CHAPTER VII.

The Caicos.

In proceeding towards Providence, the next collection of islands that you meet with, lying in a north-westerly direction from the Turks Islands, are called The Caicos, or, as our sailors more familiarly pronounce them, The Caucus. Their name, I believe, is of Indian origin, and may be derived from a species of native plum-tree. They lie in the form of a crescent opening to the south, and are se parated from each other by narrow passages. Besides the Keys, or smaller islands, lying south, they are distinguished by the names of the West, the East, the Grand and Middle Caucus. The soil of the middle islands, which have principally invited settlement, (and particularly some spots of clay,) is the most esteemed

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esteemed of any in the Bahamas. There are two sugar plantations recently established at the Caicos; but the staple commodity produced is cotton. Of the general state of the agriculture of these and the other islands I shall be enabled to furnish a correct idea when speaking more particularly on the subject hereafter, from authentic documents in the proceedings of the Legislature of the Bahamas, on a recent investigation of the subject.

The different West India fruits come to perfection in these islands. I tasted some oranges produced at the Caicos of excellent flavour. Horned cattle, on a comparison with the adjacent islands, succeed well: and I saw some very good hogs bred there; a species of stock which thrives most remarkably in all warm climates.

Previous to the peace of Paris, in the year 1783, when many royalists removed to the Bahamas, there were not more than thirty acrés of land cleared in all the Caicos. But

in the course of five years succeeding, twelve heads of families, and between two and three hundred slaves, were enumerated on the islands; since which period I have not learnt the exact amount of the population. One gentleman alone, it is said, has six hundred negroes employed on his different plantations. But there is too much reason at present to anticipate a diminution rather than an increase of numbers. A port of entry is established at the Caicos, but they have not as yet sent any delegate to the General Assembly at Providence. Although the land is rocky and much broken, the indefatigable inhabitants have made roads adapted for carriages; and if nature would smile on their meritorious efforts, it would soon become a populous and flourishing country: but, I am sorry to say, the prospect of the future is wrapt in a gloomy despondence.

Various traces of the aborigines (who in numbers much exceeded any population likely to ensue) have been discovered at the Caicos:

Caicos: amongst others, utensils formed of clay, and a hatchet of stone curiously embossed with a dolphin's head. In a cave some sculls, I was informed, had been recently taken up, which, on being touched, immediately mouldered to dust. An old road traversing one of the islands was also found by the first settlers, which they ascri bed to the Indians; for the Spaniards, although they exterminated the inhabitants, were indifferent about their country, which they deemed not worth the possession,

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CHAPTER VIII.

Heneagas.

In a south-westerly direction from the Caicos lie the two islands of Great and Little Inagua, or, as, to accommodate them to an English pronunciation, they are now generally called, Heneauga or Heneaga. The original is a Spanish compound word, signifying that "water is to be found there;" which, to those who frequent the neighbouring scenes of flat and desert keys and sands, is an object of no small consequence.

Great Heneaga has been hitherto but little known from any other circumstance than the number of shipwrecks which it has occasioned by its position at the mouth of the windward passage, the frequented straits between Cuba and Saint Domingo. A dangerous reef lies at some distance off the

shore;