6 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK i. 



i 



. Neither must it pass unobserved, that the name of 

 Bahama is commonly applied by the English to that 

 cluster of small islands, rocks, and reefs of sand, which 

 stretch in a north-westerly direction for the space of 

 near three hundred leagues, from the northern coast 

 of Hispaniola to the Bahama strait, opposite the Flo- 

 rida shore. Whether this appellation is of Indian ori- 

 gin, as commonly supposed, is a question I cannot 

 answer; neither does it merit very anxious investiga- 

 tion: yet these little islands have deservedly a claim 

 to particular notice ; for it was one of them J that had 

 the honor of first receiving Columbus, after a voyage 

 the most bold and magnificent in design, and the most 

 important in its consequences, of any that the mind 

 of man has conceived, or national adventure underta- 

 ken, from the beginning of the world to the present 

 hour. 



Most of the countries of which I propose to treat 

 being situated beneath the tropic of Cancer, the cir- 

 cumstances of climate, as well in regard to general 

 heat, as to the periodical rains and consequent varia- 

 tion of seasons, are nearly the same throughout the 

 whole. The temperature of the air varies indeed 

 considerably according to the elevation of the land; 

 but, with this exception, the medium degree of heat 

 is much the same in all the countries of this part of 

 the globe. 



J Called by the Indians Guanahani, by the Spaniards St. Salvador^ 

 and is known to English seamen by the name of Cat Island. The whole 

 group is called by the Spaniards Lucayos. 



