260 COLUMBIAN HISTORICAL EXPOSITION AT MADRID. 



The Bahamas, for many years after their settlement, were the abode 

 of pirates and wreckers, who systematically pursued their nefarious 

 business of wrecking vessels and sometimes murdering the crews for 

 the plunder they obtained. The establishment of light-houses by the 

 English Government was looked upon by them with deep resentment, 

 a feeling with which they still regard them. The light-house at Watling 

 is first-class, built upon a hill overlooking the site of the first landing 

 place of Columbus, and is equipped with everything necessary to an 

 isolated station where stores are not easily obtained. 



The entire population of Watling, except the magistrate, the parson, 

 the schoolmaster, and the police force (consisting of one individual), is 

 composed of laborers and fishermen. In the interior of the island they 

 have their farms,&quot; where they work hard to raise a scant crop of corn, 

 pineapples, bananas, and vegetables. 



The present inhabitants of Watling support themselves by fishing, 

 couching, wrecking, turtling, and trying to cultivate the thin soil that 

 covers the rocks of which their barren island is composed. They earn 

 a precarious existence, and are frequently on the point of starvation, 

 as in the summer of 1892, when all the crops failed on account of the 

 drought. They are honest, good workmen, and demand only 2 shillings 

 a day for their services. From the nature of things, their island being 

 so poor and so far distant from a market, being visited only by infre 

 quent vessels, they can never improve their condition. 



Of the several hundred people composing the population of Watling 

 Island there are but two or three that are white. They are nearly all 

 the descendants of the slaves freed by the English act of emancipation 

 and who have succeeded to the estates of their former owners. These 

 estates are now in ruins, the cleared fields long since overgrown with 

 scrub, and ruin and desolation are visible everywhere, 



The chief building material of the Bahamas, abundant everywhere, 

 is the soft coral limestone, that is easily worked and sawed into build 

 ing blocks. It makes the best of foundations and walls, giving strong 

 and cool houses, and withstands the shocks of the hurricane as no 

 other could. The roofs are of thatch, made from the native palmetto 

 or &quot;head palm,&quot; and neatly laid on the rafters. There are few glass 

 windows, the apertures being closed with wooden shutters, and the 

 furnishings of the houses are simple in the extreme. 



Until quite recently, the only white family on the island Avas that of 

 the resident magistrate, Hon. Maxwell ^airn, who has lived there for 

 many years and is looked upon by the inhabitants of Watling Island 

 as a father and friend. He has earned a reputation for uprightness 

 and hospitality that is universal throughout the Bahamas, and the 

 news that he was stricken with paralysis in the summer of 1892 was 

 received with general sorrow. After many years of faithful service, 

 he is now retired on a pittance of a pension not adequate for his 

 support. 



