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Show THE ubiquitous American tourist tour-ist has discovered the Bahama islands. Columbus discovered them more than four hundred yearB ago, but during the intervening inter-vening centuries they have lain forgotten, for-gotten, and at the present day the very spot on which European civilization civiliza-tion first touched America has become the most primitive and uncivilized in all the western hemisphere, says the New York Press. After cruising about the Bahamas the first discoverers, ignorant of the existence of the vast American conti- jjbiu, lurnea southward, cruised among the islands of the West Indies and then sailed back to Spain. Adventurers Adventur-ers from all parts of Europe eventually eventu-ally followed them, eager for the promised prom-ised wealth of the western hemisphere, but they passed over the Bahamas. Nations swarmed over the American continent, and fought and succeeded each other, but the Bahamas slept, fit-disturbed. fit-disturbed. And now, a short distance from 'our southern coast, the life of both the white and colored races on these islands has sunk into stagnation stagna-tion and squalid degeneracy. These facts are quite unknown to the American tourists who journey southward every winter to the quaint old town of Nassau in New Providence island, to revel in twentieth century luxury, tennis courts and palm gardens, gar-dens, in a balmy climate. The tourist blood has been excluded and frequent intermarriage has taken place between be-tween whites, much degeneracy exists, ex-ists, and Is manifested by various abnormalities ab-normalities of mind and body. Leprosy Lep-rosy is also becoming prevalent among the islanders, and in recent years has increased so much that a lazaretto has been established near Nassau. A few years ago the Geographical Geo-graphical society of Baltimore Bent an expedition to the Bahamas, when an investigation of these conditions was made by medical experts. On Watling's Island. Egg-shaped, twelve miles long and seven broad, Watling's island is situated situ-ated about 200 miles from Nassau. Today To-day it gives a scanty support to a population of 700 whites and negroes. Cockburn, the only settlement, consists con-sists of a few score houses and huts, an English church and a Baptist chapel. As on most of the Bahamas, the small farms of Watling's island are characterized by the greatest poverty, and the inhabitants lead a hand-to-mouth existence. Owing to latitude, the Bahamas enjoy a climate that is almost perpetual summer, hence their poetical name, the "Isles of June." The relaxing climate seems to destroy the energy of the natives, who are content con-tent to live on a meager diet, consisting consist-ing principally of corn grits, fish and fruit, meat or eggs being rarely seen. llliliifivf: mM , l i'-ir x rtv 01 - M - I - ; is I tm Native: Home; "on Watling's Island Pboto " enjoys all these, and usually returns northward believing that he has seen the Bahamas. But nothing could be more striking than the contrast between be-tween the gay life of Nassau and the condition of the Bahamas as a whole. Although the Bahamas are our next-door next-door neighbors, it is not generally known that they consist of no less than 3,000 islands, islets and keys, extending ex-tending 600 miles from the southeastern southeast-ern coast of Florida to Haiti. The waters surrounding all of them are full of reefs and sand banks, which make navigation impossible excepting for vessels of light draft, and on this account communication is chiefly carried car-ried on by small sailing boats. The only exception is in the case of Nassau, Nas-sau, which is reached by steamer from New York in three days, or from Miami, Mia-mi, Fla., in 15 hours. White and Colored Mixed. The most eastwardly of the Bahamas Baha-mas is Watling's island, supposed to be identical with the island which Columbus named San Salvador and, therefore, the place on which Europeans Euro-peans set foot for the first time in the New World. While only thirty-one thirty-one of the islands are classed as "inhabited," "in-habited," yet on many of the smaller islets and keys there are a few settlers, set-tlers, usually negroes, who are gradually gradu-ally reverting to a condition of savagery. sav-agery. On some of the islands almost every mixture of white and colored blood can be noted. On others there are white people only, the negroeB having been excluded. There are also islands is-lands inhabited by negroes, who have almost entirely excluded the whites. Isolation, in some cases, has led to terrible ter-rible results. On some of the islands, where black Most of them are ignorant of agriculture, agricul-ture, and know little of the outside world. The hopelessness of their condition con-dition seems all the more pathetic when it is recalled that their island the first spot in this hemisphere on which Europeans set foot is practically practic-ally down and out so far as progress is concerned. At the north end of the Island is the conjectural landing place of Columbus Co-lumbus a sandy beach and lagoon, surrounded by a chain of coral reefs, inside of which all is calm and still. Bordering this is a patch of low growth dwarf palmettos and sweet shrubs, just as one sees on the southeastern south-eastern coast of Florida. At this place known as Columbus Point a Chicago Chi-cago newspaper in 1892 erected a simple sim-ple monument. When Columbus landed, 422 years ago, the scrubby vegetation was overtopped over-topped by gigantic palms, which sheltered shel-tered the huts of a peaceful, happy people the Lucayans who were exterminated ex-terminated throughout the Bahamas in a few years by the ruthless Span-lards. Span-lards. The palms disappeared ages ago, and the only evidences of them remaining are a few 6tumps occasionally occasion-ally unearthed. With the exception of the annual tourist invasion, which brings a large amount of money into Nassau, the Bahamas, for many years, have been in industrial and commercial straits. The soil of most of the islands is rocky and uninviting, although, as a rule, It is suitable for the growing of pineapples, oranges, cocoanuts and other tropical fruits. But the popula tion, white and black, is decadent and shiftless, and little has been done In the way of agriculture. |