186 ISLES Of summek. 



The dews at Nassau are often very heavy, and it is prudent to 

 follow the poet's advice, and 



"The dews of the evening most carefully shun, 

 Those tears of the sky for the loss of the sun." 



Some old residents of Nassau informed us that they considered 

 the evening air in Nassau prejudicial to health. One of them — 

 a lady — said that she was obliged to exclude herself from it to 

 avoid lung disease. But Avhen night after night so many bright 

 stars call to us from a cloudless sky to come out and look up — 

 and especially when the moon rides in great splendor across the 

 bluest of heavens on purpose to bo seen, it seems hardly courteous 

 or creditable to ignobly ensconce ourselves under mosquito bars, 

 and be content with indolent repose or oblivious sleep. When 

 we occasionally accepted of the invitation, it was only to be over- 

 whelmed with the magnificence of the display, as was Moses on 

 Sinai. 



The official Bahama mortuary statistics which we examined, 

 failed to discriminate between the races, and to so localize the 

 results that a comparison can l)e made between Nassau and its 

 suburbs. The medical reports of the military department de- 

 scribe the colored troops as being very licentious, and a large 

 portion of them suffer from venereal diseases. These complaints 

 are said to have been introduced into Grant's Town by French 

 troops, when, upon the breaking up of Maxamillian's Grovernment 

 ill Mexico, the vessels which were transporting them to France 

 stopped on their Avay at Nassau. 



As a matter more of curiosity than of practical utilit}', we sub- 

 join an abstract of the reported causes of death in all the Bahama 

 islands in 1864. It is taken from Gov. Rawson's report for that 

 year. 



