540 HISTORY 



chaplain of the troops at Nassau. Conditions in the Out-islands were very 

 backward in this respect. At Eock Sound a population of 2500 had neither 

 church nor minister. The greater part of the remainder of the Colony was 

 equally destitute. Some of the settlements up to 1835 were neglected by 

 ministers or religious teachers. The Colony supplied of itself almost no- 

 ministers. It depended on those sent out from the mother country, who 

 were better qualified for the duties to be performed here. 



The stipendiary magistrates brought back from their circuits reports of 

 religious destitution. Francis Cockburn still found the same state of things 

 existing on his tour of inspection in 1840. 530 Long Island had appealed for 

 assistance in building a church in 1835." Other islands were calling on the 

 government for the same purpose. Repeated and urgent appeals were made 

 to the home government and to the Society for the Propagation of the Gos- 

 pel, to send ministers to the Bahamas. 841 In addition to what was received 

 from these sources, the Colony was able to make small appropriations for in- 

 crease in the church establishment." 2 The local Assembly was reluctant, 

 however, to make appropriations of public money for churches in places where 

 the dissenters had already gained a foothold. It had caught some of the 

 current spirit of determination to ameliorate the condition of the negroes, 

 but it could not keep pace with the needs as they arose. What the local 

 established church lacked was in part made up by the various religious socie- 

 ties in the mother country. They too were making great efforts for the 

 emancipated classes. But these societies had to deal with the whole of the 

 West Indies, and the Bahamas were but a small part of that large field. As 

 it was in the case of the special justices in the apprenticeship system, so in 

 the case of the church, an insufficient number of men were sent out and they 

 were not capable of accomplishing the task that lay before the church. The 

 funds available were inadequate to meet the needs of those who were disposed 

 to supply them. In 1840 an additional clergyman was assigned to parochial 

 duties at New Providence, and two others were provided for the purpose of 

 visiting the Out-islands. The superintendent of the Carmichael School acted 

 ns a chaplain. This made a total of seven clergymen of the established church 



539 Cockburn to Russell, No. 20. 



540 H. V., 1835-6, p. 32. 



M1 Colebrooke to Aberdeen, No. 54; Cockburn to Glenelg, No. 36 (1837); Cock- 

 burn to Russell, No. 20 (1840). 



542 H. V., 1834, p. 118, Colebrooke to Aberdeen, No. 36, and Cockburn to Glenelg, 

 No. 36 (1837). 



