48 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
Many gardens, orchards, and ornamental grounds are enclosed 
with high walls made of this rock. These walls are stuccoed, 
and covered on top with fragments of glass embedded in mortar, 
all which impresses one with the conviction that petty larceny is 
an offence not unknown upon this happy and innocent-looking 
isle. 
Very many of the houses have large, heavy blinds on the sides 
exposed to the street and the sun, which enclose spacious piazzas, 
and thus secure cool air and seclusion. The blinds, in connec- 
tion with the garden walls, give them, to northern eyes, some- 
thing of the appearance of Turkish harems, and the impression 
is deepened by the additional fact that one seldom gets even a 
glance at the beautiful ladies who are supposed to occupy these 
pleasant homes. 
‘We are unable to give accurately the population of Nassau. 
In 1861, the population of the Bahamas was 35,287, of which 
number 11,503 were upon the island of New Providence, and, 
according to Gov. Rawson, “‘of these, upwards of 10,000 lived in 
Nassau and its suburbs;” and as Grant’s town and Bain’s town, 
two. of the suburbs, then contained a population, the first of 
2,398 and the second of 1,315, it left only 6,287 for Nassau. The 
population of the Bahamas in 1871, according to Moseley’s Al- 
manac, was 39,162, an increase of a little less than 4,000. If 
we allow Nassau and its suburbs their proportionate share of this 
increase (one-third) und add an equal number for the increase 
since 1871, it will make the present population of Nassau and its 
suburbs between 12,600 and 12,700. There is, however, nothing 
to indicute.that there has been much addition to the white pop- 
ulation of Nassan. 
Bay street monopolizes nearly all the business of the city, and 
is its principal thoroughfare. It skirts the harbor, is shaded by 
rows of almond trees, stretches east and west for several miles 
