444 MEXICO, CENTRAL AMERICA, WEST INDIES. 



and clothes in return for their future labour. The creditor takes care that the debt, 

 limited by the law of 1885 to ten shillings, is never extinguished, while the debtor 

 is also required to sign the " seamen's articles " binding him to join a ship's crew 

 whenever called upon by the magistrate. Of all the blacks the most wretched are 

 those engaged in the sponge-fisheries, and none draw their wages in cash except 

 those seeking employment on the neighbouring American coastlands. 



Topography, 



Great Bahama, which lies nearest to the mainland, and which probably gave 

 its name to the whole archipelago, long remained unoccupied and even still is one 

 of the least densely peopled. The few planters are of Scotch descent. The contour 

 lines of this island harmonise with those of its eastern neighbours, Little and Great 

 Abaco, which were formerly called Yucaya or Lucaya, a name that has also been 

 extended to the entire insular group. Great Abaco is one of the most thickly 

 peopled members of the archipelago. Its inhabitants (3,610 in 1881) are whites, 

 all descendants of the American loyalists, who, to preserve the purity of the race, 

 have always intermarried within the same family circles ; hence, according to 

 passing observers, a marked physical degeneration of the race. Hopetown, the chief 

 village, occupies a long narrow peninsula between two seas, where its little houses 

 are interspersed amongst the palm-groves. 



The little cluster of the Berry islets at the western entrance of Providence 

 channel is occupied by a few pilots on the look-out for vessels plying in the dan- 

 gerous passages between the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. The more intri- 

 cate channels are provided with lights, and on Florida Strait, near the famous 

 Bemini islets, stand the magnificent lighthouses of Isaac Cay and Gun Cay. 



New Providence contains over 15,000 inhabitants, nearly one-fourth of the 

 whole Bahaman population. This old nest of pirates has been selected by the 

 British Government as the ofiicial capital, and, thanks to its central position, it has 

 become the chief commercial mart of the archipelago. The port of Nassau, called 

 also New Providence, has a depth of over 16 feet ; it lies on the north side of the 

 island, and would consequently be exposed to the full fury of the trade winds but 

 for the shelter afforded by a chain of reefs known by the name of Hog Island. 

 Nevertheless, during the hurricanes, which visit these waters about every four 

 years, vessels in the roadsteads have occasionally been hurled over the reefs and 

 stranded on the coast. 



During the War of Secession Nassau almost suddenly acquired great wealth, 

 thanks to the blockade-runners, who made this place one of their chief headquarters. 

 The dangerous trafiic began in 1861, when a Confederate vessel, with a cargo of 140 

 bales of cotton, ran the blockade and reached Nassau, a distance of about two days 

 by steam. The vessels, chosen from the swiftest of the British commercial fleet, 

 usually sailed from Nassau laden with all kinds of war materials, and when suc- 

 cessful brought back a cargo of cotton. During the five j^ears of the war 397 ships, 

 of which two- thirds were steamers, entered Nassau after running the blockade, 



