THE BAHAMA ISLANDS 511 



first experiment with tlieiii had proved their usefulness, they came rapidly into 

 favor and increased in popularity up to the close of the apprenticeship period. 

 They secured to the master a more punctual performance of the laborer's 

 obligation to him, and on the other hand appealed to the best there was in the 

 negro to bear responsibilities voluntarily assumed. Both parties preferred 

 them. To them was due much of the good feeling that existed between the 

 classes after the summer of 1835.'''"' Praedials as well as non-praedials were 

 employed in this way.'" Complaints to the magistrates were less frequent 

 where agreements were most common.'"'^ The use of them spread rapidly to all 

 parts of the Colony, as soon as the intelligence of their beneficent results was 

 carried to the Out-islands.""" 



In his instructions to the magistrates in September, 1825, Lieutenant- 

 Governor Colebrooke urged as a leading object of the circuits that they should 

 encourage voluntary agreements with specific terms. They were not to allow 

 agreements whose terms were not equitable. It seemed desirable to reserve 

 two days in each week to the laborer for the purpose of obtaining food and 

 clothing for himself."" At New Providence voluntary contracts were entered 

 into, during the autumn of 1835; at Eleuthera at the same time nearly all the 

 proprietors had formed agreements to furnish time and land to the apprentices 

 in lieu of food and clothing.'"*' By January of the following year agreements 

 were being siu-cessfully employed at Eagged Island, and the laborers there 

 were being paid annual wages for work on the salt ponds on Saturdays ; Rum 

 Cay was also employing them.""" Where this plan was not followed the com- 

 plaints from all parties were multiplied and the visits of the magistrates were 

 attended with less benefit to the community."" Prosperity attended them, and 

 especially did they .enjoy peace, a blessing which the Bahamas had hardly 

 known for twenty years. The difficulty of disposing of their produce alone 

 hampered their prosperity.*"^ 



Another form of engagement was that by which the apprentice bargained 



^"^ Colebrooke to Glenelg, Nos. 94 and 95. 



^'^ Colebrooke to Aberdeen, No. 36. 



^== Colebrooke to Glenelg, No. 95.' 



^'"'Sess. P., 1836, 49, pp. 530-31, report of S. Js. Winder and Munro. 



^'" hoc, cit., pp. 534-5, instructions to the special justices, 



^^^ Loc. cit., pp. 524-31, enclosure No. 3, 



^^'Loc. cit., pp. 543-5. 



<»» Colebrooke to Glenelg, No. 85, Oct,, 1835. 



"1 H. v., 1835-6, pp, 73-79. Sess. P., 1836, 49, p. 545. 



