THE BAHAMA ISLANDS 431 



of " Lucayans." Subsequently the Spaniards came and enticed them away, 

 or forcibly deported them, to end their miserable lives in slavery in 

 Spanish mines at Hispaniola and elsewhere. It is said that the Spaniards 

 returned again and again to the Bahamas to kidnap the Indians until the 

 Islands were completely depopulated of their native inhabitants, and left 

 desolate. This may be too strong a statement of the case, but it is certain 

 that there are no Lucayan Indians living in the Bahamas to-day, nor are 

 there any traces of Lucayan blood to be seen in the present inhabitants. The 

 Indian as an element in the population has completely vanished, and the only 

 trace of his former existence in the Bahamas is the occasional discovery of 

 Lucayan bones in lonely caverns scattered throughout the archipelago. Most 

 of these remains have found their way to various museums in America, but a 

 nearly perfect skull is now on exhibition in the Library at Nassau. A glance 

 at this skull (Plate LXXX) will show that the Lucayan Indians possessed con- 

 siderable cranial capacity, although they practiced artificial flattening of the 

 head." 



Another thing that attracted Spanish adventurers to the Bahamas was the 

 fabled Fountain of Youth reputed to be located in or near them. The aged 

 Ponce de Leon, who was guided to the Bimini Islands in 1513, actually bathed 

 in a fountain there but was forced to turn away a disappointed man, without 

 the restoration of his youth which he so much desired. 



The title to the Lucayan Islands, as the Bahamas were first called, 

 which was given to the Spaniards by the Pope, was not left undisputed. 

 English sea-rovers haunted the West Indies in order to prey on Spanish com- 

 merce, and pirates who early resorted to these waters and rapidly increased 

 in numbers, found among the keys of the Bahamas, havens of retreat where 

 they could easily elude the clumsy Spanish galleons. 



In 1578, Queen Elizabeth granted Sir Humphrey Gilbert a title to lands 

 in these parts not occupied by subjects of any other Christian power. Sir 

 Humphrey included the Bahamas in this grant, although he made no attempt 

 to settle them. But on October 30, 1639, another grant including the Bahama 

 Islands was made by the sovereign of Great Britain, this time to Sir Eobert 

 Heath, the Attorney-General. A few colonists were sent out under this patent 

 and a settlement was formed on New Providence. This settlement was ill- 

 fated, for the island was visited in 1641 by a force of Spanish seamen and 



' For further discussion of Lucayan Indian remains, see paper by Prof. W. K. 

 Brooks, On The Lucayan Indians, National Academy of Science, Vol. IV, pp. 215-222, 

 Pis. I-XII. 



