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NASSAU A CONFEDERATE PORT. 269 
Indeed, Gov. Rawson says, that “‘ without such an establishment 
it would have becn almost impossible to have provided for the 
intlux of persons connected with the blockade trade.” But alas! 
how unstable are human hopes! How speedily the shadows suc- 
ceed to the sunlight! Changes great and unexpected thwart 
““the best laid schemes of mice and men.” 
A few short and fleeting years since then have passed, and the 
bold, rich and dashing Confederates are there nowhere to be seen, 
but in their places come the once hated Northerners, including 
not a few Yankces from troublesome New England, to repose in 
the pleasant chambers, and feast in the banquet hall of the Royal 
Victoria Hotel, so lately honored by the advocates and champions 
of ‘‘the lost cause.” The Great Republic meanwhile rises with 
new strength and vigor from its baptism of blood, far more for- 
midable than it ever was before as a rival in peace and an enemy 
in war. 
Blockade running culminated in 1864 and the early part of 
1865. The imports of Nassau in 1860 were in value only £234,029 
and its exports £157,350, but the imports in 1864 were of the value 
of £5,346,112 and the exports £4,672,398. InJanuary and. Feb- 
ruary 1865, twenty steamers ran the blockade, and landed at 
Nassau 14,182 bales of cotton, which were of the total value of 
two and three-quarters million of dollars. Every one was wild 
with excitement. Jortunes were made in a few weeks or months. 
Gold eagles, and twenty dollar gold pieces were pitched instead 
of pennies, by fickle fortune’s new favorites, in the Court of the 
Royal Victoria Hotel. Money was spent and scattered in the 
most extravagant and lavish manner; and, as a natural conse- 
quence, immorality and crime affected the moral atmosphere, 
and disease nestled and watched for its victims in the soft and 
balmy air of this great natural sanitarium. 
In these calm and peaceful days a vivid imagination will find 
