NASSAU. 49 
beyond the limits of the city, and is made lively and attractive 
by trade and travel. The docks and landings, the public market, 
the stone barracks with their iron framed and stone-paved ver- 
andas, Fleming Square and the officers’ quarters, the airy unin- 
closed Vendue House, numerous stores and dwellings, a few small 
hotels and private boarding houses, the eastern Parade Ground, 
and an old cemetery still further to the east—all give tone, char- 
acter and importance to the street, and confer upon it a very 
great pre-eminence over all the other streets of the city. 
For several miles, during all parts of the day, Bay street is 
thronged with people, almost exclusively colored. Many of them 
are women and children, merchants in a very small way, bearing 
their stock in trade upon their heads. Idlers abound. No one 
isin any hurry. ‘‘How are you to-day, massa ?”’—‘‘ God bless 
you, massa ”—‘‘Can’t you give me a penny, boss?” are among 
the common salutations. The elderly colored women, when in- 
formed that we feel pretty well to-day, with much gravity of 
look and a devout expression, ejaculate ‘‘ Thank God!” and pass 
along. The diminutive black vocalists remember our interest in 
’ their sacred songs, and have another song which they are anxious 
to sing to us. 
Nothing so impressed us with the evident poverty of the colored 
people of Nassau as a class, and of the difficulty they experience 
in getting a good and honest living, as the large number of colored 
women and children to be constantly seen during every business 
day upon Bay street bearing in their hands, or, (when walking,) 
upon their heads, their little stocks in trade—here a few pennies 
worth of candy, and there a little trifle of cake; some with small 
quantities of peanuts, and others having small supplies of flowers 
or fruit—the appearance of the latter often suggesting the 
thought that it had been prematurely picked to meet wants that 
were pressing, and would not wait. A capital of twenty-five 
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