610 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [6] 



given to designate different localities in the same harbor. It is easy of 

 access, the channel being straight and clear, with a depth of 24 feet. A 

 vessel intending to enter St. George's Bay should keep in blue water, 

 outside of the reef, until the conspicuous white house on Cottoufield 

 Point bears N. by E. ; then stand in for it until inside the reef, when 

 she may anchor in any desired depth, white sand bottom. This anchor- 

 age is safe in all ordinary weather. 



The settlement of Port Nelson will be recognized at a distance by a 

 grove of tall cedar trees near the center of the village which overtop 

 all other foliage. The Government flagstaff marks the head of a small- 

 wharf having 4 feet of water at its outer end. The white house re- 

 ferred to on Cottoufield Point is about 1| miles to the westward of the 

 flagstaff. 



A poor quality of beef, good mutton, fowls, eggs, sweet potatoes, 

 and fruits of the season were obtained at fair prices. The water is pro- 

 cured from wells in which the tides rise and fall, aud is decidedly hard. 



The following brief historical sketch by Lieut-Commander James M. 

 Forsyth, U. S. N., a native of the island, is replete with interesting 

 facts and reminiscences : 



" Bum Cay, one of the Bahama group, is probably identical with 

 Santa Maria, the second island touched at by Columbus. Little is 

 known of its history until the latter part of the eighteenth century, when, 

 with the adjacent islands, it became the refuge of a number of loyalists 

 from the Caroliuas and other parts of the United States. Most of these 

 refugees had been engaged in cotton growing in their former homes, 

 owned slaves whom they brought with them, and continued the culti- 

 vation of cotton. The island at this time was well wooded, and in clear- 

 ing for fields the lignum-vitce and the dye woods not only paid all ex- 

 penses, but gave a fair profit. The cotton, hard wood, and dye woods 

 were annually shipped to England through agents in Nassau, and sup- 

 plies were received at the island through the same channel. Later on, 

 probably about 1818, the salt industry began to be developed. The 

 island has one of the best salt ponds in the Bahamas, lying convenient 

 to a safe and commodious anchorage. The salt was manufactured by 

 solar evaporation, and exported direct to the United States aud British 

 provinces. For a period of about fifty years the island was fairly pros- 

 perous. Then the abolition of slavery began to be pressed on the col- 

 onists by the British government, causing an unsettled state of affairs 

 until, finally, emancipation was proclaimed. Naturally this worked great 

 changes in the control of labor. The wants of the newly liberated slaves 

 were few and simple, and in a country where the climate was mild and 

 sea and soil readily yielded the mere necessaries of life, the laborer with 

 his new found liberty was quite independent. Some of the proprietors 

 of land became disheartened and left the island. Those who remained 

 found that cotton could not be profitably cultivated with the uncertain 

 labor of their former slaves, and as the supply of valuable w r oods was 



