The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1886-11-03
THE BAHAMA ISLANDS,
A REGION WHERE EARTHLY EX-
IsTENcE IS AN ENDLESS LULLABY.

A People Who May BE Likened to Laz-
zaroni UaconsciousIy Possessing Heaven
Natures Hand Forever Wide Open
Luxuriance of Land and Sea-
The Bahamas are said TO have been settled
as early as 1872 and their population IS eS-
Limated to be about forty thousand souls
But they are q listless, indolent lot TO whom
simple existence il the highest aspiration
For the most Fart the language IS a curious
mixture Of the English, Spanish, and negro
tongues Sponge gathering, fishing, conch-
gathering, fruit picking, and wrecklng con
stitute about all the labor done The ISL
ands swarm with these wreckers, who are
nearly all goOd-Datured souls, that regard
everything cast upon 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 and receive all such ocean savage
as IL the blessing of heaven accompanied IL
though for that matter our own govern
permits quite as bad a state or Things al
Kew West and along the Pine islands, OH the
south coast of Florida. In the capital,
Nassau, there is some wealth, some rehne-
ment. and some regard for the ILLNESS OF
things but even here the enervating blight
of a SO, isty largely impregnated with
political and novel castaways has fallen.
A REIGN OF PRoDIGAL PROVISION.
For the traveller, the scientist, the inva-
lid. the dreamer, the outcast, or the outlaw,
these islands are the ultima Thule. Life Is
sustained with scarcely an effort. 1t Is
region of prodigaI provision, of thyme, and
balm, Of life in endless lullaby. All this Is
the vision of toilers It's realization to any
people begets squalor. The population OF
4
ernor- general are at Nassau, New Progl-
dence, is nondescript, with English, Span
ish, and negro commingling, and comprise
such people as might be likened to LazEa-
roni unconsciously possessing heaven; and,
in coming to know and think OF 1t all, 1t Is
one of those intellectual evidences that al
most compels the re lection of any sort OF
future state in which activity and progress
sion are not possible.
There is actually sense Of rest In these
ATTITUDES 50 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 citation 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 1T
and experience it-and to leave it-are de-
Hcious; though it all leaves with it an I'M
dertone of sadness. because one so much
longs to change the Interchangeable law or
compensation and give tie sweet cline to
the driven. faded 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, Put light behind the
eyes and polish the perception until recog-
nizable.
But all about you it is weird, charming,
sensuous. 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 opaline, almost milky white, but
translucent The horizon that, abreast OF
the drearv. dangerous headlands of the
north, seemed shut down upon near and
quick and hard by as dreary a sky, Is now
far and far away and the waters and sky
meet lovingly The sky, too, that was so
close and forbidding 500 leagues behind now
seems infinitely far above you, and has a
feeciness and softness which opens to the
Imagination undreamed- 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 hundred
other vegetables and fruits, spring unasked
from surprising and prodigal product
iyeuesS The forests TEEN with the coca
nut tree, a hundred feet to its strange
inmate leaves the ceiba or silk-cotton tree,
the black mangrove, almond, mahogany,
ebony, hgnum vite, lance, and the royal
palm, while the swinging cacteIs, oieanders
as tall as our trees and towering every
month in the year, the glowing coral vine
e.. nd q
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 Iuxurance of land is also equaled by
the. prodigality of sea life and form, SC
varied, beautiful, and wonderful No shores
are so enchanting no waters so wiasome
and no depths OF ocean hold such mazes o.
mystery and deli ghk The fish alone are re
markable in variety. Among them are the
Blacklist, the porpoise, which seems Il
tumble about in ali waters; the shark, tina
deadly foe of the sailor the dolphin, which
is in endless pursuit OF the delicate flying
fish which scuds through the air because 1
is chased and not because it enjoys it, which
same dolphin is never cooked aboard veSse
unless g silver half-dollar is put il
the same pot, Tor IL the haI-uol
lar blackens then the dolphin is full o
poison from having sucked copper from
ship bottoms the whipray, like the flounde
and with g tail like a coachman's whip
sometimes ten feet long; the Jewish, whicI
is to these waters as the haljbut of our north
east coast; the yellow-tailed snapper
gigantic turtles, the catfish, the groupa
striped snapper, bonito, Spanish mackerel
angel-fish pork fish, hound-tish, and sucking
fish. Then there is that dread mystery t
seamen, the Portuguese man of-war, tina
strange formation of marine life like mas
of jelly with its ventral fins extended
every direction, riding the heaviest seas hll
bird, and which sea- folk say is deadl
poision TO the touch Edgar Wakeman
Chicago News
The Historical Table of APpOmattOx.
There has been an in JURY made recent
for the table upon which the articles of SUI
render were written and signed by Gran