156 ISLES OF StlMMER. 



adorns with exquisite loveliness, all forms and every variety of 

 matter which it touches. 



There being no mountains upon any of the Bahamas, and no 

 high surrounding hills, those who seek for health and pleasure 

 upon the water at Nassau, have very little to apprehend from 

 sudden and dangerous gusts of wind during the visiting season. 

 These, sometimes occur, but the Bahama winds blow with re- 

 markable uniformity and steadiness. There is, at times, too 

 much wind, but it is rarely unsafe to sail in Nassau harbor, on 

 account of its strength, aiid we were only twice becalmed, and 

 then only for a short time. On one of these occasions, we soon 

 came in with the tide. 



The Nassau yachts, as a rule, have a good breadth of beam, 

 are strong and staunch,, and with competent boatmen at the 

 helm, they are much safer than ocean steamers. They have no 

 complicated machinery to get out of order, no large and infernal 

 looking furnaces to threaten purgatorial fires in advance of the 

 appointed time, and no high i^ressure steam boilers or drunken 

 officials to blow one up. It is true, however, that the master of 

 a Nassau pleasure boat is just as liable to be overcome with liquor 

 as the officers of steamships, but they do not have bar rooms on 

 board their yachts, and if sober when they take their passengers 

 on board, it may be safely assumed that they will remain so until 

 the return of the boat to her dock. 



It is reported that Captain Sampson, a few years ago, some- 

 times when on shore, failed to put a sufficient quantity of water 

 in his rum, or, to speak perhaps more charitably, occasionally, 

 by mistake, put more rum in his water than was necessary to 

 neutralize the effects of the unhealthy salts it contained when 

 taken from Nassau wells, and that, like his great namesake, when 

 on a certain occasion his hair was cut too short, he was tempor- 

 arily weakened and unmanned. 



