^66 ISLES OF SUMMER. 



caused the 3d day of December in all future years, to be declared 

 a public holiday. The flight of stone steps which lead, from the 

 harbor to Kawson's Square, upon which on that occasion he first 

 stepped, were called by his name on account of that auspicious 

 event, and thus keep him in perjDctual remembrance. Not that 

 Alfred had developed great genius, or purchased fame by his 

 attainments and exploits; not that the soft balmy air of those 

 coral isles had vibrated with a single great thought from his royal 

 lips that would be heard in future times; not that from his pen 



"A small drop of ink, falling like dew upon a thought, 

 Had made thousands, much less millions, think;" 



not that he had lightened the heavy burden of a single tax, or sug- 

 gested administrative or governmental reforms, or caused any of 

 the wild and now waste crown lands of the islands to be conveyed 

 to their landless poor — but, being a prince, it was a crowning 

 glory, an event never to be forgotten in the coming years and 

 distant ages, that he had actually gone ashore at Nassau. By 

 reason of his royal blood, his mere foot-fall has left a permanent 

 impress upon Bahama history, like the fossil tracks of great an- 

 imals upon sandy shores in pre-historic times. We trust that 

 we entertain a proper respect for Prince Alfred, both on his own 

 account and on account of his parents, whose virtues are sufiQcient 

 to make them illustrious, but to make the day of his landing a 

 ^eat historic event because of his blood, looks very much like 

 an effort on the i-)art of somebody to purchase favor at the court 

 of the Queen. There is a day in the history of the Bahamas 

 •which the outside world will keep in perpetual remembrance — 

 the day upon which the Old World first had an introduction to 

 the New. No column, obelisk or temple, is seen upon Watlin's 

 island, Avhere, as we believe, Columbus first landed, knelt, and 

 gave thanks to God. No public recognition of that event has 



