lr-4 ISLES OF SUMMER. 



from famous and gifted men, and great gatherings of represen- 

 tative men in science, religion and politics, and for moral 

 reforms, must inevitably be as rare in the Bahamas as skating 

 rinks. During the wild excitement that prevailed in Nassau 

 when, during the late rebellion, it was practically a confederate 

 port, under the protection of the flag of Great Britain, a stone 

 building was erected for theatrical exhibitions. The astonished 

 Avinds immediately blew its roof off and otherwise damaged it, 

 so that its bare monumental walls alone remain to commemorate 

 the important part which Nassau played in the great war of the 

 Southern rebellion. But no inference can properly be drawn 

 from the fact of its destruction by the angry elements, that the 

 theatre was especially objectionable to the spirit that rides upon 

 the whirlwind and directs the storm, because churches as well as 

 other public and many private buildings were blown down at the 

 same time. We have no doubt that the Bahama government, in 

 these calm sober days, would prefer as a paying investment, warm- 

 ing pans to theatres. 



Nassau and its surroundings have much to interest a stran- 

 ger, especially if he has spent his life in more northern latitudes; 

 but to her own citizens, it must be a very dull place notwith- 

 standing an occasional hurricane and frequent wrecks. In the 

 winter of 18T8, '79, a traveling circus company chartered a steam- 

 boat and visited some of the "West India Islands. Their arrival 

 in Nassau produced a deep and profound sensation. The landing 

 of Columbus and his followers upon a neighboring island nearly 

 four centuries before, with gilded cross and emblazoned banner, 

 was not a greater surprise or productive of half the pleasure. 

 No alloy of fear marred the happiness wdiich the arrival of the 

 acrobats occasioned. Heralded from afar, and accompanied in 

 their grand march through the streets of Nassau by musicians 

 who made the soft and languid air vibrate with a melody it never 



