96 ISLES OF srMMEK. 



A northern person naturally looks for the tamarind upon tropi- 

 cal vines, but it grows in green pods, in great abundance, upon 

 trees tall and widespread. Xcgroes frequently brought for sale 

 to the court of the hotel a few of the green pods. They were 

 purchased, not so much for use, but as objects of curiosity, 

 although the tamarinds, when unpreserved, have a pleasant acid 

 taste, and, Avith the aid of sugar, make a palatable drink. From 

 the tamarinds of commerce the pods are removed, but the seeds 

 are enveloped in a second covering, and are connected together 

 with a fibrous string, as the reader has no doubt observed. 



The trees of the Bahamas which grow valuable timber are 

 principally pitch pine, Madeira mahogany, horse flesh mahogany, 

 olive, cassava, mastic, fustic, cedar, button, white and black 

 torch, satin and lignum vitas. 



Some Bahama trees, like the cinnamon, are valuable for their 

 bark; others, like the logwood, for their dyes; while certain trees 

 and many plants possess valuable medicinal qualities. 



While at the Bahamas, we were more than ever before im- 

 pressed with tliat Diviuo Wisdom which pervades, as with a 

 living spirit, the most common phenomena of nature. If man 

 should first observe them in the maturity of his intellectual pow- 

 ers, he would be lost and overwhelmed in Avonder and astonish- 

 ment. In the early dawn of his existence, before the reflecting 

 and reasoning faculties are developed, he sees and accepts them 

 as facts, and thus SAvalloAvs unaAvares and Avithout difficulty, 

 whole caravans of camels. Having thrived npon such a diet, 

 and experienced no injury from his childish credulity, it seems 

 foolish, in the later stages of life, to wrench and strain himself 

 over the little troublesome gnats that float, like moats in sun- 

 beams, in an atmosphere mysterious and apparently supernatural. 



Living upon the same meagre diet of rock, water, air and sun- 

 shine — and npon nothing else — it seems incredible that the small 



