^4 Isles of suMirfEii. 



the section was detached — a circle not far from four feet in 

 diameter — a new and healthy bark has grown, while small new 

 sprouts have in different places made their appearance. Such 

 tenacity of life and recuperative energy we had not supposed ex- 

 isted anywhere. Were the climate of the Bahamas as stimulating 

 to mind as it is to matter in some of its forms, its inhabitants 

 would intellectually far excel all other people past or present. 

 Notwithstanding the " never say die" pluck of this memento of 

 the great hurricane of 'G(3, its continuance for many years is also 

 in part traceable to tlie absence of proper tools and appliances for 

 its removii!. The mechanic arts are there still in a state of rude 

 and primitive simplicity. Aside from the building of small ves- 

 sels of not exceeding a hundred tons, and at rare intervals a ncAV 

 store or dwelling, there is little skilled labor, and an official re- 

 port states that their only manufactures arc ropes, baskets and 

 palmetto hats. 



Two or three small sugar mills run by horse power, and a grind 

 stone in the rear of the hotel, rotated by hand, were the only 

 labor-saving machines we saw upon the island. The pine trees 

 are cut down often, and perhaps generally, with long knives. 

 They are not very large, and the swinging of an ax would require 

 too great an exertion in this climate to suit the taste of its ami- 

 able, good-natured and iiolitically free negroes. 



The Jamaica tamarind tree is sometimes called the Monkey 

 Tamarind, from the fact that occasionally in Jamaica a monkey 

 will insert its paw, when open and extended, through the end 

 of the large, hard, woody j^od, wliich the tree produces, for the 

 purpose of obtaining the seeds which it contains. Grasping 

 these, his paw, when closed, is too large for the hole, and either 

 because he is too stubborn and willful to open his j^aw, or because 

 he has not sufficient intelligence and presence of mind to do so, 

 he holds on and pulls, and pulls and holds on, until one very 



