s supposed to have an area of
about two hundred million square miles. Of these only about fifty
millions are dry land. Within the harbor of Nassau the divisions of
shoal and deep water presented most singular and clearly defined
lines of color, azure, purple, and orange-leaf green,--so marked as to
be visible half a mile away. All was beneath a sky so deeply and
serenely blue as constantly to recall the arching heavens of middle
India.

The Bahama Banks is a familiar expression to most of us, but perhaps
few clearly understand the significance of the term, which is applied
to a remarkable plateau at the western extremity of the archipelago,
occupying a space between two and three hundred miles long, and about
one third as wide. These banks, as they are called, rise almost
perpendicularly from an unfathomable depth of water, and are of coral
formation. In sailing over them the bottom is distinctly seen from the
ship's deck, the depth of water being almost uniformly forty to fifty
feet. Some years since, when the author was crossing these banks in a
sailing ship, a death occurred among the foremast hands, and the usual
sea burial followed. The corpse was sewn up in a hammock, with iron
weights at the feet, the more readily to sink it. After reading the
burial service the body was launched into the sea from a grating
rigged out of a gangway amidship. The waters were perfectly calm, and
the barque had but little headway. Indeed, we lay almost as still as
though anchored, so that the body was seen to descend slowly alongside
until it reached the calcareous, sandy bottom, where it assumed an
upright and strangely lifelike position, as though standing upon its
feet. An ominous silence reigned among the watching crew, and it was a
decided relief to all hands when a northerly wind sprang up, filling
the canvas and giving the vessel steerage way.

So many years have passed since the occurrence of the scene just
related that we may give its sequel without impropriety, though, at
the same time, we expose the venal character of Spanish officials. The
man we buried on the Bahama Banks had died of small-pox, though no
other person on board showed any symptoms of the disease. On entering
the harbor of Havana, three days later, we had been hailed from Moro
Castle and had returned the usual answer. A couple of doubloons in
gold made the boarding officer conveniently blind, and a similar fee
thrust quietly into the doctor's hand insured