THE QUEEN'S CHAMBER. ; 59 
the hill, and to have drank some cool and pleasant-tasted water 
which was drawn from it. 
Nor would we if we could forget ‘“‘The Queen’s Chamber,” 
where, for the first time in our lives, we ate and drank at the 
expense of the British Government. With cheese and crackers 
and wine, the darkness was in a measure dispelled, and the re- 
presentatives of the old and new worlds there assembled, in those 
artificial Bahama caverns, drove a few nails into the great inter- 
national Platform of Peace. 
After drinking to the health of the British Queen, and to the 
prosperity and speedy and rapid promotion of the military gen- 
tlemen who had so kindly given us their time and attention, we 
ascended into the sunlight, and soon, resuming our carriages, 
returned to our hotel. 
The military barracks formerly occupied at Nassau an eleva- 
ted position on the grounds of Fort Charlotte. They were com- 
menced in 1790, and finished in 1794, and cost the home govern- 
ment about $150,000. After being used for between forty and 
fifty years, they were condemned as unhealthy, and taken down. 
An obelisque has been erected upon their site, which is utilized 
as a land-mark by vessels entering the harbor. Some of the 
Nassau people, we were told, claim that this removal was accom- 
plished under a false pretext; that it was ‘“‘a put up job;” that 
the military officers desired to be nearer to Nassau while doomed 
upon the island of New Providence to play the part of Napoleon 
Bonaparte at St. Helena. The sickness complained of they 
allege, was caused by imprudence; some of the soldiers, after 
spending an evening in the city, were too heavily loaded with 
liquor to get back to their barracks without lying down to rest 
and sleep in the damp night air. Hence the fevers from which 
they suffered. But as the prevailing winds swept over the low 
wet lands of the island before they reached the old barracks, it 
