CHAPTER XX. 
Spanish Perfidy and Cruelty. The Natives by Force and Fraud are Car- 
ried to Hispaniola and Perish in its Mines. The Islands without inhabitants. 
An English Captain Discovers New Providence. George III of England 
makes a Royal Grant of the Bahamas to siz Proprietors. Pirates Infest the 
Islands. Black Beard. He Isiablishes Himself Upon New Providence. The 
Early Governors. Summary Punishment inflicted by the Spaniards, and by 
the French and Spaniards. Nassau Built and Named in 1694. The British 
Government Purchase the Proprietary Title to the Islands. Nassau is Cap- 
tured and Abandoned by the Amzricans Under Commadore Hopkins. In 1781 
it is Captured and Garrisoned by the Spaniards. It is Re-taken by American 
Loyalists. The Abolition of Slavery. 
“‘O nature! what hadst thou to do in hell, 
When thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend 
In such a paradise?” SHAKESPEARE. 
“TI donot give you to Posterity as a pattern to imitals, but an 
example to deter.” —Junius. 
CoLumBus was a zealous member of the Church of Rome, and 
his mind seemed ever imbued with a strong religious sentiment. 
Religious zeal did much to encourage him to undertake and prase- 
cute with tireless energy and unwavering faith his voyages of 
discovery. He believed himself raised up by Divine Providence 
for the purpose of communicating to the heathen a knowledge 
of the true God. But his royal master, Ferdinand of Spain, 
saw in the amiable, credulous and confiding Bahama Indians 
not men having immortal souls to be saved, but only living 
mechanisms capable of being stolen and utilized in money mak- 
318 Qn 
