NASSAU AKD THE BLOCKADE Hr^^NEES. 267 



been made by the Bahama government, and we doubt if many 

 of the islanders know where it occurred — but they will not 

 be permitted to forget the day the Prince of Wales was born, 

 nor the time his sailor-boy brother first trod the white lime- 

 stone streets of their little colonial capital. This is the result, 

 no doubt, of governmental policy. Distance — the mists of space 

 — impress the African mind, and Victoria's golden crown, on the 

 other side of the broad Atlantic, reflects a mystic light, like that 

 of "the great white throne " beyond the limits of time. The 

 nearness of the Bahamas to the United States — the intervening 

 waters of the Gulf of Florida being to some extent spanned by 

 a bridge of ocean steamers — tends more and more to strongly 

 bind them to the States by the strong tics of commercial inter- 

 course. At least a hundred Americans visit those islands for a 

 longer or shorter time, to one Englishman, and republican in- 

 fluences, if not studiously counteracted, Avould soon predominate. 



The British ministi-y and aristocracy during the late civil vrur 

 in the United States, from political and commercial considera- 

 tions, openly and heartily sympathized with the South, and great- 

 ly prolonged the war by the aid and comfort they rendered the 

 would-be founders of a great slave-holding oligarchy. Nassau 

 practically became a most important naval station and depot of 

 supplies for the Southern Confederacy. 



Under the friendly flag of Great Britain, secessionists and 

 oJockade runners held high carnival upon the "Isle of June." 

 Commanding, as A^'ew Providence to a limited extent does, our 

 South Atlantic coast, the approaches to the West India Islands, 

 and the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico, Nassau is very favorably 

 situated to do great damage to our commercial marine in time 

 of war; and the Confederates, with the British government and 

 aristocracy on their side, were not tardy in availing themselves of 

 its advantages. The wildest excitement prevailed. Steamers 



