424 HISTORY 



In 1775, Commodore Hopkins, of the new American navy, captured Nas- 

 sau, evidently expecting to secure possession of the stores of powder deposited 

 there. Failing in this, owing to the vigilance of the Governor, he sailed away 

 a few days later taking the Governor and a few others as prisoners of war. 

 Only a small force of defenders remained throughout the remainder of the 

 American Eevolution. 



In 1781 the Spaniards appeared at Nassau again, defeated the British, 

 and kept a large garrison there for nearly two years. After the conclu- 

 sion of the treaty of peace between Great Britain and Spain in 1782, 

 but before it had been announced in the Southern States, an expedition 

 organized by Loyalists from the Carolinas and Florida took Nassau from the 

 Spaniards. This expedition was undertaken as a private enterprise by Major 

 Andrew Deveaux and Captain Daniel Wheeler. A few recruits had been 

 picked up at Harbor Island and several vessels that were met on the way 

 joined with the party. By this small party, of not more than 225 men, the 

 Spanish Governor was taken by surprise and induced to surrender a force 

 nearly three times its size. Deveaux took possession with a garrison of fifty 

 men and sent part of the Spaniards to Havana. 



Upon the separation of the Thirteen Colonies on the continent from Great 

 Britain many of their inhabitants preferred to remain British subjects rather 

 than become citizens of the States. The unpleasantness of their situation 

 among the successful revolutionists was increased by the bitterness of the latter 

 toward them. For these and other reasons many emigrated from the States 

 to territory that still remained British. This exodus was encouraged by the 

 favorable conditions offered to those who wished to settle in the Bahamas. Ves- 

 sels were also provided by the Crown to bring to the Colony all who desired to 

 leave the Southern States for British territory. On September 10, 1784, in- 

 structions were issued to Lieutenant-Governor Powell to grant unoccupied 

 lands in the Bahamas as follows: To every head of a family forty acres, 

 and to every white or black man, woman or child in a family, twenty acres, 

 at an annual quit rent of 2s. per hundred acres. But in the case of the 

 Loyalist refugees from the continent such lands were to be delivered free of 

 charges, and were to be exempted from the burden of the quit rents for ten 

 years from the date of making the grants. At about this time Governor Patrick 

 Tonyn of east Florida gave public notice in that province that the last vessel 

 transport would leave the port of St. Marys, Florida, on March 1, 1785. He 

 advised all persons of English blood to leave Florida for the Bahamas before 

 the Spanish Governor took possession. 



