being the first land discovered by Columbus. This interesting event occurred on the 12th October, 1492. The Bahamas were then densely peopled by the Indian race, who were soon shipped off by the Spaniards to labor in the mines of Peru and Mexico. In 1529, New-Providence was colonized by the English, who, however, were driven off by the Spaniards, in 1641. In 1666, the English again settled here, and the islands remained in their hands until 1703, when the French and Spaniards again expelled them, destroying their plantations. The Bahamas now became the rendezvous of pirates, whose proceedings, so injurious to commerce, were eventually suppressed by the English, and themselves reduced to obedience. During the American war, the Bahamas were plundered by a squadron from Philadelphia, under Com. Hopkins, and the Governor carried off. In 1781, the Spaniards took possession of the isles, but they were restored to the British crown, in 1783, having, however, been recaptured for England by the enterprising Captain Devaux, of South Carolina. The Bahamas, since that period, have remained in the peaceful possession of Great Britain. All these islands are little elevated above the sea, and are evidently the work of the coral insects, whose labors, though apparently insignificant, have furnished so many beautiful spots fit for the residence of civilized man. Few only are inhabited; some present to the eye a few scattered plantations, and others are tenantless. Generally speaking the Bahamas are low and flat. The ocean, close to the isles, is almost unfathomable. Reefs of rocks, or rather walls of coral, bound them after the manner observable in the South Sea isles. NEW-PROVIDENCE, from its harbor and relative situation in respect to the Florida channel, is considered the most important of the group, and on it is situated Nassau, the seat of government for the whole, and the headquarters of the naval and military establishments. It is 21 miles from east to west, and seven from north to south, mostly flat and covered with extensive lagoons. A range of rocky hills runs along part of the island from east to west, at a very short distance from the sea. On this ridge many of the buildings of Nassau are erected, including the government-house, and at its extremity to the west are the barracks and Fort Charlotte. Another ridge called the Blue Hills, runs in a direction nearly parallel with the former, and 2 miles distant. The principal works of defence in the Bahamas are at Nassau, and have been constructed to protect the harbor and town. Fort Charlotte is the main work, which, with its several outworks, is exceedingly strong. Fort Stanley commands the western entrance to the harbor. There are other forts in the neighborhood, both on the main land and on islets in the bay. Few places, indeed, are so well fortified as this important station. With regard to the other islands, we can do little more than specify their names. HOG ISLAND is little more than a reef of rocks, which forms part of the N. harbor of New Providence. ROSE ISLAND, to the N. point, and E. of New Providence, is about nine miles long and a quarter broad. It affords protection to "Cochrane's Anchorage." HARBOR ISLAND is five miles long and two broad, lat. 25° 29′ N., long. 76° 34′ W., very healthy, and a favorite resort for convalescents. TURK'S ISLAND, lat. 210 32 N., long. 71° 05′ W., principal mart for salt-making, peculiarly healthy, and a point of military importance in regard to St. Domingo. NORTH and SOUTH BIMINIS. These isles are about seven miles long, in lat. 25° 40′ N. long. 79° 18′ W., healthy, well-wooded and watered, capacious anchorage, and in the event of a war, highly important for the protection of the trade of the Gulf of Florida, to the E. of which they are situate. The anchorage on the gulf side can admit any class of shipping. Those not mentioned above are in chief-ANDROS, long (22 leagues) and irregular, to the W. of New-Providence eight leagues.-Between them a tongue of ocean water runs in S. E. as far as lat. 23° 21', called the Gulf of Providence; access difficult from reefs. Off its S. E. end are the ESPIRITO SANTO ISLES. The BERRY ISLANDS, an irregular group. Several small harbors formed by them where refreshments may he had. The S. E. of these islands are denominated the Frozen Keys, and the N. the Stirrup Keys. Off the northernmost of the latter there is anchorage on the bank, in lat. 25° 49′. The GREAT and LITTLE ISAACS. W. N., 48 miles from Little Stirrup Key, is the easternmost of three small keys called the Little Isaacs, and five miles further is the westernmost key of the same name; these are from 50 to 60 or 70 feet in length; the middle key is not so large. These keys are situated on the western end of Gingerbread Ground, which extends five leagues E by S. from the weathernmost rock, or Little Isaac, is about five miles wide near the east end, and has some dangerous sharp rocks upon it, with only seven to nine feet of water. The NARANJOS, or two ORANGE KEYS, lie four miles within the edge of the bank, in lat. 24° 55', and long. 79° 7'. ELEUTHERA extends E. nine leagues, S. E. four leagues, and S. E. twelve leagues. GUANAHANI, or CAT ISLAND, N. W. eight leagues and a half E. S. from Powel's Point, in Eleuthera; it thence extends south-eastward 15 leagues, having a breadth of three to seven miles. Eleven miles south-east from Cat Island is CONCEPTION ISLAND, of about seven miles in length, N. E. and S. W., and three miles in breadth. YUMA or LONG ISLAND, 17 leagues in length from S. E. to N. W. S. by W., 17 leagues from the S. point of Long Island, is CAYO VERDE or Green Key. From Cayo Verde, the edge of the bank forms a great and deep bay to the N. W., in the S. W. part of which is CAYO DE SAL, at the distance of ten leagues from the former. EGG ISLAND is small, in lat. 25° 31'. There are many smaller keys and rocks too numerous to mention. An idea of the number and extent of the isles will be conveyed by the following statement of the lands in the Bahamas from an official return dated in 1827. The Bahamas are formed of calcareous rocks, which are composed of corals, shells, madrepores, and various marine deposits hardened into solid. masses in the revolution of ages. The deposits appear to have been thrown up in regular strata, at various periods; and their upper surface deeply honey-combed, bears evident marks of having been long covered by the waters of the ocean. No primitive formation has been found, and the bases of the islands are evidently coral reefs, originating with the Moluscæ, which, unpossessed of locomotive powers, have organic functions destined for the secretion of the lime required for their calcareous coverings. Marl is formed on many of the out islands, and here and there strata of argillaceous earth may be met with. Meteoric stones have been discovered rudely sculptured with human features by the aborigines; but whether found on the islands or brought thither, it is impossible to say; and at Turk's Island a great number of calcareous balls have been found, all bearing an indentation, as though they had been suspended to a pedicle. Their origin or nature is equally unknown. In confirmation of the idea that these islands have been raised from the bottom of the ocean on pillars of coral, after the manner of the eastern and southern hemisphere, it may be stated, many of their salt water lakes and ponds communicate with the ocean, as shown by their sea fish. Some of them are so deep as not to allow soundings; and the water in them rises and falls with the tides on the coast. Situated at the mouth of the Gulf of Florida, placed by geographical position without the tropics, removed from the excessive heat of a vertical sun, and the intense cold of a northern winter, the Bahamas enjoy a climate mild, equable and delightful. To the islands within the torrid zone they are nearly akin—in the little variety of season, the natural productions of the earth, and the manners and customs of the people; but the decided difference in the mean annual temperature, and the more robust and healthy appearance of all classes of the community, gives to the Bahamas all the appearance of a country situated in a more temperate latitude. The summer and winter (hot and cold,) wet and dry seasons, are well marked; the cold season lasts from November to May, during which period the sky is remarkably clear and serene, the mercury at noon, Fahr., occasionally below 60°, seldom beyond 700 or 750, while a refreshing north breeze tempers the mid-day heat, and the mornings and evenings are cool and invigorating. From May to November the heat increases and decreases as the sun advances and retires from its great northern declination. The thermometer ranges from 750 to 85° Fahr., rarely higher a fine breeze frequently blows from the east, with cooling showers of rain, before the summer solstice and towards the autumnal equinox. The mornings then have peculiar freshness, and the evenings a softness and beauty unknown to colder countries. From the flatness of the isles, the full benefit of the sea breezes is felt throughout every part of each island. European and tropical vegetables and fruits thrive and are abundant; beef, mutton and poultry good and plentiful: the shores abound with fish, and there is turtle enough among the Bahamas to supply all Europe; almost every island has pretty good water; ambergris is occasionally found; cotton was formerly an abundant article of exportation, and there is scarcely a spot in any of the islands that is not covered with a luxuriant vegetation. Ship timber, of a most excellent quality, is abundant on many of the Bahama Islands; logwood, brazilletto, fustic, green ebony and satin wood are produced in considerable quantities for building or planking vessels; the cedar, horseflesh, madeira, mastic, and other durable woods, in great plenty, and there is an inexhaustible supply of very superior firewood; sponges of good quality abound on the island shores, and the water from the wells at New Providence has the desirable quality of keeping good at sea for any length of time. As in the other West India possessions, the government of the Bahamas is modelled after that of England: viz. a House of Assembly or Commons, consisting of 30 members, returned from the several islands; an Executive and Legislative Council of 12 members, approved by the Crown, and a Governor, who is commander-in-chief of the militia, and has the power of summoning or dissolving the legislative body, and of putting a negative on its proceedings. The electors are free white persons of 21 years of age, who have resided 12 months within the government, for six of which they must have been householders or freeholders, or in default of that have paid duties to the amount of £50. To become a representative, the person must own 200 acres of cultivated land, or property to the value of £2,000 currency. There are several courts at law, such as the Supreme Court, which holds its sessions in terms of three weeks, with the powers of the common law courts of Westminster, and its practice modelled on that of the King's Bench, the Courts of Chancery, Error, Vice Admiralty, &c. Nassau, in New Providence, as before observed, is the seat of government and the centre of commerce. It possesses a fine harbor, nearly landlocked, and on the south side of which the capital extends over a rather steep acclivity to the summit of a ridge, the west of which is crowned by a fortress of considerable strength, where the garrison is kept. The island is divided into parishes, each of which has its church, clergy, and school, liberally provided for. The streets are regularly laid out, the public buildings good, and activity and cleanliness immediately attracts the eye of a stranger. Salt is manufactured on Exuma island in a pond of 223 acres; in Rugged Island in a pond of 42 acres; in Turk's Island in a pond of 130 acres; on Gunn's Key, and in a pond of 212 acres on Long Key; on Rum Key, in a pond of 650 acres; and in several ponds on Long Island, extent together, 308 acres. There are no mines in this colony. On the island of New Providence are several private quarries of porous limestone, used in building houses, &c., and also for dripstones. It is in great abundance throughout the colony. Smacks and boats are employed in fishing, varying in size from 12 feet to 20 tons. Fish and turtle are worth, on an average, about 3 pence per lb. There are a great abundance and variety of fish within the Bahamas Islands; there are no established fisheries, properly so called; many persons, however, get their livelihood by fishing and turtling on the coast of Cuba, and obtaining sponge on the Bahama Banks. THE SWEDISH WEST INDIES. THE only colony belonging to the crown of Sweden in the West Indies is ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S, a small island about 12 miles south-east of St. Martin's, the area of which is estimated at 25 square miles, and the population at 15,000. This island is mountainous and dangerous in approach, being beset with rocks and shoals. There is neither lake nor spring within its bounds; the P inhabitants depend on the clouds for water, and when that fails, they pro- St. Bartholomew's was colonized in 1643 by the French, under the direction of Poincy, the governor of St. Christopher's. The English attacked it, and plundered the settlements in 1659, from which period to 1697 it remained in their hands, and was then restored to France. Under this government the island made little advance in prosperity, and for a long time was more a resort for outlaws than a regular colony. In 1755, France ceded it to Sweden, in whose possession it still remains, and under whose government it has increased considerably in population and commercial importance. In 1848, slavery was abolished. We have no statistics of its condition. THE SPANISH WEST INDIES. THE colonies of Spain, once stretching over more than one-half the New World, are now confined to the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico, and a few islets on the east of the latter. Her footing on the continent yielded to the force of revolution. These islands, however, are among the most fertile and valuable in the world, yielding large revenues to the mother country; and, together with the commercial advantages they afford to Spain, compensating in some degree for the loss of her former dominions. ССВА. THIS island, the largest, most flourishing, and important of the Antilles, was discovered by Columbus on the 28th October, 1492, and was first called Juanna, in honor of Prince Juan, son of Ferdinand and Isabella; afterwards Ferdinandina, in memory of the king; then successively Santiago and Ave Maria, in deference to the patron saint of Spain, and the virgin; and by Spanish geographers La Lengua de pajaro, as being descriptive of its form. The aboriginal name of "Cuba," however, by which it is generally known, has survived all efforts to supersede it by substitution. Cuba is a long and narrow island, and in figure represents a crescent, having its convex to the north. Its western portion commands the entrance to the gulf of Mexico, dividing it midway between the peninsulas of Florida and Yucatan. In a military point of view it is the key to that important sea, and as such, in the possession of a large maritime power, might exert an all-powerful influence over the commerce of one-third of America. The distance from Cape Antonio, the most westerly portion of the island, (lat. 21° 54′ N. and long. 4° 57' 15" W.) to the nearest point of Yucatan, is 125 miles, and the distance from Point Icacos, the most northerly point, |