The Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1885-1886, 1886-06-18
THE BAHAMA ISLANDS.
A REGION WHERE EARTHLY Ex-
isTENCE IS AN ENDLESS LULLABY.

A People Who May BE Likened to Lax-
xaroni Unconsciously Possessing Heaven
Natures Hand Forever Wide Open
Luxuriance of Land and Sea,
Ihe bahamas are said to have been settled
as early as l6a', and their population is es-
minated to be about forty thousand souls.
But they are listless, INDECENT lot to whom
simple existence is the highest aspiration.
For the most part the language is a curious
mixture of the English, spanish, and negro
tongues Sponge gathering, fishing, conch-
gathering, fruit-pickin and wrecking con
sutute about all the aJor done The ISL
ands swarm with these wreckers, who are
nearly all good-natu u souls, that regard
every thing cast upou the shores, every
vessel that grounds upon the dangerous
wrecks and Gays, and every craft that can
be even lured upon the rocks, as their right.
full gain, AMI receive all such ocean salvage
as If the blessing Of heaven accompanied it;
though for that matt our own government
permits quite as bad a state OF things at
Key West and along the Fine islands OIL the
south coast Of Florida. In the capital.
Nassau, there is some wealth. some re ne
ment, and some regard for the fitness of
things, but even here the enervating blight
OF a society largely impregnatei with
political and novel castaways has fallen.
AREIGN OF PRoDIGAL PROVISION. .
For the traveller the scientist, the inva-
lid, the dreamer, the outcast, or tn, outlaw,
these islands are the ultiml Thule Life is
sustained with scarcely an effort 1t is a
region of prodigai provision, Of thyme, and
balm, of life in endless lullaby. All this is
the vision of toilers. Its realization to any
people begets squalor. The population of
the entire islands, whose capital and gov
ernor- general are at Nassau, New Provi-
dence is nondescript, with English Span
ish, and negro commingiing, and comprise
such a people as might be likened to Lazza-
roni unconsclously possessing heaven; and,
in coming to know and think of it all, it is
one of those intellectual evidences that al
most compels the rejection of any sort of
future state in which activity and progress
sion are not possible
There is actually a sense of rest In thess
ATTITUDES 80 intense as to be oppressive.
Something in the very air compels sleep
that can be likened only to a rest which
brings no renewal OF that elation and vigor
We in the colder climates know, and doubt
not that this carries on from physical to
mental effects, and dims intellectual and
spiritual alertness sadly. But to know it
aud experience it-and to leave it-are de-
licious; though it all leaves with it an IN
dertone of sadness. because one so much
longs to change the Interchangeable law of
compensation and give the sweet cline to
the driven, iaded men and women of our
harder, more verile peoples, and compel
these half-awake existences to live and labor
where the awful friction OF things would
straighten the form, Iut light behind the
eyes, and polish the perception until recog
nizabie.
But all about you it is weird charming,
sansuous, narcotic, dreamful. 1t is to you
like old wine that lulls and soothes but does
not fire the blood and brain. The sea has
changed from Its hard, cold, steely blue, and
is now opallne, almost milky white, but
translucent The horizon that, abreast of
the dreary, dangerous headlands OF the
norlh, seemed shut down upon near and
quick and hard by as dreary sky, is now
far and far away, and the waters and sky
meet lovingly The sky, too that was SO
close and forbidding 800 leagues behind now
seems infinitely far above you, and has a
fleeciness and softness which opens to the
imagination undreamei-of flights toward
heaven
NATURES HAND Is FOREVER OPEN.
In these islands natures hand is forever
wide open. Here the pineapple, citron,
melon, guava, custard apple, yam, bread
fruit sweet potato, pomegranate, banana,
orange, lemon, cocoanut, and a hundred
othar vegetables and fruits, spring unasked
from surprising and prodigal product
iveness The forests TEEN with the coca
nut tree, q hundred feet to its strange
pinnate leaves, the ceiba or siIk-cotton tree
the black mangrove, almond, mahogany
ebony, lignum vitae, lance, and the royal
palm, while the swinging cactus, oleanders
as tail as our trees and Towering every
month in the year, the glowing coral vine,
the tuberose, the Cherokee rose and roses of
every hue and size, the alligator pear, the
night blooming cereus, and a myriad OF
shrubs, ferns, and flowers delight the eye
and gladden. with perennial color and odor,
and that forever without the bidding of
wish or touch of labor.
The luxurance of land is also equaled by
the prodigality of Sea life and form, SO
varied, beautiful, and wonderful No shores
are SO enchanting, no waters SO wi-lsome,
and no DEPTHS OF ocean hold such mazes of
my stery and delight. The fish alone are re-
markable in variety. Among them are the
biacAiish, the porpoise, which seems to
tumble about in all waters; the shark, that
deadly foe of the sailor the dolphin, which
is in endless pursuit OF the delicate fly ing
fish which scuds through the air because it
is chased and not because 1t enjoys it, which
same dolphin is never cooked aboard q vessel
| unless silver half dollar is put in
the same pot, for if the half-dol-
lar blackens then the dolphin is full OF
poison from having sucked copper from
ship bottoms, the whipray, like the founder
and with a tail like a coachmans whip,
| sometimes ten feet long; the Jewish, which
is to these waters as the halibut of our north
east coast; the yellow-taied snapper,
gigantic turtles, the atfish, the groupa,
striped snapper, bonito, Spanish mackerel
| angei-iish, pork fish, hound-tsh, and sucking
| fish. Then there is that dread mystery to
seamen, the Portuguese man of-war that
| strange formation of marine life like a mass
of jelly with its ventral fins extended in
every direction, riding the heaviest seas like
bird, and which folk say is a deadly
| poisson to the touch Edgar Wakeman in
Chicago News.