Narrative of Bahama Expedition. 191 



was understood to exist between this man and the British 

 representative, whereby the hitter made out all the official 

 papers of the American •• Consul/' who reciprocated by supply- 

 ing whatever liquor was needed for the personal consumption 

 of Her Majesty's representative. This story I believe to be 

 true, having seen and conversed with the parties interested. 

 The American representative was certainly as ignorant and 

 degraded in appearance as any man that I encountered in the 

 West Indies. The idea that such a person shovdd have power 

 ■over the libert\- and pr(>pert}' of American citizens who traded 

 in that port to the extent of scores of thousands of dollars 

 annually, was enough to disgust any one who knew of the 

 situation. The writer has seen a good man}- of the repre- 

 sentatives of our government in out-of-the-wa}- places, and is 

 of the opinion that thev are usuall}^ a poor reliance in case of 

 difficulty, as the policy of the government is to pay them so 

 little that they are obliged to engage in some other pursuit, 

 thus compelling them to have a personal business interest in 

 keeping on the good side of the authorities where they reside. 

 It is, of course, out of the question for an American to secure 

 justice under such circumstances, if justice conflicts with the 

 wishes of the local government. 



At 1 :30 p. i\i. the schooner floated off the sand-bank and 

 was brought up opposite the town, greath' to our relief, and 

 the rest of the day was spent in visiting our friends ashore 

 and securing fresh flsh and fruit. It was with, no little delight 

 that we found a goodlv number of watermelons, which were 

 a decided treat luick'r the circumstances. 



Earh' the next morning we started with a new pilot for 

 Spanish Wells, whicii we had obtained permission to visit, 

 although it is not a port of entry. We took what is known 

 as the •• inside passage,"' a narrow and winding channel be- 

 tween the rugged coast of Eleuthera and the line of reefs, a 

 passage well calculated to make the skipper and his passen- 

 gers hold lliLMT brealli. The water was, as usual around 

 these islands, wonderfull}' clear, making the dangers all the 

 more apparent, and revealing the ugl}' black heads of rocks 



