214 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICrXTUEAL SOCIETY. 



of which is concentrated in and about Nassau. The present 

 population is estimated at 14,000 of whom about one-sixth are 

 white, the remainder being negroes, mostly born on the islands, 

 and, of course, descended from the victims of the African slave 

 trade. Close observation will enable one occasionally to distin- 

 guish in the negro quarters of the town, faces that bear in the 

 tribal marks and scars unmistakable evidence of African nativit}'. 

 These have been rescued from slave ships and liberated on these 

 islands. 



The original inhabitants at the time of the discovery by Colum- 

 bus were a peaceable and inoffensive race ; they were all carried 

 into slavery by the remorseless Spaniards and their lives were 

 sacrificed in the mines of San Domingo or the pearl fisheries of 

 Cumana. They were of a proud and independent spirit, not 

 yielding readily to slaver^', and by the time a generation had 

 passed away not a descendant of the Lucayau Indians remained, 

 and for more than one hundred years these islands remained 

 desolate and uninhabited. The negroes have a tradition that there 

 is a remnant of these aboriginal natives yet living in the depths of 

 the forests on Andros Island, and no negro can by any means be 

 persuaded to venture from the coast into the forests which cover 

 the island, for fear of the wild men, whom they call "Yahoo;'' 

 but no good foundation could be ascertained for this belief. 



The white population, as stated, comprises perhaps no more 

 than one-sixth of the whole. Many of them are descended from 

 the same stock as our best New England population, to which 

 there is quite a strong resemblance both in speech and manner ; 

 nor have we far to go for the explanation. A large part of the 

 emigration to the Carolinas, in the early part of the eighteenth 

 century, was of Scotch extraction from the north of Ireland and 

 the same that furnished much of the hardy j^eomanry of New 

 England. 



Singularl}" enough, while in the North these people were the 

 staunchest patriots, in the South they were among the most ardent 

 Loy^alists and at the close of the American Revolution they 

 emigrated in large numbers to the Bahamas. Great Britain had 

 purchased the rights of the Lords Proprietors and made large 

 grants of lands to these Loj'alists on which were soon established 

 man}^ prosperous plantations. The energy and industry of these 

 people are plainly evinced today in the clearings, enclosures and 



