B&tJC:^. AMERICiAX LOYALISTS. ^^3 



Mr. Bruce found sufficient leisure time while at Nassau to 

 collect much historical information which he published in his 

 "Memoirs." Most of the facts contained in the foregoing his- 

 torical summary are collated from his book. So far as v/e have 

 been able to learn, no other writer cither preceded or followed 

 him in sketching the history of the Bahamas. The historic pen 

 which Bruce laid down in 1742, when he left Nassau to make 

 good the defenses of Charleston, S. C, no one has taken up. 

 The soothing air of the Isles of Summer is not favorable to the 

 making or writing of history. We have gleaned but a few items 

 with which to fill the intervening historical chasm measured by 

 the past one hundred and thirty-seven years. 



When the independence of the United States was confirmed, 

 and established by the treaty of peace in 1783, there were many 

 inhabitants of the Carolinas and Georgia, who, during the revo- 

 lutionary war, retained their affection for the mother countr}', 

 and their loyalty to its government. These people lacked faith 

 in the republic, and the same spirit which induced them or their 

 ancestors to emigrate to the American colonies, caused them to 

 abandon their new homes and seek their fortunes elsewhere. 

 Many of them removed with their slaves to the Bahamas, and 

 commenced new plantations ujoon a number of the islands. The 

 virgin soil for a few seasons yielded large harvests; but its fertil- 

 ity was soon exhausted. Deprived of trees and bushes, the fields 

 were scorched by the hot sun, while swarms of destructive in- 

 sects consumed and otherwise destroyed the scanty harvests. It 

 required but a few years to complete the financial ruin of the 

 new settlers. Their improvements and negroes were of little 

 value in the absence of paying crops. What had been saved of 

 their fortunes in the States speedily disappeared, and they were 

 left destitute even of the means of removal from the little islands 

 in which their courage and hopes were entombed. 



