266 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
caused the 3d day of December in all future years, to be declared 
a public holiday. The flight ofstone steps which lead, from the 
harbor to Rawson’s Square, upon which on that occasion he first 
stepped, were called by his name on account of that auspicious 
event, and thus keep him in perpetual remembrance. Not that 
Alfred had developed great genius, or purchased fame by his 
attainments and exploits; not that the soft balmy air of those 
coral isles had vibratcd with a single great thought from his royal 
lips that would be heard in future times; not that from his pen 
‘¢A small drop of ink, falling like dew upon a thought, 
Had made thousands, much less millions, think ;” 
not that he had lightened the heavy burden of a single tax, or sug- 
gested administrative or governmental reforms, or caused any of 
the wild and now waste crown lands of the islands to be conveyed 
to their landless poor—but, being a prince, it was a crowning 
glory, an event never to be forgotten in the coming years and 
distant ages, that he had actually gone ashore at Nassau. By | 
reason of his royal blood, his mere foot-fall has left a permanent 
impress upon Bahama history, like the fossil tracks of great an- 
imals upon sandy shores in pre-historic times. We trust that 
we entertain a proper respect for Prince Alfred, both on his own 
account and on account of his parents, whose virtues are sufficient 
to make them illustrious, but to make the day of his landing a 
great historic event because of his blood, looks very much like 
an effort on the part of somebody to purchase favor at the court 
of the Queen. There is a day. in the history of the Bahamas 
which the outside world will keep in perpetual remembrance— 
the day upon which the Old World first had an introduction to 
the New. No column, obelisk or temple, is seen upon Watlin’s 
island, where, as we believe, Columbus first landed, knelt, and 
gave thanks to God. No public recognition of that event has 
