CHAPTER XIX. 



The First Great Voyage of Colwnhus. lie Solves tlie Dark Problem of the 

 Ages. His Land Fall. The Whole Group 2dade Forever Memorahle. The 

 Spirits of Columbus and Black Beard Indelihly Impressed Upon the Islands. 

 Eminently Good and Bad Men Not Dead When They Die. The Natives As 

 Columbus Found and Described Them. The West India Islands Occupied by 

 Substaiitially One People. The Caribs. The Search Among the Bahamas 

 for the Fountain of Youth. 



" There are great deeds that will not pass away, 

 And names that must not wither, though the earth 

 Forgets her empires with a Just decay."— Byron. 



The Bahamas are objects of great historic interest to the whole 

 civilized world, but to the inhabitants of the Western Hemi- 

 sphere they have a peculiar charm. The life and voyages of 

 Christopher Columbus, the son of a Genoese wool-comber, when 

 faithfully recorded, give to literature a treasure of inestimable 

 value, and to the department of fact, the absorbing attraction 

 and dazzling brilliancy of liction. For several weeks after our 

 first arrival in Nassau, the great navigator and discoverer Avas 

 almost constantly in mind. While yachting in the perfectly clear 

 and transparent waters, so exquisitely colored, borrowing their 

 rich hues not only from the skies but from the white sand beds 

 and coral shelves and reefs over which they flow, we thought 

 how, after his long and anxious voyage, he must have been im- 

 pressed; and every ride we took over the hard limestone roads, 

 upon the island of Xcw Providence, now looking out upon the 



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