Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/253

Rh sops, melons, yams, potatoes, gourds, cucumbers, pepper, cassava, prickly pears, sugar cane, ginger, coffee, indigo, Guinea corn and pease. Tobacco and cascarilla bark also flourish ; and cotton is indigenous, and was woven into cloth by the aborigines. It is a remarkable fact that except in the island of Andros, no streams of running water are to be found in the whole group. The inhabitants derive their water supply from wells, the rain-water in which appears to have some con nection with the sea, as the contents of the wells rise and fall with the tide upon the neighbouring shore. The Baha mas are far poorer in their fauna than in their flora. It is said that the aborigines had a breed of dogs which did not bark, and a small coney is also mentioned. The guana also is indigenous to the islands. Oxen, sheep, horses, and other live stock introduced from Europe, thrive well, but of late years very little attention has been paid to stock rearing, and Nassau has been dependent upon Cuba for its beef, and on the United States or Nova Scotia for its mutton. There are many varieties of birds to be found in the woods of the Bahamas ; they include flamingoes and the beautiful humming-bird, as well as wild geese, ducks, pigeons, hawks, green parrots, and doves. The waters of the Bahamas swarm with fish, and the turtle pro cured here is particularly fine. In the southerly islands there are salt ponds of great value. The story of the Bahamas is a singular one, and bears principally upon the fortunes of New Providence, which, from the fact that it alone possesses a perfectly safe harbour for vessels drawing more than 9 feet, has always been the seat of Government, when it was not the headquarters of kwless villainy. St Salvador (Cat Island, or as some sup pose, Watling Island), however, claims historical precedence as the landfall of Columbus on his memorable voyage. He passed through the islands, and in one of his letters to Ferdinand and Isabella he said, &quot; This country excels all others as far as the day surpasses the night in splendour; the natives love their neighbours as themselves ; their con versation is the sweetest imaginable ; their faces always smiling ; and so gentle and so affectionate are they, that I swear to your highness there is not a better people in the world.&quot; But the natives, innocent as they appeared, were doomed to utter destruction. Ovando, the governor of Hispaniola, who had exhausted the labour of that island, turned his thoughts to the Bahamas, and in 1509 Ferdinand authorised him to procure labourers from these islands. It is said that reverence and love for their departed rela tives was a marked feature in the character of the abori gines, and that the Spaniards made use of this as a bait to trap the unhappy natives. They promised to convey the ignorant savages in their ships to the &quot; heavenly shores,&quot; where their departed friends now dwelt, and about 40,000 were transported to Hispaniola to perish miserably in the mines. From that date until after colonisation of New Providence by the English, there is no record of a Spanish visit to the Bahamas, with the exception of the extraordinary cruise of Juan Ponce de Leon, the conqueror of Porto Rico, who passed months searching the islands for &quot; Bimini,&quot; which was reported to contain the miraculous &quot; Fountain of Youth.&quot; The deserted islands were first visited by the English in 1629, and a settlement formed in New Providence, which they held till 1641, when the Spaniards expelled them but made no attempt to settle there themselves. The English again took possession in 1G67, and in 1680 Charles II. made a grant of the islands to George, Duke of Albemarle ; William, Lord Craven ; Sir George Carteret ; John, Lord Berkeley; Anthony, Lord Ashley; and Sir Peter Colleton. Governors were appointed by the lords proprie tors, and there are very copious records in the state papers of the attempts made to develop the resources of the island ; but the repeated attacks of the Spaniards, and the tyranny and mismanagement of the governors, proved great obstacles to success. In July 1703 the French and Spaniards made a descent on New Providence, blew up the fort, spiked the guns, burnt the church, and carried off the governor, with the principal inhabitants, to the Havannah ; and in October the Spaniards made a second descent, and completed the work of destruction. It is said that when the last of the governors appointed by the lords proprietors, in ignorance of the Spanish raid, arrived in New Providence, he found the island without an inhabitant. It soon, however, became the resort of pirates, and the names of many of the worst of these ruffians is associated with New Provi dence, the notorious Blackbeard being chief among the number. At last matters became so intolerable that the merchants of London and Bristol petitioned the Crown to take possession and restore order, and Captain Woods Rogers was sent out as the first Crown governor, and arrived at New Providence in 1718. Many families of good character now settled at the Bahamas, and some progress was made in developing the resources of the colony, although this was interrupted by the tyrannical conduct of some of the governors who succeeded Captain Woods Rogers. At this time the pine-apple was introduced as an article of cultivation at Eleuthera ; and a few years subse quently, during the American war of independence, colonists arrived in great numbers, bringing with them wealth and also slave labour. Cotton cultivation was now attempted on a large scale. In 1783, at Long Island, 800 slaves were at work, and nearly 4000 acres of land under cultivation. But the usual bad luck of the Bahamas pre vailed; the red bug destroyed the cotton crops in 1788, and again in 1794, and by the year 1800 cotton cultiva tion was almost abandoned. There were also other causes that tended to retard the progress of the colony. In 1776 Commodore Hopkins, of the American navy, took the island of New Providence; he soon, however, aban doned it as untenable, but in 1782 it was retaken by the Spanish governor of Cuba. The Spaniards retained nominal possession of the Bahamas until 1783, but before peace was notified New Providence was recaptured by a loyalist, Colonel Deveaux, of the South Carolina militia, in June 1783. In 1787, the descendants of the old lords proprietors received each a grant of 2000 in satisfaction of their claims, and the islands were formally reconveyed to the Crown. The Bahamas began again to make a little progress, until the separation of Turks and Caicos Islands in 1848, which had been hitherto the most productive of the salt-producing islands, unfavourably affected the finances. Probably the abolition of the slave-trade in 1834 was not without its effect upon the fortunes of the landed proprietors. The next event of importance in the history of the Bahamas was the rise of the blockade-running trade, con sequent on the closing of the southern ports of America by the Federals in 1861. At the commencement of 1865 this trade was at its highest point. In January and February 1865 no less than 20 steamers arrived at Nassau, importing 14,182 bales of cotton, valued at 554,675. The extraordinary difference between the normal trade of the islands and that due to blockade-running, will be seen by comparing the imports and exports before the closing of the southern ports in 1860 with those of 1864. In the former year the imports were 234,029, and the exports 157,350, while in the latter year the imports were 5,346,112, and the exports, 4,672,398. The excite ment, extravagance, and waste existing at Nassau during the days of blockade-running exceed belief. Individuals may have profited largely, but the Bahamas probably 