BAHAMA ISLANDS 



543 



BAHIA 



notes from the chanter are produced by means 

 of holes, stopped with the fingers, or left open, 

 as in playing a 

 flute. 



The bagpipe is 

 of great an- 

 tiquity, having 

 been used by tin- 

 ancient Greeks, 

 is popular 

 among the coun- 

 try people of Po- 

 1 a n d, Italy, 

 France and Ire- 

 land. Scotland is 

 by no means its 

 original home, 

 for it is thought 

 to have been in- 

 troduced into 

 that country after 

 William the Con- 

 queror entered 

 Knirland in 1066. 



BAH A'M A 

 ISLANDS, or 

 LUCAYOS, lu 

 kah ' yos, a group 



of HriTish West 



Indian Islands ly- 

 ing northeast of 

 Cuba and south- 

 east of the coast 

 of Florida. They 

 are formed 

 largely of wind 

 blown coral sand. 



THE BAGPIPE 



The principal islands are 

 Grand Bahama, Great Abaco, Little Abaco, 

 Andros Islands, New Providence, Eleuthcra, 

 Great Kxuma, San Salvador, Acklin's Island 

 and Great Inagua. Of the whole group, which 

 numbers over 3,000 islands and reefs, twenty 

 art inhabited, and the most populous is New 

 Providence, winch contains the capital, Nassau 

 (which see). The principal product is pin. - 

 apples, which form the chief export, thounh 



iruits are also grown, as well as cotton, 

 sugar, maize and ground nuts. The agave, 

 from which sisal hemp is obtained, is exten- 



'ultivated and its export is steadily in- 

 creasing I i-l,: ML- for sponges also forma an 

 important indu- 



mas are a favorite resort for in- 

 valids suffering from pulmonary disease- 

 first British settlement was made on New 



nee toward the close of the seventeenth 



century. San Salvador, or Watling Island, is 

 thought by some authorities to be the same as 

 Guanahani, the land first touched on by Colum- 

 bus in 1492. For location on map, see NORTH 

 AMERICA. Population, in 1911, 55,944. 



BAHIA, bahee'a, or SAO SALVADOR, 

 souN sahl vah dohr, one of the chief cities of 

 Brazil, capital of the state of Bahia, had a 

 population of about 300,000 in 1915. In size 

 it is the third city of Brazil, being exceeded 

 only by Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. It is 

 on the shore of the Bahia de Todos os Santos 

 (bay of all the saints), which must not be con- 

 fused with the famous coffee port of Santos. 

 It is in latitude 13 south, and by water is 

 742 miles distant from Rio de Janeiro, 4,000 

 miles from New York, 4,500 miles from Lon- 

 don and 7,670 miles from San Francisco. 



Like many South American cities, Bahia is 

 divided into two parts. The old or lower town, 

 which lies on the long, narrow beach, has dirty, 

 ill-paved streets, and is without protection from 

 the surface washings from the slopes above. 

 This section, typical of old colonial life, con- 

 tains the markets, post office, railway station, 

 consular offices and principal -business houses. 

 The upper town, chiefly a residence district, 

 lies on the western slope of a ridge rising from 

 200 to 260 above the sea level. It is reached 

 from the lower town by hydraulic elevators 

 and by streets so steep that carriages cannot 

 pass along them. Here are the governor's 

 palace, a public library, a museum, a cathedral, 

 considered the finest in Brazil, and a lovely 

 garden or park on the brink of the bluff and 

 overlooking both the bay and the open sea. 



Bahia is called the "City of Churches," and 

 contains over a hundred of these. The Sao 

 Joao and Polythcania theaters are worthy of 

 note. Various hotels and schools and a large 

 number of fine residences render the upper 

 town attractive, and it has electric lights, elec- 

 tric street railways and other modern im- 

 provements. The port of Bahia is commo- 

 dious and sheltered, and the city is the center 

 of the sugar, cocoa and tobacco trade of the 

 state. It also exports diamonds and other 

 precious stones, and maintains important cot- 

 ton industries. Bahia is one of the few South 

 Amrric.m Mm \\ludi have docks to accommo- 

 date the largest ocean liners. The harbor is 

 the most strongly fortified in Brazil. 



Hahia wa.M founded in 1 ">!! l>y Thonrf de 

 Sauza, who was the first Governor-General of 

 Brazil Twelve years later it was made the see 

 of a bishop, and fifteen years later still it 



