CHAPTER IV. 
The Royal Victoria Hotel. Scenes daily witnessed in its Court. Sacred 
Songs of the Negroes. 
““Whoe’er has traveled life’s dull round, 
Where’er his stages may have been, 
May sigh to think he still has found 
The warmest welcome at an inn.”—SHENSTONE. 
THE words above quoted need to be qualified, for a landlord’s 
welcome is purchased by his guest’s money, and disappears the 
moment that gives out. The destitute traveler is not presumed 
to be a disguised angel, and the doors of few public or private 
houses swing open at his approach, except for the purpose of 
letting the dogs loose on him. Hotels are not kept for tramps, 
and the latter receive but a cold welcome even in poor houses 
which the public maintain in part for their benefit. 
We were much pleased with the Royal Victoria Hotel, and re- 
ceived many little attentions and kindnesses at the hands of its 
proprietor, (Mr. J. M. Morton), which it is a pleasure to ac- 
knowledge, but the visitors from the states must remember that 
Nassau’s justly celebrated hostelry is conducted on business prin- 
ciples, and that plenty of money or a good letter of credit is an 
essential requisite of “the warmest welcome” of which the poet 
Shenstone sung. 
In a subsequent chapter, reference is made to the object for 
which this hotel was built by the Bahama government, and to 
the important part it played in the blockade running business 
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