Bahama Islands

“ When we recollect how many bare and rocky islands are inhabited and cultivated between the 17th and 26th degrees of latitude in the archipelago of the Lesser Antilles and Bahama islands, we are surprised to find those islands desert which are near to the coast of Cumana, Barcelona and Caracas. They would long have ceased to be so had they been under the dominion of any other government than that to which they belong. Nothing can engage men to circumscribe their industry within the narrow limits of a small island when a neighbouring continent offers them greater advantages. ”

“ The Rovers being now pretty strong, they consulted together about getting some Place of Retreat, where they might lodge their Wealth, clean and repair their Ships, and make themselves a kind of Abode. They were not long in resolving, but fixed upon the Island of Providence, the most considerable of the Bahama Islands, lying in the Latitude of about 24 Degrees North, and to the Eastward of the Spanish Florida. ”

“ I had, however, little occasion to exert my tact in this are in the Bahama Islands, where, as in all the other islands of the West Indies, there is a class of women, born of white fathers and mustee or mulatto women, nearly approaching in complexion to the European; many of them are brunettes, with long black hair, very pretty, good eyes, and often elegant figures. ”

“ This Island is scarcely more than two leagues in its greatest extent, but has a harbour capable of being easily fortified against an enemy; and very near to its North end is a much smaller Island. The late Charts assign the name of Sta Katalina to the small Island, and give to the larger Island that of Old Providence, the epithet Old having [p. 57] been added to distinguish this from the Providence of the Bahama Islands. At the time Mansvelt undertook his scheme of settlement, this Sta Katalina, or Providence Island, was occupied by the Spaniards, who had a fort and good garrison there. ”

“ While it is probable that the former number was nearer to the truth, it is evident that the island was well inhabited, for Columbus found every valley swarming with natives. The severe labor imposed by the Spaniards made such frightful inroads on the native population that within a decade labor for the plantations and mines began to grow scarce and forty thousand inhabitants of the Bahama Islands were imported to increase the supply. ”

“ Usually, in going to the Guianas, the route is through the Bahama group, by way of the Crooked Island Channel, thence through the Windward Passage, between Cuba and Haiti and across the Caribbean sea by the east end of Jamaica. But Mr. Sargent wished to go further to the eastward so as to pass among the Leeward Islands, perhaps landing there to await the return of the bark from the coast. This plan could be followed without detriment, as a little delay in reaching Guiana was more than likely to result in an improved market for the cargo. ”

“ The Abaco and Exuma groups and Long Island each support populations exceeding 3000, and there are smaller populations on Grand Bahama, the Crooked Islands, Inagua, Mayaguana, Watling, Rum Cay and the Biminis, though these last, which are two very small north-western islands, are relatively densely populated with 545 persons. ”

“ These islands lie on the north and east of Cuba, and are a large group of coral islands, which are formed by those great coral reefs which are known as the Bahama Banks. Twenty of them are uninhabited, and many of them are mere reefs or keys.
These islands are very interesting from the fact that they have all been built by the coral insects. Each of these tiny creatures gathers lime from the water in which it lives or the food which it eats, and develops from this a skeleton, which is the coral. They live in masses or colonies, and throw out buds above them which form fresh coral insects. ”

“ The journal and letters of Columbus show that the native people of the Bahamas suffered much from the attacks of the man-eating Caribs, whom they greatly feared but often doubtless bravely repelled. We have also evidence from Vespucci that the Caribs advanced much farther north for war and rapine, boldly navigating the sea in their great canoes, to Pamlico Sound. Whether they had a permanent settlement on the northwestern islands of the Bahama group, can probably never be known ”

“ Can you take a chronometer and a sextant and figure out latitude and longitude?"
"I'd be a juggings if I couldn't. Why, mate, it's one of the first things they teach you on the training ship."
"Get in here and manage the Hawk, Dick, while I look over this chart."
Ferral dropped in among the levers and Matt went forward and sat down on the floor of the car.
The chart embraced part of the eastern shore line of Florida and took in some of the westernmost islands of the Bahama group. From Palm Beach a straight line was drawn, east by south to a dot below the western point of Great Bahama Island. ”

“ Instead, I believe that the islands visited by Vespucci on the return voyage were the northern part of the Bahama group. Without going so far from the coast and its inlets as to incur much danger of storms, or to completely lose the course and the reckoning in cloudy weather, canoe expeditions from the Bahamas could come frequently, as the narrative says, to attack the Indians in the region of Pamlico Sound. These Indians, too, sometimes pursuing their enemies homeward, might learn the situation of their islands, and would thus be able to pilot the way for Vespucci’s ships. ”

“ In 1710 the Spaniards made a descent on Turk's Island, which had been settled by the Bermudians for the purpose of gathering salt, and took possession of the island, making prisoners of the people. The Bermudians, at their own expense and own accord, dispatched a force under Captain Lewis Middleton to regain possession of the Bahama Cays. The expedition was successful, and a victory gained over the Spaniards, and they were driven from the islands; they still, however, continued to make predatory attacks on the salt-rakers at the ponds, and on the vessels going for and carrying away salt. ”

“ Ships and Vessels may, and often have sailed through this Channel from the N End to Cuba, or the Bay of Mexico, notwithstanding the common Opinion, on account of the Current, that is against it. They [230] keep the Bahama shore aboard, Shoals of a great Extent, sprinkled with rocky Islands so low, there is very little Safety to those unhappy Men who are cast away upon them ”

“ The total population of the Bahamas has been ascertained, by census, to be a fraction less than forty thousand.
The voyager in these latitudes is constantly saluted by gentle breezes impregnated with tropical fragrance, intensified in effect by the distant view of cocoanut, palmetto, and banana trees, clothing the islands and growing down to the water's very edge. As we glide along, gazing shoreward, now and again little groups of swallows seem to be flitting only a few feet above the water for a considerable distance, and then suddenly disappearing beneath the waves. ”

“ The wrecking-sloop Sea-Horse came smashing the seas headlong past Fowey Rocks, heading for the channel over the reef into Bay Biscayne. She had left Nassau the day before, and had made a record run across the Gulf Stream, carrying sail through a heavy head sea, which flew in a storm of white water over her bows and weather-rail all day, making the deck almost uninhabitable. Bahama Bill, otherwise known as Bill Haskins, wrecker and sponger, mate and half-owner, held the wheel-spokes, and sat back upon the edge of the wheel-gear, bracing one foot to leeward. ”

“ Modern maps give no such places as "Dead Men's Shoes" and "Short Shrift Island," but John—who is said to be writing a learned history of the Bahamas—has been for a long time collecting old maps, prints, and documents relating to them; and at last, in a map dating back to 1763, we came upon one of the two names. So far the veracity of Tobias was supported. "Dead Men's Shoes" proved to be the old name for a certain cay some twenty miles long, about a day and a half's sail from Nassau, one of the long string of coral islands now known as the "Exuma Cays." ”

“ The Bahamas, themselves are a singular group of isles, reefs and quays; consisting of several hundred in number, and were the chief resort of pirates in old times, but now they are all rooted from them; they are low and not elevated, and are more than 600 miles in extent, cut up into numerous intricate passages and channels, full of sunken rocks and coral reefs. They afforded a sure retreat to desperadoes. Other islands are full of mountain fastnesses, where all pursuit can be eluded. ”

“ It won't do if we're caught up suddenly. What would the Muldoons think if they found us going around this peaceful hostelry armed with Gatlings of forty-five calibre. No, put on your best duds and come away. We've won—mark what I say—we've won. I have the best diver on the Great Bahama Bank to do the trick, the best and biggest man on the reef—see. It's all right. Now, then, I hear his gentle footsteps on the veranda and I think we had better get him in here without delay—what?"
Half an hour later the mate of the Sea-Horse emerged from the room with a faint smile upon his ugly face. ”

“ Bahama Bill was a cool hand, a man used to desperate emergencies, and Smart felt that the giant mate of the Sea-Horse would do what he could to set him free. He knew the black diver to be a mighty swimmer. ”

“ The numerous islands, very many of which are uninhabited, have yet their recorded names, more or less characteristic, such as Rum Key, Turk's Island,—famous for the export of salt,—Bird Rock, Fortune Island, Great and Little Inagua, Crooked Island, and so on, all more or less noted for the disastrous wrecks which have occurred on their low coralline shores. Our Northern cities are largely dependent upon the Bahamas for their early annual supplies of pineapples, cocoanuts, oranges, bananas, and some vegetables, in which they are all more or less prolific. ”

“ Far away to the southward the little hump of Soldier Key stood out above the surrounding reef, and the tall palms of Florida Cape seemed to be motionless.
"What the name o' sin d'ye think dem folks is doin'?" said Bahama Bill finally, rising from the quarter and gazing toward the shore. "I sho' likes toe make money easy, but when I gits de sail on dis hear ship, I likes toe see her go. Gittin' hot, an' de wind's dropped. I hate to run that channel on a fallin' tide without wind enough to drive her good an' strong over dem shoal places. Hello! ”

“ These channels are nearly of the same width, somewhat [Pg 103] exceeding a hundred miles each, the northern passage being a few miles the broader. The Bahama Banks extend along its northern coast-line about fifty or sixty miles distant, where commences the group of many small isles known as the Bahamas, and of which we have already treated. On her eastern extreme, near Cape Maysi, Cuba is within about fifty miles of the western shore of Hayti, from which it is separated by the Windward Passage. ”

“ But the name soon applied to all alike, and the Conch, instead of becoming a word of opprobrium, stood for all men who made the Reef or Great Bahama Bank their home.
William Haskins, otherwise known as Bahama Bill, was a Fortune Islander, and his acceptance of the keeper's position was but temporary, taking the place of the assistant who was absent on his quarterly leave. The head keeper, an old man, seldom left the light. ”

“ Then the moon began to rise from beyond the Bahamas, a vast, full moon, with the sea seeming to cling to her lower limb as she freed herself. Dusky, at first, she paled as she rose, and now, in her light, the palms of the island and the coral beach showed clear.
Palm Island is a scrub of cactus and bay cedar bushes, half a mile long and quarter of a mile broad, with not more than forty trees. Crabs and turtles and gulls are its only visitors, and desolation sits there visible and naked. But in the moonlight, on a night like this and seen from the sea, it is fairyland—storyland. ”

“ She was now smiling at him; but edging away into the doorway of the little cabin which stood by the coral roadway in Key West. She really did not dislike the sailor; for Bahama Bill had a reputation for being a good money-getter and a most excellent spender. As mate of the wrecking sloop Sea-Horse, he often came in with a few English pounds sterling, or a pocketful of good American dollars, earned in his business along the Great Bahama Bank. ”

“ All over the Bahama Isles a-sailing by the night.”
“But the devil a bit of fear have I of dead or living men,
I’ve lifted him before and I can lift him up again,
And pitch him in the water, and sink him out of sight,
All over the Bahamas a-sailing by the night.”
He grappled with the dead man in spite of all our cries,
When life and awful anger came in the corpse’s eyes;
It tore him to the toffrail and held him deadly tight,
All over the Bahama Isles a-sailing by the night. ”

“ We, new comers, introduced certain measures that had a tendency to harmonize our sailors and soldiers. The disorders on board the Bahama arise, principally, from having on board a number of these two classes of men. Our sailors view a soldier as belonging to an order of men below them ”

“ Lucaioneque is accounted the biggest of them all, and lieth in twenty seven Degrees between Bahama and Guanahani. Bahama lies nearest to the Coast of Florida, and gives Name to the Straights so call’d, which run between the Cape of Florida and it, with such a violent Course and Torrent, that although it be above sixteen Miles broad, yet many times neither Wind nor Oars, can prevail against it; that though the Winds be prosperous, Ships cannot enter it; and if it be cross, they go with the Current; yet those Straights the Spanish Fleet must pass in their Return from the Havana towards Spain. ”