374 ISLES OF SUMMER. 



In 1863 the expenses of a vessel which could carry 800 bales 

 (including wages, coal, provisions, labor, repairs and agent's com- 

 missions,) were about £3000 for a round trip, to and fro. In 

 the following year the expenses were increased to £5000. The 

 salary of the captain rose from £600 to £1000 for tlie trip, with 

 the privilege of carrying ten bales of cotton on his own account. 

 The purser and first officer received each £300, with the privilege 

 of carrying two bales each, and the pilot received £1000, with the 

 privilege of carrying five bales. 



A first class steamer would run from Charleston or Wilmington 

 to Nassau, in about forty-eight hours. She could be discharged 

 in twenty-four hours, the laborers working day and night. But 

 three days for loading and unloading was considered good dis- 

 patch. The excitement, extravagance and waste which prevailed 

 under such circumstances may be easily imagined. 



During the war, had the colored people who compose about 

 three-fourths of the population of the Bahamas, known that the 

 question of the enfranchisement of five millions of their race was 

 involved m the struggle, we should at least have had their warm 

 sympathies on our side. But nearly everything relating to the 

 war that was published in ]S[assau, so far as we have been able to 

 learn, was favorable to the rebel side. This may also be fairly 

 inferred from the fact that the oxlt battle of that war that 

 the publisher of the " Nassau Guardian " has noticed In the col- 

 umns of important events inserted in his Nassau Almanac for 

 1879, is that of Bull Ruj^, July 21, 1861. 



It is charitable to conclude that the editor and compiler has 

 never heard of the great Union victories that culminated in a 

 restored Union, and we trust, a permanent peace between the two 

 sections of our common country. 



