THE BAHAMA ISLANDS 469 



home government, for which the Governor made application to the Colonial 

 Department. 



The Governor was left in complete control of the situation. The As- 

 sembly, being out of the way for the time being, there were sufficient revenues 

 in his grasp to carry on the government without the interference of those who 

 had supported the late House, 178 and he received the approval from the Secretary 

 of State for that conduct which had excited such protests on the part of many 

 of the colonists. 17 ' Further than this he was informed that the petitions, which 

 had been sent in, calling so urgently for his removal from the government of 

 the Bahamas, had been laid before the Privy Council, and that that body had 

 not considered them of sufficient weight to merit any serious attention. 180 The 

 state of feeling in the Colony was still much the same as it had been. The 

 same prejudices existed, and there was the same aversion to the head of the 

 government that there had been since that official had had his first break with 

 the legislature. The seal of approval of his past conduct was an encouragement 

 to him to continue his efforts in the " out-door " sphere, in which he had been 

 so successful. He fully realized now that the task of relieving the negro pop- 

 ulation from the burdens under which they had been placed, and the raising 

 of them to a higher plane, was anything but a popular undertaking in this 

 atmosphere of slavery. He also realized that the whites alone were qualified 

 to deal with the problems of local legislation, but that they needed to be taught 

 the reality of the royal power, and that they should pay due respect to it. In 

 order to accomplish his purpose the Governor feared it would be necessary to 

 lay open wider the wounds of the Colony, and to estrange the people perhaps 

 more than ever before, but he was confident that, with the support of the royal 

 power, as he had been upheld thus far, there would be a speedy improvement 

 in the state of feeling throughout the Colony. He continued his course as he 

 had done before. During the remainder of his incumbency of the government 

 he was not to be interfered with by the encroachments of the legislative power, 

 upon what belonged to the Executive, 181 nor with its protest against the proper 

 performance of his duties. We shall see how completely he had things under 

 his control, and in what respects the local authorities were enabled to obstruct 

 his attempted reforms. 



178 Loc. cit. 



179 Ds., S. St., 1832, No. 65. 



180 Loc. cit., No. 73. 



181 Smyth's Ds., No. 163. 



