and also important electoral privileges. Not long after this the heirs of all the Lords Proprietors to whom the Bahama Islands had been granted by Charles II. formally surrendered their rights to the Crown.

Whilst I was searching the archives of the colony in 1878 I made what was considered a very interesting, if not an important discovery. It was that in addition to the royalists of Georgia and South Carolina some 1400 persons were conveyed from the island of Andro, on the Mosquito Coast to the island of Andros in the Bahamas. I found out that between 1784 and 1787 large grants of land were made to sixty or seventy of these persons, who were undoubtedly of English origin, as proved by their names, viz., Hall, Young, Brown, Johnson, James, North, Rigby, M'Donald, Wilson, and others. The descendants of these people now reside in New Providence, for all the above names are common there. Of the descendants of old royalist families there still exist many; and there are also many of undoubted Scotch origin, viz., the Darlings, Rattrays, Sands, Malcolms, and others.

The Bahama Islands, from a physical point of view, do not in the least resemble the West Indian Islands, and they could hardly be expected to do so. As a rule, they rise almost perpendicularly from an immense depth of water, and seem to have been formed from an accumulation of shells or small calcareous grains of sand.

At a short distance from the shore, a reef of rocks in many of the islands follows the direction of the land, and forms the boundary of the soundings. Outside this rampart the ocean is often immediately unfathomable; within it the bottom is either of a beautiful dazzling white sand or checkered with rocks covered with manycoloured sea-anemones and seaweeds, amongst which can be seen numerous fishes of inconceivable colour floating and feeding. The largest island in the Bahamas is

Andros Island, and it is the only one which possesses fresh water. As a rule, the inhabitants of the other islands sink wells to a depth at which the rain-water permeating the surface rests upon the salt water which penetrates the coral rock from the sea-shore. This fresh water rises and falls with the tide. If the well is sunk lower than a certain level, the fresh water becomes brackish by an admixture of salt water. This is an established fact. I have seen these wells dug within ten yards of the sea-shore. The geographical position of the Bahamas is important. The whole trade from North America and Europe to the Gulf of Mexico passes by the north of these islands. Steamers bound south stem the rapid current of the Florida Channel. Sailing vessels pass between Abaco and Eleuthera, through the Providence Channel, within forty miles of Nassau, into the Gulf of Florida.

All the trade from North America to the eastern parts of Cuba, to Jamaica, the Gulf of Honduras, and the northern coast of South America, passes southward to the windward of the group, and close to the shore of Inagua. The return trade and all the European trade from the same countries passes north, either through the crooked island passage or the Mayaguana or Caicos Islands.

The Bahamas, therefore, lie in the track of two great streams of trade.

During the years 1861 and 1864 these islands attained a somewhat considerable notoriety. It was the period of the last civil war in America, and the Bahamas became the depot for all the cotton shipped from the southern states, and Nassau was the chief port of the blockade runners. Owing to the financial and other facilities, given principally by the firm of Adderley & Co., three-fourths of the cotton which evaded the blockade squadron passed through this port en route to Manchester, thus materially diminishing

the famine consequent upon the cessation of supplies in the great centre of textile fabrics. Merchants naturally made large fortunes in this trade, and I am told that the streets of Nassau used to "flow with champagne," and that a reckless spirit of gambling resulted.

This was ten years before my time, but it will be remembered that it was from Nassau that the Oreto, afterwards the Florida, made her way to Mobile viá Havana, after being released by the Vice-Admiralty Court. This vessel, with the notorious Alabama, ultimately cost the British Government several millions sterling in settlement of the so-called Alabama claims.

The

No part of any of the Bahama Islands exceeds the height of 200 feet. Their ordinary height is much less. Compared with that of Cuba, Jamaica, Trinidad, and other West Indian colonies, the vegetation of the Bahamas is insignificant. The trees that attain the greatest height are the silk-cotton trees, and perhaps the banyan, but they are all more or less dwarfed by the magnificent vegetation found farther south. soil is very thin and sparse as a rule, and in many places it appears only in the honeycombed cavities of the surface; but in others it is very rich, consisting chiefly of vegetable mould and the detritus of the limestone rock. The porous nature of the rock supplies the vegetation with moisture from below as well as from the surface. There are three well-marked descriptions of soil-rich black soil on which fruit trees flourish, red stiff adhesive soil on which the pine-apple grows and yields luxuriantly, and white sandy soil suitable for coco-nuts and Indian corn.

As I have before observed, the present population is stated roughly to be about 52,000. The aboriginal Indian population which welcomed Columbus was drafted away by the Spaniards to work in the nines and pearl fisheries elsewhere, or was barbarously

exterminated before English colonisation took place. The white population numbers about 10,000 or 11,000, and the remainder are either coloured or black. From

a physical point of view, the negro population of the Bahamas is superior in development to the black population of any West Indian island that I have been in. Men of 6 feet and over are a common sight, as well as women of 5 feet 7 or 8 inches and upwards. The negro who always accompanied me on my shooting expeditions was called "Long Bill." He stood over 6 feet 5 inches, and could cover thirteen miles in an hour and twenty minutes. He was a magnificent savage." When I left he asked me for a tall hat and a black frock-coat. The possession of these articles of dress is the highest ambition of a black man. The negroes in the Bahamas live a free open-air life, are not addicted, as in sugar-growing colonies, to somewhat excessive nips of rum, are splendid sailors, and quite as much at home in the water as on dry land. In fact, they are a hardy, robust, amphibious race, and live chiefly on Indian and Guinea corn, vegetables, fish, and shell-fish, with an occasional ration of pork mixed with their hominy.

On the whole, the black people are a very goodtempered lot, and are thoroughly loyal. They speak English in a manner peculiar to themselves; for instance, when they say "I meet it laying on de ground," they mean "I found it." When a man says he "ketched it," he means "got it." The letter "p" or the letters "th" and "gh," are difficult to them. Wasps" they call "wasts." Nobody goes through a gate, but "trew a gate," and when he buys tobacco he pays "treepence" for it. They have a particular objection to the possessive "s." They never say "Mr. Brown's house," but "Mr. Brown house," or "Gubnor house." All ladies, married or single, are called "Miss" or "Missy," and a gontloman is generally addressed as "Boss" or

"Buckra." "V's" and "w's" are a great puzzle to them. It is "werdent pastures," "conwersion or wirtue," and "wice." On the other hand, the "w" is ignored. It is "vere," "vickedness," "vait," and so The name of God is often in their mouths by way of pious ejaculation. Ask a coloured lady her name, and she will say "Praise God," or "Tank God, my name is So-and-So."

on.

So far as climate is concerned, that of the Bahamas may be called mild and agreeable. The summer lasts from May till the end of September, when the thermometer ranges between 78° and 90° occasionally, but from November till April the climate is charming. One can almost count upon a fine day for weeks in advance. Refreshing winds from the north cool the mid-day air, and the inornings and evenings are peculiarly fresh and invigorating. The total rainfall, the bulk of which falls between May and November, is only about fifty inches per annum. The islands are subject to hurricanes, but they do not occur with the regularity or frequency that characterise the eastern typhoon.

There has recently been a considerable improvement in the financial condition of the colony.

The revenue is now £63,000 a year. The public debt amounts to £120,000. The population is naturally increasing, and the general community ought to be an unusually law-abiding and religious one, as there are no less than 274 churches, chapels, and meetinghouses, mostly Wesleyan and Baptists, in the various islands.

The total imports into the colony in 1897 were valued at £186,000, of which £130,000 worth came from the United States of America, and £46,000 from the United Kingdom. I have alluded to the sobriety of the natives of these islands, and in proof thereof I would mention that the annual importation of rum,