THE BAHAMAS.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
regret that my letter to you, sent last week in answer to an attack upon me signed "Robert Whittleton," was too long for insertion, as I am, and always shall be, only too glad to meet him and any other of my Bahamian objectors point by point.
Mr. Whittleton is the Wesleyan Methodist minister of Harbour Island, though a large number of your readers will probably be under the impression that he is an Anglican clergyman complaining of some attack made by me upon that body. The particular charge objected to by the Rev. Robert Whittleton will be found at p. M. of "The Land of the Pink Pearl." I can only say that I adhere to every word of it. Mr. Whittleton says he speaks with authority : so do I. He was not at Harbour Island at the time any more than I was. I have gone very fully into the evidence in this ease, aided by some slight experience in judging of the pro's:and eon's of such matters, and I am satis- fied of the substantial truth of the version I have given to the public. Mr. Whittleton will probably say his sources of information are more reliable than mine. On this point I must take leave to differ from him.
When he says that not one of the doors of the Wesleyan church has ever been reserved for white people, he states that which, in my belief, is erroneous. He says, why rake the matter up after twenty years ? I can assure you there is not a coloured man or woman in the islands who does not know of —aye, and brood over—the "Harbour Island case," as it is called, together:with many other complaints they have against Mr. Whittleton and his fellows. I heard of it before I had been a month in the Colony, and often as I have discussed it both with white and coloured people, I never heard it dis- puted, though many of the former have justified it up to the hilt.
In a word, the issue between myself and the whites in the Bahamas is one of fact. Mr. Whittleton says they do not fear a Royal Commission. Mf.whole book is a plea for the appointment of one, and if ever one were appointed, I have no doubt it would be satisfied of the substantial truth of all I have written about:the Colony.—I am, Sir, &c., Author of "The Land of the Pink Pearl," late Circuit Justice, Bahama Island.
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