 
 seen upon the horizon's verge, and no guiding stars in the sky, 
 it still speeds confidently and unerringly on its way over the 
 trackless wilderness of water. 
 
 Born to an inheritance of labor, the author experienced a new 
 sensation — he had nothing to do. He determined therefore to 
 make the acquaintance of the ship, and thus utilize some of his 
 
1^ ISLES OF SUMMEE. 
 
 leisure lioui^s. "No expense was apparently spared to make it in 
 all respects first-class, and in it are embodied the latest and best 
 improvements and appliances of marine architecture. 
 
 The length of the Savannah, measuring fifteen feet from the 
 water line, is 260 feet ; its length over all is 275 feet. It is 38 
 feet 6 inches beam molded. Her dejDth from base line to tip of 
 spar deck is 26 feet 10 inches ; depth of hold 24 feet ; total dej^tli 
 below spar deck 75 feet. Her registered tonnage is 2,092 iVir 
 tons. She can carry at one time 4,000 bales of cotton. She has 
 three decks besides the hurricane deck. The sjjar deck is entirely 
 of iron ; the main deck is partly of iron, and the deck frames 
 are all of iron. She was at first brig-rigged, and could spread 
 5,000 yards of canvass; but the s^Dars-on the mainmast have 
 been taken down, as it was found that they were not needed, so 
 that now her rigging is that of a hermaphrodite brig. 
 
 The dining saloon is located aft the main hatch on the main 
 deck, and is 50 feet by 29 feet at a distance of 30 feet from the 
 main stairway. Aft of and near the dining saloon, is the 
 main saloon with rows of state-rooms ; each state-room is ele- 
 gantly and conveniently fitted up, and has a window looking 
 out upon the ocean. A small saloon over the dining saloon is 
 called ^'social hall," and being so fortunate as to have a room 
 Avhich opened into this " hall," the author is able to testify that 
 ''social hall" is decidedly the best part of the ship. There is 
 another saloon with state-rooms aft the main hatch, but it is 
 much less desirable than the other two. 
 
 The saloons are elaborately and most beautifully finished 
 with the choicest woods that money could secure. The natural 
 grain has been preserved and the polished surfaces are as hard 
 and smooth as glass. Cherry, mahogany, black walnut, bird's 
 eye maple, tulip wood and amaranth are so combined as to pro- 
 duce the best esthetic effect, and one never tires looking at and 
 studying them. 
 
DESCRtMtOK' 01' STEAMER. 19 
 
 Eacii state-room is proyided with roomy bertlis, first-class 
 spring matrasses, and patent wash slabs and bowls, Avith conve- 
 nient fixtures, — the latter superior to any we had ever seen. 
 Stationary chairs, with revolving backs, along the dining tables 
 are a very desirable improvement. 
 
 The engines of this great steamship are a credit to the age in 
 which we live. As tide-marks of intellectual development and 
 monuments of man's dominion over matter and over the hidden 
 and latent forces of nature, they far transcend the pyramids that 
 have excited the wonder and admiration of the world for thous- 
 ands of years. While propelling us through the ocean at the rate 
 of thirteen miles an hour with a 1,650 horse power, there was 
 almost no noise, and every part is so perfectly adjusted that the 
 motion of the vessel was as gentle as the rocking of a cradle — 
 indeed, more so, for the author found no more difficulty in writing 
 at a table in the purser's room, within six feet of the engines, 
 than he would at a table in any private house. 
 
 Her boilers, tubular cylindrical, are four in number, each 12 
 feet 8 inches in diameter, and 10 feet 6 inches in length. The 
 working pressure is 80 pounds to the square inch. The stroke 
 of the pistons is 54 inches. 
 
 The ship has a i^atent condenser of 3,000 feet condensing 
 surface, by means of which her supply of Croton water taken 
 in at JSTew York is vaporized and condensed constantly during 
 the voyage, thus avoiding the necessity to a great extent of using 
 sea water, and making a very great saving of the boilers, fuel, 
 and labor. 
 
 The propeller has a diameter of 14 feet 3 inches, and it makes 
 70 revolutions per minute. It is of the Hirsch patent, and has 
 four blades, which are so fastened that they can be removed 
 when necessary. 
 
 It is interesting to see in how many ways steam power is 
 brought into requisition to save labor on this ship. Two donkey 
 
-S>0 ISLES OF SUMMEE. 
 
 engines are used for clearing the bilge and for some otlier pur- 
 poses ; three or four for loading and unloading cargoes ; one 
 for the anchor and the sails ; one in part for supplying "water 
 closets with water; one for operating a steam steering apparatus; 
 one for operating a newly devised governor, which so controls 
 and governs the propeller that it cannot make more than a cer- 
 tain number of revolutions per minute. This last takes the place 
 of a man who had formerly to devote all his time to this work. 
 
 These engines are in addition to the main engine for pumping 
 out the ship. . There are six water tight iron compartments in 
 the ship, and if one should be stove in or should spring a leak 
 from any cause, the others would float her while the great cir- 
 culating pump of the condenser would be brought into requisi- 
 tion, whose power to discharge water is very great. 
 
 The crew number forty-seven, and the monthly pay-roll is 
 "about $2,000. The powerful and complicated machine requires 
 constant watchfulness and the greatest care. To lubricate it 
 one and one-half barrels of oil are used every trip. The aver- 
 age consumption of coal is 130 tons for a round trip. The aver- 
 age length of the voyage is from fifty-live to sixty hours. The 
 Savannah has once gone from dock to dock in fifty-two hours 
 and thirty minutes. 
 
 The regular sea route from New York to Savannah is not 
 through any part of the Gulf Stream, that immense river of 
 warm water, a thousand times larger than the Mississippi, which 
 flows in a cold water bed, and helps to temper the severity of 
 the frigid and frozen North ; but between that great and, as yet, 
 inexplicable phenomenon of the ocean, and its beautifully wind- 
 ing western shore, our steamer grandly plowed its way. Like 
 the "shining shore"' of the ''better land,'' we well knew, that 
 although invisible to our material eyes, it was near at hand. 
 This passmg in a few hours from ice-bridged rivers with snow- 
 
SAVAITFAH EIVEE. SI 
 
 enslirondcd banks to fields of perennial grcen^ so 'forcibly syni-^ 
 bolizes man's ioassage over the river of death, that the author 
 sometimes more than half believed that ho had indeed raado the 
 journey to that mystic realm between v/hich and earth the travel 
 is all one way. " 
 
 We approached the bar off the mouth of the Savannah river 
 in the morning twilight of January 21st, passing quite a number 
 of ships at anchor in the offing. From prudential reasons our 
 captain so timed the steamship's progress that we crossed tho 
 bar at high tide. As we entered the river, we turned to waft 
 upon the mild and gentle air a silent but heartfelt blessing to- 
 old ocean for having treated us so well during our voyage, and 
 we inwardly hoped that nothing in the future would occur to 
 make us like each other less. 
 
 The color of the waters of the Savannah river closely resembles' 
 that of a New Haven mud-puddle, and after leaving our New 
 York steamer and its excellent Croton water, it was a constant 
 study with us how not to drink it, there being but a small and 
 inadequate supply of condensed water on our next steamer. We 
 approached the city between low sedgy meadows, some of which 
 are utilized for the cultivation of rice. Forts, with their large 
 guns still in sight, and low mud batteries, remain to keep alive 
 the memory of the recent '^ unpleasantness," while new saw-mills, 
 large lumber yards, spacious warehouses, bales of cotton, barrels 
 of resin and turpentine, twenty-five or thirty first-class ships 
 and three-masted schooners moored to wharves— all a mile below 
 the city and near the eastern terminus of a branch of the Gulf 
 railroad, told of northern capital and enterprise, of the healing 
 and healthy influences of peace, and of a growing feeling of 
 fraternity between those so recently engaged in a life and death 
 Gtrnggle for the mastery in tlie dreadful ordeal of battle on sea 
 and land. Everything was so quiet and peaceful, it was hard to 
 
2^ ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 realize that that whole section was so recently a vast military 
 camp, ruled and governed by a despotism such as only war 
 necessitates and breeds. Although defeated, it must be a grateful 
 luxury for the southern people to inhale the glorious air of free- 
 dom once more, undisturbed by war's alarms, and battles whose 
 very victories were purchased at a cost of evils only equaled by' 
 their defeats. 
 
 The few hours that intervened between the arrival "of one 
 steamer and the sailing of another, were pleasantly occupied in 
 making a cursory examination of Georgia's principal seaport. It 
 is a city of parks — some twenty or more we believe, in all, great 
 and small, so arranged that some one of them is within easy ac- 
 cess of every citizen's dwelling. The avenues, pleasantly shaded, 
 turn every two blocks to the right and left, and surround emer- 
 ald parks — reminding one of the rivers of Florida, those blue' 
 ribbons upon which the jewelled lakes are strung. The largest 
 and most beautiful of the parks upon Bull street, is the '' Pulas' 
 ki." Semi-tropical trees of large size and luxuriant foliage, some 
 festooned and draped in gray moss, gave it a very attractive ap- 
 pearance. A large new park has been laid out and enclosed," 
 adjoining this, called the Pulaski Extension, upon which a large 
 and handsome confederate monument has been erected. We 
 were pleased to see no evidence anywhere of the ruin and waste 
 that so often mark the bloody footsteps of war. Sherman's 
 grand march to the sea rendered the city's surrender without a 
 struggle an inevitable necessity. Its forts and batteries were of 
 no use with a large victorious army entering its back door. 
 
 The tourist at Savannah, bound for Florida, can make the 
 journey in a few hours by railroad, or go by either of two lines 
 of ocean steamers, one of which takes the route outside the 
 islands, and the other avoids the hazards of the opsn sea and the 
 discomforts of sea sickness, by passing between the coast-islands 
 
THE IKSIDE BOUTE. 23- 
 
 and the mainlaad. As time was of little consequence to us, we . 
 concluded to take the latter. 
 
 . The people of the north, -during the late war, were made ac- 
 quainted with the fact that the Southern Atlantic States have 
 their sea coast protected by a long succession of islands, between 
 which and the main land steamers of light draft can safely pass 
 along their whole extent, as far south as the mouth of the St. 
 John's in Florida. Batteries, torpedoes, shoals and tortuous 
 and intricate channels protected this portion of the southern . 
 seaboard, so that our navy found it impossible to destroy or 
 seriously cripple confederate communication by water along this 
 portion of the coast. One needs to go through these inside chan- 
 nels to fairly comprehend them. We think of the Connecticut 
 coast shielded by Long Island, but along a portion of the coast 
 of Georgia, instead of a Sound thirty miles wide, we have narrow 
 and winding water-ways more like Mill river at the base of East 
 Eock. We took the side- wheel steamer '^'Cifcy of Bridgeton " at 
 Savannah for Jacksonville in Florida — a boat that brought to 
 mind the steamers of the New York and New Haven line ''long, 
 long ago.'* It has since been modernized and very greatly im- 
 proved, so much so that we recognized this year very little of the 
 old boat except its name, and even that gloried in a sort of new 
 birth. 
 
 Following the doublings and sharp curves of the inside route, 
 as we neared the river St. John's the colored man at the 
 wheel required and exercised constant vigilance and the greatest 
 care. Much local knowledge and great practical skill were 
 brought into constant requisition, and only once was the bow 
 of the boat run into the soft bank. The shores of the sedgy 
 marshes were white with extensive beds of oyster shells, while 
 countless beds of small oysters Avere everyAvhere to be seen as the 
 tide receded. Occasionally we passed islands rich with tropical 
 
24 ISLES OF SUiI3IEIl. 
 
 vegetation, where nature seemed to be reveling in a perfect "wil- 
 derness of beauty, and nothing was wanting, unless perhaps an 
 occasional rocky bluff and mountain peak to give more variety 
 and sublimity to the scene. The clear sky and balmy air were 
 in perfect accord with the beautiful panorama that opened con- 
 stantly before us as we glided over the quiet water. Towards 
 the lower end of this charming route, near the close of day, the 
 whole blue dome of heaven, Vv^ith all its rich adornment of sun- 
 set clouds gorgeously illumined, was more perfectly reflected in 
 the still clear water than the author ever saw it before — save 
 once only on the river St. John's, in the British province of Isew 
 Brunswick. That surpassed anything of the sort he had ever 
 seen or conceived, and this, on th.Q whole, excelled that, for soon 
 the side-wheels of the boat caused great circling eddies- of skies, 
 frescoed and wonderfully and indescribably colored, to follow 
 the steamer, until gradually, as the daylight vanished, this re- 
 markable phenomenon passed away — remaining, however, indel- 
 ibly pictured upon the memory. 
 
 As we neared Fernandina, we passed the Great and Little 
 Cumberland islands. The largest is said to be from twenty-five 
 to thirty miles long, and two to three miles wide. It abounds 
 with game, including hundreds of deer, while fish are very 
 abundant in the surrounding waters. 
 
 In full view from Cumberland Sound, which separates it from 
 Fernandina, still stand the roofless and windowless walls of what 
 was once one of the most splendid residences of the Southern 
 States and perhaps of the New World. Deserted by its owner 
 during the war, some miscreant's torch made it a ruin. 
 
 This island has a history, and romance and poetry will un- 
 ctoubtcdly licrcafter draw from it inspiration. It Avill live in 
 deathless song and enduring story. It lies between the calm 
 and healthy waters like an island of the blessed, and the soft 
 
DUNGE]S"I<fESS. THE AMELIA BEACH. 25 
 
 zephyrs that pass over it, born of the not distant ocean, box'row 
 perfumes from its aromatic trees, its spicy bowers and sweet- 
 scented flowers. 
 
 The State of Georgia, as a token of gratitude to General 
 Nathaniel Greene, of revolutionary fame and memory, conveyed 
 to him one-half of the island. He died too soon to derive much 
 benefit from a gift which reflected back a pleasing lustre upon 
 the donors. The Creneral's widow married a wealthy man by 
 the name of Miller, who made the island his home and spent his 
 money most lavishly in erecting a palatial mansion, opening 
 splendid drives, laying out the grounds, and adorning them with 
 all the choice trees and flowers that are found or can be made to 
 live in the vicinity of the tropics. 
 
 The place is called ''Dungenness." Upon the island are the 
 remains of " Light Horse Harry Lee," one of the heroes of 1776, 
 and the father of General Lee, the Commander-in-Chief of the 
 late Confederate armies. Excursion parties visit Dungenness 
 from Fernandina frequently, and in the future it will no doubt 
 grow in popular favor. We visited the island the present year 
 but defer, for the present, a more particular descrijition of it. 
 
 The Bridgeton made a detour for the purpose of stopping at 
 St. Mary, situated near the mouth of the river of that name 
 which constitutes in part the dividing line between Georgia and 
 Florida. In the palmy days of the Georgia planters St. Mary 
 was quite a place of fashionable summer resort, and considerable 
 money was spent upon its docks, avenues, buildings and gardens. 
 But it suffered severely during the war, its docks and warehouses 
 were destroyed, and not much remains to indicate what it has 
 been. Its climate, cooled by the ocean, is said to be very fa- 
 vorable to health. 
 
 Our steamer stopped at Fernandina just long enough to enable 
 us to ride through its streets, upon one of which we were pleased 
 
 3 
 
26 ISLES OF SUMMEE. 
 
 to see the recently raised frame for one new house, as evidencing 
 the fact that enterprise is here awakening, though very slowly, 
 from its long sleep. We rode a mile over a sandy road through 
 a thicket of palmettoes and wild vines and bushes, beyond the 
 *'city," to its famous Amelia Beach, which is one of the finest 
 ocean beaches we have seen. For eighteen or twenty miles the 
 white beach of a uniform character extended, the dip being so 
 gentle that a wide belt was left between the sand hills and low- 
 water mark, which the incoming ocean tides had jDounded and 
 compacted until bat little impression was made upon it by the 
 hoofs of our horses. The shoals near the shore caused the waves 
 to break into stretches of Avhite spray crests, and gave a pleasing 
 variety to the ocean view. The gentle waves, as they approached, 
 rolled up as they reached the shore, and adorned the extreme 
 edge with a beautiful white border of foam in an unbroken line 
 of many miles. The mildness and softness of the air, and the 
 pleasing and soothing murmur of the water, so gently rolling 
 in upon the Avhite sand beach, almost as far as the eye could see, 
 caused us to prolong our stay to the very last minute of our 
 allotted time. The hard, smooth beach of Fernandina, with its 
 unobstructed ocean view on the one side, and sand hills on the 
 other, as we saw it then, will ever occupy a sunny spot in our 
 memory. 
 
 It was eleven o'clock at night when we reached the Windsor 
 Hotel, at Jacksonville ujion the St. John's river, thankful that 
 thus far our ocean trip in midwinter had been so extremely pleas- 
 ant, and that nothing had occurred to give us a moment's uneasi- 
 ness. It is true, the same kind Providence would have been over 
 us had we made our journey by land, but some persons who came 
 that Avay, seemed more inclined to the opinion that in the con- 
 struction and operation of southern railroads some evil genius 
 had been permitted to have things pretty much his own way. 
 
THE GULF STKEAM. 27 
 
 With the return of j)rosperity under the banner of peace, im- 
 proved and more safe communication by rail will follow as a 
 necessary consequence. 
 
 After spending a few days in Florida (rendered necessary by 
 the fact that no opportunity existed for sooner continuing our 
 journey) we at last were able to cross over to Nassau on the side 
 wheel steamer Secret. The passage occupied fifty-two hours. 
 She was advertised to make the run in thirty-six hours, but the 
 time was purposely understated in order to make the trip appear 
 more attractive to the seekers of health and pleasure. The Secret 
 was about fifteen years old, English built, sheathed outside with 
 iron and was constructed somewluit after the model of a Connec- 
 ticut river shad, being very long and very narrow. According to 
 a Jacksonville newspaper, her length was 231 feet, and her breadth 
 26 feet. She was built for a blockade runner, and was consid- 
 ered a good sea boat. We found her state rooms and berths too 
 small for comfort, and the approaches to the dining saloon long, 
 narrow, unpleasant and unsavory. But we are disposed to apply 
 the bridge rule to steamboats, and to speak well of those Avhicli 
 carry us safely. 
 
 Before leaving home wo doated on the Gulf Stream. It was 
 our ideal salt water, and bore the same relative position to the 
 rest of the ocean world that the Garden of Eden did to all the 
 islands and continents outside. When the fifty separate and 
 distinct persons on as many different occasions asked us if Ave were 
 not afraid to take an ocean voyage in Avinter, and more esiiecially 
 when every ncAvspapcr Avas and had for some time been filled 
 with accounts of terrific storms, accompanied by Avinds before 
 Avhich the strongest ships Avere like so many egg shells, the ready 
 reply which then so satisfied us seemed to be equally satisfactory 
 to them; " Oh, no; Ave do not fear or dread it at all, for in thirty 
 hours from Ncav York we will be in the Gulf Stream, Avliere the 
 
28 ISLES OF SUMMEE. 
 
 water, flowing in a stream a thousand times larger than the Mis- 
 sissippi rivei', from hot equatorial regions, is always warm, and 
 the air, loaded with ozone, saline and other health imparting 
 ingredients, is as warm and pleasant as that which we breathe 
 at our best seaside resorts in summer ; storm-caught and ice- 
 coated vessels run into it to thaw out." But alas! all our ideals 
 vanish into thin air and disappear forever the moment we at- 
 tempt to seize them Avith our hands of flesh. The beautiful 
 vision of the Gulf Stream exists for us no more. It will never 
 return. We have been there. Wo were from eight to ten hours 
 crossing it at an oblique angle. We rolled and tossed "'in and 
 over " it to the content of our hearts and the disturbance of our 
 stomachs. As it piled up its huge waves higher than our ship, 
 one after another of the passengers seemed to have "a call" to 
 go somewhere else, and left the deck, first bending over the guard 
 rail, with their faces turned mysteriously towards the angry 
 waters, with an agonized expression, as though they had caught 
 sight of some large sea serpent. One gentleman was asked by 
 an innocent sympathizer if he was sick. The quick and forcible 
 reply seemed to be perfectly satisfactory, "Do you think I am 
 such a d — n fool that I am doing all this for fun?" Having 
 personally paid unwilling tribute to Neptune, we turned our back 
 upon the foam-crested billows and took refuge in our little sar- 
 dine box below, Avhere, with the port hole closed, Ave lay above 
 the heaving bosom of this enchanting ocean-river. And noAv, 
 ever and anon, upon all sorts of occasions, the Gulf Stream, disen- 
 chanted, calls up the same memories and fills us Avith the same 
 feelings of thankfulness and gratitude Avhich Sancho Panza 
 experienced Avhencver he thought of the blanket in AAdiich he 
 Avas ingloriously tossed in the yard of the Spanish inn. The 
 steamer in Avhich Ave left New York, had carefully hugged the 
 shores of the Atlantic States and kej)t out of it, and we skirted 
 
IP^ROAC^JS TO i^ASSAtt. S^ 
 
 the east coast of Florida below Jacksonville for some twenty- 
 eiglit hours before we turned near Jupiter Light to enter and 
 cross it. 
 
 One cannot understand the phrase "A wilderness of waters" 
 until he actually sails day after day with nothing in view but 
 the deep beloAV and the deep above. On the second day out 
 from Jacksonville we first sighted, off our starboard quarter, a 
 faint trace of curling smoke in the distance, and soon, after 
 crossing our bow, a Havanna steamer exchanged flag salutations 
 with the Secret, 
 
 The character and disposition of people are often strikingly 
 displayed on shipboard. Some are so kind, so considerate, so 
 mindful of their fellow-voyagers, so forgetful of themselves. 
 Others seem to believe that the world, and all that it contains 
 that is worth having, was made expressly for themselves. They 
 seem lineally descended from the man whose only prayer to God 
 was that He would 
 
 '* Bless me and my wife, 
 ]\Iy son Jolm and his wife, 
 Us four — and no more !" 
 
 And also to be very nearly related to the individual who owned 
 one-half of a negro, and who Avas accustomed to request the di- 
 vine blessing for "myself, my wife, and my half of Jake." 
 
 A novel sight presented itself as we approached the ship's 
 dock at ISTassau. The perfectly clear and transparent water, ex- 
 quisitely and indescribably colored; the old, weather-worn vessels 
 at anchor; the forts and sea-walls; the white streets and white 
 stone buildings, all of coral limestone, contrasted oddly with the 
 crowds of persons, mostly colored, that filled all the docks, 
 streets and standing places at and near the landing. We were 
 
§0' ISLES Of StTMMEB. 
 
 ■vvithin several rods of the clock when a dozen nearly naked 
 little Africans commenced the sport of diving off the dock into 
 the deep water after the coins which the passengers threw over- 
 board. They seemed to be amphibious and were all expert 
 swimmers. They generally succeeded in securing the much 
 coveted prizes before the latter reached the bottom. But little, 
 in fact no real annoyance, aside from the delay, was experienced 
 from the custom house officials, and we soon found ourselves at 
 home in the Koyal Victoria Hotel, one of the finest buildings of 
 the kind in the Western world. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 A Break-water of Islands, Bocks, Beefs and Banks over 2,000 miles long. 
 The Bahama Archipelago. The Gulfs, Sounds and Ship Channels that pene- 
 trate and suri'oimd the Group. Modern Science discovering Hidden Chapters 
 of the Earth's History. Monuments of Buried Lands. Ocean Thorough- 
 fares. The Bermudas — their Gradual Subsidence. 
 
 "We sailed the sea, thick sown with clustering isles." — Viegil. 
 "These precious stones set in a silver sea." — Shakespeaee. 
 
 Havikg determined to visit the Bahamas, the author com- 
 menced immediately to brush away the dust which had during 
 a number (please excuse him from not specifying more particu- 
 larly how many) of decades of years, covered and obliterated the 
 geographical knowledge of his school-boy days. Learning is like 
 wealth — not to have it is less discreditable than unfounded pre- 
 tensions. His life would have been worth but very little had it 
 then depended upon his ability to accurately locate and particu- 
 larly describe Nassau and the island of New Providence, or the 
 group of which that island forms a part. Is it too much for him 
 to assume that his ignorance was not exceptional, and that nearly 
 all of his readers can truthfully make a similar confession ? Let 
 the favored few who occupy the geographical front seats excuse 
 the author, and grant him their kind indulgence, while, for the 
 benefit of others, he airs a little his recently resurrected, and, to 
 some extent, newly acquired geographical knowledge. 
 
 31 
 
3^ ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 It will be seen upon referring to any good map of the West 
 India Islands that an immense number of islands are distributed 
 upon a line over two thousand miles long, which trends south- 
 easterly from a point relatively near the coast of Florida, to the 
 mouth of the Orinoco River in South America. Sprinkled 
 among these are many reefs, thousands of rocks, and little islets 
 which are called by the English keys and by the Spaniards cays. 
 The north-westerly portion of this chain is composed of the 
 Bahama archipelago, and embraces thirty-nine islands, six hun- 
 dred and sixty-one keys, and two thousand three hundred and 
 eighty-seven rocks. 
 
 This Island system constitutes a vast breakwater, and shelters 
 from the winds and waves of the wide and stormy Atlantic, the 
 Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, which bodies of water are 
 perfectly land-locked on their other sides. Were the ocean 
 waters drawn off, we should have, in place of this island system, 
 the Bahama and Caribbean mountains, a lofty range, elevated 
 thousands of feet above the neighboring plains and valleys, 
 towering high up in the air as they now do in the water, with 
 large areas of high table land. The location of the islands to the 
 windward of the banks has favored the formation and growth of 
 the latter. 
 
 The Bahama group rises out of several submerged tables of a 
 soft calcareous rock, tlie two largest of which are known respec- 
 tively as the Great and Little Bahama Banks. The water upon 
 these banks attains a maximum depth of several hundred feet. 
 The Little Bank is the most northerly, and is only seventy miles 
 from the coast of Florida. It embraces a superficial area of 
 5,560 square miles, including 1,200 square miles of islands, and 
 has a breadth of from thirty-five to sixty miles. Its principal 
 islands are Great and Little Abaco and Grand Bahama. The 
 two former are sejDarated from each other by a narrow channel. 
 
tHB BAHAMAS. 33 
 
 and with their numerous keys extend along the eastern edge of 
 the Little Bahama Bank for nearly a hundred miles. At the 
 southerly extremity of Abaco is the famous ''Hole-in-the-Wall" 
 — a large opening through and below the top of a ridge of calca- 
 reous rock. Also a light house bearing the same name. A lady 
 informed us that several years since, while sailing past Abaco, 
 she saw the sun at its setting through this "Hole-in-the-Wall," 
 and that the globe of fire, in its setting of rock, left an indelible 
 picture of rare and exquisite beauty upon her memory. 
 
 The north-west and north-east Providence Channels separate 
 the Little from the Great Bahama Bank. The distance between 
 the Banks varies from fifteen to forty-five miles. 
 
 "The north-east Providence Channel separates Abaco from 
 the island of Eleuthera and the keys on its northern sliore, which 
 lie twenty-seven miles to the south-east of the Hole-in-the-Wall." 
 
 " The whole of the trade from North America and Europe to 
 the Gulf of Mexico," says Gov. Eawson, '^passes by the north 
 of the Bahama Islands. Steamers bound to the south, stem the 
 rapid current of the Florida Channel,"' between the Banks and 
 Florida. Sailing vessels pass between Abaco and Eleuthera 
 through the Providence Channels, within forty miles of Nassau, 
 into the Gulf of Florida. ''All the return-bound trade to the 
 north, whether using steam or sails, passes with the [Gulf] stream 
 through the Florida Channel." 
 
 ''From Eleuthera follow, in the same direction, south-east 
 and then south, a succession of long narrow islands, viz. : — St. 
 Salvador or Cat Island, Long Island, Ragged Island audits keys. 
 * * * Outside the bank, forty-eight miles east of the south 
 of St. Salvador, lies Watling Island, * * * and twenty-four 
 miles from the north-east end of Long Island lies Eum Key;'" 
 between which and the island of St. Salvador, is the small island 
 of Conception, 
 
34 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 South-east of Long Island, beyond the Great Bank, and 
 separated from it by a channel twenty-five miles wide, is Crooked 
 Island ; then succeeds Acklin's Island, with a yery shallow con- 
 necting channel, once reputed fordable in its narrowest part. 
 To the north-east of Crooked Island is Sumona, or Atwood Key. 
 Plana or French keys are east of Acklin's Island. Then successive- 
 ly follow in the same direction (south-east), the Caicos, the Maya- 
 guana and the Turks Islands — the last of this inhabited chain 
 of islands, six hundred miles in extent, which stretch from a point 
 seventy miles from Florida to within a hundred miles of St. 
 Domingo. The Caicos and the Turks Islands once were within 
 the governmental jurisdiction of the Bahamas, but are now po- 
 litically associated with Jamaica. 
 
 Three smaller banks, sei^arated by channels thirty to fifty 
 miles wide, and called respectively Mouchoir, Carre, Silver and 
 Navidad, extend still further to the south-east, for about one 
 hundred and fifty miles. 
 
 Nearly in the latitude of the Turks Islands, and from sixty 
 to seventy miles south of Acklin's Island and Mayaguana, are 
 Great and Little Inagua or Heneagua, detached, and some sixty- 
 five miles north of the north-western extremity of St. Domingo. 
 Great Inagua is one of the largest and best of the Bahamas. 
 Exuma, with its extensive chain of keys, lies upon the eastern 
 edge of the Great Bank, and upon the western side of Exuma 
 Sound. This Sound has an average width of forty miles, ex- 
 tends north-Avesterly about one liundred miles, and breaks the 
 continuity of the Great Bank between St. Salvador and Long 
 Island. 
 
 A very deep sound called The Tongue-of-the-Ocean is pro- 
 jected into the Great Bank a distance of one hundred and ten 
 miles. Major General Nelson, E. E., describes it as having the 
 deep blue color of oceanic depths, while 'Hhe color of the water 
 
*Hfi Bahamas. 83 
 
 firound tlie islands is usually that of the aqua-marine of beryl," 
 On its Avestern edge, and skirting the Great Bank lies Andros 
 island, much the largest of the group, being ninety-five miles 
 long and having a maximum Avidtli of thirty-eight miles. 
 
 The Berry islands are north-east of Andros ; they are arranged 
 in the form of a crescent. The horns point to tlie east, and are 
 separated by a distance of some forty miles. The south-west 
 shore of Abaco, on the opposite side of the nortli-west Providence 
 Channel, is only thirty miles distant from these little islands. 
 
 The Biminis are two small islands rendered famous from tlio 
 fact that the Fountain of Youth was reported, in tlie time of 
 Ponce de Leon, to be located upon one of them. They are 
 twenty-five miles south of the north-western portion of the 
 Great Bahama Bank, and are described as ''small, pretty and 
 fertile." 
 
 The Santareen and Old Bahama Channels are south of the 
 Great Bahama Bank. West of the former is situated the Cay 
 Sal Bank, embracing fourteen hundred and thirty square miles, 
 including some uninhabited Keys; while south of the latter 
 channel is the island of Cuba. 
 
 Gov. Rawson states that '"'all the trade from North America 
 to Cuba, St. Domingo, Jamaica, the Gulf of Honduras, and the 
 northern coast of South America passes south to the windward 
 [?'. e. east] of the group, and close to the shores of Inagua, 
 I'he return trade, and all the European trade from the same 
 cour; tries passes north, either through the Crooked Island pas- 
 sages, or the Inagua or Caicos Channels. These islands there- 
 fore lie in the track of two great streams of trade, and, at timesj 
 scores of vessels pass daily by the 'Hole-in-the-Wall,' and the 
 south western point of Inagua." 
 
 ISTew Providence, upon which Nassau is situated, is upon the 
 northern edge of the Great Bahama Bank, fifty miles south-west 
 
§^ 
 
 IStES Oli' STtMMTlft. 
 
 of the north-east exti'eraity of the bank, at the eastern entrance 
 of "The Tonguc-of-the-Ocean," and is approached through 
 either the north-west or north-east Providence Channels, the 
 former of which connects it with the Florida Gulf and is trav- 
 ersed by the steamers which bring Nassau's winter visitors from 
 the states. 
 
 The following table is copied from Gov. Eawson's report : 
 
 9. 
 10. 
 11. 
 12. 
 13. 
 14. 
 15. 
 IG. 
 
 17. 
 18. 
 
 19. 
 
 Andros, 
 
 Abaco, Great, 
 
 " Little, 
 
 Inagua, Great, 
 
 " Little, 
 
 Grand Bahama, 
 
 Crooked Island, 
 
 Acklin's Island, 
 
 Fortune Island, (Long Cay) 
 
 Eleutliera, 
 
 Spanish Wells, 
 
 St. Salvador, 
 
 Long Islan d, 
 
 Exuma, Great and Little,.. 
 
 Mayagnana 
 
 New Providence, 
 
 Walling's Island, 
 
 Rum Cay, 
 
 Biminis, North, 
 
 " South, 
 
 Ragged Island and Cay 
 
 Berry Island, Great, 
 
 Harbour Cay, 
 
 Harbour Island, 
 
 Total, 
 
 Square Miles. 
 
 680) 
 90)' 
 
 530 ( 
 30)' 
 
 70) 
 120 - 
 
 8) 
 
 3 ) 
 
 5:i)" 
 
 1,000 
 776 
 
 500 
 430 
 
 204 
 
 104 
 
 100' 
 
 130 
 
 110 
 
 V,Q 
 
 85 
 00 
 29 
 
 SJ- 
 
 Ih 
 
 Extreme 
 Lenstli. 
 
 Miles. 
 
 95 
 70 
 24 
 34 
 8 
 66 
 19 
 41 
 10 
 
 42 
 
 60 
 32 
 23 
 
 19;^ 
 
 13 
 
 9i 
 
 3.V 
 
 5:V 
 
 
 
 Extreme 
 Breadth. 
 
 3S 
 17 
 
 5 
 25 
 
 7 
 11 
 
 8 
 10 
 
 U 
 11 
 
 14 
 
 3-1 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 5 
 
 U 
 
 1| 
 oa 
 
 u 
 
 Averase 
 Breadth. 
 
 Miles. 
 
 12 
 
 4 
 
 16 
 
 7 
 5 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 4,424 
 
 The foregoing table shows proximately the length, breadth 
 
fetJRIED LAKDS. St 
 
 and size of tlie principal Bahama islands, exclusive of the keys 
 Avhich cluster around thenio 
 
 This extensive and singular group of islands, so unlike the 
 l^ew England that the author had left behind him, charmed by 
 its novelty, and elicited enthusiastic admiration. 
 
 ' ' He found in all that met his eyes, 
 The freshness of a glad surprise." 
 
 They repose in the lap of unending summer. Daring enter- 
 prise, resistless courage, and the intense activities of busy human 
 life, do not cross the great ocean river. No blighting and kill- 
 ing frosts are ever found between its eastern margin and the 
 rising sun. To all that we have been accustomed, or ever ex- 
 perienced before, it had been practically the stream of oblivion — 
 the river of death. The ancient seers who saw and pictured 
 heaven dwelt in warm sunny climes. ISTone of the streets of the 
 New Jerusalem which they saw with spiritual vision, were paved 
 with ice or blockaded with snow. We here found the sea so 
 smooth, the wind so mild, the air so agreeably warm, the sky 
 so serene, the clouds so soft and delicately tinted, and our mind 
 and heart were pervaded by such a spirit of resignation, content- 
 ment and peace — of love to God and good Avill towards man — 
 while the past appeared so unreal and dreamy, — we at times were 
 almost ready to believe that our "mortal had put on immor- 
 tality." But the regular periodic return of hunger, and an 
 appetite that gave a keen relish to the gross food of earth, soon 
 convinced us that we still inhabited our old bodies, and fly-like, 
 adhered to the surface of one of the sun's revolving satelites. 
 
 In this new world our curiosity was awakened and greatly 
 stimulated. What part, we inquired, have these immense banks, 
 with their clustered isles played in the world's history ? In 
 "what manner were they made ? How many thousands of years 
 
S8 ISLES OF SXJMMM. 
 
 were involved in tlieir construction? What great cosmic and 
 geological truths is this murmuring ocean endeavoring to reveal? 
 
 In groping after truth, man passes over the bridge of the 
 known to the dark and shadowy regions of the unknown. Up- 
 ward he treads the rounds of a ladder bottomed upon earth but 
 lost in impenetrable clouds. Yet, when considered in connec- 
 tion with human insignificance, there is much which man has 
 been enabled to learn, and in no department of human knowl- 
 edge has greater progress been made than in that of geology, — ■ 
 a science that underlies, and, to some extent, explains the facts 
 of physical geography. 
 
 "The Egyptian priests told Herodotus that from the time of 
 their first king, which was eleven thousand and odd years, the 
 sun had four times altered his course; that the sea and the earth 
 did alternately change into one another."'* New evidences of 
 some of these changes, clear and indisputable, have been found 
 in our own time and country. Upon the American continent, 
 man Avalks and Avorks, and muses upon mountains and plains 
 once a portion of the ocean's bed. Vast quantities of the skele- 
 tons of "monsters of the deep," and marine fauna, of families 
 and genera and species supposed to be now extinct, are entombed 
 in the jirofound depths of its rocks. Upon the low, long and 
 narrow islands and keys composing the Bahama Archipelago, in 
 the soft, languid and voluptuous air, we pensively muse above a 
 continent that nature, in one of her sublime convulsions, or by a 
 slow but no less grand process, requiring cycles of time of vast and 
 inconceivable extent for its completion, has buried from human 
 sight in the unfathomable depths of a wild waste of waters. 
 There is something grand and appalling in the chapters of the 
 earth's autobiography as disclosed by its continents and ocean 
 isles. Like the astronomer who discerns and translates for us 
 
 *JVIontaiffue. 
 
BURIED LAN""DS. ^9 
 
 ^'tlie tliouglits of God in the sky," so the geologist who reads to 
 us from the book of the rocks, seems, like Moses iipon Sinai, to 
 commune with Jehovah and to have his lips hallowed with a 
 divine inspiration. 
 
 To man's inquiring thought, the ocean responds only in dirge- 
 like harmonies. In its mystic and profound depths, during the 
 long and silent ages, the sea has kept its secrets well. But in 
 our own time — thanks to a Darwin, a Dana, a Marsh, and an 
 Agassiz — the key of the known has unlocked many of the mys- 
 teries of the unknown, and in these rocky isles we now behold 
 the head-stones of lands that the sea engulfed ! 
 
 Prof. Dana, in his work upon Corals and Coral Islands, after 
 alluding to 'Hhe northern continental upward movements which 
 introduced the glacial era," and stating that ''while the earth's 
 crust was arching upward" at the north, "it may have been 
 bending downward over the vast central area of the great ocean," 
 adds : 
 
 "The changes which took place, contemporaneously, in the 
 Atlantic tropics, are very imperfectly recorded. The Bahamas 
 show by their form and j^osition that they cover a submerged 
 land of large area, stretching over six hundred miles from nortli- 
 west to south-east. The long line of reefs, and the Florida 
 keys, trending far away from Southern Florida, are evidence 
 that this Florida region participated in the downward movement, 
 though to a less extent than the Bahamas. Again, the islands 
 of the West Indies diminish in size to the eastward, being quite 
 small in the long line that looks out upon the broad ocean, just 
 as if the subsidence increased in that direction. Finally, the 
 Atlantic beyond is water only, as if it had been made a blank by 
 the sinking of the lands." 
 
 ******* 
 
 " The peninsula of Florida, Cuba and the Bahamas, look, as 
 
46 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 they lie togefclier, as if all were once part of a greater Florida or 
 south-eastern prolongation of the continent. The north-western 
 and south-western trends, characterizing the great features of 
 the American continent, run through the whole like a warp and 
 woof structure, binding them together in one system. " 
 
 To the author of this book it seems probable, from a simple 
 examination of a good West India map, that the subsidence ex- 
 tended in the same general direction to South America, a dis- 
 tance of some fifteen hundred miles further. While the crust 
 of the earth was being elevated, depressed and rolled "like a 
 scroll," it Avould have been a slight matter to have enlarged the 
 area of disturbance to the extent supposed. 
 
 In the shallow water, upon the mountain, tops, tlie corals 
 planted their colonies, and these islands, and banks, these coral 
 rocks and coral sands, entirely destitute as they are of primitive 
 or volcanic rocks, and of fossil remains, are their monuments. 
 Geologically speaking the Bahamas arc of a very recent age. 
 This is indicated by the fact that their hammocks and Avoods are 
 almost destitute of soil, yet the growth of coral islands is exceed- 
 ingly slow. The coral groves and bowers are individually of 
 small extent, very unlike the "illimitable forests" of the floral 
 world, and the limestone annually secreted seems in quantity re- 
 latively insignificant. The vast areas of coral limestones and of 
 coral sands, are composed only of the detritus, torn, grounded 
 and scattered by an ocean never at rest, and often exhibiting an 
 energy and power almost divine, and of fragments of marine 
 shells broken, pounded and rounded in the same way. Shells 
 of existing species are found in the rocks, and Charles Burnsidc, 
 Esq., son of a late Surveyor-general of the Bahamas, informed 
 us that in a Nassau quarry upon liis grounds wliicli we visited, a 
 large and perfect egg was taken from the rock at a distance of 
 sixteen feet below the rock's surface. It is clear that ocean has 
 
fetTRlED LlKIDg. 41 
 
 been and is one of tlie grinding mills of the gods, and tliat dura- 
 tion or extent of time is only a conception of man. It is said to 
 require under favorable circumstances a thousand years to make 
 five perpendicular feet of coral limestone, and that coral rock 
 exists in the Pacific ocean two thousand feet thick. In contrast 
 with such almost infinite durations, well may the Chiuese phil- 
 osophers and sages compare the life of man with the little insig- 
 nificant span of the measuring Avorm. 
 
 The important part taken by the Bahama shell fish in the 
 formation of the banks and rocks of the Bahamas is indicated 
 by their very great abundance. Major-General Nelson states 
 that *^at Six Hills (Caicos Group) the mass of Conch Shells 
 {Stromhus gigas) is so great and sufficiently cemented together 
 as to form not only a rock, but an island several hundred feet in 
 length." 
 
 While the highest land in the Bahamas is 230 feet above the 
 sea, generally the hills on the larger islands are much under 100 
 feet in height, and from 10 to 50 feet on the islets. They abound 
 with ''pit holes" and ''rock marshes." The Avater upon the 
 lower flats is brackish and rises and falls, though not contem- 
 poraneously with the tide, or at a uniform rate. There are many 
 ordinary and mangrove swamps, small and shallow, more or less 
 connected with the sea. So far as there is any soil it is found in 
 the little pockets in the rocks, and is scant and fertile. There 
 are also large areas of " pine barrens " where the pine and the 
 palm flourish side by side — the north and the south to tliis 
 extent meeting and mingling harmoniously in the floral world. 
 Lakes of salt or brackish water mirror the heavens and add a 
 new charm to the landscape upon many of the islands. Andrus 
 alone boasts a fresh water lake and a few small out-flowing fresh 
 water streams. The rocks are all calcareous, soft and easily 
 worked below the surface, white and dazzling when first quar- 
 
4S ISLlEi^ OF gUMMEK. 
 
 ried, but they acquire a flinty hardness of surface, and assume 
 a subdued and darker shade (an ashen gray) when exposed to 
 the sun and air. 
 
 The Bermuda Islands are closely allied to the Bahamas, having 
 the same formation and being surrounded by coral reefs. They 
 are situated in the same latitude with Charleston, S. C, and are 
 seven hundred and eighty miles distant from Cape Hatteras, and 
 seven hundred miles south-east of New York. Science has dis- 
 covered, and historical records have furnished most reliable evi- 
 dence, that this group of coral islands, since their first discovery 
 in the early part of the sixteenth century, have been in a state 
 of subsidence, so that they arc now far less extensive than they 
 were between three hundred and four hundred years ago. Prof. 
 Dana says : " Twenty miles to the south-west by west from the 
 Bermudas there are two submerged banks, twenty to forty-seven 
 fathoms under water, showing that the Bermudas are not com- 
 pletely alone, and demonstrating that they cover a summit in a 
 range of heights ; and it may have been a long range." 
 
CHAPTER in. 
 
 Neio Providence. Killarney and Cunninglmm Lakes. Caves and Cave 
 Earth. The Mermaid's Pool. Nassau — its Streets, Public and Private Build- 
 ings, and Population. The Poor and Happy Negroes. Fai't Fincastle and 
 its Signals. Grant's Town and other Suburban Villages. Fort Charlotte — 
 its Subterranean Rooms and Charming Out-loolc. Lunching at the Expense 
 of the British Queen. Removal of the Old Bai'racks. Fort Montague. A 
 Luxuriant Growth of Titles. Nassau Harbor and its Bar. Observing the 
 Breakers. Shells and Shell-work. Nassau's Public Library. 
 
 " This sceptered isle ; 
 This earth of majesty ; this seat of Mars ; 
 Tliis other Eden — demi-paradise. " — Shakespeare. 
 
 " The poor contents him with the care of heaven." — Pope. 
 
 The island of New Providence, although small in size and 
 greatly deficient in soil, far transcends in importance all the is- 
 lands with which it is more immediately associated. Nassau, 
 the Bahama capital, reposes in calm, quiet dignity upon the 
 northern slope of the hill that rises to a height of ninety feet 
 above its northern shore, bathes its feet in the sheltered sea, and 
 lifts its municipal head above the heights that overlook Grant's 
 Town. It is to the entire archipelago what Athens was to Greece 
 and the rising sun to the old Persian fire-worshippers. '' Paris 
 is France ;" — Nassau is New Providence and the Bahamas. But 
 for its harbor and favorable location, it never would have risen 
 from the rocks, or reposed under the shadows of its tropical and 
 semi-tropical trees. Its superiority as a shelter for ships, caused 
 43 
 
44 ISLES OP StfMMES. 
 
 it to become for these islands tlie seat and focus of civil, political, 
 ecclesiastical, and military power. Without its geographical and 
 to|)ographical advantages, it is not probable that within its nar- 
 row borders a Colonial Governor would ever have had his resi- 
 dence, an Episcopal Bishop his seat, or two companies of her 
 majesty's colored troops their barracks. ]Slo old and rusty guns 
 would have given to the crests ol its hills a military and warlike 
 aspect; jurisprudence would have soug'it elsewhere room for iier 
 highest courts, and no colonial representatives or lords would 
 have occupied imported hia-li-backed chairs in its legislative 
 halls. 
 
 New Providence has an extreme length of about nineteen and 
 three-eights miles from east to west; an extreme Avidth of about 
 seven miles from north to south; an average width of about five 
 miles; and embraces a total area of about eighty-five square 
 miles. From the north shore in front of Nassau, the distance 
 across the island is between five and six miles. With the excep- 
 tion of a very few square miles occuj)ied by Nassau and its sub- 
 urbs, there is little upon the island except water and wilderness; 
 the former brackish, and throbbing and in some places appear- 
 ing and disappearing with the long pulsations of the sea's diurnal 
 tides, and the latter, to a large extent, a dense low jungle, with 
 stretches of pitch pine forests rising from a thick undergrowth 
 of scrub palmettoes, all being root-fastened to the rocks and ap- 
 parently living like Dr. Tanner during his recent forty days' fast, 
 exclusively upon air and water. 
 
 The Avestern extremity of New Providence is called Clifton 
 Point, and its eastern extremity. East Point. In a south-west- 
 erly direction from Nassau, at a distance of probably seven or 
 eight miles. Lake Killarney is situated — a body of shallow, brack- 
 ish water nearly three miles in length from east to west, and 
 about two and three-fifth miles in width from north to south. 
 
LAKES AISTD CAVES. 45 ' 
 
 The Blue Hill range is about seven miles long, and running east 
 and Avest, separates this lake from Lake Cunningham — a smaller 
 body of shallow Avater, half a mile wide, and two and two-thirds 
 miles in length from east to west. The negro drivers, by design 
 or ignorance, palm off this lake upon strangers for Killarney-^it 
 being nearer and more accessible than the latter. Cunningham, 
 Avith its little mangrove islands, is well worth visiting, and the 
 drive for a mile or two through the pine woods and scrub pal- 
 mettoes, rendered necessary to reacli it, gives one an opportunity 
 to see something of the low, wet, rough, and rocky make up of 
 portions of the island. Wild flowers and palmetto leaves, gath- 
 ered by the Avayside, often give a gay and festive appearance to 
 the vehicles of the excursionists upon their return near the 
 close of day or in the edge of the evening. The Blue Hills 
 attain an elevation of 120 feet. 
 
 Caves exist in the western extremity of the hill that separates 
 the tAvo lakes, and there is always connected Avith caverns in the 
 rocks enough of the Aveird and Avild and mysterious to make them 
 objects of interest. We found it so Avith these. Indeed their 
 proximity to a sea so recently infested by pirates, and their loca- 
 tion upon an island not very long ago in possession of a now 
 vanished race of men, suggest many a question which only the 
 dead can ansAver. As Ave folloAved our dusky guide and passed 
 from one chamber to another over the rocks, disturbing and 
 driving from their dark retreats the bats, it was not difficult to 
 imagine that the ghosts of the cruel and reckless buccaneers, and 
 the shades of the unfortunate and grossly wronged Indians, 
 were peering at us in the darkness and gloom. But after 
 building a fire in the deepest, darkest and most dismal chamber 
 of them all, Avhich Avas entered through a small opening in a 
 partition of rock, Ave experienced a feeling of relief, knowing that 
 the elfs of evil vanish with the liolit. 
 
46 ISLES OF SUMMEE. 
 
 In quite a number of instances the ceilings of the rocky cham- 
 bers had j)artially fallen in, and, through the openings, the roots 
 of wild fig trees had made their way, dropped from ten to twenty 
 feet to the bottom, where, entwined among and running over the 
 rocks, they seemed in the dim light like huge anacondas, Avhose 
 repose it might be dangerous to disturb. 
 
 Catesby, a century ago, in writing in regard to the natural 
 history of the Bahamas, observed, that " many of these islands, 
 particularly Providence, abound with deep caverns containing 
 salt water at their bottoms. These pits, being perjjendicular 
 from their surface, are frequently so choked up and obscured by 
 the falling of trees and rubbish, that great caution is required 
 to prevent falling into these ' unfathomable j)its ' as the inhabit- 
 ants call them, and it is thought that many men who never 
 returned from hunting have perished in them." 
 
 We called the attention of an intelligent native and old resi- 
 dent of Nassau to this passage and he assented to its truth. To 
 this day, the island, though so small, is largely an unknown 
 country to its people. This seems incredible, but it is none the 
 less true. Stimulated by a crisp and frosty air, northern jDeople 
 fit out exploring expeditions to the North Pole and the interior 
 of Africa; but the citizens of Nassau care not to explore the 
 dense jangles that exist a short distance from their doors. 
 
 An article appeared in the Nassau Gazette a year or two since 
 in Avhich a correspondent describes a natural reservoir of fresh 
 water called "The Mermaid's Pool," or "The Black Water 
 Pool," which seems to resemble the deep caverns or pits to which 
 Catesby refers, except that it is filled with fresh water. This 
 Avriter states that it is located in the south j)art of the island of 
 New Providence, about a mile from the shore, near an extensive 
 cocoanut plantation, then belonging to the Hon. J. S. George, 
 a gentleman who is since, we believe, deceased. " It is in a rocky. 
 
THE mermaid's POOL. N"ASSA1T. 47 
 
 wooded plain^ so jjerfectly level that it would be difficult for a 
 rabbit to find a liillock sufficiently high for concealment." It is 
 about one hundred and fifty feet in diameter, sixty-five feet in 
 depth, and without banks. Tlie water comes " to the very brim," 
 and it has ''a depth of forty feet at the very edge, which is the 
 more remarkable as the adjacent sea is so shallow that it would 
 be necessary to go five miles from the shore or six miles from the 
 pool, before a depth equal to that of the pool is reached." Al- 
 though a great natural curiosity, and but a few miles from the 
 city, the writer says " it is almost unknown to the people of 
 Nassau." He gives the substance of a wild, romantic legend 
 concerning this ''Mermaid's Pool," in which a dusky island 
 princess and a foreign shipwrecked prince act prominent parts. 
 Strange noises are heard there at night, and in the form of a 
 mermaid the princess at times emerges from the dark pool in the 
 dim moonlight, seizes any unfortunate damsel who happens to be 
 in the vicinity, and carries her a prisoner to her watery home in 
 the rock. 
 
 The Bahamas yield a " cave earth " composed of phosphates 
 of lime and some ammonia. It is a kind of guano, and has suf- 
 ficient value as a fertilizer to cause it to be exported to other 
 countries, principally to the United States. The total value of 
 this guano exported has often been about $20,000 a year, at 
 about fifteen dollars a ton. It is not used in the colony. 
 
 Nassau is situated in latitude 25° 51' north, and longitude 77° 
 21' west. The rock upon Avhicli it is situated has furnished the 
 materials for the outer- walls of all its public and many of its 
 private buildings. Nature seems to have had regard to the fact 
 that the people who were to live in this enervating air would 
 never voluntarily quarry granite or any similar stone, and there- 
 fore she has provided them with a rock that is soft beloAV the 
 surface and easily worked, but hardens when exposed to the air. 
 
48 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 Many gardens, orchards, and ornamental grounds are enclosed 
 with high walls made of this rock. These walls are stuccoed, 
 and covered on toj) with fragments of glass embedded in mortar, 
 all which impresses one with the conviction that petty larceny is 
 an offence not unknown upon this liappy and innocent-looking 
 isle. 
 
 Very many of the houses have large, heavy blinds on the sides 
 exposed to the street and the sun, Avhich enclose spacious piazzas, 
 and thus secure cool air and seclusion. The blinds, in connec- 
 tion with the garden Avails, give them, to northern eyes, some- 
 thing of the appearance of Turkish harems, and the impression 
 is deepened by the additional fact that one seldom gets even a 
 glance at the beautiful ladies who are supposed to occupy these 
 pleasant homes. 
 
 We are unable to give accurately the population of Nassau. 
 In 1861, the population of the Bahamas was 35,287, of which 
 number 11,503 were upon the island of New Providence, and, 
 according to Gtoa'. Rawsou, "of these, upwards of 10,000 lived in 
 Nassau and its snluirbs;" and as Grant's toAvn and Bain's town, 
 two of the suburbs, then contained a population, the first of 
 2,398 and the second of 1,315, it left only 6,287 for Nassau. The 
 population of the Bahamas in 1871, accordiug to Moseley's Al- 
 manac, was 39,162, an increase of a little less than 4,000. If 
 we alloAV Nassau and its .suburbs their proportionate share of this 
 increase (one-third) and add an equal number for the increase 
 since 1871, it will mal^ethe present population of Nassau and its 
 suburbs between 12,600 and 12,700. There is, however, nothing 
 to indicate that there has been much additiou to the white pop- 
 ulation of Nassau. 
 
 Bay street monopolizes nearly ali: the business of the city, and 
 is its principal thoroughfare. It skirts the harbor, is shaded by 
 rows of almond trees, stretches east and west for several miles 
 
Lookiog down George st. from the Government House. Statue of Columbus 
 
 in the foreground. The Cathedral on the right. The Vendue House 
 
 at the foot of the street. The Harbor, Barrier Island, 
 
 and Ocean north of the city. 
 
NASSAU. 49 
 
 beyond the limits of the city, and is made lively and attractive 
 by trade and travel. The docks and landings, the public market, 
 the stone barracks with their iron framed and stone-paved ver- 
 andas, Fleming Square and the officers' quarters, the airy unin- 
 closed Vendue House, numerous stores and dwellings, a few small 
 hotels and private boarding houses, the eastern Parade Ground, 
 and an old cemetery still further to the east — all give tone, char- 
 acter and importance to the street, and confer upon it a very 
 great pre-eminence over all the other streets of the city. 
 
 For several miles, during all parts of the day. Bay street is 
 thronged with people, almost exclusively colored. Many of them 
 are women and children, merchants in a very small way, bearing 
 their stock in trade upon their heads. Idlers abound. No one 
 is in any hurry. "How are you to-day, massa ?" — "God bless 
 you, massa" — "Can't you give me a penny, boss?" are among 
 the common salutations. The elderly colored women, when in- 
 formed that we feel pretty well to-day, with much gravity of 
 look and a devout expression, ejaculate " Thank God!" and pass 
 along. The diminutive black vocalists remember our interest in 
 their sacred songs, and have another song which they are anxious 
 to sing to us. 
 
 Nothing so impressed us with the evident poverty of the colored 
 people of Nassau as a class, and of the difficulty they experience 
 in getting a good and honest living, as the large number of colored 
 women and children to be constantly seen during every business 
 day upon Bay street bearing in their hands, or, (when walking,) 
 upon their heads, their little stocks in trade — here a few pennies 
 worth of candy, and there a little trifle of cake; some with small 
 quantities of peanuts, and others having small supplies of flowers 
 or fruit — the appearance of the latter often suggesting the 
 thought that it had been prematurely picked to meet wants that 
 were pressing, and would not wait. A capital of twenty-five 
 
50 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 cents appeared amply sufficient to enaljle most of these street 
 or curb-stone merchants to have a good start in life. The good 
 nature and generosity of the colored people as a class was 
 very marked. They freely gave to each other from their lit- 
 tle stores, and never seemed to either fret, fume, worry or 
 hurry. Truly blessed are these destitute children of the sun, 
 for theirs is the kingdom of heaven — -if heaven is the state or 
 condition of being contented and happy — or if it is a country 
 where nothing that makes a man rich in this ever enters. It is 
 worth a journey to Nassau to learn the extent of man's artificial 
 wants. 
 
 The streets of Nassau are to a large extent made in and upon 
 the surface rock, the paving having been previously done when the 
 shell and coral sands were hardened into stone. By filling up 
 the hollows with broken stone, the roads are easily kept in good 
 repair, as the rains soon dissolve the lime in the rock sufficiently 
 to form a cement which makes all compact and solid. Prisoners 
 in small squads, ornamented and secured by chain and ball, are 
 daily seen working upon the roads — sitting sometimes, while 
 working with their hammers, nnshielded from the hot sun, in 
 the dazzling light reflected from the white surface, while the 
 thermometer registers from 140° to 150°. 
 
 Sherley street runs next south of and jiarallel with Bay street, 
 and is the second street in extent and importance. East Hill 
 street runs for a short distance back (south) of the Royal Vic- 
 toria Hotel. A few cross streets extend southerly from Bay 
 street — most of them but a short distance. The principal 
 of these arc : 1st, Market street, leading to Grant's Town, the 
 north terminus of which is at the City Market; 2d, George street, 
 Avhich, commencing at the Vendue House, passes in front of the 
 "Cathedral" or Christ's Church, and extends to the foot of a 
 long flight of steps leading to the Govcrumeut House or residence 
 

 Fort Fincastle. 
 
FOKT PIirCASTLE — ITS SIGISTALS. 51 
 
 of the Governor of the colony; od, Frederick street, upon which 
 is the Wesleyan Trinity Church, and St. Andrew's Presbyterian 
 Church; 4tli, Parliament street, on the east side of which, at its 
 northerly terminus, are the legislative and judicial buildings, 
 while the Victoria Hotel is on the same side at its southerly ter- 
 minus; 5th, East street, which, iiassing the hotel, leads to Fort 
 Fincastle, on the crest of the hill. 
 
 This fort commands a good view of the ocean and is utilized 
 as a signal station. Whenever any vessel approaches either en- 
 trance to the harbor of Nassau, the direction from Avhich it 
 comes and its character are indicated by flags hoisted upon its 
 flag staff. It is a queer looking affair, running at one end to a 
 point, and looking like some old sharp-bowed ante-diluvian 
 water craft, ossified and turned into stone, which from the bot- 
 tom of the sea had been pushed ujd into the air and the sun-light 
 when the rock upon which it rests was elevated. Little negro 
 cabins cluster around and cling to its side like so many large 
 barnacles. 
 
 SIGNALS UPOJSr FOET FINCASTLE. 
 
 Flags at mast-head denote the description of approaching ves- 
 sels. 
 
 Small quarter flags at W\(i point of the yard arm indicate the 
 number of aii]n-oacliing vessels. Four halyards attached to the 
 yard arm are thus used; — one on the first halyard signifies one 
 vessel; on the second, two vessels/ and so on. 
 
 If more than eight vessels arc approaching from one quarter, 
 i\\Q fleet flag is hoisted at the mast-head, and the quarter flags at 
 the point of the yard arm. 
 
 A Mail Packet Steamer is indicated by a Red Pendant at the 
 yard arm, over the quarter flag. 
 
 When the mail steamer anchors, a Union Jack is hoisted on 
 
52 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 the Public Abutmentj when the mails are landed it is hauled 
 down. 
 
 A Red Pendant is hoisted at the mast-head of the fort when 
 a vessel of war aj)proaches; and should the Union be flying from 
 t'he fort, the Eed Pendant is hoisted under it. 
 
 A Large Union is hoisted on Sundays, all public days, and 
 whenever the royal standard is unfurled at Government House. 
 It is kept flying, excej^t in bad weather, from eight o'clock a. m. 
 until sunset. 
 
 A Small Union hoisted at mast-head over the signal Avhich de- 
 notes the description of the vessel approaching, indicates that 
 the Governor is on board, and is kept flying until the vessel an- 
 chors. His excellency is evidently the Queen Bee of the little 
 hive. 
 
 MAST-HEAD SIGNALS. 
 
 Red and yelloio (vertical bars), steamer. 
 Red and lohite cross, brig. 
 Red^ ship or barque. 
 White until red cross, brigantine. 
 Blue loith white cross, fore and aft schooner. 
 Blue, top-sail schooner. 
 Blue and yellow (horizontal), fleet. 
 White and blue (horizontal), distress. 
 
 YARD ARM SIGXALS — (QUARTER FLAGS.) 
 
 Yelloui, west. 
 
 Blue and yelloio (vertical), north-west. 
 Blue, north. 
 
 Blue and red, north-east. 
 Red, east. 
 
 Very near to its north wall a deep cut has been made in the 
 
/ 
 
 SUBURBAN" VILLAGES. 53 
 
 rock through the hill, as if for the purpose of obstructing by 
 an artificial chasm the approach to the fort by a hostile land 
 force from the north. In this deep gorge there is a long high 
 flight of stone steps, which are dignified by the name of ''The 
 Queen's Staircase." It is an interesting spot and much visited. 
 
 Back of Nassau, over the hill, towards the west is Delancy's 
 Town — a suburb of the city occupied by colored people ; G-rant's 
 Town and Baine's Town lie also back of the city below and beyond 
 the crest of the hill, but are further to the east. 
 
 These suburban villages are inhabited largely by manumitted 
 slaves and the descendants of those who have been enfranchised. 
 Some, it is said, still use their native African dialects, and har- 
 bor some of their old superstitions. We frequently visited these 
 suburbs, and were always much interested in their teeming popu- 
 lation, huddled together around their humble dwellings, sit- 
 ting upon the rocks, or leaning upon the rude division and front 
 walls of their village lots. With no corroding cares, no trouble- 
 some anxieties about to-morrow, and no wants not easily supplied, 
 they seemed more to be envied than many of the tired toilers in 
 colder climes. Excepting the divers, we saw none of the 
 ''nearly naked negroes " that others have described. Once while 
 sailing before a good breeze, a boat passed tlnit was sculled by a 
 small boy, whose costume consisted only of a shirt, or, as a lady 
 very forcibly expressed it, " two sheets in the wind, or one flying. " 
 His diminutive size, ebony complexion and comical attitude, 
 self-satisfied air and " ascension robe," contrasted strikingly with 
 the size of his boat, the dignity and gravity of his passengers, 
 the clear and exquisitely beautiful water, and the green back- 
 ground of Hog Island, whose southern shore he was approaching. 
 But little money is, however, spent for dry goods, and many are 
 barefooted, Avhile the poor apologies for shoes which others have, 
 make it impossible for them to walk except with a noisy, shuffling 
 
54- ISLTIS OF StJMMER. 
 
 gait, which equally grates upon the ear and offends the eye of 
 people from the States. Those whom we have seen Sundays 
 have been well and neatly but not expensively dressed. 
 
 The streets of these suburbs are narrow and cross each other 
 at right angles. Building lots have been laid out upon them, 
 upon which there is usually a small one-story house, and some- 
 times two or more, embowered in orange, tamarind, cocoanut, 
 banana, sapodilla and other trees, and with flowering shrubs 
 and vines. Here, as elsewhere generally upon the island, so far 
 as we have seen it, the trees rise up out of the bare and naked 
 rocks. . Grov. Eawson in his report for 1864, sjaeaking of this 
 locality, says: "Fruit trees of various kinds are crowded around 
 the dwellings and cottages, growing luxuriantly, but planted 
 without order, unselected, impruned, and unimproved, often 
 finding a place and nourishment for their roots in crannies and 
 fissures in the rocks into which it would appear imjjossiblo for 
 them to penetrate." 
 
 One can hardly believe his own eyes in looking at them. The 
 plow and the sjDade, the harrow and the cultivator, the scythe 
 and the reaper would be as much out of place here as snowballs 
 in a baker's oven. The only implements of husbandry that can 
 be made available are the pick and the crowbar. By prying up 
 the end of a stone, or finding a crevice or n'^aking one in the rock, 
 a place is found for slip, root, or seed, and when thus utilized, 
 small rootlets start out, follow all the minute inequalities of the 
 porous limestone, penetrate all the little jjockets in the rock, run 
 over and down ledges ten to twenty feet higli, searching for fis- 
 sures and crevices in the hard bottom of stone below, as if guided 
 by intelligence, and impelled onward by a strong and most tena- 
 cious love of life, while, at the same time, buds and twigs and 
 stems and branches push upwards, enlarge and miiltiply, draw- 
 ing rich supplies of food from a hot sun that warms but never 
 
, graft's towk. 55 
 
 wilts, and from the cIgavs and showers that come down from 
 heaven for their sustenance, until a dense and seemingly impen- 
 etrable forest, fast anchored to the rocks, and a wild tangle of 
 vines and bushes, blushing v/itli flowers that perfume the air, 
 cover all the apparent sterility of nature with a beauty which 
 seems like childhood's dreams of fairy land. 
 
 The houses of the negroes arc built mostly of wood, but some 
 have limestone walls, while the roofs are covered — some with 
 shingles and others with a thatching of palmetto leaves. It is 
 rare to see a house with glass windows — board shutters take the 
 place of sashes, and fire-places and chimneys are unknown. A 
 little fire out doors, for cooking, made of dead Avood gathered in 
 the forest or thickets, which is transported in little bundles upon 
 the heads of Avomen and children, is all that is required in this 
 warm climate. The Avails are not sheathed or plastered, and the 
 furniture of the houses is of the rudest and most simple kind. 
 The colored people in the day time live out of doors in the open 
 air, so that in riding through these suburbs, the whole popula- 
 tion comes under revieAv. Nobody appears to be at work. In 
 sunshine or shadow, having nothing and Avanting nothing, taking- 
 no thought for to-morroAV, they live on like the birds from day to 
 day, not needing to take lessons of the ant nor of any other of 
 the Avorld's greedy and grasping toilers. All are merry, light- 
 hearted and joyous; nobody frets or scolds; not a child cries; and 
 the dogs, crouching beside their indolent masters, are literally 
 too lazy to bark. All the thieving is of the petty kind — it Avould 
 be too much like Avork to plan and execute robbery on a large 
 scale — and what is the use of committing burglaries and grand 
 larcenies Avhen a little sugar-cane or a handful of fruit fills to 
 overflowing the measure of their wants! There are no trades- 
 unions, no commercial revulsions, and no strikes for higher 
 wages. No heads ache from the pressing weight of the croAvns 
 
56 ISiiES OF SUMMER. 
 
 they wear, and no brains give out in the ceaseless and crazy 
 struggles for wealth and power. Voluptuous idleness is the 
 happy offspring of these charming isles of the sea, where frosts 
 are unknown, and health and happiness float on each passing 
 wave of the soft, perfumed air. 
 
 Some of the military officials having very kindly designated a 
 time when they would show the interior of Fort Charlotte, in- 
 cluding its extensive subterranean works, to some of the hotel 
 guests, we were enabled through the politeness of Edward N. 
 Shelton, Esq., of Derby, Ct., to partici23ate in the pleasure of 
 the excursion. 
 
 This fort, in its completed form, is not a hundred years old, 
 and yet neither history or tradition are able to inform us positively 
 when or Dy whom its foundations were laid, Mr. Charles Mosel}'', 
 an old resident of Nassau, long an editor and publisher of one 
 of its newspapers, says in his almanac: "It is supposed to have 
 been begun by the Spaniards. It was finished about 1790, but 
 the information regarding its history is very meagre and incom- 
 plete." Thus the same air that stimulates into rapid and vigor- 
 ous growth the vegetable world, operates as an opiate upon ani- 
 mal life, puts the Genius of History to sleep, and makes the 
 Present too indolent to prepare and preserve records of the most 
 important passing events. 
 
 Fort Charlotte is upon the summit of the hill upon which 
 Nassau, in a state of semi-tropical torpor, reposes. It is west of 
 the city, and commands the principal or west entrance to the 
 harbor. We passed a small open shore battery, and, ascending 
 the hill by a winding roadway, soon reached and crossed a draw- 
 bridge over a dry moat, ascended a flight of steps cut in the rock 
 within the fort's walls, to the high rocky table within the ram- 
 parts, where we found our military escort waiting to receive and 
 welcome us. We felt no desire to enter the fort as prisoners of 
 
POET CHARLOTTE. 57 
 
 war, and no ambition to take possession of it for and in the name 
 of the Great Eepublic, althongh, if somewhat reduced in size, 
 and safely floated over the ocean, it might add a pleasing interest 
 to some great American Museum or Inter-national Exposition. 
 We were well satisfied to enter it as willing captives of British 
 and Bahama hospitality. 
 
 To our civilian eyes its armament did not appear formidable. 
 Its old and rusty ordinance seemed little better than Quaker guns. 
 ISTo doubt, however, they exert as salutary a moral influence upon 
 Nassau's suburban colored inhabitants as would the best rifled 
 and breech-loading peacemakers of modern times. 
 
 To us the fort had a special value by reason of the extensive 
 and picturesque views it affords. In front, and far away to the 
 right and left, were the strings of beaded keys with which the 
 shores of New Providence are exquisitely Jewelled. Numberless 
 rocks and reefs, lying in ambush in the shallows of the sea, were 
 revealed by the white, foaming breakers that dashed over them. 
 The iris colored and ribboned waters, with their settings of islands 
 and keys, constituted a lovely sun embroidered border for the 
 dark, deep blue dress of the ocean, which, in wide and waving 
 folds, brushed against the sky. Turning to the opposite side, the 
 contrast was most striking. The hill upon which we stood, 
 Prospect Hill to the right, and the Blue Hills in the distance, 
 are densely wooded banks and water sheds of a low, wet wilder- 
 ness. We were very near to a colonial cajoital in which we had 
 witnessed, in rather a small way, something of the pride and 
 pomp and glory of this world. From our commanding positions 
 we were able to observe its " back country," and to see no small 
 portion of the island, yet we looked in vain for green pastures 
 and flowery meads, for villages and farm houses, for orchards 
 and gardens. The glassy surface of a small, salt and shallow 
 lake alone broke the continuity of the low, thick, im^jenetrable 
 
6S ISLES op StTMMEB. 
 
 iungle. There was much to please the eye, but not a little of 
 the beauty was eliminated when we paused to muse and meditate. 
 
 Before we had an opportunity to do much of the latter, we 
 were invited by our military friends to exjDlore that portion of 
 the fort which exists below the surface, in the very bowels of the 
 amestone hill. Colored subordinates attended with lanterns, 
 while the military officials devoted themselves to their guests, 
 and, with a gallantry characteristic of military men, personally 
 aided the ladies in treading the dark and dismal corridors, and 
 exploring the windowless rooms which have been excavated in 
 the rock. We entered the mouth of a small, round, deep well 
 dole, and descended a long flight of spiral stairs cut in the rock. 
 We traversed slowly and carefully in the darkness, one after the 
 other, the small convolutions of this long, perpendicular, immov- 
 able, excavated stone cork-screw. Our memory of this artificial 
 military cave is not clear cut. It jiartakes somewhat of the dark- 
 ness of the caverns we explored. The rooms and corridors, with 
 their sides, and floors, and ceilings of stone, were no doubt made 
 after some deeply cogitated and wise plan, but the most we rec- 
 ollect is that they were dark and dismal dungeons. Here and 
 there we remember to have seen loop holes, through which, from 
 safe coverts, musketeers might shoot the men who should succeed 
 in scaling the walls. 
 
 If the reader desires, in a cheap and comparatively easy way, 
 to experience the delightful sensations which a visit to Fort 
 Charlotte's subterranean rooms is so well calculated to produce, 
 he has only to go into some large deep cellar and follow a negro 
 with a lantern for half an hour in the darkness, and his curiosity, 
 if he is a reasonable man, will be fully gratified. 
 
 Not far from our first landing place at the foot of the spiral 
 stairs, we remember endeavoring to peer into the darkness of a 
 well hole in the rock which had been sunk to the foundations of 
 
TftE QtJEEN-^S CHAMBES. §§ 
 
 the hill, and to have drank some cool and pleasant-tasted water 
 ■which was drawn from it. 
 
 Nor would we if we could forget "The Queen's Chamber," 
 where, for the first time in our lives, we ate and drank at the 
 expense of the British Government. With cheese and crackers 
 and wine, the darkness was in a measure dispelled, and the re- 
 presentatives of the old and new worlds there assembled, in those 
 artificial Bahama caverns, drove a few nails into the great inter- 
 national Platform of Peace. 
 
 After drinking to the health of the British Queen, and to the 
 prosperity and speedy and rapid promotion of the military gen- 
 tlemen who had so kindly given us their time and attention, we 
 ascended into the sunlight, and soon, resuming our carriages, 
 returned to our hotel. 
 
 The military barracks formerly occupied at Nassau an eleva- 
 ted position on the grounds of Fort Charlotte. They were com- 
 menced in 1790, and finished in 1794, and cost the home govern- 
 ment about $150,000. After being used for between forty and 
 fifty years, they Avere condemned as unhealthy, and taken down. 
 An obelisque has been erected upon their site, which is utilized 
 as a land-mark by vessels entering tlie harbor. Some of the 
 Nassau people, we were told, claim that this removal was accom- 
 plished under a false pretext; that it was "a put up job;" that 
 the military officers desired to be nearer to Nassau while doomed 
 upon the island of New Providence to play the part of Napoleon 
 Bonaparte at St, Helena. The sickness complained of they 
 allege, was caused by imprudence; some of the soldiers, after 
 spending an evening in the city, were too heavily loaded with 
 liquor to get back to their barracks without lying down to rest 
 and sleep in the damp night air. Hence the fevers from which 
 they suffered. But as the prevailing winds swept over the low 
 wet lands of the island before they reached the old barracks, it 
 
6d iSLteS OP SUMMER, 
 
 is quite probable that, at least during tlie wet rainy season, they 
 were unhealthy. 
 
 Little Fort Montague has been keeping watch and guard at 
 the eastern entrance of Nassau harbor for a little less than a. 
 century and a-half. It was finished in 1742. Lieut. Bruce, 
 who planned it, and superintended its construction, had suffi- 
 cient skill as an engineer, and talent as an author, to ensure its 
 transmission to our own times doubly preserved. Its walls re- 
 main intact, and the pen of its engineer secured for it an abiding 
 place in letters. 
 
 It is only as a relict and reminder of the by-gones that it has a 
 present value. It is not garrisoned, but its old and rusty guns, 
 in appearance at least, continue to guard Nassau's back door. 
 Although we never entered its walls, it always calls up pleasant 
 memories, as we often j^assed near it during the forenoon sails 
 and afternoon rides that did so much to fill our cuj^ of pleasure 
 at Nassau. 
 
 The Governor of these islands, while Ave were in Nassau, sent 
 a written message to the Bahama legislative assembly, signed by 
 himself, in which he asked for an appropriation of £50 (about 
 two hundred dollars) to " His Excellency in Council, to cause to 
 be collected and printed the judicial decisions of the Superior 
 Court of this colony during the last quarter of a century." Does 
 this not indicate a great amount of legal business ? What an 
 opening exists in this extensive group of islands, keys, rocks, 
 and banks for young and aspiring members of the legal pro- 
 fession! Only £50 wanted to collect and print all the deci- 
 sions of all the Bahama Superior C-ourts for twenty-five 3'ears! 
 And two dollars will purchase sugar cane enough to support a 
 man and keep him fat and healthy for three months. Observe 
 also how the Governor regards the maxim that "A man cannot 
 expect others to think any better of him than he thinks of him- 
 
LtTXUEIANT GROWTH OF TITLES. 6l 
 
 self/' — and styles himself ''His Excellency I" The more we 
 study the royal institutions of the Bahamas, the more satisfied 
 we become that our boasted republic is a failure, popular gov- 
 ernments a mistake, and that it is about time to give some of 
 our most skillful artists a liberal order for crowns, scepters, 
 thrones, and all the gilded trappings necessary to set up one of 
 those lofty imperial governments which are " ordained of God." 
 Perhaps it mav be well to start one first upon the ''Thimble 
 Islands,^ that our people may see with their own eyes how beauti- 
 fully tliG thing works. 
 
 In a newspaper which is issued there semi-weekly, entitled 
 "The Nassau Guardian,'''' &c., we find under date of February 
 24th, 1879, a letter of welcome to the newly elected Bishop of 
 the diocese from the rector, wardens and vestry of a church up- 
 on Harbour Island (one of the Bahamas) upon his first visit to 
 that island, and the bishop's reply. The correspondence has no 
 particular interest to the outside world except as it shows how 
 great, windy titles thrive when transplanted upon these wonder- 
 fully productive calcareous rocks. The Harbour Island church 
 officials addressed this successor of poor and humble apostles as 
 follows: * 
 
 "The Right Reverend Dr. Francis A. Cranmer-Roberts, Lord Bishop of 
 Nassau, Reverend Father in God." 
 
 The Bishop in his reply concluded as follows: 
 
 "Believe me to remain, 
 
 "Your affectionate Father in God, 
 
 ' ' Fr ANOIS-N ASSAtr. " 
 
 Now if these little rocky isles of tlie ocean can sport " Fathers 
 in God," "Lord Bishoj)s," and other high ecclesiastical digni- 
 
 6 
 
63 iSLtlS 6V SUMMED. 
 
 taries, in addition to a Governor and lords temporal enough to 
 stock a great empire, isn't it about time for the people of the 
 states to wake up and do something? Haven't we all the materials 
 necessary for the manufacture of whole regiments of ''lords 
 temporal" and "Fathers in Grod," and why shouldn't we have 
 our share? 
 
 Nassau harbor is about one and one-half miles long, and two- 
 fifths of a mile wide. Potter's Key runs mid- way down the har- 
 bor from the east, and separates the eastern half into two parts. 
 The quays and landing places are on the south side of the 
 harbor, oj)posite the east end of Hog Island. The shipping- 
 occupy the south side of the channel, which is separated from 
 the north side by a bank having fifteen feet of water. The 
 ordinary tides rise from tv\^o to three feet. It is not generally 
 practicable for vessels to enter the harbor from the cast whicli 
 draw over nine feet of water. 
 
 Old wrecks and storm-worn and condemned vessels abound, 
 and suggest to a stranger Nassau's importance as a seaport. Her 
 back door is open only to small vessels, while her front door is 
 barred. 
 
 That the bar at the main entrance to Nassau harbor is often 
 a very serious obstruction to navigation, is evident from tiie fact 
 that the authorities have established the following bar signab: 
 
 " If the harbor is approached with a northerly wind, and there 
 is an uncertainty as to the state of the bar, should it be danger- 
 ous to cross, a red flag will be hoisted on the signal staff near the 
 lighthouse. * * Should it be possible, but too dangerous to 
 get out, a white flag will be hoisted, and the pilot-boat will be 
 seen in Avaiting just within the breakers, showing a flag red and 
 white horizontally," &c. 
 
 The Governor in his report for 1878, stated tliat in September 
 of that year, for six successive days, no vessel was able to cross 
 
THE HARBOR AND BAR. 63 
 
 the bar, on account of the disturbed state of the water, caused 
 by the high winds and storms which had prevailed outside. Also 
 that the harbor had not before been thus closed for so long a 
 period within the memory of the oldest inhabitants. One can 
 easily understand the danger of crossing at such times who has 
 watched the high breakers, with foaming crests, leap along the 
 bar from the back of Hog Island. It is often a pleasant and ex- 
 citing pastime to approach this bar in a yacht, and watch the 
 high waves as they approach, getting near enough to them to 
 realize their power, and be baptised in their spray. How grandly 
 they approach, with their high and foaming crests, ''white as 
 carded wool,'' or an Alpine torrent I The waves seem marshalled 
 for the onset. Like the measured tread of an army, they roll in 
 upon the honey-combed and trembling isle at short and regular 
 intervals. Here and there a daring column of assault leaps over 
 a depression in the rocks, but the main body, baffled in its pur- 
 pose, rolls and foams along the rocky rim of the shore, envelopes 
 the lighthouse in a mantle of spray, traverses the whole length 
 of Nassau bar, and spends itself at last upon the white shore of 
 Silver Key. Like the heavy roll of distant thunder, but with 
 more exultant tones^, loud voices from the troubled ocean mingle 
 with the hoarser and louder reverberations that arise from the 
 long line where sea and shore meet and struggle for the mastery. 
 Following the first great breaker there is always a second, which 
 in turn is succeeded by a third, at short and regular intervals. 
 All travel the same path, and, iike swift moving snow-clad rail- 
 road trains, glide rapidly across the bar. It was easy to believe 
 them strange monsters of the sea, they sampled so well its mys- 
 tery and power. 
 
 A short lull occurs after the third breaker, of sufficient length 
 to enable waiting vessels to cross the bar. This novel race by 
 high mettled, spray-enveloped ocean steeds, with their long white 
 
64 iSLES OP SUMMER. 
 
 foaming trains, always secures a high degree of pleasurable ex- 
 citement. We always welcomed the showers of glistening pearls 
 that on such occasions greeted, enveloped and followed us, as a 
 holy baptism from JSTeptiine's sacred but unseen altars. 
 
 The inscription upon a coraline monument which occupies a 
 conspicuous position upon the sea bank opposite the western or 
 main entrance to the harbor, is strongly suggestive of the danger 
 which attends the crossing of the bar on some occasious. Below 
 the names of five men is the following testimonial. 
 
 " Who perished on the bar of Nassau harbor, February 26th, 
 1861, while gallantly volunteering their services in the effort to 
 save two men belonging to the pilot boat, which had been upset 
 by a heavy sea. This monument is erected by the legislature of 
 the Bahamas, to commemorate their gallant conduct and self- 
 sacrificing heroism. " 
 
 Thus does this monumental stone serve a double purpose. It 
 honors not only the dead but the living, for the men who, in 
 this substantial manner, recognized the noble virtues that ani- 
 mated and inspired these obscure heroes in humble life, and thus 
 caused them to inculcate a lesson of selt-sacrifice to every passer 
 by, at the same time, all unconsciously, provided a memorial of 
 their own justice, goodness and practical wisdom. 
 
 On the first day of March, 1879, aided by a good glass, we 
 Avitnessed a grand and extensive display of breakers from tlic 
 cupola of the Victoria Hotel. The reefs, rocks, shoals, and out- 
 lying keys were all marked and enlivened with the constant dash 
 and play of the foaming breakers. The plucky resistance of 
 Hog Island to the angry and impetuous assaults of the sea,, chal- 
 lenged our admiration. The light house, which rises from that 
 island's eastern terminus, a spindle of limestone sixty-eight feet 
 liigh, had its top obscured Avith tlie spray of higli breakers that 
 threatened to sweep it into the sea. We could not but muse and 
 
THE BREAKERS. SHELLS AND SHELL-WORK. 63 
 
 meditate upon tlie question of its desirableness as a summer resi- 
 dence, with a cyclone outside traveling at the rate of one hundred 
 miles an hour. For we well knew that at times, not only 
 
 " The startled waves leap over it ; the storm 
 Smites it with all the scourges of the rain, 
 But steadily against its solid form 
 Press the great shoulders of the hurricane." 
 
 As we saw it on that occasion, we realized more than ever be- 
 fore its great importance, and the beneficence of its mission. 
 We seemed to hear its hopeful and inspiring voice above the roar 
 of the angry breakers ; 
 
 " 'Sail on!' it said, 'sail on, ye stately ships,' 
 
 And with j^our floating bridge the ocean span, 
 Be mine to guard this light from all eclipse, 
 Be yours to bring man nearer unto man!" 
 
 The Bahamas offer special attractions to the conchologist. 
 Their waters abound with a great variety of handsome shell-fish, 
 and the shells, profusely scattered along the shores of the islands 
 and keys, as the tides ebb, are exquisitely beautiful in form and 
 color. They are mostly small, and so delicate and varied that 
 with them the natives have long been accustomed to make vari- 
 ous articles for the adornment of persons and parlors. They 
 display much ingenuity and taste, and are said to be, if not su- 
 perior, at least unsurpassed in this department of industrial 
 esthetics. Some of the products of their skill, as well as shells 
 that have been simply gathered from the beach and cured, are 
 most always to be found for sale in the court of the hotel. Also 
 delicate ornaments ingeniously made from the small scales of 
 fish. 
 
 In this connection, the conchs deserve special notice, as in the 
 
66 ISLlS OF STJMMEfi. 
 
 past they furnished to tlie natives a most important article of 
 diet, while the conch shells have been in demand in other coun- 
 tries for their beauty, and have also to a considerable extent, 
 been utilized m the manufacture of various articles of personal 
 adornment. The conch also often secretes a pearl of considerable 
 value. The exportation of conch shells for five years, from 1856 
 to 1860 inclusive, aggregated $75,230, and for the next four 
 years, (during the war of the rebellion), only $15,445. In the 
 Governor's report for 1878 no mention is made of this item of 
 trade, and I infer the value of conclis exported that year must 
 have been very small. The concli is obtained by diving, and 
 sometimes has been found in very extensive beds. This may be 
 inferred from a passage on page 204 of McKinncn-s Tour, A. D. 
 1803, in which he says — that the day after they passed Exuma, 
 they ''steered towards a passage named Conch Cut, from a pro- 
 digious quantity of conch shells which have been rolled from the 
 [Great Bahama] bank or adjoining shores, and thrown together 
 uear this narrow pass." At the time of the American revolution 
 Df 1776, the Bahama people relied far more upon the water than 
 the land for their support. Its fruitage of fish and wrecks never 
 failed. They had no more occasion than the birds to sow and 
 reap. At tlrat time they acquired the sobriquet ol Conchs. 
 A writer from tlie Bahamas in 1824, states that many persons 
 of the highest respectability were then distinguished by that 
 name, and that they appeared to be not very proud of it, — which 
 is not to be wondered at, as one might bo expected to be equall}^ 
 pleased to be called an oyster or a clam. The wreckers of Key 
 West, Fla., whoso ancestors came from the Bahamas, are,weare 
 informed by an old sea captain, to this day also called conchs. 
 The surfaces of the inner spiral convolutions of the shell of tlie 
 conch are highly polished, and have a most beautiful jnnk color, 
 which suggested to our mind the inquiry Avhether the living oc- 
 
iTASSAr's PUBLIC LIBRARY. 6? 
 
 ciipant of this little but exquisitely furnished tenement is itself 
 conscious of the gracefulness and beauty of the inner chambers 
 of the house it occupies upon the submerged shelf of the ocean. 
 It was a very pleasant surprise to find at Nassau a well selected 
 Public Library of over seven thousand volumes. It does much 
 credit to the government Avhich established and sustains it, and 
 evidences wise statesmanship. Some of the other islands it is 
 said, are similarly favored. A person, entitled to draw books, is 
 permitted to take out five volumes at a time — a very liberal num- 
 ber, and probably more than could be allowed if its patrons were 
 more numerous. Isolated as New Providence is from the great 
 world beyond the sea, the stranger, with the works of his favorite 
 authors before him, is lonely no more. He is in the midst of a 
 congenial world — the great world of letters — and no longer a. 
 stranger in a strange land. His mind is enriched and seeded 
 with the great thoughts of the world's greatest thinkers, present 
 and past. Philosophers unlock the secrets of nature, and spread 
 her most profound and subtle laws at his feet. Eomance lays 
 bare for him the mysteries (to some extent distorted and too 
 highly colored) of the human heart, and the lights and shadows 
 of all phases of human life. History, with graphic pen, dipped 
 alike in truth and fable, portrays the rise, the decadence, and 
 the fall of states and empires, and points out the deep-seated 
 causes that make and ruin nations. Divines cluster around him, 
 and, while some for a greater or less fee permit him to look 
 through their little pieces of smoked glass at the invisible world, 
 others, with lips hallowed with celestial fire from God's own 
 altar, discourse eloquently upon the mysteries of life, death and 
 immortality. While the poet, in soothing numbers, sings in- 
 spired songs, conducts him on 'fancy's wings through all space, 
 and opens for him alike grim purgatorial doors and the golden 
 gates of the celestial city. 
 
68 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 Even in tlie drowsy air of the Bahamas a studious man is not 
 satisfied or liappy if withdrawn entirely from tlie world of letters. 
 He must wander at will in what to him is the very garden of the 
 gods — those literary fields where is found the choicest fruitage 
 of the most gifted and cultivated minds. In the mild climate of 
 Italy, the great Cicero found coveted rest and repose, not in list- 
 less idleness, but in a change of literary work. Mind, equally 
 with muscle, is toned up and strengthened by exercise, and soft- 
 ens in voluptuous repose. The tired intellectual worker who 
 seeks in Nassau rest, may, therefore, in moderation avail himself 
 of the benefits of its library. With leisure and a library, his 
 mind will not become flabby while his body grows fat. 
 
 The building used for a library is of octagon form, built of 
 stone, and was formerly a prison. Each of its eight alcoves has 
 a window, so that it is well supplied with light and air. Con- 
 nected with the library there is a newspaper and magazine de- 
 partment, which adds materially to its value, A beginning (a 
 small nest egg) has also been made for a museum of natural 
 history. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Royal Vict&ria Hotel. Scenes daily tcitnessed in its Court, Sacred 
 Songs of the Negroes. 
 
 " Whoe'er has traveled life's dull round, 
 Where'er his stages may have been, 
 May sigh to think he still has found 
 The warmest welcome at an inn." — Shenstone. 
 
 The words above quoted need to be qualified, for a landlord's 
 welcome is purchased by his guest's money, and disappears the 
 moment tnat gives out. The destitute traveler is not presumed 
 to be a disguised angel, and the doors of few public or private 
 houses swing open at his approach, except for the purpose of 
 letting the dogs loose on him. Hotels are not kept for tramps, 
 and the latter receive but a cold welcome even in poor houses 
 which the public maintain in part for their benefit. 
 
 We were much pleased with the Royal Victoria Hotel, and re- 
 ceived many little attentions and kindnesses at the hands of its 
 proprietor, (Mr. J. M. Morton), which it is a pleasure to ac- 
 knowledge, but the visitors from the states must remember that 
 Nassau's justly celebrated hostelry is conducted on business prin- 
 ciples, and that plenty of money or a good letter of credit is an 
 essential requisite of ''the warmest welcome" of which the poet 
 Shenstone sung. 
 
 In a subsequent chapter, reference is made to the object for 
 which this hotel was built by the Bahama government, and to 
 the important part it played in the blockade running business 
 
 69 
 
70 ISLES OF SlTMMEE. 
 
 during the late American war. It is so essential to the health 
 and comfort of invalids and tourists visiting Nassau, that we add 
 such other facts concerning it as strangers proposing to visit the 
 place will 'naturally desire to know. 
 
 This hotel stands upon high ground, a little below the crest of 
 the hill upon which Nassau is built. Three-fourths of the square 
 enclosed by Sherley, East, East Hill, and Parliament streets, is 
 occujjied as a site for the hotel and for hotel purposes. It faces 
 the north, and commands, from all its front windows and piazzas, 
 a very fine view of the harbor, its sheltering island, some neigh- 
 boring keys, and the out-lying ocean. It overlooks the judicial, 
 legislative and library buildings, and many private buildings 
 Avith their embowering trees. Its elevation and exposure to the 
 full force of the prevailing winds, secures for it the full benefit 
 of those from the ocean, which, freighted with refreshment and 
 health, seldom cease to blow. 
 
 The hotel proper is two hundred feet in length, four stories 
 high, and is well and substantially built of coralline lime- 
 stone, and is surmounted by an observatory which commands 
 a very extensive and fine view. Piazzas ten feet wide surround 
 each of the three upper stories, upon Avliich the windows, gen- 
 erally reaching to the floor, open; thus furnishing convenient 
 places for promenades and sittings in the outside air, though 
 interfering somewhat at times, with the much to be desired 
 quiet and privacy of the adjacent rooms. Projecting from 
 the center of the building, directly over and of the same size 
 with the mam parlor, there is a piazza in the third story, o^ien 
 on the east, north and south sides, Avhicli affords an extensive 
 vicAV greatly diversified and charmingly beautiful. Spacious 
 halls extend through the center of each story of the long build- 
 ing, with tiers of rooms upon each side. The old King's College 
 School building constitutes a part of the hotel. It is in a line 
 
THE KOYAL VICTOEIA HOTEL. 71 
 
 with the new hotel building, and is connected with it by large 
 heavy blinds. It has stone stuccoed columns in front, its prin- 
 cipal rooms are large and well lighted, and admit of more privacy 
 and quiet than most of the rooms in the new building. The 
 dining room occupies all of the first floor north of the central 
 portion of the hotel, and large windows surround it upon three 
 sides. It has three tiers of tables, and is unusually light, airy 
 and pleasant. A refreshing sea-breeze seldom failed to make it 
 agreeably cool in the middle of the hottest days, and in no in- 
 stance while Ave were there was it at night too cool or hot for 
 comfort. Hotel parties, and occasional evening entertainments 
 Avere given in the dining room, and when its Avails Avere adorned 
 with j)almctto leaves, and decorated Avith English and American 
 flags, it did not need the gay dance, SAveet music and the land- 
 lord's generous and bountiful entertainment to make it attractive 
 even to the mere looker-on. 
 
 The x^irlors are smaller than those of large hotels at the north, 
 but the cliiniite is so mild the parlors are less frequented. 
 
 The hotel is neatly furnished and Avell kej^t. The meats, 
 mauy canned vegetables, and the smaller fruits and other sup- 
 plies for the establishment, are imported from Ncav York. Packed 
 in ice, in large refrigerators, every steamer brings large additions 
 to the landlord's stores. A very superior class of colored Avaiters, 
 uncommonly intelligent, and eflicient, materially add to the com- 
 fort and hapjiiness of the guests. A gentleman Avell qualified to 
 judge in such matters expressed to us the opinion, founded on 
 his personal knowledge, that there is no hotel in the West In- 
 dies equal to the Victoria, though some have cost more money. 
 
 We were informed by some of the visitors at Nassau, that this 
 fine hotel has not always been Avell kept, and that its j^atrons 
 have some times fared badly, and been the victims of extortion. 
 With an incompetent landlord in charge, and no other suitable 
 
72 ISLES OF SUMMEK. 
 
 house to go to, Nassau would be far less desirable as a •winter 
 resort than we found it. For the invalid esj)ecially a good tem- 
 porary home is essential to both health and comfort. We re- 
 member to have heard only one comj)laint of its management 
 while we Avere there, and that was because the breakfast and 
 dinner tables were for only a portion of the season supplied with 
 oranges, many deeming that fruit almost a necessary of life in 
 Florida and the Bahama^. 
 
 Bath rooms, supplied with hot and cold water, constitute a 
 pkrt of the establishment, and accommodate those who do not 
 indulge in the luxury of a bath in the sea, there being nothing 
 in the temperature of the air or water to prevent sea bathing at 
 Nassau every day in the year. The ^arice of board is three dollars 
 a day, and while for many it is a large sum to pay, yet persons 
 who had boarded for a while at some of the cheaper houses in- 
 formed us that they obtained more for their money at the Eoyal 
 Victoria than any where else. Washing is an extra, the charge 
 being seventy-five cents per dozen. 
 
 A small building at the west entrance of the hotel grounds is 
 used as a barber shop, and for drinking and billiard purposes. 
 North of it is the hotel garden. 
 
 The court in front of the princijial north entrance of the Eoyal 
 Victoria Hotel is entered on three sides through eight large, high 
 archways, and its ceiling separates it from the main parlor of the 
 hotel, which is projected out from the main building. Being 
 large, airy, and shaded at all times, it is a favorite place of resort 
 by the guests of the house. As a consequence, the colored yacht- 
 men, including the smooth-tongued, exj^erienced and skillful 
 Captain Sampson, and the good-natured, capable, but less showy 
 Captains Johnson and Mitchell, when not on the water, were 
 ever, during the pleasant days, to be seen arranging for marine 
 exploring parties. The varied attractions of the adjacent waters, 
 
THE HOTEL OOtTRT. 73 
 
 i&lands and. keys were portrayed with a fervid eloquence which 
 never ceased to interest. Near by were numerous carriages for 
 hire, which were much patronized. This court is also a great 
 bazaar, to which the colored people of all ages and of both sexes 
 who have anything to sell, resort in large numbers to dispose of 
 their wares. Here, therefore, is offered an excellent opportunity 
 to study the products of these rocky islands and of the adjacent 
 waters, which is much improved and enjoyed. Many kinds of 
 fruits, flowers and other vegetable products, corals in great 
 variety, sugar cane and candies, sponges of all sizes and qualities, 
 shells exquisitely shaped and beautifully colored, shell-work of 
 unsurpassed excellence, canes of the orange, lignum vitse, ebony, 
 satin and other woods, and many other articles make up their 
 stock in trade. Here also the colored boys came to scramble, 
 in the most laughable manner, for pennies, thrown to them for 
 that purpose upon the hard pavements of lime-stone and brick. 
 When down, and struggling for the prize, in a wild tangle of 
 arms and legs, they seemed a hideous, writhing mass of black and 
 ragged reptiles of the most lively kind. When up, with faces 
 beaming with fun and frolic, their eager calls for *'massa" to 
 *' trow a penny dis way " soon dispelled the delusion. In these 
 contests, as well as on other occasions, their good nature aild 
 amiability are pre-eminently exemplified. 
 
 For some days after we first arrived at the Koyal Victoria, 
 young Africa gave frequent vocal entertainments in the court of 
 the hotel. The voices of some were soft and musical, and they 
 sang the religious songs which they had learned in " the shouting 
 meetings," with perfect abandon, and with a fervor and zeal that 
 glorified their dusky faces, swayed their bodies, and extended 
 down their arms to the tips of their fingers. A sacred waltz was 
 sometimes performed by " Sankey " and his cousin, two little dots 
 of children, in the most cunning and comical manner imaginable, 
 
 7 
 
71 ISLES OF SUMMBE. 
 
 while they sang to the rhythm of the dance, ''^0 it will be joy- 
 ful," &c. When the miniature boy and girl near the close sepa- 
 rated a little, alternately approached each other and withdrew, 
 ogling, twisting, bowing and coquetting, while they continued 
 to sing with many repetitions — ''Meet to part no more; meet 
 to part no more," the gravity of the audience was sure to give 
 way in laughter and applause. 
 
 The songs sung on these occasions probably have never been 
 printed or reduced to writing. Having taken some of them 
 down, we subjoin them for the benefit of those of our readers 
 who may have a curiosity to know something in regard to their 
 character, although the words alone give only a faint representa- 
 tion of their merits when wedded by these uncultured peo]3le to 
 music, and sung with a fervid enthusiasm, born of a native love 
 of melody and of genuine devotional feelings. A prominent 
 member of the choir is Charley, the basket boy merchant — a 
 smart, bright, wide-awake little fellow, who ever has a sharp eye 
 to business. 
 
 A marked feature in the following was the rendering of the 
 " Oh's," the notes ascending and descending the scale in a very 
 lively manner, and the musical expression and richness of tone 
 added greatly to the effect. 
 
 1, 
 
 I'd rather pray my life away, 
 
 Oh! oh! oh! oh! 
 Than go to hell and burn away. 
 
 Chobus. 
 Save me Lord from sinking down, 
 
 Oh I oh! oh! oh! 
 Save me Lord from sinking down. 
 
SACEED SGITGS OF THE STEGROES. 75 
 
 I had a book — 'twas given to me, — 
 Save me Lord from sinking down, 
 In every line was victory. 
 
 Choeus. 
 Save me, &c. 
 
 3. 
 
 I had a book — 'twas given to me,- 
 
 In every line was victory ; 
 I had a book — 'twas given to me, 
 
 And every line convicted me. 
 Chorus. 
 Save me, &c. 
 
 4. 
 Satan made a catch at me, 
 He miss my soul and he catch my sins. 
 Choeus. 
 Save me, &c. 
 
 WRESTLING WITH THE ANGELS. 
 
 Tell me Lord, shall I be there now, 
 
 To sit on Zion's hill ; 
 To wrestle with the angels all night. 
 
 Until the break of da3\ 
 I'll wrestle with the angels 
 
 'Till the break of day. 
 
 Tell me Lord, shall I be there 
 To sit on Zion's hill all night, 
 
 And take a wrestle with the angels, 
 All night ! all night I 
 Until the break of day? 
 
.7-6 • ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 O tell me God, shall I be there now, 
 
 O tell me God, shall I be there now, 
 
 O tell me God, shall I be there now, 
 
 To sit on Zion's hill. 
 
 To wrestle with the angels 
 
 All night! All night! 
 
 Till the break of day . 
 
 To an uncultivated, excitable people, strongly imbued with a 
 taste for music, there is something grand and inspiring in the 
 great volumes of melody which issue from the organ, when its 
 keys are skillfully manipulated. Thrilled by the great tidal 
 waves of harmony, no wonder that it serves them as a symbol of 
 the ravishing music with which all the arches and domes of 
 heaven are sujiposed to resound. Hence the following: 
 
 Unbelievers — hear the organ roll ! 
 
 Hear the organ roll ! 
 
 Hear the organ roll ! 
 Don't you hear the organ roll, 
 
 On Mount Calvary ! 
 
 Hear the org/an roll ! 
 Street strollers — hear the organ roll 
 
 Hear the organ roll ! 
 
 Hear the organ roll ! ^ 
 
 Don't you hear the organ roll ! 
 
 On Mount Calvary ! 
 
 In the next verse " Rum Drinkers " and afterwards ''Back- 
 sliders " and others are each in like manner called upon to " Hear 
 the organ roll," and tlie enthusiasm and power of musical ex- 
 pression of the vocalists seemed to increase until all appeared at 
 last to have reached the very top of ]\Iount Calvary, — a moun- 
 tain they evidently believe exists somewhere in the happy land 
 which lies just over the river of death. 
 
Hriie following is indicative of the fact that to some extent the 
 negro mind in Nassau has been affected hy its contact with Eo- 
 man Catholicism here, or upon some of the Spanish islands. 
 
 Go and carry the news, 
 
 Go and carry the news to Mary, 
 
 I'm bound down to Glory ! 
 Go and carry the news to Mary, 
 Go and carry the news to Mary, 
 
 I'm bound down to glory ! 
 
 When Satan says I need not fear, 
 He'll have my soul in the judgment day ; 
 I'd rather pray my life away, 
 Than go to hell and spend one day; 
 
 Go and carry the news to Mary, 
 
 Go and carry the news to Mary, 
 I'm bound down to glory 1 
 
 Carry the news, 
 
 Go and carry the news I 
 
 Sister — carry, carry the news I 
 
 I'm bound down to glory. 
 Go and carry the newsl 
 Qo and carry the news ! 
 Go and carry the news I 
 
 I'm bound down to glory I 
 
 Here is a sacred song which is particularly adapted to the in- 
 dolent habits of life of this idle people. A heaven which neces- 
 sitated labor would have very little attraction for them: 
 
 Come along my sister, come along. 
 Come along my sister, come along, 
 For the angels say there's nothing to do - 
 
 But to ring the charming bell. 
 We are almost gone, we are almost gone, 
 
 But the angels say there's nothing to do 
 
v8 tsm$ 6f strMMfift. 
 
 But to ring that charming bell. 
 Come along my sister, come along, 
 For the angels say there's nothing to do 
 But to ring that charming bell. 
 
 The following little piece is said to liave Leen composed bj a 
 colored girl a short time before her death. In the ringing of 
 heayen's bells, the singing of the angels, and mounting the hill 
 of Zion, her vivid imagination anticij^ated and had a foretaste of 
 the happiness that awaited her in the other world. It certainly- 
 produced a cheery, comforting effect when musically and s|)irit- 
 edly rendered by the dusky vocalists: 
 
 The heavenly bells are ringing, 
 
 Archangels singing. 
 The heavenly bells are ringing,-™ 
 
 O rise loving sister. 
 
 Let us go to Zion's hill ! 
 
 Let us go to Zion's hill I 
 The heavenly bells are ringing, 
 
 Archangels singing, 
 The heavenly bells are ringing, 
 
 In the morning. 
 
 At last the penny scramblers and the sweet singers of Xassau 
 caused so much noise, and such a disturbance of the quiet which 
 usually prevades these dreamy shores, that a man with a long 
 iinsentimental whip was sent, whenever they assembled, to drive 
 them away. Still, however, they occasionally appeared, and, 
 for the base coins of the strangers, exercised those gifts divine, 
 which, like milk in a cocoanut, one, from outward appearance, 
 would never for a moment suppose to exist. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 Flora of the Isles of Summer. The FerUlmng Air. Large Trees from 
 Stone Quarries, and upon the Tops of Stone Walls. Trees that will not Die 
 and cannot be Killed. Trees Within Trees. The Monlcey Tamarind, the 
 Wild Fig, and the Geiba or Silk Cotton Trees. Thompson's Folly. Palm 
 Trees— the Cocoanut, the African, the Cabbage and the Palmetto. The India 
 Rubber Tree. The Singing Tree. The Tamarind Trees, and Trees Valuable 
 for Timber, for Dyes, for their Spicy Bark, and for Medicinal Purposes. 
 The Natural more Wonderful than the Supernatural, 
 
 "And all the broad leaves over me 
 Clapped their little hands in glee, 
 
 With one continued sound, — 
 A slumbrous sound, a sound that brings 
 
 The feeling of a dream. " 
 
 When visiting for the first time the isles of unending summer, 
 one cannot fail to be deeply impressed by their new, diversified, 
 and curious forms of vegetable life. It matters not that he is 
 not a close observer of nature, or an educated and trained botan- 
 ist. Perhaps if he Avere he could not, by reason of his profound 
 technical learning, so well communicate to common minds, the 
 impressions and thoughts which such scenes make and inspire. 
 The learning of some seems to make them useful only to scholars. 
 
 Upon the island of New Providence we trod what was to us a 
 new world, and every climbing vine and floAvering shrub, and 
 branching tree ministered to our happiness. We seemed to our- 
 selves to be a newly made Adam first introduced to his garden, 
 
 79 
 
§6 tSLfiS 6¥ SUMMEfi. 
 
 fortunately relieved, however, from all obligation to " dress and 
 keep it." If we liad the learning of an old and experienced 
 botanist, we should have seen too much. As it was, we saw as 
 much as, untrained and unpracticed, we could well master, or 
 describe in a single chapter. A feAV pen-photograjDhs of some of 
 the more striking floral scenes and pictures which we witnessed, 
 may communicate to our readers something of the interest and 
 pleasure which the reality produced xipon the mind of the author. 
 
 The first impression was one of astonishment at finding upon 
 such almost naked rocks anything above lichens and the smaller 
 and simpler forms of vegetable life. But nature is never as un- 
 just or partial as she often appears to the casual observer. When 
 she withholds with one hand, she, with the other, is busy 
 dispensing lavishly her gifts. Tlio principle of comj^ensation 
 exists everyAvhere throughout her Avide domain. Human life 
 and human experience teem with evidences of this great and 
 universal truth, while the material world, in all its varied and 
 wondrous forms, is permeated with the same great principle. 
 Upon the Bahama islands it is manifested on every hand. The 
 want of soil to cover the nakedness of the rocks finds material, 
 though not full compensation, in a climate so happily constitu- 
 ted that life exists and thrives largely upon air. 
 
 Mr. Charles Burnside (whoso kind and obliging attentions we 
 are glad of this opportunity to gratefully acknowledge) took us 
 to the coral limestone quarry upon his premises, to which avc have 
 already referred, from which, for a hundred years or more, stone 
 has been taken for building purposes — including stone for the 
 Royal Victoria Hotel. On the floor of that quarry, bottomed 
 upon rock, and upon nothing else, Ave saAV in full and lusty vigor, 
 a Avild fig tree, a species of the banyan, Avhich in forty years had 
 attained a great size, its many large branches towering high up 
 in the air with a lateral spread of about eighty feet. It was full 
 
"WILD riG TREES. 81 
 
 of fruit in every stage of development, tlie ripened figs being of 
 the size of tlie end of one's little finger, but as perfect in their 
 parts as the larger figs of commerce. Little lizards, like embryo 
 monkeys, were here and there seen through the green foliage, 
 while below, sheep were browsing, and eating the fallen fruit, 
 docile and happy, growing for the shearer their wool, and 
 fattening their carcasses for the butcher. These figs are to the 
 taste sweet and pleasant, and, though so small, their immense 
 number make them valuable. Children eat them, and upon them 
 hogs are fattened. Under this tree, the top of the rocky floor 
 was covered with a net work of its roots, one of which pene- 
 trated the cellar of Mr. Burnside, some three hundred feet distant. 
 
 We saw two of the same species of banyan tree that had ob- 
 tained a large growth from seed blown by the wind or depos- 
 ited by birds on top of a stone wall. This wail was composed of 
 irregular fragments, and was two and a-half feet wide at the top 
 and about four feet high. The seed there germinated, pushed 
 out their little fibi'ous roots, which crept down each side of the 
 stone wall, and fastened to and extended among the rocks in the 
 fields which the wall in part inclosed. These rootlets enlarged 
 with the growth of the trees, wliile from the top of the wall 
 stems pushed up into the air. One of the trees had five stems 
 whose diameters varied from six to twelve inches. On the top 
 of a stone wall within the grounds of the Victoria Hotel, there 
 is the stump of a tree a foot in diameter, which unquestionably 
 grew there, as its roots are still seen where they entered and 
 pushed out from among the stones of the wall. Having had 
 some experience in setting out, manuring, watching and water- 
 ing trees in Connecticut, the pluck, enterprise, persistence and 
 independence of these wild Bahama trees challenged our warm- 
 est admiration. 
 
 Mr, Burnside also called our attention to a banyan tree upon 
 
§2 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 liis grounds near his front gateway, having a spread of about one 
 hundred feet, inside tlie body of wliich there is the dead and 
 decayed body of a Pride of India tree. Mr. Burnside is about 
 thirty-five years of age, and wlien a boy, as he said, he ''often 
 went all through the Pride of India tree, and there was nothing 
 of the banyan tree to be seen." A banyan seed in some way — 
 perhaps as the result of one of the experiments in raising trees 
 of some bold and intelligent bird — found lodgment where the 
 branches of the old tree diverged from its stem, from ten to 
 fifteen feet from the ground, and, no way dismayed at the dis- 
 couraging prospect, it did not repine at its hard destiny, or 
 arraign the goodness of Providence, but concluded to make a 
 bold and heroic struggle for existence. Its little, minute fibrous 
 rootlets started out upon a seemingly hopeless mission. To the 
 Pride of India, with its graceful branches, beautiful foliage, 
 and large and fragrant clusters of flowers, they were like so 
 many gossamer threads. But the days and months and years 
 rolled ouo The rootlets noiselessly and stealthily passed down 
 upon all sides of the trunk that was giving them a support, 
 fastened into the rocks, and the doom of the Pride of India was 
 forever sealed. The law of ''the survival of the fittest" was 
 exemplified. The little rootlets around the trunk enlarged into 
 stems, perfectly encircled the old tree with a living wall of a tree 
 of a most rampant habit of growth, and now, only by a close and 
 critical inspection, can a stranger ascertain that tliis ifiimense 
 banyan tree perfectly encloses the dead body of a victim, whose 
 life it has, anaconda fashion, crushed out. 
 
 Mr. C. Waterton in his "Wanderings," states that in Demerara, 
 S. A. , the wild fig tree in a similar manner often "rears itself from 
 one of the thick branches of tlie top of the mora," feeds upon 
 the juices of the latter, and in turn is taken possession of by 
 yines, and doomed to contribute a portion of its juices towards 
 
'r'E'NACtT'Y OV TRiElE-LTFti. 83 
 
 tHeir support and growth, so that "'with their usurpation of the 
 resources of the fig tree, and the fig tree of the mora, the mora, 
 unable to support a charge which nature never intended it sliould, 
 dies under its burden, and tlien the fig tree and its usurping pro- 
 geny of A'ines, receiving no more succor from their late foster 
 parent, drop and perish in their turn." The piratical fig tree we 
 have described appeared to be receiving all its nourishment from 
 the rocks to which its net-Avork of roots were fastened, and from 
 the air that enveloped its wide spreading and lusty branches. 
 No usurping vines imperilled its life. 
 
 In the destructive hurricane of 1866, some six or seven large 
 trees were torn up by the roots in one of Mr. Burnside's lots. 
 One tree which Avas completely prostrated, still adhered to the 
 rocks by a few of its unsevered roots, and we saw it green and 
 grooving still, as if nothing unusual or adverse had happened. 
 
 A large Jamaica tamarind tree, four or five feet in diameter 
 at its base, Avas at the same time also prostrated, and it had thus 
 far resisted all the efforts of the father of Mr. Burnside durins: 
 his life, and of his son since his death, to kill and get rid of it. 
 Fires Avere built around it, but it Avas too full of sap to burn, and 
 the baffled fires went out. They " hacked it" as they had time 
 and opportunity, but the wounds soon healed and Avere covered 
 Avith new bark. It Avas in the way, but they had thus far been 
 unable to wholly abate the nuisance. At one time a large section 
 of the trunk Avas detached and afterwards removed with very 
 great difficulty by piece-meal. After more than twelve years, 
 some six or scA^en feet in length of the butt remains. It is fas- 
 tened to the rocks by a very small number of the old, and by large 
 re-inforcements of new roots, AA^hich this butt end of the old trunk 
 has pluckily and persistently formed and tied to the under-lying 
 rocks. Every Avound it has during all these years received, has 
 been perfectly healed, and over the whole of the part from which 
 
^4 ISLtiS OS- StJMiyfEfe. 
 
 the section was detached — a circle not far from four feet in 
 diameter — a new and healtliy bark has grown, while small new 
 sprouts have in different places made their appearance. Such 
 tenacity of life and recuperative energy we had not supposed ex- 
 isted anywhere. Were the climate of the Bahamas as stimulating 
 to mind as it is to matter in some of its forms, its inhabitants 
 Avould intellectually far excel all other people past or present. 
 Notwithstanding the " never say die " pluck of this memento of 
 the great hurricane of '66, its continuance for many years is also 
 in part traceable to the absence of proper tools and appliances for 
 its removal. The mechanic arts are there still in a state of rude 
 and primitive simplicity. Aside from the building of small ves- 
 sels of not exceeding a hundred tons, and at rare intervals a new 
 store or dwelling, there is little skilled labor, and an official re- 
 port states that their only manufactures are ropes, baskets and 
 palmetto hats. 
 
 Two or three small sugar mills run by horse power, and a grind 
 stone in the rear of the hotel, rotated by hand, were the only 
 labor-saving machines we saw upon the island. The pine trees 
 are cut down often, and jDerhaps generally, with long knives. 
 They are not very large, and tlie swinging of an ax would require 
 too great an exertion in this climate to suit the taste of its ami- 
 able, good-natured and politically free negroes. 
 
 The Jamaica tamarind tree is sometimes called the Monkey 
 Tamarind, from the fact that occasionally in Jamaica a monkey 
 will insert its paw, when open and extended, through the end 
 of the large, hard, woody pod, which tlie tree produces, for the 
 purpose of obtaining the seeds which it contains. Grasping 
 these, his paw, when closed, is too large for the hole, and either 
 because he is too stubborn and willful to open his jDaw, or because 
 he has not sufficient intelligence and presence of mind to do so, 
 he holds on and pulls, and pulls and holds on, until one very 
 
liiucli his inferior in climbing trees discovers and captures him. 
 Thongli higher in the scale of life, and rounding out a larger 
 and more showy link, man, in ways equally stubborn and stupid, 
 often rushes upon and invites his own destruction. Let us there- 
 fore, pity these unfortunates, and not laugh at them. 
 
 A specimen of the Ficus Indica, or banyan tree of India, is 
 erroneously supposed to exist near Nassau, and strangers often 
 leave that city firmly convinced that they have added to their 
 new and pleasant experiences a personal acquaintance with that 
 famous tree of the Orient. An intelligent native merchant of 
 Nassau, Avho is officially connected with our own Government, 
 informed us that the (so-called) banyan tree near Nassau had 
 been imported — that it bore no fruit, and that it is the only gen- 
 uine India banyan tree upon the island of New Providence. 
 He did not intentionally misrepresent, and would generally be 
 considered good authority, but he was mistaken. Confident that 
 we had seen little tigs growing upon the tree in question, we 
 visited it again, examined it more critically, and severed and 
 carried away from it branches of wild figs in every stage of de- 
 velopment. It is a species of the Ficus, has the same habit of 
 growth with the Ficus Indica, but is identical in kind with the 
 other wild fig trees upon the island of New Providence, and ex- 
 hibits far more strikingly than any of the others those peculiar- 
 ities which have made the banyan tree of India so famous. 
 
 An intelligent and pleasing correspondent of the Troy Budget 
 (the Hon. C. L. McArthur) writes concerning the Nassau ban- 
 yan tree, that ''after its main limbs have grown out from its 
 trunk some twenty or thirty feet, the hranches turn down to the 
 earth, taking root, and forming a column of support for its pa- 
 rent branch, as well as another tree of itself." *' It is a very 
 curious tree, furnishing friendly shade, ever extending by new 
 trunks, ever widening its circle hy Us top striking down and 
 
 8 
 
86' ISLES OF StJMMEft. 
 
 taking root, and every new growth and stem being still a part 
 of the parent tree to which it is ligamented as were the Siamese 
 twins." No donbt Mr. McArtlmr visited tlie tree he has under- 
 taken to describe, and being a man of ability and literary culture, 
 his testimony is that of a credible witness — and yet, he is con- 
 tradicted by the facts. He was, as all are who see it, astonished 
 and delighted to find a tree possessing such a peculiar habit of 
 growth, and multiplying itself into a large grove or small forests 
 But he failed to make such a close and critical examination as 
 was necessary in order to enable him to enlighten his readers in 
 regard to the method by which the singular result is produced. 
 Had he done so, he would have discovered that the branches do 
 not "^turn down to the earth and take root," nor does ''its 
 top strike down and take root," but from the outstretching 
 branches, at various distances from the stem or trunk, roots de- 
 scend a distance of from ten to fifteen feet through the air, fasten 
 to tJie rocky bottom, enlarge from year to year, and thus by sin- 
 gle and clustered living columns support the immense branches 
 f]-om which as roots they descended. These roots thicken and 
 enlarge as they grow, and we saw some on their way to the sur- 
 face rocks from one to three inches in diameter, bearded at the 
 end with a long hairy fibrous covering, which, we presume, ab- 
 sorb nutriment from the surrounding air. 
 
 Milton makes a similar mistake, and if he did not originate 
 the error he has given it a wide circulation. He refers to the 
 Ficus Indica, but this tree also is extended by means of roots 
 which the lateral branches send doAvn to the ground from an 
 elevation above it of a number of yards. In the following lines 
 in Paradise Lost he has, in describing it, drawn in this respect 
 upon his imagination: 
 
THE BAKTAK TREE. ^f 
 
 " The fig tree, not that kind for fruit renowned, 
 But such, as at this day to Indians known 
 In Malabar or Decan, spi'eads her arms, 
 Brandling so iroai and long, that in the ground 
 The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow 
 About the mother tree, a pillar'd shade, 
 High o'er arched, and eclioing walks between." 
 
 These roots grow and become important columns of support 
 to the wide and ever extending branches, many of them being 
 multiform or clustered, forming 
 
 " Huge trunks — and each particular trunk a growth 
 Of intertwisted fibres serpentine, 
 Up-coiling, and inveterately convolved— 
 * ^ * * * * a pillar'd shade." 
 
 Some of these root trunks are not only singularly entwined 
 and twisted, but they have looped upon and attached to them 
 small aerial rootlets which add a new feature unlike anything we 
 had observed. Evidently little roots, in drop^Ding down from the 
 nearly horizontal branches, stopped on the way at different dis- 
 tances, varying from a few inches to a foot or more, to rest and 
 establish new bases of supply, and fastening, by a living growth, 
 to one of the root columns of support, they have pushed out 
 again into the air, and after making a fitrther growth of a few 
 inches, they have again sto^Dped for a similar purpose, fastened 
 to the same column in the same way, then pushed out again, re- 
 peating the process until eitlier the rocks are reached or they are 
 absorbed and lost in the older and larger growth to Avhich they 
 have in different places adhered. 
 
 This tree is situated upon a clearing a little to the east of Nas- 
 sau, and a few rods from the highway which skirts the harbor. 
 It is near a dwelling house known as ''Thompson's Folly" — a 
 
SS ISt/teS OF fetJMMER. 
 
 tall wooden building, unsheltered, and so exposed to the wind 
 that the natives believed thart it would fall an easy prey to the first 
 hurricane that should visit Nassau after its erection. They 
 therefore gave it the name which it still bears. But the evil 
 prophets of Nassau seem to have been uninspired, and, as if to 
 discredit and confound them, the fearful and most destructive 
 hurricane of 1866, while it turned many a solid and costly struc- 
 ture into a ruin, left this house intact and unharmed. Although 
 it survived the hurricane, it has been ruined by a bad name. 
 There it stands, gloomy and solitary — treeless, unprotected, and 
 unoccupied. Commanding a fine view, cooled by the trade winds, 
 fanned by every breeze that ruffles the surface of the neighboring 
 ocean, stately as an English official, seemingly in a good state of 
 repair, and having a very famous and curious tree for its nearest 
 neighbor, it has been rendered absolutely worthless, good for 
 nothing but for fire-wood in a place where fires are a nuisance, 
 because some meddlesome people have given it a bad name. 
 Thus has it often happened that Slander has given to Innocence 
 a name which has ever after remained like the brand of the divine 
 displeasure upon the forehead of Cain. * 
 
 A low terrace has at some time been made under this tree out 
 of small fragments of coral limestone, thereby securing a more 
 level surface for those who might repose or have picnics in its 
 cool and grateful shade. This is now thickly covered with a net- 
 work of roots, and the branches and roots have extended far be- 
 yond its limits. Springing out of the rocks under tlic tree there 
 
 * Since this Avas written, and during tlie time of our second visit to Nassau, 
 " Tlie Folly" was temporarily occupied bj^a medical gentleman and his fami- 
 ly, who, it was currently reported, for prudential reasons, left their more 
 central city residence, (located not far from our hotel,) which a malignant 
 disease had invaded. In a subsequent chapter this disease will be more par- 
 ticularly mentioned and considered. 
 
SLACK BfiAHD'S TRfiE. Alia PtAiTTS. §9 
 
 Is growing a species of cactus, wild coSee bushes, and vines and 
 shrubs with which we were not familiar. The top of the tree 
 towards the harbor, being more exposed to the wind, was evi- 
 dently rudely trimmed and dismembered by the hurricane, and 
 the growth and development appear to have been mostly on the 
 opposite side. 
 
 It was vmder a wild fig or banyan tree that Black Beard, the 
 noted pirate, in the early history of Nassau, "used to sit in 
 council amongst his banditti, concerting or promulgating his 
 plans and exercising the authority of a magistrate." The trunk 
 of it existed and was seen by McKinnen nearly a hundred years 
 afterwards, in 1804, as he states in his ''Tour through the West 
 Indies." The author of "Letters from the Bahama Islands, 
 written in 1823-4," states that "the remains of an immense tree 
 are to be seen on which it is said the renowned Black Beard hung 
 his prisoners, and it is supposed by many that large treasures 
 were buried near it by the pirates." A recent Nassau magazine 
 writer states that "Black Beard's tree" used to stand at the 
 north-west corner of the eastern parade ground. 
 
 Some of the highway fences in the outskirts of Nassau furnish 
 strong evidences of the favorable influence of this climate uj^on 
 vegetable life and growth. The posts in a green state, unhewn 
 and unmorticed, having in some ingenious manner been made to 
 assume an upright position, are pushing out and developing 
 branches, apparently unconscious that from some tree in the 
 forest they have been dismembered. 
 
 There are upon the island many species of air plants, and one 
 of these being suspended wpoii the Avail of our room, obtained 
 nutriment enough from the surroundinsi; air alone to make it an 
 object of attraction to a vegetable parasite, and a beautiful and 
 delicate little vine was soon discovered feeding upon its juices, 
 which grew, budded, blossomed and flourished, until the poor 
 
% ISLES 6'F &VM^m. 
 
 little air plant, tired of keeping boarders while only living upon 
 air, turned yellow and died. 
 
 A most remarkable specimen of the ceiba or silk cotton tree 
 may be seen in the rear of the central one of a collection of pub- 
 lic buildings which form three sides of a quadrangle at the south- 
 Avest corner of Bay and Parliament streets. It has a spread of 
 one hundred and sixteen feet from east to west, and of ninety 
 feet in the opposite directions. Its trunk is immense. Around 
 and forming part of it are huge leaves or partitions of wood some 
 five or six inches thick, which are more or less twisted; these 
 start from a point from ten to fifteen feet from the ground and, 
 reaching the earth at an angle of something like forty-five degrees, 
 form around the tree half-a-dozen large openings or chambers 
 resembling somewhat horse-stalls. There are a number of silk 
 cotton trees upon the grounds of the Eoyal Victoria Hotel, and 
 being deciduous, and developing their leaves at different times, 
 we were much interested in observing the rapidity with which 
 they fully leaved out after their buds commenced to swell. One 
 of these is very large, many of its huge branches are almost hori- 
 zontal, and a spacious platform, with seats for the accommoda- 
 tion of musicians and others, erected in the tree, is reached 
 by a wide wooden railed stairway. These trees have large seed 
 pods, which are packed with cotton of a soft silky texture. The 
 long large roots, like huge anacondas, traverse the surface of the 
 limestone rock, and fasten the trees down with innumerable liv- 
 ing clamps and threads. As if aware of the fact that they have 
 been brought by man from a land of comparative meteorlogical 
 quiet and repose, to an island that lies in the favorite track of 
 the hurricane, it does not, like the cypress of Florida, the pines 
 of the North-west, or the elms of New England, proudly push its 
 branches high up in the air, but with more modesty and prudence 
 than elegance, abruptly stops the upward growth of its limbs. 
 
THfi CEIBA, 6b Stte COTtOK TREfi. §1 
 
 and makes up in lateral spread what it lacks in elevation. The 
 first mentioned silk cotton tree is believed by an apparently well 
 informed Nassau writer, whom we have heretofore quoted, to 
 have been brought from South Carolina, and, as he thinks, all 
 the others upon the island have been derived from it. None of 
 the latter that we saw, exhibit the wonderful formation of booths 
 around and constituting a portion of the stem which characterizes 
 and makes famous their '^ ancestral tree." 
 
 " The negroes," says Charles Kingsley, " are shy of felling the 
 ceiba. It is a magic tree, haunted by spirits. There are ' too 
 much jumbles in him,'' the negro says, and of those vn'Iio dare cut 
 him down, some one will die or come to harm within the year. " 
 The one we have described looks indeed as if it was ''possessed," 
 and it is easy for any one to imagine that viewless goblins sport 
 among its roots and branches, and repose in the strange open 
 chambers of its buttressed trunk. Mr. Grosse says that in Ja- 
 maica the negroes believe that ''if a person throws a stone at the 
 trunk [of a ceiba] he will be visited with sickness or other mis- 
 fortune," and that " when they intend to cut one down they first 
 pour rum at the roots as a propitiatory offering. " We have no 
 doubt but that the favor of many embodied spirits has likewise 
 been secured by a liberal use of good Jamaica rum, a little differ- 
 ently administered. 
 
 An old writer states that the silk cotton tree sometimes grows 
 so large that fourteen thousand persons can assemble under its 
 branches. 
 
 There is a remarkable specimen of this singular tree at Trini- 
 dad, which is thus described by Mr. Higgins, an English gentle- 
 man, in his recently published "Notes by a Field Naturalist." 
 
 " We came almost suddenly upon a true monarch of the woods, 
 a silk cotton tree, {Bomhax Ceiba), said to be the largest tree but 
 one on the island. When young, the trunk of the tree is round, 
 
§1 ' • ' t&LM OF StMMEfi. 
 
 and beset with sturdy spines, capable, as we well know, of m- 
 fiicting a severe wound. As it increases in age and size, the 
 thorns fall off, and five or six broad buttress-shaped supports are 
 developed, star-Avise, from the trunk, propping the tree in various 
 directions against the enormous overhanging force which must 
 bear upon it during tropical storms. * * * A rough estimate 
 of the buttresses gave a circumference of eighty yards, or a 
 diameter of about eighty feet. The compartments between the 
 buttresses resembled small angular courts separated by high 
 walls." He estimates that in these compartments, outside of 
 the solid trunk, if the thin dividing buttress were removed, 
 *' 2,400 people could stand round this ceiba," allowing each two 
 square feet of standing room. 
 
 In tropical and semi-tropical countries there is no tree or bush 
 which so attracts the attention and interests the mind of the 
 stranger from the North as the palm. It is one of God's most 
 valuable gifts to man, and he has few physical wants that it can- 
 not be made in whole or in part to supply, while it greatly min- 
 isters by its strange and varied beauty to his esthetic taste. 
 Botanists in classifying and arranging it divide it into five or 
 more families, seventy to a hundred genera, and a thousand or 
 more different species. In South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, 
 we made the acquaintance of two of these, — the scrub palmetto, 
 with its beautiful long, green, radiating leaves, from which palm 
 leaf fans are made, and the palmetto tree, from whose tall^ 
 straight, branchless stem or body, a rich cluster of similar leaves 
 spread out in every direction at the top. 
 
 The cocoanut palm has the same habit of growth, and thrives 
 upon the island of New Providence. But its leaves are quite 
 unlike those of the palmetto, being long and graceful, crowning 
 the tall, straight, branchless stem, and drooping in beautiful 
 curves over the thickly compacted fruit that nestles under the 
 shadows of its evergreen wings. 
 
THE CABBAGE PALM. 93 
 
 There are in and near Nassau a few African palms "which are 
 much admired. They are tall, stately, branchless and truly royal 
 trees, pre-eminently graceful and beautiful. The stem of this 
 palm is very delicately moulded, of small diameter, enlarghig at 
 or near the center, and gradually tapering each way, presenting 
 a novel and pleasing outline. Its long, feather-shaped, curved 
 and drooping leaves stretch out from its top on all sides, a chap- 
 let, light, airy and so exceedingly attractive that we never ceased 
 to look at it but with regret. While strongly resembling the 
 cocoanut palm, this tree appeared to expend less of its vital ener- 
 gies in the production of fruit, and more in the development of 
 a higher type of beauty. The palms, esthetically considered, 
 rank high among the trees of the forest, and in the perfection 
 of grace and comeliness the African palm surpasses them all. 
 
 In this connection, the cabbage palm is entitled to a passing 
 notice. In some more favorable -localities it is said to attain a 
 height of one hundred and twenty feet — nearly twice that of any 
 we saw in the Bahamas. As if animated by a noble ambition, 
 it wastes none of its energies upon '/side issues," but, pushing 
 its branchless stem up boldly towards the heavens, it towers 
 above its less successful rivals, and in the bright, warm sunlight 
 of the uj)per air matures those long, drooping, graceful and 
 feathery leaves which reveal, even to the casual and distant ob- 
 server, the noble family to which it belongs. Young, tender 
 and succulent leaves, at the base of those which are fully devel- 
 oped, are formed and compacted mto a light-colored head, which 
 is eaten as a salad. It is also cooked and prepared for the table 
 like the cabbage — hence its name. 
 
 Mr. Kingsley in his "At Last," gives the following descrip- 
 tion of some cabbage palm trees which he saw in the West Indies. 
 ''We stopped at a manager's, with a palmiste {oreodoxa olera- 
 cea) or cabbage palm on each side of the garden gate^a pair of 
 
94' ISLES OF SIJMMEE. 
 
 columns which any prince would have longed for as ornaments 
 for his lawn. It is the fashion here, and a good one it is^ to 
 leave the palmistes, a few at least, when the land is cleared, or 
 to j)lant them near the house, merely on account of their won- 
 derful beauty. One palmiste was pointed out to me in a field 
 near the road, which had been measured by its shadow at noon, 
 and found to be one hundred and fifty-three feet in height. For 
 more than a hundred feet the stem rose straight, smootli and 
 gray. Then three or four spathes of flowers, four or five feet 
 long each, jutted out and upward like; while from below them, 
 as usual, one dead leaf, twenty feet long or more, dangled head- 
 downwards in the breeze. Above them rose, as always, the 
 green portion of the stem for some twenty feet; and then the 
 flat crown of feathers, as dark as yew, spread out against the 
 blue sky, looking small enough up there though forty feet at 
 least in breadth. No wonder if the man who possessed such a 
 glorious object dared not destroy it." 
 
 In the low, wet, rocky hammocks the scrub or dwarf palmetto 
 is abundant. With consummate art nature thus hides her blem- 
 ishes with a countless number of palmetto fans, brightly and 
 beautifully adorned with 'Hiving green," and supplemented with 
 a luxuriant growth of flowering shrubs and climbing vines. Is 
 it a cropping out and development of the divine in woman 
 when she utilizes the fan to hide her beauties ? The palmetto 
 yields a fibre, from which, when reduced to a pulp, the strong 
 paper is made upon which the bills of the National banks are 
 printed. An ingenious gentleman in Washington has lately in- 
 vented a machine by which the tedious process of crushing the 
 fibre by hand is avoided. 
 
 Upon the premises of Mr. Charles Burnside we were shown an 
 India rubber tree — one of a class which, thanks to American 
 genius, has proved iu modern times to be of incalculable value. 
 
IKDIAK EUBBEE TEEE. SINGIJSTG TEEB. 95 
 
 It has been utilized for man's benefit in so many ways that it has 
 become almost a factor in the problem of civilized existence. As 
 a representative tree, filled with juices of such great practical 
 value to the whole civilized world, we approached it with a feel- 
 ing of reverence and of gratitude. Like all true merit it was 
 unostentatious and modest, and put on no airs. It flaunted no 
 gaudy colors, Avhile looking down from its giddy elevation upon its 
 less gifted neighbors. It was perha^DS as large as a medium sized 
 maple, and its leaves were thick and leathery, resembling some- 
 what those of the magnolia grandi flora, but of a darker shade, 
 and less glossy and waxy. When Mr. Burnside's boys desire 
 rubber balls they, by taj^ping the tree, quickly secure an abundance 
 of sap, which hardens into rubber upon being exposed to the air 
 and sunlight. Upon the banks of the Amazon, where it abounds, 
 man is satisfied to simply live and propagate his lazy and indo- 
 lent race, but the stimulus of the crisp and frozen airs of north- 
 ern climes, thousands of miles away from the source of supply, 
 causes a demand that essentially aids in the development of com- 
 mercial enterprise — as Creative Wisdom intended it should. 
 
 Several kinds of trees in Nassau mature their seeds like the 
 bean, in pods. One of these has upon its branches in the winter 
 season a large number of delicate light-colored, silvery, translu- 
 cent pods, about eight inches long, which, being swayed and 
 shaken by the wind, so fill the air with soft, soothing music, that 
 the tree has been called the "singing tree." Some sour, cross, 
 crusty and ungallant individual has had the temerity to name it 
 "woman's tongue" — because it is never still! 
 
 This tree is of a large size, and loses its leaves some time after 
 it has flowered. Its blossoms have been described as particularly 
 beautiful but odorless, resembling the finest floss silk. Before 
 the tree leaves out, the blossoms hang, crescent shaped, from the 
 top of long stems. We arrived too late for its flowers, but in 
 season for its soft murmuring music. 
 
96- " ISLES OF SUMMEE. 
 
 A northern person naturally looks for the tamarind upon tropi- 
 cal vines, but it gro-ws in green pods, in great abundance, upon 
 trees tall and widespread. Negroes frequently brought for sale 
 to the court of the hotel a few of the green pods. They were 
 purchased, not so much for use, but as objects of curiosity, 
 although the tamarinds, when unpreserved, have a pleasant acid 
 taste, and, with the aid of sugar, make a palatable drink. From 
 the tamarinds of commerce the pods are removed, but the seeds 
 are enveloped in a second covering, and are connected together 
 with a fibrous string, as the reader has no doubt observed. 
 
 The trees of the Bahamas which grow valuable timber are 
 principally j)itch pine, Madeira mahogany, horse flesh mahogany, 
 olive, cassava, mastic, fustic, cedar, button, white and black 
 torch, satin and lignum vitse. 
 
 Some Bahama trees, like the cinnamon, are valuable for their 
 bark; others, like the logwood, for their dyes; while certain trees 
 and many plants possess valuable medicinal qualities. 
 
 While at the Bahamas, Ave were more than ever before im- 
 pressed with that Divine Wisdom which joervades, as with a 
 living spirit, the most common phenomena of nature. If man 
 should first observe them in the maturity of his intellectual pow^ 
 ers, he would be lost and overwhelmed in Avonder and astonish- 
 ment. In the early dawn of his existence, before the reflecting 
 and reasoning faculties are developed, he sees and accepts them 
 as facts, and thus swallows unawares and without difficulty, 
 whole caravans of camels. Having thrived upon such a diet,. 
 and experienced no injury from his childish credulity, it seems 
 foolish, in the later stages of life, to wrench and strain himself 
 over the little troublesome gnats that float, like moats in sun- 
 beams, in an atmosj^here mysterious and apparently supernatural. 
 
 Living upon the same meagre diet of rock, Avater, air and sun- 
 shine — and upon nothing else — it seems incredible that the small 
 
MYSTERIES PROFOUlN'D IK THE XATURAL, 97 
 
 islands constituting the Bahama group should produce forms of 
 vegetable life so widely dissimilar and infinitely varied. Nature 
 has j)rovided but one table, with a bill of fare exceedingly short 
 and simple, for all the wondrous display of fruits and flowers and 
 forests which these islands exhibit — a table which must, to the 
 rampant growers, look very discouraging. In the valleys and deep 
 rich soils of the river bottoms in the United States, the observer 
 naturally concludes that the vegetable commissary department 
 is in quantity, quality and variety, on a scale corresponding with 
 the magnificent floral world which it supports. But with a soil 
 nearly as scant as that which is found upon the Belgian pave- 
 ments of northern city streets, the miracle of producing much 
 out of nothing is performed under our eyes. 
 
 Eoots creep over the rocks and penetrate their crevices and 
 crannies, searching and collecting materials for the green, pol- 
 ished, waxen leaves — the pure, white, and exquisitely perfumed 
 flowers — the golden balls and delicious pulp of the orange. 
 Near them are other roots entwined among and persistently 
 pushing into the little pockets of the same and similar rocks, 
 and, by an inexplicable alchemy, obtaining from them nutriment 
 for the growth of the tall stately stem, the large and graceful 
 plume, the dry husks, the hard shells, the soft and palatable 
 pulp, and the cool, sweet milk of the cocoanut palm. In like 
 manner the sapodilla, with its russet apples of *' sugared honey" 
 — the long, large leaved, branchless banana, feather-crested like 
 the palm, with its large, pendent, purple fruit bud at the end 
 of a long drooping stem, around which its gloved ambrosial 
 fruit is thickly clustered — the lime, the lemon, the paAvpaw 
 the pine apple, the guava, the. star apple, the bread fruit, the 
 shaddock, the mango, the date, the almond, the sweet sap, the 
 sour sap, the fig, plums of different kinds, and many other 
 fruit-bearing and other trees, each, from lowest root to topmost 
 
rS ISLES OP SUMMEE. 
 
 branch, having its own marked and widely dissimilar charac- 
 teristics and qualities, fasten to the same common rock and 
 eliminate and perfect their juices out of the same scanty and 
 most unpromising materials. So also with the flowering shrubs 
 and vines, — a world of itself, teeming with blooms in unending 
 variety, radiant with every shade of color, and redolent with 
 unnumbered perfumes of marvelous sweetness, — upon the outer 
 margins of which we stand appalled, and lay down our descrip- 
 tive pen, conscious that we cannot do it justice. 
 
 How such wondrous growths are rendered possible upon islands 
 so destitute of the rich fertilizing elements which are deemed 
 necessary for the proper development of vegetable life at the 
 North, it is difficult to understand or conceive, and we are com- 
 j)elled to fall back upon that Divine fiat, whose faint murmurs, 
 recorded in Genesis, come to us through the dim shadows of a 
 past that shroud the mysterious beginnings of time. 
 
CHAPTER VL 
 
 Fruits and Floicers of the Baliamas. Fruit in the Bills of Fare. Special 
 Notice of the Orange, the Banana, the Pine Apple, the Sapodilla., the Cocoa- 
 nut, the Hog Plum, the Shaddock, and the Forlidden Fniit. The Flowering 
 Trees, Shrubs and Vines. 
 
 "Pomona bore me to her citron groves, 
 To where the lemon and the piercing lime, 
 With the deep orange glowing through the green, 
 Their varied glories blend." — TnoMPSOisr. 
 
 ' ' Gorgeous flowrets in the sunlight shining, 
 Blossoms flaunting in the eye of day. 
 Tremulous leaves, with soft and silver lining. 
 Buds that open only to decay." 
 
 Whether we adopt the theory that nature has stocked the 
 earth with htscious fruits for man's benefit, or created man for the 
 benefit of the fruit, and to secure its more perfect development 
 from the sour, crabbed, Avild, unseeml}', primitive condition, in, 
 which, when uncultivated, it exists, we must admit that fruit is 
 an important, if not an essential factor, in the problem of the 
 health and happiness of the human race. At all stages, and in 
 all conditions of life, man craves and requires the ripened fruits 
 in their season. One of the pleasures incident to visiting foreign 
 lands arises from the opportunity which is thus afforded to jdIucIc 
 and eat them in their freshness and maturity. In these days of 
 rapid transit by sea and land, when the ends and distant corners 
 of the earth are brought together, and space is almost annihilated. 
 
100 ' ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 SO that oranges in our cities are nearly as cheap and plenty as 
 apples, it is less necessary to visit the lands where they are indig- 
 enous, or in which they have become naturalized, in order to 
 enjoy their beauty of color, delicious fragrance, and exquisite 
 flavor. But some fruits are too delicate and destitute of keeping 
 qualities to admit of exportation to distant lands. "Others are 
 taken from the trees before they are fully ripe, and never acquire 
 on shipboard or in northern markets the perfection which only 
 the tropical sun and air can impart. Besides, a tropical orchard 
 loaded with fruit, some in all stages of development from flower 
 to fruit, is a most charming sight, and alone com^Densates for the 
 discomforts and fatigues of a long journey. Each member of 
 the whole citrus family must be seen at its home to be fully ap- 
 preciated. Boxes, barrels and baskets are a very jjoor substitute 
 for the waxen and varnished leaves in which the golden balls 
 nestle by thousands in the closely compacted tree tops. 
 
 In Nassau, as well as in Florida, oranges and bananas and 
 other tropical fruits have a prominent place, in their season, in 
 the breakfast and dinner bills of fare. Every morning at the 
 Victoria Hotel, with some few exceptions, as soon as we had 
 taken our seats at the breakfast table, there was j^laced before 
 us a large fruit dish filled Avith oranges and bananas, together 
 with a bill of fare, a pencil and a sli|) of paper. After making 
 out and giving to our neatly dressed, polite, and generally effi- 
 cient table servant, our breakfast order, the fruit, regaled and con- 
 soled us while our breakfast was being prepared. With the fruit 
 dish before us, there Avas no limit to our indulgence except that 
 which appetite and a wise discretion imposed. "We found the 
 Bahama oranges of good size, and excellent flavor, a trifle sweeter 
 than those of Florida, owing, ayc conclude, to the fact that they 
 matured and ripened in a Avarmer climate. The bananas Avere 
 of a superior quality. After the long fast of the night, the rich. 
 
6&1KCtES AiTD ■BAl<rA]!TAS. lOl 
 
 Sub-acid juices of the former were particularly agreeable and grate- 
 ful. Tliey soothed and gratified the neryes of taste^ took away 
 the rough edges of apjjetite, and prepared the stomach for the 
 heavier work it Avas soon to be called upon to perform. At din- 
 ner the same thing was repeated, except that the order was re- 
 versed, and the tempting dish of golden and yellow fruit came 
 to stimulate the appetite after it had been subjected to the tempt- 
 ing influences of along and varied bill of fare. It does not take 
 a great while for these agreeable customs to become deeply and 
 firmly rooted. Oranges to daily break our fast in the morning, 
 and delightfully crown our afternoon meal, are felt to be a neces- 
 sity. Without them the most elaborate feast fails to satisfy. 
 
 New Providence relies upon Abaco for a very material part of 
 the oranges which its market requires, and in the spring of 1879 
 our landlord imported some, from Florida, and yet the island 
 abounds with wild, waste land and idle people. 
 
 The banana resembles the pear in this, that its quality is im- 
 proved when it ripens dissevered. The long stem, thickly 
 covered with fruit in various stages of development, hangs pen- 
 dent, with a large purple terminal l)ud, which constantly ma- 
 tures rings of fruit blossoms as it grows and gravitates towards 
 the earth, with its leaves — narrow, very long, green and grace- 
 fully drooping, — rising from a green sheath, is beautiful to 
 behold, and its novelty never wore off, so that almost daily we 
 had to stop and admire it. Our readers are all familiar with 
 this fruit,, for it is in New York and in other northern cities 
 what it is in and near the tropics; its habit of growth, aside 
 from its large and beautiful terminal bud, is readily seen in the 
 bunches so extensively exhibited wherever at the north southern 
 fruits are offered for sale. 
 
 The opinion we heard frequently expressed that the banana is 
 unhealthy. Some assured us that it always distressed them when 
 
16^ istfis 69 summSS. 
 
 they ate it. Others indulged in its use freely and "witli apparent 
 impunity. We were at first very incredulous when stories reached 
 us seriously reflecting uj^on it as a disguised enemy of the human 
 stomach and constitution. We gave it our confidence, and also 
 room very near to our hearts. We defended it to the best of 
 our ability, with zeal if not with knowledge. We said it was an 
 impeachment of Divine Providence to allege that its golden links 
 of most delicious sweetness — so tempting to the four senses — 
 sight, touch, taste and smell — were indigestible, health-destroy- 
 ing, deceitful and bad. But we began finally, to have doubts, 
 and at last thought we perceived after eating them, an unpleas- 
 ant sensation right in the center of one of our seats of hapjDiness. 
 We inquired concerning it of physicians, and found, as in other 
 cases where experts testify, that they widely and materially dif- 
 fered. Very reluctantly and with some misgivings, we are com- 
 pelled to admit, that, being plucked Avhen quite green, for that 
 or some other reason, it does not agree Avith all, and in many 
 cases is injurious to health, yet the banana is said to be '' exten- 
 sively used for food, and in many of the Pacific islands it is the 
 staple on which the natives depend. In its immature condition, 
 it contains much starch which on ripening changes into sugar. 
 * * * From the unripe fruit, dried in the sun, a useful and nutri- 
 tious flour is prepared." — [British Encyclopedia.] It would seem 
 from the published analysis of the fruit, and of the flour made 
 from it, that it must generally be a healthy article of diet for 
 healthy people, and our advice, if asked, would be that once given 
 to us by a skillful and experienced physician — '^ eat of it, if j'ou 
 like, until you ascertain by your personal experience that to you 
 it is hurtful." 
 
 The banana is an herbaceous plant, and, after fruiting, its top 
 dies, but it annually sprouts again from its roots. It attains a 
 height of from fifteen to twenty feet, and its curved and droop- 
 ing leaves have a width of from one to two feet. 
 
PINE APPLES. 103 
 
 Among the tropical fruits that we were always pleased to give 
 house room in the frozen north, was the pine apple, and now that 
 we were upon one of its native rocks, or upon rocks where it had 
 become thoroughly naturalized, we had a desire to see for our- 
 selves the manner of its cultivation, and the processes and stages 
 of its growth and development. Our curiosity was gratified in 
 the following manner: 
 
 In going to the caves in the Blue Hills we took the shore 
 road, or the extension of Bay street to the west, and skirted for 
 several miles Delaport Bay — a body of water which Silver, Long, 
 and North Keys, with their connecting submerged reefs, shelter 
 from the ocean, and which as you approach Nassau, after cross- 
 ing its bar, stretches away to the right. Passing the caves nearest 
 to the highway, we ascended a little hill, turned abruptly to the 
 left, followed for a few rods a carriage road through the dense 
 low woods, and, leaving our carriages near some small negro 
 cabins, and following our very dusky guides, started on a foot- 
 path for the more extensive caverns which hide in the hill from 
 half to three-quarters of a mile further to the east. The trail 
 led us through the center of a pine apple field which covered 
 fifteen acres. It was termed an " orchard," but there was no- 
 thing in its appearance suggestive of such a name. We found 
 it humble, lowly and modest. It put on no airs, and evidently 
 had no ambition to occupy a conspicuous position and make a 
 show in the world. This West India " apple " does not grow in 
 clusters like the cocoanut, nor uj)on high, wide brandling trees 
 like its northern namesake — but singly upon plants which attain 
 an average height of about one and a-half feet. The lowly plant 
 has long narrow leaves or fronds, hard, thick, coarse, bayonet- 
 shaped, and with sharp serreted edges. A single fruit stem 
 pushes up from the center of the root, blossoms, and in about 
 eighteen months from the time of planting matures a single 
 
104 ISLES 6F summer. 
 
 apple. One plant, producing one apple at a time, will continue 
 to yield an annual crop for three or four years. There are three 
 varieties; the Sugar Loaf, which is juicy, of excellent iiavor, 
 and excels the others in keeping qualities ; the Cuba, which is 
 of larger size, firmer texture, and less sweet than the sugar loaf 
 and commands a higher price ; the J3lrcVs-eye, the cultiyation 
 of which has been pretty much abandoned because of the de- 
 struction of the crop by rats and land-crabs. Gov. Eawson states 
 that of a forty acre field of the sugar loaf variety, the rats de- 
 stroyed 6000 dozen, or one-third of an annual croj). Land- 
 crabs, he says, 'Hike locusts elsewhere, march straight through 
 a field and consume all the fruit in their course." 
 
 It is raised from slips — 2000 dozen of the sugar loaf, and 1600 
 dozen of the Cuba to an acre. In the "orchard "we crossed, 
 the cocoanut had been planted among the pines so as to insure 
 a cocoanut grove when the pines ceased bearing. The rocky sur- 
 face was covered and concealed by the pines, and in ''clearing" 
 the plantation, (they evidently could not if they would hoe it), 
 it is said " the laborers are obliged to wear canvas leggings and 
 gauntlets to protect them from the spines of the leaves." Gov. 
 Eawson says, the fields are "or ought to be cleaned six times in 
 the year." He states also that the average weight of the sugar 
 loaf is three pounds, that it yields one-third of the quantity 
 planted, and lasts five years ; that the Cuba has an average 
 weight of three and a-half pounds, yields one-half of the quan- 
 tity planted, lasts only three years, and will thrive upon soil 
 considered unsuited for the other varieties ; also that the Cuba 
 is preferred in the United States, and that the sugar loaf, by 
 reason of its superior keeping qualities, is preferred for the 
 English market ; that it is uncertain whether the pine apple 
 is a native of the Bahama Islands, or has been introduced from 
 the Windward Islands or Cuba ; that tlie value of 229,226 dozen 
 
5P1KE APPLES. SAPODILLAS. 105 
 
 exported in 1864 was £21,299 — which makes tliem average about 
 four cents a piece; that in sliipping the pine to the United 
 States it is stripped of every thing but its head, while tlie whole 
 plant was formerly sent to England, the leaves and shoots being 
 wrapped round the fruit to keep it fresh, but that since 1858 
 only the shoots are left on the stalks ; that the fruit is arranged 
 in tiers, great attention being paid to ventilation; the hatches are 
 left open during the voyage ; serious losses often occur on ship- 
 board arising from exceptionally bad weather and long voyages, 
 as Avell as from other causes. The shoots are used for new plan- 
 tations, and as these are sent with the apples to England the 
 price is for that reason increased. There are two annual cut- 
 tings: the Cuba is cut early in May and late in June, and the 
 sugar loaf from the 1st to the 20th of June, and in July and 
 August. As in 1879 and also in 1880 we left the Bahamas in 
 April, much to our regret we were unable to test the quality 
 of pine apples fully ripened in the field. 
 
 The sapodilla is very abundant and cheap in Nassau. The 
 tree is large and is a good bearer. The fruit is of a uniform dull 
 dark brown color, and almost unpromising in its outward ap- 
 pearance as a cocoanut. Its skin is very thin, its flesh yellow, 
 soft and sweet, its shape oval, and its diameter from two to tliree 
 inches, A taste for it has to be acquired, so that while it is dis- 
 carded by the many, the few strangers who have learned to love 
 it, esteem it very highly. It is conceded to be a very healthy 
 fruit. We saw but two varieties. Some specimens of the fruit 
 in size, flavor, and richness of the coloring of the flesh, were very 
 much superior to those offered ordinarily for sale. 
 
 The cocoanut is cultivated in the Bahamas, and thrives in some 
 parts of New Providence. Gov. Eawson includes it in a table 
 containing the names of twenty-three varieties of fruit which 
 were growing upon the Bahamas in 1864, and which he claimed 
 
106 ISLES OF SUMMES. 
 
 were indigenous. Others, however, think that it is an exotic. 
 Upon general principles we should, in the absence of positive 
 testimony to the contrary, incline to the Governor's oi^inion. 
 
 It flourishes best in the vicinity of salt water, and is found up- 
 on most of the inhabited islands all over the ocean world within 
 and near the tropics. It is, perhaps, G-od's most valuable gift to 
 the people inhabiting not only almost innumerable islands, but 
 large portions of the main land. Every part of it ministers very 
 materially to man's wants. The milk and meat of its fruit con- 
 stitute a considerable part of the food of the people who bask in 
 its shade or live where it grows. In the island of Ceylon (it is 
 credibly stated) tlie wealth of men is estimated by the number of 
 cocoanat trees which they own. 
 
 This one fruit of itself furnishes full and ample evidence, to 
 an observing and thoughtful mind, of the existence and good- 
 ness of God. Having made it, and in so many ways fitted it to 
 supply the jorime necessaries of human life in those parts of the 
 world where frosts are unknown. He has provided in amost won- 
 ■ derful way for its preservation and propagation. Wrapped up 
 in a shell so hard and impervious that it is carried a thousand 
 miles and more for the purpose of holding the cool water brought 
 to the earth's surface in " the old oaken bucket that hangs in the 
 well," we find the life-germ from which it is developed. Around 
 that shell are placed and compacted innumerable threads which 
 require, when dry, the aid of an axe to detach them from the 
 treasure they so persistently guard. Around these wrappings 
 there is another hard vegetable shield, wisely designed and curi- 
 ously made, and the whole is so wonderfully contrived and ad- 
 justed that it will float safely for months upon the ocean in calm 
 or storm, secure from molestation by reason of its outward des- 
 titution of comeliness, flavor and fragrance, from any of the 
 hungry and voracious monsters of the deep, until, at last, some 
 
ClOC!OA2fUTS. THE HOG PLUM. THE SHADDOCK. lOt 
 
 huge, angry mountain wave hurls it, as if in anger, a seemingly 
 useless thing, high upon the land, where, when the fingers of 
 decay have sufficiently loosened the strings and hard enveloises 
 which have so securely confined and guarded it, the enclosed 
 life-germ sends down its little rootlets into the congenial soil, a 
 vigorous stem pushes up into the air and the sunshine, as if, like 
 a little Columbus, to learn what sort of a new world it has finally 
 landed upon after its long sea voyage. From this little and un- 
 promising beginning, on many an ocean isle, the invaluable and 
 graceful cocoanut palm has multiplied and extended, and made 
 it possible for man to live and flourish in comparative idleness, 
 with few substantial wants that the cocoanut cannot abundantly 
 supply. 
 
 Upon Mr. Charles Burnside's grounds we saw a ^' hog plumb " 
 tree with a plentiful supply ot small, green fruit in clusters upon 
 the branches — but not a leaf in sight. The juices are not in this 
 instance perfected in the leaves for the groAvth of the fruit. 
 
 The shaddock was there with its large glossy leaves, and per- 
 fumed the air with its white blossoms. The misletoe had estab- 
 lished itself upon its branches, and, as if lineally descended from 
 the old Nassau pirates, flourished upon the rich sap it had done 
 nothing to eliminate. Both the shaddock and the grape fruit 
 belong with the orange, lime and lemon, to the citrus family. 
 The former is sometimes over two feet, and the grape fruit over 
 one foot in circumference. Almond trees, large and beautiful, 
 Avere just leafing out. Mr. Burnside showed us also, the ^' For- 
 bidden Fruit " tree, and we would willingly have followed the 
 example of Adam and Eve, and tested the quality of its sweet 
 fruit, if we had had an opportunity to do so, even at the risk of 
 being forever banished from the pleasant fruit garden where it 
 was growing. 
 
 Gov, Eawsou states in his report, that ''The soil and climate 
 
10§ ISLES OP SUMMER. 
 
 of the Bahamas are admirably adapted for all tropical and semi- 
 tropical fruits." His table of those wliich are indigenous em- 
 braces the following: the sapodilla, cashew, pine apple, sweet- 
 sapj sour-sap, papaw, sour orange, lemon, star-apple, cocoa plum, 
 cocoa nut, seaside grape, water melon, mamee, plantain, banana, 
 love-in-a-mist, guava, Spanish hog plum, hog plum, scarlet hog 
 plum, tamarind, and wild grape. 
 
 ' ' The luscious fruits, which of their own accord 
 The willing ground, and laden trees afford." 
 
 The following, he states, have been introduced at different 
 times: the Jamaica (custard) apple, ground nut, broad fruit, 
 ackee, citron, orange {citrus aurautium), mandarin orange {cit- 
 rus decumana), two species of shaddock, lime, rose apple, fig, 
 mangoe, avocado pear, pomegranate, date, balsam apple, mul- 
 berry, broad-leafed almond, grape and juju])e. 
 
 In Nassau, as elsewhere, every month has its own sjDecial and 
 peculiar floral display, although many flowers continue from 
 month to month to unfold their blossoms. Some varieties of 
 indigenous flowers are always to be found in the wild and tangled 
 woods. The ladies, returning from their rides near the close of 
 day, generally bring with them the curious growths of tree, and 
 shrub, and vine, which nature has spontaneously produced and 
 scattered with lavish profusion on every hand. The flowers are 
 massed in trees and ambushed in thickets. Here a floAvoring 
 vine festoons a wayside tree with garlands of beauty, and reaches 
 out for a caress as the stranger rides by; Avhile there, from their 
 little many-hued censers, flowers of more rank and stately growth 
 shed upon him their sweet tributary incense. One soon is com- 
 pelled to adopt as his own, the enthusiastic sentiment of the 
 charmed poet who sings : 
 
tlTDIGENOUS FLOWERS. 109 
 
 * ' Were I, O God, in churchless lands remaining, 
 Far from all voice of teachers or divines, 
 My soul would find in flowers of thy ordaining, 
 Priests, sermons, shrines." 
 
 The following extracts from "Letters from the Bahama 
 Islands/' written by an American lady in 1823-4, give an account 
 of some of the more prominent flowers to be seen in Nassau and 
 its suburbs. 
 
 " The indigenous plants and flowers, and flowering shrubs are 
 abundant and beautiful; and, it is said, there are five thousand 
 varieties. I am very fond of the mignonette tree; it bears pale 
 yellow and green flowers, and has the most powerful and delicious 
 fragrance. The acacia is very different from that of the same 
 name with us; the flower is a little, round, yellow ball, about 
 the size of a chestnut, looks like a tuft of fringe, and is filled 
 with a yellow powder and has a sweet j^erfume. The blossom of 
 the mahogany tree is beautiful, and so is the yellow and crimson 
 flower fence or Barbadoe's pride. The coral tree is very curious; 
 the flower looks like a bunch of red, cut coral, and grows at the 
 top of the branch distinct from any leaves; the stem, which is 
 five or six inches long, stands perfectly erect, and, though beau- 
 tiful, it is ungraceful. The coral vine bears a blossom of the 
 same color and shape, and runs in wild profusion over all the 
 stone walls and hedges, but has no odor. Myrtles, jessamines, 
 tuberoses, and roses, the amaryllis of every species, the convolvu- 
 lus, the sensitive plant, and Arabian jasmine, are seen in every 
 direction, and grow wild among the rocks. Groves of the olean- 
 der are very common, and, prized as they are with you, are 
 thought almost vulgar here, as well as the beautiful south-sea 
 rose. The mutable rose is a native of this climate; the bignonia 
 bears a yellow trumpet flower; the blue passion flower, which 
 
 10 
 
110 iSLES OF SUMMEK. 
 
 hides its head among clusters of dark green leaves, is one of my 
 favorite flowers. * * * The yellow jessamine, and a variety 
 of flowering myrtles, fill the air with their perpetual fragrance. 
 * * * I have seen the sweet briar and the multiflora rose in 
 blossom, growing very luxuriantly." 
 
 " The bayonet plant is properly named for its leaves are thick 
 and sharp like those of the aloes, and point upwards like those 
 of the pine apple ; it grows about thirty feet high, and forms an 
 impenetrable hedge. From the center of the leaves, directly on 
 the top, bursts a stem about tAvo feet long which is thickly cov- 
 ered with dazzling white flowers, the size and shape of a crown 
 imperial ; the inside of the calyx is of a pale yellow, and hun- 
 dreds of these little bells hanging downwards, cover the stem, 
 and the whole is two or three feet in circumference. It has the 
 most powerful and opjoressive fragrance. The flower of the 
 cocoanut is very beautiful. There is no end to the variety of 
 pretty flowering vines and shrubs which spread forth their rain- 
 bow colored flowers to charm the eye, and mingle their sj^icy 
 odors with the soft winds to delight the senses. The coffee and 
 cotton trees are not very numerous, but the air is eternally 
 filled with the fragrance of the orange, lemon and mahogany 
 blossoms. There is a wonderful variety of medicinal plants here, 
 and almost every leaf affords a panacea for some disease. '' 
 
 Oleanders are very common and groAV to a large size. They 
 adorn many homesteads, but lose something of their value by 
 reason of their great abundance. They continued in bloom dur- 
 ing all the time we remained in Nassau; the blossoms of some 
 were white, others pink, and others a dark red color. A prickly 
 pear species of cactus of a vigorous, large, rank growth, is also 
 found upon the island, and is in many localities very abundant. 
 A large, exquisitely beautiful, plume-like and delicate blossom, 
 called the shell plant, was frequently offered for sale in the court 
 
PLOWERS. Ill 
 
 of tlie hotel, and was greatly admired. Colored girls daily fre- 
 quented the court well supplied with beautiful boquets of flowers 
 of various kinds, and particularly of roses, to give to their friends 
 whose good will they wished to cultivate, or to exchange for the 
 money of the strangers. There is also to be seen a beautiful 
 running vine which blooms about Christmas time, and for that 
 reason is called the Christmas flower. It is not a favorite with 
 the agriculturists of Nassau because of its rank and persistent 
 growth. 
 
 Occupying conspicuous places in the flower borders in front of 
 the hotel were large clusters of rank growing lillies, whose bells, 
 suspended upon long stems, with silent eloquence spoke to the 
 mind and rang out peals of perfume upon the surrounding air. 
 They also grow wild upon the island. We were surprised to learn 
 that the healing balm of which squills are composed is obtained 
 from the bulbous roots of this species of lilly. The little negroes 
 are accustomed to steal these and other flowers belonging to the 
 hotel before they have time to fully mature, and with as inno- 
 cent a look as they can command, offer them at the court of the 
 hotel for sale. But while f ally appreciating the delicious per- 
 fumes that gave such a charm to the soothing air, and the end- 
 less variety in form, habit of growth and color of the flowers 
 we could not at times refrain from unfavorably contrasting the 
 animal life of the Bahamas, with their flora, and to harbor the 
 thought which one of Shenstone's stanzas, slightly altered, ex- 
 presses : 
 
 "Boast, favored islands, boast thy flowery stores, 
 Thy thousand hues by chemic suns refined , 
 'Tis net the dress or mien the soul adores, 
 But the rich beauties of the immortal mind." 
 
 The floral display upon the islands and in Florida was less 
 
lis tSLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 abundant and brilliant than usual in the early part of the year 
 1879, by reason of the fact that the season was exceptionally 
 dry. 
 
s 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The Soothing Languid Air and its Consequences. Ambition Dies. The 
 Bahamas not Included in the Primal Curse. The Island of Indolence. 
 Soothed Sharks. Lazy Air and Blood Putting Insect Plagues to Sleejy. 
 Mice and Men alike Affected. A Large Fish Story. Sea Turtles Resigned to 
 their Fate. Negroes Contented and Happy. Good Order in Nassau. How 
 a Millenium can be Secured. Agricultural and Maivufacturing Industry) not 
 Booted in the Bocks. Sugar Making. Small Islands Unfavorable to Intellect- 
 ual Development. 
 
 "Not poppy, nor mandragora, 
 Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world 
 Shall ever medicine thee to such sweet sleep." — Shakespeaek. 
 
 The Bahama air is very soothing, and soon makes itself felt 
 upon nerves that are sensitive, disordered or unstrung. It en- 
 ervates like an opiate, and the newly arrived stranger soon suc- 
 cumbs to its influence. It is difficult to do anything in the 
 warm and languid air, when not overcome by sleep, but muse 
 and dream. It is very entertaining to observe the new comers 
 from the states when a passenger steamer arrives. They step so 
 quick, and talk so fast, and inquire so earnestly, and commence 
 so soon to crowd an immense amount of walking, riding and 
 sailing into a single day, economising time, and drawing upon 
 their capital of latent strength and vitality as though in vigor 
 and endurance they were millionaires. The amount of sight- 
 seeing they accomplish in two or tliree days is astonishing. But 
 in less than a week the warm air takes all the frost out of them, 
 and wilted, languid and limpsy, they loll, and lounge, and loaf 
 
 113 
 
114 isLM 6t mmmn, 
 
 in the shade as though '*to the manor born." It requires the 
 stimuhis of a steamer nearly ready to return to the States, to 
 energize one sufficiently to write a letter home. It is a luxury to 
 breathe and feel the soft air, but it inclines to repose; it puts us 
 in a state or condition of rest. Bold enterprise and tireless energy 
 are quickened into life by cold winds from the snow-fields. 
 
 " There's iron in our northern winds, 
 Our pines are trees of healing." 
 
 Not only is ambition not indigenous in the Bahamas, but, 
 like many other exotics, it has but a sickly and short-lived exist- 
 ence when introduced from abroad. The primal curse that 
 doomed man to a life of labor, does not seem to have extended 
 to these isles of unending summer. In fact, it is only in such a 
 climate as these islands possess that labor is a curse and not a 
 blessing. Indolently reposing in the shade of a tropical orchard, 
 fanned by the sea-god's invisible wings that seem ever in motion, 
 the inhabitants of these favored islands have no occasion to work 
 (as we of the north understand that word) in order to supply 
 their simple wants. It is therefore apparent that the original 
 Garden of Eden must have been less favorably situated for lazy 
 people than this part of her majesty's possessions. 
 
 New Providence has been called by one of its enthusiastic ad- 
 mirers, in the pages of Scribner, **The Isle of June." It may 
 with equal propriety be named The Isle of Indolence. At all 
 times, in sunlight and starlight, it seemed as if unseen spirits 
 
 "Spread forth their downy pinions, scattering sleep 
 Upon the drooping eye-lids of the air." 
 
 Man there soon passes into a semi-torpid state, and while the 
 wear and waste incident to an active life is avoided, the recuper- 
 
fefiAfeK^ CHtORCPoHMfeB hY CLlMAi'K. llS 
 
 aiing powers are, as in sleep, quietly at work. Entering the 
 dining room of the Victoria Hotel for our breakfast soon after 
 eight o'cloclv: one morning, and finding as usual at that early 
 hour nearly a hundred seats at the tables unoccupied, we said to 
 the head waiter, " There are a good many lazy persons in this 
 hotel." ''Yes," he replied; "it's the place to be lazy — that's 
 what peojDle are here for." It is only occasionally that the ama- 
 teur fishermen have life and vim enough even to fish, being, like 
 the author, satisfied to simply sail over the beautiful Avaters. 
 Some persons explained to us, ui^on their return from a fishing 
 excursion, that the fish they caught were not ''gamy," and made 
 none of those heroic straggles for freedom Avhich give spirit and 
 zest to piscatory sports in northern waters. The fish which they 
 caught were large, fat and beautifully colored. Sharks abound, 
 and come near enough to the surface to be soothed and quieted 
 by the Bahama air. As the tempting bait floats near the top of 
 the water about three rods from the boat, it is very interesting 
 to watch, in the clear water, the movements of the sharks as they 
 reconnoiter and cautiously approach the savory but deceitful 
 prize. The larger ones manifest the prudence so characteristic 
 of age, while those smaller and younger, as our sable yachtman 
 forcibly expressed it, "jess like de children what den no' no bet- 
 ter," impetuously rush forward and are caught, towed to the 
 boat and shot for their temerity. One of the cajDtured was, with- 
 out any court-martial trial, shot in the head, and, with his jaws 
 extended to their utmost capacity, exhibited in the court of the 
 hotel. It was seven and one-half feet long, and had a capacious, 
 well-armed and ugly looking mouth — extremely repulsive to all 
 except those who have a romantic desire to take part in the old 
 drama of "Jonah and the Whale." It should be said to the 
 credit of the iN'assau sharks, that while the black divers iu the 
 clear and transparent waters of the Bahamas must look to them 
 
116 ISLES Of SUMMEfi. 
 
 exceedingly attractive, especially when hungry, we heard of only 
 a single instance in which any one of these usually yoracious 
 monsters has dined upon a negro, and the report in that case is 
 not yery well authenticated. 
 
 While in Florida, a gentleman haying a plantation upon the 
 St. John's, mentioned to us that he could not giye credit to all 
 the claims that had been made and published concerning the 
 Bahamas, and U23on being pressed to state particularly what 
 claims he considered unfounded, he replied — " "Well, take for 
 instance the Bahama sharks; it is affirmed that they never injure 
 people. Now I can't believe that story. Why, last summer, at 
 the mouth of the St. John's, Mr. — — and his family left their 
 cottage to bathe in the river. His wife entered the water first, 
 and while she was wading out, in the presence of her husband 
 and children, she uttered one loud scream of pain and terror and 
 disappeared. Her body was afterwards recovered, minus one 
 arm. A shark had seized her by the arm, drawn her under 
 water, and bitten her arm off. I do not believe that over in 
 Nassau where sharks are plenty, they are so different from ours. " 
 
 It is proverbial that every story has more than one side — and 
 we found it so in this case. Upon inquiry, we ascertained from 
 some friends of ours who own a cottage at the mouth of the St. 
 John's, that the lady in question, in company with another lady, 
 went out upon a sand bar, and remained there about an hour; 
 that in the mean time the tide rose, increased the depth of the 
 water, and the force of its current between them and the shore; 
 that in attempting to return, one lady got into a hole beyond 
 her depth; that her companion, in endeavoring to rescue her, 
 also got into deep water; that one was in consequence drowned, 
 while the other floated away quite a long distance, upon the sur- 
 face of the water, but was rescued at last unharmed, by a gentle- 
 man who went in a boat to her relief, passing on his way through 
 
SOOTHIIfrG EFFECTS OF CLIMATE. 117 
 
 water infested with sharks, a dozen or more of them being in 
 sight. 
 
 A gentleman wlio lias spent considerable time in the West 
 Indies, assured us that sharks are cautious if not cowardly, and 
 that they will never :Dite a man if he splashes the water. Per- 
 haps, before trusting too much even to the warm water sharks, 
 it will be prudent to first make sure that their hunger has been 
 satisfied. When looking for his breakfast or his dinner, in the 
 absence of fish, now and then a shark may make a bold dash for 
 human flesh. The very great clearness of the Bahama waters 
 may operate in favor of safety, and the fish that they crave for 
 food may be less abundant in the colder water of the Florida 
 Gulf. If the Bahama sharks are very dangerous, it is singular 
 that so few facts are reported which indicate it, and that the 
 divers continue to be so numerous and so bold. 
 
 In our sleeping room at Nassau, it was sometimes found nec- 
 essary to use the mosquito bars with which our bed was provided. 
 We found this insect unlike the little nocturnal musicians so 
 common at the north. When hunted upon the wall in the morn- 
 ing, a IN'assau mosquito appears strangely indifferent. Often 
 when first struck at and not hit, it does not seem at all disturbed 
 and remains in the same place. Then when aroused sufficiently 
 to fly from the threatened danger, it makes a very short journey 
 to another resting place not far from the first, and looks around 
 with a calm quiet expression of supremo indifference. A lady 
 Justly remarked — "you don't see them sitting 'round that Avay 
 at home, but here they breathe a laz}^ atmosphere and live on 
 lazy blood." 
 
 Little facts and circumstances evidence great truths. The 
 influence of climate may be as well shown by a mouse as by a 
 man or a mammoth. Therefore, it is, that we give another little 
 incident that came under our observation. 
 
118 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 Witli more curiosity than discretion, a mouse one day came 
 out of its hole to look at some of the newly arrived guests of the 
 Victoria Hotel. Upon being pursued, it took refuge under a 
 mat at the foot of the grand stair-way. A little girl turned up 
 the end of the mat, and we then expected to see a lively display 
 of the quickness and agility of the pursuer and pursued. But, 
 to our astonishment, the mouse, with quiet resignation, remained 
 perfectly passive, and made no noise, while the little girl seized 
 it by the tail with her fingers, and suspended it, head downwards, 
 in the soft and soothing air. Such passive resignation in a cold 
 climate would have been impossible. 
 
 In further evidence of astonishing climatic results, we copy 
 the following seemingly incredible fish story from a Avell written 
 article upon Nassau by Epes Sargent, the proprietor of the Sar- 
 gent House in that city. Speaking of fish, he says : 
 
 " The jew-fish supplies the place of our Northern halibut. It 
 is cut into steaks and fried in a similar manner. It is the largest 
 edible fish we have, often weighing six hundred pounds. At 
 certain seasons this fish lies dormant at the bottom, and refuses 
 to take the hook. Under these circumstances the fishermen dive 
 down and place the hook in his mouth! This may appear to you 
 to be a very heavy fish story, but it is nevertheless true, as can 
 be vouched for by many here."' 
 
 Mr. Sargent, who thus affirms the truth of this story, is a 
 highly respectable citizen of Nassau, but it will be noticed, he 
 does not claim that his testimony is founded upon his personal 
 observation. If tlie fish has regular hibernating periods, its torpid- 
 ity at such times may not be chargeable to the climate. It seems 
 that this singular mode of capturing large fish is not Avithout its 
 perils, for Mr. Sargent adds, that ''at Long Cay a man had his 
 hand taken off Avhile performing this feat.'" 
 
 Our landlord kept his hotel well supplied Avith green sea turtle. 
 
SEA TUETLES RESIGNED. NEGROES HAPPY. 119 
 
 One t^^^tle we particularly examined. It had then recently 
 been taken from the water, weighed fifty-seven pounds, was alive 
 and fat, and was soon, in the form of soups and steaks, to grace 
 the tables of the dining-room. This huge reptile, (though quite 
 an infant compared with some of the same species), while he 
 must have had some vague suspicions of the cruel fate in store 
 for him, and was turned over upon his back so that he could not 
 crawl away, and rudely punched to wake him up and to see if he 
 was fat, seemed perfectly contented and hajjpy. 
 
 A large number of servants of both sexes were employed in and 
 about the Victoria Hotel, yet there was no jarring, scolding, com- 
 plaining or quarreling. Some were grave, but none appeared sad 
 or discontented. Light hearted and good natured, polite and re- 
 spectful, attentive and faithful, they performed the tasks assigned 
 them in a very unexceptional manner. Petulant and unreason- 
 able complaints did not disturb their equanimity or elicit tart 
 replies. When a number were assembled to perform some labor 
 in common, they lightened their tasks by finely singing with 
 rich musical voices sacred songs. They were never boisterous, 
 and ever exhibited a respectful deference and a politeness which 
 was the more agreeable because unstudied and natural. 
 
 We seldom heard in any of the suburbs of Nassau, teeming as 
 they do with colored people, a harsh or profane word ; we never 
 there witnessed a fight, nor do we remember to have heard a 
 child cry. When sailing on one occasion, we heard some loud 
 unpleasant talk between two white men, near a public dock, 
 each on board and apparently in command of a vessel. Finally 
 one said to the other — " Now look'er here ! If you get me mad 
 I'm going to wrestle, or run, or do something P' This old salt 
 had evidently breathed the air of the Bahamas for some time. 
 
 It seemed to us while in Nassau that if we had any enemies 
 any where in the wide world that it was a good time to heartily 
 
120 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 forgive tliem while we were not only too lazy to get mad, but too 
 languid to keep fast hold of any but the most pleasant and sen- 
 suous emotions, and before we returned to a climate where one's 
 nerves are all so '^ strung upon wires " that they vibrate painfully 
 when the atmosphere is in th3 least disturbed by untoward events. 
 ISTor did we feel like the very sick Dutchman who promised if 
 he died to forgive his enemy, but to give him a good licking if 
 he recovered. We would also suggest to those restless spirits 
 that cannot wait for the coming of the millenium in the due 
 course of time, and Avho are anxious to have the lion and the 
 lamb, without any further delay, lie down together in peace, the 
 propriety of trying the efficacy of physical forces, indejjendent 
 of or in conjunction Avith moral ones, and that they now in- 
 augurate a great migratory movement, by which the whole 
 human family shall be transported to the Bahamas, or to other 
 similar islands, where men lack the life and energy to commit 
 crime, or to accumulate fortunes, or to engage in great enter- 
 prises, and every passion (save one) is as torpid and seemingly 
 dead as though it never had a lodgment in the human heart. 
 We suspect that when the millenium is witnessed in the northern 
 states, great climatic changes will have first taken place. 
 ■ As might be expected Nassau is a very quiet and orderly city. 
 Strangers are much impressed by the absence of scenes of vio- 
 lence, drunken brawls and profane, abusive and irritating lan- 
 guage in the public streets and places of popular resort. We 
 were told that more persons are arrested for improperly wagging 
 their " unbridled tongues," than for more serious offenses. The 
 ''keeping of the peace " is not, however, due to the climate alone. 
 The criminal code, the SAvift and sure administration of justice 
 by the courts, the police department Avitli its efficient and fine 
 looking black patrolmen — all are material factors in accomplish- 
 ing so desirable a result. Convicts are made to labor upon the 
 
GOOD OKDBE, IST NASSAU, 121 
 
 streets, and the chain gangs, in their white prison uniforms, 
 while at work in the hot sun, exert a moral influence which is 
 widely and deeply felt. A future punishment by hard work and 
 not by fire is what makes an impression on the indolent mind. 
 Nor should the peaceful and conservative operation of a very 
 efficient Church — represented by a goodly variety of difEerent 
 sectarian organizations, from the humble Methodists with their 
 untiring zeal and spiritual sledge-hammers, up, through the more 
 jjretentious cathedral, to the loftiest kind of high church, with 
 its choir of colored urchins in holy vestments within the walls of 
 " Saint Agnes," in G-rantstown, back of Nassau, be omitted. 
 The extent of its salutary influence may be fairly inferred by the 
 manner in which Sunday is here kept. The first day of the week 
 is marked by solemn stillness, entire absence from all secular 
 employments, a display of neat and tasty costumes, and by a 
 general attendance upon the devotional services of the churches, 
 as strongly as it is in any of the country towns of New England. 
 In this respect the neighboring island of Cuba, with its Sunday 
 theatres and bull fights in its chief city of Havana, furnishes a 
 most striking contrast, and leads the seeker after the best practi- 
 cal ecclesiastical system to ask, whether English Protestantism 
 or Spanish Catholicism furnishes the most desirable religious 
 foundation for a prosperous and well ordered community. 
 
 It is apparent that the Eoyal Victoria Hotel is an active agent 
 in demoralizing the colored boys who frequent its court. Nov- 
 elty speedily degenerates into nuisance. To them the crowds of 
 winter visitors are like the sugar hogsheads to northern summer 
 flies. The ''rich Northerners" constitute a great living tide, 
 with deep, broad currents of unfailing wealth, and all are most 
 eager to catch some of the drops of the golden spray. Not all 
 of them who have a love of money are endowed with the gift of 
 song, and as the choirs are not selected, and most of the black 
 
 11 
 
122 ISLES OF SUMMBB. 
 
 urchins believe that the louder they scream the better they sing, 
 the extent of the disturbance and annoyance may be in some 
 small degree comprehended. This, together with an inyeterate 
 habit of begging at all times and on all occasions for money — a 
 vicious practice constantly encouraged and fostered by the well- 
 meant liberality of the guests — occasionally causes some of the old 
 habitues of the hotel, when the salutary influence of the lash is 
 not brought into requisition, to hire them to go aAvay. 
 
 Although you have only to tickle the Bahama rocks with a 
 crowbar to make them smile with tropical and semi-tropical har- 
 vests, yet agriculture languishes and maintains but a sickly strug- 
 gle for life, the wildness of untamed nature being only here and 
 there to a very limited extent disturbed. In and near Nassau 
 many places, once made beautiful by enforced slave labor, ''now 
 look sadly neglected. A thick growth of bushes and small trees 
 cover the rocky fields, and many dwellings, once the happy homes 
 of men who owned their workmen, have a deserted, tumble-down 
 look not at all in keeping with their natural attractions. Some 
 sugar cane is raised, and several small sugar mills are in opera- 
 tion. The cane is crushed by horse power between three small 
 cylinders, connected together at the top by projecting cogs, so 
 that while one cylinder is turned by a horse traveling in a circle 
 at the end of a long connecting arm, -(as in the old-fashion 
 cider mill), the other cylinders are made to revolve. They are 
 so adjusted that the third cog gives the cane a tighter squeeze 
 than the first two. One of the receiving cylinders has either 
 vertical grooves or spaces which help to maintain and keep a hold 
 upon the cane, constantly fed to the machine by a negro seated 
 on the ground by its side. While in operation, a steady stream 
 of saccharine cane-juice, having a strong corn-stalk taste, runs 
 into a large tub, from which it is taken in pails to the sugar 
 house, where it is boiled in large kettles; the cane from which 
 
JfO TACTOEIES — THE MECHANIC ARTS. 133 
 
 the juice has been extracted is used for fuel in making the sugar, 
 and is fed to stock. Some lime is put into the juice when it is 
 boiled. Six men were employed in the mill we visited, who 
 worked from 5 o'clock in the morning until sundown. Each 
 horse grinds twice a day, two hours at a time — making four 
 hours per day for each horse. The mill yields only one and a-half 
 barrels of sugar per day. It was made in Cincinnati, Ohio. One 
 of the other three mills on this island makes four barrels of sugar 
 per day. It is only quite recently, we believe, that sugar has 
 been made upon the island of New Providence. Commencing 
 in December, sugar-making continues four months. The sugar 
 seems of very fair quality. 
 
 A marine railway for the repair of vessels is maintained ujoon 
 Hog Island, but we searched in vain for a single factory upon 
 any of the Bahamas, bearing the faintest resemblance to the 
 thousands that are found in every northern state. A very fcAV 
 little shops, like those often seen in small American villages, 
 where some of the simplest of the mechanic arts are practiced, 
 exist. But there is very little demand for skilled labor. We 
 have a photograph of a Nassau joiner shop. It is very roomy, 
 being located out-doors. It is well ventilated, having for its 
 ceiling the blue vault of heaven. It is stable, being founded 
 upon a rock. It is amply furnished and manned for the succes- 
 ful prosecution of a limited business, as it has a single joiner's 
 bench and jack plane, which are in the sole possession and use 
 of one of the Queen's colored subjects. A negro, mounted upon 
 a rather unprepossessing looking mule, is the nearest approach 
 which the Bahamas have yet made towards establishing either a 
 steam or horse railroad. Telegraphs and telephones are of course 
 unknown. Nassau has been described to be "a city Avithout 
 chimneys," though a few have been built for culinary purposes. 
 
 A lady of our party having broken either the main-spring or 
 
124 ISLES OF SUMMEE. 
 
 chain of her watch, it was placed in the hands of a man who 
 held himself out to the world in Nassau as competent to repair 
 it. He kept it some four or five weeks, and until the oAvner was 
 on the point of leaving the island, and charged her a good price 
 for his worse than useless services. She found her watch in a 
 worse condition than she believed it would have been if she had 
 sent it to a northern blacksmith o± average mechanical ingenuity 
 and intelligence. 
 
 While Prof. Dana concedes that a coral island is a good tem- 
 porary sanitarium when well supplied with foreign stores, ''in- 
 cluding a good stock of ice," and is especially attractive to those 
 "who can draw inspiration from its mingled beauties," he well 
 says, that "even in its best condition, it is but a miserable place 
 for human development, physical, mental and moral," although 
 "there is poetry in its every feature." " How much," he per- 
 tinently asks, " of the poetry and literature of Europe would be 
 intelligible to persons whose ideas had expanded only to the 
 limits of a coral island? What elevation in morals should be ex- 
 pected upon a contracted island, so readily overstocked that 
 threatened annihilation drives to infanticide, and tends to the 
 cultivation of the extremest selfishness. "Assuredly," he adds, 
 " there is not a more unfavorable spot for moral or intellectual 
 progress in the wide world than the coral island." 
 
 The situation of the city of Nassau, and its commercial rela- 
 tions with the outside world, save its people in a measure from 
 the consequences which naturally result from a location upon a 
 small island, of very limited resources, entirely destitute of 
 mountains, and where neither rivers nor rivulets are seen wend- 
 ing their way to the sea, to the music of their everfloAving waters. 
 The generosity exhibited by many of the poorest of the negroes, 
 was often the subject of favorable comment by people from the 
 States. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Absence of W/'M Animals upon Coral Islands. Pleasures af the Chas6 
 Unknown. Diet of the Aborigines. Hoio Alligators Taste. The Guanas as 
 a Table Luxury. They are Intoxicated with Whistling Music. Vassar Girls 
 Charming Turtles. 3Iounta,in Crabs. The Hermit Crab a Freebooter. The 
 Lizards — Changing their Color and Hunting Game. Animals upon the West 
 India Islands when Discovered. Snakes. Sea Turtles. Turtle Shell. Hoio 
 Sjwnges Grow and form Communistic Communities. The Sponge Fisheries. 
 Value and Quantity of Bahama Sponges Exported. 
 
 "The world was made to be inhabited by beasts, but studied and 
 contemplated by man." — Thomas Brown. 
 
 But upon the Bahamas laan finds few animals to study and 
 contemplate. At the time of their discovery by Columbus in 
 1492, they were destitute of all the higher forms of animal life. 
 The Bahamas belong to a recent geological age, and are some of 
 the ornamental appendages with which the earth was decorated, 
 thousands, and perhaps millions of years after it was made, and 
 while, with its little partner, the moon, it was, as now, waltzing 
 around the sun. This, in connection Avith the fact of their small 
 extent and isolated position, accounts for that absence of animal 
 life to which we have referred. Some domesticated animals — • 
 the cow, the horse, the hog and the sheep — are now found upon 
 the islands, but they are a part of the old world's gift to the new. 
 That pet of many a household — man's friend, companion, guard 
 and protector — the much abused dog — is not only frequently met 
 with upon the islands, but it is reported tliat a native breed once 
 existed that never barked. While we are unable to vouch for 
 
 125 
 
136 iSLES OP SUMMfittr 
 
 the truthfulness of tlie tradition, we are ready to believe tliat 
 even ill-natured beasts would soon become amiable in the mild 
 and soothing air, and that a canine millennium might, by the 
 silent operation of natural laws, soon be established on those 
 emerald isles. Perhaps we owe an apology to the dogs of the 
 Bahamas for having stated that they are too lazy and indolent 
 to bark — it may be that we should have said instead, that they 
 are too amiable. The loud and persistent crowing of the roos- 
 ters, during all the hours of the night, we have been recently 
 assured is the crow of hunger, and not the genuine John Bull 
 expression of a self-satisfied sentiment of conscious superiority. 
 
 Killing for sport, and ''the pleasures of the chase," whether 
 brutal or refined, could not have been among the pastimes of 
 those who received and welcomed Columbus Jind his companions 
 when they first landed upon the shores of the New World. And 
 they had yet to learn the game of cruel and merciless war from 
 the more educated and cultured savages of a higher civilization. 
 In that they had no accumulated capital they were poor indeed, 
 but free from the fevered dream of ambition, the unquenchable 
 thirst of avarice^ and the tortures of unsupplied and constantly, 
 increasing wants, they were vastly richer than any of the envied 
 millionaires of either ancient or modern times. Simple, amiable 
 and guileless children of nature, unlearned and uncultivated, 
 happy and cheerful as the birds that flaunted their gay plumage 
 in the spicy and perfumed air, they lived and loved in their little 
 Gardens of Eden, with no ban upon the delicious and golden 
 fruits of their uncultivated tropical orchards. 
 
 These fruits, a limited supply of vegetables, and the fish whicli 
 the surrounding ocean supplied at all times in great abundance, 
 constituted their food. A vegetable and piscatory diet infused 
 no frenzied fever in the blood or brain; and Avith no wild beasts 
 in the forests or jungles, there was no savagery to be transmuted. 
 
ItlGATOES AS TABLE LUXTTElilg, THE GUAKA. 127 
 
 Mr. McKinnen in liis " Tour," when speaking of his visit to 
 Acklin's Island in 1802-3, says: "Alligators were sometimes 
 brought in for the table, but it required considerable address to 
 destroy them. The negroes, however, never dis23lay so much 
 ingenuity or patience as in pursuit of prey. The flesh of an 
 alligator which I tasted was hard, white and very much resembled 
 the sturgeon's." We heard of no alligators at New Providence, 
 and, as the Bahama Islands are destitute of rivers, we think it 
 probable the alligators referred to had strayed away from their 
 accustomed haunts, and that this huge reptile contributed little 
 to the support of the ancient Lucayans. 
 
 Lizards of small size are very common in New Providence. 
 They are from six to twelve inches in length, and their ancestors 
 could not here have very materially contributed to the mainte- 
 nance of human life. But Mr. McKinnen, speaking of the con- 
 dition of the island and their inhabitants in his own time, states 
 that "the guana \iguana\ of the lizard tribe is found in the 
 holes in the rocks in all the islands. In the cultivated parts the 
 guana soon disappears, as they are easily taken, and their flesh 
 is much esteemed by the negroes. " 
 
 Mr. Bryan Edwards, of the island of Jamaica, in his history 
 of the West Indies, published in Dublin in 1793, says, concern- 
 ing the island, that 
 
 " The woods were peopled with two very extraordinary creat- 
 ures; both of which anciently were, and still are, not only used 
 for food, but accounted superior delicacies. These are the iguana 
 and the mountain crab." The former " is a species of lizard — • 
 a class of animals about which naturalists are not agreed whether 
 to rank them with quadrupeds, or to degrade them to serpents. 
 * * * From the alligator, the most formidable of the family, 
 measuring sometimes twenty feet in length, the gradation is 
 regular in diminution of size to the small lizard of three inches; 
 
iSg' IStES OF SUMMER. 
 
 the same figure and conformation nearly (tliougli not wliolly) 
 prevailing in each. The iguana is one of the intermediate species, 
 and is usually about three feet long, and proportionally bulky. 
 It lives chiefly among fruit trees, and is perfectly gentle and in- 
 noxious." He says they had then ''become generally scarce," 
 except in places seldom visited by man. Also that " the English, 
 even when they were more plentiful, did not often serve them 
 at elegant tables, but their French and Spanish neighbors, less 
 squeamish, still devour them with exquisite relish. " Also that 
 a lady ''of great beauty and elegance," assured him, from her 
 own experience, that they are " equal in flavor and wholesomeness 
 to the finest green turtle." That "P. Labat likewise speaks of 
 a fricasseed guana with high approbation. He compares it to a 
 chicken for the whiteness of its flesh and the delicacy of its flavor." 
 He quotes from the work of this " good father," (Tom iii, p. 
 316,) his description of the novel mode then in vogue of captur- 
 ing this species of game. "We were attended," he says, "by a 
 negro, who carried a long rod, at one end of which was a piece 
 of whip cord with a running knot. After beating the bushes for 
 some time, the negro discovered our game basking in the sun on 
 a dry limb of a tree. Hereupon he began whistling with all his 
 might, to which the guana was wonderfully attentive, stretching 
 out his neck and turning his head, as if to enjoy it more fully. 
 The negro now approached, still whistling, and advancing his 
 rod gently, began tickling with the end of it the sides and throat 
 of the guana, who seemed mightily pleased with the operation, 
 for he turned on his back, and stretched out like a cat before the 
 fire, and at length fairly fell asleep, Avhich the negro perceiving, 
 dexterously slipt the noose over his head, and with a Jerk brought 
 him to the ground; and good sport it afforded to see the creature 
 swell like a turkey-cock at finding himself entrapped. We caught 
 others in the same way, and kept one of them alive seven or eight 
 
MUSIC LOVIKG REPTILES. 139 
 
 days, but it grieved me to the heart to find tliat he thereby lost 
 mnch delicious tat." 
 
 That other members of the reptilian family are also keenly sen- 
 sitive to whistling music, and greatly pleased and soothed by it, 
 is evidenced by the following account which the author received 
 from his daughter. She says: ^'Upon the college grounds at 
 Vassar, there is a small artificial lake which is utilized for boat- 
 ing in mild weather, and for skating in winter. It is well stocked 
 with turtles, varying in size from one to about nine inches in 
 length. It was common for the lady students to keep small 
 ones in their rooms as pets. Perceiving that the one I had thus 
 utilized and ^'adopted" had evidently an ear for certain kinds 
 of music, especially whistling, I was induced to try an experi- 
 ment upon other and larger turtles in the lake. The result far 
 exceeded my anticipations. Pushing out from the shore in my 
 little row boat, I could always, when so disposed, secure at once" 
 at my whistling concerts for turtles, a numerous audience of all 
 sizes, from three to nine or more inches in length. They would 
 mount a log close to me, first one and then another taking its 
 place, until the sittings were all occupied, and listen with wrapt 
 and pleased attention. While the whistling continued, they 
 turned their heads from side to side, and stretched them out 
 from their shells to the farthest possible extent, as if anxious to 
 see and hear to the uttermost. They would suffer me, at such 
 times, to handle them, and the music, if such I may be permitted 
 to call it, appeared to produce a very, quieting effect upon them. 
 They seemed intoxicated with what must have been to them a 
 new and strange pleasure. They would remain so long as I 
 would whistle, and jump off into the water when the whistling- 
 stopped. They liked the soft sweet airs, and were frightened by 
 a lively tune, but I found that I could retain them as auditors 
 of the more spirited tunes if I first quieted them and secured 
 
130 iSLES OT* SUMMEft. 
 
 their confidence by whistling tunes which harmonized better with 
 their sluggish natures. When the whistling stopped, the reptilian 
 audience retired, and carried, perhaps, the news of the strange 
 sounds they had heard to the more domestic turtles which had 
 remained below in their watery abodes. They were not all alike 
 gifted with a musical taste, for some evidently enjoyed it very 
 much more than others. I found, after a time, that this novel 
 sight caused often the attendance upon the shore of a large num- 
 ber of the lady students, who were much interested and amused 
 at these whistling turtle concerts." 
 
 No doubt the New Providence guanas were long since exter- 
 minated. The small lizards of to-day are certainly in appearance 
 not very attractive as table luxuries. Capt. Fox, a near neigh- 
 bor of ours at the hotel, secured a few living specimens, and held 
 them in captivity for a few days, that he might critically examine 
 them and observe their movements. We were, by his courtesy, 
 also enabled to learn by personal observation some of their pe- 
 culiarities, although generally we are content to get our reptilian 
 knowledge second hand. 
 
 The Bahama lizards possess the power of changing their colors,' 
 like the chameleon. How this result is accomplished we do not 
 know. They may have little vessels containing fluids variously 
 colored, and as one set is expanded or contracted upon the sur- 
 face, the lizards blossom out in broAvn, red, green or satin as the 
 case may be. Thus each, without changing its dress, has at 
 pleasure all the benefits of an ample and varied wardrobe. Tliis 
 may result in frequent cases of mistaken identity, and cause 
 mucli trouble and possibly no little innocent amusement. Their, 
 eyes have movable lids; some species have dew-laps, which look 
 like pouches under their chins, and all are considered harmless, 
 although possessing teeth, which are simple in their sti'ucture. , 
 They have an elongate round body, a snaky looking tongue, four 
 
REPTILES. 
 
 1. Chelonia imbricata. "Hawkbill Turtle." About one-sixth natural 
 size, from Holbrook's Herpetology. Tortoise shell, used for combs, jewelry, 
 &c., is taken from this species. 
 
 3. Sphmriodactylus notatus. Natural size. 3. Head of same, enlarged. 
 4. Foot of same, enlarged, showing the suckers. From Report of Mexican 
 Boundary Survey. 
 
 5. Anolis principalis. Natural size. From Holbrook's Herpetology. 
 Color, bright green, changing to brown, acording to health and weather. 
 
2k> 
 
 '^^ 
 
 
 
 
 ''""^T?? 
 
 a^ 
 
 1^ 
 
 
 .^ 
 
 i«i«.«,«j{_^i. 
 
 '"<.i 
 
 it 
 
 '.i^ 
 
 w.- 
 
 yf"' ' 
 
 J.IL E:f>ert;r 
 
 in.Pii!iQer3CDi6.Crisapd Wo'^v Haven j 
 
 REPTILES. 
 
I'HE LIZASD. 1^1 
 
 sliort legs, eaeh with five digits, and travel upon the rocks and 
 over the bushes and trees with considerable dexterity and agility, 
 being essentially aided by a wiggling motion of their bodies and 
 long tails. They always excited in us such a decidedly repugnant 
 feeling, that we did not consider ourselves at all slighted when 
 we observed on their part an evident desire to avoid us as disa- 
 greeable intruders; and yet these reptiles are decidedly good 
 looking and attractive when contrasted with another genus of the 
 same family in Australia, whose ferocious appearance, armed as 
 they are with horns on their heads and spines on their bodies, 
 have secured for them the descriptive and suggestive name of 
 "Horrid Molochs." 
 
 One of our passengers from ISTassau to Fernandina in the 
 Western Texas, was Mr. Albert H. Phelps, of West Pawlet, Vt.— 
 a self-educated naturalist, only seventeen or eighteen years of age, 
 having a most ardent love for natural history, who, while at 
 Nassau, so taxed and exposed himself in the intensely hot sun, 
 collecting and preserving as many specimens as possible of the 
 singular forms of life in and out of the water, that he was at- 
 tacked with a dangerous and malignant fever, and nearly lost 
 his life. In regard to the New Providence lizards, he in sub- 
 stance said: "I have ten or more species; some of them, includ- 
 ing their long slender tails, are ten inches long. One, of a dark 
 brown color, is very sliowy. It has five golden spots, and its 
 back is so raised as to form a ridge. It has also a dew lap. 
 After I knocked it down with a cane, the bright colors and the 
 dew lap disappeared, and the reptile was all of a pale ash color. 
 I killed another before he had time to change color. It was of 
 an umber brown, with clusters of lemon yellow spots, very minute, 
 so that a little distance off each cluster seemed a little spot. 
 The dew lap was a rich shade of dark umber brown, with a rich 
 stripe of yellow 'round the small bone under its jaw, and 'round 
 
13^ tSMS OV StTMMlfi. 
 
 its foreliead and head of its nose. I read in Appleton's Americail 
 Encyclopedia that there are no four footed reptiles that are dan- 
 gerous. 1 have allowed the lizards of all descriptions to bite 
 me, and never suffered, any inconvenience from it. Their bite 
 is like that of turtles; they pinch hard, and have great strength 
 in their jaws. The small lizards will stand and turn their heads 
 and listen if you whistle. It is amusing to see them out hunting. 
 They hunt insects that are large enough to attract their atten- 
 tion. At a place where I used to go to get sea-eggs to dry, flies 
 collected, and 1 would sit and watch them. They would see a 
 fly Avlien two feet distant, and then lie down and creep towards 
 it like a dog after a wood-chuck, or a cat after a mouse. 1 have 
 seen them jump and catch flies, and catch them on the wing. 
 Salamanders are not dangerous. I have tamed little red ones so 
 that they would walk 'round on my finger. I never could get 
 one of them, to bite me. They are perfectly harmless." 
 
 In a communication received from our young friend, Mr. 
 Phelps, of Vermont, while this chapter was in the printer's hands, 
 he states: ''Many of the people of Nassau consider the flesh of 
 the iguana a great delicacy. I was unable to test it personally, 
 because none were offered for sale in the Nassau market. I ob- 
 tained one from Cuba for my collection. They grow to a length 
 of from three to four feet, including the tail, which is two-thirds 
 the entire length. The head is large, and its capacious mouth 
 is armed with about fifty teeth upon each jaw. The dew-lap has 
 a depth about equal to the diameter of the head; it is triangular, 
 and has about a dozen separations on its anterior border. Along 
 its neck and back is a comb-like crest of fifty-five scales, which, 
 extending to the tail, becomes simply a serrated ridge. The 
 color above is greenish, with blue and slate tints; below it is a 
 greenish yellow; generally, upon the sides, there are brown, zig- 
 zag bands, with a yellowish borderj on the front of the shoulder 
 
fflE LIZARD. 133 
 
 there is a yellowish band; some are dotted with brown, and have 
 yellow spots on the limbs. The tail is ringed broadly with alter- 
 nate brown and yellowish green colors." 
 
 Mr. Phelps adds: " There are a great many small iguanas every 
 where about Nassau. The most numerous species are about five 
 inches in length, and are generally of a light gray color, but like 
 the chamelion, they can change to several different hues at will. 
 It is constantly on the hunt for small insects, and may at any 
 time be seen on trees, walls and houses, running about in quest 
 of its prey. 
 
 " Another small species .abounds in all gardens. It is about 
 seven inches long, and of the brightest grass-green color. It is 
 much more slender than the one just described, has a tail which 
 is twice the length of its body, and a very prominent dew-lap of 
 a rich umber-brown tint. The dew-lap is peculiar to this order 
 of lizards. It is capable of expansion and contraction at will, 
 and, through its changes, an interchange of ideas seem to be 
 effected; sight taking the place of sound as a medium for trans- 
 mitting thought. 
 
 " The blue-tailed lizard frequents hot, sandy places, and may be 
 commonly seen about the battery. It is about ten inches long. 
 
 " The lizard is small but very useful. Its mission is to keep 
 insect life in tropical countries within reasonable and proper 
 bounds. They are exceedingly spry, and very amusing in their 
 habits. They never molest any one, and their mission, so far as 
 man is concerned, is decidedly friendly and beneficial."' 
 
 Mr. Phelps states that he saw upon the island of New Provi- 
 dence, three species of the tree frog, one of which was very large. 
 
 Also that he had collected while at Nassau, from fifteen to 
 twenty species of crabs, including three or four kinds of land 
 crabs. Mr. Edwards, in his history of the West India Islands, 
 speaking of the mountain crab, says: 
 
IM ISLES OF StJMME:^. 
 
 ''It is, without doubt, one of (lie choicest morsels in nature/' 
 It formerly was found in immense numbers, and the observation 
 of Du Tertre that they were "a living and perpetual supply of 
 manna in the wilderness, equalled only by the miraculous bounty 
 of Providence to the children of Israel when wandering in the 
 desert," is said to have been no exaggeration. The Indians re- 
 lied upon them with confidence when all other provisions were 
 scarce, and the supply was always equal to their wants. 
 
 When Edwards wrote it. still existed in large numbers, but he 
 thought the time of its extinction was then near at hand. 
 
 Dli Tertre described them as living in a kind of orderly soci- 
 ety in their retreats in the mountains, and as having annual night 
 marches to the sea, by the shortest and straightest lines, like a 
 well drilled and admirably organized army under able and ex- 
 perienced commanders. The waves relieve the crabs of their 
 spawn; the eggs are soon hatched in the sand of the shore, and 
 millions of young crabs, impelled by a power invisible, mys- 
 terious and divine, are soon seen slowly making their Avay to the 
 mountains. Crowding each other upon the eastern coast of the 
 Atlantic states, the human instinct has to be quickened by the 
 loud clarion notes of command to induce the young men to '''go 
 West," but these little crabs seem to be endowed with more 
 practical wisdom, and to push inland of their own accord. 
 
 The hermit crab, a singular and well known species, is com- 
 mon upon the shores of the Bahamas. It has A^ery loose ideas 
 upon the subject of the personal rights of its fellow creatures, 
 and is to the full extent of itsca2"»abilities, a first-class freebooter. 
 Having captured a little circular shell fish, it uses the shell of its 
 prisoner to cover and protect the vulnerable portion of its own 
 organism, makes itself perfectly at home in its new but stolen 
 house, occupies it as tenant in common, pays no rent, compels 
 its captive to make all the repairs, and to accompany it on its 
 travels over the rocky shore. 
 
West india indigekotts an-imalS. 1^5 
 
 Mr. Edwards states that there anciently existed upon the 
 Windward or Caribbee Islands all the animals that were found 
 upon the larger islands, and some others in addition. The latter 
 were found at the time when he wrote in Guana, and few or 
 none of them in N'orth America, which helped to make him be- 
 lieve that the Windward Islands were anciently peopled from 
 the south. He mentions only eight kinds of land animals as 
 having been found in the West Indies, viz. : 
 
 1. The agouti — (''the mus aguti of Linnaeus, and the cavy 
 of Pennant and Buffon ") " constitutes an intermediate species 
 between the rabbit and the rat." He believed it extinct except 
 in the larger islands. 
 
 3. The pecary — {" the sus tajacic of Linnaeus, and ihe pecary 
 and Mexican musk hog of English naturalists.") It differed 
 from the European hog in that it had a gland upon its back 
 from which there was a musky discharge, while it sported gay 
 colors, its bristles being pale blue tipped with white. It was 
 also more courageous, and would attack the dogs that hunted 
 them. In 1793 it had been exterminated in the West Indies, but 
 it abounded in some portions of Mexico. 
 
 3. The annadilla was called ''the nine handed. It was cov- 
 ered with a jointed shell or scaly armor, and rolled itself up like 
 the hedge-hog. As an article of diet it was very delicate and 
 wholesome. " It was once found in all the West Indies, but was 
 extinct when Edwards wrote. 
 
 4. The oppossum (or monitoii) grows its own bag in which 
 under its belly, it shelters and carries its young. This animal 
 like the pecary, Edwards thinks was unknown in the larger 
 islands. 
 
 5. " The raccoon was common in Jamaica in the time of 
 Sloane, who observes that it was eaten by all sorts of people." 
 It was belieyed to have been exterminated when Edwards wrote* 
 
136 ISLES OF SilliMtlE. 
 
 6. The musk rat — {the piloris ot naturalists) — abounded on 
 some of the islands, and may have been the agouti. 
 
 7. The alco or native dog, that did not bark, was carefully 
 fattened by the natives, and esteemed a great delicacy as an 
 article of diet. Edwards quotes the following from Acosta: " In 
 St. Domingo at first there were no dogs but a small mute creature 
 resembling a dog, with a nose like that of a fox, which the na- 
 tives called alco. The Indians were so fond of these little ani- 
 mals that they carried them on their shoulders wherever they 
 went, or nourished them in their bosoms. " 
 
 8. Monkeys. These were used for food, and are said to have 
 very much the flavor of hare. Englishmen seem to have had a 
 sort of Darwinian instinct, and to have deemed an invitation to 
 dine upon monkeys substantially the same as to pick the dry 
 bones of their dead ancestors. 
 
 The only snake we saw while at the Bahamas, was discovered 
 and killed near the west gate of the hotel enclosure. We think 
 they are neither numerous or dangerous. 
 
 Mr. Phelps writes that the chicken snake is the only represen- 
 tative upon the island of New Providence of the whole family of 
 serpents; that it resembles the milk snake; and that it is reported 
 to attain sometimes a length of fifteen feet, but that the largest 
 one he saw and measured was six feet long, and two inches in 
 diameter in the largest part. He adds: "They are jierfectly 
 harmless. The only venomous creatures on the island are the 
 tarantulas, or ground spiders, as they are called by the natives. 
 They are found but rarely, and only upon the plantations. In 
 my many excursions I never came across either a tarantula or a 
 scorpion. My specimens were obtained of the negroes, whose 
 services were secured through the stimulating influence of pecu- 
 niary rewards. Centipedes are occasionally met with, but their 
 sting, though very painful, is not fatal," 
 
SSA TtTiltLES. 131' 
 
 Several large and valuable kinds of sea turtles are found in the 
 Bahama waters, as was evidenced by the bountiful supply of ex- 
 cellent turtle soups and turtle steaks often seen upon the dining 
 room tables of the Eoyal Victoria Hotel. The Hawk's Bill tur- 
 tle yields the beautiful tortoise shell that figures so prominently in 
 ladies' toilets. The shells of the Green, and also of the Yellow 
 or Mulatto turtles, are said to be in lamina too thin for practical 
 use. The name " Green Turtle " we suppose was given them on 
 account of the green color of the fat under their shells. Turtle 
 steak is very light colored, and looks and tastes like the tender 
 meat of a chicken. Stepping upon a platform adjoining a Nas- 
 sau dock, we looked down through a trap door into a crawl which 
 contained a large number of sea turtles, varying in weight we 
 should think, from fifty to one hundred or more pounds. The 
 shells of some of them at least, equalled in size the one the poet 
 Wadsworth thus very unpoetically describes: 
 
 " The shell of a green turtle, thin 
 And hollow ; you might sit therein 
 It was 80 wide and deep." 
 
 We observed them with much interest. They appeared con- 
 tented and happy although somewhat restless. Our first impres- 
 sion was that they were either holding a mass meeting or a 
 sociable. Then we queried whether they had not come to Nassau 
 on a marooning excursion. But they were so dignified and 
 solemn, and seemed so loaded down with a heavy weight of cares, 
 we finally concluded they were holding a session of the sub-marine 
 reptilian *^ Parliament." That they were loyal and patriotic 
 may be inferred from the fact that they were soon to lose their 
 lives for the public good. Turtles and turtle shells are ex- 
 ported from the Bahamas of the annual value of from three 
 thousand to four thousand dollars. It is said that the sea turtle 
 
1^§ tSLBS Of StJMirBS. 
 
 will live several weeks without food — consuming meantime we 
 suppose, its own fat. Upon unfrequented and desolate little 
 islands or keys, covered with sand, weeds and bushes, the sea 
 turtles lay their eggs in great numbers, which are incubated by 
 the sun — each newly hatched little rej)tile thereby, all uncon- 
 sciously, acting the part of the infant Moses in the bulrushes. 
 The turtle as a pedestrian is not a great success, as his four legs 
 are very short and widely separated. But it is apparent from the 
 size of the turtle steaks that he has great muscular power, and in 
 '^ paddling his own canoe " in the water, although- weighted with 
 a complete coat of mail, he can make very good time. 
 
 The aborigines of the island of Cuba captured the sea turtle 
 by a process novel and ingenious. Tying a long cord to the tail 
 of a sucker-fish, which the Spaniards called the reves, (of the 
 Echeneis genera,) they cast it into the water in the narrow and 
 winding channels frequented by the sea turtles, and the fish 
 first fastening its suckers, which surrounded a flat disc upon its 
 head, upon the turtle's coat of mail, retains its hold until the 
 piscatory captor and captive were safely drawn out of the water. 
 Columbus alleged that the reves would suffer itself to be dismem- 
 bered rather than relax its hold upon its unfortunate victim. It 
 may be presumed that this singular method of fishing for turtles 
 was followed by the natives of the Bahama Islands. Humboldt, 
 in his " Island of Cuba," states that when this new mode of fish- 
 ing was reported in Europe, the story was discredited and con- 
 sidered *■' only a traveler's tale." He adds that on the eastern 
 coast of Africa, near Cape Natal, a similar artifice was used. 
 
 The most valuable product of the Bahama waters is the Spon- 
 gida, which yields the sponge of commerce — an article which 
 ministers in so many ways to the comfort and wants of man. It 
 has been growing in popular favor for the past forty years, as its 
 capacity for varied and extensive usefulness has been gradually 
 
developed. Fasieiied to the rocks by roots, maturing germs like 
 buds, and looking like a fungus, an ordinary obseryer can hardly 
 believe the learned men of science when informed by them that 
 it is an animal. The spongidae are found in water from twelve 
 to thirty feet deep, and are detached from the rocks by divers or 
 by fishermen with the aid of long poles having hooks with two 
 prongs. Water glasses, like those hereafter described in our chap- 
 ter upon corals, are also used when the water is rough. A large 
 number of boats and men are employed in the business. 
 
 When we went to Nassau we supposed we knew sponges, but 
 we were greatly mistaken. When taken from the water they are 
 dark colored, and in ajapearance resemble liver. The sponge of 
 commerce consists of the flexible fibrous skeletons of a large colony- 
 of sponges. The very small and clustered animals are so closely 
 united, and so arranged, as to form a mass of tubes, through 
 which the sea water containing their food is made to circulate 
 by means of very small hairs or cilia which line the cavities, and 
 vibrate at the will of the animal, so that each can take its ap- 
 propriate nourishment as the water passes through. It seems to 
 be a communistic community, where each works for the common 
 benefit of all. The principle works well, and would produce 
 equally good results in human societies if man had only a little 
 more of the nature and disposition of a s]3onge conferred upon 
 him. The water is discharged through the larger orifices. It 
 has been well said that " the sj)onge represents a kind of suba- 
 queous city, where the people are arrayed about the streets and 
 roads, in such a manner that each can appropriate his food from 
 the water as it passes along." The supply of water is stopped 
 when the orifices or gates of these marine cities are closed, but 
 how such multitudes of animals, that are inseparably united and 
 permanently attached to one spot, can be so regulated and man- 
 aged as to secure harmony and the common good of all, we cannot 
 fully understand. 
 
f40 iStfiS OF STJMMEtle 
 
 Aside from its many curious forms, some of whlcli are beauti- 
 ful, the sponge when first taken from the water has a very 
 unpromising appearance, and its odor is offensire. The sponge 
 of commerce is merely its skeleton or framework. This is sur- 
 rounded by a glairy, gelatinous substance, which formerly was 
 removed by burying the sponges in the sand for a few days, and 
 afterwards whipping them with sticks. But now they are kept 
 uj)on deck for two or three days, when they lose their vital- 
 ity ; afterwards they are placed in a crawl and kept there from 
 eight to ten days; then they are cleansed and bleached in 
 the sun and air upon the beach. Afterwards, upon their ar- 
 rival in Nassau, the roots are cut oE, and they are trimmed 
 and packed for exportation. Some of those oifered for sale in 
 the hotel court were doubtless bleached with chemicals. The 
 result in such cases is that the strength of the fibre is impaired. 
 The sponges grow sometimes in forms so singular and unique 
 that they command from strangers a good price as curiosities. 
 
 We were shown at Judge VanVolkenberg'a house in Florida, 
 what seemed to be a package two or three feet in length, of beau- 
 tiful small glass threads, and were very greatly surprised to learn 
 that it was a species of Japanese sponge. It was obtained in 
 Japan when the Judge filled the office of United States minister 
 to Japan. 
 
 We also saw in the little embryo museum which is connected 
 with the Nassau public library, a delicate foreign sponge, packed 
 in cotton wool, which closely resembled handsome thread lace. 
 
 In a recent official report of the Governor of the Bahamas, he 
 states that it has been discovered in Germany that tlie sponge 
 may be propagated by cuttings from living specimens, Avhich, 
 when fastened to pieces of board, are j^laced in the sea. Skilful 
 cultivation may hereafter result in the production of the more 
 taluable sponges in many parts of the ocean world where they 
 are not at present found. 
 
SPONGES. 
 
 1. Tuba plicifera. " Bouquet Sponge." 
 
 3. ParJiychalina rubens. " Silk Sponge." Color, when living, red. 
 
 3. Hircinia purpurea. "Wire Sponge." 
 
 4. Spongia . tubulifera. "Finger Sponge." A peculiar variety of the 
 'Glove Sponge." 
 
p^.f- 
 
 
 J FI Earc''t^r ir-om nalxn?= 
 
 Pundorscm5.Cn^=inttl\ie vJiavuTi wl. 
 
 SPONGES 
 
. -.- BPOKGES. : 14J 
 
 Oiii" Bahama experience has secured for the sponge a con- 
 spicuous and pleasant place in our memory. It is no longer 
 what it has been. It has become glorified and hallowed. We 
 look at it v;ith new eyes, and handle it with a feeling of re- 
 spect akin to reverence, for it reflects something of that divine 
 and creative wisdom that caused it to grow, in part at least for 
 man's benefit, upon the white limestone floor over which the 
 clear, warm waters of the ocean surrounding the coral islands 
 ceaselessly roll. Perhaps a more thorough and extensive explor- 
 ation of the beds of the ocean world may bring to light new and 
 valuable additions to the sponge-producing waters. In the sea 
 dredging off the coast of Massachusetts some specimens of Spongi- 
 dse have been obtained. 
 
 The Bahama sponges differ very much in quality, and conse- 
 quently in value. Some are quite small and fine — others large 
 and coarse. Some have a texture so firm that the hardest wring- 
 ing and pulling does not tear them. Others, having the same 
 general appearance, are easily picked to j^ieces with the thumb 
 and finger. The difference in softness is also very marked. The 
 novice needs to be on his guard, and to exercise much caution 
 in making purchases, for he is not only in great danger of buying 
 a poor and perhaps worthless article, but of imposition in the 
 matter of price. It is never jDleasant to feel that we have been 
 imposed upon, but it is mortifying for one boasting of Caucassian 
 blood to be cheated by an ignorant and unlettered negro. 
 
 Sponges are daily offered for sale in the court of the Eoyal 
 Victoria Hotel. They are strung together, a dozen or more upon 
 a striiig, and most visitors purchase a supjily for home use. They 
 are much cheaper than those sold at retail in the States, and 
 when dried and pressed occupy but little room. In the waters 
 surrounding the islands of Abaco, Exuma and Andros the 
 sponges are found in the greatest abundance; and the Abaco 
 
143 ISLES OF SUMMEE. 
 
 sponges were represented to be the best by those who sold sponges 
 at the hotel. 
 
 For the purposes of sale the Bahama sponges are divided into 
 eight classes, and though they find a ready market, they are con- 
 sidered inferior to those which are found in the Mediterranean — 
 and this is equally true of corals. I was informed by an exten- 
 sive dealer in sponges, that the Florida waters produce sponges 
 of a quality superior to those of the Bahamas, though not equal 
 to those of the Mediterranean, 
 
 The quantity and value of sponges annually exported from the 
 Bahamas has not been uniform. In 1855, sponges were exported 
 of the value of nearly 150,000; in 1861, of over $150,000; in 
 1877, over $90,000; in 1878, nearly $125,000; and the aver- 
 age for ten years prior to 1864 was nearly $87,000. The increase 
 in quality and value in 1878 was caused by the re-opening of the 
 Cuban sponge fisheries which were closed during the Cuban in- 
 surrection. The Bahama sponge fleet entered last year the Cuban 
 waters, and by over production soon broke down the market. 
 Some of the finer qualities were exported to France, but the 
 largest portion of the Bahama sponges are sent to the United 
 States and to England. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Amusements. Small and Isolated Communities thrown upon their Own Re- 
 sources. Visit of a Circus Gompanv to Nassau. Its Effect upon the Negroes. 
 Whist and Boating Clubs. Base-ball and Polo. Military and Marbles. 
 Religion Utilizing the Idle Hours. Streets Placarded with Notices of Solemn 
 Fcosts. Absence of a Color Line in Churches. Amateur Fishing. The Boat- 
 men Canvassing for Customers. Capt. Sampson a Fisher of Men. He Describes 
 and Discitsses the Sharks. 
 
 The people of Nassau, oAving to their isolated condition, are 
 compelled to rely upon their own resources for amusement. A 
 Bahama nimrod has no horn or hoof or hide among his trophies. 
 His game is in the sea. In the variety and abundance of its 
 fauna, the ocean to some extent, makes up for the absence of 
 animal life in the impenetrable jungles. The birds have mostly 
 been compelled to build their nests and rear their young upon 
 secluded and uninhabited islands. Nassau's " back country" is 
 small in extent, and the continuity of the shade and the profound 
 depth of the solitude which ever rests upon the island beyond 
 the city's borders, can hardly be said to be broken by the two or 
 three little hamlets where a few negroes have their humble homes. 
 Hence the almost entire absence of the thousand and one enter- 
 tainments that compete for a portion of the time and money of 
 the people in all the cities of the Union. These, with us, are 
 largely due to our facilities for inter-communication. They mul- 
 tiply as our steam commercial marine increases, and with every 
 enlargement of our railroad system. Theatrical exhibitions, 
 menageries, concerts by companies of eminent musicians, lectures 
 
lU ISLES OF SUMMEE. 
 
 from famous and gifted men, and great gatherings of represen-. 
 tative men in science, religion and politics, and for moral 
 reforms, must inevitably be as rare in the Bahamas as skating 
 rinks. During the wild excitement that prevailed in Nassau 
 when, during the late rebellion, it was practically a confederate 
 port, under the protection of the flag of Great Britain, a stone 
 building was erected for theatrical exhibitions. The astonished 
 winds immediately blew its roof off and otherwise damaged it,, 
 so that its bare monumental walls alone remain to commemorate 
 the important part which ISTassau played in the great war of the 
 Southern rebellion. But no inference can properly be drawn 
 from the fact of its destruction by the angry elements, that the 
 theatre was especially objectionable to the spirit that rides upon 
 the whirlwind and directs the storm, because churches as well as 
 other public and many private buildings were blown down at the 
 same time. We have no doubt that the Bahama government, in. 
 these calm sober days, would prefer as a paying investment, warm- 
 ing pans to theatres. 
 
 Nassau and its surroundings have much to interest a stran- 
 ger, especially if he has spent his life in more northern latitudes; 
 but to her own citizens, it must be a very dull place notwith- 
 standing an occasional hurricane and frequent wrecks. In the 
 winter of 1878, '79, a traveling circus company chartered a steam- 
 boat and visited some of the AVest India Islands. Their arrival 
 in Nassau produced a deep and profound sensation. The landing 
 of Columbus and his followers upon a neighboring island nearly 
 four centuries before, with gilded cross and emblazoned banner, 
 was not a greater surprise or productive of half the pleasure. 
 No alloy of fear marred the happiness which the arrival of the 
 acrobats occasioned. Heralded from afar, and accompanied in 
 their grand march through the streets of Nassau by musicians 
 who made the soft and languid air vibrate with a melody it never 
 
A CIBOUS. GOVERNMENTAL SHOWS. 145 
 
 had before experienced, richly clad in costumes, striped, bespan- 
 gled and radiant with burnished silver and shining gold, they 
 seemed to many an unlettered and untraveled looker-on, four- 
 fold more the children of the sun than did the Spanish discoverers 
 of 1493. The new Jerusalem, as seen in the fervid dreams 
 of Nassau's dusky, religious devotees, surely cannot boast so 
 gorgeous a chariot, nor do horses of equal grace and beauty tread 
 the golden and jewelled streets of their celestial city. A wild 
 and bewildering excitement took possession of Grant's Town, 
 and, like an electric atmosphere, pervaded the thoroughfares and 
 by-ways of Nassau itself. While the show lasted, the contribu- 
 tions levied upon the guests of the Royal Victoria Hotel, to 
 enable the little negroes to see it and be forever happy, were quite 
 formidable in number if not in amount. Indeed, some of the 
 juveniles were smart and enterprising enough to make it an ex- 
 cuse for obtaining a good supply of shillings for future use. "We 
 suspect that the circus as a motive power and moral force in the 
 world has been underestimated. We esteemed it more highly after 
 we witnessed its effects in that island of unending summer. In- 
 dolence retired, and ambition came out of its tomb of death at 
 its approach. Long live the circus ! 
 
 As we have elsewhere shown, the forms, ceremonies, symbols, 
 trappings and paraphranalia of a royal government, furnish an 
 integral and very important part of Nassau's amusements. lu 
 this point of view, colonial institutions on a monarchial model 
 are a real godsend. For people living outside of the limits of 
 the great world of human activity and life, without railroads, 
 telegraphs, steamboats, telephones, capital, enterprise, or busi- 
 ness, it seems to be a pleasant but expensive diversion. 
 
 A whist club exists'at Nassau. It is composed of the governor, 
 and a few high officials and prominent citizens, numbering, as we 
 were informed, some fifteen in all. They meet twice a week, in 
 
 13 
 
146 ISLES OF SUMMEE. 
 
 the evening from eight to eleven o'clock; Friday at the " Grovern- 
 ment House," (the Governor's residence,) and Tuesdays at the 
 houses of the other members. They play nothing but whist, and 
 loyally follow the English custom of putting up sixpenny stakes, 
 ''just to increase a little the interest, and keep things lively," 
 as my informant expressed it. AYe Avere also told that on these oc- 
 casions ''they never drink to excess, and no excess of any kind 
 is indulged in." Excess, as applied to drinking, is a very flexible 
 uncertain word. Such of the high officials as we saw drink could 
 not be called " hard " drinkers, for we never saw men drink more 
 easy than they did, or appear to take to it more naturally, or en- 
 joy it more. In carrying capacity, also, they are at least the 
 peers of their American cousins. The belief is wide spread, that 
 spirituous liquors moderately used as a beverage in warm climates, 
 are conducive to health. Where malarial poisons are exhaled, 
 quinine and alcoholic drinks are considered by many absolute 
 necessaries. We have no doubt about the value of quinine as a 
 tonic and malarial antidote, but have no sufficient basis of fact 
 in regard to the use of alcoliol, in such cases, upon which to form 
 an opinion satisfactory to ourselves, or of value to others. It is a 
 question which has two sides. If that which we saw drank was 
 used for sanitary reasons, the quantity imbibed indicated a' 
 country most alarmingly unhealthy. The treatment Ave thought 
 partook of the "heroic." 
 
 Nassau formerly had a yachting club, and in all probability its 
 organization remains, but nothing occurred Avhile we were there 
 to indicate that it still lives. It certainly Avas torpid if not dead 
 —chloroformed by climate. No regattas, as of yore, pleasantly 
 disturbed the ocean tides, or the dreamy quiet of the city's every 
 day life. Something of the sadness Avhich folloAvs in the wake 
 of pleasure, and of the melancholy Avhich hovers over departed 
 joySj surrounds and envelopes the yacht club's silent boat-liouse. 
 
The ambition of the young men is not excited or increased by 
 bat and ball, or boat and oar. Archery, an out-door diversion, 
 which connects the high-toned men and maidens in England to- 
 day, with the people of pre-historic times, and which, with 
 feathered shafts and twanging bow, projects the distant stone 
 age into the age of gold, has not as yet, been re-established upon 
 these islands, where it flourished in the time of Columbus. Ee- 
 quiring little physical exertion, arousing no fierce passions, stir- 
 ring the bosom with only pleasurable excitement, its highest en- 
 joyment secured when both sexes participate in its sport, a semi- 
 tropical climate would seem to be peculiarly favorable to its prac- 
 tice and cultivation. But the more violent games of foot-ball 
 and polo flourish instead, and call out many spectators on the 
 afternoons of Tuesday and Friday of each week, including the 
 elite of the town in carriages. Polo results occasionally in a 
 broken bone, and foot-ball excites to spirited struggles for the 
 mastery. The negroes in the military department when off duty, 
 are perhaps more to be commended, for, when not idle, or occu- 
 pied with their lady friends, they are satisfied, (according to one 
 of the official medical reports,) with flying paper kites, and the 
 lowly and quiet game of marbles. No doubt many of the Queen's 
 ebony subjects would rather be the humble turtle, that idly basks 
 and meditates upon a rock in the sun, than the most beautiful 
 antelope that ever scaled the craggy heights of a mountain. 
 With the thermometer in the eighties in the shade, I could the 
 better understand the wisdom and good sense of such a prefer- 
 ence. But, then, upon us high-toned English precedents pro- 
 duced but little effect. 
 
 One result of the absence at iS'assau of the innumerable and 
 varied private sports and public amusements which exist in all 
 cities and large towns in the States is, to give greater prominence 
 and importance to the church. Religion has its social side, and, 
 
148 ISLES OF SUMMEE. 
 
 in the States, it is apparently often deemed advisable if not nec- 
 essary, to unite all who worship or statedly attend devotional 
 exercises in the same place, in what is practically a social club. 
 It is difficult for the church to secure the attendance of people 
 generally to its meetings of a purely religious and devotional 
 character, where the cities are constantly placarded, and the 
 columns of the newspapers teem with notices and advertisements 
 of an endless variety of shows and public entertainments. Hence 
 the number of church fairs, church festivals, church feasts, 
 church concerts, and church picnics. It has been deemed nec- 
 essary, not so much to aid the church as an aggressive force in 
 the world, but in self-defense, to surround religion with some of 
 the rational enjoyments and healthy diversions which otherwise 
 will be practically used by the devil to undermJne its influence 
 and destroy its power. At Nassau, religion dominates without 
 these adjuncts, as it did in New England ni the days of the pil- 
 grims — and for the same reason. 
 
 Public attention is called to some of the holy days and fasts of 
 the church by placards, printed in large type and posted upon 
 the street corners and in other public places. Good Friday was 
 thus announced, and the following we copied from one of the 
 hand-bills. 
 
 ''Good Friday. 
 
 " Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? 
 
 " Good Friday is the most solemn, the most awful day in the 
 whole year to the Christian. 
 
 " On Good Friday, the Lord Jesus Christ, God in the nature 
 of man, suffered on the cross of shame, dying that He might 
 save you. 
 
 '' It is everything to you that He died, for He suffered.for your 
 sin — yes, your'sl 
 
ASH XtED.NTESPAY. 14^ 
 
 '''Mow then will yon spend Good Friday? If yonr father, 
 mother, wife, or husband, son or daughter, died — if they died to 
 save your life, would you choose the anniversary of their death to 
 make merry and take a holiday? No, you would not." 
 
 We omit the three concluding paragraphs. 
 
 Another street hand-bill read as follows: 
 
 "^'AsH Wedkesday. 
 
 " The first day of Lent; 
 
 " The church's special call to repentauce. 
 
 " Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast; call a solemn as- 
 sembly; — 
 
 '* G-ather the people; sanctify the congregation; assemble the 
 elders; gather the children and those that suck the breasts; let 
 the bridegroom go forth out of his chamber, and the bride out of 
 her closet. 
 
 " Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the 
 porch and the altar, and let them say, spare thy people, Lord, 
 and give not thy heritage to reproach, that the heathen should 
 rule over them; wherefore should they say among the people, 
 where is their God?" — Joel ii, Chap. 15 — 17 verses. 
 
 That these solemn occasions are to many quite attractive is 
 doubtless true. They diversify the every day life of the people, 
 although they are not, in the strict sense of the term, amuse- 
 ments. But they are a real recreation no doubt, for some, and 
 not a cross. The old lady exhibited something akin to this feel- 
 ing when she complained of the solitary situation of her dwelling 
 house; she did not like it, she said there was *' nothing going on 
 there — no funerals, nor nothing." 
 
 Could Black Beard and the other pirates who rendezvoused 
 and dominated in Nassau in the early historic times, walk its 
 streets to-day, they could not but be greatly impressed with the 
 
150 iSLES OV SUMMER. 
 
 moral and religious changes v/hicli have taken place. While the 
 little capital has doubtless its fl^ll share of the vices which mar 
 the civilization of modern times, and is by some declared to be 
 a very wicked place, yet, compared with what it was in Black 
 Beard's day, it is the very garden of the Lord. 
 
 Judging from outward appearances, religion at Nassau is built 
 upon a very democratic basis. In their public assemblies all are 
 "one in Christ." There is no ''color line." 
 
 No seats are set apart in the churches, where the white.element 
 preponderates, for colored people. The blood of the two races is 
 greatly and curiously mixed, mingled, and combined. The line 
 that marks the division between day and night is not more uncer- 
 tain and difficult to determine than the color line in Nassau. A 
 prominent white citizen informed us, and it seemed both to amuse 
 and astonish him, that the whites upon Abaco island persist in 
 exclusively occupying one side of the church. These people, 
 who place such a high value upon their blood, descended, he said, 
 from the pirates! Mucli to their chagrin the Governor appointed 
 a negro to fill the office of resident magistrate upon that island, 
 because he excelled them in a competitive examination. The 
 black squire occupied a seat in the isle which separated tlie 
 '•'children of darkness" from the "children of light." 
 
 Many of the visitors at Nassau find in fishing pleasant and 
 useful occupation for some of their leisure hours. Arrangements 
 for boats and bait are consummated, the party made up, and the 
 time and place agreed upon a day or two in advance. The ex- 
 penses, divided per capita among the gentlemen forming the 
 party, are trifling. Good sailing and good fishing can be calcu- 
 lated upon with confidence, as it is very rare indeed that there 
 is any failure of a favorable wind, or of an abundance of piscatory 
 game. The boatmen are accustomed to bring "the catch" to 
 the court of the hotel, where their captors, with a laudable pride 
 
fEX PHOTOGRAPH OF SAMPSOIT. 151 
 
 exliibit the substantial evidences of their skill. Sometimes a 
 huge shark is thus exhibited. The great variety of the fish, 
 (often a dozen or more different kinds,) the large size of most, 
 and the brilliant colors and wonderful beauty of many when first 
 taken from the water, attract the attention of the guests of the 
 hotel,^ and secure many exclamations of astonishment and pleas- 
 ure. Some usually are then given to the hotel steward, and the 
 balance to the boatmen. But the dead sharks often yield ui3 
 their large and well armed jaws, and sometimes their spinal col- 
 umns, as trophies to their captors, who esteem them as souvenirs. 
 
 It is often amusing, and always interesting, to watch and listen 
 to the boatmen while they canvass for customers. In this busi- 
 ness Sampson is an adept, and always eminently conspicuous. 
 His good sense, experience, volubility and zealous and persistent 
 attention to his business, place him naturally in advance of his 
 competitors. His dress is always neat and showy, but his ward- 
 robe is evidently pretty well stocked, for he frequently blossoms 
 out in costumes of varied styles and colors. Neither does his ever 
 active tongue vibrate always alike, or his thoughts and illustra- 
 tions run in the same well oiled groove. We add a little pen 
 picture as a sample of what is daily seen and heard on such oc- 
 casions. 
 
 To a grouj) of gentlemen and ladies sitting cosily in large arm 
 chairs in the cool shade of the court of the Eoyal Victoria, Samp- 
 son is telling his story, and answering questions. He is about 
 six feet high, muscular, well-formed, bright, active, ingenious, 
 good-natured, and cunning. He on this occasion sports a clean, 
 white jacket, with a wide turn-over collar, lined with blue cloth, 
 and having a white line running round it. Its pockets are adorned 
 with blue binding. In one of the pockets is a white handker- 
 chief, ornamented with red lines and red corners. His shirt has 
 no collar, but it is well laundried, and its bosom sports a gold 
 
153 ISLES OF SUMMEE. 
 
 stud. A substantial palm, leaf hat of good quality rests jauntily 
 a little on one side of his head, the body of which is encircled 
 and almost covered with a wide, black ribbon, upon which is 
 stamped in golden capitals, the word " Tridejtt," the name of 
 his yacht. He has on a pair of neat, dark colored, woolen panta- 
 loons, turned up a trifle at the bottom, which, by their length, 
 are suggestive of the probable fact that they once belonged to a 
 man who boasted a longer and probably whiter pair of legs. 
 
 He addresses his remarks more particularly to several gentle- 
 men who arrived in the last steamer, with a dignity and gravity 
 calculated to inspire respect and confidence. He insists that 
 
 ''If de gentlemen choose ter go, dare aint no difficulty 'bout 
 der fish — I ken promise yer dat. We'll just anchor der boat at 
 soundings, with her tail to der ocean, when we get where der fish 
 ar. The moment I gets over whar dey ar, you haint got to feel 
 for 'em, but jess pull 'em in. If der sharks don't bother yer, 
 there's no mistake about it. We ken wait till Thursday, 'cause 
 der wind is sou-east now; it will be south to-morrow, and Thurs- 
 day she'll fetch 'round all right. I want to wait till Thursday, 
 'cause I know for sure Thursday. " 
 
 ''Is there no danger of accident, Sampson?" 
 
 " Deres no trouble if der boatman don't lose his head. Sam- 
 son has got along so far and never lost his head, thank God. I 
 never had any accident; God has spar'd me thus fur; hope 1 
 shall alers get along and not lose my head. " 
 
 "Sampson, now tell us truly, have you ever studied circum- 
 navigation?" 
 
 " I karnt say honest, I knows dat. I don't claim I ever larned 
 circumnavigation; but I do know for sure that I ken sail der 
 Trident any whar in dese yer waters when any one can, and: I 
 dQn't kar who he is. " 
 
 "But how about the sharks, Sampson?" . . 
 
"Der sharks bother us sometimes. Dey comes in wid der 
 tide. T'other day one jest swallowed der bait, hook and all, and 
 towed der boat where he liked. We wouldn't let him go, and 
 der shark couldn't get away. After that my boat hit him with 
 an oar and confused him. We brought him ashore, and had 
 him in a hand-cart, a great big fellow. It was a bonnet-cub 
 shark. We'll kill some when we go fishing, but they'll not let 
 us bring 'em ashore now 'cause of der smell." 
 
 '' You call 'em bomiet-cvib sharks — why is that?" 
 
 ''Kause there's something 'bout dar heads that looks like an 
 old fashion ladies' bonnet." 
 
 ''Aren't the sharks dangerous, Sampson? Don't they some- 
 times attack men?" 
 
 " I never see 'em hurt any one. One year arter der war I was a 
 diving for couchs, the water was deep, and I took der first shell I 
 could find. Then I has a way of putting my foot on der bottom 
 and giving a shove to come up. I was finning up, and when I 
 got 'near my boat, what did I see but a great big bonnet-cub 
 lying there looking at me. He was seventeen feet long. Wasn't 
 I skar'dl He was as long as my boat. He looked at me kinder 
 anxious like. When I got to my boat I rolled in all in a heap, 
 quicker— you may bet on that. He Just missed me. He 
 'peared disappointed like, wiggled his tail and went off. I've 
 been skar'd ever since. I don't forget his eye and der look he 
 gin me. I never knew dey had eyes in der outer edge of der 
 heads that way afore." 
 
 "You don't mean to say, Sampson, that you was afraid of a 
 shark?" 
 
 " I mean to say he confused me. I had a heap rather look at 
 'em from der Trident, den to see 'em star at Sampson in der 
 water so wicked, der way he did." 
 
 **But do you think if they are not disturbed they will attack 
 
154 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 ,'):^ople? Some say if you splash the water it will frighten them 
 •i*vay; that they are timid, or at least cautious and scary." 
 
 "Every one of 'em will eat men. I wouldn't trust any of 
 em. Der last shark we caught had a dozen fish in him, and 
 ieads, and lines, and hooks, all to pieces in him. We got one 
 t'other day seven feet long. Some are twelve feet and more. 
 A man went fishing some time ago to Andros island, in his boat. 
 dis name was Carter. He didn't come back. They 'spected 
 something had happened, and sarched for him next day. When 
 tliey got near der reef whar he war, they saw his boat — der man, 
 ae warnt there. The boat either swamped or tipped over. It had 
 some turtle and fish in it ho had caught. Der man was gone. 
 Afterwards, two large cubs Avere seen cruising 'bout dar. One 
 was caught, and in him they found some turtles and two-quarters 
 of a man — so I 'spose der sharks divided even. " 
 
 Sampson's persistent zeal and unfailing eloquence made him 
 always a success in securing his full share of business, and his 
 experience and skill as a boatman were always conceded by his 
 -customers. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 Yachting in Bahama Waters. Sampson and his THton. Testing a Sail- 
 boat. Searching Outside in a Good Wifid for the Line Storm. Sampson's 
 Visit to New York. His Experiences and Impressions. Reliable Winds — 
 Delightful Views— Congenial Friends. The Log of the Pleasure Seekers. 
 Newly Discovered Poets. The Oulf Weed. 
 
 "The winds, full of sound — they go whispering by, 
 As if some immortal had stooped from the sky, 
 
 And breathed out a blessing— and flown!" — John Neal. 
 
 Foe safe and attractive boating facilities, Nassan is pre-emi- 
 nently distinguished. Its navigable waters combine more ele- 
 ments of varied beauty than we often see crowded into the same 
 number of square miles. In ordinary weather, when the bosom 
 of the ocean gently rises and falls in graceful undulations, the 
 eye searches in vain for some trace of the grand, the thrilling 
 and the sublime. The waters ripple with a silvery and soothing 
 melody. 
 
 "The airs we feel, 
 Which 'round us steal, 
 Seem murmuring to the murmuring keel." 
 
 CloiTds of satin and silver float in the soft air, the fitting dra- 
 pery of slowly moving but invisible gods of idleness and repose; 
 while upon the sea and its fairy isles, in unending variety, are 
 seen in great profusion, the evidences of a hand divine, that 
 
 169 
 
156 istfis 6F strMMSR. 
 
 adorns with exquisite loveliness, all forms and every variety of 
 matter which it touches. 
 
 There being no mountains upon any of the Bahamas, and no 
 high surrounding hills, those who seek for health and pleasure 
 upon the water at Nassau, have very little to apprehend from 
 sudden and dangerous gusts of wind during the visiting season. 
 These, sometimes occur, but the Bahama winds blow with re- 
 markable uniformity and steadiness. There is, at times, too 
 much wind, but it is rarely unsafe to sail in Nassau harbor, on 
 account of its strength, and we were only twice becalmed, and 
 then only for a short time. On one of these occasions, we soon 
 came in with the tide. 
 
 The Nassau yachts, as a rule, have a good breadth of beam, 
 are strong and staunch, and with competent boatmen at the 
 helm, they are much safer than ocean steamers. They have no 
 complicated machinery to get out of order, no large and infernal 
 looking furnaces to threaten purgatorial fires in advance of the 
 appointed time, and no high pressure steam boilers or drunken 
 officials to blow one up. It is true, however, that the master of 
 a Nassau pleasure boat is just as liable to be overcome vv^ith liquor 
 as the officers of steamships, but they do not have bar rooms on 
 board their yachts, and if sober when they take their passengers 
 on board, it may be safely assumed that they will remain so until 
 the return of the boat to her dock. 
 
 It is reported that Captain Sampson, a few years ago, some- 
 times when on shore, failed to put a sufficient quantity of water 
 in his rum, or, to speak perhaps more charitably, occasionally, 
 by mistake, put more rum in his water than was necessary to 
 neutralize the effects of the unhealthy salts it contained when 
 taken from Nassau wells, and that^ like his great namesake, when 
 on a certain occasion his hair was cut too short, he was tempor- 
 arily weakened and unmanned. 
 
But Sampson's good sense proved to be stronger than his ap- 
 petite, and the native force of his character secured a very cred- 
 itable victory for his higher moral nature, and vindicated the 
 goodness and strength of his judgment. When sailing with him 
 on one occasion, after we had delicately alluded to this subject, 
 he said, — ''I ha'nt drinked no sperits since '76. I know'd it 
 wouldn't do. Why, when I used to drink, I was 'fered to talk to 
 the missuses — 'cause I 'fered they'd smell my breth. But now 
 I isn't 'fered at all. I goes 'round 'em, and 'mong 'em, and to 
 winchvardof'em, or any how — and none of 'em kan't smell no 
 liker when Sampson talks to 'em, 'bout goen sailen in his boat." 
 
 We have been informed that in Boston harbor several lives are 
 lost every summer from the capsizing of pleasure boats; that 
 Boston yachts are long and narrow, and that in their construc- 
 tion, as well as in sailing them, safety is subordinated to speed. 
 But here, surrounded by intricate channels, and the waters 
 abounding with submerged rocks and reefs, where the vessels of 
 commerce, in formidable numbers, are stranded, and the busi- 
 ness of ''wrecking" is pursued by many of the islanders under 
 licenses purchased of the government, we have yet to learn of 
 an instance where a serious accident has ever happened to a 
 pleasure boat. The " Triton " carries eight thousand ]30unds of 
 iron ballast and draws five feet of water. It grounded once when 
 we were on board of her, upon a bank of coral, and a ton of bal- 
 last was thrown overboard to get her off, but Sampson declared 
 such a thing never hapj)ened to the " Triton " before, and he 
 would not have the affair known for fifty dollars. He was over- 
 board in the water so long trying to get her off, and was so ex- 
 cited and nervous about it, that, alas for the fast color of his 
 ebony complexion, he fairly turned white. Aided by the friendly 
 crew of a passing boat, the " Triton " was extricated from her 
 difl&culty at last, and the diplomatic Sampson made all his pas- 
 
 14 
 
1S8 ISLES of StfMMilft. 
 
 sengers happy by a perfect shower of encomiums upon the noble 
 and unexampled manner in which they " laughed at their calam- 
 ity," declaring that never in his life had he before seen ladies 
 and gentlemen behave so well. 
 
 An old U. S. naval commander, (Capt. Fox), addressing our 
 favorite yachtman one day, said: 
 
 "When you go out with sailing parties and have ladies on 
 board, why don't you take along your small boat, for, ballasted 
 with 8,000 lbs. of iron, if the 'Triton' should upset she Avould 
 go right straight to the bottom like a shot. In the United States 
 navy they will not allow a boat to be ballasted with anything 
 but water, so that it cannot sink. Now, with four tons of ballast 
 on board, what would you do should your boat with its load of 
 passengers upset?" 
 
 With emphatic and graceful gestures and a flashing eye, Samp- 
 son answered: 
 
 " But do ' Triton ' karn't upset — 'tis impossible. Why I sails 
 all round dese yere waters in all kinds 'er weather for mor'n ten 
 years, and I knows what she ken do, and I tells yer der ' Triton ' 
 karn't upset — kause I wont let 'er." 
 
 " Well, Sampson, you think she'll not upset, and a great many 
 men as experienced and capable of managing boats as you are, 
 and equally confident, have been drowned at last. Now why 
 don't you take your small boat along so that if an accident hap- 
 pens, and you have ladies on board, they may be saved?" 
 
 '^I say," replied Sampson, speaking with an energy and earn- 
 estness with which a native deference, respect and politeness were 
 singularly and pleasantly combined, '' I know'd what der Triton 
 ken do; for many a time, when I ha'nt got no passengers, I goes 
 all alone by myself and tries her in every place 'bout yese here 
 waters, and I studies her^ and tries her, and lams what she ken 
 do, and I tells yer — not to say as how I do'snt 'spect your opinion 
 
fACHTlNG. 169 
 
 —I knows de Triton, and I knows she karn't upset — 'taint possa- 
 ble — 'cause Sampson wont let her. Why, Sampson karn't 'ford 
 ter have 'er upset — 'twould ruin him. I couldn't live. No; I 
 keeps watch all der time; I keeps my eye on 'er; I doesn't 'pend 
 on luffin' 'er up alone, but yer see — with one hand on her tiller, 
 I hold the main-sheet in t'other hand on a bite, so I ken instantly 
 shake der wind all out of 'er main-sail if I seed it coming nor 
 furrer den dat house. And if I 'spects der wind any, I makes 
 one man hold 'er jib sheet on a flying turn — 'cause e'en if I emp- 
 ties 'er main-sheet, der wind in der jib mite upset her — no sah! 
 I tells yer der Triton can't upset — 'cause Sampson wont let 'er. 
 But I 'spects yer opinion, an' 'twont do no harm to take der small 
 boat along — but no sah! she karnt upset." 
 
 And Capt. Charley Mitchell, (now, we regret to say, deceased,) 
 between whom and Sampson a friendly rivalry formerly existed, 
 upon another occasion expressed equal confidence in the Frolic, 
 (a center-board yacht which he sailed,) and in his ability to avoid 
 serious accidents while prosecuting his vocation in water around 
 the island of New Providence. ''Why," said he, ''now s'pose 
 Mr. I., ye're way off heah, ever so far from yer home, with only 
 a hundred dollars in yer pocket — wouldn't you be karful of dem 
 hundred dollars? Wouldn't yer mind and study how yer sj)end 
 'em? Well, now, der Frolic is for Mitchell dem hundred dollars. 
 No, sah! Mitchell isn't gwine to lose his boat, 'cause he'd starve." 
 
 It is pleasant at times, notwithstanding some increase of dan- 
 ger, to sail outside the natural breakwaters of the harbor of Nas- 
 sau, and cultivate a more intimate acquaintance with an ocean 
 which has and requires great continents to restrain and confine 
 it when tossed and maddened by the tempests, or when stirred 
 to its profoundest depths by the hurricane. A little peril adds 
 an agreeable condiment to prosaic life, and breaks a monotony 
 which finally becomes oppressive even in an atmosphere that 
 
160 ISL13S Of Str'MMEfi., 
 
 seems ever freighted with sensuous pleasures, and never stimulateyr 
 to heroic deeds, or to hibors and duties which in cokler latitudes 
 characterize all forms of life outside of the vegetable kingdom. 
 We were therefore predisposed to respond favorably to the propo- 
 sition of Sampson, when, npon the morning of the 20th of March, 
 1879, the day the equinoctial storm arrives at the north, if it is 
 on time, he proposed that, as the Avind was more lively than 
 usual, a few gentlemen should put the Triton to the test as an 
 ocean boat by going outside the bar. lie is always a ready and 
 fluent speaker, but on this occasion ho seemed to have more and 
 better wind than usual to fill the capacious sails of his eloquence. 
 Like his great namesake, of biblical fame and memory, he accom- 
 plishes great results with a " jaw-bone.'" 
 
 "I don't want no ladies dis time," said he, " there's a leetle 
 too much wind to take der ladies along. I jess want to shake all 
 der reefs out of der Triton's sails and let her go. I'd like for 
 once to show der gemmen what der Triton ken do." 
 
 Half an hour afterwards two gentlemen and the author were 
 seated in Sampson's boat, and flying down the harbor of Nassau 
 under full sail. Amos, from Harbour Island, a colored man of 
 much nautical experience in Bahama waters, and of more than 
 average ability, was greatly complimented by the captain, because, 
 without waiting to be told, he went quietly to Avork and prepared 
 the yacht before crossing the bar for the washings he evidently 
 anticipated she was destined to get, He lashed to the boat the 
 anchor and the oars, put carpets and cushions away in the little 
 forecastle, made fast every coil of rope, got ready for immediate 
 use the large sponges which are here employed to keep boats dry, 
 and brought out for the use of the passengers oil-cloth suits, more 
 useful than ornamental, and sufiiciently capacious to keep the 
 salt water on the outside of a man in case the ill-mannered waves, 
 presuming too much on our very limited acquaintance, should 
 

TESTING THE TRITOK. 161 
 
 persistently attempt to take possession of our temporary ''house 
 and home." William, also from one of the outer islands, obeyed 
 orders, and made himself generally useful. 
 
 We were soon out upon the broad Atlantic, and Sampson, like 
 the rider of a winning horse at a race, experienced a gratification 
 he could not entirely conceal, as, with the gracefulness and seem- 
 ing speed of a sea gull, his yacht joluckily met and mounted the 
 high rolling billows, which we could not but remember had, in 
 their angry moods, strewn with wrecks the neighboring shores. 
 A portion of one of those wrecks was in sight, being all that re- 
 mains of a blockade runner, v/hose captain took his steamer to 
 the left instead of the right of Nassau lighthouse. Some claim 
 the officers were all drunk; others say, ''it was a put up job;" 
 but all the boatmen united in affirming, that, as a consequence, 
 "boots and shoes were plenty on Hog Island " — those articles 
 having constituted a part of her cargo. Certain it is, that hav- 
 ing sailed out of Nassau harbor one afternoon, the vessel returned 
 in the evening of the same day, and was beached. Sampson said, 
 with an exultant chuckle, after alluding to the cargo scattered 
 along the shore, that " der Cap'n mistake Nassau light for der 
 ' Hole in der Wall,' " (a well known light upon Abaco, nearly six- 
 teen miles distant.) 
 
 The larger waves moved towards us in stately grandeur, in a 
 regular order of succession, as if marshaled and marching over 
 the bosom of the ocean under the guidance and direction of some 
 invisible god of the seas. After every nine smaller waves had 
 passed by, and under us, the long liquid platoon was marked 
 and bounded by a billow whose approach was watched with much 
 interest, and with an exhilarating but peculiar |)leasure, as it 
 Wonld often not only wash our forecastle and submerge our gun- 
 nels, but drench us from head to foot, and make lively work for 
 Wiiriani and his sponges. The pure ocean air, pleasantly cool 
 
163 tSLfiS OV SUMMER. 
 
 and more than usually lively; the soft white clouds moving so 
 majestically across the clear blue sky; the exquisite beauty of 
 the islands and keys, and of the city of Nassau, which quietly 
 rested upon the rocky hillside, spiced with an excitement pro- 
 duced by a sail designed to demonstrate "what der Triton could 
 do " in a free wind outside of the shelter which the natural break- 
 waters of Nassau afford — all combined to give us a very high 
 degree of exquisite and unalloyed pleasure. 
 
 After we had sailed in a northerly direction out into the ocean 
 to vindicate the truth of Sampson's claims in reference to the 
 good qualities of the Triton in rough water, we sailed in an 
 easterly or northeasterly direction along the windward side of 
 Hog Island, crossed Silver Key bar, entered water that seemed as 
 warm as any confined and heated by a July sun upon a northern 
 shore — skirted the southern line of Silver Key — passed through 
 ''the Marine Garden," a region of submarine coral bowers of 
 marvelous and wondrous beauty, situated between the east end 
 of Hog Island and the west end of Athol Island, — then, turning 
 to the west, we traversed the easterly portion of the harbor of 
 Nassau, and were landed safely at the stone steps of the wharf 
 which we had left some three hours before. The latter portion 
 of our sail having been in waters somewhat sheltered, Sampson 
 was better able to amuse us with a chapter or two taken fi-om the 
 volume of his personal experience. 
 
 The account he gave of his visit in the summer of 1ST8 to the 
 city of New York was particularly interesting. The impression 
 made upon his wondering and astonished mind, graphically and 
 faithfully described, furnished an entertainment of the most droll 
 and comical character. Q,uick to see, sensitive to feel, and gifted 
 to describe with a genius and eloquence all his own, this unlettered 
 and untraveled negro, mounted upon any northern platform, 
 could not have failed to convulse and bring down the house. 
 
SAMPSOJiT IK KEW YORK CITY. l63 
 
 Kerer before had he left the peaceful quiet of this little island 
 world. Passing over nearly a thousand miles of a solitude such 
 as only the immense, pathless, treeless wastes of the ocean can 
 produce, he landed at last in that immense, seething, boiling, 
 noisy whirlpool of intensified human life — the great city of New 
 York. Afraid of being cheated — afraid of being robbed — afraid 
 of being run over — afraid of being, in a hundred ways new to 
 him, killed — not merely a stranger in a nevt^ land, but an ignorant, 
 semi-tropical, Bahama African in a babel and pandemonium far 
 surpassing anything his imagination had ever conceived, he seemed 
 for a time to have every particle of life taken out of him. The 
 ferryboats, constantly passing and repassing loaded with jDassen- 
 gers — the immense labyrinth of streets and avenues, stretching 
 away in every direction farther than he could see — the great, 
 elaborate and expensive buildings of every description — the street 
 railroads, and particularly the vast crowds that made it necessary 
 to carry people on elevated railroads over the heads of those rush- 
 ing in a ceaseless tide below — and the loud, harsh, deafening and 
 infernal mingling of noises that ever ascended day and night — 
 all wonderfully impressed him, and revealed a much more new 
 and strange world to him than his own Bahamas did to Columbus 
 nearly four hundred years ago. He got lost in New York seven 
 times the first -day after his arrival; paid ten cents to go to Cen- 
 tral Park, and, after a long ride, he was astonished (and almost 
 scared at the seeming witchcraft) to find himself at the precise 
 place he started from. " Why," said he, "der ting had turned 
 round and I know'd nothing 'bout it, and I had to pay my ten 
 cents over agin." He still retains a vivid impression of the de- 
 licious flavor of northern strawberries, but ate so many he de- 
 clared that at night '' dey confused " his stomach. His sea voyage 
 seasoned to his taste everything he ate. " Why," said he, 'Td 
 give more for jess wun mutton chop like as dat I had in New 
 
164 ISLES OF atlMMEfi. 
 
 York, den for all der mutton in Nassau." Though much in- 
 terested in, be was glad to escape from New York, and affirmed 
 that he did not get the deafening din of its horrible noises out 
 of his head for more than two weeks after he left that city. : 
 For two or three hours after we landed, we were busy at times 
 wiping the crystals of salt out of our eyes, which were occasioned 
 by the waves outside of Nassau light endeavoring to take posses- 
 sion of our boat. As we recall this rather foolhardy sail, it brings 
 to mind the anecdote of the newly-converted negro who was per- 
 suaded to be baptized by immersion in the ocean, and having' 
 accidently slipped from the grasp of the officiating clergyman 
 while his woolly head was under water, declared, so soon as he 
 could get the sea out of his eyes and mouth — ''Some gcmman 
 ktim nare losnig a good nigger by dis yere cussed foolishness. " 
 
 Man is a gregarious animal, and when circumstances bring to- 
 gether a large number of persons who are mostly strangers to 
 each other, they soon feel the influence of some subtle social law, 
 and form into groups. The foolish walk in company over tlie' 
 paths of folly in search of pleasure. Here music binds togetlier 
 with her tuneful strings and harmonious cords, those whose 
 hearts are attuned to melody. There, sparkling wit, and amus- 
 ing story, and clever anecdote, flash and scintillate from the 
 crystalizing centers of another happy group. The staid, sedate, 
 practical, matter-of-fact pcojole, in their little corner, meditate 
 and moralize upon the solid and substantial things of life, and 
 mourn over the fast and foolish ways and the constantly increas- 
 ing extravagance of the present degenerate age. Some are soli-' 
 tary, and get all the light and heat they seem to need by burning 
 oil in their own little lamps. 
 
 We cannot explain how it happened, but at Nassau we gener- 
 ally found ourselves surrounded by congenial people. "We fre- 
 quently speculated upon what we had lost by not having known 
 
THE gazelle's LOG. 165 
 
 theci before, and wondered, when we finally separated, if we 
 should ever meet in this world again. 
 
 The yachting circles to which we were attached, form clusters 
 of unfading flowers in the garden of memory. They were com- 
 posed of persons as enthusiastic as we were in their expressions 
 of delight when viewing the exquisite beauties of the Bahama 
 isles and waters. Some were successful merchants from the 
 cities of the great west, who had run away from business, and 
 left all their heavy cares behind them. They seemed as gay and 
 sportive as children at play. Light-hearted and joyous, they 
 winged with a peculiar pleasure the flying hours. A log was 
 kept, and it was the source of much amusement. Its keeper, 
 being the head of the log, was voted to be, without any inten- 
 tional disrespect to the turtles, a loggerhead. Many wandering 
 ideas and gay fancies were shot on the wing, captured, and em- 
 balmed in its pages. It contained much entirely new matter, 
 which never had been before and never will be again added to 
 the wide domain of letters. 
 
 Several portable mills ground out upon the water detached 
 stanzas of machine poetry. It was soon suspected that some of 
 aur party, when preparing to enter upon the voyage of life, had 
 made mistakes, and gotten on board the wrong boats. Teas and 
 not tragedies, sugars and not songs, pork instead of poetry, had 
 occupied their time and engrossed their thoughts, to the great 
 loss of themselves and the world. 
 
 , A dignified, courtly gentleman, who, several years before, had 
 crossed the dividing line which runs mid- way between youth and 
 old age, and in whose bright and pleasant eyes humor was lurk- 
 ing in ambush, on one of our sailing excursions perpetrated the 
 following: 
 
 We Venture in the gay Gazelle, 
 Because with Amos all is well, 
 But what may happen none can tell. 
 
166 ISLES OF SUMME3R. 
 
 Instantly, upon his giving utterance to the last word of the 
 last line, a lady added as a refrain or snapper, — *'my mudder !" 
 borrowing it from a tenderly filial poem which little Sankey 
 sometimes gave us, standing in a chair in the court of the hotel. 
 It would have brought down the house had there been one. 
 
 This caused the crank of another mill to revolve, and the fol- 
 lowing stanza was thereupon ground out: 
 
 Who learned us all this much to tell, 
 While sailing in the gay Gazelle, 
 And o'er us came this magic spell ? 
 My mudder. 
 
 After the laughter and applause had sufficiently subsided, a 
 third stanza was added by still another of our happy group, as 
 our yacht glided before the Avind. 
 
 To landsmen all we say, farewell ! 
 
 Your troubled hearts you now may quell, 
 
 With Capt. Amos all is well ; 
 
 My mudder. 
 
 A lady contributed in pencil the following, which was read by 
 the keeper of the Log: 
 
 A POEM. Canto I. 
 
 It was in breezy, blustering March 
 
 That we, a jolly crew, 
 Went sailing in the gay Gazelle 
 
 Upon the waters blue. 
 
 To be continued. 
 
 This literary gem was deemed all that could be expected in 
 such a climate as the result of mill \\'ork for one forenoon. 
 
YACHTI^iTG DIVEKSIOIS'S. 167 
 
 The loggerhead, meanwhile, had not been idle, and occasion- 
 ally added a stanza to complete the literary bill of fare. We. 
 give them connectedly. 
 
 Like mountain lake— as smooth and calm — 
 The waves are hushed in dreamy sleep, 
 
 While perfumes float from isles of balm, 
 And mm-muring voices from the deep. 
 
 We float like sea-birds on the tide, 
 
 We tread the deep with muffled keel, 
 Like spirits of the air we glide, 
 
 And something of their rest we feel. 
 
 Like sunset isles in western skies, 
 
 Where viewless spirits joyous flit, 
 Before us lie the coral isles, 
 
 And happy angels, wingless, sit. 
 
 When weary toilers picture heaven, 
 
 Unending rest is their ideal ; 
 That boon to coral isles is given, 
 
 Here soon we learn that heaven is real. 
 
 On some of these excursions we took along Thompson's " Cas- 
 tle of Indolence," and when the wind was not too strong, it was 
 read aloud and very greatly appreciated. It seemed as if its 
 author must have visited the Bahamas before composing the 
 poem, his pictures so perfectly mirror what one there ever sees 
 and feels. Take, for example, the following : 
 
 " A pleasing land of drowsy head it was, 
 
 Of dreams that wave before the half -shut eye, 
 
 And of gay castles in the clouds that pass. 
 Forever flushing 'round a summer sky ; 
 
 There ekes the soft delights that witchingly 
 Instil a wanton softness tlu-ough the breast." 
 
168 ISLES OF SUMMEK.. 
 
 While sailing in tlie Bahama waters, the famous sargasso. or 
 gulf weed, cannot fail to attract attention. It is constantly in 
 sight, and in that portion of the ocean world, is 
 
 " Ever driftiog, drifting, drifting 
 On the shifting 
 Currents of the restless main." 
 
 Columbus encountered it upon his first voyage to the new 
 world, a few days after he left the Canary islands'. The frequent 
 mention which he makes of it in his journal is evidence that it 
 abounded then as now. He also noticed the crabs that it con- 
 tained — for little Crustacea, it seems, have long been accustomed 
 to have their domicils in these fragile and floating abodes, which, 
 no doubt, withstand the violence of an angry ocean better than 
 the strongest ships of oak and iron that man can make. This 
 weed is sometimes encountered in sucli quantities as to consti- 
 tute what has not been inappropriately termed '^sea gardens." 
 
 The following very interesting and suggestive description, we 
 copy from Kingsley's "At Last:" 
 
 " One glance at a bit of the weed as it floats past, shows that 
 it is like no fucus of our shores, or anything we ever saw before. 
 The difference in looks is indefinable in words, but clearenough. 
 One sees in a moment that the sargassos, of which there are sev- 
 eral species on tropical shores, are a genus of themselves and by 
 themselves; and a certain awe may, if the beholder be at once 
 scientific and poetical, come over him at the first sight of thi^ 
 famous and unique variety thereof, which has lost ages since the 
 habit of growing on rock or sea bottom, but propagates itself 
 forever floating; and feeds among its branches a whole family of 
 fish, crabs, cuttlefish, zoophytes and mollusks, which, like the 
 plant that shelters them, are found no where else in the world. 
 And that awe, springing from the ''scientific use of the imagi- 
 
THE GULF WEED. 169 
 
 nation," would be increased if he recollected the theory— not 
 altogether impossible, that this sargasso (and possibly some of 
 the animals which cling to it), marks the sight of an Atlantic 
 continent sunk long ages since; and that, transformed by the 
 necessities of life from a rooting to a floating plant, 
 
 "Still it remembers its august abodes," 
 
 and wanders 'round and 'round as if in search of the rocks where 
 it once grew." 
 
 " When fresh out of the water it resembles not a sea weed so 
 much as a sprig of a willow leaved shrub, burdened with yellow 
 berries, large and small; for every broken bit of it seems growing 
 and throwing out ever new berries and leaves — or what for want 
 of a better word, must be called leaves in a sea weed. For it 
 must be remembered that the frond of a seaweed is not merely 
 leaf, but root also; that it not only breathes air, but feeds on 
 water; and that even the so-called root by which a seaweed holds 
 to the rock is really only an anchor, holding mechanically to the 
 stone, but not deriving, as the root of a land plant Avould, any 
 nourishment from it, therefore it is that to grow while uprooted 
 and floating, though impossible to most land plants, is easy 
 enough to many seaweeds, and especially to the sargasso." 
 
 The expense of yachting at Nassau is generally apportioned 
 per capita, and the charges of the boatmen are quite moderate, 
 so that a great deal of enjoyment is thereby secured for a very 
 little money. Although there is a good circulation of air on 
 shore, the change to that of the harbor is, when the hot sun is 
 well up, a decided improvement, and outside of the barrier keys 
 the wind over the ocean seemed more strongly medicated aud 
 tonic. For sanitary reasons, therefore, we would strongly rec- 
 ommend Nassau visitors to spend a portion of each pleasant day 
 
 15 
 
170 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 upon the water. There is no part of our Nassau experiences 
 which, when far away, gives us more happiness in the retrospect; 
 and often 
 
 The white-winged boats with sable crew, 
 
 The fleecy clouds that draped the skies, 
 The gales of health that constant blew, 
 
 The waters striped with brilliant dies, 
 The cradle-waves that ever rocked 
 
 'Gainst far off cloud-embroidered wall, 
 The skies whose blue the deep sea mocked, 
 
 The sunny hearts that gilded all — 
 Return with e'en an added power 
 To brighten many an idle hour. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 Nassau as a Sanitarium. Its Mild and Generally Salubrious Climate. Its 
 Freedom from Cold Waves of A ir, and Cold Currents of Water. Its Vulner- 
 able Points. No Absorbing and Filtering Sands. Impurities Endangering 
 its Water Supply, and Poisoning the Air. A High Degree of Heat in the 
 Sun. Diseases upon the Islands. Small but Crowded Human Ant Hills. 
 The Yellow Fever in Nassau in 1880. The Pestilence in other Neighboring 
 Cities at Other Times. The Angel of Health Rides Upon Hurricanes. Cleans- 
 ing the City. Constant Vigilance and Activity of Nassau's Board of Health 
 Essential to its Safety. Who may Hope for Relief and Cure in Nassau. Not 
 the Best Place in ichich either to be very Sick or to Die. Frost a Factor in the 
 Problem of Civilization. Human Development and Progress Dependent upon 
 Ice. Sea Bathing all Winter. 
 
 " The breath of a celestial clime, 
 As if from heaven's wide open gates did flow 
 Health and refreshment on the world below." — Beyant. 
 
 If Nassau has any great value to the American people, it is as 
 a health resort. It is claimed to be the " Great Sanitarium of the 
 Western World." Much that is written and published upon this 
 subject is inspired by personal interest, and in such cases a one- 
 sided and warped presentation of the facts of the case is a natural 
 consequence. Many confidently express crade opinions, hastily 
 formed, and bottomed upon a few ill-digested surface facts, and 
 thus act the part of blind leaders of the blind. We have strongly 
 felt the great responsibility which rests upon those who volunteer 
 their advice or opinion in matters so important. 
 
 It is not without a good deal of hesitation that we publish the 
 result of our diagnosis of the Bahamas. We made the best of 
 
 171 
 
172 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 our limited opportunities, and we have endeavored to collect and 
 decide upon the facts with judicial fairness. We do not ask the 
 reader to adopt our views, but only to take our testimony for 
 what it may seem to be worth, and to consider it in connection 
 with that of others whose opinions may be entitled to more 
 weight. 
 
 The climate of the Bahamas, in its normal condition, seemed 
 to us fairly described in the lines we have quoted at the com- 
 mencement of this chapter, although they were written of the 
 mountain air of Western Massachusetts. But when the poet 
 declares — (we substitute the word "ocean" for "^mountain") — 
 that 
 
 "Suns cannot make 
 In this pure air the plague that walks unseen ; 
 The ocean wind, that faints not in thy ray, 
 Sweeps the blue stream of pestilence away," 
 
 he states what cannot be truthfully said of Nassau or its suburbs, 
 and what is not probably true of any of the thickly inhabited 
 portions of the globe. 
 
 Nothing is easier than to poison the purest air. Without con- 
 stant care and vigilance, the waste matter — the sewage incident 
 to permanent abodes — will become any and everywhere, (the re- 
 gions of unending frost alone excepted,) the prolific source of 
 disease and death. Through window and door, through crack 
 and crevice the pestilence will enter. Nature affixes penalties 
 to her sanitary laws which execute themselves. The code of 
 health which she has established is learned at a fearful cost in 
 sick rooms, in cemeteries, and in mortuary records. In pushing 
 our inquiries into the sanitary conditions of Nassau, it will not 
 do to look only at her ocean winds, ''the breath of a celestial 
 clime." We must examine ''the earth, and the waters under 
 
the earth." It is proverbial that there maybe "death in the 
 pot;" but we should never forget that it is equally true that there 
 is often death in the pitcher and the pail; and good jihysicians 
 in our day, when a, malignant disease is developed, immediately 
 examine the character and condition of the water supply. 
 
 The reader must, in regard to this question of health, keep 
 ever in mind those peculiarities of the Bahama islands which we 
 have endeavored to describe. Perfectly shielded from the cold 
 by the Gulf stream, which throws its warm, wide, watery arm 
 around them on tlie west and north — a shield which the frost 
 king finds absolutely impenetrable — it is ensured an atmosphere 
 of unending summer. Winter, in our sense of the word, is liter- 
 ally unknown; while, at the same time, the islands are exempt 
 from the dry, scorching heat, which banishes the white race from 
 tropical regions in many parts of the world. The polar currents, 
 aqueous and aerial, are completely transformed when they en- 
 counter the Gulf Stream, and all the discomfort is quickly taken 
 out of them, so that the Bahamas, languidly reclining in the lap 
 of summer, are slightly but agreeably refreshed by the coldest 
 winds that ever reach them from the north and west. 
 
 It is in this that their superiority as a winter resort for the 
 American peo^Dle over the states of the Gulf consists. Uioon the 
 main land, the north winds make a clear sweep to the Gulf of 
 Mexico. There is nothing to obstruct their course. The valley 
 of the Mississijopi seems to have been scooped out to facilitate 
 their progress. With the Appellachian chain of mountains on 
 one side, and the Gulf Stream on the other, a great highway is 
 formed for Boreas over both the land and water sides of our At- 
 lantic coast. And he travels over it in his icy chariot altogether 
 too frequently for the health and comfort of those who leave their 
 northern homes to search for summer in either of the states of 
 the south. 
 
m 
 
 ISLtlS OF StJMMES. 
 
 The remarkable uniformity of the temperature of Kassau will 
 appear from an examination of the following meteorological table 
 copied from the official report of Gov. Eawson for 1864, page 14, 
 compiled from the records kept at Nassau's Military Observatory, 
 It gives the "Mean. of Daily Observations on Week Days for 
 Ten Years, from 1855 to 1864." 
 
 Months. 
 
 Thermometer 
 at 9 A. M. 
 
 Wind at 9 a. m. 
 
 Rainfall 
 
 on 
 Ground 
 
 Max, 
 
 Med. 
 
 Min. 
 
 Four Chief Points in Order of 
 Prevalence. 
 
 in 
 Month. 
 Inches. 
 
 Jan. 
 
 Feb. 
 
 Mar. 
 
 April 
 
 May 
 
 June 
 
 July 
 
 Aug. 
 
 Sept. 
 
 Oct. 
 
 Nov. 
 
 Dec. 
 
 75 
 76 
 78 
 81 
 84 
 88 
 88 
 88 
 86 
 83 
 79 
 77 
 
 70 
 71 
 73 
 75 
 78 
 81 
 83 
 81 
 81 
 77 
 74 
 73 
 
 66 
 66 
 66 
 
 68 
 
 71 
 
 74 
 
 75 . 
 
 75 
 
 75 
 
 73 
 
 70 
 
 69 
 
 K E. 
 N. E. 
 
 E. 
 N. E. 
 N. E. 
 S. E. 
 
 E. 
 
 E. 
 
 E. 
 N. E. 
 N. E. 
 N. E. 
 
 E. 
 E. 
 
 S. E. 
 
 E. 
 S. E. 
 
 E. 
 S. E. 
 S. E. 
 N. E. 
 
 E. 
 
 E. 
 
 E. 
 
 S. E. 
 S. E. 
 N. E. 
 
 S. 
 
 E. 
 N. E. 
 
 S. 
 
 S. 
 S. E. 
 S. E. 
 
 E. 
 S. E. 
 
 N. 
 
 S. 
 
 N. 
 S. E. 
 
 S. 
 
 S. 
 N. E. 
 N. E. 
 
 N. 
 
 N. 
 S. E. 
 
 N. 
 
 2.4 
 
 2.4 
 
 4.5 
 
 3.4 
 
 6.9 
 
 6.4 
 
 6.5 
 
 6.7 
 
 5.2 
 
 7.4 . 
 
 2.8 
 
 3.4 
 
 Average 
 
 83 
 
 76 
 
 71 
 
 
 
 
 
 4.6 
 
 From the foregoing and from an examination of other special 
 tables contained in his report, Gov. Eawson draws the follow- 
 ing conclusions: 
 
 1. Baroyneter. That the mean height of the barometer at 
 Nassau is exactly thirty inches. 
 
 2. That it attains its greatest height in the three months from 
 December to February, and is lowest in October and November, 
 
3HETE0B0L0GICAL. 175 
 
 3. That there is a constant difference in the observations 
 taken in the morning and afternoon, averaging for the whole 
 period a decrease of 0.05 height in the afternoon. 
 
 4. That the difference between the average of maximum and 
 minimum observations in the ten years has fluctuated between 
 0.25 and 0.46. 
 
 Thermometer. 1. That the four months, June to Septem- 
 ber, are the hottest, and of nearly equal temperature, viz. ; 88°. 
 
 2. That January, February and March are the three coldest 
 months, and of nearly equal temperature, viz. : 66°. 
 
 3. That the greatest maximum heat exceeds the average heat 
 by not more than 12°, and that the greatest mimimum falls short 
 of it 10°. The extreme variation, therefore, is 22°. 
 
 Rainfall. 1. That the chief yearly rainfall is from May to 
 October, and is heaviest in October. During these six months 
 it amounted to forty-four inches, and during the remaining six 
 months to nineteen inches; and that the greatest rainfall does 
 not correspond with the greatest pressure of wind. 
 
 Wind. 1. That the highest winds prevail in November and 
 January, and the average from October 1st, March inclusive, 
 greatly exceeds the average of the remaining six months, and 
 that there is little difference between morning and afternoon. 
 
 2. That north-easterly and easterly winds are the most preva- 
 lent from September to February, during which months they 
 blow during one-half or two-thirds of the whole time. North- 
 erly winds seldom blow except during those months, and then 
 only for three days in a month. From June to August, the 
 average is less than a day. Easterly and south-easterly winds 
 prevail chiefly from March to August. South-western are most 
 prevalent in February and March, to the extent of two to three 
 days in a month; westerly winds from February to April to the 
 extent only of one to one and a-half days in a month, and dur- 
 
176 
 
 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 ing the rest of the year of less than a day monthly; northwesters 
 from November to March, about two days in a month. Their 
 relative frequency throughout the year is shown in the following 
 statement of the percentage proportion of days in a year, during 
 which they prevailed at 9 a. m. 
 
 North, 7.2 per cent. 
 
 North-east, 36.3 " 
 
 East, 24.4 " 
 
 South-east,.... 18.6 " 
 
 South, 11.0 per cent. 
 
 South-west, 5.0 " 
 
 West, 3.3 " 
 
 North-west, 5.3 " 
 
 The following tables are copied from official reports: 
 METEOROLOGICAL TABLE FOR 1878. 
 
 
 THERMOMETER. 
 
 RAINFALL. 
 
 Months. 
 
 Max. in 
 shade 
 
 at 
 9 a. m. 
 
 Min. in 
 shade 
 
 at 
 9 a. m. 
 
 Max. in 
 
 sun 
 
 in 24 
 
 hours. 
 
 Mean 
 
 at 
 3 p. M. 
 
 3 S 
 'S a 
 
 S b 
 'A S 
 
 
 January, 
 
 February, 
 
 March, 
 
 76.5 
 78.0 
 82.5 
 82.2 
 86.5 
 89.8 
 89.5 
 88.8 
 87.2 
 83.5 
 79.0 
 " 77.5 
 
 61.0 
 63.5 
 65.3 
 70.0 
 75.5 
 71.0 
 74.5 
 78.8 
 78.0 
 75.5 
 71.0 
 65.8 
 
 140.0 
 146 
 149.5 
 150.3 
 156.5 
 154 
 159.0 
 157.9 
 153.0 
 153.0 
 157.5 
 155.0 
 
 73.3 
 73.9 
 
 76.7 
 80.4 
 81.8 
 84.0 
 85.8 
 85.8 
 84.2 
 81.1 
 76.1 
 73.8 
 
 5.15 
 7.05 
 2.36 
 3.19 
 7.28 
 6.56 
 6.05 
 9.25 
 7.15 
 7.37 
 2.84 
 1.38 
 
 16 
 11 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 7 
 19 
 20 
 18 
 24 .. 
 13 
 10 
 
 7 
 
 1.10 
 3.00 
 1.05 
 
 
 1.00 
 
 ]y[ay 
 
 2.40 
 
 
 1.60 
 
 Julv 
 
 1.88 
 
 August, 
 
 2.13 
 
 September, 
 
 October, 
 
 November, 
 
 December, 
 
 1.60 
 4.50 
 1.31 
 0.55 
 
 Sums 
 
 1001.0 
 
 848.8 
 
 1830.7 
 
 956.9 
 
 65.64 
 
 159 
 
 31.03 
 
 
 
 Means, 
 
 83.5 
 
 70.7 
 
 152.6 
 
 79.7 
 
 5.47 
 
 13 
 
 1.75 
 
 
 
METEOROLOGICAL. 
 METEOROLOGICAL TABLE FOR 1879. 
 
 177 
 
 
 THEEMOMETER. 
 
 RAINFALL. 
 
 Months 
 
 Max. in 
 shade 
 
 at 
 9 a. m. 
 
 Min. in 
 
 shade 
 
 at 
 
 9 A. M. 
 
 Max. in 
 
 pun 
 
 in 24 
 
 hours. 
 
 Min. in 
 sun 
 at 
 
 3 p. M. 
 
 k5 
 
 
 Max. 
 
 fall 
 
 ill 24 
 
 hours. 
 
 ft 
 
 January, 
 
 77.0 
 76.5 
 78-5 
 82.8 
 83.8 
 85.5 
 88.0 
 88.5 
 87.5 
 85.0 
 81.5 
 78.2 
 
 61.0 
 
 64.2 
 69.5 
 73.5 
 70.5 
 74.0 
 71.2 
 77.0 
 70 
 74.5 
 G6 5 
 67.0 
 
 145.0 
 148.0 
 153.5 
 154.0 
 155.5 
 155.0 
 157.0 
 157.0 
 153.5 
 153 
 148.0 
 150.5 
 
 73.6 
 
 74.4 
 75.6 
 78.8 
 80.5 
 82.4 
 85.3 
 86.4 
 84.6 
 81.9 
 77.2 
 76.6 
 
 0.92 
 1.29 
 
 2.84 
 0.42 
 3.85 
 12.77 
 7.43 
 9.85 
 8.02 
 6.50 
 7.98 
 1.60 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 13 
 14 
 18 
 13 
 20 
 18^ 
 
 6 
 11 
 
 0.41 
 0.95 
 2.45 
 0.20 
 0.90 
 5.37 
 1.80 
 3.11 
 2.27 
 1.60 
 7.41 
 0.95 
 
 28 
 
 February, 
 
 11 
 
 March, 
 
 14 
 
 
 3 
 
 jVIav 
 
 9 
 
 June, 
 
 26 
 
 July, 
 
 30 
 
 August, 
 
 16 
 
 September, 
 
 12 
 
 October, 
 
 35 
 
 November, 
 
 7 
 
 December, 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 Sums, 
 
 992.8 
 
 839.1 
 
 183.0 
 
 957.3 
 
 63.47 
 
 138.} 
 
 27.42 
 
 
 
 
 Means, 
 
 82.7 
 
 69.9 
 
 152.5 
 
 79.8 
 
 5.29 
 
 11 
 
 2.28 
 
 
 
 
 Gov. Eobinson vouches for the correctness of these tables by 
 inserting them in his reports for the colonial Blue Books. 
 
 The weather was so charming when we were at Nassau in 1879, 
 the thermometer at 7 A. m., week after week, marking sub- 
 stantially the same temperature, with no storms, and only an 
 occasional shower, that Capt. Fox believed that we were favored 
 with weather exceptionally good, and through the kindness of 
 the librarian of the Nassau public library, he obtained from the 
 Nassau military observatory the following table, showing the 
 highest and lowest temperature and the rainfall at the end of 
 every week, for six months, from November to April, both in- 
 clusive, for the years 1878 and 1879. 
 
178 
 
 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 1.S77. 
 
 1S7S- 
 
 
 
 Thermometer. 
 
 
 
 Thermometer. 
 
 Week Ending 
 
 Rainfall. 
 
 
 
 Week Ending 
 
 Rainfall. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Dog. 
 
 Deg. 
 
 
 
 Deg. 
 
 Deg. 
 
 Nov. 3 
 
 .12 
 
 90 
 
 72 
 
 Nov. 2 
 
 .54 
 
 87 
 
 71 
 
 10 
 
 3.98 
 
 99 
 
 71 
 
 9 
 
 .19 
 
 81 
 
 67 
 
 17 
 
 .49 
 
 84 
 
 65 
 
 16 
 
 2.44 
 
 82 
 
 64 
 
 24 
 
 .24 
 
 82 
 
 66 
 
 23 
 
 .11 
 
 82 
 
 65 
 
 Dec. 1 
 
 .80 
 
 85 
 
 61 
 
 30 
 
 .10 
 
 85 
 
 66 
 
 8 
 
 .19 
 
 85 
 
 67 
 
 Dec. 7 
 
 .68 
 
 82 
 
 62 
 
 15 
 
 .00 
 
 78 
 
 65 
 
 14 
 
 .55 
 
 81 
 
 65 
 
 22 
 
 .20 
 
 78 
 
 67 
 
 21 
 
 .13 
 
 82 
 
 65 
 
 29 
 
 1.26 
 
 83 
 
 61 
 
 28 
 
 .02 
 
 82 
 
 63 
 
 1S78_ 
 
 1S79. 
 
 Jan. 5 
 
 .00 
 
 80 
 
 56 
 
 Jan. 4 
 
 .00 
 
 83 
 
 62 
 
 12 
 
 1.50 
 
 82 
 
 61 
 
 11 
 
 .03 
 
 81 
 
 62 
 
 19 
 
 2.12 
 
 84 
 
 59 
 
 18 
 
 .05 
 
 85 
 
 62 
 
 26 
 
 .32 
 
 82 
 
 59 
 
 25 
 
 .84 
 
 83 
 
 58 
 
 Feb. 2 
 
 1.13 
 
 81 
 
 59 
 
 Feb. 1 
 
 .00 
 
 74 
 
 71 
 
 9 
 
 1.00 
 
 81 
 
 59 
 
 8 
 
 .03 
 
 74 
 
 64 
 
 16 
 
 2.19 
 
 85 
 
 62 
 
 15 
 
 1.09 
 
 74 
 
 68 
 
 23 
 
 1.44 
 
 83 
 
 60 
 
 22 
 
 .02 
 
 76 
 
 66 
 
 Mar. 2 
 
 2.42 
 
 84 
 
 61 
 
 29 
 
 .15 
 
 75 
 
 66 
 
 9 
 
 .40 
 
 83 
 
 63 
 
 Mar. 8 
 
 .10 
 
 72 
 
 69 
 
 16 
 
 .04 
 
 89 
 
 66 
 
 15 
 
 2.50 
 
 75 
 
 73 
 
 23 
 
 1.87 
 
 84 
 
 64 
 
 22 
 
 .24 
 
 76 
 
 73 
 
 30 
 
 .05 
 
 89 
 
 63 
 
 29 
 
 .00 
 
 78 
 
 76 
 
 April 6 
 
 .56 
 
 89 
 
 62 
 
 April 5 
 
 .20 
 
 80 
 
 74 
 
 13 
 
 1.20 
 
 83 
 
 61 
 
 12 
 
 .00 
 
 79 
 
 74 
 
 20 
 
 .31 
 
 86 
 
 65 
 
 19 
 
 .15 
 
 83 
 
 74 
 
 27 
 
 .22 
 
 85 
 
 67 
 
 £6 
 
 .02 
 
 78 
 
 73 
 
 There are serious discrepancies between the tabulated reports 
 which we are unable to reconcile or explain, and we give them 
 to our readers as we find them. It appears that the temperature 
 at Nassau from November, 1877, to May, 1878, was not very dif- 
 
METEOROLOGtOAL. 179 
 
 ferent from that of the same months in 1878 and '79; but the 
 rainfall during the same months in 1878 and '79, aggregated only 
 10.18 inches, while during the corresponding period in 1877 and 
 '78, it amounted to 24.05 inches. Indeed, during our visit in 
 1879, there was so little rain that a consequent failure of the 
 fruit crop was apprehended. The average rainfall for the ten 
 years coyered by Gov. Eawson's summarized meteorological table, 
 during corresponding months, is 1G.9 inches. It thus appears 
 that the Nassau weather from November, 1877, to May, 1878, 
 was very exceptionally wet, while during the next following cor- 
 responding period the weather was exceptionally dry. 
 
 While at Nassau in 1879, Ave were accustomed to daily observe 
 the thermometer and barometer, and a pencil meteorological 
 record upon the white wall of the hotel court was made by a very 
 intelligent and reliable gentleman from Canada, every morning 
 at 7 o'clock. The unvarying steadiness of the temperature and 
 atmospheric pressure, seemed so incredible to some of the guests, 
 that, half in earnest and half in jest, they declared that the ther- 
 mometer and barometer had been ''fixed up and doctored." I 
 give the state of the thermometer at 7 a. m,, for each day, from 
 February 1st, to March 12th, inclusive: 
 
 1879—68, 67, 63, 64, 66, 68, 72, 77, 70, 70, 71, 70, 71, 70, 69, 
 68, 69, 71, 70, 69, 65, 65, 68, 70, 69, 70, 72, 72, 70, 69, 68, 69, 
 70, 69, 70, 70, 70, 70, 70, 71 degrees. For the four last days, at 
 two p. M., the thermometer stood at 75, 74, 74, 75 degrees, and 
 generally the difference between seven a. m. and two p. m. was 
 very small in the shade. The barometer varied but a trifle from 
 thirty inches. 
 
 But in the noon-day sun, especially in the narrow streets lead- 
 up from the water, over the hard, white limestone, and between 
 the high white-washed stone walls, the heat is very excessive, 
 find, but for the breeze that constantly blows from off the water, 
 
1§6 -istfis 61? srMMieft. 
 
 it would be too miicli for any bat salamanclcrs and Congo negroes. 
 This side of the picture is seldom given to the public. The 
 tables I have copied from Gov. Eobinson's reports are a marked 
 exception in this particular, to Avhicli the reader is referred. It 
 is easy, however, to avoid exposure at mid-day, and to take one's 
 rides or walks in the morning or in the latter part of the after- 
 noon. While yachting, little inconvenience is experienced from 
 this cause, as it is customary to take along a supply of umbrellas 
 to assist the sails in throwing shadows upon tlie passengers. The 
 water is, without exception, of a most agreeable temperature, 
 and the tireless wind, that with remarkable constanc}^, ruffles its 
 surface, while leaving a tawny and enduring impress of its most 
 welcome caresses, is freighted with the grateful benisons, uttered 
 or unexpressed, of all who feel its cooling and rejuvenating in- 
 fluences. The simile, ''as fickle as the wind," seemed there to 
 have little applicability. 
 
 Writing from beneath the shade of one of her noble moss draped 
 live oaks, at Mandarin, upon the right bank of the St. John's 
 river, in Florida, the gifted author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, speak- 
 ing of Florida, says in her " Palm Leaves:" 
 
 ''Sudden changes from heat to cold are the besetting sin of 
 this fallen world. It is probably one of the consequences of 
 Adam's fall, which we are not to get rid of till we get to the land 
 of pure delights. It may, however, comfort the heart of visitors 
 to Florida to know that if the climate here is not in this respect 
 just what they would have, it is about tlie best there is going." 
 
 If the word "about," in the last sentence quoted, is used in 
 the sense of "near to,''^ then it is strictly correct, for the climate 
 of Florida is "near to," (being only two days sail from) that of 
 the Bahamas. Whatever may be said to the discredit of these 
 islands, they are certainly not chargeable with that "besetting 
 sin of this fallen world " to which Mrs. Stowe refers. 
 
While no one can be any more sure in Nassau than he is at 
 home, or anywhere else, of escaping an exceptionally wet, and 
 to that extent disagreeable, Avinter, he can rely with great confi- 
 dence upon having there, night and day, an atmosphere of a 
 pleasant and uniform summer temperature. 
 
 It is difficult for a native and untraveled Bahamian to appre- 
 ciate what is written at the north about ''the domestic hearth," 
 and ''cheerful fire-side." As poets do not confine themselves 
 exclusively to the truth, but use their "poetic license," the Ba- 
 hamians naturally deem Longfellow's lines the out-cropping of 
 a wild fancy when he sings: 
 
 "Each man's chimney is his golden milestone ; 
 Is the central point from which he measures every distance, 
 Through the gateways of the world around him." 
 
 Certain it is, there are few such "milestones" in Nassau. 
 
 Persons who, for any reason, find it necessary to avoid the 
 cold, damp winds and storms of the North, will find at Nassau 
 a climate that fully fills the measure of their wants from the 
 middle of November to the middle of April. But temperature 
 and clear skies are not the only points to be considered in deter- 
 mining the question of the importance of Nassau as "a great 
 sanitarium," and we have therefore extended our observations 
 and pushed our inquiries in other directions. 
 
 The drinking water, the drainage, the existence and observance 
 of sanitary regulations, the topography and condition of the ad- 
 jacent back country, as well as the quality and direction of the 
 winds that pass over it, are all important factors in the problem 
 of health, and should be carefully examined and critically con- 
 sidered. 
 
 It is just here that Nassau's most vulnerable points are discov- 
 ered, and, but for the superior sanitary arrangements of the Royal 
 
 Ifi 
 
183 ISLES OF STTMMEE. 
 
 Victoria Hotel, tliey would be much more damaging to tlie place 
 as a health resort. Wells and cisterns, in the absence of sand, 
 are sunk in the soft, porous, limestone rock, in the yicinity of 
 cesspools and privy yaults, so that the water they contain can 
 hardly fail to become more or less unwholesome. In many wells 
 the water is said to rise and fall with the tide, but Avhether its 
 quality is impaired by sea Avater Ave are not informed. There 
 being no general sewerage system, the surface rock is likely to 
 become saturated Avith the Avaste and effete matter that is suifered 
 to accumulate around hiiman habitations AA'here the climate dis- 
 inclines to exertion, and exhalations may be expected to arise 
 therefrom, Avhich Avill jeopardise health and life. 
 
 The colored people who are croAvded together in the suburbs 
 of Nassau, pay little, if any regard to nature's sanitary laws, and 
 apparently conform to fcAv of the conditions of healthy human 
 existence. While they live in the open air during the day, they 
 at night are croAvded together in the one or two rooms of their 
 little cabins, from Avhich the outside air is religiously excluded 
 by closed doors and Avooden shutters. Perhaps they have learned 
 by experienoe the necessity of thus excluding the damp and 
 poisoned air that rests upon the Ioav, Avet lands of the interior of 
 this island. Tlieir poverty denies to them the advantages of a 
 generous diet of varied food which is everywhere within the reach 
 of honest labor in the States. 
 
 That the seeds of disease, at least during the night, iloat in 
 the air above the sAvamps and lagoons of the central portions of 
 the island of Ncav Providence, is apparent to any thoughtful ob- 
 server who either crosses it or sees it from any of the neighboring 
 hills. The germs of sickness existing there are never destroyed 
 or rendered torpid by frost. In the mild, soft, damp air, disease 
 is present, and often dispenses his fevers with a liberal hand, as 
 the official records and statistics clearly demonstrate. Consump- 
 
FNSAKITART COKDITIOKS. 183 
 
 tion also, upon a galloping steed, rides in the suburbs of Nassau 
 with an unchecked rein to his goal — the portal of death. It is 
 possible for leprosy to lurk in the dense chaparral of low lands, 
 and under the thick mangro groves that, with living arches and 
 festoons, beautify and adorn the miniature islands that rise out 
 of the shallow waters of the brackish and stagnant lakes. 
 
 The city of Nassau, as we have shown, is, in a sanitary point 
 of view, very favorably situated. Bottomed upon a rock of a 
 porous nature, which dips towards the harbor, and speedily ab- 
 sorbs or carries off the heaviest rain-falls, facing the north and 
 skirting the sea, having within its limits no low and wet lands, 
 the prevailing winds come to it directly from the ocean laden 
 with refreshment and health. We examined the annual medical 
 reports of the surgeon connected with the military department 
 at Nassau for eleven years, from 1867 to 1878. Only that of 
 1873 gave statistics of the wind. From that report it appeared 
 that during the year 1873 the wind blew from the south at nine 
 o'clock A . M. only three times — once in June and twice in Novem- 
 ber — and at three o'clock p. m. only once during the entire year, 
 and that was in November. The report states that in 1873 the 
 wind blew from the north-east on 175 days, at nine A. m,, and 
 from the south-east 111 days, and that at three p. m. it was north- 
 east 185 days, and south-east 121 days; while it blew from the 
 west only two days. During the ten years covered by Grov. Raw- 
 son's table, which we have quoted, the wind from the south is 
 stated to have averaged eleven days in a hundred. The Avind 
 was from the south very rarely Avhile Ave were at Nassau in 1879, 
 but it atoned for its long intervals of absence by being very sul- 
 try, debilitating, and exceedingly disagreeable. As it sweeps 
 over the low, wet surface of the center of the island, Ave believe 
 it unfavorable to health, although the distance is measured by a 
 very few miles. While we Avere at Nassau in 1880, the wind was 
 
164 ISLSS Oi' StJMMEtl. 
 
 more frequently from the soutli and the weather was, as in the 
 States, exceptionally hot, and for that reason Nassau was much 
 less attractive. 
 
 The Royal Victoria Hotel is provided with tanks for the stor- 
 ing of rain-water, which are said to have a capacity of 300,000 
 gallons. The water is exclusively used for drinking and culi- 
 nary purposes, and it always appeared to be of most excellent 
 quality. Ice, from the state of Maine, is ]3rocured under a con- 
 tract which the government made for the supply of the city, of 
 which there was always an abundance at the hotel. The water 
 of the hotel is therefore most excellent and unexceptional 
 provided proper care and vigilance are exercised in cleaning 
 the tanks, and guarding and keeping them from impurities. 
 During the latter part of the hotel season of 1878-9, after a 
 long protracted drouth, dysenteric complaints were alarm- 
 ingly prevalent at the Victoria Hotel, and, although physicians 
 were numbered among its guests, no one seemed able to dis- 
 cover their cause. There was nothing disclosed in the taste, 
 color or smell of the drinking water which indicated that it had 
 anything to do with the trouble. The more we pondered upon 
 the cause, the more we were puzzled. Before leaving Nassau we 
 read the "Brief Auto-biography" of the former rector of one of 
 the churches in Nassau, the late Rev. Wm. Strachan, D. D., who, 
 in 1822, established a church and was for sometime its rector 
 upon one of the Turks Islands. The latter part of the following 
 extract from the little book (p. 58) excited in us some incredulity: 
 
 ''I found no wells in the island, and learned that the only 
 water to be had, either for drinking or cooking purposes, was 
 the rain which drops from the clouds, and is received into capa- 
 cious tanks attached to the several houses. A stranger must be 
 cautious how, and in what quantities, he imbibes the rain-water 
 at first, as it is liable to produce a severe dysenteric attack." 
 
DYStKTfiRIO COMPLAINTS. 185 
 
 In calling the attention of one of the military officials at Nas- 
 sau to this subject, and to the paragraph we have quoted, he 
 said : 
 
 " Soon after my first arrival in Nassau, I was, in common with 
 some other officers of the garrison, troubled with severe griping 
 pains in the bowels, which I suspected was caused by impure 
 water, and I caused the water in the cisterns to be drawn off. 
 At the bottom I found a dark colored, dirty deposit, two to 
 three inches thick. I had the cisterns thoroughly cleaned, and 
 the. result was the griping pains disappeared." 
 
 "When in April, 1879, we returned to Jacksonville, Fla., we 
 learned that dysenteric complaints had made their ajopearance 
 among the guests of the St. James Hotel, that the water in the 
 cisterns of the hotel was discovered to be very imi^ure, and offen- 
 sive to the taste and smell. In Jacksonville as well as at Nassau 
 there had been a long season of dry weather, so that the cisterns 
 were drawn down low, and the dirt at the bottom no doubt in 
 both places poisoned the water — hence the sickness that followed 
 its use. 
 
 Ul3on our return to the north we sent the substance of the 
 foregoing facts to the proprietor of the Royal Victoria Hotel, 
 and he promised to have the cisterns of his hotel emptied and 
 cleaned. 
 
 Thus disease and death sometimes lurk, and wait, and watch 
 for victims, Avhere they are looked for least. While at Nassau, 
 in 1880, we had no evidence of the existence of any of the dysen- 
 teric troubles that existed in 1879. Spring water is utilized at 
 the hotel for some purposes, and a bountiful supjjly is carried to 
 tanks elevated over the water-closets by means of a steam pump, 
 and a suspicion existed when the bowel complaints made their 
 appearance, that some of it had been used for cooking purposes. 
 The hotel officials, however, denied that it had been so used. 
 
1§6 ISLES 0^ SlTMMEfi. . \ ' 
 
 The dews at Nassau are often very heavy, and it is prudent to 
 follow the poet's advice, and 
 
 "The dews of the evening most carefully shun, 
 Those tears of the sky for the loss of the sun." 
 
 Some old residents of Nassau informed us that they considered 
 the evening air in Nassau prejudicial to health. One of them — 
 a lady — said that she was obliged to exclude herself from it to 
 avoid lung disease. But when night after night so many bright; 
 stars call to us from a cloudless sky to come out and look up — 
 and especially when the moon rides in great splendor across the 
 bluest of heavens on purpose to be seen, it seems hardly courteous 
 or creditable to ignobly ensconce ourselves under mosquito bars, 
 and be content with indolent repose or oblivious sleep. When 
 we occasionally accepted of the invitation, it was only to be over- 
 whelmed with the magnificence of the display, as was Moses on 
 Sinai. 
 
 The official Bahama mortuary statistics which we examined, _ 
 failed to discriminate between the races, and to so localize the 
 results that a comparison can be made between Nassau and its 
 suburbs. The medical reports of the military department de- 
 scribe the colored troops as being very licentious, and a large 
 portion of them suffer from venereal diseases. These complaints 
 are said to have been introduced into Grant's Town by French 
 troops, when, upon the breaking up of Maxamillian's Government 
 in Mexico, the vessels which were transporting them to France 
 stopped on their way at Nassau. 
 
 As a matter more of curiosity than of practical utility, we sub- 
 join an abstract of the reported causes of death in all the Bahama 
 islands in 1864. It is taken from Gov. Rawson's report for that 
 year. 
 
3!TI(*HtT Alft. M6R1ff ARY STATISTtCS. 
 
 W 
 
 Caitsks. 
 
 Averasre Quarterly 
 Number. 
 
 <5^ 
 
 
 
 Percentage Proportion. 
 
 O" 
 
 G' 
 
 & 
 
 & 
 
 Fevers : 
 
 Ordinary, 
 
 Yellow, 
 
 Scarlet Eruptive, &c., . ., 
 
 Diseases of Lungs and Heart,.. 
 
 " *' Bowels and Liver, 
 
 Dropsies, 
 
 Diseases of Brain and Nerves : 
 
 Apoplexy and Palsy, 
 
 Convulsions and Spasms. 
 
 Sudden and Violent, 
 
 Stillborn, 
 
 Childbirth, 
 
 Other causes, 
 
 Total, 
 
 33 
 1 
 14 
 34 
 14 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 24 
 
 10 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 45 
 
 38 
 5 
 6 
 
 38 
 
 22 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 14 
 
 10 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 47 
 
 G3 
 35 
 12 
 55 
 26 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 21 
 
 7 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 42 
 
 58 
 14 
 
 9 
 26 
 19 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 27 
 9 
 1 
 5 
 
 46 
 
 10. 6 
 
 .4 
 
 7.3 
 
 17.8 
 
 7.3 
 
 3.6 
 
 3.1 
 12.6 
 5.0 
 1.2 
 1.0 
 24.1 
 
 19.7 
 
 2.4 
 
 2.9 
 
 19.8 
 
 11.4 
 
 2.6 
 
 2.1 
 
 7.4 
 
 5.0 
 
 .7 
 
 1.3 
 
 24.7 
 
 23.0 
 
 12.7 
 
 44 
 
 20.1 
 
 9.4 
 
 2.1 
 
 1.1 
 
 7.5 
 
 2.7 
 
 .6 
 
 1.2 
 
 15.2 
 
 25.4 
 6.1 
 3.7 
 
 11.5 
 8.5 
 3.1 
 
 2.6 
 12.0 
 
 4.1 
 .6 
 
 2.4 
 20.0 
 
 192 
 
 192 
 
 274 
 
 230 
 
 100.0 
 
 100.0 
 
 100.0 
 
 100.0 
 
 Gov. Eawson says, ''The inferences to be drawn from this 
 table are that the latter half of the year is much more fatal to 
 the population, to the extent of nearly one-third, and that this 
 is owing chiefly to the prevalence of fevers, including yellow 
 fever, which contributed one-third to the excess." 
 
 " These islands are, without exception, remarkably healthy. 
 They are free from, and are seldom visited by epidemic diseases. 
 Intermittent fevers, which prevail to so great an extent on the 
 neighboring continent, are comparatively infrequent here, and 
 usually assume a mild form. During the last thirty-five years, 
 Nassau has been visited by the cholera but once, viz.: in 1853; 
 by small-pox in 1845 and 1860, when it was introduced in both 
 
1S8 ISLES OF StfMMER. 
 
 instances from St. Domingo; and by the yellow feveT at distant 
 intervals, and attended with very slight mortality, viz. : in 1829, 
 1845 and 1853, until 1861-2, when from transient circumstances 
 it assumed a more malignant form, and carried off a greater num- 
 ber of victims, including the first bishop of the diocese. It re- 
 peated its visits in 1863-4. 
 
 ''The inhabitants are, for the most part, a hardy, robust race. 
 They consume little animal food, and live chiefly on Indian and 
 Guinea corn, vegetables, fish and shell-fish. Many of the petty 
 cultivators on the Windward Islands, who cling to their small 
 plots, and refuse to seek employments as hired laborers in their 
 own or other islands, are often reduced to much distress when 
 their meagre crops of corn fail them through drought or other 
 causes; and these are in the course of deterioration, both physi- 
 cal and mental, enervated, indifferent to improvement, and bring- 
 ing up their families in ignorance and sloth. 
 
 "Nassau is usually very healthy and free from disease. In 
 1862-64, during the height of the blockade-running trade, when 
 the town was filled Avith strangers, the lodging houses were over- 
 crowded, and the elements of disease were festering in the heart 
 of the city, it is not surprising that the yellow fever, whether 
 introduced by vessels coming from infected ports, or engendered 
 by the unusual condition of the city, should have broken out. 
 But it ivas conjined to strangers and to unaccUmited persons, 
 and was not by any means fatal as compared Avith other places. 
 
 " The Board of Health, a body constituted under a local Act, 
 with large powers for the protection of the health of the colony, 
 reported that in 1861-62, about 400 persons were attacked, and 
 ninety-five died, in a population numbering in 1861, 11,503; and 
 that in 1864, out of a population estimated at 15,000, the num- 
 ber of cases was 700, and of deaths 137. Of these, 153 cases 
 resulting in forty-^ve deaths, were admitted into the Quarantine 
 Hospital from the shipping and lodging houses.". 
 
SANITARY COKDITIOISr. 18.9 
 
 It should be considered that in the settlements upon some of 
 the islands, the population is very much crowded, and that the 
 health of the people suffers in consequence. Gov. Eawson, in 
 his report for 1864, estimated that the population of Dunmore 
 Town, upon the island of Eleutbera, was 2,500, and that the 
 density was " about forty persons to the acre, or 124 square yards 
 to each individual, which is nearly six times the average of the 
 781 principal towns in England " in 1861. He adds, ''the con- 
 sequence is that for the last two or three years the place has been 
 very sickly, and typhoid fever has committed considerable rava- 
 ges among the inhabitants. 
 
 Upon a little key at the extreme north-west point of Eleu-, 
 thera, and about five miles from Harbour Island, the settlement 
 of Spanish Wells is situated. Gov. Rawson states in his report 
 of 1864, that the inhabitants of Spanish Wells "^Miave continued 
 to divide and sub-divide their lots among their children, so that 
 the houses almost touch each other, and in some places the (so- 
 called) street is not over three or four feet in Avidth. The area 
 of the settlement does not exceed three acres; so that the popu- 
 lation is upwards of 150 to the acre." He adds, "^they are un- 
 cleanly in their habits, and all attempts to introduce sanitary 
 rules among them have hitherto failed. Consequently, typhoid 
 fever has lingered here, too, for the last three years." 
 
 Gov. Eawson also speaks of another settlement upon Eleu- 
 thera, called Governor's Harbor, where, he says, "^'the density 
 of the population equals, if it does not exceed that of Spanish 
 Wells." He says it is situated upon a rock, about 300 yards 
 long, by 100 yards Avide, which is connected with the main land 
 by a narrow neck of land, and that this rock is ''in miniature, 
 very like the Rock of Gibraltar." 
 
 He also states that "the people at Devil's Point, upon St. 
 Salvador, have the worst reputation of any upon that island," 
 
190 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 and of ''being not only lazy, but addicted to the most vicious 
 and immoral habits," Also, that upon Acklin's Island, 'Hhe 
 commonest comforts and the ordinary necessaries of life are evi- 
 dently wanting," which he attributes in part to the indolent 
 habits of the people. He says that upon Fortune Island, the 
 people (numbering 470)^*'' are all poor and unable even to repair 
 their own dwellings, and that but for the fish, conchs and crabs, 
 they would absolutely suffer and perish from want of the com- 
 monest necessaries of life, for they are too indolent and inactive 
 to go where their labor would be useful to themselves and others." 
 
 We give these facts, not as fairly indicating^ the average char- 
 acter and condition of the people living upon the Bahama islands, 
 but as illustrating, 1st, that no air, however pure and delight- 
 fully tempered and medicated it may be in its normal condition, 
 will save a people from diseases of a malignant type when laws 
 of health are disregarded; and 2d, that very elaborate health 
 tables are of little value if they fail to discriminate between places 
 where the sanitary conditions and habits of life of the people arc 
 very ^^nlike — although they have some degree of geographical 
 and political unity. 
 
 We did not learn of any cases of yellow fever, cholera or small- 
 pox, from 1864 to 1879. In Gov. Robinson's report for 1878, he 
 states that "an epidemic of whooping cough prevailed for sev- 
 eral months, causing much distress and some mortality amongst 
 the children of the laboring classes." One would suppose that 
 in such a climate, if whooping cough made its appearance at all, 
 it would have been of a very mild type. It seems to have been 
 otherwise in 1878. 
 
 During the winter and spring of 1880, a malignant fever re- 
 sulted in quite a number of deaths at Nassau, and it is our belief 
 that it was yellow fever, and we will state the evidence upon 
 which our opinion is predicated. 
 
THE YELLOW FEVEE. 191 
 
 Upon the morning of the day the steamer lef fc New York, on 
 which we had engaged our passage out, a gentleman startled us 
 a little by announcing that *' Nassau had got a black eye." He 
 said it had been reported in the States that the yellow fever had 
 broken out in Nassau, but that the Governor of the Bahamas and 
 the foreign consuls at Nassau had published cards denying the 
 truth of the report. Our steamer stopped at Fernandina, and a 
 gentleman there told us that a physician, recently from Nassau, 
 and then at the Egremont Hotel, in Fernandina, stated that be- 
 fore he left there had been in Nassau two deaths from that dis- 
 ease. The steamer City of Austin had then just arrived at Fer- 
 nandina from Nassau, and one of its passengers assured us that 
 there was not any yellow fever in Nassau when he left. None 
 of our passengers were alarmed sufficiently to alter their plans, 
 and when upon the day of our arrival in Nassau we entered 
 the dining room of the Victoria Hotel, and saw how merry and 
 healthy and hungry everybody seemed to be, the last vestige of 
 the yellow fever scare disappeared. For some days no allusion 
 was made to ''Yellow Jack," but after a while pretty well authen- 
 ticated reports reached us of quite a number of cases of sickness 
 and death within the city limits, but outside of the hotel. It 
 appears that the disease attacked at first the children of the 
 natives, some twenty or more of whom died. It was said that 
 it could not be yellow fever, first, because it was confined to the 
 children, and second, because none but children belonging in 
 Nassau had been attacked; whereas unacclimated adults were the 
 first to be stricken down when yellow fever prevails. 
 
 After which we learned of a few cases of alarming sickness 
 among the visitors from the States and elsewhere, several of which 
 resulted in death. One of the latter was the wife of Dr. Aiken. 
 She was previously a healthy woman, but the doctor was an in- 
 valid. They had been boarding with a Nassau gentleman who 
 
193 ISLES OF SU:\IMEE. 
 
 held the office of Assistant United States Consul. This case oc- 
 curred in a house situated upon high ground very near to the 
 hotel, which the owner and his family thereupon, for prudential 
 reasons, vacated. Dr. Aiken then came to the Victoria Hotel to 
 board, and he was afterAvards our fellow passenger when we left 
 Nassau for Florida. He told us that the disease was yellow fever, 
 and that the sanitary conditions of the Vice-Consul's premises 
 outside of and close to his dwelling house were very offensive and 
 bad. 
 
 Our young friend from Vermont, Mr. Phelps, arrived at Nas- 
 sau in November with his invalid mother. He had the fever, 
 but his mother escaped, although she took care of him night and 
 day, with the exception of two nights, when, by advice of a local 
 physician, she entrusted her son, while convalescent, to the care 
 of a nurse whom the doctor recommended. This nurse got drunk, 
 neglected the sick man, who took cold in consequence, and had 
 a relapse. His life was then despaired of by the physicians, but 
 he was saved at last by an experiment which the mother had the 
 sagacity and courage to make upon her own responsibility, and 
 without the knowledge of the medical attendants. She admin- 
 istered, in connection with the prescribed medicines, some kind 
 of salts, (we have forgotten what kind,) first in small but frequent 
 doses, watching him closely all the while, and had the great sat- 
 isfaction of seeing the fever gradually give way, and finally dis-. 
 appear. The doses were increased as the salutary operation of . 
 the medicine was developed. When she afterwards told the 
 doctors what she had been doing, they were (as she represented- 
 to us) offended, although she had apparently saved the life of 
 hor son after they hod announced that ho could not recover. 
 Yrith the exception of keeping a little piece of camphor gum in 
 her mouth, she did notliing to escape tlic contagion of the dis- 
 ease. One of the attending physicians, who was accustomed to 
 
BEASONS FOR LEAVIISTG. 193 
 
 sit upon the bed of the sick man, she believed carried the disease 
 to his own home, for two of his daughters thereafter had the 
 fever and died. He then abandoned his house upon East Hill 
 street, within a block or block and a-half of our hotel, and moved 
 with the remainder of his family to ''Thompson's Folly," where 
 he was sure of the best kind of Bahama air, and a plenty of it, 
 although he took the chance of being blown some day half across 
 the Atlantic ocean by a hurricane. The disease was not pesti- 
 lential but sporadic, and although it was near to, it did not enter 
 the hotel. It was evidently a very undesirable fever to have, 
 whether entitled to be called yellow or not. Two out of three of 
 the resident physicians persistently denied that it was yellow 
 fever, while the third one, who was in Nassau when the yellow 
 fever prevailed at the time of our late American war, differed 
 with them on this point. A gentleman on familiar terms with 
 the prominent men of Nassau, informed us before we left, that 
 it was not at first believed to be yellow fever, simply because it 
 was confined to children, and especially to the children of natives, 
 *'but now," said he, ''that it has attacked adult strangers, they 
 admit it to be yellow fever. " These admissions were not publicly 
 made or generally known. 
 
 Our attention was occasionally attracted by consultations, pri- 
 vate and mysterious, of persons who traveled in company. A 
 growing and constantly increasing desire to speedily return to 
 the land of the starry flag was discernable, and we learned, after 
 a while, that the state-rooms in the Nassau steamers for their 
 return trips had been secured for sometime in advance by certain 
 wise and thoughtful ones — among whom we, alas, were not' 
 numbered. There was no panic, but only a quiet and commend- 
 able exhibition of prudence. So far as we could learn, no cases 
 of fever had occurred at our hotel, and nothing was observed in 
 its immediate yicinity calculated to generate or invite disease. 
 
 17 
 
194 ISLES OF SUMMEE. 
 
 Unfavorable rumors floated more or less loosely in the soft and 
 silky air, but, notwithstanding, the wings of fear were kept 
 wonderfully well clip^Ded. Nor did we permit ourselves to be 
 made unhappy by unfavorable possibilities. We knew that bor- 
 rowed troubles are worse than real ones; but still the fact was 
 too jDatent to be overlooked or ignored, that only a single floating 
 bridge, of limited capacity, connected us with Florida's wet and 
 flowery land, and that if it, for any cause should give way, as 
 several of its predecessor's had done, it might be some weeks be- 
 fore its owners in New York Avould learn of the disaster, and span 
 the Florida gulf with a substitute. Nor did Ave feel any strong 
 desire, personally, to " lie down to pleasant dreams" in the white 
 coraline rock of "the greatest sanitarium of the western world," 
 even though a colonial capital should in consequence thereof be 
 beautified and made forever famous by our monument. 
 
 After a while our turn to depart came, and a feeling of great 
 satisfaction — not to say relief — came over us when we bade adieu 
 to the great sanitarium, and the charming jjicture of jcAvelled 
 isles in a turquoise sea disappeared from view. Proudly our 
 steamer skimmed the smooth, untroubled and tranquil world of 
 waters, slowly and grandly the day god 
 
 "Steeped 
 His fiery face in billows of the west, " 
 
 while the night was made glorious with its canopy of brilliant 
 stars. It spoke well for our ship, and for the hotel in which we 
 had spent so many happy hours, that in neither of them had 
 there been a single case of serious sickness of any kind. 
 
 Mr. Phelps and his mother, and Dr. Aiken, were our fellow- 
 passengers, so that it seemed — especially while they detailed to us 
 their sad experiences — that we Avere brought almost into the A-ery 
 presence of the much to be dreaded fever itself. But a kind and 
 
A CROWDED STEAMER. 195 
 
 merciful Providence so ordered it, that we escaped entirely 
 unharmed the perils of sickness and of the sea, and as our 
 steamer had a clear bill of health, we were saved from numbering 
 among our exjDcriences, a practical acquaintance with the inde- 
 scribable attractions of the quarantine system in southern ports 
 in very warm weather. 
 
 About four weeks afterwards we took passage in the screw 
 steamer City of Austin, at Fernandina, for New York. She had 
 just arrived from Nassau with a large number of passengers, in-, 
 eluding Mr. Morton, the pro|)rietor of the Eoyal Victoria Hotel, 
 together with his principal assistants. The children of the 
 American Consul were also on board, and we learned that the 
 Consul and his wife designed to follow them so soon as his official 
 duties would admit of his leaving. We had also the Episcopal 
 Bishop and his children. The Bishop's wife was one of the vic- 
 tims of the fever, and we had no doubt he had left Nassau because 
 he was not willing to incur the hazards incident to a residence 
 there during the warm and Avet season of the year. We could 
 not but deeply sympathise with him. in his great affliction, and 
 half regret that we had allowed ourselves to be amused at the 
 high sounding titles which, upon his arrival the year previous, 
 helped so much to insjoire the Bahamians with reverence, if not 
 with awe. Upon ship-board there were certain peculiarities in 
 his every day costume, as striking as a Chinaman's pig-tail, which 
 were well calculated to attract attention. They were strongly 
 suggestive of the fact that the man whom they adorned was not 
 an ordinary individual. But in the shadow of his great bereave- 
 ment, surrounded, as he was, with his pretty but motherless little 
 ones, wo were not disposed to unfavorably criticise or iuAvardly 
 smile at the peculiarities of his costume. We did not make the 
 Bishop's acquaintance, but he was dignified without seeming vain 
 and conceited, and his intelligent, amiable and good natured 
 countenance quite prepossessed us in his favor. 
 
196 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 Our ship was very much crowded, and some passengers slept 
 upon the floor of the main saloon, hut being favored by pleasant 
 weather, and no pestilential or other diseases having made their 
 appearance, little inconvenience was experienced. "We ought not, 
 perhaps, to omit one instance of sickness which occurred on 
 board, and was said to have occasioned at first some uneasiness. 
 The sick man was employed upon the steamer, and a physician, 
 after looking him over, and making a thorough diagnosis of his 
 case, reported that his patient had only an attack of "whiskey 
 fever," and that he would be all right in the morning. 
 
 As we made our way up the beautiful harbor of New York in 
 the early morning of a charming day, and felt the thrilling and 
 exquisite pleasure incident to a safe return to our native shores, 
 we almost forgot that a malignant disease had recently thrown 
 unpleasant occasional shadows over us upon one of the isles of 
 summer, and had almost brushed against us with the hem of its 
 garment as it passed by. 
 
 Mr. Phelps has written us that he has, since his return, received 
 letters from Nassau, and his mother has entertained several per- 
 sons who reside in Nassau, at her house in Vermont ; that his 
 Nassau corespondents stated that at the time of their writing, 
 the yellow fever prevailed extensively in Nassau, and that it 
 had occasioned many deaths; that the wife and two children of 
 the Wesleyan minister at Nassau, Major Simpson and two of 
 his children, and a lady visitor from Ontario, Canada, were 
 numbered among its victims. Also, that the local physicians 
 there now admit that Mr. Pheljos had " the genuine yellow 
 fever." 
 
 Another gentleman, whose sources of information through 
 correspondents in Nassau are at least equally good, though less 
 disinterested, writes us as follows: "The fever has shown itself 
 spasmodically at Nassau this summer, but to very little extent. 
 
YELLOW FEVER IK SOUTHERK ClttES. lOf 
 
 The town has been very thoroughly cleansed, and if the recent 
 hurricane has visited Nassau, as it probably has, the germs of 
 the disease will be destroyed." It is, therefore, now altogether 
 probable, that the sickness which occurred in Nassau in the win- 
 ter and spring of 1880, was of the yellow fever type. That it 
 did not more generally prevail, is no doubt due to the fact that 
 Nassau is so well ventilated with ocean winds. In certain locali- 
 ties there existed conditions favorable to its spread, and in these 
 the fever germs took root, so that the disease was sporadic and 
 not pestilential, and the result of local causes. 
 
 The fact should in this connection be stated, as a matter of 
 justice to Nassau, that all the cities of the Southern States and 
 of the West India Islands, have been occasionally subject to the 
 same disease. 
 
 An apparently intelligent and well-informed correspondent of 
 " The Semi-Tropical," — a monthly magazine formerly published 
 in Jacksonville, Florida — in the December number of that peri- 
 odical for 1877, gives some instances of the prevalence of this 
 disease which are worthy of consideration. He says: " In 1857, 
 Jacksonville was visited by a fatal epidemic, generated by the 
 opening of the railroad through a swamp hole in the heart of 
 a little hamlet during the warm season, when the exhalations 
 were foetid with miasma. It was confined at first to those resid- 
 ing in the immediate vicinity of this swamp, and radiated from 
 that center, but did not cross the river. It was as destructive 
 as yellow fever, though in many respects, it lacked some of the 
 essential features of that disease. It proved fatal to an alarming 
 degree, but more from the impossibility of securing nurses and 
 proper assistance, than from any necessity of the disease." He 
 adds that before that, yellow fever cases from the West Indies 
 had not spread. 
 
 He also refers to *'a few fatal cases of what is termed in the 
 
1^^ tSLl^fe 6f SuMM^fe. 
 
 West Indies, butcher's fever, which occurred two years sinc^, 
 [1875,] in Jacksonville, Fla., about the market." 
 
 Under date of November 20, 1877, -while his article was part- 
 ly in type, he adds — "Yellow fever has been proclaimed in Jack- 
 sonville, and in such a manner as to cause the most false ideas 
 and groundless apprehensions abroad. " He adds that '' not more 
 than five cases have occurred, and in regard to these, some of our 
 most experienced physicians express the greatest doubt." But 
 it seems to be consistent with the code of medical ethics, to doubt 
 and deny if thereby the spread of disease may be prevented or 
 checked. The materia medica includes moral as well as physi- 
 cal jDoisons, experience having shown that they are the antidotes 
 of fear. A medical man from Boston, told us in ISTassaii that 
 
 Dr. of Nassau, could not be much of a physician, for if he 
 
 was, he Avould not say that yellow fever existed there, even if it 
 did in fact. 
 
 The magazine writer refers to the exemption of St. Augustine 
 from yellow fever for fifty years during its occupancy by the 
 tSpanish and British authorities, and to its prevalence in 1821. 
 We were assured that cases of this disease occurred in St. Augus- 
 tine a few winters since, and some cases are occasionally to be 
 expected perhaps in all cities not favored with frost. 
 
 He says that "in 1822, the yellow fever was introduced into 
 Pensacola, by a cargo of spoilt fish being cast upon the wharf." 
 
 That, "when the yellow fever prevailed in the town of St. 
 Mary's, Ga., about 1808 — a place of great general health — such, 
 he was informed, was the state of the atmosphere, that beef, 
 twenty-four hours killed, fell from the hook by putrif action, and 
 water drawn from the well in the evening, Avas in a state of mu- 
 cilage next morning." 
 
 In 1878, the yellow fever prevailed at Port Royal, and we were 
 there told, that fifty persons died of the disease. And yet, the 
 
YELLOW FEVEH i:S" S0UTHER:N' CITIES. 199 
 
 place is quite small. The fever is supposed to have been caused 
 hy digging up the ground to make certain improvements which 
 the railroad's freighting business demanded. 
 
 The city of Fernandina in Florida, is pleasantly situated on a 
 rise of ground upon Amelia Island. Its vicinity to the ocean, 
 whose winds and the tides that flow through the spacious water- 
 ways that lead to it, would seem to secure for it immunity from 
 malignant diseases, although there are low and wet savannahs in 
 its immediate neighborhood. It is something of a health resort 
 in winter. We learned while there, from some of its residents, 
 that the yellow fever scourged the city in the summer of 1877, 
 The magazine writer whom we have quoted, refers to it in his 
 article, and says that in a population of 3000 there were 1000 
 cases of yellow fever, which resulted in 100 deaths. He states 
 that it was caused by opening ditches through wet lands in hot 
 weather, and by the discharging of a large amount of ballast from 
 a vessel with yellow fever on board, " into the heart of the town, 
 and in the midst of this reclaimed swamp;" and that, " accord- 
 ing to a well established law, the introduction of a quick, viru- 
 lent disease will drive out or characterize all local diseases, and 
 become epidemic." 
 
 Notwithstanding the grave and serious importance of the sub- 
 ject, one can hardly refrain from smiling when he sees the in- 
 habitants of a fever-stricken city looking to a hurricane for their 
 deliverance, as travelers and pioneers upon the great western 
 prairies sometimes fight fire with fire. Destructive cyclones have 
 commissions of mercy and beneficence to execute, and God not 
 only makes " the wrath of man," but the angry winds '"to j)raise 
 him." The blessed angel of health, when driven out of its 
 strong-holds in the cities of the South, and upon the beautiful 
 coral isles, harnesses itself to a hurricane and returns, driving 
 out, scattering and destroying its enemy. Incidentally huge 
 
200 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 trees are torn up by the roots, houses blown down, and some lives 
 destroyed, but health and happiness pitch their tents upon the 
 ruins. Since the great hurricane of 18G6, and until the year 
 1880, the yellow fever, so far as we have been able to learn, 
 though domiciled in Havana, has been a stranger in the Bahamas. 
 We trust Nassau will for many years to come be free from its 
 visitations. 
 
 Although Nassau's sanitary character has not always been un- 
 sullied, and it has occasionally suffered a '^fall from grace," its 
 reputation as a sanitarium has generally been not only good but 
 well deserved. It never has been and never will be safe, espec- 
 ially in countries where frosts are unknown, to violate the laws 
 of health which nature has imposed. The operation of these 
 laws, and the enforcement of their penalties, is as sure and silent 
 as the revolutions of the stars. Disease and death sleeplessly 
 watch from their coverts at the gates of every stronghold of 
 health. Eternal vigilance is the price of safety. ''A little 
 slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep " in the drowsy air, 
 by the boards of health, has caused many happy homes to be 
 made desolate in the past, as it will in the future, when hard but 
 salutary lessons are forgotten. 
 
 If Nassau, for six consecutive months out of every twelve, is 
 not one of the healthiest places in the world, it is the fault of its 
 people. From November to April, the seeds of malignant dis- 
 eases will not germinate in its healing and healthful air, if wise 
 sanitary regulations are made and enforced. She owes it to her- 
 self, and to valetudinarians in the British American Provinces, 
 and in the States of the Union, who desire to seek for health 
 within her limits, to see to it that the pure air which nature 
 wafts to her constantly from the ocean, and the pure distilled 
 water from the clouds, artificially or naturally stored in its coral- 
 line rocks, shall not be polluted and made inimical to health by 
 a criminal neglect of the first and plainest hygienic principles. 
 
KASSAU'S GENERAL GOOD REPUTATION". 301 
 
 '■'It is an ill-wind that blows no one any good," and the peo- 
 ple of Nassau live largely upon the misfortunes of others. Disa- 
 bled hulks from the stormy ocean, and from the troubled sea of 
 human life, fly to it as a harbor of refuge, and the amount paid 
 for salvage in each class of cases, aggregates every year a large 
 sum. By a liberal expenditure of money in mapping and light- 
 ing the channels of commerce, the British government has cur- 
 tailed one source of income, which will be in a measure made up 
 "by the adoption and rigid enforcement of wise sanitary laws. 
 
 For the benefit of our readers, we give the views of a number 
 of intelligent gentlemen in regard to the merits of Nassau as a 
 health resort. They were written from different stand points, 
 and cover periods of time widely separated. 
 
 Peter Henry Bruce, an English engineer, was commissioned 
 in 1741, to build and make good the defenses of Nassau. After 
 speaking in his Memoirs of its climate, and characterizing it 
 "as the most serene and most temperate in all America," he 
 says, "it is, therefore, no wonder that the sick and afflicted in- 
 habitants of this [English] climate fly here for relief, being sure 
 to find cure here." Thus it appears that its fame as a health 
 resort in winter was well established nearly a century and a-half 
 ago. 
 
 Dr. W. T. Hutchinson, of Providence, R. I., highly recomr 
 mends Nassau for those who suffer from diseases of the nervous 
 system, and who require rest for body and mind, for brain and 
 muscle. 
 
 Dr. W. Kirkwood, of Florence, Ital}^, affirms his belief "that 
 the climate of Nassau, during the winter months, is superior to 
 any winter resorts for pulmonary invalids " which he has visited, 
 and he had spent four years in Italy and the South of France. 
 But we conclude it was a hasty opinion based ujpon a short ex- 
 perience of Nassau's mild and uniform climate. 
 
202 ISLES OP SUMMEE. 
 
 Gen. Jamea Watson Webb, said in 1870, that "from the first 
 of November to the first of June, there is not, in all probability, 
 any spot on the face of the earth so desirable for persons suffer- 
 ing from pulmonary complaints." From the facts and opinions 
 we have given, the reader will judge whether this unqualified 
 recommendation is not too broad and sweeping. 
 
 Dr. F. A. Castle, editor of "'JSTew Remedies," with more dis- 
 crimination, and we think truth, said in 1877, that "■ in those 
 forms of lung trouble Avhere there is profuse expectoration and 
 perspiration, we should hardly think of recommending patients 
 to visit the Bahamas. But in the early stages of chronic pneu- 
 monia and catarrhal pneumonia, in tubercules, convalescence 
 from acute diseases, and in exhaustion from over-work and worry, 
 the advantage of being able to live, if necessary, out of doors, 
 without the fatigue of heavy clothing, the comparative freedom 
 from risk of catching cold, and the purety of the atmosphere, 
 render this one of the most healthful as well as available resorts 
 of which we have any knowledge." 
 
 The Eev. Dr. Nelson Millard, writing from Nassau in March, 
 1876, said, " Such a climate, if resorted to in time, often works 
 with wondrous curative power upon affections of the throat, 
 bronchia and lungs — as in the case of bronchitis, I can testify 
 from personal experience. " 
 
 Epes Sargent, Esq., a gentleman of considerable literary cul- 
 ture, but whose opinion may be unconsciously biased from the 
 fact that he keeps a boarding house at Nassau, says, '*' that for 
 all [.^] diseases of the lungs, throat, liver, kidneys, or spine, there 
 is no climate on the face of the earth superior, and I doubt if any 
 equal, to the climate of Nassau." And again, ''some most won- 
 derful cures of pulmonary diseases, asthma, rheumatism, neural- 
 gia and bronchitis have been performed almost entirely by the 
 climate. In the first stage of the disease, recovery is almost 
 
FAVORABLE TESTIMON"Y. 203 
 
 Certain." Mr. Sargeant has had ^^nquestionably superior oppor- 
 tunities of learning the facts, and his opinion, notAvithstanding 
 his personal interest, is entitled to considerable weight. 
 
 We were interested in 1879, to hear two of our Kassau friends 
 who had been at the Bermudas, compare them with Nassau. One 
 declared that the Bahamas weakened and debilitated, while his 
 system in the Bermudas was refreshed and invigorated. Both 
 winter resorts have the ocean air, but one is cool and tonic — the 
 other so warm it wilted and unstrung him. He did not want to 
 see the Bahamas any more. The other declared the Bermudas 
 no place at all for a sick man; that it rained there all the time, 
 and was therefore damp and wet, while its temperature was sub- 
 ject to great fluctuations, and was very trying to invalids. But 
 Nassau, he affirmed, was just the place for a sick man to enjoy 
 himself and get well. A large, healthy looking and intelligent 
 man who was returning home with us after a six months' resi- 
 dence at Nassau, spoke very strongly against it. He did not 
 like boating, and preferred to take his exercise on foot. When 
 the sun was up he could not walk out because it was so very hot, 
 while the damp and unhealthy night air made out-door exercise 
 at that time unsafe. He had no desire to go there again. Other 
 passengers on the Savannah steamer in 1879, including the author, 
 felt that to them Nassau had been a great sanitarium, while its 
 bland air, beautiful waters, coral bowers and bright skies, will 
 ever secure for it a most prominent place in the mind's store- 
 house of pleasant memories. 
 
 The wife of the author of this book was relieved of bronchial 
 and asthmatic troubles at Nassau, in 1879, which did not return 
 while she was at our sea-side residence upon the north shore of 
 Long Island Sound during the following summer. In the suc- 
 ceeding fall and early winter the old troubles again made their 
 appearance in a modified form, but the air of Nassau in March, 
 
Mi ISLES O'P StMMEK. 
 
 1880, supplemented by that of Florida in April, afPected an ap- 
 parent cure. 
 
 We knew of an instance where a person suffering from catarrh 
 of the bladder found great relief at Nassau. 
 
 A judge from the city of New York was stopping at the Vic- 
 toria Hotel when we arrived in 1879, v/ho was sufferiDg from 
 what was thought to be a softening of the brain. In such cases, 
 perhaps, a more tonic atmosphere is desirable. He attempted 
 to resume his judicial labors soon after his return, but found 
 himself incapacitated. 
 
 We made the acquaintance at Nassau, in 1879, of a lady who 
 was then apparently cured of a bronchial disease, but she had 
 some return of it the following summer in the mountains of North 
 Carolina. 
 
 It is impossible in a great many cases to know beforehand with 
 certainty what effect the air of the Bahamas will produce — wheth- 
 er favorable or unfavorable. It is not adapted to meet the neces- 
 sities of all. Nassau is unlike the pool of Siloam, that cured all 
 comers. Some are prosti-ated in its warm enervating air. A 
 medical gentleman informed us that in confirmed consumption 
 it relaxes the tissues, and that severe hemorrhages follow. If 
 good in that complaint at all, it is only in its early stages. This 
 we learned both from observation and from the testimony of 
 physicians on the spot. One of these said to us, "Don't recom- 
 mend these islands for consumption and rheumatism." A resi- 
 dent physician of good repute declared the climate bad for rheu- 
 matism. A young clergyman, prostrated by a pulmonary com- 
 plaint in the dawn of what promised to be a most useful life, 
 went over in the same steamer Avith us, in 1879, and for sometime 
 it seemed doubtful if he Avould ever be able to leave the island 
 alive. We were told in Nassau, in 1880, that his health was 
 improved. 
 
■WHO MAY EXPECT BEKTEFIT. SOSl 
 
 As Nassau's position is isolated, and so far removed from the 
 cities of the north, with only one weekly line of steamers, and 
 no telegraph, as yet, to connect it with the States, it is not the 
 place one would ordinarily select in Avhich to be very sick, and 
 many better places nearer home can be found in which to die. 
 A physician whom we met in Nassau, in 1879, said to us: "It 
 costs a thousand dollars to die here. In one instance, last year, 
 (18'78,) $300 dollars was paid for the use of a small building as 
 a dead house, and other charges were in proportion." If one is 
 dangerously sick, there is no place for him like home, with its 
 comforts and unbought sympathies. 
 
 To those who are weak, debilitated, over-worked and run down, 
 whose feeble hold on life is constantly endangered by sudden 
 fluctuations of temperature, and the severe storms and cold winds 
 of the north, the warm and beautiful Islands of Indolence and 
 Sensuous Eepose, attract with flattering promises of permanent 
 benefit. New leases of life are doubtless accessible to many 
 such in Nassau. But Ave do not believe that either shore of the 
 Mediterranean Sea, the banks of tlie Nile, Madeira, Florida, or 
 any Isle of Unending Summer, can furnish desirable homes for 
 white people in health. We have only to compare the natives 
 of the States north of the old Mason's and Dixon's line (includ- 
 ing cold and bleak New England), and their works, with ''the 
 children of the sun " and their neglected opportunities, to be sat- 
 isfied on this point. The cold north wind stimulates, braces 
 and builds up. Every blast, fearlessly and boldly breasted, in- 
 vigorates the healthy body, enriches the blood, and gives vitali- 
 zing and enduring strength and power to the mental and moral 
 forces. In the temperate zone the mental, moral and jDhysical 
 powers of man reach their highest development. Frost is an 
 essential factor in the problem of civilization. All human pro- 
 gress is bottomed upon ice. The great and profound truths, the 
 
 18 
 
S06' ISLES OF STTMMEE. 
 
 hidden laws of the world of matter and mind are born of the 
 north wind sweeping over the snow fields. 
 
 "Wandering through the wilderness of streets in the noisy Babel 
 of the Empire State, only seventy-four miles from hom.e, a little 
 unassimilated globule in a great eddying, boiling sea of human 
 life, separated and isolated from familiar scenes and faces, and 
 from warm and sympathetic hearts, a murky and crushing feel- 
 ing of loneliness that we cannot dispel pervades the soul, and 
 life for the time loses its value by reason of its comparative in- 
 significance. But the frequent mails, the long lines of railroad, 
 the locomotive with its ribs of steel and mouth of fire, the bridges 
 of steamboats over all the deep separating Avater-ways, the j^erfect 
 net-work of tclegraijh and telephone v/ires, like great life-roots, 
 still closely unite and bind to the familiar places and faces that 
 we have left behind us; Avhile the morning press, that miracle of 
 modern enterprise and invention — seems to so closely connect us, 
 that we realize that we are indeed a component part of the great 
 world of human life, and we feel every pulsation of its great 
 heart. But upon the little island of New Providence — a rock 
 fast anchored in the great ocean — communication with the out- 
 side world is so infrequent and contingent, that we seem when 
 anxiously waiting, watching, and vainly longing for the arrival 
 from Jacksonville of the only steamer that connects these islands 
 with the mainland, like a little colony of Eobinson Crusoes. 
 
 On stepping from the deck of a steamer, ujDon one of the 
 docks at Nassau, Ave have a consciousness that we are mere waifs 
 on the ocean of life, dissevered and far away drifted from every- 
 thing that makes a residence upon the sun's little satelite desir- 
 able. 
 
 The tired worker, needing absolute quiet and rest, can find it 
 there. But he must make np his mind not to be anxious or 
 fussy about friends and business in his distant home. If, day 
 
ISLAISTD SOLITUDES. SEA-BATHING IN WINTER. 207 
 
 after day, the expected steamer fails to arrive, and he looks a 
 hundred times in vain for the signal of her ajjproach upon the 
 flag-staff at Fort Fincastle, he must not allow himself to think 
 even of the possibility that she has foundered at sea, or has been 
 wrecked on some of the dangerous rocks or reefs or shores that 
 have made the Bahamas so noted in the past. He must not in- 
 dulge in speculations upon the probable results of such a misfor- 
 tune, nor strive to find out how long it will be before the outside 
 world will hear of the disaster and make provision for his return 
 to the living busy world from which he is separated. If he has 
 a sick- relative in charge, he must not undertake to solve the con- 
 undrum what he ought to do in case the sickness assumes a very 
 dangerous form, and how he will manage in case of death. But, 
 on the other hand, by all means let him feast and fill his soul 
 with the sensuous, ambrosial delights that surround him, thank 
 God for the clear, blue skies, the mild uniform temperature, 
 the soft and balmy airs, the tranquil and beautiful seas, the 
 strange, wonderful fauna of the emerald water, the picturesque 
 islets and keys, and the new and most charming vegetable world 
 that is ever spread out in unfading beauty before him; let him 
 enjoy the present, trust in the future, and in a Divine Providence 
 that wisely directs, rules and overrules with unerring wisdom 
 and unflagging benevolence, and leave to fools and madmen the 
 bad business of distilling, like wasps and hornets in flower gar- 
 dens, poisons from present joys. 
 
 While considering Nassau's advantages as a health resort in 
 winter, we ought not to omit to mention the facilities which it 
 offers for sea bathing. In this particular nature has done for it 
 all that could be reasonably asked or desired. She has furnished 
 both air and water of a most agreeable temperature at all seasons 
 of the year, and during all the hours of both day and night. 
 No cold currents of either air or water are encountered. The 
 
20^ ISLES OF SUMMiER. 
 
 islands are situated within tlio limits of tho isothermal belt, that 
 in the neighborhood of the equator, nearly encircles, with a warm 
 watery girdle, the earth. The Gulf Stream protects it upon the 
 west and north, while the strong v/inds, that sometimes jDrevail, 
 seem unable to bring to the surface the colder water that fills 
 the bed of the vast oceanic basins. Besides private bath houses 
 along the city's harbor front, bathing facilities are furnished near 
 Fort Montague. Crossing the harbor in a row-boat, the north 
 shore of Hog Island is soon reached, where the surf rolls in from 
 the ocean, and bathing of a lively and exciting description can be 
 enjoyed by those who experience an exhilarating pleasure in 
 breasting the strong and foaming billows. Some gentlemen who 
 occasionally tried surf bathing there before breakfast, spoke very 
 highly in its praise, but regretted that no one had life, energy 
 and enterprise enough to smooth the surface of the rocks — a work 
 requiring but a few hours of labor with a hammer. 
 
 Some indulged every morning in a sea-water sponge bath in 
 their rooms. 
 
CHAPTEK Xir. 
 
 Corals and Coral Reefs. The Marvelous Beauty of the " Mai-ine Oarden." 
 Its Corals, Cor alines, Oorgonias, Algm, Sponges, and Wonderfully Colored 
 Fishes. Water Glasses. Natural Aqttamims. Coral Bowers and Grottoes. 
 Sea Urchins. The Colored Divers. Life in the Rock. 
 
 " There with a light and easy motion 
 The fan-coral sweeps througli the clear deep sea, 
 And life, in rare and beautiful forms, 
 Is sporting amid the bowers of stone, 
 While the waters murmur tranquilly- 
 Through the bending twigs of the coral groves." — Peecival. 
 
 While at Nassau it was our happy destiny to make the partial 
 acquaintance of some of the members of a family of the most 
 ceaseless, and indefatigable builders that have ever existed since 
 the vs^orld first commenced to keep step to the '^'^ music of the 
 spheres," and sweep in grand cycles around the sun. Called into 
 existence by the fiat of Jehovah, in that vague and mysterious 
 *' beginning" when "the earth was without form," and ''dark- 
 ness was upon the face of the deejD," the little corals, with the 
 first peep of creation's early dawn, commenced, in the warm clear 
 waters of the great primeval sea, their silent, unobtrusive and 
 apparently insignificant work — evidences of which, clear and in- 
 disputable, the researches of modern scientists have discovered 
 far inland, hundreds and thousands of miles from where the 
 Western Atlantic billows "beat the sounding shore." In an 
 unbroken line of descent, from the depths of a past so vast and 
 
 209 
 
^10 ISLES 6t feUM!MS;ft. 
 
 profound that the minds of tlie wisest men reel, totter and 
 give way when they attempt to grasp and follow it, the little, 
 tireless, plodding, stone-secreting corals of our own times have 
 descended. The monuments of their Past are the islands and 
 continents, whose foundations they laid, that have arisen out of 
 the sea — while the Future patiently, in solemn majesty, awaits 
 the completion, in tropical and semi-tropical latitudes, of those 
 new foundations, now being so quietly and noiselessly laid by 
 these diligent builders, upon which the " new earth " of prophecy 
 is to rest. 
 
 Looking at them in the perfectly clear waters of the Bahamas, 
 how insignificant they appear! Studying them more carefully 
 in the light of the vast results which they have already accom- 
 plished, they seem foremost among the great builders, made and 
 set apart by Grod for the erection of homes, in a vast and wild 
 waste of waters, for all the varied forms of vegetable and animal 
 life. Individually they are seemingly as insignificant as the motes 
 in a sun-beam. Collectively, as seen through the dim mists 
 which shroud in gloom the vast unknown periods lying back of 
 the small cycles of recorded time, they glow and are hallowed 
 with a radiance reflected from a divinity whose decrees they ex- 
 ecute. " The mill of the gods grinds slow;" to Him who had no 
 beginning and is ever existing, "a thousand years are as one 
 day," — and as we, from time to time, gazed at and reflected upon 
 these little but most important creatures in their ocean homes, 
 they revealed to us more of the divine than did ever the lofty 
 cloud-capped mountain in its sublimity, or the vast ocean when 
 vexed and tossed by the wildest and most angry storms. Upon 
 our arrival in Nassau they were the first to attract our attention, 
 and, before leaving, they were among the last to engage our 
 thoughts and employ our pen. When we would projjose the task 
 of attempting some description of them, we felt an indescribable 
 
I'eluctance to commence, and were awed into silence, knowing 
 that we could make but a faint picture of the corals as they 
 appear to the eye, or give satisfactory expression to the moody 
 speculations which they naturally suggest to an inquiring mind. 
 
 The coral was formerly believed to belorg to the vegetable 
 kingdom, but naturalists have for some time agreed that it is one 
 of the lowest forms of animal life. To those whom " proud science 
 never taught to stray," it apj^ears, upon casual inspection, to be 
 in some of its forms nothing but a curious and beautiful kind of 
 limestone, and in others a marine vegetable having such a stony 
 habit of growth as closely to ally it to the inanimate rock upon 
 which it builds, and to which it is securely attached and appar- 
 ently rooted. It belongs to the large family of coralligerotis 
 zoophytes, and is found not only in the Bahama waters, but off 
 the coast of Florida, around the Bermuda and West India islands, 
 Madagascar and Mauritius, off the coast of Zanzibar, in the Per- 
 sian Gulf, in the Red and the Mediterranean Seas, and in the 
 Indian and Pacific oceans; but, as it cannot live and work excejit 
 in water of the temperature of not less than 68° of Fahrenheit, it 
 is only found within a belt of ocean thirty-six hundred miles 
 wide, through which the line of the equator runs. In colder 
 latitudes, and off the western coast of South America and Africa, 
 it is not found. Some of its reefs are over a thousand miles 
 long. 
 
 The most important of the coral-making animals are the Polyps, 
 which in external form and delicacy of coloring Prof. Dana com- 
 pares to the garden aster. Both have a central disc, fringed 
 with petal-like organs called tenacles. Below the disk the coral 
 polyp has a stout cylindrical pedicel or body which contains the 
 stomach and internal cavity of the polyp. The mouth is in the 
 center of the disk. The coral animal is very domestic, from ne- 
 cessity, being as it were, " tied to its own door-post." Like a tree 
 
.913 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 or shrub, through its little round of life it remains fastened to 
 the same spot, and the process of increasing and multiplying 
 never stops. Closely compacted in compound grouj^s, a single 
 zoophyte is formed by a budding process differing little from the 
 budding process in vegetable growth. The coral animals while 
 thus closely associated, living together and constantly multiply- 
 ing, secrete the beautiful corallum or coral of commerce and cab- 
 inets, which is merely the skeleton on which the soft and perishable 
 portion of the animal rests, and to which it adheres. Coral reefs 
 are, in their outer surfaces, mainly composed of great communi- 
 ties of these flowering zoophytes, below which the dead skeletons 
 are compacted and solidified. 
 
 The coral reefs were divided by Charles Darwin in his Voyage 
 of a Naturalist, jDublished many years ago, into three classes. 
 The first, which are found in the immediate neighborhood of the 
 land, in shallow water, he called fringing reef corals; and the 
 second, barrier reef corals. These two surround islands or skirt 
 continents, but they are separated from the neighboring shores 
 by navigable channels, while their outer margins often border 
 ocean depths as vast as those seen from lofty mountain tops. A 
 barrier coral reef is formed off the coast of Australia, of sufficient 
 length to more than reach from Nassau to New York. It is from 
 twenty to thirty miles from the shore, and is a breakwater to a 
 great natural highway, having a de|Dtli of water of from sixty to 
 six hundred feet. The remaining class of coral reefs are circular 
 in form and are called atolls. They encircle great lagoons, or 
 large areas of ocean water, to which access is generally obtained 
 through breaches or openings upon their leeward sides — where 
 we would naturally anticipate the little corals would be most ac- 
 tively at work, as they would be there less exposed to the force 
 and fury of the ocean when its billows are storm-tossed. But 
 Creative Wisdom has secured their services for the windward side 
 
THE CORALS AS BUILDERS. 213 
 
 by making it a law of their existence not merely that they shall 
 be constantly under water which is clear and of a temperature of 
 not less than 68° Fahr., but that the water shall be gerated; the 
 ceaseless dashing of the waves against the rocks and reefs on the 
 windward side saturates them with air, as the foaming breakers 
 and sparkling spray clearly indicate; and hence it is that here, 
 in the ever seething, boiling, foaming waters, these silent, unob- 
 trusive and seemingly unimportant creatures, with a lineage 
 reaching back to " chaos and old night," are found in the great- 
 est numbers, reach their highest development, and accomplish 
 the best results Thus do the ocean depths below us, where by 
 an alchemy far surj)assing the skill and genius of man, the little 
 corals secrete from the ocean waves the limestone foundations for 
 islands and continents that are yet to be, equally with the depths 
 above where suns and systems of worlds revolve, forever reveal 
 to the observing eye and inquiring mind the perfect and profound 
 wisdom of their common Creator. 
 
 We have spoken of the corals as builders, and in joractical re- 
 sults, such they pre-eminently are, but, as Prof. Dana has shown, 
 they do not labor like the bird in constructing its nest or the 
 beaver in making its dam, but, by a law of their nature, they se- 
 crete the corallum or coral as man makes his own bones or the 
 oyster its shell, and the vast coral formations found upon the 
 land and in the ocean are composed of the skeletons which they 
 have left behind them. 
 
 No costly sarcophagus of deceased royalty — no mausoleum 
 which human skill and ingenuity has ever erected — no Egyptian 
 pyramid rising grandly out of the shadows of four thousand de- 
 parted years, can even in a remote degree rival in beauty and 
 sublimity the vast and varied tumuli of these little dwellers in 
 tropical and semi-tropical seas. 
 
 The corals and corallum in extensive beds abound in the Ba- 
 
214 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 hama waters, and aJIord one of the principal attractions for 
 those who yisit this part of Queen Victoria's possessions. We 
 have seen and studied them at various times and under diiierent 
 circumstances, and yet we feel, not only that our knowledge of 
 them is imperfect and superficial, but that we can convey to 
 others only a crude and unsatisfactory reflection of the impres- 
 sion they made upon our own mind. The effect is heightened 
 by all the surrounding circumstances. There is nothing to an- 
 noy or produce any but pleasurable sensations, New but con- 
 genial friends meet together by a subtle law of attraction, recline 
 on the cushions, occupy the comfortable chairs, or sit on the cir- 
 cular seats of the ''Trident," the "Gazelle" or the "Frolic." 
 It is, to be sure, mid-winter, but no northern summer air ever 
 seemed half so soft, soothing and voluptuous. We have not known 
 each other long, and yet there is such an absence of reserve, such 
 an interchange of thought, such an expression of pleasurable 
 emotions, and such a telling of rich and racy anecdotes, that a 
 looker-on would have sup})osed we were life-long acquaintances 
 and friends. Feasting and surfeiting upon types and forms of 
 beauty never seen or even imagined in our colder climes, it was 
 a relief to be aided in the audible expression of delightful emo- 
 tions by the combined vocabularies of our little group of ex- . 
 plorers. 
 
 Visits to the coral beds and reefs are made exceedingly attrac- 
 tive by reason of the peculiar clearness and beauty of the water 
 over which we sail to reach them and in which they are found. 
 No snow fed mountain torrent was ever more clear and trans- 
 parent, and, as the Avater-bed is white limestone, objects at the 
 bottom can be seen Avith great distinctness. On one occasion of 
 relatively smooth water, a mile or so outside of the bar of Nassau 
 harbor, we clearly saw the bottom at a depth of about seventy 
 feet. The sounding line showed seventy-six feet, but some dis- 
 
BEAUTIFUL SEA WATEE. 215 
 
 count must be made, because, as our yacht was in motion, the 
 line could not have been perpendicular. 
 
 The water of the harbor is most exquisitely colored. It is a 
 soft, delicate, brilliant green, wholly unlike any of the countless 
 shades of green seen in tne vegetable world. AYhen the waves 
 are gently rolling in a brilliant sunlight, they gleam and sparkle 
 in a manner but faintly represented by the most beautifully tinted 
 silks when their graceful folds are in motion under a strong light. 
 It cannot be properly described upon paper, and if faithfully imi- 
 tated ujDon canvass by the most gifted artist he would be charged 
 by art critics and connoisseurs with painting the ideal, and with 
 being color mad. One never tires of looking at it, but soon gets 
 out of descriptive and eulogistic adjectives, and rests with a final 
 declaration that it is a brilliant, moving, liquid, sparkling, lovely 
 torquoise. At times, v/lien the winds and sunlight are particu- 
 larly favorable, such color eifects are produced that practical, 
 prosaic men seem to vie with the more susceptible and apprecia- 
 tive ladies in their exclamations of astonishment and pleasure. 
 A lady in our party on one occasion when we visited the corals, 
 exclaimed while gazing, feasting and almost getting intoxicated 
 upon this wonderful exhibition of color, ''What would our 
 friends at home say if they could only see this ! They think that 
 they know water, but they don't." 
 
 Occasional rifts in the limestone bed of the harbor vary the 
 prevailing color with ribbons of the deepest and darkest blue, 
 while the ocean outside is seen to darkly mirror the softer blue 
 of the sky. Often also there is at midday a warm glow above 
 the horizon like that which heralds the ushering in of a new day. 
 
 As we near the homes of the corals the foaming and dashing 
 of the breakers over coral reefs and submerged rocks reminds one 
 of our ]mrty of the icy spray of an Alpine avalanche, and adds a 
 new and pleasing variety to the view^ while the neighboring 
 
216 ISLES or SUMMER. - - 
 
 islands with honeycombed shores,' and short patches of white 
 sandy beaches, also contribute other elements of beauty. The 
 purple haze resting upon the island of New Providence also re- 
 calls the aerial investiture of the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. 
 
 We are soothed and lulled by a soft silvery melody, the water 
 rising and singing sweetly to us as we glide along ; the music 
 perfectly harmonizes with the calm and voluptuous beauty which 
 nature has lavishly bestowed uj)on this favored locality. 
 
 Snatches of poetry long concealed in some of the nooks and 
 corners of the mind, and forgotten — the gathered gems of earlier 
 years — emerge from their hiding places amid scenes and sur- 
 roundings so congenial, (just as the beautiful and j^erfumed blos- 
 soms of the arbutus awaken from their winter's sleep in the warm 
 breath of the opening spring,) and we again exclaim with Fay : 
 
 "Blow scented gale, the snowy canvass swell, 
 And flow, thou gleaming eddying currert, on; 
 Grieve me to bid each lovely point farewell, 
 That, ere its graces half are seen, is gone. 
 
 "Nor clouds in heaven, nor billows on the deep, 
 More graceful shapes did ever have or roll, 
 Nor came such pictures to a poet's sleep. 
 Nor beamed such visions on a poet's soul." 
 
 The "Marine Garden," through which the reader may remem- 
 ber we passed when returning from our yachting excursion to 
 test the capabilities of Sampson's Triton in a strong wind outside 
 the bar, is nearer to Nassau and more accessible than any of the 
 other localities where the corals abound in this vicinity. Hence 
 it is the most visited and the best known. Situated between 
 two islands, it is more sheltered from the wind, and the conse- 
 quent comparative smoothness of the water enables the visitors 
 at all times to examine it. Being a flower garden under water. 
 
-,fS- ' '«^ ^ %i <•/ 
 
 7# ^/ / 
 
 
 \ /, 
 
 
 
 
 » V - 5^ 
 
 yc«'*'pr^ 
 
 j^vsii^*^^ vjs,. 
 
 
 1?" 
 
 
 -] HR r'= 
 
 -.r^T'-''"^4v 
 
 CORALS 
 
WHITE STONY CORALS. 
 
 1. Aga/ricia agwriciUs. A piece from the edge of a large mass. Natural 
 size. In life each hole was occupied by an animal with separate mouth and 
 tentacles, but connected at the base with all the others around it. 
 
 2. Pontes clavaria. End of a branch. Natural size. 
 
 3. Eusmilia fastigiata. "Rose Coral." A branch. Natural size. 
 Formed of four distinct animals, two of which are nearly divided across the 
 middle. 
 
 4. Millepora alcicornis. " Sea Ginger." When fresh it has a biting taste. 
 A branch from a large piece. Natural size. This belongs to the Hydroids, 
 a different class from most corals. In life the soft parts of the animals are 
 extended through minute holes on the surface, marked by dark spots in the 
 figure. 
 
 5. Madrepora proUfera. "Finger Coral." Branch from a large piece. 
 Natural size. Each animal forms a cup-shaped projection. The terminal 
 one, from which those below have branched, is larger than the others. 
 
 6. Manicina areolata. A young specimen. Natural size. Attached to 
 the rock. From Agassiz's Report on Florida Reefs. 
 
 FLEXIBLE CORALS (GORGONIAS.) 
 
 Corals with a hard, flexible core, covered with a softer outer layer, which 
 is usually brightly colored. 
 
 1. Muricea muricata. A branch. Natural size. Light orange-color in 
 life. 
 
 2. Oorgonia flabellum. "Fan Coral." Light purple or bright yellow in 
 color. A small specimen. Natural size. The black spots along the edges 
 of some of the branches mark the holes from which the mouths and tentacles 
 extended when the coral was alive. 
 
 3. Gorgonia setosa. "Sea Feather." One-fourth natural size. Color, 
 light pink or purple. 
 
"Tt. .<<"f , 1 
 
 
 1^ . ^'. 
 
 
 (Thi- 5 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 J.K. Emerton. ^tonx natcrre . 
 
 -'Lrnderson&Ci'isand New Haven Ct 
 
 CORALS 
 
THE ^AEIXE GAEDEK. 217 
 
 the eye cannot explore it Avhen the surface is rough. Each boat 
 is therefore provided with " water glasses," wooden boxes about 
 eight or ten inches square, open at the top, with window 
 glass bottoms ; to the boxes are attached wooden handles from 
 eighteen inches to three feet long. Holding this little instru- 
 ment over the side of a boat at anchor, in such a manner that 
 the glass bottom is immersed, the observer who looks through 
 the open end of the water glass can see all the '^ wonders of the 
 deep " in the line of his vision as plainly as he could if no water 
 intervened. 
 
 This marine garden is made uj) of the most exquisite submerged 
 coral bowers and grottoes, which rival the choicest productions 
 of the floral world in form and color. We can hardly believe 
 our eyes when such charming and unexpected beauties are first 
 revealed by the water glass. The madrepora or branching coral 
 is very abundant, and is here and there seen of a large size. The 
 astrasa or brain coral also abounds, and masses of it are seen many 
 feet in diameter. Alcyonoid jjolyps, (delicate coral shrubs,) vie 
 with the gay, varied and luxuriant algae in decorating the garden 
 with their curious growths. They are peculiarly delicate in form, 
 graceful in motion, and attractive in color. The gorgonias or 
 sea-fans, also diversified in size and color, unite with the large 
 clusters of tall, purple sea-feathers in challenging the admiration 
 of all beholders, as they gracefully wave in the clear water like 
 tall flowering shrubs in the wind. 
 
 Sponges are here also seen, clustered and combined in their 
 little miniature cities, and immovably fastened to the rocky shelf 
 upon which the warm, clear, beautiful waters rest. New and 
 exquisite forms of coral beauty startle and charm us as our yacht 
 slowly circles round her anchor in difEerent portions of this curi- 
 ous nautical exhibition. Into deep alcoves and recesses, and far 
 under shelving masses of corals, we inquiringly gaze, but an im- 
 
 18 
 
S18 ISLES OF SUMMEE. 
 
 penetrable mystery hides in the shadows where no sunlight enters, 
 and, by a most striking contrast, helps to glorify and adorn the 
 beautiful and unique forms that the light reveals. 
 
 New and wonderful combinations of these (to us) strange forms 
 of marine animal and vegetable life, when first observed and 
 closely studied, is the occasion of new expressions of delight. If 
 sea-nymphs and ocean fairies exist anywhere in the world of 
 waters, their chosen home should surely be in these coral bowers 
 and grottoes; and if they are ever embodied, their outward adorn- 
 ments cannot in color surpass that of the fish Ave saw sporting in 
 the sunlight, and darting into the dark recesses of this beautiful 
 submerged coral world. Exquisite in form, the perfection of 
 gracefulness in motion, the peers of birds of gayest jalumage in 
 color, they seemed specially adapted to harmonize with, and grace 
 and adorn this lovely spot. As with water, so "our friends at 
 home think they know fish — but they don't." Some are brilliant 
 yellow, others a rich scarlet, and others a glossy indigo blue. 
 Here are seen fish in suits of emerald green, and others in clerical 
 "black. Costumes of satin and silver may also be observed. Be- 
 sides all these there is in the piscatory dwellers among the corals 
 a most gorgeous color display, resulting from the ringing and 
 striping and fringing and tipping and spotting of the fish. In- 
 deed, it seems as if all the tints of the floral world and of the 
 rainbow had been used in the most perfect and lavish manner 
 to beautify and adorn these small specimens of the native dwellers 
 of the ocean world. One of these, most gorgeously colored, was 
 brought to us in a pail of sea water at our hotel, and we had an 
 opportunity to more critically examine it. It was six inches long. 
 Capt. Sampson called it the humming bird fish. We bottled it 
 in alcohol, but its beautiful colors soon faded away. A descrip- 
 tion of some of tliese remarkable fauna of the sea the reader will 
 find in the next chapter of this book. The real in the coral 
 bowers is more e-oro-eous than the ideal. 
 
THE AQTTAEIUMS. 219 
 
 Besides the coral beds there are two '*■ aquariums," as they are 
 very appropriately termed, in the harbor of IN'assau, easily acces- 
 sible, which few, if any, of Nassau's visitors fail to see. One 
 consists of the keel and small portions of the attached ribs of a 
 Avrecked vessel lying upon the bottom of the harbor. The other 
 IS Avhat is left of another vessel wrecked not far from the first, 
 with its load of lime in barrels; these barrels are distinctly seen 
 in the clear Avater. Great quantities of fish like those we have 
 partially described, are at all times to be seen swimming in and 
 around these old wrecks; as the coral bowers are so much more 
 beautiful, we conclude they are here not from choice but from 
 compulsion, and that they have been driven out of the Marine 
 Gardens of Eden to these forbidding-looking places on account 
 of their piscatory '^ indiscretions." Possibly they colonized for 
 want of sufficient room. Perhaps, like ourselves, they are ''on 
 an excursion." It may be that they have some religious system 
 and are here doing penance for real or imagined sins, or hope to 
 secure divine favor by thus renouncing the gay world in which 
 the voluptuous marine Epicureans are indulging. For surely no 
 one can doubt that living, as such fish for the most part do, in a 
 little world of more than oriental magnificence of fact and fable, 
 they have a delicate and refined taste and an esthetic nature 
 which peculiarly fits them for the enjoyment of nature's most 
 lavish gifts to them of the beautiful in form and color. 
 
 Another marine garden very much visited is called "the coral 
 reef. " Being much farther off, and lying to the windward, in 
 a position more exposed to the ocean, it is only occasionally that 
 there is such a combination of force and direction of Avind as to 
 favor a visit to the reef. It must be sufficiently fair to enable 
 the yacht to go and return in a certain limited time, and not so 
 strong as to make rough sea. The water at this reef being more 
 aerated, the corals thrive better, and their A^orks are on a more 
 
220 ISLES OF SUMMEE, 
 
 extensive scale. Here the branching coral of a large size is very 
 abundant — a variety familiar to all our readers. "When taken 
 from the water, it is of a light drab or yellow color, and for 
 a while has a disagreeable odor, both of which it loses when ex- 
 posed for a time to the air and the sunlight. We took the lib- 
 erty to give this "reef" a better descriptive name, and, with the 
 permission of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, and of her official 
 representatives in the Bahamas, to call it, " Coral Bowers and 
 Grottoes " — for such it literally is. It is the " Marine Garden " 
 enlarged and magnified. It abounded with "wood paths wild," 
 in miniature forests of coral, — dark recesses in groves that 
 gleamed in brightness and beauty— alcoves carved in forms gro- 
 tesque but beautiful, and profusely ornamented — vaulted isles 
 of an architectural design and finish that dwarfed and belittled 
 the products of human skill and genius — cave openings, elabo- 
 rately wrought and strangely configured and adorned, yawning 
 beneath coral banks and bowers wild and endlessly varied — all 
 constituting a vast natural aquarium, the home of large numbers 
 of fish like those seen in the Marine G-arden, brilliantly and most 
 gorgeously colored, which bore the same relation to the little 
 aquariums that man makes that the vast and magnificent tropi- 
 cal forests, clothed in perennial green, adorned Avith graceful 
 vines, teeming with flowers of every hue, and vocal with count- 
 less birds of the most varied and of the richest plumage, bear to 
 a lady's little but luxurious boudoir, with its evergreen branches, 
 climbing vines and captive birds in their small but gilded cages. 
 Turning our eyes upward, surfeited as they were with the truly 
 wonderful display below the surface of the water, it was restful 
 to look again at the soft but resplendent beauty of the blue heav- 
 ens, here and there draped Avitli light curtains of satin and silver, 
 and at the gcm-Iike setting in the green and blue Avaters of the 
 islands^, keys and rocks, Avith their varied outlines and colors 
 
*rHE CORAL t>Ei!)S. ^§1 
 
 Visible m every direction, while we inhaled, meanwhile an at- 
 mosphere delightfully cooled and medicated by the ocean, and 
 yet sufficiently warm to saturate us with an indolence we could 
 not shake ofE, and with a feeling of languid and voluptuous ease, 
 satisfaction and content. We seemed tenants of a new world 
 where ambition is unknown and the passions are either dead or 
 lost in a sleep profound and dreamless. Let not the reader for 
 a moment indulge in any suspicions that this picture is over- 
 drawn, for it is not within the power of any man to so color his 
 descriptions of the coral bowers as to convey any pro|)er idea of 
 their marvelous beauty, or to do justice to the original. The 
 most gifted pen can only caricature nature's perfect works. He 
 who is not greatly exhilarated, excited and charmed while view- 
 ing the coral beds of the Bahamas, under the favoring circum-' 
 stances which we have attempted to describe, is certainly color 
 blind, and, as H. W. Beecher would say, ''dead in the eye." In 
 the language of Shakespeare, when speaking of music, ''let no 
 such man be trusted." 
 
 On a charming forenoon in March, 1879, when sailing in the 
 " Gazelle " in a very light wind, we were for the first time be- 
 calmed just as we came to anchor over a large bed of coral to 
 which we were piloted by Capt. Johnson, of the existence of 
 which we were until then ignorant. For half an hour the wind 
 failed to make itself felt, and the water was perfectly smooth 
 and glassy. To our great joy we found that we could stand up- 
 on the deck of our yacht and see, without water glasses or any 
 artificial aid, an extensive tract of corals with their swarms of 
 beautiful fish, and even the shadows of some of them on the 
 white bottom of the harbor, at a distance, we judged, of about 
 twenty-five feet from the surface. Among the corals we observed 
 here, as elsewhere, many algae, gorgonias and sponges growing 
 upon the limestone floor to which they were attached. One 
 
3^2 ISLES OF 8ITMMEE.- 
 
 sponge was of the size and shape of a half bushel basket. It waS 
 secured for us, but proved to be old and rotten. 
 
 Here also, as in the '^ Marine Garden," and in the ''coral 
 bowers and grottoes," way down in the edges of the lowest and 
 darkest shadows, we occasionally observed fishes repulsive in form 
 and diabolical in expression, whose movements were most de- 
 cidedly stealthy and suspicious. What business had they to grope 
 in the caverns and peer into the sunlight? What was their mis- 
 sion in the gardetfof the sea gods? Were they piscatory bull 
 dogs to gnard and protect, or piscatory demons bent on marring 
 a happiness which their loAver nature was unfitted to enjoy? 
 
 Our crew consisted in part of exj^ert divers, who, as soon as we 
 anchored over or near to a coral bed, entered the little forecastle, 
 and soon re-appeared in costumes, not of Parisian, but of the 
 Garden of Eden cut — and truly ''Solomon in all his glory was 
 not arrayed like one of these." When a growth of coral was dis- 
 covered by any one of the passengers, peculiarly beautiful and 
 coveted, the diver immediately plunged overboard and soon de- 
 tached and brought it to the surface, unless it proved to be too 
 large and heavy, or too securely fastened for his strength. It 
 is a novel and very amusing spectacle, and we could not refrain 
 from speculating upon the probable impression these black in- 
 truders made upon the gay and sportive dwellers in coral bowers. 
 If to us they seemed like imps of destruction, marring a beauty 
 they could not make, and distnrbing a felicity they could not 
 appreciate or enjoy, no doubt the little gorgeous finny philoso- 
 phers Avere not only shocked and appalled by the desecration and 
 destruction which they witnessed, but sorely puzzled to reconcile 
 it with their ideas of what infinite justice and goodness should 
 either do or permit. 
 
 Slowly moving out into view from under cover at the base of 
 the corals there is seen at times the sea-urchin, a shell fish from 
 
SEA tJECHIN-S. LIFE IK THE ROCK. 323 
 
 two to four inches in diameter, which bristles with long, black, 
 needle-like spines. When these spines are removed it is seen to 
 be a shell-fish, round -but flat like a large biscuit, very prettily 
 shaped and marked. The negroes daily bring these shells to the 
 court of the hotel and sell them to visitors under the name of 
 "sea eggs." 
 
 These curiously armed shell-fish appear to perform police duty, 
 and their sharp spines often cause the colored intruder discom- 
 fited to retire. One of our divers was made quite lame by one 
 of these creatures, the broken spine in his foot irritating and in- 
 flaming the flesh, and requiring for its proper removal the in- 
 struments and skill of the surgeon. 
 
 The barbs with which the spines are covered, are like so many 
 minute fish hooks; they readily admit the entrance of the spines 
 into the flesh of man or fish, but prevent their removal; so that 
 as an enemy, although small, they are somewhat formidable. 
 
 In consulting the works that have been occasionally published 
 concerning the Bahamas, we have been astonished at finding in 
 them so little in regard to the great clearness and brilliant hues 
 of the water, and the strange and exquisitely beautiful sub-aque- 
 ous world which the water glass reveals. Catesby appears to 
 have seen and described more than most, if not all, the authors 
 who have succeeded him. 
 
 There was occasionally brought to us by the divers specimens 
 of corals and gorgonias with some of the soft coraline rock to 
 which they adhered, and to which they seemed rooted, and we 
 were surprised to see that these fragments of the rocky floor of 
 the sea gardens abounded with worms and other forms of life. 
 Mr. Phelps states that he broke a large piece of this rock into 
 small fragments, and found in it a number of small crabs, two 
 or three small star fishes, three or more shrimps, three worms 
 organized like a centiped, and some monopod worms. He be^ 
 
224 ISLES OF SUMMED. 
 
 lieved it contained not less than fifty liring creatures. Channels 
 had also been cut in the stone six inches deep, by stone-boring 
 mollusks. When Capt. Basil Hall wrote a description of the 
 corals in his ''Voyage to the Islands of Loo Choo," which the 
 author of ''The Pelican Island" used as a text for his poem, he 
 evidently supposed that corallum is the work of the " worms of 
 different lengths and colors" with which the bottom rock is 
 "full," — hence the great mistake which both authors made. 
 
 We deem it not improbable that it will ultimately be discovered 
 that corals, as well as sponges, can be artificially propagated; if 
 so, we see no reason why the more valuable red varieties may not 
 be successfully cultivated in the Bahama waters. The colonial 
 government, at a small expense, can by wise legislation cause 
 experiments looking to such a result to be made. The old world 
 has colonized the new with men, choice live stock, delicious fruits 
 and destructive insects — why should it not give us its superior 
 sponges and corals? 
 
 Eeferring the reader to the excellent work of Prof. Dana, upon 
 " Corals and Coral Islands," for full and complete information 
 from a scientific standpoint upon the subject of this chapter, we 
 take leave of the corals for the present, fully aware that we have 
 hardly crossed the threshold where we would have been only too 
 happy, had we been able, to fully enter and thoroughly explore. 
 
ECHINODERMS. 
 
 i. EcMnanthus rosaceus. Upper side. One-third natural size, covered 
 with short purple or olive spines V7hen alive. 
 
 2. Orea&ter gigas. It is sometimes more than a foot in diameter. Covered 
 with hard knobs connected by low ridges. Bright red or orange, when alive. 
 
 3, 4. Cidaris tribuloides. 4. A small specimen in its natural state. 
 3. The same after the spines have been removed, showing the knobs to which 
 they are attached. One-half natural size. 
 
 5, Diadema setomm. A "Sea Egg" with very long spines. Black, or 
 banded with black and yellow. When the spines are removed it resembles 
 fig. 3, but the knobs are smaller and more numerous. One-half natural size. 
 
\ 1 
 
 i I 
 
 / / 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 •■///// i i I V 1 ^ 
 
 
 
 ///// / n \ H ~^s "nvv ^ 
 
 
 J fi.Emsrtor. ironi. na.tm'e. iVni^rsontSLCrisand'RewHaYu-.i 
 
 EGHINODERMS 
 
« ib- 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 T?ie Extent of the World of Waters and its Wonderful Fauna. Bahama 
 Fishes. Some Eminently Bistinguislied for their Brilliant Colors, and Others 
 for their Singularity, described. Fish that are Poisonous. Table Fish. The 
 Bahaynas Bich in Beautiful Mollusks. They Ha/r^monize with the other Ex- 
 quisite Forms of Life, and loith the Brilliant Waters. The Shores Paved xdth 
 Shells Wonderfid in Form and Colm\ The Conch. 
 
 ' ' In the free element beneath us swarm 
 Fishes of every color, form, and kind, — 
 Strange forms, resplendent colors, kinds unnumbered— 
 Which language cannot paint, and mariner 
 Hath never eleswhere seen. " — Montgomery. 
 
 When" we consider that the sea occupies more than two-thirds 
 01 the earth's surface ; that its normal temperature is, from 
 the equator to the arctic circle, nearly uniform every where, 
 below a few hundred perpendicular feet of its surface; that its 
 depths are most profound, being measured by miles; that al- 
 though it is for man's convenience geographically divided, and 
 called by different names, yet that all the so-called oceans are 
 in fact onp. and that it abounds throughout the whole of its vast 
 extent ^\ . _. c^nimals that are created and fitted to live in the 
 water as others are upon the land, we cannot fail to see that in 
 all probability its fauna is far more extensive and varied than 
 that of the land, and that man's knowledge concerning it is very 
 meagre, superficial and imperfect. It is quite recently that the 
 gigantic cuttle fish has been taken out of the realm of fable and 
 
 235 
 
226 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 placed in the wide domain of fact. While Victor Hugo's '' deYil 
 fisli/' closely resembles, in many particulars; the gigantic cuttle 
 fish, yet, to some extent, it is a creature which the imagination 
 has constructed upon a substantial basis of fact. A scientific 
 gentleman, learned in all the piscatory learning of the present 
 day, stated in our jDresence before the Connecticut Academy of 
 Arts and Sciences, that he had no doubt of the existence of the 
 sea serpent, and that before many years it will be captured and 
 ciitically examined by scientific experts. There is something 
 truly grand in the movements of the monsters of the deep 
 through the vast depths and immense spaces of the great world 
 of waters. But it is apparent that while some fish are able to 
 wander at will in various directions around the world, others are 
 localized by their necessities, and complete their little circle of 
 life very near their family spawning ground. Hence the water 
 that surrounds the Isles of Summer, and that covers the Banks 
 out of which they rise, has its own peculiar and wonderful fauna, 
 some glimpses of which were revealed to us while we were look- 
 ing through the water glasses at the corals, and th^ curious and 
 wonderful forms of life Avhich surround and adorn them. 
 
 Many of these fish Mr. Phelps secured and preserved, and 
 having carefully and critically examined them at his home in 
 Vermont, and closely studied them both in and out of the water 
 during his five montlis stay in ISTassau, he has furnished us de- 
 tailed descriptions of some of them, which we have utilized. We 
 have edited his notes, and shaped them somewhat to fill the 
 limited space that we have been able to spare for them in a vol- 
 ume which treats of so many other subjects. We did not our- 
 selves make the fish a special object of study. We have retained, 
 ' as far as possible, the language of Mr. Phelps, and to him and 
 Mr. Cafcesby should be given credit for whatever of merit there 
 may be in nearly all our piscatory pen pictures. 
 
"The Rainhoio fish is from six to twelve inclies long. Its color 
 is a, dark green. Its scales are largo, and their tinted margins 
 reflect the light in all the colors of the rain-bow — -hence its name. 
 Its teeth are like those of the bluefish, with two plates npon each 
 jaw, which protrude from its lips. 
 
 The Parrot fish is most brilliantly colored. It is principally 
 of a bluish green, with purple marks on the back and near the 
 mouth, and yellow and red marks near the tail. The scales are 
 edged with a dark wine color. 
 
 Oatesby's description of it is more full; he says the body of the 
 Parrot fish is covered with large green scales; the eye is red and 
 yellow; the upper part of the head brown, the lower part and 
 gills blue, bordered with dusky red; a streak of red extends from 
 the tail to behind the gills, at the upper end of which there is a 
 bright yellow spot. It has five fins; one extends almost the 
 length of the back, and is of a bay or cinnamon color; there are 
 two behind tlie gills blended with black, green and purplish col- 
 ors, with their edge verged with blue. Under the abdomen is 
 another red fin, verged with blue; under the anus extends another 
 long, narrow green fin, with a list of red through the middle of 
 it. At the basis of the tail, on each side, is a large yellow spot. 
 The tail is large, forked, and green, with a curved line running 
 through the middle, parallel to the curve of the tail, and ending 
 in white points. It is more remarkable for its beauty than es- 
 teemed for delicacy. 
 
 The Spanish Hog fish is about ten inches in length, and weighs 
 about one pound. The color of its upper j^ortion — being all above 
 a line drawn from the extremity of the dorsal fin to the pectoral 
 fin — is a dark purple wine color, with dark brown bands on the 
 edges of the tail; below this line the color is yellow, deepening 
 in some places into orange. It is beautiful but poisonous. 
 
 The Yellow ^^i^e^^^sA is unsurpassed for the admiration which 
 
H^^ iSLfeS OF sumM'er. 
 
 its beauty elicits. Colored plates are necessary to give any ade- 
 quate idea of the wealth of coloring with which it is endowed, 
 The body is short and high. The dorsal and anal fins are yery 
 large, protruding at the anterior parts, and thick at the base and 
 corners with scales, so that they seem to be a continuation of the 
 body. The scales are large and delicate, of a brov/n color, with 
 a shade of olive green, and each of them is edged with a lighter 
 tint. The chin, nape, upper eyelid, base of the pectoral and 
 neutral fins, and the margin of the dorsal and anal fins are a 
 bright cobalt blue, with lines of the same color extending over 
 the operculum. The caudal fin, and the continuation or append- 
 age of the longest spines of the dorsal and anal fins are bright 
 yellow. The motions of this, as of all the other angel fish, are 
 slow, and it is usually to be seen about the docks, reefs, and old 
 wrecks. Its flesh is not mucli prized. 
 
 The Blach Angel fish is of a much larger size than the preced- 
 ing, and is of an uniform black color. The inner surfaces of the 
 pectoral fins and the margin of the tail are of a bright yellow. 
 
 The Spaiiish Angel fish is one of the most beautiful of fishes. 
 The anterior part of the body is a jet black, while the posterior 
 and tail are a light yellow. The edges of the gills, and margin 
 of the tail are a salmon red color. It is seldom over five inches 
 in length, and is caught in nets and traps, its mouth being too 
 small and delicate for the hook. 
 
 Catesby truthfully says, that this fisli is ''gorgeous, and may 
 be called the butterfly of the sea, it is so beautiful." 
 
 The Moon or G resent Angel fish has a body much compressed 
 and elevated. It has six dark vertical bauds. Tlie third dorsal 
 spine is elongated, and the anterior portion of the dorsal and anal 
 fins are protruding. The four cresent-shuped marks on the body 
 are of a bright yellow, the margin of the tail is edged with the 
 pme tint. It sometimes is found eighteen inches long. 
 
feEAtJTii'UL i'ifeS. ^39 
 
 'The Four-Eyed Angel fish has a black spot on each side of its 
 tail. The fishermen believe these spots to be an extra pair of 
 eyes — hence its name. The color of the body is a pearly gray; 
 the yertical fins are a bright yellow, and a black band runs across 
 the eye. It has a nearly circular outline, with a projecting and 
 protruding snout. It is a delicate, graceful fish. It is seen 
 among the sea-feathers, and around the coral reefs. It seldom 
 exceeds four inches in length, and must be caught with net or 
 trap, as its mouth is too small for the hook. 
 
 The Bahama Turhot is of a bright bluish green above, and of 
 an orange and orange blue beneath. The dorsal and anal fins 
 are very large, and these, with the tail, have long continuations, 
 all of which are of a dark green color. There is a light green 
 band between the tail and bodj^ Extending round from the 
 mouth are two curved, slate-tinted marks running back to the 
 gills. The pectoral fins are small. From the eyes radiate slen- 
 der umber-brown lines, some of which pass around in front of 
 the head from eye to eye. The scales are very rough and strong, 
 and are often used for scouring and polishing wood and metals. 
 The first dorsal fin is very prominent; the first spine, being very 
 stout, is often used as a weapon. The body is very much de- 
 pressed, and resembles that of the angel fish. 
 
 The Trumpet or Unicorn fish, much resembles the turbot in 
 structure, but its body is more elongated and compressed, being 
 about twenty-four inches in length, and nearly half an inch in 
 thickness. Unlike the turbot, the dorsal and anal fins are very 
 transparent, with a slight yellow tinge. The tail is long and very 
 small; the mouth is situated on the upper edge of the snout; the 
 teeth are large and compact; the color is a light ash tint, with 
 many peculiar lines and marks of a light slate blue; a long slen- 
 der spine rises from the head — hence its name. The scales are 
 minute and resemble those of the shark. 
 
 »0 
 
S36 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 Catesby says tliat this fisli is sometimes three feet long; that 
 it is shaped like a rolling-pin, and tapers towards the head and 
 tail; that it can raise, and point backwards and forwards at its 
 pleasure, the tapering sharp pointed bone that is found a little 
 behind the eyes, but that this bone is brittle and easily broken. 
 He also states that this fish feeds on shells and coralline sub- 
 stances, and is considered poisonous, and is found where corals 
 are plentiful. 
 
 The Coio fish is from five to twenty inches in length. The 
 appearance of this fish is exceedingly queer and comical. This 
 is especially true of its face, which is that of its great namesalvc 
 in small miniature. Whether this shell fish has infringed upon 
 the cow's facial copyright, or the cow upon that of this odd fish, 
 we are unable to decide. Its body is shaped like a beech nut, 
 being triangular. The shell in which it is entirely enclosed (ex- 
 cept the lips, base of fins, hind part of tail and eyes), is composed 
 of hexagonal osseous scales; the parts excepted are covered with 
 a soft skin; over each eye there is a prominent conical spine, 
 which |)oints straight forward, and helps much to give the face 
 of the fish its cow-like appearance. On each neutral ridge there 
 is a flat spine directed backward. The caropace is of a rich, 
 bright blue color, with brown lines, and is very beautiful when 
 seen in a good light, but it changes a good deal and the colors 
 soon vanish after death. Its motions are slow and cautious, and 
 it sometimes ejects water from its mouth to a distance of four 
 feet. 
 
 The Triangular fish or Cuckold Shell-fish, (as it is called by 
 the natives), is about twelve inches in length, and sometimes 
 weighs two pounds. The integuments of the body are modified 
 into a three ridged caropace, composed of hexagonal osseous 
 scales. The snout-like mouth, the basis of the fins, and the 
 hind part of the tail are covered by soft skin. On each neutral 
 
BEArTIFUL Pis:tf. S31 
 
 ridge is a flat prominent spine, directed backwards. The color 
 is quite cliangeable; it is usually of a bluish cast, with brown 
 spots and marks. It is a slow swimmer, and is often seen rest- 
 ing on the bottom. It will live several hours out of water with- 
 out undergoing any apparent change, but when returned to the 
 water, it is at first unable to sink to the bottom on account of 
 the air it has absorbed. Its pectoral fins are constantly in mo- 
 tion, apparently for the purpose of fanning a current of water 
 through the gills. Its flesh is of a light color, and its appeai'- 
 ance and taste is like the breast of a chicken. It is best baked, 
 but is said to be at times poisonous. 
 
 The Squirrel fish is very beautiful. Its color is scarlet, and in 
 brightness exceeds that of the gold fish. Its body is elongated 
 and slightly compressed. Its head is well proportioned, and has 
 prominent spines. It swims quickly and vivaciously. The local 
 name refers to a noise uttered by it which resembles the bark 
 of a squirrel. It is very common in the Bahamas, and is usually 
 the angler's first prize. It is little valued as a table fish on ac- 
 count of its small size. 
 
 The JJind is a very common and very handsome fish, and some- 
 times attains a length of eighteen inches. It is of a brownish or 
 rosy-white color, and is marked with numerous deep rose-red 
 spots. Being very voracious, it is easily caught. Its flesh is 
 finely flavored, and is seldom, if ever, poisonous. 
 
 The Blue fish is from ten to eighteen inches long, and weighs 
 about two pounds. Its color is ultramarine, v\^ith a few pink 
 marks about the head and eyes. Catesby says the iris of its 
 eyes is red. Its scales are relatively large, and are used in the 
 manufacture of fancy work. 
 
 The Bone fish has scales which are used in making the most 
 exquisite fancy work. The scales, after being washed in several 
 waterS; are cut into the desired shape, and pierced in two places 
 
232 ISLES OF SUMMEK. 
 
 for the very small silver wires with which they are fastened. 
 Several weeks time is required to make a single scale basket. 
 
 The Alewife is of a greenish color, and is closely allied to 
 Slippery Dick. 
 
 The Great Hog Fish is named from its swine-like profile and 
 dentition. Its body is compressed and elevated; its snout point- 
 ed; its dorsal fin protruding, and its skin resembles brown and 
 red marble, being light beneath. When it swims, the dorsal fins 
 and their long streamer-like appendages give it a- singular and 
 graceful appearance. It is quite common, attains a length of 
 thirty inches, and a weight of thirty pounds. Its flesh is hard, 
 white and exquisitely flavored, and it is numbered among the 
 choicest table fish. 
 
 The School blaster is fifteen inches in length, weighs three 
 to four pounds, and its color is an attractive bronze. It is not 
 a safe table fish. 
 
 The Porcupine Fish, or Sea Hedge Hog, is a truly wonderful 
 creature on account of its peculiar armor, and of its capacity to 
 swallow either air or water, and thereby become ball-shaped. 
 Its body is covered with triangular plates, from each of which 
 rises a sharp spine, and some of the spines are an inch in length. 
 "When alarmed, it fills its body with air or water, thereby assum- 
 ing a globular form, erects all its spines, and presents a formid- 
 able appearance. In this position it resembles an immense ches- 
 nut burr. Its color is brown above and light beneath, with spots 
 of darker brown near the operculum. One of the smaller ones 
 which Mr. Phelps secured, he says, was five inches long, and four 
 inches in diameter. 
 
 The Swell Fish, or Puffer, is of an olive green color, and its 
 surface is roughened with prickles. Its body is oblong and cylin- 
 drical. It derives its name from the swollen ball-like shape which 
 it assumes when taken from the water, and irritated. It is from 
 
-S-E--' ^ 
 
 ii\ 
 
 
 ^' i s .^^ 
 
 i , - J>iH 
 
 J H Eiae-rton. 
 
 latli.l mJ.-'rscmAC-us-ar'.l Ife >• iUvon 0'. 
 
 FISHES. 
 
FISHES. 
 
 1. Echends alUcauda, " Sucker," from "Storer's Fishes of Mass." One- 
 fourth natural size. Attaches itself to other fishes by the sucker on its head. 
 
 2. Fistularia tabaceai-ia, "Trumpet Fish." One-fourth natural size. 
 
 3. Malthea vespertUio, "Bat Fish." One-half natural size. 
 
 4. OorypJicena Mppurus, "Dolphin." Colors, metallic green and yellow 
 with black spots. Remarkable for its changes of color when taken from the 
 water. 
 
 5. Zygana tudes. "Hammer-head Shark." 
 
 6. GMlomycterus reticulahis, "Porcupine Fish." One-fourth natural size. 
 
 7. OsPrcKion quadricornis, "Trunk Fish," " Cow Fish." One-fourth nat- 
 ural size. This and the last are drawn from stuffed specimens. 
 
 8. Chmtodon striatus, "Angel Fish." One-half natural size. 
 
 9. Eques laneeolatus. One-half natural size. 
 Figures 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 and 9 are reduced from Cuvier. 
 

 , 'V,\ 
 
 
 ^' s ., 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 x^ 
 
 
 "^ '^^i 
 
 JJi.Emert:! 
 
 Lit>L?i.mder3oii-(j.Crisan!l.Me-.v Haven ot 
 
 FISHES. 
 
THE SUCKIKG FISH. POISON'OUS FISH. 233 
 
 six to tTFelye inches long, but has no value as a table fish. It is 
 abundant near Nassau, and is sometinies called the Globe fish. 
 
 The Sucking fish has a flattened disk on the upper part of its 
 head, into which the first dorsal fin is transformed. This disk 
 is composed of numerous transverse, cartilaginous, movable 
 jDlates. By means of the suction or adhesive power of this disk, 
 its owner fastens to a shark or other free and far-roving swimmer, 
 '^dead-heads " itself about the ocean Avithout any labor or expense 
 to itself, visits distant seas, and forages its supjDlies from the 
 marine monsters that provide it, nolens volens, with a free, un- 
 limited traveling ticket for life. This is the fisher fish to which 
 we have heretofore referred. 
 
 Catesby says it is a foot in length, and that its head is equal 
 in size to its body; that "^ the crown of its head is flat, and of an 
 oval form, with a ridge of rising, running longitudinal and cross- 
 ways to its sixteen ridges, with hollow intervals between, by which 
 structure it can fasten itself to any animal or other substance;" 
 that he has taken ''five of them off the body of a shark, which 
 were fixed so fast to diflierent parts of its body, that it required 
 great strength to separate them;" that he has "seen them dis- 
 engaged and swimming very deliberately near the sharks without 
 the latter attempting to swallow them." 
 
 Some of the Bahama fish are very poisonous. We were told 
 by a Nassau gentleman that in some cases the question of the 
 safety of eating certain fish depends upon the place where they 
 are caught — the same kind of fish being in one j)lace wholesome, 
 and poisonous in another. Some are said to be safe for the table 
 only when young. It is probable from these facts that the fish 
 are poisoned by their food, but whether that food is of a min- 
 eral nature, (which we are inclined to doubt,) or vegetable or 
 animal, we are not informed. Very likely some localities pro- 
 duce marine vegetable growths which are poisonous to the fish 
 
234 iSLfiS 0%' sr-MMER. 
 
 that feed upon them. As some kinds oi Bahama fish are always 
 poisonous, these may infect other fish when they happen occa- 
 sionally to dine upon them. The toad fish is so poisonous that 
 in one case the exhalation from it severely affected a gentleman 
 who was mounting it. 
 
 Flying Fish are very plentiful in the Bahama waters. While 
 yachting outside of Nassau harbor, and during our steamship 
 voyages between Florida and the islands, it was an agreeable 
 pastime to observe them. They looked like small birds, and 
 skimmed along above the water like flocks of ducks, maintaining 
 themselves in the air for so long a period of time that those not 
 familiar with them would naturally suppose them to be a species 
 of water fowl. Catesby says that this singular fish has a somewhat 
 long and round body, and a small mouth, without teeth; that 
 the two fins behind the gills are extraordinarily large, and spread 
 very wide; that upon the hind part of its back there is another 
 small fin; that under it there is a fourth one, thin, large and 
 forked; that its scales are like those of the herring, but of a darker 
 color; that, as they are a prey to both fish and fovfls, nature has 
 given them large fins which serve them not only for swimming, 
 but for flight, and that it is a good table fish. 
 
 The Rudder Fish is described by the same author as being 
 quite small, but able, notwithstanding, to keep pace with ships 
 of the largest class. The upper part of its body is brown, with 
 large specks of dusky yellow. The under part of its body is. 
 alternately streaked with white and yellow. He adds that in 
 crossing the ocean, ships are seldom free from them. 
 
 The Murray, says Mr. Catesby, in its structure resembles the 
 common eel; the iris of the eye is white; two fleshy barbels hang 
 from the nostrils; a fin with an even white ridge begins behind 
 the head, and extends the whole length of the back. The whole 
 body is covered with a light gray skin, sprinkled with innumer- 
 
CEPHALOPODS. 
 
 1. Lo%o P/m, "Cuttle Fish." One of the " Squids." One-half natural 
 size. Color light yellow with dark spots, changeable. Reduced from D'Or- 
 bigny's figure. 
 
 2. Octopus vulgai-is, "DewWYish." One-fourth natural size. A specimen 
 with arms five feet long is said to have been found at Nassau. Color, dark pur- 
 ple and reddish brown, changeable. Reduced and altered from D'Orbigny's 
 figure. 
 
'si * 
 
 y/ ^■r_ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 '''■''A»*w«5!5!»i«StfS^''i%'Ii#'#?S?i&!W 
 
 
 J.J-I.,hx;\ciHv.r,. 
 
 xiinuiGraG^i. 
 
 SpUID - OCTOPUS 
 
fHfi CtTTTLE FISH. 2o5 
 
 able black spots. One kind of this fish is green and spotted in 
 the same manner with the black; perhaps it is of a diiferent sex 
 only. He adds — ''the inhabitants of the Bahamas will eat only 
 the green sort; they reject the black as poisonous. It is custom- 
 ary for this fish, as they lie lurking among the hollow rocks and 
 corals, to bite peoples' legs that are exposed to them, though the 
 bite is of no other ill consequence than fetching blood. " 
 
 The Mutton Jish, he also states, for the excellence of its taste, 
 is in greater demand than any other at the Bahama islands. It 
 has five fins ; a long spiny one on its back, like that of the perch, 
 of an amber color. The ujoper part of its head is a dusky black; 
 the irides of the eye are a bright red; the upper part of the back 
 is a dark reddish brown, the red brightening gradually to the 
 portion below, which is Avhite, faintly traced with red. The gills 
 are shaded partly with purple and red. 
 
 The common Cuttle fish, {Loligo special,) is found in the 
 vicinity of Nassau. It has two large prominent eyes of a greenish 
 hue — one upon each side of its head; eight arms project out from 
 its head and surround its mouth. These arms have on their 
 inner sides rows of suckers in the form of muscular cup-like discs 
 with serrated edges, with which the animal can strongly fasten 
 itself to any living or inanimate object within its reach. It is 
 also armed with two long tentacles which push out from the head 
 and resemble the arms, but exceed them in length. At the end 
 of each tentacle or long arm there is a sort of fingerless hand, 
 armed also with suckers. This curious creature has a sack in 
 which it secretes a brown or black fluid, which contains a large 
 amount of a carbonaceous pigment, (''5e/»«a,") and various min- 
 eral salts. When pursued by an enemy, this colored fluid is dis- 
 charged in jets, and by means of its color, and perhaps by reason 
 of its offensive character, it aids the cuttle fish in escaping from 
 or contending with enemies who are not prepared for this kind 
 
S3 6 ISLES OF STJMMEft. 
 
 of sub-marine warfare. The coloring matter of its '"'°' ink^' is r^vf 
 indestructibie, and has been handed down with fossils from a far 
 distant geologic age. In making sepia paint it was formerly 
 utilized. The cuttle fish is a kind of sea acrobat, and frequently 
 walks by the aid of its arms upon, the bottom of the sea, not ex- 
 actly ujDon its head, but head downwards. When troubled, its 
 arms enable it also, Avhile in a perpendicular position, to swim 
 through the water. 
 
 The integument of the cuttle fish consists of several layers, 
 one of which (corresponding to the lowest layer of the epider- 
 mis) contains numerous large cells Avliich are filled with pigment 
 granules; and the expansion and contraction of these cells causes 
 the marvelous play of changing colors, Avhich the cuttle fish ex- 
 hibits when excited. 
 
 A gentleman who was recently gathering algae in the harbor 
 of Nassau, unintentionally shook hands with a cuttle fish which 
 was clinging to a rock in the water. He mistook it for a rare 
 marine plant, and experienced considerable difficulty in inducing 
 his new piscatory acquaintance to let go. The latter was finally 
 disabled and captured. We are informed that another species of 
 the cuttle fish is found near Nassau. 
 
 The star fish and other members of the family of radiates are 
 found in the waters of the Bahamas. 
 
 Mr. Sargeant, in giving some account of the Bahama fish, says: 
 
 " The hound fish are shaped very much like an eel, for which 
 it is a good substitute. It is semi-transparent, with bones re- 
 sembling light blue glass thread. Its snout or bill is often eight 
 or ten inches long, slim and sharp, with a row of teeth running 
 the entire length on either side. The maray and stingray are a 
 species of the eel. The whipray has a body shaped like a floun- 
 der, with a tail often ten feet long, tapering from about one inch 
 in diameter at the butt, to one-eighth of an inch at the small end. 
 
il L'lrtierton ftonijn^iL 
 
 ■lUuFiuiJoi'soTi ' Cns-and "NTe-A'Havsri 
 
 SNAIL SHELLS. 
 
SHELLS OF MOLLUSKS. 
 
 1. Tectwrius muricatus. Natural size. Color gray and purple. 
 
 2. Uvanilla. Natural size. Color yellow and pearly white. 
 
 3. Scalaria. Natural size. Color light brown, with a silky lustre. Ribs 
 white. 
 
 4. Triton va/riegatus. " Trumpet Shell." One-third natural size. Brown, 
 with dark spots. 
 
 5. Cassis cameo. "King Conch." One-quarter natural size. The smooth 
 lip is light brown, with dark brown markings. From this species of shell 
 cameos are cut. 
 
 6. Cyp^^cea exanthema. "Cowrie." One-half natural size. Brown, with 
 white spots. 
 
 7. Strowbhus bituberculatus. "Small Conch." One-half natural size. In- 
 side of the lip white and pink. 
 
 8. Solarium granulatum. Top view. Natural size. Color gray, with 
 brown and white stripes. 
 
 9. Fasdolaria tulipa. One-third natural size. White, with brown spots 
 and spiral lines. 
 
 10. Oliva litterata. Natural size. Polished white, with brown zig-zag 
 lines. 
 
 11. Janira ziczac. Ooe of the "Scollops." One-half natural size. Color, 
 brown. 
 
 13. The same seen from the side. Lower valve neaiiy flat. 
 
 13. TelUna radiata. "Rising Sun." Natural size. White or pale yel- 
 low, with pink radiating stripes. 
 
 14. Callista maculata. Natural size. Light brown with darker spots. 
 
 15. Pecten nodosus. A "Scollop." One-half natural size. Dark red. 
 
 16. Byssoarca Nom. "Noah's Ark." One-half natural size. Brown and 
 white, partly covered with a rough epidermis. 
 
 17. Ameula Atlantica. One-half natural size. Color, brown and green. 
 Rough on the outside and pearly within. 
 
 18. Ostrma folium. " Racoon Oyster." Attached to root of a mangrove 
 tree growing in the water. Small specimen. Natural size. 
 
 19. GMone papMa. A small one. Natural size. Polished white, with 
 bi'own markings. 
 
BEAUTIFUL SHELL-FISH. 237 
 
 "When dried it resembles whalebone, and makes a very nice coach 
 whip. Our bone fish are very similar in flavor and appearance 
 to the northern shacL" 
 
 Mr. Sargeant states, that the doljjhin, king fish, Spanish 
 mackerel, bonita and rock fish weigh from fifty to one hun- 
 dred pounds, and that the jew fish often weighs six hundred 
 pounds. Among the remaining Bahama fish, he mentions the 
 margate, cat, king, Hamlet, Miss Nix, grunt, runner, yellow tail, 
 snapper, stripped snapper, gray snapper, pork, soldier, jack, 
 goggle-eyed, cockeye, pilot, mullet, plate, grouper, shad, goat^ 
 trumpeter, sunset, porgy, sailor's choice, sand porpoise, balahoo, 
 and crawfish or lobster. 
 
 The shell-fish found in the Bahama waters harmonize perfect- 
 ly with the element in which they live, and with all the varied 
 forms of vegetable and animal life with vv^hich they are surrounded. 
 Exquisitely beautiful are they all. There is no shock to the most 
 delicate and refined taste in passing from corals and corallines to 
 the fish that live and sport in the stony submarine bowers and 
 grottoes, — and from gorgonias and algae to mollusks — all are 
 wonderfully beautiful in form and color, and live in water that 
 pleases by its warmth, and charms by the sparkling brilliancy of 
 its hues. These combined, constitute exquisitely pictured leaves 
 of a most captivating chapter in the book of nature which G-od 
 himself has illustrated. The perfection of the work will not 
 surprise us if we reflect that the Artist is divine. It has been 
 estimated that there are not less than four thousand different 
 species of shell-fish in the waters of the Bahamas, and Mr. Phelps 
 claims to have collected of the shells nearly one thousand. The 
 shores abound with them, and they seem in many places almost 
 as numerous as pebbles. We were astonished to find how large 
 a number of handsome specimens we were able to collect within 
 a small circle almost anywhere upon the shore without changing 
 
338 ISLES OF SUMMEE. 
 
 our position. They constitute an important item in tlie daily 
 stock in trade of the negroes who frequent the court of the Eoyal 
 Victoria Hotel. Excepting the conchs, they are generally of 
 small size and very delicate. No lady, and very few gentlemen, 
 leave Nassau without securing a large supply for home use 
 and distribution, and they constitute when away, hajopy re- 
 minders of amusing scenes in the hotel court, and of occasional 
 rambles upon the honey-combed and shell strewn shores of the 
 islands and keys, when healthful pleasures filled the flying hours. 
 Large, richly but darkly colored and finely polished turtle shells 
 are secured by many at a cost of from two to fifteen or twenty 
 dollars each. 
 
 The common Conch, [strombus gigas) the "winged-shell," is 
 by far the most valuable shell-fish of the Bahamas. It is from 
 six to twelve inches in length, and weighs from one to five 
 pounds. It weighs from four to sixteen ounces after it is dressed. 
 It constitutes an important article of diet, and its shell is utilized 
 in various ways. The conch often secretes a pearl of a light pink 
 tint, mottled with water marks and having much the appearance 
 of the eggs of dragon files. Many persons obtain a livelihood by 
 diving for conchs, in which they become quite expert; some di- 
 vers, it is said, being able to thus secure them in water ten fath- 
 oms (sixty feet) deep. The local market for them is at Nassau, 
 where they are carried when alive. After breaking off the apex 
 of the shell, the animal is taken from its shell and first examined 
 for pearls, and then sold for food. They are considered, by some, 
 a very good substitute for clams. Some are eaten raw, and 
 others made into fritters. They are generally considered pala- 
 table, and are said to be nutritious. The shells are used in the 
 States for ornamenting gardens, and in Europe in the manufac- 
 ture of cameos. Lime is made of them in the Bahamas. 
 
 The King Conch is less useful than the strombus gigas, being 
 
f/'T^ 
 
 
 / 
 
 11 
 
 12 
 
 13 
 
 14 
 
 
 15 
 
 ^^^*fA*' 
 
 16 
 
 "'^K, 
 
 J-li,Elra.ertori Icojii naiarg 
 
 ^ 'J;K.i'-^.!r3ersurp5.Cr]Scir!a Isle vHiveri 
 
 BIVALVE SHELLS. 
 
COITCHS. WHALES. 239 
 
 chiefly prized for its beautiful shell, the color of which is a light 
 cream profusely mottled with brown umber and black. Its rarity 
 and beauty secures for it a relatively very high price. 
 
 The Queen Conch is far more common than the King Conch, 
 and its shell is larger in size and somewhat smoother in outline. 
 The back of the shell is pure white, and the tip a yellow tint, 
 v/hile the interior is a dark brown. It is extensively used in the 
 manufacture of cameos. 
 
 The Tioist Conch, {triton tritords), is very rare and always com- 
 mands from visitors a high price. It is regular in form and 
 beautifully mottled with brown and wine colors. Mr. Phelps 
 deems it unquestionably the most exquisitely beautiful shell of 
 its size found in the Bahamas. 
 
 A separate volume with illustrations, would be required to do 
 anything like justice to the small mollusks whose shells pave and 
 adorn the shores of the Bahamas. 
 
 Mr. Bruce in the work from which we have already quoted, ' 
 published nearly a century and a-half ago, expresses the opinion 
 that, ''a beneficial whale fishery might be established here, [in 
 the Bahamas,] as that fish comes in great numbers to wean their 
 young among the islands, and several have been thrown ashore 
 full of spermaceti." While we were at Port Eoyal, S. C, re- 
 cently, we learned that several vessels from that vicinity are 
 now prosecuting a successful business in capturing whales off 
 that coast. Between Nassau and Florida, v/e also occasionally 
 observed specimens of that great mammal of the ocean, which 
 has done so much to dispel the darkness of the civilized portion 
 of the world. 
 
 In taking leave of the Bahama fishes, so far as unsatisfactory 
 printed descriptions are concerned, it is a consolation to know 
 that they and their gorgeous surroundings will continue with us 
 through life — ^for memory has embalmed them. The poet sings 
 
240 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 of flowei's *' blushing unseen," and " wasting their fragrance on 
 the desert air," merely because they are not enjoyed by man. 
 This is an exceedingly contracted view to take of the matter, 
 and is bottomed upon man's egotism. There is no insect how- 
 ever small, no reptile however repulsive, no fish in any brook or 
 sea, no animal that roams in pathless woods, and no. bird that 
 disturbs with its wings or songs the deepest solitude of the sea 
 or land, that does not find much which its nature is fitted to 
 enjoy in the great world of which they as well as man, form an 
 integral part. The same great Father made all and provides for 
 all, and when we looked into the coral grottoes, caves and bow- 
 ers, and saw the lavish display of exquisitely beautiful forms and 
 colors which the water glass reveals, we felt that it was no more 
 made for man than is the magnificence of tlie celestial world 
 made for the few spirits outside, who, perchance, may occasion- 
 ally be permitted, with or without eye glasses, to look at the 
 inner glories through the key-hole of hetiven's great front door. 
 
 A book has been recently published in England by Mr. Higgins, 
 entitled " Notes by a Field Naturalist." The author spent a few 
 days in Nassau, visited the " sea garden," and after giving some 
 account of what he saw there and in its vicinity, he adds — 
 
 "At last ! There it all was, even as the great naturalist of 
 H. M.,S. ''Beagle" had said more than thirty years before, 'how- 
 be it, I believed not the words until I came, and my eye had 
 seen it — and, behold, the half was not told.' Description is not 
 the proper vehicle for conveying the impressions made by such 
 a spectacle. If the description be full, it is labored; if concise, 
 it is nothing. I longed for the power of putting it into music." 
 
 "There is no doubt that the 'garden' is a thing of beauty, 
 and that of a very high order.'* 
 
CHAPTER XIY. 
 
 Moonlight and Stcir light in the BahanuvS. New Heaveju. The Crescent 
 and the Gross. The Starry Cross of Southern Skies. Midnight Wdtchings, 
 with their Results. 
 
 " The stars — they are the poetry of heaven, 
 And in their bright leaves we may read the fate 
 Of men and empires." — Child Haeold. 
 
 ''The eye 
 Breathed on by fancy, with enlarged sense 
 Through tho protracted and deep Imsh of night, 
 May note the fairies, coursing the lazy hours 
 In various changes, and without fatigue ; 
 A fickle race, who tell their time by flowers. 
 And live on zephyrs, and have stars for lamps, 
 And night dews for ambrosia." — Simms. 
 
 We found in the Bahamas not only a new earth, but the canopy 
 of stars at night was in some respects unlike that to which wo 
 had been accustomed. Our astronomical knowledge was too 
 limited to enable us to indulge in a roll call of the heavenly hosts; 
 but, from the extreme north, old stars had disappeared, while 
 others, new to us, with seeming modesty, shone with a subdued 
 light from lowly positions in the southern sky. Planets and 
 great central suns appeared to have wandered from their spheres, 
 and, with renewed fires, brilliantly gleamed from new positions 
 in night's blue dome. The constellations of Orion and the Great 
 Bear were, with a few others, too marked in their individuality 
 
 841 '•2,1 
 
M2 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 not to be readily identified, notwithstanding their changed posi- 
 tions and the increased brilliancy of their quenchless fires. The 
 moon, when at and near its full, mounted almost to the zenith, 
 glorified Nassau as she lay embowered amid trees of fadeless ver- 
 dure, imparted to the'' long, narrow, encircling islands a sort of 
 weird and unearthly aspect, and illumined with dancing light the 
 waters of the harbor and of the more distant ocean. 
 
 Among the stars of those ''new heavens," which are unknown 
 to the northern skies, and which we especially desired to see, 
 were those composing the Southern Cross. Many of the Moham- 
 medans — the followers of the Crescent — discover in every new 
 moon which hallows and adorns the unfathomable and awe-in- 
 spiring depths of ether, a divine recognition of the supernatural 
 origin of their religion, and are more confirmed in their belief 
 in the truthfulness of its doctrines, the wisdom of its precepts, 
 and the sacredness of its rights and ceremonials. A Christian 
 may be pardoned for earnestly desiring to see with his own eyes 
 the universally recognized symbol of the religion he professes 
 emblazoned among the stars. In various articles of personal 
 adornment — on sword and shield and scepter — in the form and 
 ridge lines, and in the internal and external embellishments of 
 the largest and most costly churches — upon altars, sepulchres and 
 decorative slabs — in knightly adornments, kingly crowns, and 
 imperial diadems — and iipon national banners proudly floating 
 over the land and sea, The Cross has symbolized and proclaimed 
 a widely dominant system of religious belief and faith. Christian 
 voyagers m southern seas discovered in their lonely vigils this 
 characteristic, significant and hallowed emblem, gleaming with 
 all the brilliancy of quenchless fires, in those distant heavens, and 
 naturally hailed it as a divine token that from the Avorld's ''be- 
 ginning," when "the morning stars sang together," the Great 
 Creator had placed upon the sky this prophecy and endorsement 
 of the dominant religion of their time and countr3\ 
 
THE SOUTHERN CROSS. M3 
 
 The Southern Cross consists of four stars, and their relative 
 positions, when seen upon the meridian, is indicated by the fol- 
 lowing: 
 
 Were the upper and lower stars connected by a straight line, 
 and the remaining two also connected by a straight line, the form 
 of the cross would be apparent. When, in looking at the stars, 
 this symbolic form is suggested to the observer, then (as in the 
 case of seeing the face of a man in the moon) the resemblance is 
 ever afterwards so vividly impressed on his mind, that the stars 
 never fail to remind him of the cross whenever he sees them oc- 
 cupying a similar position. When they are not upon the merid- 
 ian the form of the cross is not revealed. 
 
 Nassau being some distance north of the equator, the star gazer 
 from that point can only see the cross when the stars which com- 
 pose it occupy a position near the southern horizon, and he is 
 consequently obliged to look at it through a large extent of the 
 earth's atmosphere, resting so near to the land and sea as to be 
 charged with their vapors. He who desires to see at Nassau the 
 Southern Cross, will be more likely to have his wishes gratified 
 if he makes his observations from some elevated jDosition, Avhere 
 the air is particularly clear and the wind is blowing with some 
 force from the north. 
 
 It was upon a favorable evening in March, 1879, that on goino- 
 
SM ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 to bed, we imposed npon our mind the task of waking our body 
 up a little before midnight, in order that wo might make an 
 effort to see this beautiful symbol from the cupola of the Eoyal 
 Victoria Hotel. We awoke on time, and, only so far dressing as 
 to meet the supposed demands of the invisible spirits of the 
 night, we made our way through long corridors, up several 
 flights of stairs, and into the profound darkness of the attic of 
 the hotel, where, like many another seeker after "the light of 
 the cross," we groped our dubious way. Finally a faint glimmer 
 from above gave us hope, and after ascending another flight of 
 stairs we emerged into a spacious glass enclosed observatory, from 
 the inside of which and from its surrounding gallery, in the star- 
 light and moonlight, we watched and waited for the cross. Here 
 and there above the southern horizon, a few scattered stars ap- 
 peared for a few moments through the rifts of slowly passing 
 clouds, while a thin veil of mist curtained a low belt of sky from 
 view. But having concluded to find the cross, Ave were not dis- 
 couraged but determined to persevere, knowing full well that 
 though for the time unseen, it was surely there. The sea air 
 was delightfully cool, and we seemed more than ever before to 
 realize how 
 
 " Sweet are the gentle winds at night 
 
 That breathe when all is peaceful 'round, 
 As if some spirits downy flight 
 
 Swept silent through the blue profound." 
 
 Below us the city of Nassau, with its low diamond-shaped roofs 
 and tropical and semi-tropical trees, was clearly and beautifully 
 revealed; the harbor with its shipping and beacon light, was 
 shghtly ruffled, and reflected a soft and silvery radiance; the 
 barrier islands disclosed their picturesque shores, and beyond 
 their low but verdant summits, the Atlantic seemed soothed and 
 
lulled to sleep by the sweet murmur of its own gentle billows. 
 Above us were the new heavens to which we have referred, and 
 in the resplendent light of its eternal stars, we seemed but an 
 atom of thought in the boundless and magnificent universe of 
 God. Nor could we banish the pleasant thought that there may 
 be a deep and broad basis of fact in the mystic dreams and 
 visions of the poets and prophets of the buried ages, whose men- 
 tal vision discovered not only in all the surrounding air, but also 
 in the profound depths of illimitable space, a vast universe of 
 Spirits viewless as the wind and swift as the sun-beams. Amid 
 the chaotic desolation of the bleak summit of Mount Washing- 
 ton, with a piercing cold wind blowing at the rate of seventy 
 miles an hour, we instinctively look earth-ward for fairies and 
 fairy land, spirits and spirit land, but in tlie warm, clear, aro- 
 matic air of the summer isles, sporting in the moonlight and 
 starlight, or lurking in the soft shadows, it is easy for supersti- 
 tion and credulity to believe in the existence of invisible spirits 
 whose actual j)resGnce the quickened senses seem to actually per- 
 ceive and recognize. 
 
 While gazing upward at the magnificent stellar display, the 
 crushing feeling of one's utter insignificance was somewhat re- 
 lieved by the comforting thought that the human soul was 
 created by the same divine power that filled tlie vast dome above 
 us with its brilliant display of revolving suns and systems of 
 worlds; that great and small are relative terms invented and used 
 only by mortals; and that an indestructable thread, real but in- 
 visible, connects and binds all to each other and to God. 
 
 If this is so, we can give an affirmative answer to Whittier's 
 momentous question — 
 
 "This conscious life, is it the same 
 That tbxilla the uni\ersal frame ?" 
 
S46 ISLES OF STlMMEfe. 
 
 And the tiny insects hum, the song of the feathered minstrels, 
 man's hymn of praise and adoration, and the music of tlie 
 heavenly spheres, are not separate and discordant sounds, but 
 one harmonious anthem, or, as Longfellow expresses it: 
 
 ' ' And the poet, faithful and far-seeing, 
 Sees, alike in stars and flowers, a part 
 Of the self-same universal being 
 
 AVhich is throbbing in his brain and heart." 
 
 And still musing, wondering, watchful and appalled, we hope- 
 fully waited until we should see a blue banner unfurled above the 
 southern horizon glorified and emblazoned with the gleaming 
 and quenchless light of its cross of stars. Nor did we long wait 
 in vain, for one star after another emerged from behind its cur- 
 tain of vapor, occasionally again disappearing, until at last we 
 had the great gratification of seeing, clear and indisputable, 
 gleaming at that still midnight hour, above the earth's great 
 central encircling line, from the unfathomable depths of space, 
 that heavenly sign and symbol of the religion of the most ad- 
 vanced civilization of modern times — ''The Soittherk Ceoss." 
 Eeaching at last the meridian, it was fully and completely re- 
 vealed in all its fair proportions, a beautiful cross of stars! 
 
 Soon afterwards we retraced our steps, entered the darkness 
 and gloom of the attic of the Eoyal Victoria Hotel, descending 
 long staircases, and traversed seemingly interminable corridors, 
 but the mind was luminous and buoyant, for it still glowed with 
 the light of that starry cross in the sky. Thus, amid the doubt, 
 darkness and gloom of the world, may the Christian Cross "tow- 
 ering above the mists of time," as a true and faithful type of a 
 higher life in this world, and a happier life in the world '' over 
 the river," ever cheer, elevate and inspire with a faith that never 
 wavers and a hope that is ever steadfast and enduring. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The Coral Isles the Home of Beautiful Birds. Their Scarcity in Nassau 
 and its Causes. The Necessity of Legal Enactments to Protect the Birds. 
 The Flamingo. The Bahama Mocldng Bird. A Brief Account of the Yid- 
 tant and Hesident Birds of the Bahamas. 
 
 "The birds, great nature's happy commoners, 
 
 That haunt in woods, in meads and flowery gardens, 
 
 Rifle the sweets, and taste the choicest fruits, 
 
 Yet scorn to ask the lordly owner's leave." — Rowe. 
 
 The islands and keys of the Bahamas furnish every year, for a 
 longer or shorter period of time, a pleasant and appropriate home 
 for a great variety of birds, some quite rare, and many very beau- 
 tiful. And yet, at Nassau, the absence of bird life is very notice- 
 able. Surrounded by perpetual verdure, and inhaling in mid- 
 winter the softest airs of a northern June, we naturally expected 
 to be awakened at day break, or to have our morning dreams 
 shaped and colored by the rich and rare music of feathered song- 
 sters. But we were doomed to disappointment, and had to be 
 satisfied with the unmusical vocalism of hungry roosters. 
 
 The cities of Florida in this respect are eminently superior, 
 and upon landing, both at Fernandina and at Jacksonville, noth- 
 ing impressed us more than the bird melody with vv^hich the air 
 resounded. The turkey buzzard, that important member of the 
 Sanitary Boards of our Southern cities, performs no scavenger 
 duties at Nassau. Dr. Bryant states that it is abundant upon 
 the islands of Andros, Abaco, and Grand Bahama, and he at-« 
 
 847 
 
248 ISLES OF STTMMER. 
 
 tributes its absence from Nassau to the fact tliat it cannot find 
 there its appropriate food, as the blacks literally devour all the 
 offal and waste of slaughtered animals, Avhile death from disease 
 or old age yields very meager and inadequate supplies. The 
 buzzards are too wise and sagacious to remain in a place so poor 
 and healthy as not to furnish them with a decent support, and the 
 ''living" which "the world owes " them they seek elsewhere. 
 
 Many birds frequent the pathless solitudes of the interior of 
 the island of New Providence, and some parts of its shores and 
 Lake Killarney abound with water fowl. 
 
 We have no doubt the absence of birds from Nassau and its im- 
 mediate vicmity, is the result of a persistent and long continued 
 war upon them by the people. For sport, for food, and for sale, 
 they have been killed or captured, and children have no doubt 
 thoughtlessly and wantonly rifled and destroyed their nests. To 
 the court of the hotel we have seen young fledglings brought, 
 and money paid by sympathetic ladies to secure their release. 
 
 Had suitable laws been made and enforced for the protection 
 of the birds upon the island of New Providence, Nassau and its 
 suburbs would present a new and very attractive source of en- 
 joyment for visitors from abroad, hardly second to any for which 
 it is now distinguished. Nature was almost as bountiful in 
 giving to the air of the coral isles gay and beautiful forms of 
 life, as she has been to the waters which encircle them. But 
 this part of the colonial capital's inheritance of beauty and mel- 
 ody has been thoughtlessly squandered. Wise legislation may 
 do much to retrieve the loss, and to cause the soft, warm air to 
 vibrate as in the olden times, with the rich and varied molody of 
 tropical birds. The orchards with waxen leaves and golden frr.it, 
 the fadeless foliage of shade trees and forest, and the thickets 
 with their flowering shrubs and climbing vines, belon<y rightfully 
 to the beautiful birds. For their benefit they were in part, 
 created, and their possessory title is older than that of man's. 
 
J JI EiTLerton 
 
 Lull Pimaefsan&Crisand.lfow Haven, Gl 
 
 FLAMINGO. 
 
THE FLAMINGO. 349 
 
 A large and finely illustrated volume entitled '* Birds of the 
 Bahama Islands/' has, during the present year [1880], been pub- 
 lished in Boston by its author, Mr. Charles B. Corey. It contains 
 the fruits of his own personal observations, and valuable infor- 
 mation derived from other authors. We glean from it most of 
 our information concerning the ornithology of the islands. 
 
 The Flamingo, for the size and brilliancy of its plumage, is 
 most remarkable. To be appreciated it must be seen. With a 
 small delicate neck longer than its body, and with lean and lank 
 legs longer than its neck, it stands more than five feet high, 
 dressed entirely in scarlet, and with lake-red legs. Most of its 
 primaries are black, as is also the terminal half of its bill; the 
 basil half of the lower mandible is orange. The only bird of 
 this kind which v.^e saw in ISTassau was tame, and was kept as 
 an unique and beautiful curiosity. Mounted upon stilts, it was 
 quite amusing to watch it stalk around among feathered creatures 
 less curiously made and less flashily dressed, and still more 
 amusing to see it drink — which feat it accomplishes only by 
 turning its head upside down so as to use the beak as a cup — 
 a feat which is rendered quite easy of accomplishment by reason 
 of its long flexible neck. 
 
 Mr. Corey says: — " This beautiful species was at one time very 
 abundant throughout the Bahama Islands, but of late years they 
 have been so persecuted by the inhabitants that at the present 
 time they are to be found in any numbers only upon the inland 
 ponds and marshes of Inagua and Abaco; they are gradually dy- 
 ing off, or seeking some more inaccessible locality as yet undis- 
 turbed by the presence of mankind, and in all probability, with 
 the next century the flamingo will be unknown in the Bahamas. 
 The inhabitants find their breeding places, and gather hundreds 
 of their eggs. They kill great numbers of the young birds be- 
 fore they are able to fly, and carry away nearly as many alive to. 
 
250 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 sell to passing vessels, most of which die for want of care. They 
 are killed by hundreds for their feathers, and thus gradually 
 their ranks are being thinned, until at last the Flamingo, like 
 the Dodo and Soltaire, will be a thing of the past. * * * * 
 While on the nest, this bird sits with its legs hanging down on 
 either side, and it presents a most ludicrous appearance." 
 
 They were formerly seen in immense flocks, and Mr. Sargeant 
 states that one flock which he saw numbered five thousand — but 
 he omitted to add that he counted them. 
 
 Whether seen upon the beautiful water of the shallow lakes 
 and mangrove swamps, or among the green leaves of a tropical 
 forest, a large flock of flamingoes, witli their bright scarlet uni- 
 forms, must present a most gorgeous appearance. 
 
 Mr. Corey's book contains a "General Catalogue of the Birds 
 of the Bahamas," in which he gives the names of one hundred 
 and forty-nine species. Of these, all but twenty-flve it seems, 
 are also found in the United States. Some are limited in their 
 range, being confined to certain islands. 
 
 THRUSHES. 
 
 Plumbeous Thrush, (called by the natives Blue Thrasher). 
 This bird is found upon New Providence and Abaco, but remains 
 generally concealed in thickets. 
 
 Paw-pmo Thrush. It inhabits Inagua. 
 
 Little Mocking Bird. It is a common resident at Inagua. 
 
 Bahama MocJcing Bird. It is very abundant throughout the 
 year in the Bahamas. Dr. Bryant says: "■ On those keys which 
 are barely large enough for ary land birds to inhabit them, this 
 bird is sure to be the first settler; and on some of them, as Ship 
 Channel Keys for instance, which are only a few acres in extent, 
 there would be two or three pairs, each occupying its own domain, 
 "which they did not alloAV to be invaded by the others without 
 
giving battle at once. It was singular as well as pleasing, to 
 hear on one of these lonely and almost desert keys, this graceful 
 bird, mounted on the topmost spray o± some dwarf shrub, sing- 
 ing with as much fervor and satisfaction as if surrounded by 
 listeners, instead of having for sole auditor his faithful mate." 
 
 Cat Bird. It is only a winter visitor. 
 
 Blue-gray Gnat- catcher. It is a resident of the Bahamas, and 
 Dr. Bryant found it abundant at Inagua. 
 
 WARBLERS. 
 
 The Black and White Creeper is not uncommon during the 
 winter upon some of the larger islands. It searches the stems 
 of trees for insects, like the Woodpecker. 
 
 The Blue Yellow-bached Warbler is not uncommon during the 
 winter, and Mr. Corey found it among the small trees bordering 
 the road at Nassau. 
 
 Tae Worm JEating Warbler was seen by Mr. N. B. Moore 
 while at Nassau in November, December and January. 
 
 The Dedrmca Petechia. This warbler was not uncommon at 
 Inagua and Long Island in May and June. 
 
 GundlocKs Warbler. This was abundant in summer, but not 
 seen north of Long Island. 
 
 The Yellow-rumpled Warblers were numerous near Nassau in 
 December and January. It is tame and pretty, frequents the 
 heavy growth, and is recognized by the yellow on the rump. 
 
 Black-poll Warbler, Dr. Bryant found it abundant in the 
 Bahamas from the 1st to the 10th of May. It searches the 
 trunks of trees for insects. 
 
 Chestnut-sided Warbler. Dr. Bryant saw a few early in May. 
 
 Black arid Yellow Warble". Dr. Bryant thinks it as abund- 
 ant as it is in the United States. 
 
 Cajpe May Warbler, It is found in the Bahamas in winter, 
 
SB^ ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 but is not abundant. On tlio 2Gth of Januar}^ Mr. Corey saw 
 sereral in the trees in front of the hotel. 
 
 Prairie Warbler. Pretty and abundant. 
 
 Yellow-throated Warbler. Common in winter. It frequents 
 tall trees— generally the pines. 
 
 KirtlancVs Warbler. It is rare and prefers the thick brush. 
 
 Yelloio Red-poll Warbler. Pretty, and in winter abundant. 
 It runs along the roads and in low brush. 
 
 Fine-creeping Warbler. A winter visitant, abundant in the 
 pine woods. 
 
 Golden Crowned Thrush. It prefers the thick undergrowth. 
 Dr. Bryant found it common in Nassau in 1866. 
 
 Water Thrush, (local name, Night Walker). It prefers damp 
 ground, and to be surrounded with impenetrable undergrowth, 
 hence rarely seen, although a regular winter visitant. 
 
 Maryland , Yellow-throated Warbler. A beautiful ground 
 warbler, and common in the larger islands. Dr. Bryant saw a 
 flock which was two hours constantly flying past his vessel, though 
 riot in a compact body. He states that on May 10th, ^'they 
 were still abundant in the neighborhood of Nassau. "' 
 
 Greater Yelloio-throoted Warbler. Local and rare. All the 
 known specimens have been taken upon New Providence. 
 
 Redstart. Abundant in winter upon the larger islands. 
 
 CREEPERS. 
 
 Bahama Honey Creeper. Pretty, small and abundant upon 
 all the islands visited by Mr. Corey. It is fond of the honey in 
 the blossom of the leaf of life ( Yerea Crenata), which it obtains 
 by thrusting its bill through the petals — according to Mr. N. B. 
 Moore. "When this sui:)ply fails, it devours the juice and pulp 
 of the sour orange, and the small insects attracted to the sour 
 orange trees, according to Dr. Bryant. 
 
Bahama BiRbs. 253 
 
 SWALLOWS. 
 
 Bahama Swallov). Small and beautiful, confined to these is- 
 lands; it was found by Mr. Corey abundant in the neighborhood 
 of Nassau in June. Dr. Bryant "saw them, during the whole 
 of his stay at Nassau, but only on the first mile of the road lead- 
 ing to the west of the island. They were so abundant there that 
 thirty or forty could be seen there at almost all times," skimming 
 along the road near the ground. 
 
 White-helUed Swallow. Seen occasionally during stormy 
 weather at Nassau. 
 
 VIEEOS. 
 
 Blach-whiskered Yireo. Very abundant after May 1st. 
 
 Common Vireo. Small and abundant throughout the islands. 
 It is a resident, and Mr. Corey found it especially common in the 
 neighborhood of Nassau. 
 
 FINCHES. 
 
 Purple Grosheah; (local name, Spanish Paroquet.) It is abun- 
 dant throughout the Bahamas, is yery retiring in its habits, and 
 in the thick undergrowth its peculiar notes are heard. Gosse 
 says that at the extremity of an immense horizontal limb of the 
 silk cotton, or some other gigantic and hoary tree in the forests 
 of Jamaica, "it builds a nest of rude materials, as large as a half 
 bushel measure, the opening being near the bottom." Dr. Robin- 
 son, (speaking of this bird as we suppose,) saj-s : "the black 
 bull-finch builds a nest as big as a blackbird's cage, and, by the 
 artful contrivance of this little volatile, the whole has the ap- 
 pearance of a heap of trash, flung on the bow of some tree as if 
 by accident, so that nobody could suppose it to be anything else.'* 
 Those which Mr. Corey saw showed no signs of a purple color. 
 
S54 ISLtS bS- fetJMMSft. 
 
 Black Grosbeak; (local name, Black Charles.) Mr. Corey 
 found it common on Inagua during May and June. 
 
 English Sparroic. It is said to have been introduced into the 
 Bahamas within the last few years. 
 
 Nonpareil. It sports blue, green, red, black and brownish 
 red colors, and is believed to be only an occasional visitor. 
 
 Indigo Bird. Mr. Moore saw it in Nassau in November. 
 
 Black-faced Finch. It is small, domestic, likes human society, 
 and is abundant everywhere. 
 
 Bahama Finch. A beautiful bird Avith an olive green jacket; 
 is abundant upon the island of New Providence, and *^is one of 
 the first birds that attracts the visitor's attention, on account of 
 its brilliant coloration." 
 
 STARLINGS. 
 
 Bobolink. Dr. Bryant saw flocks of them in May. They were 
 called Rice Birds. 
 
 Red-winged Blackbird. A common winter visitor, and perhaps 
 a resident. Mr. Corey found it to abound about the ponds on 
 Andros Island. 
 
 PLY-CATCHERS. 
 
 Gray Fly-catcher. An abundant summer visitant, and perhaps 
 a resident. It is common south of New Providence. 
 
 Rufous-tailed Fly-catcher. A resident, but less abundant 
 than others of the same family. 
 
 Least Bahama Fly-catcher. Small and abundant in some 
 localities. 
 
 Bahama Kingbird; (local name, Fighter.) A constant resi- 
 dent and abundant. 
 
 Goat Sucker; (local name. Death Bird.) Not common, and 
 rarely seen on account of its nocturnal habits. It has a peculiar . 
 
BAHAMA BIHDS. 555 
 
 Cry, resembling the syllables " chuck- wills- widow," and remains 
 concealed during the day. The negroes believe that whenever 
 it is seen a person in the vicinity will die in a short time. 
 
 Little Nlghthaxck; (local name, Piranii-diyik.) It is abun- 
 dant, and flies swiftly about sun-set in search of insects. It does 
 not remain during the winter. 
 
 HUMMIN"G BIEDS. 
 
 J^ahama Woodstar; (locdln^vae, Ilummer.) It is very abun- 
 dant in the neighborhood of Nassau. 
 
 Lijre-tailed Hamming bird. Like many others of its family, 
 it is restricted to a single island. It is found only upon Inagua. 
 
 Ricord's Humming bird. Interesting in plumage and habits, 
 it prefers the vicinity of the shore, and is common on Andros 
 Island. Some writers suppose it confined to Cuba. 
 
 Brace's Humming bird. It has been seen near Nassau. 
 
 KINGFISHERS. 
 
 - Belted Kingfisher. It is common in the winter, generally fre- 
 quents small lakes and ponds, and Mr. Corey always, when visit- 
 ing Lake Cunningham, near Nassau, saw it there. 
 
 CUCKOOS. 
 
 Bahama Cuckoo. Mr. Corey saw one near Nassau. 
 
 Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Mr. Brace has taken it in the vicinity 
 of Nassau. 
 
 Mangrove Cuckoo. Abundant on the larger islands, and 
 common near Nassau. It remains through the year, and keeps 
 concealed in the thick undergrowth. 
 
 Ani; (local names, Bain Crow, Blackbird) A very abundant 
 resident, and is generally in flocks. Abundant around Nassau, 
 
256 ''ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 WOODPECKERS. 
 
 Mairy Woodpecker. Common at Nassau. 
 
 Yellow-bellied Woodpecker. Abundant near Kassau in 'winter. 
 
 PAEEOTS. 
 
 Parrot. Formerly abundant upon the islands; now common 
 only at Inagua. It frequents the cornfields in large numbers in 
 July. 
 
 OWLS. 
 
 Barn Owl. It is found near Nassau, and has many names. 
 Florida Burrowing Owl. Mr. Brace secured one at Nassau. 
 
 EALCONS. 
 
 Marsh Hawk. An occasional visitor. 
 Sharp-shinned Hatch Seen near Nassau sometimes. 
 Peregrine Falcon. Not common. 
 
 Sparroio Falcon. Has been seen at Nassau, and at Great 
 Stirrup Key. 
 
 Red-tailed Hawk. One was taken at Nassau, and one at Inagua. 
 Fish Hawk. An abundant resident in the Bahamas. 
 
 VULTUEES. 
 
 Turkey Buzzard; (local name, Croio.) Abundant at Androa, 
 Abaco and Grand Bahama. 
 
 PIGEOKS. 
 
 White-headed Pigeon, Is found on the islands, and in summer 
 repairs in immense flocks to the outer keys to breed. 
 
 Zenaida Dove; (local name, Wood Dove. ) A beautiful species; 
 is found throughout the Bahamas, but is not very abundant, and 
 does not collect in flocks. 
 
BAHAMA BiftDS. SS? 
 
 Ground Bom; (local name. Tobacco Dove.) Very tame, 
 graceful and abundant. 
 JSey Wesi Dove, Beautiful and abundant. 
 
 PARTRIDGE. 
 
 Partridge; (local name, Quail.) ]S"umerous near Nassau. 
 
 THE PLOVERS. 
 
 Blach-helUed Plover. A regular winter visitant, but not com- 
 mon. It frequents tlie salt marshes and beaches. 
 
 Golden Plover. An occasional visitor, and frequents the 
 marshes. 
 
 Kildeer Plover. An abundant winter visitor, frequenting the 
 fields and marshes. 
 
 Wilson^ s Plover. A resident and abundant. It frequents the 
 long open beaches, and the shores of salt ponds. 
 
 Ring-necked Plover. An occasional visitor. 
 
 Piping Plover. Abundant in winter. 
 
 OYSTER CATCHERS, ETC. 
 
 Oyster Catcher; (local name, 8ea Pie.) Rather a common 
 resident. Frequents beaches and sand bars. 
 
 Turnstone. Abundant in winter, and frequents the beaches. 
 It loses in winter ''the varied colors of its nuptial dress." 
 
 STILTS. 
 
 Stilt, Abundant as summer advances. Its trailing legs give 
 it, when flying, a singular appearance. It utters, while flying, 
 loud, sharp notes. 
 
 SNIPES. 
 
 WiXsorCs Snipe, Abundant in some localities in winter. 
 
^68 " ISLES OF SUMMEfi. 
 
 Bed-hreasted Snipe. Mr. Oorey found three specimens upon 
 InagLia in May. 
 
 Semi-palmated Sandpiper. An abundant winter resident. 
 
 Least Sandpiper. One of the most abundant winter visitants. 
 Very social, and found in flocks on open beaches. 
 
 White-rumpled Sandpiper. A regular winter visitor, but not 
 common. 
 
 Sanderling. A rather scarce winter visitant. It frequents 
 beaches and soft marshes. 
 
 Willel. Abundant on many of the islands. 
 
 Greater Yellow-leg. Not uncommon in winter. 
 
 SPOOjSTBILLS. 
 
 Spoonbills. Curious, gaily colored, beautiful and abundant at 
 Inagua. 
 
 HEROisrs. 
 
 Great Blue Heron, (local name, Ai'snicker). Frequently met 
 with on the beaches, or in the small inland ponds. 
 
 Inagua Heron. Very abundant in loagua in Summer. They 
 breed in large communities. 
 
 Reddish Ejret. A resident, and much more abundant than 
 any other species of its family. 
 
 Little Blue Heron. Abundant in winter. 
 
 Green Heron. An abundant resident, frequenting marshes. 
 
 Yelloio-croioned JSFight Heron. Very abundant throughout the 
 Bahamas. 
 
 Least Bittern. A rare visitant. It has been taken at Lake 
 Cunningham. 
 
 RAILS, ETC. 
 
 Clapper Rail. Claimed for the Bahamas by Dr. Bryant, 
 
BAHAMA BIRDS. S59 
 
 . Carolina Rail. A regular winter visitant; not abundant. 
 
 Florida GalUnule. Resident and abundant when Dr. Bryant 
 wrote. Mr. Corey could not find it. 
 
 Purple GalUnule. Dr. Bryant saw but one specimen. 
 
 Coot. Some remain all summer; large numbers arrive in the 
 winter from the United States. They annoy the sportsmen, be- 
 cause they frighten away more desirable game by their incessant 
 clamor. 
 
 DUCKS. 
 
 Tree Duck. A not uncommon resident on some of the larger 
 islands. It frequents the mangrove ponds. 
 
 Bahama Duck. A small, pretty species, which Mr. Corey 
 found frequenting the large salt ponds of Inagua. 
 
 Blue-winged Teal. A winter visitant, beautifully adorned 
 with finely colored plumage. It is abundant upon several of the 
 larger islands, and frequents the ponds in flocks. 
 
 Green-winged Teal. It is common during the winter, and is 
 sometimes seen upon Lake Cunningham. 
 
 Lesser Black-headed Duck. It visits the lakes in winter. 
 
 Ring-necked Duck. It is abundant in winter, and is sometimes 
 seen in flocks with other species. 
 
 Red-headed Duck. A^inter visitant, and is abundant upon 
 the New Providence lakes. 
 
 Ruddy Duck. A winter visitant. It is abundant in the lakes 
 near Nassau. It is an expert diver, and will swim under water 
 to a hiding place in time of danger. 
 
 GAlSrisrETS. 
 
 Booby Gannet. About the 1st of February birds of this species 
 repair to desolate, uninhabited, unfrequented places to breed. 
 Small keys of a few acres in extent^ some lying so low that they 
 
^6(5 iSLfiS 01? StTMMEK. 
 
 are washed by the waves during severe storms, are, during the 
 breeding season, literally covered with them, of all ages, but 
 mostly young. At such times the old birds manifest little dis- 
 position to get out of the way of intruders, but will make savage 
 attacks with their powerful bills if too closely approached. They 
 are very quarrelsome, and make frequent malicious attacks upon 
 each other. Dr. Bryant says it is the most expert diver of any 
 birds with which he is acquainted. 
 There is also another species, lighter colored, 
 
 PELICANS. 
 
 Broion Pelican. A resident, and breeds in great numbers on 
 some of the islands. A tame one at Nassau exhibited more in- 
 telligence than Mr. Corey supposed this bird possessed. It went 
 to the fish market every morning, and helped itself to fish when- 
 ever it could elude the owner's vigilance. On one occasion it 
 made known its wants, and secured the services of Mr. Corey 
 when it wished to enter the closed gate of its owner, by '^ tugging 
 at his trousers with its bill," while Mr. Corey was passing. 
 
 CORMORAlSrTS. 
 
 Florida Cormorant. An abundant ^Decies, " Nothing could 
 tempt" one which Mr. Corey had "to eat a fish which had been 
 dead over night." --- 
 
 PAM. TACHYPETID. 
 
 Man-of- War Bird, sometimes called Frigate. It frequents 
 all the Bahama islands, and remains during the year. Dr. Bryant 
 visited some of their breeding places, the largest of which was 
 upon one of the Eagged Island Keys, and was five or six acres in 
 extent. He says: "The nests, thickly crowded together, were 
 
BAHAMA BIRDS. 261 
 
 placed on the tops of prickly pears, which covered the ground 
 with an almost impenetrable thicket. * * * j j^^ve visited 
 the breeding places of many sea birds before, and some well worth 
 the trouble, but none so interesting to me as this. It was a most 
 singular spectacle; thousands and thousands of these great, and 
 ordinarily wild birds, covered the whole surface of the jDrickly 
 pears as they sat on their nests, or darkened the air as they 
 hovered over them, so tame that they would hardly move on 
 being touched. * * * Incubation is carried on by both male 
 and females. * * * Its food is principally derived from the 
 Booby, whom they rob as the Bald Eagle does the Fish Hawk. 
 Why the Booby should submit to this, being much more power- 
 ful, and armed with a most formidable bill, is strange." He 
 watched them for hours, but never saw them catch a fish. While 
 quite tame during the breeding season, it is shy and suspicious 
 at other times. 
 
 TROPIC BIRDS. 
 
 Tropic Bird. It is called by the inhabitants Egg Bird. An 
 "elegant and graceful species, and in summer abundant. Its 
 flight is hurried and rapid, resembling that of the duck more 
 than that of the gull. They closely resemble the Terns in their 
 habits and appearance. " Mr. Bryant says that they breed in holes 
 in the horizontal and perpendicular surfaces of the rock, which 
 are often so winding that, though their harsh notes can be heard, 
 they can only be procured by demolishing the rock. 
 
 GULLS, TERIsTS. 
 
 Laughing Gull. It is abundant throughout the Bahamas 
 after April. About the time the winter visitors leave Nassau, it 
 may be daily seen in Kassau harbor. 
 
263 ISLES OP SUMMEE, 
 
 JBonapart^s Gull. Probably an occasional visitor. 
 
 Gill-billed Tern. Common in summer upon the southern 
 islands. 
 
 Royal Tern. Abundant throughout the Bahamas, and dis- 
 tinguished for its large size. 
 
 Sandwich Tern. An interesting species, occasionally found in 
 summer. Mr. Corey found them quite abundant during the 
 latter part of May, at Bird Rock, Acklin Island. He adds that 
 their flight is strong and very graceful, and that they dive and 
 fish with great dexterity. 
 
 Common Tern. Probably rather uncommon in the Bahamas. 
 
 Roseate Tern. A beautiful, regular summer visitant, but not 
 abundant. The adult male has a showy rose-colored breast. 
 
 Least Tern. Common in the southern islands in summer. It 
 breeds in large flocks. 
 
 Sooty Tern. They frequent in large numbers the reefs and 
 small islands. 
 
 Bridled Tern. Mr. Corey found it abundant at Long Island 
 during June. 
 
 Noddy Tern. During the summer months immense numbers 
 repair to the reefs and small islands to breed. 
 
 PETRELS. 
 
 Wilson^s Petrel. Abundant a short distant off the coast. 
 
 Dusky Shearwater. An abundant resident, and very shy. It 
 remains far out at sea during the day, often in large flocks, and 
 does not return to the land until the darkness prevents it from 
 being distinguished. Mr. Corey says: '^that all night long their 
 mournful cries can be heard, but that long before dawn they are 
 off again." They breed in holes or under projecting portions of 
 the rock, seldom more than a foot from the surface. Dr. Bryant 
 says, "Why .these birds and the stormy petrels never enter or 
 
BAHAMA BIKDS. S63 
 
 leave their holes in the daytime, is one of the mysteries of nature, 
 both of them feeding and flying all day, are yet never seen in the 
 vicinity of their breeding places before dark. When anchored 
 in the night-time near one of the keys on which they breed, their 
 mournful note can be heard at all hours of the night. During 
 the day they may be seen feeding in large flocks, generally out 
 of sight of land. They do not fly round much, but remain most 
 of the time quiet upon the surface of the water. I did not see 
 one on the banks, and never saw them dive or apparently catch- 
 ing any fish, though they are often in company with Boobies and 
 different species of Terns, all of which are actively employed in 
 fishing. About half way from Andros to the Bank, I saw on 
 the 26th of April a flock of Boobies, Sooty Terns, Noddies, 
 Cabot's Terns, and the Dusky Petrel, that covered the surface 
 of the water, or hovered over it for an extent of at least a square 
 mile. Their number must be enormous." The inhabitants 
 call it PemUico. 
 
 GEEBES. 
 
 St. Domingo Grebe. A pretty little resident, which prefers 
 the dark recesses of the mangrove swamps, and is not uncommon 
 upon Andros and some other islands. 
 
 Mr, Corey states that " the small keys which, during the win- 
 ter present a desolate appearance, in the summer season teem 
 with bird life; thousands of Terns of different species repair to 
 these deserted spots to breed, and their eggs might be gathered 
 by the barrelful, as the rocks and sand are, in places, almost cov- 
 ered with them." 
 
 For the benefit of any of our readers whose love for the birds 
 may incline them to visit the Bahamas in the summer season, 
 we ought perhaps to add that Mr. Corey says: that ''the south- 
 
361 ISLES OP SUilMER. 
 
 ern islands are almost uninhabitable by reason of the myriad of 
 insects by which they are infested." Even the horses, according 
 to the testimony of the inhabitants, are sometimes killed by 
 them. Several of the islands, Mr. Corey thinks, have never as 
 yet been by any naturalist fully explored. 
 
 We are happy to recommend Mr. Corey's " Birds of the Bahama 
 Islands " to all desiring extended and particular information con- 
 cerning the subject matter of this chapter. 
 
 We cannot close this chapter without again respectfully sug- 
 gesting to the people of Nassau the very great importance of 
 securing the enactment and enforcement of such wise laws as 
 will secure the return of the birds of the Bahamas to their woods 
 and waters, and to their gardens and orchards. 
 
 The Mallard was omitted by mistake from the account of the 
 ducks of the Bahamas on page 259. It is of a large size, and 
 has a glossy green head. A white ring encircles the lower jiart 
 ' of its neck; its breast is of a purple chestnut color, and its wings 
 are tipped with white and black. It is a regular winter visitant, 
 and frequents the lakes and ponds. Audibon says: " its i:)rogress 
 through the air I thought might be estimated at a mile a minute, 
 and I feel confident that when at full speed, and on a long jour- 
 ney, they can fly at the rate of a hundred and twenty miles an 
 hour." 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The Infuenae of the British Court and Aristocracy upon the People of 
 Nassau. The Landing of Prince Alfred upon the Island of Neio Providence. ■ 
 Nassau and the British Oovsrnmsnt During the Late War of the Rebellion. . 
 Blockade Running. Nassau Practically a Confederate Port. International 
 Laws Construed and Enforced so as to Greatly Damage the United States. 
 Fortunes Rapidly Mads, Squandered and Lost. Wild Excitement and Great 
 Dissipation. Great Increase of Disease and Crime in Nassau. 
 
 ' ' No voice of friendly salutation cheered us, 
 None wish'd our arms might thrive, or bade God speed us." — Rowe. 
 
 As the child apes the man, so the practices and sentiments of ■ 
 the court and aristocratic circles of Great Britain give tone and- 
 character to society in the dependencies of the British crown in 
 all the ends and corners of the earth. In Nassau^ English in- 
 fluences dominate, although from the geographical position of 
 the Bahamas, and the natural course of trade, they are commer- 
 cially more closely allied to the United States, As the home 
 government retains and exercises the power of filling the high 
 executire and Judicial offices, and has the ultimate and deciding 
 voice in all im.portant legislative and judicial matters, a great 
 check exists against the growth of a natural sentiment in favor 
 of political independence, and free institutions. Much is done' 
 in the Bahamas to foster, keep alive and deepen the feeling of 
 reverence for and true allegiance to the Queen, her family and 
 her government. The landing of Prince Alfred upon the island 
 of :N"ew Providence, upon the 3d day of December, A. D. 1861,- 
 --■■■- 365 23 : 
 
^66 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 caused the 3d day of December in all future years, to be declared 
 a public holiday. The flight of stone steps which lead, from the 
 harbor to Eawson's Square, upon which on that occasion he first 
 stepped, were called by his name on account of that auspicious 
 event, and thus keep him in perpetual remembrance. Not that 
 Alfred had developed great genius, or purchased fame by his 
 attainments and exploits; not that the soft balmy air of those 
 coral isles had vibrated with a single great thought from his royal 
 lips that would be heard in future times; not that from his pen 
 
 "A small di-op of ink, falling like dew upon a (hought, 
 Had made thousands, much less millions, think;" 
 
 not that he had lightened the heavy burden of a single tax, or sug- 
 gested administrative or governmental reforms, or caused any of 
 the wild and now waste crown lands of the islands to be conveyed 
 to their landless j)oor— but, being a prince, it was a crowning 
 glory, an event never to be forgotten in the coming years and 
 distant ages, that he had actually gone ashore at Nassau. By 
 reason of his royal blood, his mere foot-fall has left a permanent 
 irapress upon Bahama history, like the fossil tracks of great an- 
 imals upon sandy shores in pre-historic times. We trust that 
 we entertain a proper respect for Prince Alfred, both on his own 
 account and on account of his parents, whose virtues are suflScient 
 to make them illustrious, but to make the day of his landing a 
 great historic event because of his blood, looks very much like 
 an effort on the part of somebody to purchase favor at the court 
 o| the Queen. There is a day in the history of the Bahamas 
 ■w,hich the outside world will keep in perpetual remembrance— 
 the day upon which the Old World first had an introduction to 
 the New. No column, obelisk or temple, is seen upon Watlin's 
 island, where, as we believe, Columbus first landed, knclfc, and 
 gave thanks to God. No public recognition of that event has 
 
ITASSAU AKD THE BLOCKADE Rri^NERS. ^6^ 
 
 been made by the Bahama goYernment, and we doubt if many 
 of the islanders know where it .occurred — but they will not 
 be permitted to forget the day the Prince of Wales was born, 
 nor the time his sailor-boy brother first trod the white lime- 
 stone streets of their little colonial capital. This is the result, 
 no doubt, of governmental policy. Distance — the mists of space 
 — impress the African mind, and Victoria's golden crown, on the 
 other side of the broad Atlantic, reflects a mystic light, like that 
 of "thegretit white throne " beyond the limits of time. The 
 nearness of the Baham_as to the United States — the intervening 
 waters of the Gulf of Florida being to some extent spanned by 
 a bridge of ocean steamers — tends more and more to strongly 
 bind them to the States by the strong ties of commercial inter- 
 course. At least a hundred Americans visit those islands for a 
 longer or shorter time, to one EngiishmaD, and republican in- 
 fluences, if not studiously counteracted, would soon predominate. 
 
 The British ministry and aristocracy during the late civil war 
 in the United States, from political and commercial considera- 
 tions, openly and heartily sympathized Avith the South, and great- 
 ly prolonged the Avar by the aid and comfort they rendered the 
 would-be founders of a great slave-holding oligarchy. Nassau 
 practically became a most important naval station and depot of 
 supplies for the Southern Confederacy. 
 
 Under the friendly flag of Great Britain, secessionists and 
 oiockade runners held high carnival upon the "Isle of June."' 
 Commanding, as Xew Providence to a limited extent does, our 
 South Atlantic coast, the approaches to the West India Islands, 
 and the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico, Nassau is very favorably 
 situated to do great damage to our commercial marine in time 
 of war; and the Confederates, Avith the British government and 
 aristocracy on their side, were not tardy in availing themselves of 
 its advantages. The Avildest excitement prevailed. Steamers 
 
ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 and sailing vessels^ built for speed, were constantly arriving and 
 departing. King Cotton was enthroned at !Nassau and upon 
 Hog Island. The cotton famine districts of England, and the 
 destitute armies of the South, alike looked to Nassau for mate- 
 rial assistance. Brave, daring and dashing men in gray were the 
 lions of the day, and were courted and feted by the high digni- 
 taries of Church and State in this miniature seat of royal and 
 sacerdotal pomp and power. Fortunes were rapidly made, and 
 the Bahama treasury overflowed with gold, which came in rich 
 streams from its custom house. All the Bahama negroes who 
 had anything to sell were made happy. The crumbs from the 
 Confederate tables that dropped upon Capt. Sampson and his 
 fellow boatmen, are vividly remembered to this day, and it is 
 very amusing to hear Sampson, in his graphic way, while his 
 yacht is bounding over the billoAvs, describe the golden but now 
 departed days of Nassau during the war. The Bahama govern- 
 ment v/as soon enabled to wipe out its debt of £47,786 (over 
 $238,000). The Eoyal Victoria Hotel, for the erection of which 
 the Bahama legislature made an appropriation in the year 1859 
 of only £6,000, that valetudinarians might be suitably accommo- 
 dated in Nassau, was elaborat'ely and expensively finished in 
 the early part of our late war, at a total cost of over $100,000, 
 and the Nassau people were in consequence enabled to sumptu- 
 ously entertain their Southern friends— the daring and dashing 
 wearers of the gray. Gov. Eawson states in his official report 
 accompanying the Blue Book of the Colony for the year 1864,^ 
 that the hotel cost ''up to the close of 1864, £19,804." As the 
 appropriation for the hotel in 1859, was only £6,000 it is proba- 
 ble that the tide of wealth which in consequence of our war, 
 lilled to overflowing the coffers of the colonial treasury, led to 
 the erection of a more elaborate and expensive building, that the 
 Confederates and blockade runners might be suitably entertained. 
 
iisTASSAU A CONFEDERATE PORT. ^6^ 
 
 Indeed, Gov. Rawson says, that '^without snch an establishment 
 it would have been almost impossible to have provided for the 
 influx of persons connected with the blockade trade." But alas! 
 how unstable are human hopes! How speedily the shadows suc- 
 ceed to the sunliojht! Changes great and unexpected thwart 
 " the best laid schemes of mice and men." 
 
 A few short and fleeting yeai-s since then have passed, and the 
 bold, rich and dashing Confederates are there nowhere to be seen, 
 but in their places' come the once hated Northerners, including 
 not a few Yankees from troublesome New England, to repose in 
 the pleasant chambers, and feast in the banquet hall of the Royal 
 Victoria Hotel, so lately honored by the advocates and champions 
 of ''the lost cause." The Great Republic meanwhile rises with 
 new strength and vigor from its baptism of blood, far more for- 
 midable than it ever was before as a rival in peace and an enemy 
 in war. 
 
 Blockade running culminated in 1864 and the early part of 
 18G5. The imports of Nassau in 1860 were in value only £234,029 
 and its exports £157,350, but the imports in 1864 were of the value 
 of £5,346,112 and the exports £4,672,398. In January and Feb- 
 ruary 1865, twenty steamers ran the blockade, and landed at 
 Nassau 14,182 bales of cotton, which were of the total value of 
 two and three-quarters million of dollars. Every one was wild 
 v/ith excitement. Fortunes were made in a few weeks or months. 
 Grold eagles, and twenty dollar gold pieces were pitched instead 
 of pennies, by fickle fortune's new favorites, in the Court of the 
 Royal Victoria Hotel. Money was spent and scattered in the 
 most extravagant and lavish manner; and, as a natural conse- 
 quence, immorality and crime affected the moral atmosphere, 
 and disease nestled and watched for its victims in the soft and 
 balmy air of this great natural sanitarium. 
 
 In these calm and peaceful days a vivid imagination will find 
 
^t*d iSLES OF SUMMEE.j 
 
 itself impotent to conceive the extent of the dissipation, the prof- 
 ligate waste, the mad revel and riot, and the wild frenzy and 
 delirium which everywhere jn-evailed. What a contrast they 
 afforded to the mild, soft and lambent air, — the clear, placid and 
 beautiful waters, — the calm and quiet majesty of heaven's blue 
 dome, — and the fairy bowers with their flowers and unfading 
 verdure, which characterize this favored part of the New World ! 
 But like the occasional great tidal waves of the ocean, which after 
 they subside leave little but wreck and ruin upon the shores which 
 they visit — when, soon after, the Confederacy collapsed, and only 
 the Stars and Stripes fluttered in a free air over all the recently 
 dissevered States, silence resumed its reign in the streets of Nas- 
 sau, and much that existed, in the shape of fixed capital, was 
 turned into a ruin by the great hurricane of 1866. A lasting 
 monument was erected to commemorate and keep alive the mem- 
 ory of those days, vv^hich every inhabitant of these islands sees and 
 feels, in the form of a colonial debt of over a quarter of a million 
 of dollars. 
 
 If the American eagle and the British lion hereafter quarrel, 
 we recommend the former, (in settlement of accounts), to make 
 a breakfast of the Bahamas some pleasant morning, — saving their 
 insignia of royalty for our Peabody Museums. 
 
 Two rules were adopted by the English government during 
 the war, which operated (as it was well known at the time that 
 they would, and as it was designed that they should,) very much 
 to the benefit of the Confederates, and to the prejudice of the 
 United States government. One provided that if there was a 
 Confederate vessel and also a Union vessel in a British port, and 
 one sailed out first, the other should not leave until twenty -four 
 hours had elapsed. Now, as our vessels of war were always the 
 pursuing party, the rule greatly and exclusively aided the South. 
 To put it mildly, this was unfriendly conduct, and had for its 
 object the permanent dissolution of the American Union. 
 
XTN'FRlEN'DLIlsrESS OF GREAT BRITAIN". 271 
 
 And when an armed Confederate vessel entered an English, 
 port, she was permitted to take in coal sufficient to enable her 
 to reach a southern port. This was according to the rules of 
 international law. But the English authorities gave it, (in the 
 interest of the Confederates), a practical construction which con- 
 formed to its letter but violated its spirit. They held that a 
 Confederate steamer having coaled once in an English port and 
 departed, might return as often as its officers pleased, for fresh 
 supplies of coal, without any troublesome questions being asked. 
 So that, under this rule, a Confederate privateer, without mak- 
 ing a home port, was able to continue its cruise along the great 
 ocean highways frequented by our commercial marine, run into 
 Nassau when it pleased for coal, capture our merchant ships, 
 and levy forced contributions upon or destroy them. They held 
 that no violence was thereby done to the principles of national 
 neutrality, because the British government did not know and 
 was not obligated to inform itself whether or not the privateer 
 had since its previous coaling, returned to a home port, nor what 
 had become of its previous supplies. 
 
 The unfriendliness of the British government to the American 
 Union at that time, furnished a solid foundation upon which 
 the rebellion rested its hopes. It greatly protracted the war, and 
 largely increased the harvests of suffering and death, and, as a 
 necessary consequence, impoverished the South, wasted the sub- 
 stance of the North, and stirred up bitter feelings of hostility 
 between the two nations after the memories of old and bloody ^ 
 family quarrels had nearly faded away. And what did England 
 and her colonies thereby gain ? The cotton she received from 
 blockade runners during the war, formed but a very small frac- 
 tional part of the entire crop. The value of her vessels and car- 
 goes captured by our cruisers while endeavoring to run the 
 blockade, aggregated many millions of dollars, Nassau wag 
 
373 ISLES OF SlIMMER. 
 
 rendered wild and delirious by becoming for a time a great com- 
 mercial center, and awoke to find herself only weakened Ly the 
 dissipations which the great carniyal had caused; while England 
 was humiliated by an award which compelled her to pay heavy 
 damages for injuries we suffered from the rebel cruisers which 
 she permitted to be fitted out in her ports. The two countries 
 are bound together by the strongest of ties — blood, language, 
 mutual dependence, religion, literature and law — but the love 
 and respect of children for their mother can be greatly impaired 
 and even turned into hate. It should never be forgotten, how- 
 ever, that the British Queen stood faithfully by the Union in the 
 days of its sorest peril, and that the great body of the British 
 people were also with us. 
 
 The yellow fever prevailed at ISTassau in the years 18G1, 1862, 
 1863 and 1864:, and resulted in the loss of many lives. 
 
 The statistics of crime, disease and death, during this period 
 in Nassau, clearly prove this bad business to have been equally un- 
 favorable to sound health and good morals. There were commit- 
 ted to prison in the Police Court in Nassau in 
 
 1861, Males, 875, Females, 189. 
 
 1863, <' 533, " 233. 
 
 1863............... " 6S9, " 189. 
 
 1864, '' 891, «. 231. 
 
 There were tried for the more heinous offences in the G-eneral 
 Court in 
 
 1861, 17.— Convicted, 13, Acquit 'ed, 4, 
 
 1863, 34.— " 23, " 13. 
 
 1853, S3.— " 59, " 23. 
 
 1884,...,. 99.— ♦' 75, "34 
 
NASSAU AKD BLOCKADE RUISTNIN'G. 
 
 273 
 
 The following table from Got. Rawson's report exhibits the 
 number of vessels which arrived from and departed for the south- 
 ern states at Nassau, from 1862 to 1865: 
 
 
 Arrived from Southern States. 
 
 Departed for Soutliern States. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Steamers. 
 
 Sm:ill Sailins 
 Vessels. 
 
 Small Sailiug 
 Steamers. Vessels. 
 
 1861 
 1863 
 1863 
 1864 
 1865 
 
 2 
 
 32 
 
 113 
 
 105 
 
 35 
 
 2 
 74 
 27 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 46 
 173 
 165 
 
 41 
 
 1 
 
 109 
 
 48 
 
 2 
 
 Total, 
 
 287 
 
 109 
 
 428 
 287 
 
 160 
 
 
 109 
 
 
 Excess 
 
 f Departures, 
 
 141 
 
 51 
 
 Of these, forty-two steamers are known to have been captured, 
 and twenty-two to have been wrecked, chiefly off the ports of 
 Charleston and Wilmington. Thirty-two were confederate ves- 
 sels. Of the twenty-three steamers which remained m the harbor 
 of Nassau, or arrived in it after the Southern ports were taken, 
 twelve cleared for England, four for Halifax, two for Bermuda, 
 three for Havana, one for St. Thomas, and one for Matamoras. 
 
 During the whole period, 18G1-18G5, 164 steamers, connected 
 with the trade of the Southern States, entered the port of Nassau. 
 Of these, 108 brought cargoes from the coast. Fifty-six are re- 
 corded as having left the port of Nassau, but do not figure among 
 the arrivals from the coast. Fifty-one steamers made but one 
 voyage each, and twenty-three two voyages each. Two steamers 
 made ten trips, and the Syren eighteen. On her nineteenth 
 yoyage she was captured. 
 
374 ISLES OF SUMMEE. 
 
 In 1863 the expenses of a vessel Avliicli could carry 800 bales 
 (including wages, coal, provisions, labor, repairs and agent's com- 
 missions,) were about £3000 for a round trip, to and fro. In 
 the following year the expenses were increased to £5000. The 
 salary of the captain rose from £600 to £1000 for the trip, with 
 the privilege of carrying ten bales of cotton on his own account. 
 The purser and first officer received each £300, with the privilege 
 of carrying two bales each, and the pilot received £1000, Avith the 
 privilege of carrying five bales. 
 
 A first class steamer would run from Charleston or Wilmington 
 to Nassau, in about forty-eight hours. She could be discharged 
 in twenty-four hours, the laborers working day and night. But 
 three days for loading and unloading was considered good dis- 
 patch. The excitement, extravagance and waste which prevailed 
 under such circumstances may be easily imagined. 
 
 During the, war, had the colored people who compose about 
 three-fourths of the pojiulation of the Bahamas, known that the 
 question of the enfranchisement of five millions of their race was 
 involved in the struggle, we should at least have had their warm 
 sympathies on our side. But nearly everything relating to the 
 war that was pnblished in Nassau, so far as we have been able to 
 learn, was favorable to the rebel side. This may also be fairly 
 inferred from the fact that the oxly battle of that war that 
 the publisher of the "JSTassau Guardian" has noticed in the col- 
 iimns of important events inserted in his Nassau Almanac for 
 1879, is that of Bull Eux, July 21, 1861. 
 
 It is charitable to conclude that the editor and compiler has 
 never heard of the great Union victories that culminated in a 
 restored Union, and we trust, a permanent peace between the two 
 sections of our common country. 
 
CHAPTER XYII. 
 
 The Bahama Constitution. Opening of the Colonial Legislature. Impo- 
 sing Ceremonies. The Negroes Made Happy. The Governor and his Military 
 Guard of Hanor. " Parliament" Prorogued. Martial Music and Booming 
 Canaan. Engrossed Bills Approved and Signed. Small Annual Crops of 
 New Laws. No Color Line in the House of Assembly. Wrecks and Wrecking 
 in the Bahamas. Salvors and Salvage. Bahama Hurricanes. 
 
 "Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world 
 Like a colossus; and we, petty men, 
 Walk under his huge legs, and peep about 
 To find ourselves dishonorable graves." — Shakespeaee. 
 
 In 1879, the day after our arrival at JSTassau was distinguished 
 by the opening of a new session of the Bahama Legislature. Our 
 landlord kindly secured for us tickets of admission, for only those 
 thus favored were allowed to witness the ceremonies. Tliey bore 
 the official signature of the President of the Council. The chief 
 executive officer of the Bahamas was G-overnor William Robinson, 
 a man with black hair and eyes, a heavy moustache and long 
 beard. He Avas apparently not over forty years of age, five feet 
 eight or nine inches high, rather good looking, and had a practi- 
 cal business air about him. He appeared in most excellent phys- 
 ical condition. With the thermometer, even in the winter 
 ranging in the shade among the seventies, he bore up under the 
 folloAving heavy weight of titles and descriptive appellations. 
 
 ''His Excellency William Robinson, Esq., Companion of the 
 most distinguished order of St. Michael and St. G-eorge, Governor , 
 
 a75 
 
^76 ISLES OF StMJVIEE. 
 
 and Commander-in-Chief in and over the Bahama Islands, Vice 
 Admiral and Ordinary of the same. " 
 
 These titles are not only harmless, but, under British rule, 
 they very likely serve a useful purpose, and help to make the 
 people respect and reverence those whom it is the pleasure of the 
 home government to appoint and send out to rule over them. A 
 Bahama negro especially, may be expected to be very greatly im- 
 pressed when a new governor comes upon the island to represent 
 the Queen with such an imposing array of titles. 
 
 In this case, we felt less disposed to be amused when we ob- 
 served that the governor's public utterances indicated practical 
 administrative talents, and a desire to j^romote the general wel- 
 fare. 
 
 There is an Executive Council, composed of nine members; 
 four who hold other high offices, are members ex officio. 
 
 ''Parliament" (as in common speech here the General As- 
 sembly is termed) is composed of eight Councilmen, who are 
 appointed for life by the Queen upon the nomination of the 
 Governor, and a ''House of Assembly " composed of forty-one 
 delegates from this and neighboring islands, who are elected for 
 seven years. To be eligible, they must own real estate of the 
 value of 12,500. They receive no pecuniary compensation for 
 their services. 
 
 It is common for citizens of Nassau to represent in the Assem- 
 bly the people of some of the other islands. They desire the 
 honor, and can better afford to hold the office, as the Legislature 
 meets near their houses and places of business. This gives Nas- 
 sau a controlling inlluencc in all legislative matters. 
 
 Thus it will be seen that the Colonial government follows 
 closely the English model. It is eminently fitted to secure sta- 
 bility, and we think, wise legislation. 
 
 ■ The constitution is not based upon any charter, but originated 
 in successive Royal Commissions to the governors empowering 
 
b^teirtiTC} OF "PARLIAMEKT.** ^i}"? 
 
 them to convoke a General Assembly. The number who voted 
 in 1861, waa 4^351. 
 
 The common law is the foundation of the jurisprudence of the 
 colony, but the amendments introduced from time to time in 
 England have been generally adopted without delay. In 1848, 
 the Attorney General was made public prosecutor, and it was 
 provided that in all civil cases, and in all but capital criminal 
 cases, the verdict of two-thirds of the petty jury might be taken, 
 and that in capital cases two -thirds might acquit but not convict. 
 
 We confess that we had a curiosity to witness the ceremonies 
 attending the opening of a '^'parliament" possessing certain 
 limited legislative powers over such a large number of islands, 
 inhabited and otherwise. 
 
 To secure favorable seats, we went early to the Council Cham- 
 ber. One o'clock, p. m., was the hour appointed for the services 
 to commence. Our little piece of pasteboard was duly respected 
 and honored by the colored officials who guarded the approaches 
 to the Council Hall. 
 
 This hall is unpretentious, and can seat comfortably about 150 
 persons. It has windows on three sides. At one end of it was 
 a platform slightly raised above the main uncarpeted floor, with 
 its own backing all draped with red bunting, and surmounted by 
 the red cross of St. George. Upon this platform stood the chair 
 of the presiding officer. 
 
 The sound of martial music in the street as the hour of one 
 approached, was quickly followed by the entrance into the hall 
 of .the members of the upper house. They were mostly not far 
 from seventy years of age, intelligent looking, and had every 
 appearance of being the right men in the right place. To see 
 them was to have confidence in them. ISTo Connecticut Senate 
 ever impressed us more favorably. They occupied arm chairs 
 with high backs, upholstered with leather, near to and in front 
 of the president's chair. 
 
 H 
 
^7§ ISLES OF STJMMEft. 
 
 A police force was in charge of the hall and its approaches, 
 and gave seats to the citizens and visitors from abroad, who soon 
 occujDied all the seats back of the table of the Legislative Council. 
 These policemen were all young and black, yet very bright look- 
 ing. They wore blue jackets, white pantaloons, and fatigue caps. 
 Belts encircled their waists, to which were secured clubs like 
 those carried by policemen in northern cities. They seemed to 
 be picked men, and were polite and gentlemanly in every resj^ect, 
 having nothing of that ofEensiveness of manner so common when 
 ignorance and brutality are invested with a little brief authority. 
 
 The people there assembled to witness the ceremonies were 
 evidently highly cultivated and intelligent, and all seemed to 
 appreciate and enjoy the honor of this novel entertainment. 
 
 The Governor, having left the Government House, was received 
 at the Legislative building by a colored military guard of honor 
 in gay unifornis and white turbans. They formed a detachment 
 from the First West India re^'im3nt, and presented arms while 
 the national anthem was played by the band. The Zouave uni- 
 form has special attractions for the negro. 
 
 Soon the Governor, accompanied by high ofScers of state, and 
 followed by the officers and members of the lower house, entered 
 the Council Chamber, took a position upon the raised platform, 
 gave a dignified bow to the venerable members of tlie upper house, 
 who all rose to receive him, surveyed deliberately and with seem- 
 ing satisfaction, his brilliant audience, and then, while still stand- 
 ing, read from manuscript his speech. The members of the 
 Assembly and others who came with him remained also standing 
 on his right. He was dressed in blue, while a moderate quantity 
 of gold lace, and a sheathed sword by his side, indicated that 
 while Governor he also filled the position of a military commander. 
 His army then in commission at Nassau, consisted of two com- 
 panies of colored troops. In the division of Legislative honors 
 
" PAKLIAMEHT '' PROKOGUED. . ^79 
 
 the negroes had a portion allotted to them, several of them being 
 members of the lower house. 
 
 The Governor's speech was ably written, and effectively de- 
 livered. It covered matters of practical importance, and would 
 compare well with the speeches and messages of our State execu- 
 tives. 
 
 The address concluded by a suggestion that sounded very 
 home-like, that the present session of the Assembly might be 
 even shorter than the last, which in brevity surpassed its prede- 
 cessors. 
 
 After delivering his speech, His Excellency and his suite with- 
 drew, and the members of the lower house retired to their cham- 
 ber. Both houses afterwards voted replies. As the Governor 
 left the building a salute was fired from three field pieces, the 
 troops concluded their escort duty, and all the colored population 
 of Nassau which had assembled to see the show, followed His 
 Excellency's example, satisfied and gratified with the short epi- 
 sode which had broken the monotony of their every day life. 
 
 Before we left Nassau in 1879, the Bahama Parliament was 
 prorogued by the Governor with imposing formalities. At the 
 appointed hour. His Excellency, accompanied by his Secretary 
 and other high ofScials, was escorted from the Government 
 House, (as his residence is called,) to the building in which the 
 Senate holds its sessions, by the colored troops, while martial 
 music imparted life and spirit to the indolent air. The semi- 
 royal pageant was a god-send to the negroes, as it broke in pleas- 
 antly upon the dull monotony of their every day life, and, in Bay 
 street where the procession passed, they constituted, to the eyes 
 of northern strangers, the most interesting part of the show. 
 
 The legislative " dissolving views " were witnessed by those only 
 who had been favored with tickets wliich secured them a free 
 pass to the Senate Chamber, and, being numbered among the- 
 
386 ISL-Eg OF SUMMER. 
 
 fortunate ones, we repaired in good season to the appointed place, 
 inspired by a natural curiosity to witness the " giving up of the 
 ghost" by an integral and important part of the law making- 
 power of this out-lying portion of the Queen's possessions. 
 
 The Senators, (or colonial lords,) grave, dignified and prepos- 
 sessing in their appearance, took possession of their high-backed 
 arm chairs, and in low tones conversed with each other, until 
 the sound of approaching footsteps indicated the arrival of their 
 more youthful and less exjDerienced superior in official rank and 
 honors. 
 
 In the presiding officer's chair, (which was decorated with ban- 
 ners and bunting,) the Governor was soon comfortably seated and 
 enthroned. His military dress and sheathed sword were mildly 
 suggestive of the power which upholds government, and gives 
 effect and potency to law. He received, as before, the speaker 
 and members of the lower house, the former accompanied by his- 
 large and conspicuous mace of office, brought to Nassau from 
 South Carolina by the royalists after the revolution of 1776, 
 while a clerk or secretary carried the parchment rolls u^^on which 
 were engrossed the unsigned bills of public acts which had suc- 
 cessfully run the gauntlet of the two houses. Each roll was 
 successively handed to the speaker, who, in an audible voice, in- 
 dicated its character by reading its title, and handed it to the 
 Governor, who signed it in the presence of both houses of the 
 colonial parliament, and thus, by his approval and signature, 
 united with the legislative branch of the government in making 
 it a law of the colony. There were in 1879 but five rolls, so that 
 only five laws were enacted at one entire session of the Bahama 
 Legislature. We had no means of determining to what extent 
 this extremely short law crop was chargeable to the climate. In 
 the crisp, cool air of the north, crime is tirelessly active, and con- 
 stantly assumes new and unexpected forms, rendering additional 
 
^^ PARLIAMBN'T " PROEOG-UEI^. ^81 
 
 enactments necessary, while the rapid growth of new industries, 
 the great accumulations of wealth in ever changing forms, and 
 tlic constantly increasing complications of human affairs, public 
 and private, give rise to countless and unending changes in the 
 laws. But rest, repose, quiet, torpor, sleep — lie down and nestle 
 in the soothing, languid air of the isle of uuending summer. 
 Industry and enterprise wilt and wither in an atmosphere that 
 seems made for disordered nerves, and worn and weary minds, 
 and for the development and growth of vegetable life and beauty. 
 Only five new laAVS in one entire legislative session! But for the 
 wrecking business, the ten commandments, with suitable penal- 
 ties, appended like snappers to whips, would almost meet the 
 requirements of these happy islanders so far as law is concerned. 
 
 There v»^ere sixteen engrossed bills in 1880 that received the 
 Governor's signature upon a similar occasion when we were pres- 
 ent. 
 
 The Governor, after giving his sanction, and adding his sig- 
 nature to the enactments, addressed the two houses separately 
 and collectivel}^, after the manner of the British Queen in Par- 
 liament, and said: 
 
 ■ ** Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Honorable, the Legisla- 
 tive Council; 
 
 "Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the Honorable House of As« 
 sembly; 
 
 '''I am glad to be able to relieve you from your parliamentary 
 duties, and thank you for your cooperation in all matters that 
 have been submitted for your consideration; 
 • " Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the Honorable House of As- 
 sembly; 
 
 '^I am much indebted to you for the very liberal supplies 
 which have been voted. " 
 ' The Governor alluded to the government as ^' my government," 
 
^83 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 which together with his reference to the supplies which had been 
 Yoted, made the idea prominent that his excellency was the gov- 
 ernment itself, and not merely an executiye officer authorized to 
 see that a government of written laws is duly enforced. 
 
 After complimenting the Assembly by telling its members 
 that ^'thoy had kept pace with the legislation of the mother 
 country," he said: 
 
 '^ By virtue of the power invested in me by her majesty, I now 
 prorogue this parliament until the 11th day of May next." The 
 Governor then retired, accompanied by the officials who had 
 graced and honored the occasion with their presence. They were 
 followed by the members of tlie two houses, and by the amused 
 and gratified spectators. The latter, for awhile, mingled with 
 the crowd outside, whose loyalty may be fairly presumed to have 
 been intensified by the inspiring notes of martial music, the 
 thunder of deep-mouthed cannon, and the showy uniforms and 
 soldierly bearing and evolutions of the colored troops who acted 
 as a guard of honor to his excellency. 
 
 As the legislature was only adjourned for three or four weeks, 
 the affair would have been a waste of time and powder, if time 
 had there any money value, or public shows had been more com- 
 mon. 
 
 On those occasions when we attended the meetings of the 
 House of Assembly, its sessions were in the evening, and only 
 routine business that did not consume more than half an hour, 
 was transacted. Members rose languidly from their easy seata 
 and addressed a few words to the speaker in a low tone of voice. 
 The speaker had reduced parliamentary brevity to a fine point. 
 In putting a question, he very quietly said — "negatives rise — it 
 is carried." This mode insured an unanimous vote in the affirm- 
 ative, as something extraordinary would be required to induce a 
 member to rise out of his comfortable and roomy chair. The 
 
THE WREOKTXrT BUSIKESS. ."^83 
 
 Colored members looked intelligent, appeared well, and seemed 
 to command the respect of their white associates. 
 
 WRECKS AND W^EECKIIirG. 
 
 Much may be truthfully said in commendation of the delicate 
 silken web of the spider, as its gossamer threads, gemmed with 
 dew-drops, glisten in the morning sunlight, — but to many gay, 
 sportive insects it is a trap of death. Little do they think of the 
 lurking peril as they fan the warm air with their tiny wings, and 
 voice their happiness in gentle murmurs. Thus in the clear 
 warm waters of a summer sea, the Bahamas attract by their 
 beauty, and lull and disarm suspicion by their soft and languid 
 air. But a more dangerous place is nowhere to be found in all 
 the paths of commerce. Numerous islands, keys, rocks and 
 reefs, deceitful currents and cross currents, and extensive shoals 
 and banks, constitute only a part of the perils which 'ever lurk 
 in these much frequented waters, for v,^reckers have succeeded 
 the pirates, and the salvage of the salvors, and the legal and other 
 expenses, not unf requently absorb all that the destroying elements 
 and engulfing waters have left. Deprived of the means of sup- 
 port which the varied industries of colder climates so lavishly 
 furnish, hundreds of the Bahamians wait and watch for wrecks, 
 as our northern cats wait and watch for summer birds. 
 
 The government officials and the courts of admiralty, under 
 the broad aegis, of colonial revenue acts and maritime law, are 
 handsomely provided for in the division of the spoils of the sea, 
 so that in many cases the owners in distant States have to thank 
 Nassau for little more than a convenient and sufficiently roomy 
 burial place for their property and their hopes. 
 
 The number of wrecks reported in seven years, from 1858 to 
 1864, was 313, of which 259 were claimed to be total losses— 
 which means, we suppose, total so far as their owners were con- 
 
'384 ISLES or SUMMER. 
 
 cerued; the wreckers and government and coiii-t officials took all 
 that was saved as a compensation for their services. The hurri- 
 cane months are August, September and October, yet of these 
 313 cases, 199 occurred during the six months ending May 1st 
 of each of these seven years, being nearly two-thirds of the whole 
 number. 
 
 The amount of salvage awarded from 1855 to 1864, in 'fifty- 
 nine derelict cases, was £11,318 10s. 5d., and in thirty-seven 
 salvage cases, £59,955 14s. 8d., making a total salvage for those 
 ten years, of over 1350,000, being about six times more than 
 was paid to the proprietors by the English crown for the whole 
 group of islands. In 1865 the owners of the American steamer 
 Herman Livingston, which was stranded and got off, paid, 
 under an agreement with the master and salvors, 130,000. The 
 salvors, after discounting the bill, received £5,480 3s. This was 
 divided among thirty-two vessels and boats. 
 
 Governor Kawson says: ''It is stated on good authority, that 
 the average salvage allowed, chiefly by arbitration, which twenty 
 years ago amounted to sixty per cent., has not during the last 
 five years, (1859 to 1864,) exceeded forty per cent., and that the 
 charges for commissions amount to ten per cent, on the mer- 
 chandise saved, and for labor, storage, &c., to four per cent, 
 more. From the above, the extent may be inferred, to which the 
 population of the colony, maritime and commercial, has been and 
 continues to be interested in this source of employment and in- 
 come." 
 
 The total value of wrecked property, including hulks and 
 materials, paying ad valorem duties of twenty per cent., auction 
 duties of five per cent., and specific duties and of property re- 
 exported, aggregated £638,864. 
 
 Gov. Rawson also states that wrecking has had the necessary 
 and usual effect of demoralizing the persons engaged in such. 
 
HIJRRICAKES. 
 
 286 
 
 occupations, of diverting their attention from agriculture or any 
 other industrial pursuit, exposing them to the trials and tempta- 
 tions of alternate abundance and Avant, and accustoming them to 
 rejoice in the misfortunes which bring calamity and ruin to 
 others. 
 
 The local legislature has endeavored to bring the wrecking 
 system under control by a law which requires licenses to be taken' 
 out for men and vessels, provides for the appointment of wreck 
 masters, apportions the share of salvage which each vessel and 
 its crew may claim, and imposes penalties for certain acts of mis- 
 conduct. In 1858 there were licensed 302 vessels and 2,679 men; 
 in 1865 only 176 vessels and 712 men. The late civil war in the 
 States occasioned this difference. 
 
 HUEEICAiSTES, 
 
 As the hurricane has a great sanitary mission to perform in 
 purifying the air and destroying the germs of malignant diseases 
 in the West India islands, it is seldom that more than three or 
 four years pass by without some manifestations of its presence 
 and power. At such times the wreckers reap a rich reward. 
 
 The following list of hurricanes that are known to have passed 
 over the Bahamas is taken from Grov. Rawson's report: 
 
 1780, October, 3 to 4. 
 
 4tol6. 
 
 1796, " 3 to 5. 
 
 1801, September, 5 to 6. 
 
 1804, " 7 to 9. 
 
 1813, July 23 to 34. 
 
 " August 22 to 24. 
 
 1S21, Seotember 1 to 2. 
 
 1837, Au:?ust, 20 to 22. 
 
 1830, '" 13 to 14. 
 
 1835, " 14 to 15. 
 
 1837, " 2 to 3. 
 
 1838, September 5 to 
 
 1842, August 2 to 4, 
 
 1844, October, 5 to 6 
 
 1846, " 10 to 11 
 
 1848, August, 22 to 23 
 
 1853, " 18 to 20, 
 
 1856, " 25 to 27 
 
 1857, November, 10 to 12 
 
 18:8, October, IGtolO 
 
 1861, August, 13 to 15 
 
 1863, " 27 to 28 
 
 1865, October,... 23 to 25 
 
286 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 This list includes those Imrricanes only concerning which G-ot. 
 Bawson had reliable information. Probably there were others 
 during the period covered by his table. We suppose also that 
 many of the hurricanes mentioned visited only a portion of the 
 Bahamas. The terrible hurricane which inflicted such serious 
 damage upon Nassau in August, 1866, desolated many other 
 islands, and damaged and destroyed a very large number of ves- 
 sels. The recent hurricane that caused such a destruction of 
 property in Jamaica, and wrecked the steamer Vera Cruz in the 
 Gulf of Florida, with great loss of life, must have been felt to 
 some extent on the island of New Providence. Very favorable 
 official reports have since been received from Nassau in regard to 
 the health of that city. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 The Social Life of Wassau. 8odety Pervaded by Natural Chrystalizing 
 Laws. English Forms and Titles icsll Booted. Citizens of the Great Bepiih- 
 lic Ambitious to Mix and Mingle in High-toned Sooiety. Social Oayeties — 
 Picnics and Balls, Wine and Waltzing, the ^^ Sound of Revelry at JS'igJit.''^ 
 HighiDays Made and Repaired to Accommodate the Victims of a too Oenerous 
 Hospitality. A Governor who Appreciates the Dance, and does not Under- 
 estimate the Value of His Titles. A Doctor of Divinity Made Happy. In 
 What Places, Hospitality is Indigenous. 
 
 "Fill the bright goblet ; spread the festive board; 
 Summon the gay, the noble and the fair ; 
 Let mirth and music sound the dirge of care, 
 But ask thou not if happiness be there — ■ 
 Lift not the festal mask!" — W. Soott. 
 
 The social life of a people cannot but be a matter of absorb- 
 ing interest to the stranger, even if he does not acquiesce in the 
 sentiment of the poet, who affirms that 
 
 " The proper study of mankind is man." 
 
 In its main roots and cardinal elements human nature is the 
 same everywhere; but traditions, education, customs, climate and 
 other influences and surrounding circumstances, wonderfully 
 varied and widely dissimilar, produce new and unlooked-for re- 
 sults which arrest the attention, awaken inquiry, furnish food 
 for reflection and materials for a criticism which is only in a^Dpear- 
 ance sometimes unfriendly. In ]N"assau, we were in such a hap- 
 
 287 
 
288 ISLES OF SUMMEE. 
 
 py frame of mind, being relieved from all the harrassing cares 
 and severe labors of professional life, and having all our nerves 
 soothed and quieted by a most delightful climate, that while we 
 were ready to heartily assent to one line of the poet that ''every 
 prospect pleases," we were by no means willing to unite in the 
 severe charge partially concealed and ambushed in the expression 
 that "only man is vile." But our eyes were neither blind nor 
 bandaged, and no one tried to pull Bahama wool over them. 
 
 Small communities are inclined to overestimate their impor- 
 tance, magnify their merits, and to be unconscious of defects 
 and foibles which immediately attract a stranger's attention. 
 They often feel disturbed when unfavorably criticised, and the 
 pen of the traveler sometimes leaves ujDon a thin and morbidly 
 sensitive epidermis, an enduring mark. In our country, (which 
 we are pleased to call "The Great Republic,") the inflated blad- 
 der of conceit has often been remorselessly punctured by Eng- 
 lish tourists. Across the wide and stormy Atlantic the derisive 
 laugh has been distinctly heard. It has penetrated the depths 
 of primeval forests, and embittered the perfumed air of the 
 boundless prairies of the G-reat West. The people of the old 
 world are amused and astonished to find their Yankee cousins so 
 thin skinned. The latter are more vexed because they cannot 
 successfully retaliate. Hoary with age, and rich with the vast 
 accumulations of many centuries, the great countries of Europe 
 know little and care less what may be published concerning them 
 in the New World. 
 
 We found so much to enjoy and commend in the Bahamas, 
 we trust its people will not consider, us unfriendly if we allude, 
 to some few things which are less complimentary. 
 
 Completely isolated — an oasis in a wide waste of waters — J^as- 
 sau is necessarily a little microscopic world, but slightly connect- 
 ed with the great old and new worlds which the vast ocean, which 
 
SOCIAL LIFE OF JSTASSAIT. 289 
 
 surrounds the island upon which it is situated, divides and sepa- 
 rates. This isolation has very naturally tended to foster some 
 degree of self-exaltation, which could not have existed had its 
 people been brought in closer contact with the great tides of 
 human life and activity thousands of miles away. 
 
 It is proper, however, to suggest that our observations of the 
 social life of Nassau were taken from an outside stand-point, so 
 that the reader may very properly allow a wide margin for mis- 
 takes and imperfections. We did not plant our feet upon a sin- 
 gle round of Nassau's social ladder, but, like Jacob of old, we 
 occasionally saw as we supposed, the angels ascending and de- 
 scending upon it. Had we been permitted by a kind Providence 
 to clmib, as some were to crawl, up the dizzy heights of official 
 and social life in that little colonial capital, and been sufficiently 
 calm and self-possessed to have observed with an undazed eye, 
 and to take notes with a steady hand, we should be better quali- 
 fied to reflect back upon our readers a little of that intoxicating 
 pleasure, which, like a philter, is supposed to pervade that uj)per 
 and truly aristocratic air. But, landing upon one of the wharfs 
 of Nassau utter strangers to her people, we had no letters of 
 introduction that opened for us the door of a single private 
 dwelling. The Royal Victoria Hotel, with its numerous guests, 
 varied and constantly changing, was a little miniature world in 
 which we were satisfied to live and revolve, making but few out- 
 side acquaintances, and those slight and casual. We had no 
 desire to commence a fresh set of books for new and short-lived 
 friendships, nor to gratify an idle curiosity by crossing the thresh- 
 olds of hospitality; but as one can learn much, and all he desires 
 to know, about a gale of wind without being exposed to its fury, 
 so a close and careful observer upon the outer margin of society 
 sees many things — feathers in the air — that disclose to him much, 
 cf the ' ' true inwardness " of a high life of fashion and folly, 
 
 25 
 
^90 ISLES OF SUMMEE. 
 
 The eye of sucli an observer is not blinded, nor his judgment 
 warped, by the subtle influences that envelope, like aromatic 
 odors, the festive board, and infect the air where invited guests 
 assemble to add new and stronger ties to friendships that are not 
 always sincere, disinterested and genuine. 
 
 Small cities exhibit in miniature the different phases of human 
 life which exist in large ones. Their inhabitants are never en- 
 tirely homogeneous. The integral parts are radically unlike, 
 and persistently refuse to assimilate. Great natural formative 
 and organizing laws, subtle but powerful, are ever in operation, 
 erystalizing and stratifying the elements of which society is com- 
 posed. Brains and blood, rank and fortune, that never would 
 be felt or known in a great metropolis, ruffle and disturb with 
 their little eddies the insipid and otherwise stagnant waters of 
 a small town. 
 
 However- much we may admire the happy and contented spirit 
 of the grim, hard-headed, stoic Greek philosopher of the tub, 
 who wanted nothing of the dispenser of royal patronage but such 
 a change of position as would secure the full benefit of the light 
 and heat of an unclouded sun, it cannot with truth be denied 
 that the love of rank, social position, office and high sounding 
 titles is with most persons inborn and inbred. It is in the warp 
 and woof of their souls. Nor can that be said to be an " infirm- 
 ity of noble minds," which an all-wise Creator has made a part 
 of their nature. Looking a little below the surface, Ave see and 
 learn that these seemingly light and trivial objects of desire are 
 great impelling forces, constantly stimulating and urging their 
 possessors upward and onward. Gewgaws and trinkets are not 
 to be ignored, belittled or despised, if, as objects of human d^^- 
 sire, constantly coveted and labored for, they furnish healthful 
 stimulus to indolence, and cause valuable additions to be made 
 to man's stores of material and intellectual wealth. 
 
LADIES AMBITIOUS AI^TD ASPIEIN"©. ,291 
 
 In a little town upon a small island, from our position on the 
 outside, perhaps we were inclined to be cynical and uncharitable, 
 when we allowed ourselves to be amused at the apparent official 
 and social exaltation of some of its more favored people. If the 
 Governor at times seemed to us a little airy; if the young, newly- 
 appointed and freshly imported Chief Justice, who blossomed 
 out in a scarlet robe of office and a wig, (judicial toggery before 
 unknown upon the Judicial bench of jSTassau,) seemed to us much 
 more elated than any Chief Justice we had seen in the States; 
 if the Bishop sported titles but little in harmony with the humble 
 and modest spirit of the Apostles of the olden times; and if to 
 our superficial view ''the upper classes" appeared somewhat 
 proud, supercilious and exclusive, it may have been because at 
 the time we failed to remember that they were only exhibiting 
 traits of character common to our race in all parts of the world; 
 that they were playing the game of life, as it is everywhere played, 
 only the stage upon which the chief actors performed their several 
 parts was relatively small and insignificant. 
 
 But as we looked from our quiet nook upon the different phases 
 of life in Nassau, what astonished us most was the great desire 
 which certain ladies from the States manifested to mingle on 
 terms of social equality witli the aristocracy of !N"assau, and to 
 receive attentions from officials with high sounding titles. The 
 poet is not correct wlien he affirms that 
 
 ''Women, like moths, are ever caught by glare," 
 
 though it is true that they frequently are, and a very large title 
 occasionally surrounds Avith an attractive and dazzling eflfulgence 
 small, bad, and repulsive men. As woman's sphere is domestic 
 and social, it was natural that the lady guests at jSTassau, finding 
 themselves isolated and cut off from the outside world, should 
 
292 ISLES OF SUMMES. 
 
 desire to cultivate the acquaintance, and stand or kneel on the 
 same social platform with her majesty's Bahama rejjresentative, 
 with his then rcpu ted wealthy and very popular official secre- 
 tary, with the brand new "'lord" bishop, with his excellency's 
 counsellors, with the venerable and very dignified members of 
 the Bahama house of lords, with the honorable speaker of the 
 lower house of the Bahama parliament, and with the few un- 
 titled gentry composing the elite of the town. It was perfectly 
 natural that some of the more enterprising and ambitious should 
 use all their arts, and every attractive and alluring blandishment, 
 together with full and free libations of expensive wines, and other 
 stronger, and, to some, more attractive beverages, in order to 
 accomplish a result so much desired and coveted. It is true that 
 the blood of a portion of the "gentry" is said not to be perfectly 
 pure, but it is difficult in some cases of mixture to accurately 
 draw the color line, and it is Avise to ignore it, and ask no ques- 
 tions of one's partner in the voluptuous waltz, which might result 
 in banishing the inquisitor from high-toned society. It is at 
 times injudicious to scrutinize closely hair that appears straight 
 or nearly so. One lady was quoted as saying that she j)referred 
 Nassau to London, because it is not so difficult in the former to 
 gain admittance into good societ}^, and move in its best circles. 
 
 To the few and favored strangers who have the entree of the 
 homes of the leaders of Nassau society, we have no doubt the 
 social sky glows with a fervid and impassioned warmth unknown 
 to colder climates, and sparkles with a fascinating brilliancy like 
 the neighboring phosphorescent waters in the moonlight. Pas- 
 sions are more fervid in the warm latitudes; love is more ardent, 
 friendship more demonstrative, and hospitality more liberal, open- 
 hearted, kind, and assiduous to please. The islanders have 
 established an enviable reputation for the agreeable and polite 
 attentions which they bestowed in the past upon strangers so- 
 
SOCIAL (^tAYETIES. ^9.1 
 
 journing among them. Formerly, from their isolated position, 
 intercourse with the outside world was infrequent, but now, with 
 a steamboat load of fresh arrivals in a small town once a week 
 during the winter season, what can the poor islanders do? Hos- 
 pitality withdraws appalled, if not disgusted, while Avarice and 
 Cupidity stalk boldly to the front, and with an enterprise and 
 industry remarkable in such a warm and enervating climate, 
 scramble for the greenbacks and gold of the new-comers. Like 
 a few choice plants in a green-house, a little of the old time hos- 
 pitality is preserved. 
 
 In the "Letters from the Bahama Islands," written by a lady 
 more than fifty years ago, much space is occupied with descrip- 
 tions of the social gayeties of Nassau. Then, as now, picnic 
 parties upon some of the islands, or *^' at some rural spot" in the 
 suburbs of Nassau, were of frequent occurrence. " Most families " 
 were accustomed to devote each Saturday "to festivity," and 
 marooning parties upon that day were common. All but the 
 invited guests contributed to the entertainment. The particular 
 things which each furnished were previously determined by a 
 ticket drawn by lot from those which the managers prepared. 
 The authoress adds: 
 
 "The evening is generally passed at the town house of one of 
 the party, at cards and conversation, and ends with a2^etlc souper^ 
 and I am afraid the opening of the Holy Day finds many of these 
 Saturday revelers too dull and drowsy for morning prayers." 
 
 The same writer speaks of frequent and most charming dinner 
 parties which she attended, and of other festive occasions, when 
 the ladies "were pledged in full bumpers;" of supper upon the 
 deck of a brig after a marooning excursion upon Rose Island, when 
 " chamj)agne and the choicest wines flowed like the waters below 
 them in sparkling abundance, and the hours flew swiftly and 
 gaily on;" of the storm that kept them out "in a pelting rain 
 
294 ISLES OF SUMMEE. 
 
 till two o'clock Sunday morning;" of ''state dinners" at half 
 
 past six o'clock given by G , a bachelor; of supper at twelve; 
 
 also of supper on another occasion at one o'clock at night, fol- 
 lowed by music and dancing for she did not know how many 
 hours; of a ball in the Assembly Eoom, when the Governor and 
 suite were saluted by the band with the "King's March;" of re- 
 tiring at four A. M. ; of a ball in honor of the King's birth-day, 
 when flags ornamented the shipping in the harbor, guns were 
 fired, fire-works displayed, and the "dear five hundred " were 
 permitted to unite with their superiors in doing honor to their 
 sovereign. 
 
 The pictures were drawn by a friendly hand, and though made 
 more than half a century ago, we are inclined to believe that, 
 with slight modifications, they will answer very well for the pres- 
 ent day. From the little which we saw, and from information 
 derived from others, we are of the opinion that the picnics, the 
 balls, the nightly revels, the feasting and drinking, the whist 
 parties and early morning hours for retiring, characterize to a 
 considerable extent the fashionable and high life of this miniature 
 colonial capital to-day, as in 1823-4. To the ball which the 
 Governor gave at the Government House while his wife and chil- 
 dren were in England, some few of our hotel guests we know 
 went late and returned in the small hours of the morning. His 
 Excellency manifested in our presence at the ball which some of 
 the ladies of our hotel gave in its dining hall, a great fondness 
 for the waltz, and was reported to have taken part in each of the 
 eighteen dances at the ball given by himself. One gentleman 
 who attended the latter observed that the Governor was so occu- 
 pied, while the heavy load of official cares was laid aside, in 
 honoring his lady guests by kindly consenting to embrace and 
 spin them around in the rhythmic circles of the voluptuous dance 
 of the German, as to seemingly forget what genuine politeness 
 
A BAHAMA GOVERN'OR. 295 
 
 and ordinary courtesy demanded of liim for the proper entertain- 
 ment of liis other guests. But as he has not then occupied his 
 exalted and honorable position for many years, having been so 
 recently as in 1873 simply " William Robinson, Esq.," and fervid 
 passions lurk in the warm air, while the ladies who received his 
 assiduous attentions were greatly pleased and flattered thereby, 
 we must not criticise him too closely or judge him with severity. 
 It is something to be a Grovernor of a British colony, even though 
 it is poor and sparsely populated, especially where one, in addi- 
 tion to the free use of a palatial residence with ample grounds, 
 has a salary of 110,000 a year. When we saw in the public library 
 of Nassau a little volume made up of his official report of the 
 exhibits of the British colonies in the Vienna Exposition, and 
 observed upon the first blank leaf, in his own hand- writing, this 
 entry: *' Presented to the Nassau Library by H. E. Gov. Robin- 
 son, the author," we were at first disposed to smile, for we knew 
 that certain of the able and very modest men of Connecticut, 
 whom it had been our privilege and good fortune to personally 
 know, while occupying the executive chair of a State that has 
 brains and wealth, and industry and enterprise, and j)opulation. 
 sufficient to make a great many Bahamas, could never have been 
 induced to write ''His Excellency the Governor" before their 
 honored names. But when we reflected that the Governor of 
 the Bahamas had been educated and trained under institutions 
 and a political system less democratic and radically different from 
 our own, and where rank and honors and high-sounding titles 
 are held in very high esteem, and when we further considered 
 that Her Majesty's most loyal subjects upon these little islands 
 had been trained and educated to treat with the most profound 
 and deferential respect the men whom the Queen from time to 
 time sends to them to represent her sovereign authority and 
 power, we thought perhaps His Excellency knew what his stib-- 
 
396 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 jects (mostly colored) required better than we did, aud that pos- 
 sibly prof ound political wisdom existed, though concealed in acts 
 thafc to plain democratic eyes appeared ludicrously egotistical and 
 vain. 
 
 An old author states that ^'the general character of the West 
 Indians is extremely j)leasing to strangers. They are frank, lively 
 and generous, and hospitality is carried to an extreme which is 
 unknown in England; and there are few persons, we believe, who 
 have ever visited these islands who have not separated from many 
 of the inhabitants with regret." Speaking of the people of 
 Kingston in Jamaica he says: '^It is their pride to send away 
 their guests so mellow as to be scarcely able to find their way.. 
 On this account much extraordinary attention is paid to the roads 
 in Barbadoes." "The streets of Jamaica may almost be said to 
 be paved with glass bottles. " How many of these bottles had 
 done service, in ''entertaining angels unawares," is among the 
 matters mysterious and unknown. The miles of stone walls 
 which enclose the private grounds of the people of Nassau, are 
 to a large extent surmounted by the broken fragments of glass 
 bottles, laid in mortar; the broken glass is strongly suggestive 
 of the convivial habits of Nassau in the earlier times. One would 
 suppose it extremely unwise to engraft the habits of the English 
 aristocracy, who are accustomed to raise the damp and chilly fogs 
 which envelope them with the contents of the bottle, upon the 
 customs of a people who live in an atmosphere of almost tropical 
 heat. But tiie leaders of fashion in Nassau arc not only extremely 
 loyal to their most excellent queen, but seem to aspire in every 
 way to mould their habits and conform their lives to English 
 models, without any regard to the wide differences which exist in 
 all the circumstances which surround them. We should antici- 
 pate that, as a natural and necessary consequence, a rapid wasting 
 of all the vital energies of mind and body, and a material short- 
 ening of the term of human life. 
 
A Private Residence in u^assau. 
 
KASSAU HOSPITALITY. 397 
 
 The pleasant and agreeable attentions which are shown by the 
 local clergy of Nassau and some prominent church members to 
 ecclesiastics from abroad, who, by letter or otherwise, make them- 
 selves known, may be inferred from the following extract from 
 a short descriptive and highly eulogistic account of Nassau, com- 
 municated to a New York religious paper by a clergyman. He 
 writes under the date of March 25, 1876: ''The hospitality of 
 the inhabitants is as warm and genial as their clime. The polite 
 cordiality extended co non-residents makes them forget they are 
 strangers in a strange land. '" A burrowing animal from its little 
 hole in the ground is about as well qualified to describe a universe 
 which it has not seen, as is a Doctor of Divinity to accurately 
 portray the hospitality of a place, because the doors of certain 
 good, pious and appreciative persons have always been flung wide 
 open at the approach of one of God's favored ambassadors. We 
 doubt if the learned doctor was invited to the high-toned enter- 
 tainments, where cards and wine and the waltz shortened the 
 hours of midnight and of the early morning, and helped to place 
 in full accord the best blood of the Bahamas with the aristocratic 
 and royal blood of the mother country. And we know from ob- 
 servation and experience, what any one may know is true from 
 the nature of the case, that forty-nine out of fifty strangers so- 
 journing in Nassau will never know, except from report, that 
 there is such a thing as a generous hospitality anywhere upon 
 the island. This is not exceptional, for the same thing is and 
 must be true in all places where strangers arrive regularly at short 
 intervals and in large numbers. In a small, poor city, they con- 
 stitute rich golden placers to be sedulously worked, and not dis- 
 guised angels to be entertained. 
 
 We all know by report, and not a few by personal experience, 
 the warmth and glow of a hospitality, noble and unselfish, that 
 was indigenous to the soil, and flourished with tropical luxuriance 
 
29^ ISLES OF SUMMEE. 
 
 in many of the Southern States in former times. When certain 
 loyalists fled with their slaves to the Bahamas after the breaking 
 out of the American revolution of 1776 from the States of the 
 Carolinas and Georgia, they carried their hospitality with them, 
 and found that it flourished better than cotton upon those rocky 
 isles. And no doubt it still survives, but circumstances have 
 greatly changed. While retaining an allegiance to the mother 
 country that, if mistaken, challenges admiration, they did it 
 largely at the expense of their fortunes, and at ISTassau the ex- 
 ercise of hospitality on a large scale, sufficient tomeet the require- 
 ments of weekly boat-loads of strangers, who are willing to be 
 received with open arms and to be entertained with princely 
 liberality, would soon result in their financial annihilation. But 
 any gentleman of respectability and of fair social position, who 
 is able and willing to take with him to ISTassau a large supply of 
 the choicest wines and other liquors, will only need to let his 
 position be known in order to be surrounded with troops of high- 
 toned friends, officially and otherwise well up among the gentry 
 of the island. Liquors will open doors better than letters, and, 
 as a social currency that will circulate everywhere, even cheek 
 must give way to champagne. 
 
 But, as in the floral world, the shrubs that from leaf and flower 
 load the air with sweetest perfumes, seldom, if ever^ spring spon- 
 taneously from the soil where trade has established her thronged 
 and busy marts, so it is in countries sparsely populated, and sel- 
 dom marked with the impress of stranger foot-steps, that the resi- 
 nous, spicy and aromatic perfumes of a free, genuine and grate- 
 ful hospitality rise like incense from censers sacred and golden. 
 
CHAPTEE XIX. 
 
 The First Great Voyage of Columbus. He Solves the Dark Problem of the 
 Ages. His Land Fall. The Whole Group Made Forever Memorable. The 
 Spirits of Columbus and Black Beard Indelibly Imp/i^essed Upon the Islands. 
 Eminently Good and Bad Men Not Dead When They Die. The Natives As 
 Columbus Found and Described Them. The West India Islands Occupied by 
 Substantially One People. The Caribs. The Search Among the Bahamas 
 for the Fountain of Youth. 
 
 " There are great deeds that "will not pass away, 
 And names that must not wither, though the earth 
 Forgets her empires with a just decay."— Bteon. 
 
 The Bahamas are objects of great historic interest to the whole 
 civilized world, but to the inhabitants of the Western Hemi- 
 sphere they have a peculiar charm. The life and voyages of 
 Christopher Columbus, the son of a Grenoese wool-comber, when 
 faithfully recorded, give to literature a treasure of inestimable 
 value, and to the department of fact, the absorbing attraction 
 and dazzling brilliancy of fiction. For several weeks after our 
 first arrival in Nassau, the great navigator and discoverer was 
 almost constantly in mind. While yachting in the perfectly clear 
 and transparent waters, so exquisitely colored, borrowing their 
 rich hues not only from the skies but from the white sand beds 
 and coral shelves and reefs over which they flow, we thought 
 how, after his long and anxious voyage, he must have been im- 
 pressed; and every ride we took over the hard limestone roads, 
 upon the island of ISTew Providence, now. looking out upon the 
 
 299 
 
^66 1SLE9 Oi? StTMMM. 
 
 neighboring keys, set like jewels in liquid colors so peculiarly 
 rich in shades of green and blue that written language is too 
 poor to furnish terms with which to describe them — and then, 
 turning to a new world of trees, shrubs, vines and flowers, we 
 seemed to commune with that great spirit of the past, and to par- 
 ticipate in the wonder and astonishment with which his mind 
 was absorbed and filled, when, nearly four hundred, years ago, he 
 preceded us in making the acquaintance of those fairy isles in 
 that dreamy and seemingly unreal part of the world. Indeed, 
 at times, it seemed as if we could almost feel the gaze of his gray, 
 thoughtful and prophetic eyes. 
 
 The foot-fall of the great Genoese discoverer iipon one of the 
 long, low, Bahama islands, has ennobled the whole group. The 
 subtle influence of that grand historic event pervades the sur- 
 rounding air, and imparts a brilliant and prismatic radiance to 
 objects in other respects insignificant. The woods and waters, 
 the flowering shrubs, the climbing vines, the trees with their 
 vich glossy foliage and luscious and golden fruits, and even the 
 sable forms and faces of the happy negroes, glow with an added 
 lustre in the light of that ever memorable event. Were those 
 coral isles to-morrow ''in the deep bosom of the ocean buried," 
 their memory would remain, for the Genius of History will ever 
 keep and guard it in her imperishable archives. Ocean has no 
 abyss deep and dark enough to hide it from the view of the men 
 of the future. 
 
 A diabolical presence also — the ghosts of bad men who have 
 passed away — seems at times, even in our day, to lurk in the 
 shadows, and to infect with distrust the light, upon the island 
 of Xew Providence. Strong natures cannot be wholly shut up 
 in hades. It is more than a, hundred and fifty years since Black 
 Beard rendezvoucd at ]S^assau, and held his court under one of 
 its trees. No robber of the sea, ancient or modern, surpassed 
 
eOttfkbUS A]<rD BtACK BEARD. 301 
 
 liitn in courage, in cruelty or in crime. Columbus, by simply 
 skirting the shores and landing upon one of the summer isles, 
 secured for the whole group an immortality of fame. Black 
 Beard infected them with an infamy as enduring as the memory 
 of his crimes. The foot-fall of one hallowed the coralline rocks, 
 the presence of the other so polluted the air as to permanently 
 give to it the shadowy gloom of a lurking fear. The most charm- 
 ing flower bed loses much of its fragrance and beauty as soon as 
 it is known that a serpent has nestled there. 
 
 Death cannot wholly destroy men who are good and great. 
 They are not dead when they die. They enter upon that journey 
 where the travel is all one way, and yet do not wholly leave us. 
 Their suns descend behind the hills, but a zodiacal light still 
 lingers in the heavens. So when earth's moral monsters pass 
 away, shadows dark and chilly are for centuries projected into 
 the sunlight. Hence we observed, that over the bright and beau- 
 tiful waters, and along the shining shores of the emerald isles, 
 the soft air is even now impregnated with amoral poison derived 
 from pirates who have been dead more than a hundred years. 
 
 In the Old World the traveler is often so occupied Avith the 
 relics, monuments, history, traditions and legends of a past 
 hoary and venerable with age, that he is inclined to overlook the 
 present. In the new world the dark ind impenetrable shadows 
 extend to modern times, and leave but a few centuries for the 
 historic period. But even contemporaneous history is not wholly 
 reliable, because of the bad habit of covering with the gay robes 
 and bright ribbons of fiction, the simplicity and nakedness of 
 truth. 
 
 It was upon Friday, (a day which superstition has branded as 
 unlucky) August 3d, 1492, at eight o'clock A. m., that Columbus 
 with his three caravals, two of which were only decked fore and 
 aft^ sailed from Palos upon what the world generally belieyed 
 
 ^6 
 
303 iSiiES OF SUMMEli. 
 
 to be a *^ fool's errand." Reaching the' Canaries in safety, lie 
 left Gomora on the Cth of September. At 10 o'clock p. m., Oc- 
 tober 11th, A. D. 1492, Columbus saw or supposed he saw. a mov- 
 ing light gleaming fitfully in the darkness. For three weeks, 
 Herons, Pelicans and several other species of birds, had appeared 
 in sight almost daily, as if to cheer and welcome him on his 
 lonely way. Some even alighted on his vessels, and were hailed 
 as the bearers of good tidings. Other mute, but most reliable 
 witnesses, in constantly increasing numbers, had been encountered 
 by his caravals, floating in the calm, warm waters, and had con- 
 veyed to him the joyful intelligence that the great object of his 
 search was near at hand. Four hours later, a gun fired from the 
 Pinta, the vessel that led the little fleet, conveyed the thrilling 
 intelligence that terra firma itself was actually in sight. In 
 that supreme moment of his triumph a wild intoxication would 
 have possessed a less lofty and heroic mind. The inspired proph- 
 et of the fifteenth century, casting his eyes upwards, humbly 
 returned jiis thanks to that Divine Being that had enlightened, 
 sustained, guided and protected him in the great work to which 
 he had devoted himself for so many years, and for the brilliant 
 success with which at last his labors Avere crowned. 
 
 The author of the "Land Fall of Columbus" has, with great 
 boldness and apparent success, attacked the opinion heretofore 
 so generally conceded to be true, that Columbus first landed u]3on 
 thepi'csent island of St. Salvador, (sometimes called Cat Island.) 
 The old belief received the endorsement of Washington Irving, 
 (who did not deem it best '' to disturb the ancient landmarks,'") 
 and also of Baron Humboldt, but the author of the '' Land Fall " 
 has reproduced the original text of the journal which Columbus 
 kept of his first voyage of discovery, as embodied in the letters 
 which he wrote at the time, closely and critically examined its 
 statements, and, with the assistance of modern official charts. 
 
THE LAISB FALL OF COLUMBUS. 303 
 
 carefully followed the great nayigator's every movement, as min- 
 wtelj described by himself, from his first landing npon the island 
 which the natives called Guanahani, until he anchored off the 
 island of Cuba. He arrives at the conclusion that Columbus 
 first landed upon Watling's Island and named it San Salvador, 
 and that he did not visit at all the island now known by that 
 name. After carefully considering the facts which lead to this 
 result, we are clearly of the opinion the author of the ''Land 
 Fall " is entitled to the credit of exposing a great historical error 
 after it had received the sanction of eminent writers, and been 
 hallowed by time. 
 
 "Watling's Island is one of the Bahamas, and nearly or quite two 
 hundred miles distant in a north-easterly direction from Nassau. 
 The great importance of this discovery as seen in the light of the 
 four centuries which will soon be completed — so apparent to us — 
 far exceeds all that Columbus had imagined in his wildest dreams. 
 No wonder that Europe was thrown into a ferment of intense 
 excitement when the intelligence of his wonderful success was 
 made known. Many a long cycle of a thousand years had been 
 completed, during all which time no human being, standing upon 
 the eastern shores of the Atlantic, could discern anything in or be- 
 yond the illimitable waste of waters but a Great IJNKisrowisr. A 
 deep and profound mysteiy, like the pall of the darkest night, 
 ever brooded over the billows that received the setting sun. 
 Philosophers gazed but to speculate, men of fervid imaginations 
 to dream, and poets, in measured numbers, to sing their weird 
 and wildest songs. 
 
 Upon the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, — in Abyssinia 
 and Upper Egypt, — down the fertile valley of the Nile, — and 
 upon both shores of the Mediterranean Sea, civilization, empire 
 and imperial power had for thousands of years made their slow 
 but grand and solemn march, only to be at last barred and baffled 
 by a vast and unknown waste of waters. 
 
804 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 Columbus, with, his little fleet of three vessels, solved the prob- 
 lem of the ages, dispelled the deep and profound mystery, and 
 bridged the dark and unfathomable abyss. Landing upon the 
 Bahamas, he impi-egnated the newly found Western world with 
 the seminal principles of the old Eastern ciyilization. This clus- 
 ter of keys and islands constitute the cradle in which Young 
 America, with all his inventions and revolutionary ideas in em- 
 bryo, was first rocked. How murky were the shadows that four 
 centuries ago shrouded equally the Christian church and the most 
 famous institutions of learning! Out of them the tall and com- 
 manding form of Columbus rises, radiant with an effulgence that 
 seems divine, ennobled and glorified by great truths in advance 
 of his age. For eighteen long years he bore with marvelous forti- 
 tude and equanimity the unsupplied and pressing wants which 
 his poverty engendered, the delusive and broken promises of 
 kings, the mistaken fears and bigotry of the good, the narrow- 
 mindedness of the learned, and the ridicule and contempt, the 
 scoffs and jeers of the ignorant and doubting world. 
 
 The lesson of Columbus should never be forgotten by the emi- 
 nent theologians and divines who minister at the altars of religion, 
 and guard its profound mysteries in their small but sacred arks; 
 nor by the votaries of science, who seem, while they explore the 
 wonderful phenomena of nature, as disclosed upon our earth, or 
 travel among the stars, to literally " walk with Grod." Let them 
 ever remember that outside of cloistered cells and institutions 
 richly endowed and furnished, in the future as in the past, the 
 most valuable germs of progress will probably be found; that no 
 proposition should be ignored because it is bold and startling; no 
 truth ostracised because it is new. At the same time it may be 
 well for some of the long haired, unshaved, and unkempt seers 
 of our day, who have, as they think, some great revolutionary 
 ■and reformatory mission to fulfill, to consider that it may not be 
 
l:ilE BAHAMA INDIANS. 306 
 
 less than two or three thousands of years before another Colum- 
 bus will be born, and that like rank and noxious weeds in a good 
 garden, superstition and error had root and flourished by the side 
 of truth in the mind of the great discoverer of the New World. 
 
 Mr. Moseley, in his Nassau Almanac, states that Columbus 
 visited New Providence and called the island Fernandina, in 
 honor of the king of Spain. This is very clearly a mistake. 
 The author of the Land Fall agrees with Washington Irving that 
 Exuma is the island which Columbus thus discovered and named. 
 If we remember rightly, Bruce makes the same mistake in his 
 Memoirs. 
 
 The visitor at Nassau has ample time to muse and meditate. 
 He is not wholly satisfied with the present. Looking at the dark 
 murky shadows lying back of a few hundred years that envelope 
 human history upon these islaiids, he asks the tangled vfoods, 
 the coralline hills, the rude water-worn caverns, and the shell- 
 strewn and honey- combed shores — What of the Past? There 
 is no response. Neither records nor ruins furnish even historic 
 riddles for its solution. Let us, therefore, stand where Colum- 
 bus and his companions stood in October, 1492, and listen while 
 he gives to his sovereign a description of what he then saw. We 
 copy from his epistolary journal under date of the 13th of Octo- 
 ber, the day after his "Land Fall:" 
 
 " All were young persons, as I said before, and of good stature, 
 and withal handsome, who came to the shore. The hair of these 
 islanders is not crisp or wooly, but long and straight like that of 
 Asiatics. The forehead is wide, more so, indeed, than any peo- 
 ple I have yet seen. They have large handsome eyes, and are 
 not black, but of the color of Canaries, as might be expected, 
 since they are due west from the island of Hierro, one of that 
 group. They are all well made, even to their hands; not pot- 
 bellied, but exceedingly well formed. 
 
§0() ISLjES of SUifMEK. 
 
 " They came to the ship in canoes, formed from the trunk of 
 a tree, as long as a boat, and all from one log, curiously worked 
 after their own fashion, and large enough to carry forty or fifty 
 persons. Others they have, also, sufficient to contain one per- 
 son. They are propelled by a paddle shaped like a baker's shovel, 
 and glide about rapidly. They overturn and right them again 
 when on the water, emptying them with calibashes which they 
 have always with them. They bring balls of cotton thread, and 
 other things too numerous to mention, and would exchange them 
 for anything in return. I watched them very narrowly, to see 
 if they had any gold, but could only see that they had a little 
 piece hanging from the nose." 
 
 In a subsequent letter he writes: " They swam out to our boats, 
 bringing parrots and balls of cotton thread, with spears and sev- 
 eral other things, all of which they exchanged for what we chose 
 to give them — glass beads and hawk's bills. In fact we traded 
 together most amicably, but they appeared to be a very poor race 
 of people, deficient in many things. They go about naked as 
 they were born, the women also, although I did not see but one 
 [old] young one. Indeed every one that I saw was young; every 
 one appeared to be under thirty years of age. 
 
 " The hair of some was thick and long, like the tail of a horse. 
 The hair of some was short, brought forward over the eye-brows; 
 some wearing it long and never cutting it. Some again are 
 painted, and the hue of their skin is similar in color to the Cana- 
 ries — not black nor white. Some are painted white, and some 
 red, or any other color. Some paint only their faces, and others 
 their whole person, and some only their eyes and noses. 
 
 "They have no weapons and appear to know of none, for I 
 showed them swords, and they took them by the blade and cut 
 themselves from sheer ignorance. They have no iron. Their 
 spears are long, and instead of iron are pointed with the teeth ot 
 
£)ESCfeIt"l!'IONS BY COLUMfetJS. §01* 
 
 a fish, and such hard substances." He says that some had scars, 
 caused by wounds received when repelling invaders, (Caribs un- 
 doubtedly.) 
 
 " This is a tolerably large island, very level, with pine trees 
 and plenty of water, and a large lake in the middle of it, without 
 mountains, all covered with verdure which is pleasant to the 
 eye. 
 
 "These people are very amiable, and desirous of having our 
 things, for when they have nothing to give us for them, they 
 take what they can and jump into the water and swim off with 
 it. But anything they have they give us readily for whatever 
 we will exchange for it. They will even barter for broken crock- 
 ery and glass." 
 
 Upon going to another part of the island, when the people saw 
 the Spaniards were not going to land, some of them, he says, 
 "rushed into the sea and swam out to us, and we understood 
 them to ask if we had come from the skies. One old man even 
 got on to the boat, and others, men and women, called out at the 
 top of their voices — ' come and see the men who have come from 
 the skies; bring them something to eat and drink.' 
 
 "They are a simple-minded and handsomely formed race. 
 
 "I went after a canoe which shot away faster than any boat 
 could; for speed they have great advantage over us." 
 
 Again he writes: " The islands are very fertile, and have a fine 
 air. 
 
 "I saw even cotton cloth, made like mantles, and the people 
 appeared more orderly, and the women wore a piece of cloth, 
 which, however, scarcely concealed their sex. 
 
 "There appears to be no kind of religion among them." 
 
 He also speaks of the fishes as "of the most beautiful colorsr 
 as if painted of a thousand different hues, and so brilliant that 
 they astonish erery one, who, on this account, is anxious to see 
 
308 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 them. There are whales, also parrots and lizzards, but of beasts 
 I have seen none." 
 
 Again he says: " The people, one with another, are all of the 
 same race, naked alike, and of the same stature. 
 
 a * * * Q^J. xixQXi, who had gone for water, told me they 
 went into their houses, which they found swept very clean, and 
 that their beds and furniture were of cotton net. Their houses 
 are like tents, and of a good height, Avith chimneys. But I have 
 not seen among the many settlements I have met with, any one 
 with more than twelve to fifteen houses." 
 
 Again: ''The married women wear cotton aprons, but the 
 girls none, excepting some above eighteen years of age." One 
 man " had a piece of gold in his nose about the size of a half 
 dollar. 
 
 ''Your highness may depend that this country is the most 
 fertile, temperate, and even there is in the world." 
 
 "My eye can never tire admu-ing so much beautiful verdure, 
 and so different from ours too. 
 
 "And the singing of the birds, and the flocks of parrots which 
 are so numerous as to obscure the sky, are so delightful that no 
 one could desire to leave it. The birds arc so numerous, and so 
 different from ours that it is quite wonderful. And there are a 
 thousand different kind of trees, and all with fruit and delicious 
 perfume. " 
 
 Under date of October 22d, 1492, he writes: "And many 
 natives came to see us, similar to those of the other islands, all 
 naked and painted, some white, some red,, some black, after their 
 fashion. They brought spears and some cotton balls for trade. 
 * * * Some of them wore bits of gold in their noses." 
 
 The West Indian islands include the Bahamas, and, when dis- 
 covered by the Spaniards, they were occupied by substantially 
 one people. There existed minor differences, the results of their 
 
THE ABOEIGIKES OF THE WEST IlsTDIES, 309 
 
 separation, but the early writers give them a common description. 
 The Caribbean Islands were inhabited by a very different people. 
 The two races were no doubt off-shoots from different portions 
 of the neighboring continent. While the Oaribs were bold, rug- 
 ged, aggressive and warlike, the former were amiable, docile, 
 kind-hearted, generous and affectionate, and only fought when 
 driven to it by the instinct of self-preservation. The contrast 
 was that of the wolf and the lamb. The blood of the Caribs had 
 not been exposed to the soothing influences of the atmosphere of 
 their island homes long enough to have eliminated the cruel 
 and savage taint it acquired in the cold, bleak, barren region 
 where it no doubt received its race-mark. The inhabitants of the 
 West Indies were confiding, frank, gentle and good-natured. The 
 sexual passion was strong. " Love with this happy people was 
 not a transient and fitful ardor only, but the source of all their 
 pleasures, and the chief business of life. * * * They gave 
 full indulgence to the instincts of nature, while the influence of 
 the climate heightened the sensibility of the passions." 
 
 " They had less strength and endurance than the Spaniards. 
 Their limbs were pliant and active, and in their motions they 
 displayed both gracefulness and ease. They were exj)ert divers, 
 and their agility was eminently conspicuous in their dances, 
 wherein they delighted and excelled, devoting the cool hours of 
 night to this employment. It was their custom to dance from 
 evening to dawn." Herrera says that their public dances, (for 
 they had others highly licentious,) were appropriated to particular 
 solemnities, and being accompanied with historical songs, were 
 called Arretoes. 
 
 They had an elastic ball game like that of cricket, which was 
 called Bato. The ball was not caught in the hand, or returned 
 with an instrument, but received on the head, the elbow or foot, 
 " and the dexterity and force with which it was repelled was as- 
 tonishing and inimitable." 
 
310 ISLES OF SUMMER 
 
 " They tad remarkable sweetness of temper, and native good- 
 ness of disjoosition." "All writers agree they were unquestion- 
 ably the most gentle and benevolent of the human race." 
 
 To their superiors they were submissive and respectful; to 
 their enemies forgiving; while for their ancestors in spirit land 
 they entertained an undying affection. 
 
 Superstition, that old inhabitant of earth, indigenous in all 
 climes, and existing in all ages, was domiciled upon the coral 
 islands at the time of the Spanish discovery, and was as active 
 as the indolent character of the climate permitted in forging 
 fetters for the human mind, and holding men in bondage to fear. 
 Priests performed ridiculous rites and ceremonies, interpreted 
 the decrees and communicated the messages of deities whose evil 
 designs they sought to placate with prayer. They Avere also the 
 medical attendants of the sick. The union of the clerical and 
 medical professions is to be expected wherever disease is believed 
 to be the result of diabolical agencies, and not the executed pen- 
 alty for violated physical laws. 
 
 The islanders believed that the heaven which awaited the good 
 after death, was a pleasant valley of luxurious repose and indo- 
 lent tranquility— of cool shades and murmuring brooks, abound- 
 ing in guavas and other delicious fruits, never scorched by drough t 
 or desolated by the hurricane. Its chief happiness consisted in 
 a re-union, forever indissoluble, with the loved friends and re- 
 vered ancestors from whom they had been separated by death. 
 
 They believed in one Supreme Being, and in many lesser 
 divinities, but sought to win the favor of the demons who were 
 permitted to rule and desolate their island world, by Avorshiping 
 hideous idols which symbolized their unseen presence, and clearly 
 manifested diabolical power. 
 
 The authority of their caziques was hereditary, and it has been 
 claimed that, in determining the succession, the children of a 
 
THE ABOEIGIIS'ES. 311 
 
 cazique's sisters were preferred on account of the greater certainty 
 of royal blood. The sovereigns were looked up to with reverence 
 and obeyed with submission. Eoyal ornaments, numerous at- 
 tendants, and a multitude of wives attested their royal power. 
 Heroic songs, hymns of praise, public dances of honor, together 
 with the notes of musical instruments made of shells, and the 
 deafening noise of rude drums, formed a part of their funeral 
 obsequies. 
 
 The Bahamas interested but did not satisfy the the Spaniards. 
 They sought in vain in the coralline rocks for the golden ores 
 that gilded their fevered dreams. The passion for 
 
 "Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold! 
 Bright and yellow, hard and cold, '' 
 
 was all pervading, and so absorbing and intense that they seemed 
 dead to every tender sentiment and ennobling impulse. For a 
 time poverty did_ for the islanders more than the greatest riches 
 could have accomplished — peace and security, and the strange 
 visitors whom they were ready to worship as divine, departed. 
 
 Guileless, unsuspecting, generous and unselfish themselves, 
 how could these aborigines understand the wonderful beings, who, 
 from the vast solitudes of an illimitable ocean, had suddenly 
 landed upon their picturesque shores? In the distant east from 
 whence the strangers had come, only the morning sun, in golden 
 effulgence, had ever before emerged. Were not these then, the 
 children of the sun ? Had they not all of the divine and none 
 ■of the human? No wonder, that as Herrera states, they were 
 at first never satisfied with looking at the Spaniards, but knelt, 
 lifted up their hands and gave thanks to God, calling upon each 
 other to admire the heavenly men! 
 
 Afterwards, a new and strange interest invested these islands 
 
313 ISLES OF SUMMEK. 
 
 of perpetual and unfading verdure. It was reported and believed 
 by Juan Ponce de Leon and other bold navigators, that ujjon one 
 of them existed water medicated and endowed by nature with 
 most wonderful potency. In tangled wood or rocky cavern, bub- 
 bled in the shadows or sparkled in the sunlight, that old dream 
 of the ages — the fountain of perpetual youth; and men toiled, 
 suffered, sickened and died in the vain search for the wonderful 
 waters of immortality. It is indeed fortunate for the world, con- 
 sidering the infamous character of many of those Spanish adven- 
 turers, that this pleasing dream had no basis of fact upon which 
 to rest. 
 
 It has not been considered very strange, in an age which teemed 
 with marvels of fact which far transcended in interest, novelty 
 and importance, the wildest conceptions of the imagination, that 
 men of intelligence implicitly believed in the existence of 
 
 ' ' A bright floral isle, 
 The jewel of a smooth and silver sea, 
 
 With springs iu which perennial summers smile, 
 A power of causing immortality;" 
 
 and that some were willing to risk their money and their lives in 
 efforts to discover it. But the thread of life upon which these 
 dreamers were suspended, continued to weaken as it shortened, 
 and they soon found, as a practical fact, that the rejuvenating 
 spring is situated upon the other side of the dark turbid waters 
 of the river of death. 
 

 ^J# 
 
 i?«y >Sir«e^, «V6'« end of Nassmt. 
 
CHAPTEE XX. 
 
 Spanish Perfidy arid Cruelty. The Natives by Force and Fraud a/re Ca/r- 
 ried to Hispaniola and Perish in its Mines. The Islands without inhabitants. ■ 
 An English Captain Discovers rNew Providence. George III of England 
 inaices a Royal Grant of the Bahamas to six Proprietors. Pirates Infest the 
 Islands, Black Beard. He Establishes Himsslf Upon New Providence. The 
 Early Governors. Summary Punishment inflicted by the Spaniards, and by 
 the French and Spaniards.. Nassau, Built and Named in 1694. The British 
 Government Purchase the Proprietary Title to the Islands. Nassau is Cap- 
 tured and Abandoned by the Amsriaans Under Commodore Hopkins. In 1781 
 it is Captured and Garrisoned by the Spaniards. It is Re-taken by American, 
 Loyalists. The Abolition of Slavery. - ., 
 
 "O nature! what hadst thou to do in hell, 
 When thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend 
 In such a paradise?"— Shakespeaee. 
 
 *^I do not give you to Posterity as a pattern to imitate, but an 
 example to deter." — Junius. 
 
 Columbus was a zealous member of the Church of Eome, and 
 his mind seemed ever imbued with a strong religious sentiment. 
 Eeligious zeal did much to encourage him to undertake and prose- 
 cute with tireless energy and unwavering faith his voyages of 
 discovery. He believed himself raised up by Divine Providence 
 for the purpose of communicating to the heathen a knowledge 
 of the true God. But his royal master, Ferdinand of Spain, 
 saw in the amiable, credulous and confiding Bahama Indians 
 not men having immortal souls to be saved, but only living 
 mechanisms capable of being stolen and utilized in money mak- 
 313 27 
 
314 ISLES OF SUMMEE. 
 
 ing. He did not merely tarnish his reputation, but he earned 
 for himself eternal infamy, and the scorn and contempt of good 
 men in all future times, by a royal order under which the entire 
 native population of the Bahamas were conveyed to Hispaniola, 
 and forced to labor in its mines. The removal was brought about 
 by the grossest fraud. The ^^ children of the sun" promised to 
 take them to those Elysian isles where they could enjoy the society 
 of their dead ancestors, and revel with them in supreme aud never 
 ending delights. Subjected to tasks to which they were unaccus- 
 tomed, and for which they were unfitted, disappointed and broken 
 hearted, it did not require many years for death to do for them 
 all that the Spaniards had promised; 
 
 " The whole race sank beneath the oppressor's rod, 
 And left a blank among the works of God." 
 
 The " heavenly men " proved to be greater demons than any 
 those unfortunate islanders had ever, by prayer and sacrifice, 
 endeavored to appease and conciliate. 
 
 For a time the Bahamas were without human inhabitants; 
 
 " Still nature spread her fruitful sweetness round, 
 Breathed on the air, and brooded on the ground." 
 
 The fairy isles lost nothing of their charming loveliness; jthe 
 Boff, perfumed, and medicated air retained all its healing and 
 attractive qualities; while the ocean kissed with its crested waves 
 the white beaches and honey-combed shores, and ceaselessly 
 uttered its regretful murmurs. 
 
 Capt. William Sayle, an English navigator, entered the harbor 
 of Nassau in the year 1607, and gave to the island of New Provi- 
 dence its present name, in commemoration of his escape from 
 threatened shipwreck. England claimed the Bahamas as an 
 
BAHAMA PIRATES. 315 
 
 appendage of the British crown, upon the ground of his discovery, 
 although mors tlian a hundred years before Cohimbus had made 
 the acquaintance of some of them, sailed through the groujD, and 
 claimed all for Ferdinand and Isabella. Soon after this alleged 
 discovery by Capt. Sayle, Charles the Second of England made 
 a royal grant of all the Bahamas, including the islands which 
 Columbus visited in 1492, to the Duke of Albemarle, Lord Craven, 
 Sir John Caterel, Lord Berkley, Lord Sibley, and Sir Peter Cole- 
 ton — the proprietors of Carolina; who did very little for the 
 islands which was of any service to England or to themselves. 
 
 Afterwards, the outlaws of civilization and savages of the sea, 
 frequented the islands, and made them the center of their hostile 
 operations against the commerce of the world. With vessels of 
 light draft, they mastered the intricacies of the tortuous chan- 
 nels, and made themselves familiar with the points of special 
 danger, the safest lines of approach and retreat, the harbors of 
 refuge, the best places for concealment, and the strongholds of 
 defense. No light-houses, buoys or reliable charts warned the 
 mariner, or guided him in his course over the perilous waters. 
 Countless rocks and reefs, extensive shoals and banks, intricate 
 currents and cross-currents, severe storms, and an occasional 
 hurricane, would seem to have been sufficient without the still 
 more fearful peril of armed and demoniac brigands of the sea. 
 
 The pirates who succeeded the original inhabitants must have 
 been lineally descended from the early inhabitants of England, 
 if the following descrij)tion of the latter by Greene is to be credi- 
 ted: " From the first, the daring of the English race broke out 
 in the secrecy and suddenness of the pirate's swoop, in the fierce- 
 ness of their onset, in the careless glee with which they seized 
 either sword or oar. 'Foes are they,' sang a Eoman poet of the 
 time, 'fierce beyond other foes, and cunning as they are fierce; 
 the sea is their school of war, and the storm their friend; they 
 are sea-Avolves that prey on the pillage of the Avorld.' " 
 
816 ISLES OF SUMMEE. 
 
 ■ The most violent of the sea-wolves that infested the v/aters of 
 the Bahamas, and the neighboring seas, was a native of Bristol, 
 England, by the name of Edward Tench. • The historic name of 
 Bifck Beard was conferred npon him by his cotemporaries on 
 account of the color and quantity of hair which helped so much 
 to give him a wild and savage appearance. He first made himself 
 felt and feared as a privateer. Sailing in that capacity in the 
 early part of the eighteenth century, from the island of Jamaica, 
 he soon distinguished himself by his daring intrepidity and reck- 
 less courage. Between privateering and piracy there is but a 
 single short step. A little practice in capturing, robbing and 
 destroying the merchant ships of one nation, is a good prepara- 
 tory and training school, in which an apt scholar, like Tench, is 
 soon prepared for the business of waging merciless war on the 
 commerce of the world. 
 
 Black Beard soon had a piratical fleet well manned and power- 
 fully armed, which, for a short time, was a terror to all honest 
 men who frequented the West India Islands or the neighboring 
 shores of the main land. His audacity and power are indicated 
 by the fact that the city of Charleston was once coerced into 
 furnishing him with a valuable supply of medical stores, by the 
 assurance that if his demands were refused, he would burn the 
 vessels and kill the prisoners then in his possession which he had 
 captured, and send the heads of the latter to the Governor of 
 South Carolina. He was finally hunted down and killed in a 
 bloody hand to hand fight among the inlets of Xorth Carolina. 
 It is difficult at the present day to realize the extent and char- 
 acter of the peril from, pirates to which a century and a-half ago 
 persons were subjected who sailed in the waters v/hich penetrate 
 or surround the Bahamas. The black flag with its death's head 
 and cross-bones, is a thing of the past. A marine police, mount- 
 ed upon powerful and fast sailing steamers, and armed with 
 
CAPTttRED AHD PUNTSHED BY SPANIARDS 317 
 
 breecli-loading cannon, haye driven the freebooters from the sea. 
 But while history and tradition still preserve their memory, their 
 blood, to some extent, courses down to our times in the channels 
 of descent. The motto upon the Bahama Coat of Arms, and 
 which is engraved upon its Great Seal — "Expulsis Piratis, lies- 
 titutia Commercia'' — is an official and durable testimonial of 
 the power which the pirates possessed, and the terror they in- 
 spired in former times. 
 
 The proprietors in 1G70, appointed one Collingworth (or Chil- 
 lingworth), Grovernor of the Bahamas, but the inhabitants con- 
 cluded they had no need of him, and therefore took forcible 
 possession of his person, and shipped him off to Jamaica. 
 
 In 1G77 the proprietors conferred the vacant gubernatorial 
 crown ujDon one Clark, whose great exaltation was purchased at 
 the price of his life. His piratical subjects, by their filibuster- 
 ing excursions, had so exasperated their Spanish neighbors, that 
 the latter invaded K'ew Providence, destroyed the houses upon 
 it by fire, took all the inhabitants captive who did not find refuge 
 in the woods, carried Covernor Clark to Cuba, and, it is said, 
 tortured him to death and roasted him. 
 
 In 1684, the Spaniards again surprised the people upon the 
 island, and, after destroying the improvements which had been 
 made, they carried off some of the inhabitants. After the inva- 
 ders left, such of the inhabitants as survived, emerged from their 
 hiding places in a forlorn and necessitous condition, again started 
 a settlement, and in 1687 chose a Presbyterian minister by the 
 name of Bridge, their governor — a rather heavy and cumbrous 
 title considering the limited number and poverty of the people. 
 He held his high oiSce three years. 
 
 In 1690 the proprietors sent out one Jones to be Governor 
 *' in and over " the Bahamas. He tyranized over the people with 
 a high and unscrupulous hand^ being aided by the pirate Avery 
 
01§ ISLtlS OF SUMMER. 
 
 wlio commanded a sliip with 43 guns. When the latter was 
 away, the outraged people put the Governor in prison, and chose 
 Ashley, one of their number. President. The pirates returned 
 and set Jones at liberty, who in turn imprisoned all whom he 
 suspected of hostility to himself, and desired the pirates to carry 
 them off the island and make v/ay with tliem. 
 
 In 1694, Jones was superceded by one Trott, whom the pro- 
 prietors appointed in his place. He U])erated the imprisoned in- 
 Jiabitants, but allowed. Jones to depart without a trial. Cowed 
 by his fears, he also permitted the pirates to land with their 
 plunder upon the island. The inhabitants fraternized with the 
 freebooters, who remained unmolested. To protect themselves 
 from the Spaniards, the inhabitants built a small fort upon which 
 they mounted twenty-two cannon. "They also built a town of 
 160 houses which they called I^assau." 
 
 In 1697 Webb was appointed Grovernor. After holding that 
 office two years, the discretion of his excellency got the better of 
 his valor, and he left for Pennsylvania. 
 
 In 1699, while away, he, without the knowledge of the pro- 
 prietors, installed in his place a mulatto by the name of Eldridge, 
 a man of most infamous character, who secured the pirates for 
 his protectors and patrons, and thus was enabled to retain his 
 title and his power for two years. 
 
 In 1701 the proprietary "^^ lords" conferred the office of Gov- 
 ernor upon one Haskel, who put his immediate predecessor into 
 prison, and also some of the inhabitants, whom he caused to be 
 prosecuted for abetting the pirates. His zeal proved to be greater 
 than his power, for in five weeks after his arrival upon the island, 
 his turbulent subjects seized and ironed him, and after keeping 
 him a close prisoner for six weeks, shipped him back to England. 
 
 These practical believers in self-government appointed one of 
 their associates named Lichtwood, (or Lightfoot,) president and 
 
S-REN-CH AN'D SPANISH IN'VASION'S. 319 
 
 deputy Governor, who held his office for two years, when the 
 French and Spaniards surprised, captured, and burned Nassau, 
 plundered its inhabitants, destroyed the fort, and carried the 
 president and a number of prisoners to Havana. Shortly after- 
 wards these formidable enemies returned to Nassau and captured 
 and carried away all the inhabitants and negroes they could find. 
 
 The few who remained fled to Carolina and A^irginia, and the 
 island for a short period was uninhabited. The pirates then for 
 a number of years made it their general place of rendezvous, and, 
 it is said, buried their booty in its woods. 
 
 Soon after the last invasion, Burch was ajjpointed Governor 
 by the proprietors, but, uj^on his arrival at Providence, he dis- 
 covered that subjects and ruler were all consolidated in his own 
 person. Like a horseless rider, he could perambulate his capital 
 on foot and alone, with the useless and unused whij) and spurs 
 of his high office, but a few thousands of subjects would have 
 been extremely handy and desirable as a source of supply for his 
 empty exchequer, for even upon small islands a man cannot get 
 fat or exist long upon his titles, although, as in this instance, 
 they may enable him to live in history. So this Governor with- 
 out subjects, pocketed his formidable credentials, packed his 
 trunks with the gilded insignia and baubles of his high office, 
 and soon exchanged the new world for the old — a wiser if not a 
 better man. He aj^pears to have had no desire to play the part 
 of Eobinson Crusoe, and possessed so little of the ambition that 
 inspired poor Sancho Panza, that he was not satisfied to be the 
 Governor even of a whole archipelago of unoccupied islands. 
 
 The lord proprietors became fully satisfied at last, that they 
 had upon their hands a good sized Bahama elephant. Had their 
 royal master been pleased to have given them, in lieu of the Isles 
 of Summer, an equal number of square miles of volcanic moun- 
 t^iiig in the moon, which some English astronomer had falsely 
 
320 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 claimed to have first discovered, they would have occupied a 
 more enviable position, for while the grant would have added 
 nothing to their income, it could not possibly have impoverished 
 or annoyed them. This pestiferous nest of pirates had onlj 
 served as a burial place for their money and their hopes. 
 
 The British government finally, in the interest and for the 
 security of commerce, bought the title of the legal representatives 
 of the six proprietary interests, giving for each £2,000. 
 
 Upon the petition of the merchants of London and Bristol, 
 interested in the security of commerce, King George I appointed 
 Mr. Ward Kogers G-overnor, and sent him with 'a force of one 
 hundred men and an ample supply of all necessary stores to fortify 
 New Providence. He arrived out in 1717, and an act of indem- 
 nity having been passed, the pirates accepted of its terms, sur- 
 rendered without a struggle, and became, thereafter, down to 
 1742, when Bruce wrote, " the principal inhabitants oftheislajul." 
 
 According to Mr. Mosely, the gubernatorial office was filled by 
 Mr. Eogers from 1717 to 1721, and from 1728 to 1733; George 
 Phenny or Finney was Governor during the intervening , years. 
 The population did not exceed 1,000 persons. 
 
 During this period of sixteen years the executive office seems 
 to have been well filled, and peace, security and confidence pre- 
 vailed, so that many families, besides many Palatines, settled and 
 made improvements upon the islands. 
 
 In 1733 Kichard Fitz Williams was aiDpointcd Governor, and 
 with ample stores, a force of fifty men, and an engineer named 
 Thomas Moore, arrived at Xew Providence, with special directions 
 . to fortify the place. This new colonial Governor was arbitrary 
 and tyrannical, and so abused his power that "the best of the 
 inhabitants and all the Palatines abandoned their improvements 
 and left the idand." The engineer died suddenly bafore he had 
 made much progress in his work. In the bad business of oppress- 
 
THE EAKLY GOVEEISTORS. 3S1 
 
 ing the people, the Governor had the assistance and active co- 
 operation of a member of the council, the judge of the court of 
 admiralty, and one Archibald, ("his excellency's" servant,) who 
 silenced opposition by knocking its authors down. The British 
 sovereigns appear to have generally made their Bahama Governors 
 out of very bad material. It was difficult as well as expensive 
 for the oppressed islanders to make their complaints heard across 
 the wide and stormy Atlantic, but three prominent inhabitants 
 succeeded in reaching London, and preferred '^ charges of a very 
 extraordinary nature against the Governor," who, after much 
 delay, was ordered to meet his accusers, and defend himself 
 against their formidable indictment. After a long and expensive 
 trial, the charges were sustained and the Governor removed. 
 
 In 1738 John Tinker was appointed Governor, and made the 
 people happy in the commencement of his administration by his 
 removals and administrative reforms, but ho appears, from Bruce's 
 account founded upon personal knowledge, to have developed 
 some of the worst qualities of his predecessors. In the most 
 arbitrary, unjust and illegal manner, he made a variety of orders 
 for the disposal of very valuable prize property captured by a 
 privateer, for the purpose of enriching himself, and benefitting 
 certain people of ISTassau. 
 
 Peter Henry Bruce, in April, 1741, arrived in Nassau, and 
 and commenced work upon its fortifications under a commission 
 from the British government. An old fort, very much out of 
 repair, called Fort Nassau, within which were wooden barracks 
 in a tumble-down condition, then stood on the north side of 
 what is now known as Flemish Square, where the present stone 
 barracks are situated. It had sixteen badly-mounted guns; the 
 remainder of its armament consisted of guns in part spiked, in 
 part charged with stones and sand, in part buried below high- 
 ivater mark, and in part scattered about the place; and of gun' 
 
3^^ ISLES OF STJMMEll. 
 
 carriages, trucks and sliells, each, of which appeared to have 
 started out upon its own account to explore the island. Many 
 of the guns had been used as ballast for vessels. Mr. Bruce, 
 after collecting and testing the guns, found he had sixty-four six, 
 nine, twelve and eighteen pounders fit for service. 
 
 In repairing and building fortifications at Nassau, Mr. Bruce 
 labored under great and peculiar difiiculties, which we mention 
 because they indicate the destitution and condition of Nassau at 
 that time. There was but one mason, and not a wheeled vehicle 
 of any kind in the place. He imported tAvo brick-layers from 
 Philadelphia, .&nd taught them how to cut and lay stone. No 
 laborers could be hired unless they were furnished with provi- 
 sions, supplies of which he j)rocured from New York, for ''the 
 natives lived principally upon tortoise and fish, any kind of flesh 
 meat being a great rarity, " 
 
 Kumors of another Spanish invasion secured for Mr. Bruce the 
 co-operation of the Bahama legislature in his efforts to suitably 
 fortify the place. The east entrance, or " back door " of Nassau, 
 required to be guarded, and the present Fort Montague was at 
 that time erected. The Governor laid its foundation stone on 
 the 10th day of June, A. D. 1741, in the presence of the prin- 
 cipal inhabitants of the island. A sea-battery was erected near 
 it at the same time. Necessary building stone Avould have been 
 brought from the woods upon the lieads of the negroes, had not 
 the alarmed local authorities furnished the necessary boats for 
 its transportation. Pallisades were made of mastic wood, which 
 Mr. Bruce states, ''is as hard and heavy as iron, and musket 
 balls make no impression upon it." The inhabitants informed 
 him that it would last a century, and was proof against swivel 
 shot. The pallisades could be cut and worked only when green. 
 
 Then, as now, the rocks Avcre soft below the surface, and easily 
 cut, but hardened when exposed to the air. Cannon balls, when 
 fired into the soft stone, Avere buried as in sand l)anks. 
 
Mr. Bruce found sufficient leisure time while at Nassau to 
 collect much historical information which he published in his 
 ''Memoirs." Most of the facts contained in the foregoing his- 
 torical summary are collated from his book. So far as we haye 
 been able to learn, no other writer either preceded or followed 
 him in sketching the history of the Bahamas. The historic pen 
 which Bruce laid down in 1742, when he left Nassau to make 
 good the defenses of Charleston, S, C, no one has taken up. 
 The soothing air of the Isles of Summer is not fayorable to the 
 making or writing of history. We haye gleaned but a few items 
 with which to fill the intervening historical chasm measured by 
 the past one hundred and thirty-seyen years. 
 
 When the independence of the United States was confirmed, 
 and established by the treaty of peace in 1782, there were many 
 inhabitants of the Carolinas and Georgia, who, during the reyo- 
 lutionary war, retained their affection for the mother country, 
 and their loyalty to its goyernment. These people lacked faith 
 in the republic, and the same spirit which induced them or their 
 ancestors to emigrate to the American colonies, caused them to 
 abandon their new homes and seek their fortunes elsewhere. 
 Many of them removed with their slaves to the Bahamas, and 
 commenced new plantations upon a number of the islands. The 
 yirgin soil for a few seasons yielded large harvests; but its fertil- 
 ity was soon exhausted. Dej)rived of trees and bushes, the fields 
 were scorched by the hot sun, while swarms of destructiye in- 
 sects consumed and otherwise destroyed the scanty harvests. It 
 required but a few years to complete the financial ruin of the 
 new settlers. Their improvements and negroes were of little 
 yaiue in the absence of paying crops. What had been saved of 
 their fortunes in the States speedily disappeared, and they were 
 left destitute even of the means of removal from the little islanda 
 in which their courage and hopes were entombed. 
 
!ijM ISMS OF StMMEfi. 
 
 During the war of the American revolution the ishmcl of Kcvr 
 Providence was for a brief time a part of the young American 
 republic, and the starry flag floated in triumph from all the forts 
 and flag staffs of Nassau, and decorated the governor's house 
 on the crest of its hill. The bold and intrepid Commodore Hop- 
 kins, with a small body of men, accomplished this result. The 
 American commander very soon made up his mind, as did Col- 
 umbus before him, that he could do much better elsewhere. In 
 fact, there were no lofty mountain crags upon the Bahamas, 
 where the great American eagle could build its nest, and no suffi- 
 cient room upon the island of New Providence for the national 
 bird to fully and comfortably spread its wings. The island 
 seemed designed by Divine Providence for parrots and birds that 
 were satisfied to spend their lives in the hot sun, admiring the 
 beautiful plumage which the brackish waters of the still and 
 shallow lagoons reflected. So the Commodore furled the stars 
 and stripes, and abandoned as worthless the island he had so gal- 
 lantly captured. 
 
 In the year 1781, a Spanish force made up in part of some 
 American volunteers, took military possession of Nassau, and 
 o-arrisoned it with six hundred troops. A short time previous 
 to the notification of the treaty of peace, Lieut. Col. Deveaux, 
 of the loyal militia of South Carolina, planned, organized and 
 led an expedition against Nassau, in which great boldness, in- 
 genuity, address and ability were displayed. With two armed 
 brigantines and only fifty volunteers, he sailed from St. Augus- 
 tine, and, after obtaining some recruits, (principally negroes,) 
 from Eleuthera and the neighboring islands, he landed with his 
 little handful of adventurers upon the island of New Providence 
 a little to the eastward of Fort Montague. The officers of that 
 fort were completely taken unawares, and when the column of 
 attack reached the ramparts, only one solitary sentinel was in 
 
!j-AfeSAtJ CAPTURE!) BY AMERICAN LOYALISTS. §35 
 
 sight to receive them. He had a lighted match in his hand, 
 ready to blow up the fortress if the exigencies of the case should 
 require it, but the intrepidity of Col. Deveaux who headed the 
 assailants, thwarted his design; springing upon the bewildered 
 and astonished sentinel, Col. Deveaux made him his prisoner, 
 and immediately afterwards, without a struggle or even a parley, 
 the fort, with its garrison, armament and military stores was 
 surrendered. The Colonel, quickly, and without opposition, 
 proceeded with an attacking column to the crest of the hill and 
 to the grounds upon which the Governor's house was situated, 
 overlooking the town. McKinnen says: 
 
 " Every artifice was used to deceive the Spaniards, both as to 
 the number and description of the enemy they had to contend 
 with. A show of boats was made, continually rowing from the 
 vessels, filled with men, who apparently landed, but in fact con- 
 cealed themselves by lying down as they returned to the vessels, 
 and afterwards made their appearance, as a fresh supply of trooj)s 
 proceeding to disembark. Men of straw, it is said, were dressed 
 out to increase the apparent number on the heights; and some 
 of the troops, to intimidate the Spaniards, were painted and dis- 
 guised as their inveterate foes, the Indians. One or two galleys 
 in the harbor had been captured, and, trusting to the circum- 
 stances in his favor. Colonel Deveaux summoned the Governor 
 to surrender, with a pompous description of his formidable force. 
 Some hesitation being at first discovered, the Colonel seconded 
 his overtures with a well-directed shot at the Governor's house 
 from a field-piece, during his deliberation, which produced an 
 immediate capitulation. The Spanish troops, in laying down 
 their arms, it is said, could hot refrain from expressing the ut- 
 most mortification and confusion as they surveyed their con- 
 querors, not only so inferior in point of numbers, but ludicrous 
 in their dress and military appearance." 
 
 ^8 
 
S26 ISLES OF SUMME^w 
 
 By the terms of the treaty of peace, the title of the king of 
 Great Britain to the Bahamas was establislied. Since that time, 
 for nearly a hundred years, the islands haye remained one of 
 the out-lying portions of the British Empire. Situated at one 
 of the gates of entrance to the G-ulf of Mexico, near to our shores, 
 and in the path of our commerce, nothing prevents Britain's 
 possession from being a menace but their insignificance and 
 weakness in a military point of yiew. 
 
 The late war of the rebellion demonstrated the capabilities of 
 Nassau and its harbor for mischief Avhen occupied in time of 
 war by a professedly neutral, but covertly hostile power. Except 
 during the period covered by our late war — 1861 to 1865 — the 
 history of Nassau from 1783 to the present time, has been as 
 dull and devoid of interest (outside of that which accompanies 
 wrecks and hurricanes,) as the still and shallow waters of a 
 mangrove lake. But, as has been well said, a nation is most pros- 
 perous when it furnishes the least for the historian to record; 
 
 "And noiseless falls the foot of time 
 Which only treads on flowers." 
 
 One event, of an extremely radical and revolutionary character, 
 should not, however, be passed by unnoticed — the abolition of 
 slavery. This result was accomplished without the loss of a life, 
 the firing of a gun, or disturbance of any kind. By the silent 
 operation of a law enacted upon an island some four thousand 
 mibs away, upon the other side of the wide and stormy Atlantic, 
 all of the enslaved Bahama negroes were changed from chattels 
 into men, and became at once free citizens of that great emjjire 
 which circles the world, and upon which the sun never sets.. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 Nassaii Beoisited. Lack of Confidence in tlie Northern March. Missing 
 ' Trunks— Man and His Clothes. The New York and Nassau Steamboat Li?ie. 
 The Western Texas. Notable Passengers. The Fountain of Youth on Litch- 
 field Hill. Fernandina. Picturesque Shores. Sea-birds. The Mouth of the 
 St. John's— its Bar and Breakers. A Visit to St. Nicholas. Incidents and 
 Scenes in the Crulf of Florida. '' Bank Sharks." Porpoises. Crossing the 
 Chilf Stream. Bolphins. Sun-set Views. Arrival at Nassaii. 
 
 " Once more upon the water! yet once more ! 
 And the waves roll beneath me like a steed 
 That knows its rider — welcome to their roar!" — Byron. 
 
 Whek we awoke Thursday morning, March 4th, 1880, the air 
 was filled with the melody of the birds of early spring, and the 
 soft sweet notes of the blue birds were especially noticeable. The 
 •air was as warm and genial as that of a pleasant morning in May. 
 Gentle zephyrs sported with the leafless branches of the orchard 
 and forest trees, and lovingly kissed and quickened with a new 
 energy the arbutus, the crocus, the daffodil and other flowers, 
 that were courageously pushing their long buried heads out of 
 the ground to see if winter, their natural enem3^ had retreated 
 to its arctic home. What folly, we exclaimed, to leave the 
 shores of Connecticut and encounter the perils of an ocean voy- 
 age in search of a summer that is already here ! But we had 
 good reason to mistrust appearances. The northern March has 
 an established reputation. Its record is as old as the centuries 
 that have passed away. Though it approached concealed in the 
 
 327 
 
328 ISLES OF SUMMER, 
 
 gay mantle of spring, and greeted us with sunny smiles, we 
 knew that more disease and discomfort lay ambushed within its 
 thirty-one days than can be found in any three of the remaininij 
 months of the year. It might deceive the flowers — they iiave 
 perished in its frosts before; and the birds that have more mel- 
 ody and beauty than mind and brains; and tempt the fish back 
 to their old spawning grounds — a shad cannot be expected to 
 know any better — but as for us, we said, we would seek for sum- 
 mer where summer lives and reigns throughout the entire circle 
 of the revolving year, where the northern March is unknown. 
 
 Our arrangements were soon made, and the steamer Elm City 
 landed us safely in Now York, after a refreshing night's sleep. 
 Before the break of day, while we skirted the eastern shore of 
 Manhattan Island, we looked out of our stateroom window, 
 through the murky and humid air, upon the sleeping city, and 
 mused and marveled at the wondrous changes which an hour or 
 two of daylight would produce. Its shipping and great business 
 arteries were but dimly revealed in the gas-light and lamp-light, 
 while gloomy vapors concealed from view its dome of stars. The 
 fevered and mad pulses that so wildly beat and throb by day, 
 were soothed and quieted by kind nature's grand opiate and re- 
 storative, sleep. Day and night work wondrous changes in our 
 country's great commercial ca23ital. Ocean in calm and storm 
 is not more iinlike than a great city at mid-day and mid-night. 
 0, how we abominate the horrid noises of its crowded streets — 
 the awful solitude of its thoroughfares! 
 
 It was between eight and nine o'clock in the morning when 
 the astonishing fact was discovered that our trunks had not ac- 
 companied us to New York, they having been left unchecked at 
 the steamboat dock at New Haven! Our stateroom in the Wes- 
 tern Texas was engaged, and the steamer was advertised to sail 
 at 3 p. M. of the same day. Had we lost our money we could have 
 
MISSING- TRUNKS. 829 
 
 drawn for more, or borrowed or got trusted, perliai^s. If we 
 had even lost our reputation or character we might get along 
 among strangers by leading a virtuous life in the future, and wo 
 knew that God forgives us if man does not.' Even the loss of 
 reason may prove to be a temporary affair which the quiet and 
 medicated air of the ocean has power to sometimes restore. But 
 to lose one's clothes — to leave behind one's wardrobe, just as the 
 ship that is to carry you to distant countries is getting up steam 
 to take you away, is a calamity so crushing and overwhelming 
 that one would hardly desire such a misfortune to befall his bit- 
 terest enemy. Why, character and respectability, social joosltion, 
 pivilizatien, everything that makes a man among men and a lady 
 .among women, is involved in one's personal dry goods. When 
 one begins to wear clothes he ceases to be a savage, and is indeed 
 almost a Christian. It is true we were bound for the isles of 
 perpetual summer, where clothes are not required to meet any 
 physical want, and are only worn to indicate that man is not a 
 brute beast; but still we, and especially the female half of us, 
 were really horrified at the idea of leaving New York u23on a long 
 journey, almost as naked as we were born. 
 
 A young and efiEicient officer of the New Haven Steamboat 
 Comi^any came to our relief, utilized the telegraph, and thus 
 endeavored to secure for our trunks a place on board the Conti- 
 nental, which was to leave New Haven for Now York at 10 a, m. 
 A delay in the sailing time of the Western Texas was promised 
 us^ and we waited in a state of mingled hope and fear the slow 
 creeping of the languid hours. 0, how much depended on the 
 result! Whether we should leave our native land decent, re- 
 spectable people, or otherwise, all depended upon the arrival or 
 non-arrival on time of those ill-starred and sad-fated trunks. 
 We sat upon the deck of the Western Texas and closely scruti- 
 nized every approaching steamer. How beautifully, like gigan- 
 
330 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 tic white- feathered "Water fowls, they unceasingly cut and skim- 
 med the dimpled waters which constitute that grand navigable 
 highway that se]3arates and yet makes one two great cities! At 
 half -past three o'clock, a steamer more beautiful than the rest, 
 with a proud air of conscious superiority, made her appearance, 
 and as she changed her course to enter Peck's slip, the name 
 "Continental" was plainly discernable. The next twenty min- 
 utes were the longest and most anxious ones we ever experienced. 
 Stars may wander from their spheres and he lost forever, and 
 not affect us in the least — but to lose all one's wardrobe, includ- 
 ing one's newest and best ''store-clothes" — ah! that was alto- 
 gether more than our equanimity could endure; thefe was no 
 relief or palliation for it in the philosophical reflections and teach- 
 ings of a life time. There is an end to all things, and we de- 
 voutly thank God that suspense and fear have their limits. The 
 last one of at least fifty baggage wagons that we examined con- 
 tained the missing objects of our heart's then fondest affections. 
 The countenance of that old Jew who welcomed back the return- 
 ing prodigal son, was certainly less wreathed with smiles, and less 
 illumined with the light of a new joy, than was ours at beholding 
 at that auspicious but late hour, those missing trunks; and, after 
 seeing that they were properly checked and shipped, we went 
 again on board and were soon employed in reading Milton's great 
 work — so evidently composed for such an occasion as this — " Par- 
 adise Regained." 
 
 The sea treated us tenderly. For a time it foamed, hissed, 
 howled and shook us up, but only, by giving us a slight taste and 
 token of its powers, to make us more appreciate the greatness 
 and goodness of its forbearance. For perhaps a hundred miles 
 each side of Hatteras, we crossed the great ocean storm belt, and 
 the sky lowered upon us as if in anger, but we soon sped away 
 from the impending danger and basked on deck in the warm; rays 
 
THE WESTERN TEtAS. 331 
 
 of a more southerly sun. Although out of sight of land, we 
 skirted sufficiently near the Atlantic's western shore to have the 
 constant company of large white gulls, who, to some extent, de- 
 pended upon our ship for their supplies. The occasional appear- 
 ance of steamers and vessels with sails spread to the wind, clearly 
 indicated that we were traversing one of the great frequented 
 but trackless paths of the sea. We passed the entrance to 
 Charleston harbor, and if we could only have prolonged the day- 
 light for a few hours, we would have reached Port Royal, our 
 first stopping place, the third night after leaving New York. A 
 gentleman with a sea-glass reported that he saw trees upon the 
 Carolina shore, but we suspected he was somewhat aided by his 
 imagination. 
 
 The Western Texas is one of a line of steamers which runs 
 between New York and Nassau, touching at one or more of our 
 southern ports going and returning. They are owned by C. H. 
 Mallory & Co., and carry the mail under a long contract with 
 the Bahama government, -which pays the company a handsome 
 subsidy for the service. From the position and nearness of the 
 Bahamas to our coast, intimate and close commercial intercourse 
 between them and the United States is inevitable. 
 
 The Texas is a new boat, about three years old, and has supe- 
 rior passenger accommodations. Its main saloon, '^social hall" 
 and staterooms, are roomy, very handsomely finished and fur- 
 nished, and uncommonly pleasant. Neatness, cleanliness, order 
 and efficiency are marked characteristics, and comfort and con- 
 fidence are the result. The table, during our voyage, was sup- 
 plied with an abundance of well-cooked food, including all the 
 substantials and many of the delicacies that are to be met with 
 in a good hotel. She registers 1250 tons, and is one of the 
 largest of the line; the freight and passengei' business is not suffi- 
 cient to warrant the use of larger vessels. 
 
3§^ ISLES OP SUMMEfi. 
 
 While our passenger list was small, we were remarkably favored 
 in respect to the general good character of all, and the excep- 
 tionally high character of some of our passengers. Among them 
 were included the venerable ex-Chief Justice of Connecticut, the 
 Honorable Origen S. Seymour, of Litchfield, and his wife; the 
 Honorable George C. Woodruff, a veteran of the bar of Litch- 
 field county, for legal ability probably second to no lawyer in 
 our State, and formerly a member of Congress, and his wife; 
 Mrs. Sanford, the widow of the late Judge Sanford, formerly of 
 the Connecticut Supreme Court, and several members of her 
 family, aud an old soa captain who had spent the greater part of 
 some forty years upon the ocean. We never looked upon the 
 Litchfield delegation without feeling a strong sentiment of state 
 pride, and personal veneration and admiration. What a grand 
 .stock! What a place is old Litchfield for mental,, moral and phy- 
 sical development! At the ripe age of seventy-six, with what an 
 elastic stej) our old judicial chieftain trod the steamer's deck! 
 How keen his intellect! How bright and sparkling his soul-lit 
 eye ! How youthful, ever green and sunny his spirits! The great 
 leader of judicial reform, there was not a fossil or a barnacle 
 about hira. But, toweriug high and strong above all, was his 
 tender devotion, his unremitting care and watchfulness, his de- 
 voted and unflagging aflrection aud love for his aged and sea sick 
 wife, the mother of his stalwart and able sons! Turning from 
 him to the hale, hearty, rugged Woodruff, full of the learned 
 lore of the law, we inwardly exclaimed that the dream of the past 
 is a veritable fact — there is a " fountain of perpetual youth," and 
 it bubbles up on the top of Litchfield hill, and these are they 
 who have drank of its wonderful waters. May their shadows 
 never grow less, nor their blood cease to circulate in the veins 
 and arteries of the men of the future! 
 
 Having freight on board for Fernandina, it was necessary for 
 
US to go up for a short distance the St. Mary's — a river that con- 
 stitutes in part the line of division between Georgia and Florida. 
 We remained outside all one night, and in the early morning 
 cautiously proceeded towards the city, here and there feeling our 
 way with the sounding line. Nearly all the day was consumed 
 in discharging freight. The weather Avas so threatening that 
 we were content to simply view the city from the upper deck. 
 One colored policeman, black and dirty, was on duty at the 
 wharf. lie much needed a new uniform, but his '^ billy," and 
 the revolver that protruded conspicuously out of one of his pock- 
 ets, looked as if caj)able of doing good service. "We must con- 
 fess that we were not very favorably impressed with this specimen 
 of the right arm of Florida's civil pow.er. A big negro boy, who, 
 in our presence horsewhipped a little one, and boldly returned 
 the blows of a colored man who undertook to avenge the small 
 boy's wrongs, was allowed to escape. 
 
 A smart, pretty white boy, only four years of age, smoked 
 three cigars in the course of a few hours, and was reported to 
 have received in the morning at the hands of his father — who 
 had charge of the men who unloaded the freight — his morning 
 glass of brandy and water! Fernandina, apparently, is a place 
 of some three thousand inhabitants, white and colored. It has 
 a pleasant look, resting upon a gentle elevation above its harbor. 
 In leaving it, we steamed along nearly the whole line of its water 
 front, and noticed that its streets seemed grass grown, being 
 green with a low vegetable growth of some kind. As it is con- 
 nected with the Gulf of Mexico by railroad, it is the center of 
 considerable freighting business. St. Mary's river, like the St. 
 John's, seeks the ocean through several channels, by which means 
 a number of islands are formed— low, green savannahs, here and 
 there diversified with forest growths, the trees and bushes giving 
 no indications of having ever felt the noiseless^ killing touch of 
 
384 ISLES OE SCSI-MER. 
 
 the great northern frost king, who so quietly and thoroughly 
 paves our roads and bridges, our lakes and rivers in a single night. 
 
 Our passengers thronged the bow of our boat and feasted eye 
 and mind upon scenery of unusual loveliness. The shore lines, 
 with their white beaches and dark backgrounds, were constantly 
 changing in their forms and outlines. Amelia beach reminded 
 us as we passed of the pleasure we experienced when driving over 
 it a little more than a year before. Our water-way was marked 
 by buoys, while several lighthouses proclaimed the fostering care 
 of a wise, paternal government, in lighting at night the watery 
 highways. We passed within a few feet of a warning bell, so 
 hung that the play of the ceaseless tides causes it to constantly 
 rise and fall, and, unattended, to ring out upon the waters in calm 
 and storm, during the long hours of the day and the darker and 
 longer hours of the night, in musical tones, *'Ho! mariners, this 
 is the only true way! As ye value your lives, heed me and obey 
 my voice !" 
 
 In vain the sun struggled to look down upon this charming 
 picture of sea and land. Cold looking clouds veiled the sky. 
 Beautiful pelicans sported in the air, amused, perhaps, at the 
 frolicsome play of the porpoises in the waters below. Wild 
 ducks, obeying some great social law, were seen associating to- 
 gether in large flocks, observing the most perfect order, and 
 giving to man examples worthy of imitation of mutual forbear- 
 ance, domestic peace, and freedom from family jars and internal 
 dissensions. Our old friends, the sea-gulls, held not each with 
 the rest so close a communion, and seemed to have more individ- 
 ual liberty with their unity; but they kept sufficiently near to each 
 other to avoid the crushing loneliness of a solitary life. 
 
 Danger ever hovers above and around us, and unseen peril often 
 most suddenly and unexpectedly darts out upon us from its am- 
 bush. But thus far only two petty annoyances had interfered 
 with the deep, strong, and steady current of our jojs. 
 
ANIiTOYAKCES. THE ST. JOHIST'S. 335 
 
 One occurred at Port Royal, where our steamer was tied up 
 all night to the wliarf close to a freight house in which a thou- 
 sand bags of Peruvian guano were stored, the intolerable stench 
 of which invaded our shij), entered the saloons, took possession 
 of every stateroom and remained with us all night. For pun- 
 gency and power it certainly surpassed the fifty-nine distinct and 
 independent bad smells that formerly regaled the traveler at one 
 and the same instant of time in the streets of Cologne. We 
 carried away from the Palmetto State only a vivid memory of 
 a horrible odor that will last us a life time. 
 
 The other was a plague of insects at Pernandina, where our 
 ship was taken captive by great swarms of little gnats, who were 
 60 glad to see us that it really seemed as if they were determined 
 to literally eat us up. Some hid away in sheltered nooks out of 
 the wind when we left, and seized every opportunity to renew 
 their acquaintance with the northern strangers. 
 
 Our steamer took the outside route from Fernandina, and for 
 some time before we reached the mouth of the St. John's our at- 
 tention was called to the fact that the water of the river is carried 
 to the north in a well defined stream, strongly distinguished by 
 its color from that of the sea with which it refuses to assimilate. 
 Fed by vast wooded swamps, great lakes and unnumbered 
 tributary streams, the noble St. John's, after rolling in solemn 
 majesty through low but picturesque banks for hundreds of 
 miles, becomes at last a river of the ocean, scooping out for itself, 
 like the Gulf Stream, a channel in the heavier waters of the sea. 
 
 The great rivers of the south are constantly and persistently 
 endeavoring to barricade their mouths, as if principled against 
 intercourse with the outside world. Channels for commerce are 
 no sooner made and buoyed through the great bars and banks 
 than they are closed again. The bold navigator is perplexed and 
 confounded by changes which are constantly taking place, and 
 the soundings of one day are no sure guide for the next. 
 
336 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
 
 At the mouth of the St. John's the breakers, foaming over 
 vast submerged sand' fields, please the eye, but are strongly sug- 
 gestive of danger. The tortuous channel was said to be only six 
 weeks old. It certainly differed greatly from the one through 
 which we were piloted the previous year. Without the aid of 
 steam-tugs, sailing vessels must find it very difficult and decidedly 
 dangerous to make their way along the submerged banks and 
 over the bar. The I'emains of two wrecks — one that of a steamer ' 
 — which we passed, bore silent testimony to the perils which 
 navigators are here called upon to encounter. A large number ' 
 of pilots live at the mouth of the St. John's and study its con- 
 stant mutations. They have built up a village on its left bank, 
 whicli bears the appropiate name of "Pilot Town." Opposite 
 this is the village of Mayjoort, Avhich is inhabited mostl}' by fisher- 
 men, whose fishing nets, boats and reels gave variety and interest 
 to the view.' 
 
 Soon after we entered the river, a cloudy night deprived uso-f 
 the pleasure we had hoped to experience in viewing for twenty- 
 five miles the St. John's below Jacksonville. We tied up to 
 the wharf at about 8 p. m. 
 
 ■ The next day we took passage in the little steamboat that daily 
 makes frequent trips to " The Home " (stopping at intermediate 
 landings) upon a beautiful bank at the junction of Arlington 
 creek and the river St. John's. We landed at St. Nicholas, and 
 for a few brief but happy hours observed and tasted the sweets 
 of plantation life. A re-union with some old and highly esteemed 
 friends "refined the pure gold" of smiling, verdant, blooming 
 nature's welcome. 
 
 The river bank where we landed is about twenty-five feet high, 
 the top of which we reached by a Avinding path through a wild 
 tangle of bushes and vines, covered with verdure and adorned 
 with buds and blossoms. Once more upon the land — not in the 
 
A VISIT TO ST. NICHOLAS. 337 
 
 man-made city, but, to our great joy, in the God-made country — 
 how fresh and beautiful everything appeared! We bade the rest 
 speed on and leave us to enjoy in silence and solitude the delights 
 of the place and hour. Here a little nameless shrub, with its 
 curious leaves and fragrant blossoms, called to us from the thicket, 
 and climbing vines reached out their tendrils as if to lovingly 
 clasp and detain us as we passed. The mocking birds sang their 
 varied songs from unseen coverts; high-vine blackberry bushes, 
 loaded with green fruit, recalled many a familiar sjDot a thou- 
 sand miles away, and faces we desired so much to see again. The 
 beautiful and spacious river, with its winding shores and low 
 green banks, its little skiffs and occasional steamers, compelled 
 us often to stop and look back. In full view, some four or five 
 miles away, was the city that we had just left; over our heads 
 was a smiling sky, and a sun glowing with a heat that was, at 80° 
 in the shade, made agreeable by a steady breeze from over the 
 water. Upon the top of the bank large, tall pines, with tops 
 crowned with green tasseled leaves, huge live oaks and water 
 oaks, some with great clustered stems, one with a spread of over 
 ninety feet, and all drooped and festooned with gray moss, 
 adorned and shaded the private carriage way that runs between 
 beautiful villas and the top of the river's bank. Occasionally we 
 rested on the seats which thoughtful hands had placed between 
 the trunks of the noble trees, and more deliberately studied our 
 novel and fascinating surroundings. Near the dwellings which 
 we passed were groves of orange trees, with their waxen, polished 
 leaves and opening and exquisitely sweet flowers, from one of 
 which alone 2,500 oranges had been recently taken. We saw 
 no alligators, but we learned that they were only just awakening 
 from their usual three months winter's sleep. Like other rep- 
 tiles during this long season of torpor they take no food — thus, 
 with them, does sleep anticipate and closely resemble death, 
 
 29 
 
338 ISLES OF SrM3IER. 
 
 Beneath a friendly and hospitable roof wo slaked our thirst with 
 cool and delicious orangeade — a drink differing from lemonade 
 in that it is made of the juice of the sour orange instead of the 
 lemon. "We were regaled at lunch with oranges such as only 
 Florida can produce, and with strawberries of largo size and de- 
 licious flavor, taken from vines which were said to yield fruit 
 continuously from January to. June. From an orange orchard 
 near by we were informed that 70,000 oranges had been taken 
 within a few weeks. Before the crop was gathered, the trees, 
 loaded with golden fruit, were said to have been marvelously 
 beautiful. After a few hours of very great enjoyment, we 
 steamed back to the city, where during the evening, in the saloon 
 of tho Texas, we vv^ere honored by a call from Gov. Brown, of 
 Georgia, an old friend and Yale Law School classmate, some 
 members of his family, and his brother, CoL Brown. The Gov- 
 ernor, not' only by his eminent success in political life, but more 
 especially by the judicial laurels he has won and worn (having 
 filled with distinguished ability the oiSce of Chief Justice of the 
 State of Georgia), has reflected honor upon the institution in 
 which in part he received his education for the bar.* CoL Brown 
 also studied law at Yale, and both gentlemen will be pleasantly 
 remembered by all those who then enjoyed their acquaintance 
 and friendship. Having introduced the Governor to our honor- 
 ed and venerable ex-Chief Justice Seymour, to whom by reputa- 
 tion he was well known, it was pleasant to witness the play and 
 mingling of the intellectual light of these two justly distin- 
 guished men. As a young man, the author saw in Gov. Brown 
 the promise which has been fulfilled in the golden maturity of 
 later years. 
 
 After another night spent at the wharf on shij) board, we con- 
 
 * Tho author lias Irarncd with plcasnix' ?hicu this was written, that Gov. Erown has been 
 appointed by the present Governor of Gcor;;ia, to till a vacaucy, a United Stites Senator. 
 
THE FLOEIDA GULF. 339 
 
 tiimed our voyage in the early morning following, down and out 
 of the river into the broad Atlantic. 
 
 The deep solitude of the sky-bound sea was relieved by occa- 
 sional white-winged but lonely wanderers, bearing the varied 
 products of distant and invisible lands. Dark, graceful smoke 
 plumes, at first but dimly seen, revealed the presence of approach- 
 ing steamers, and furnished welcome food for speculation. A 
 German barque, looking as if it had wrestled with the elements, 
 raised its flag to indicate that it desired to communicate with us. 
 Having sighted the land after a voyage across the Atlantic of 
 more than three thousand miles, its captain wished to ascertain 
 as accurately as possible, his whereabouts, and to test the cor- 
 rectness of his reckoning. Upon a large blackboard, each ves- 
 sel marked and exhibited to the other, first the latitude and then 
 the longitude of the place where they met, as indicated by their 
 respective logs or records, from which it appeared that the barque 
 was fifty miles removed from the position its officers supposed it 
 occupied. 
 
 In the neighborhood of Jupiter lighthouse, well down on the 
 Florida coast, we met a schooner, one of whose officers inquired 
 of us if we were going to Key West. It had no name in sight 
 and was in ballast. As it sailed, after parting' company with 
 us, first towards the east, and soon, without any apparent good 
 reason, changed its course to the south, our experienced passen- 
 ger captain, having watched her closely, quickly made up his 
 mind as to her character and business. He explained how easily 
 but fraudulently a few thousand dollars could be made. "De- 
 pend upon it," said the captain, ''she's a bank shark. She hails 
 from Key West, no doubt, and very likely has a Key West license. 
 She may have English papers, or both English and American 
 papers. !N"assau wreckers can't come here — our wreckers would 
 drive them off. So at the Bahamas they will not allow oar wreck- 
 
346 ISLES OF SUMMEE. 
 
 ers to interfere with their trade. They pay sometimes to pilot a 
 vessel, and pilot her ashore — then they come in for salvage. 
 *' See/' said he '' she has no cargo aboard, and her boat is on her 
 davits ready to be launched. You can't keep any account of 
 goods taken from a wreck, and, running into Jupiter inlet, it is 
 an easy matter to secure the plunder. Depend on't, them fellows 
 are wide awake and watching for business. Their vessel shows 
 no name and can't be reported. " 
 
 An old resident of Nassau informed us that formerly there 
 were persons doing business in that city, who were well known 
 to be in collusion with certain ship owners who desired to sell 
 their vessel property and cargoes to the insurance companies. 
 When one of these men visited New York, very soon afterwards 
 New York vessels would be wrecked in the Bahama waters. The 
 masters of vessels purposely wrecked their vessels, an arrange- 
 ment having been previously made with the wreckers, and a cer- 
 tain division of the salvage money agreed upon. It is believed 
 and hoped that such cases do not often now occur. 
 
 Having no communication with the silent man at the wheel 
 who held in his hands our lives upon the sea, we seldom knew 
 precisely where we were, while we " floated like bubbles onward." 
 Our steamer's prow still persistently pointed to the south, and 
 we skirted the eastern shore of the Peninsula of Florida, in what 
 is called ''the Florida Gulf." Along sand beach gave to the 
 blue sea a fringe of snowy whiteness. Beyond this, and between 
 it and the sky. Southern Florida was sandwitched. A low, nar- 
 row, monotonous belt of green was all that we could see of the 
 wet, wooded and flowery land, with its luscious fruits^ beautiful 
 birds and loathsome reptiles. As we approached the latitude 
 of St. Augustine, our course was so far to the east that "the 
 shining shore " was with more difficulty discerned. We almost 
 envied the few long-sighted passengers who seemed to see and 
 
THE FLORIDA GfLF. 341 
 
 professed to describe the landmarks which our less gifted eyes 
 failed to discern; and wo thought of the holy seers who peer 
 into the invisible world, and challenge our doubting faith with 
 stories of spirit realms. A delicate blush, like that which lin- 
 gers where the sun has set, curtained with rosy light the vanished 
 land. Floating in and above this radiant air, as far as we could 
 see along the Avestern hem of the bending sky, were soft pearly 
 clouds, most beautifully configured and colored, in which seemed 
 to flit the happy and viewless spirits of the air. Around us the 
 sea rolled in gentle ripples. Low, soothing sounds came to us 
 as our beautiful ship cleaved the slumbering waters. The wind 
 god breathed softly upon us from the south. So profound was 
 the calm repose, all the mighty forces of nature, that at times in 
 these latitudes make themselves felt and feared in the hurricane, 
 seemed to have been chloroformed to insure for us a safe and 
 pleasant voyage. None of our passengers were sick. A musing, 
 dreamy spirit rested upon all. Most of the passengers were dur- 
 ing the day upon the main deck, sitting upon folding-chairs un- 
 der the awnings. Many mused in silence. Those who conversed 
 spoke in low tones. Not the slightest excitement was manifested. 
 The repose was profound; the rest was perfect. The pulses 
 throbbed gently, and the gentlest rt|)ples masked the tides of 
 varied thought. In indolent repose, lulled by the softest sounds, 
 slightly rocked by the gentle undulations of the slumbering sea, 
 we passed the happy hours. The thermometer registered 80° in 
 the shade, but the heat was far from being oppressive. The au- 
 thor took out his stylographic pen, placed it upon the white 
 paper, and watched it while it ran. 
 
 The porpoises, whose gambols had given a pleasing variety to 
 our quiet enjoyments, no longer raced with our steamer or leaped 
 tmt of the water to challenge our admiration, and extort invol- 
 untary and loud applause. But near the close of day they came 
 
S43 iSLth OF StJMMEii. 
 
 to the surface, leaving the deeper and cooler waters as the sun 
 approached his setting, and like a dog before a flying horse, they 
 raced with our ship. Directly ahead of and close to its sharp 
 iron prow, with unmistakable evidences of pride and joy, they 
 led the way, and seemed to challenge us to overtake them if we 
 could. It was exceedingly interesting and somewhat exciting 
 to observe them at such times. They frequently leaped bodily 
 out of the water, and seemed to indulge in a competitive race 
 with each other while testing their locomotive powers with those 
 of the strange, man-made monster that had invaded their watery 
 realm. The sport was continued for many a mile, but like the 
 great golden god of day, they retired to depths we could not see, 
 and to realms we had no capacity fully to explore. 
 
 We were told by an eye witness in Florida, of sanguinary fights 
 between the porpoises and the sharks. Our lady informant on 
 one occasion saw three or four of the former mercilessly attack 
 one of the latter at the mouth of the St. John's, and the contest 
 was continued until the surrounding water was colored with their 
 blood. 
 
 In the Florida Gulf we soon parted company with the sea-birds. 
 Not a single gull looked to us for supplies. The river St, John's 
 probably teems with a larger quantity of food suited to their 
 taste and adapted to their wants. 
 
 We missed them much. The ocean was more lonely. It had 
 been exceedingly pleasant to watch them while they followed our 
 ship, and as some of the more venturesome hovered over us, the 
 undulations of their white wide-spread wings seemed like silent 
 benedictions. The persistent waving of the unspotted feathery 
 arms we gladly welcomed as favorable omens. We were not dis- 
 posed to disregard the favorable augury of the beautiful birds 
 who so persistently followed us over such wide spaces of ocean 
 solitudes. Certain it is that clear skies, smooth seas and fair 
 
THE GULF STEEAM. 343 
 
 winds came with the gentle white-robed birds. As a natural 
 consequence, mind and heart were pervaded with the dead faith 
 of old and buried nations. Messages of love and peace seemed 
 winged from heaven to earth. Give us, we inwardly exclaimed, 
 the old dream of the past, in exchange for some of the fresher 
 and more orthodox superstitions of modern times. It certainly 
 affords a temporary pleasure to diversify hackneyed beliefs with 
 a little of the antique. 
 
 We passed within ten or twelve miles of Jupiter Inlet and 
 Jupiter Lighthouse, both being plainly in view. Soon after, the 
 course of our ship was altered, and, steaming a little south of east, 
 all traces of the Western Continent were lost to view, but low, 
 light-colored clouds still curtained the vanished land. 
 
 Nearly all our passengers were upon the upper deck, musing 
 in gi'ateful shadows, and, with the thermometer at 80°, feeling 
 only an agreeable warmth in the cooling wind. A marked change 
 was soon observed in the color of the water. Its deep, rich, 
 beautiful blue was unlike anything we had observed before or 
 since we left N'cw York. It attracted and riveted all eyes, and 
 loosened every tongue. Gentlemen vied with the ladies in ex- 
 pressing the pleasure caused by this new sensation. One passen- 
 ger, of a domestic tarn of mind, inferred that it was Neptune's 
 washing day, and that he had made a liberal use of his indigo 
 bag. The mystery was soon explained. We were crossing the 
 Gulf Stream; unconsciously we had entered the great ocean river. 
 It had gathered up the equatorial heats, and, impelled by great 
 natural laws which man has not been able as yet to f ally discover 
 and satisfactorily explain, it was executing its great beneficent 
 mission, and materially aiding in equalizing the temjDerature of 
 regions widely separated. How unlike it seemed to the Gulf 
 Stream we crossed a year before! Then we brought with us from 
 the frozen north opposing winds — and a just resentment was felt 
 
344 ISLES OF SUMMEK. 
 
 and seen in billows that hissed and howled, foaming in anger. 
 Now, gentle winds, born in the warm tropics, traveled with the 
 rolling tide, and hand in hand, air and water were bearing their 
 thermal blessings onward. It is theirs to loosen the icy bands, 
 and quicken into life the slumbering energies of northern climes. 
 
 At times dolphins played about our ship, and flying fish, like 
 flocks of small birds, traversed considerable spaces of air, just 
 clearing the waves. *' The dolphin, " said our passenger captain, 
 *'is the swiftest fish that swims the sea; where there are flying 
 fish there are usually dolphins; the dolphins feed upon them, 
 and the flying fish jump into the air and try to get away. " . Vague 
 memories of ancient fables came dimly back to us as we watched 
 the quick and playful movements of this interesting mammal of 
 the sea. The dolphin was a sacred fish in Grecian mythology, 
 and gave name if not inspiration to the famous Delphic Oracle 
 that made known to mortals the decrees of the invisible and im- 
 mortal gods. Modern scientists, upon observing the relative size 
 and character of its brain, are disposed to entertain with more 
 favor the belief of the ancients in its superior intelligence. As 
 with the sea-birds, so with the fish, they stirred our souls with 
 the quickening spirit of creeds that flourished in eartli's fresh 
 green spring time, and our voiceless thoughts declared — surely, 
 these dolphins, which appear to be doing pilot and escort duty 
 for our ship, are the lineal descendents of those Avhich, in the 
 old days of the old world, were the friends and benefactors of onr 
 race, almoners of divine favors and the bearers of messages from 
 a world real but invisible; for with them came most delicious 
 air, charming skies, and a quiet sea most beautifully colored. 
 
 Some of our sun-sets were exceptionally brilliant and beautiful. 
 On one occasion, when a vast shoreless sea had received the day- 
 god in its engulfing waters, great golden columns of brilliant 
 light, radiating from the place of its burial, lighted up the west- 
 
■ei:-;i v-^ :: Si-: 
 
 
 ^''^^kh 
 
 <k ^^-'^ \ 
 
 J Ji iiirLei'ton 
 
 Punde roan fi.Cr i sar.d ."Mew Haven . Ct. 
 
 DOLPHINS. 
 
UsTIGHT OK THE OCEAN". 345 
 
 ern sky, and illumined the ocean's surface with, their reflected 
 light. At other times the zodiacal light, for several hours after 
 the sun had set, rose like a monument, a huge pyramid of beauty, 
 delicate, spirituelle, but well defined, upon the lofty apex of 
 which rested the Pleiades. It was first observed by our venerable 
 ex-Chief Justice, who seemed delighted to watch it during the 
 early evening hours; he appeared to be very much at home among 
 the beautiful stars of the southern sky, and to derive great pleas- 
 ure in viewing the heavenly hosts, as, arranged in familiar con- 
 stellations, they in solemn, silent majesty passed slowly by. The 
 beauty of such skies is closely allied to the spiritual; their grand-_ 
 eur and solemnity is indeed divine; the undevout gazer upon 
 such heavens is mad. But how dwarfed everything appeared 
 when we looked down! 
 
 While still at sea, a beautiful silver crescent, like the visible eye 
 of some invisible god, gazed from the western sky upon the 
 setting sun. It added a new element of beauty to the night, but, 
 as it increased in size, many a star retired, and the mysterious 
 zodiacal light was unrevealed. It, like the ghosts, exists only 
 in shadows. 
 
 On Saturday evening, the 13th day of March, we made" Isaac's 
 Light" upon Isaac's Island, one of the Bahama Archipelago, 
 and knew that the crossing of the gulf of Florida was, with 
 us, an accomplished fact, and that a run during the night of 
 about one hundred and twenty miles in the somewhat sheltered 
 '* New Providence Channel," among the islands, and towards the 
 center of the group, would complete our voyage. We left the 
 upper deck, with its brilliant canopy of gleaming stars, and re- 
 tired early to our stateroom, that we might secure a good night's 
 sleep and be able, at the break of day, to greet the rising sun 
 and watch for the first indications of the lovely isle upon which 
 Nassau, in the shade of its palms and other tropical trees, re- 
 poses. 
 
Si^ ISLES OF STTMMEE, 
 
 The early Sabbath morn found a large number of our fellow 
 voyagers intently scanning the eastern horizon from the good 
 ship's upper deck. The usual speculations, inseparable from 
 such an occasion, as to the time when we would reach our hayen 
 of rest, afforded fit material for the interchange of thought and 
 a comparison of views. It was a subject in which all were deeply 
 interested, but the weather had been so fine, and the yoyage so 
 pleasant, that we felt that in landing we should only exchange 
 one form of happiness for another. Our ship was new, scrupu- 
 lously neat and clean, staunch and steady, admirably ofl&cered 
 and manned, and all its appointments were decidedly first-class. 
 So that a sentiment akin to that which one entertains for a beau- 
 tiful, spirited and intelligent horse, that has carried him safely 
 and ministered to his happiness, sprang up and took firm root 
 in the minds of the fortunate passengers in reference to the 
 Steam Screw ■ Ship Western Texas. The Texas we felt was our 
 (Ship, and to it we seemed to owe a kind of fealty and true alle- 
 giance. 
 
 As the morning wore away, our passenger captain, with his 
 trained, long-sighted sea-eyes, detected a faint trace of curling 
 smoke upon the background of delicate low clouds rising from 
 the eastern horizon. This, he assured us, was smoke from a fire 
 on the island of New Proyidence. Soon after, his telescopic eyes 
 discerned in a white, perpendicular line, about as big around as 
 a spider's thread, the coralline lighthouse at the eastern end of 
 Hog Island, at the entrance of Nassau harbor. Very soon the 
 less visually gifted were able to verify assertions which, to their 
 more narrow -vision, seemed to be prophetic — and their faith was 
 soon supplemented by actual knowledge. Thus is it often with 
 hidden truths and mysteries profound! 
 
 Between 9 and 10 o'clock in the forenoon we crossed the bar, 
 and once more xevelled in the picturesque beauty of the winding 
 
art:tval at n-assau. Mt 
 
 shores, the honey-combed rocks, the stretches of white sand 
 beaches, the low green islets, the tropical yerdure, and the spark- 
 ling and gleaming waters, dotted and striped *with colors which 
 no pen can adequately describe. "VVe seemed to feel their welcome 
 in the soft and soothing wind. For men and their works we 
 cared little — they were so dwarfed by those which we had left 
 behind us. But for the coral isles and keys, and for the elements 
 above and around them — the handiwork of the world's great 
 Architect — we entertained a genuine affection, and our hearts ex- 
 perienced a thrill of pleasure as we gazed upon the beautiful 
 panorama which was gradually disclosed as we neared the place 
 of our landing. 
 
 It being Sunday, a much smaller crowd than usual awaited our 
 arrival upon the neighboring streets and adjacent wharfs. A few 
 young negroes, black and glossy, nearly nude, were perched like 
 great frogs upon the dock, and soon amused the new-comers by 
 diving for pennies and other coin. The first on shore to recog- 
 nize us, as we scanned the duskj upturned faces, were those little 
 black dots of children — Moody and Sankey. They bowed and 
 ismiled and waved their hands, while eyes and teeth gleamed with 
 unmistakable pleasure at seeing once more those who had listened 
 to and taken an interest in their songs. The tall, manly form 
 of our old yachtsman, Capt. Sampson, with his neat nautical blue 
 uniform and '' Triton" hat, was a very noticeable landmark, and, 
 when he discovered us, he triumphantly exclaimed, as one of his 
 hearers informed us — ^'Dere's a gentleman who's consigned to 
 me; he knows de Trident; he ken tell you about her; he sailed 
 with Sampson when der Trident was first built; he's consigned to 
 Sampson — sure!" He was not long in finding us, and, with a 
 hearty shake of the hands, interlarded his speech of welcome with 
 those graceful, courtly airs and diplomatic phrases which, un- 
 studied, he knows so well how to employ. Seizing our bundles 
 
g4S ISLES OF SUMMER, 
 
 he escorted us to the best and largest carriage at the landing, 
 and loaded ns up. Soon a man appeared who claimed ours was 
 his carriage, and that from the bows of the steamer he had en- 
 gaged it before any one had a chance to put a foot on the dock, 
 and had put his bundles in it while he went for the other mem- 
 bers of his party. ''Can't help dat," said Sampson; "dis car- 
 rif!ge belongs to dis gentleman — why, he spoke for dis carriage 
 las' year! Driyer, 5'ou take dis gentleman and dese yere ladies 
 to der hotel,"— and he did so before avc had fully time to con- 
 sider and decide the doubtful question of our right to keep jdos- 
 session of the vehicle. 
 
CHAPTER XXIt. 
 
 Pleasant Return Voyages. Waiting in Florida the Arrival of Summer at 
 the North. Making Apologies to a Tropical Sun. The Steamer City of Aus- 
 tin — Capt. Stevens. A Leaf from the Chapter of the Captain's Nautical 
 Experiences. Little Sankey Transported and Transplanted. Reciprocal 
 Welcomes. 
 
 "Where'er I roam, whatever lands I see, 
 My heart, untraveled, fondly turns to thee." — Goldsmith. 
 
 Having embodied in the preceding chapters all the informa- 
 tion we obtained concerning Nassau and tlie Bahamas during our 
 visits in 1879 and 1880, which we deemed would be useful or in- 
 teresting to our readers, but little remains to be added before 
 we lay down a pen which we have found it a difficult matter to 
 stop. 
 
 After returning to Jacksonville in April, 1879, we spent sev- 
 eral weeks in Florida enjoying its climate, and waiting for the 
 time to come when summer at the north should be firmly estab- 
 lishedo We soon learned to love the dreamy lakes and languid 
 rivers; the deep solitude of the pine forests; the wild, weird 
 beauty of the cypress swamps; the gracefulness of the palms and 
 palmettos; the grand old water-oaks and live-oaks, all profusely 
 draped, festooned and decorated, from largest branch to smallest 
 twig, with Spanish moss, so gray and sombre; the stately mag- 
 nolias, royally adorned with dark waxen leaves, and large, white, 
 floral incense cups; the orange orchards, whose leaves, and flowers, 
 and fruit seemed intended to minister to the happiness rather of 
 349 30 
 
SSO ISLES OP SUMMED. 
 
 gods than men; the floral treasures everywhere scattered with 
 lavish hand; and the birds, unsurpassed in plumage and un- 
 equaled in song. We lingered for a while, reluctant to leave, 
 after many of the larger hotels were closed. At last our time to 
 depart came, and we made a part of the extreme rear of a great, 
 but generally intelligent and cultivated army, which, having in 
 the previous fall and winter fled from frost, was now being driven 
 and scattered by a nearly tropical sun. 
 
 Dimpled all over with smiles, and reposing in calm and quiet 
 majesty under an atmosphere that glowed with the genial warmth 
 of May, the ocean, like a good foster mother, rocked us gently 
 upon its bosom, tenderly floated us hundreds of miles homeward, 
 and at last landed us safel}^ upon old familiar shores, that had, 
 in our absence, exchanged their robes and wrappings of ice and 
 snow for beaiitiful carpets of verdure of the purest and brightest 
 emerald. 
 
 Our second visit to the Isles of Summer was less pleasant than 
 the first by reason of the heat, for the same causes which pro- 
 duced the remarkably mild winter of 1879-80 at the north, gave 
 to Florida and the Bahamas weather exceptionally warm. As 
 we had anticipated Avhen we turned our backs upon the northern 
 March in the manner wliich we in our last cha|)ter described, wo 
 escaped a great deal of exceedingly disagreeable weather, for 
 winter and summer, as in other years, struggled for the mastery 
 upon the neutral domain of spring, while fortune favored both 
 sides with characteristic fickleness. But when in Florida and 
 Nassau, both upon land and water, the thermometer during the 
 greater part of every day stood at eighty and upwards in the 
 shade, and hot, sultry, southerly winds were more than usually 
 prevalent, we were at times led to exclaim, 0, for a cool puff of 
 northern wind, and carpets of beautiful snow; and mountains 
 lofty and snow-capped! 0, for an exchange of lazy and indolent 
 
FROM N^ASSAU TO FERKAXDIN-A. 351 
 
 air for an atmosphere that vitalizes the blood, stimulates the 
 nerves, gives birth to noble purposes, and inspires with a laudable 
 ambition! 
 
 Afterwards, when the weekly mail arrived, with letters and news- 
 papers from home, and we learned how badly both March and 
 April had conducted themselves at the north in our absence, we 
 immediately rushed out from beneath the grateful shade of tropi- 
 cal trees, and, with heads bowed but well protected, we made 
 to the hot sun, and to the beautiful lands that panted in its fierce 
 and scorching rays, our most humble and sincere apologies. 
 
 At the conclusion of our second visit to the Bahamas, we 
 had a most delightful voyage in the Western Texas, of the C. H. 
 Mallory & Co.'s line, from Nassau to Fernandina. We were 
 favored with clear skies, while beneath and around us the At- 
 lantic was at rest. All the storm gods of the sea were indulg- 
 ing in deep, profound, voluptuous sleep. Our ship rivaled the 
 ducks upon sheltered lakes in the quiet grace with which it 
 passed over the smooth waters. We spent much of the time 
 during the day dreamily watching the sky, the birds, the mur- 
 muring waves, the fish, the sea weed, and passing vessels. The 
 glory of the stars and of the Southern Cross added brilliancy 
 and gladness to the night. 
 
 "New stars all night above the brim 
 Of waters lightened into view; 
 They climb'd as quicklj', for the rim 
 Changed every moment as we flew." 
 
 There are often among the passengers on shipboard 'Hate 
 birds," sometimes, upon the land, called "larks," who linger 
 behind after the staid, prudent, and conservative have retired, 
 and, with songs and stories, and fragrant Havanas, endeavor to 
 get more than the average amount of enjoyment out of hours 
 generally devoted to sleep. But the passengers Avho sailed with 
 
352 ISLES OF 8UHMEE. 
 
 US to and from the Isles of Summer were so far liomogeneoua, 
 that none had occasion to complain that the hilarity and good 
 fellowship of a few were carried so far into the night as to en- 
 croach upon hours generally devoted to sleej). 
 
 Sailing in the path of an ocean current which furnished our 
 ship with a part of its motive power, and aided by a wind that, 
 while it warmed, wafted us on our way, we were not long in 
 reaching the Florida coast. The trip was also materially short- 
 ened because health and happiness winged the Hying hours. 
 
 About four weeks after our last arrival in Florida, we proceeded 
 by rail from Jacksonville to Fernandina, and intercepted the 
 steamship City of Austin, Capt, Stevens, of the 0. H. Mallory 
 & Co.'s New York and Nassau line, which, on its way to New 
 York, had stopped there for passengers and freight. We found 
 it a good ship, well officered, manned and equipped, though the 
 closing of the Eoyal Victoria Hotel caused it to be crowded with 
 passengers, but as during the voyage the weather was pleasant, 
 little inconvenience was experienced from that cause, the cases of 
 sea sickness being very few in number and mild in type. The pas- 
 sengers spent the"days upon deck, and many of the evenings also, 
 notwithstanding the heavy dews. The profound mystery which 
 seems ever to brood over the ocean and penetrate its profound 
 depths, is greatly intensified at night. We were much impressed 
 with it as our gallant ship tore and leaped into the dark, leaving 
 behind a brilliant but troubled path of foam and fire. Around 
 it the phosphorescent light gleamed in the waves and sparkled 
 in the spray. A halo of white and luminous foam girdled the 
 ship, which, with its long and brilliant train, made it seem, 
 prehaps, to the marine monsters miles below under its keel, like 
 a strange comet of the sea. 
 
 While sitting in the evening upon one of the camp stools with 
 which the deck of the Austin was supplied. Captain Stevens oc- 
 
THE captain's story. 35^ 
 
 casionally favored us witli his presence, and we succeeded in ob- 
 taining from him some interesting stories of the sea, founded upon 
 his personal experience. He is a medium sized, strongly built, 
 calm, cool-headed, self-possessed man, on whose judgment and 
 discretion we think one may safely rely in time of danger. His 
 hair is perfectly white, but not with age, as he is only some forty- 
 two or forty-three years old. Having spent most of his life 
 npon the water, and been a number of times shipwrecked, the 
 hardships he has endured have left their record upon his hair. 
 
 One evening while the captain was making a tour of inspection 
 of the ship, he stopped for awhile and occupied a seat on deck 
 beside us. We were between Capes Lookout and Hatteras, and 
 sailing over what the sailors call, on account of the foul weather ■ 
 often experienced there, ''the ragged edge of the ocean." The. 
 perils incident to and inseparable from the navigation of the 
 ocean by steam having been referred to, Captain Stevens, in 
 illustration of the subject, said: '' Disasters occur upon the water, 
 sometimes from unexpected and inexplicable causes. A few 
 years ago I commanded a steamer which foundered and went 
 to the bottom when the weather was fair and the sea smooth. 
 It occurred at a place very near where we are now. She had 
 not been, so far as I knew or was informed, weakened by 
 storms, or damaged by any of those accidents to which steamers 
 and other vessels are sometimes exposed. In the night, some 
 two hours or more before daybreak, the engineer sent me word 
 that the ship was leaking, and the water steadily gaining upon 
 the pumps. I found that the entire loss of the ship was only a 
 matter of a few hours time. I gave directions to have a report 
 sent to me every fifteen minutes of the progress of the water, 
 and commenced at once making arrangements for abandoning 
 the vessel. The second oflBcer asked if he should not awaken the 
 passengers. I replied, no; let them sleep on — and they did. 
 
■354 ISLES OF STJMMEE. 
 
 They no doubt would have had less pleasant dreams if they had 
 known or suspected that the ship all the time was gradually set- 
 tling down deeper and deeper in the water. I sent up signal 
 rockets of distress, and kept the crew busy. All the life boats 
 wore made ready for immediate use, and when every practicable 
 measure to ensure the preservation of life had been taken, the 
 passengers were awakened and informed of the condition of the 
 ship, and of the steps I had taken to prevent any loss of life. 
 Although greatly surprised, and somewhat excited, there was no 
 panic, and all behaved well. In the dim morning light, a steamer, 
 that had noticed our signals, was seen in the distance approaching. 
 Her captain, upon learning our condition, agreed to receive us 
 on board, and did so. The transfer was quietly and safely effect- 
 ed. No boat was swamped, and everything passed off as quietly 
 as a military dress pai'ade. After the personal safety of all the 
 passengers and crew was assured, I proposed, as my ship was still 
 afloat, to make an effort to save the baggage. This I succeeded 
 in doing; but I had no sooner returned with the last boat-load 
 of trunks, when the abandoned steamer sank out of sight." 
 
 The quiet, modest way in which Captain Stevens described this 
 thrilling episode in his life upon the ocean, in connection with 
 the facts of the case as he had described them, very favorably 
 impressed us. Coolness and courage in time of peril must accom- 
 pany and supplement sagacity, prudence and a thorough knowl- 
 edge of one's business, in order to qualify a man to proioerly fill 
 the resj)onsible position which he occupied. 
 
 Little Sankey was included among our passengers. He was 
 the proteg6 of the captain, who, having been attracted by his 
 shining qualities, concluded to transplant the little tropical 
 negro, and see what effect cultivation upon American soil would 
 produce. Good citizens are sometimes made out of less promising 
 materials. Haying become acquainted witli many of the passen- 
 
Welcomes fHOM stttp to sHOJifi. S55 
 
 ^ers in the court of the Royal Victoria Hotel, he received, par- 
 ticularly from the ladies, attentions which helped to palliate the 
 heart-aches incident to a sudden sundering of all the tendrils of 
 affection that had bound him to the small coral island upon which 
 he was born and reared. Words of kindness were mingled with 
 the small coin given him from time to time, partly as a reward 
 for such services as he was able to render. Sometimes he was 
 seen reclining upon packages of freight, taciturn and sober, 
 apparently the victim of two maladies — sea-sickness and sickness 
 of the heart. He, however, manifested as much fortitude and 
 cheerfulness as could be expected under the peculiar circum- 
 stances in which he was placed. 
 
 Although during our absence new scenes had afforded us much 
 enjoyment, while relaxation from business and a change of air 
 had been of substantial benefit in a sanitary point of view, our 
 hearts throbbed with no small degree of pleasurable excitement 
 as we approached the city of New York, through shores which 
 art and nature have done so much to adorn. Long Island and 
 the Island of Manhattan, as seen from the deck of the Austin, 
 belted Avith forests of masts, enlivened by numberless steamers, 
 each with passengers enough to make a good sized town, and 
 covered with the immense warehouses and palaces of merchant 
 princes, together with the constantly increasing evidences that 
 we were in close proximity to vast, swift, and ever changing 
 eddies and currents of human life, strangely and sharjjly con- 
 trasted with all that we had seen and experienced among the Isles 
 of Summer, upon the peninsular of Florida, and in ocean soli- 
 tudes. 
 
 Our return to the north was well-timed. The morning was 
 lovely; the air of a most agreeable temperature; the sky cloud- 
 less. Nature, with smiling face, welcomed us home. The little 
 dimpled waves glistened and gleefully danced in the sun-light. 
 
356 ISLES OF StrMMER. 
 
 Brooklyn from her heights, Jersey City from her lowly position 
 upon the shore, and New York from behind her shipping, seemed 
 to waft ns pleasant greetings. Our fellow passengers thronged 
 the deck of the Austin, and exchanged cards and congratulations. 
 We again found that the love of native land is intensified by ab- 
 sence. Exile hallows and makes home more sacred. The earth- 
 ly home suggested the heavenly, and we repeated the poet's ap- 
 propriate and tuneful numbers — 
 
 " Lone voyager on time's sea ! 
 When my dull night of being shall be past, 
 O may I waken in a land at last, 
 
 Welcome as this to me I" 
 
Pn 9 1947