New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-06-04
A WEEK IN THE BAHAMAS.
EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE OF THE TRIBUsB1

book statistics: 40 when shall have promised that
| the Bahamas are that division of the West Indies
| which lie nearest to our Atlantic States and to
| Europe-that Columbus certainly first discovered
| and landed upon one Of Them though whether that
called by the natives GuanaThani and by him chris
tened San Salvador Of its still smallerneigh-
bors probably Watlings Island is by no means
certain-that they twenty nine in number, beside
seven adjacent Gays and one hundred and seven
separate rocks, many Of which less than acre
in area and of course uninhabted-that they stretch
| in an irregular semi-crcle southwark from Abaco
barely 20 miles east of Florida to Turks Island,
| barely 100 miles north Of San Domingo-that their
aggregate area is less than 5000 square miles, or about
half that of the State Of Vermont or OF New
| IIampshire-that they uniformly composed OF
limestone which still exhibits traces of it's animal
formation and rises but 2Os feet at the highest above
the ocean level-that lying mainly within and the
residue but few degrees north of the tropic, they
are absolute strangers to frost and generally coy
cred with dense shubbery, which in part rises TO
the rank of trees generally small crooked, and Of
slender vaue-hat the soil is for the most part thin
and often fails to the everpresent rock with
even film of earth-that the total population of the
group was but % 5l4 in 81 and 50 PSI in 6, whereof
third were found OH this islet of s. square miles,
and at least 10000 Of them in this city and its mme
! date suburbs-that two-thirds of the whole number
are pure negroes and a considerable fraction more
of mixed blood, leaving less than 10000 persons
of pure Caucasian lneage-I have condensed all the
elemental facts that will interest the reader
Nassau is Of course the chief port as well the
capital of the Bahamas; and this isle elects Of
! the 28 members composing the House of Assembly.
which sits here annually; no other isle choosing
more than three. Andras, which is much the largest
of these isles, having of 1900 square miles,
| baSb nhah Der
mile and several Others have less than ten to the
square mile. On the whole there are doubtless
fewer people on the Bahamas than there were when
Columbus discovered them; and l greatly doubt
that these either innocent or nearly so happy
as were those he found here
Neglected by Europeans for nearly century after
the Spaniards carried away the aboriginal inhabi-
tants to perish miseraby in digging gold for them in
San Domingo, these isles were thence the arena Of
desperate and barbarous conflict between British,
| Spanish and piratical Adventures down TO us;
when they passed finally under British rule, broken
only by the capture and brief possession of this isle
| by our revolutionary Commodore Hopkins in INC,
and by Spanish force from Havana in 1882 Since
the Peace which soon followed, the British sover-
| eighty has been undsputed.
! The chief importance of this group results from
its geographical position nearly closing the Gulf OF
| Mexico on the north and ObstTuctng or narrowing
the ocean highways wherein the commerce OF our
Atlantic States and of Europe naturally seeks the
large and fertile islands which bound that Gulf on
the south and southeast. Wrecks often Intentional,
are numerous on these unlighted reefs and Gays,
many of them slightly submerged and the rest
rising but few feet above the surface OF the water;
and the dazzling prizes sometimes won by Wreckers
demoralize a large share of the population render
| ing the slow and moderate gains of the farmer OF
! 70 tbair i
that few more lighthouses and beaeons be erected
| nv Great Britain on the most dangerous OF these
reefs and points and that the underwriters OF that
country and of ours send down sharpsighted agents
to look after their interests in this quarter II Tor no
better reason than to this people from the thrift
less, coruptng pursuit of gain from others
calamities.
For what with the lures of the deep and the beach
on one hand and the ruggedness Of the land on the
other Agriculture is here in its very lowest estate
for n community that would fan rank civilized.
Wrecking. while it enriches but the very few, s
Ranches the great body of those affected by it that
they prefer fishing gathering, boating, sol
diering or almost anything else, to the cultivation
of the soil If driven to this for subsistence, they
| choose to grow Pine-Appes, or Bananas, or some
thing else that finds precariOus market far away
and so involves element of gambling rather than
to produce the bread and meat needed Tor their own
assured comfortable subsistence. Never did a com
munity more need the gospel of Agriculture preached
! in its purity and vigor than this does.
wish those who doubt the possibility of Whites
and Blacks living together in amiy on footing of
political equality could study for season the state
of things actually existing in these islands The
laboring population is almost exclusively Black;
so are the private soldiers and part of the civil
officers while the merchants military officers and
| business men generally, are nearly all Whites. The
| law knows no distinction of color; Whites and
| Blacks vote, serve on juries, and are eligible to
office Oh identical conditions. Yet no antipathy OK
antagonism of races is developed or manifested; no
threats or scowls are nterchanged; cOrdiality and
good humor are everywhere evinced; there is little
| community of races in social intercourse, but no
hostility thence engendered; and doubt whether
community of ten thousand people wholly White in
either hemisphere is so free from feuds and class
| jealousies as that of Nassau.
The Blacks, after thirty years of freedom, evince
| all the good and bad qualities of their ancestry.
They are docle, kind civil, patient, and humane;
they are not generally proyident, energetic, nor
aspiring. They are content with little, which they
| generally secure; they are not inclined to work
persistently and deny themselves present enjoyment
for the sake of ultimate independence and considera
ton Very few of them acquiring wealth !;
| hardly any are making or buying farms with intent
TO live henceforth by their cultivation. No man
complains that they will not work for moderate pay.
Fifty cents per day in town and y cents in the
country are the usual wages; and there are always
more wanting work than get il even at these
rates but plantations that were productive and
hourishing under Slavery are wholly deserted and
useless under Freedom and have not been sue
ceeded by the modest holdings of small farmers l
do not mean that there none such for there are
some. | do mean that Agriculture on this island,
and think on most OF the Others OF the group, has