The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1900-04-27
Selut Mistellunq.
The Bahamas Of To-day.
BY HARRIET c. COOPER.

1t is now about four hundred years
since Christopher Columbus sent to his
sovereign letter written from New
Providence, one Of the Bahama islands.
"This country" said he, ''excels all
others as far as day surpasses night in
splendor. The natives love their neigh
bors as themselves; their conversation
is the sweetest imaginable, their faces
are always smiling; and so gentle and
affectionate are they, that swear to
your highness there is not a better peo-
pie in the world"
Fortunately, the large-hearted dis
covcrer died without learning that a
majority Of these engaging islanders
were doomed to early extinction-pos-
sibly because of their innocence, GER
tainly because of Spanish greed; the
same malady which afterwards at
tackled Cortez, and was by him fittingly
defined as "a Spanish heart disease
which only gold will cure"
We do not count Columbus respon-
sible for the result of his, perhaps, too
glowing description, yet without doubt
his attractive picture excited the Gu
pidity of the Spaniards, and as His
PAMELA needed laborers, its cruel gov
ernor, Orvando, easily secured permis-
sion to take them from the Bahamas.
The heartlcss Spaniard promised to
convey this ignorant, amiable people
to ''heavenly Shores and from New
Providence and other islands of the
group, forty thousand were thus trans
ported, not to celestial realms, but to
work and finally to perish in the tin
mines OF Hispaniola. Since other
Spanish colonies shared like fate. it
is not surprising that Europeans came
t, quest ion, What are all these New
World discoveries WORTH" and were
answered. Nothing! worse than moth
ine!'
SO general was this opinion that in
1871 the Abbey Raynal proposed to
the Academy of Lyons prize of fifty
louis for the best essay on the question
whether the discovery Of America had
been a blessing or Il curse to mankind.
Curiously enough, as it seems to-day,
a majority of the essayists found only
one unquestioned blessing, the intro
duction Of quinine into Europe,-while
numerous charges were made against
the slaughter of innocent and high
minded red men, and also because Of
"the number of European wars which
had grown out of quarrels about colo
nial empire.
From the time of Orvando, New
Providence had a varied history under
English, French, and Spanish govern
ment. Long years of Spanish misrule
finally depopulated, not only that
small island, but its beautiful West
Indian neighbor, Hispaniola. Both
were desolated, and were in time ovei-
run by herds of wild cattle. The few
natives left grew skilful in smoking and
drying beef on frames called Joucans,
and soon became known as buccaneers;
a name afterwards applied, with slight
ly altered spelling, to those sea-robbers
who found the boucanned meat to their
taste, settled in the islands, and from
them sailed forth to pillage and murder
on sea and land. Spain had never per-
mitted her colonies. to receive goods
from any but Spanish ports, and with
the usual consequence, INSCRIPTIONS
exporters charged eXorbitant prices.
1t is not surprising that the colonists
welcomed the rowing pirates who called
themselves "Brethren of the Coast