SERIOUS VIEWS OF THE BAHAMAS.

The principal exports of these favored islands are fruits, sponges, molasses, and sugar.  Their imports include most of the necessaries of life, which come to them oftenest in the form of wrecks, by which they obtain them at a small fraction of the original cost and value.  For this resource they are indebted to the famous Bahama Banks, which, to their way of thinking, are institutions as important as the Bank of England itself.  These banks stand them in a handsome annual income, and facilitate large discounts and transfers of property not contemplated by the original possessors.  One supposes that somebody must suffer by these forced sales of large cargoes at prices ruinous to commerce,—­but who suffers is a point not easy to ascertain.  There seems to be a good, comfortable understanding all round.  The owners say, “Go ahead, and don’t bother yourself,—­she’s insured.”  The captain has got his ship aground in shoal water where she can’t sink, and no harm done.  The friendly wreckers are close at hand to haul the cargo ashore.  The underwriter of the insurance company has shut his eyes and opened his mouth to receive a plum, which, being a good large one, will not let him speak.  And so the matter providentially comes to pass, and “enterprises of great pith and moment” oftenest get no farther than the Bahamas.

Nassau produces neither hay nor corn,—­these, together with butter, flour, and tea, being brought chiefly from the United States.  Politics, of course, it has none.  As to laws, the colonial system certainly needs propping up,—­for under its action a man may lead so shameless a life of immorality as to compel his wife to leave him, and yet not be held responsible for her support and that of the children she has borne him.  The principal points of interest are, first, the garrison,—­secondly, Government-House, with an occasional ball there,—­and, third, one’s next-door neighbor, and his or her doings.  The principal event in the memory of the citizens seems to be a certain most desirable wreck, in consequence of which, a diamond card-case worth fifteen hundred dollars was sold for an eighth part of that sum, and laces whose current price ranges from thirty to forty dollars a yard were purchased at will for seventy-five cents.  That was a wreck worth having! say the Nassauese.  The price of milk ranges from eighteen to twenty-five cents a quart;—­think of that, ye New England housekeepers!  That precious article, the pudding, is nearly unknown in the Nassauese economy; nor is pie-crust so short as it might be, owing to the enormous price of butter, which has been known to attain the sum of one dollar per pound.  Eggs are quoted at prices not commendable for large families with small means.  On the other hand, fruits, vegetables, and sugar-cane are abundant.