574 HISTORY 



boring States, the trade of the Bahamas assumed extraordinary proportions. 

 Although the ports of the Confederacy were blockaded by American vessels 

 of war, there was a constant intercourse between them and the Bahamas. As 

 soon as the closure of these ports was attempted, a trade by blockade-running 

 sprang up. Cargoes of supplies of various kinds were carried inside the lines 

 of the hostile fleet, and exchanged for cotton grown in the South. Nassau, being 

 only a few hundred miles from the coastline of the continent, figured conspic- 

 uously in this forbidden commerce. 



Early in the war the British Foreign Office proclaimed the neutrality of 

 the British possessions. On January 31, 1862, the Governor of the Bahamas 

 was instructed not to allow the war vessels of either belligerent to enter or 

 remain in any of the harbors of the Colony except under stress of weather, or 

 by special leave of the government. The ports were not to be allowed to 

 become bases for warlike supplies; and further belligerent men-of-war were 

 not to take supplies in these ports, except such as were necessary for the subsist- 

 ence of their crews. About the same time, another proclamation from the 

 Crown called upon the colonial legislature to prohibit the exportation coast- 

 wise of arms, ammunition, military and naval stores. The local government, 

 perhaps, regulated its conduct according to the letter of these instructions, but 

 if reports are to be trusted, deliberate infractions of their spirit were allowed 

 to take place. There was always an apparent attempt at a stern enforcement 

 of the regulations, on the approach of the warships of the United States. On 

 the other hand, there was a certain indulgence shown towards violations of the 

 same, which turned out to the profit of the rebels. 



Early in the year 1862 the Flambeau, an American vessel, came to Nassau. 

 Her captain desired to come into the harbor to fill her coal bunkers from a 

 collier which attended her. Governor Bayley denied the request and was up- 

 held by the authorities at London. Soon after this Charles Francis Adams, the 

 American minister at London, protested to Lord Eussell against the employ- 

 ment of Nassau as an entrepot for contraband trade and a refuge for blockade- 

 runners. Although a strict enforcement of neutral regulations did not require 

 the prohibition of these practices, Lord Eussell did warn British ship owners 

 and merchants, that Great Britain would not protect their vessels against 

 search and seizure by the American navy; and advised that the true course 

 for them as neutrals was to refrain from the forbidden traffic, as it could only 

 cause irritation in the relations between the United States and Great Britain. 

 However great the inconveniences of the probable interference with this com- 



