114 ISLES OP SUMMfiR. 



in the shade as though "•'to the manor born." It requires the 

 stimuhts of a steamer nearly ready to return to the States, to 

 energize one sufficiently to write a letter home. It is a luxury to 

 breathe and feel the soft air, but it inclines to repose; it puts us 

 in a state or condition of rest. Bold enterprise and tireless energy 

 are quickened into life by cold winds from the snow-fields. 



"There's iron in our northern winds, 

 Our pines are trees of healing." 



Not only is ambition not indigenous in the Bahamas, but, 

 like many other exotics, it has but a sickly and short-lived exist- 

 ence when introduced from abroad. The j)rimal curse that 

 doomed man to a life of labor, does not seem to have extended' 

 to these isles of unending summer. In fact, it is only in such a 

 climate as these islands possess that labor is a curse and not a 

 blessing. Indolently reposing in the shade of a tropical orchard, 

 fanned by the sea-god's invisible wings that seem ever in motion, 

 the inhabitants of these favored islands have no occasion to work 

 (as we of the north understand that word) in order to supply 

 their simple wants. It is therefore apparent that the original 

 Garden of Eden must have been less favorably situated for lazy 

 people than this part of her majesty's possessions. 



Xew Providence has been called by one of its enthusiastic ad- 

 mirers, in the pages of Scribner, "The Isle of June." It may 

 with equal propriety be named The Isle of Indolence. At all 

 times, in sunlight and starlight, it seemed as if unseen spirits 



"Spread forth their downy pinions, scattering sleep 

 Upon the drooping eye-lids of the air." 



Man there soon passes into a semi-torpid state, and while the 

 wear and Avaste incident to an active life is avoided, the recuper- 



