FAVORABLE TESTIMONY. 203 



Certain." Mr. Sargeant has had unquestionably superior oppor- 

 tunities of learning the facts, and his opinion, notwithstanding 

 his personal interest, is entitled to considerable weight. 



We were interested in 1879, to hear two of our Nassau friends 

 who had been at the Bermudas, compare them with Nassau. One 

 declared that the Bahamas weakened and debilitated, while his 

 system in the Bermudas was refreshed and invigorated. Both 

 winter resorts have the ocean air, but one is cool and tonic — the 

 other so warm it wilted and unstrung him. He did not want to 

 see the Bahamas any more. The other declared the Bermudas 

 no place at all for a sick man; that it rained there all the time, 

 and was therefore damp and wet, while its temperature was sub- 

 ject to gi-eat fluctuations, and was very trying to invalids. But 

 Nassau, he affirmed, was just the place for a sick man to enjoy 

 himself and get well. A largo, healthy looking and intelligent 

 man who was returning home with us after a six months' resi- 

 dence at Nassau, spoke very strongly against it. He did not 

 like boating, and preferred to take his exercise on foot. When 

 the sun was up he could not walk out because it was so very hot, 

 while the damp and unhealthy night air made out-door exercise 

 at that time unsafe. He had no desire to go there again. Other 

 passengers on the Savannah steamer in 1879, including the author, 

 felt that to them Nassau had been a great sanitarium, while its 

 bland air, beautiful waters, coral bowers and bright skies, will 

 ever secure for it a most prominent place in the mind's store- 

 liouse of pleasant memories. 



The wife of the author of this book was relieved of bronchial 

 and asthmatic troubles at Nassau, in 1879, which did not return 

 while she was at our sea-side residence upon the north shore of 

 Long Island Sound during the following summer. In the suc- 

 ceeding fall and early winter the old troubles again made their 

 appearance in a modified form, but the air of Nassau in March, 



