The Story of Bonefish Folley

If you’ve got the time to hear the story about how I got to be called Bonefish Folley, then I’d be happy to tell it.

Fact is, it goes back all the way to the rum running days, the time of American prohibition, when I was living in Bimini. Course I was just a kid in those days, so I’d hang around and watch them take the booze off the boats it came in on, pack it up real good so as no one could tell what it was, and load it onto the big ship that’d be heading back to the States.

Well, I was around so much I guess the folks on that big ship must have taken a shine to me. After a while, mister Carl Folley, the man who owned it, started taking me to school, treating me like the kid he never had, and before I knew it, everyone was calling me ‘Folley’.

Not that I minded you understand. There were a lot less Folleys than Rolles, which is my real name by the way. And that song they made up about me “Bonefish Folley, he’s the one and only” wouldn’t be half as catchy if it was Israel Rolle.

Why I’m known as ‘Bonefish’ should be easy enough to work out. It’s on account of how the fish have always seemed to prefer my lines. Word got round to folks who were visiting that if you wanted to have the best sport and catch yourself the biggest bonefish, you’d come out with me.

Over the years, I’ve been deep-sea fishing with people from China, Japan, the USA, England… and all over the world. Famous folk, too, like President Nixon, Ernest Hemmingway, Prince Rainier of Monaco, Robert Taylor, Lana Turner, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and my old friend John Wood, who’s the US Ambassador to The Bahamas.

Nowadays, I’ve got my sons and grandsons to help me out. But I’m still fishing around the West End where I live.  And I’m a lucky man because the fish are still biting.

Bahamian History

 

Timeline: Bahamas

 

 

A chronology of key events:

1492 – Christopher Columbus makes his first landing in the New World in the Bahamas.

Few of the hundreds of islands and cays are inhabited BBC Science & Nature: Bahamas

1647 – English and Bermudan religious refugees, the Eleutheran Adventurers, establish the first European settlement on the Bahamas.

1666 – Colonisation of New Providence Island begins.

1717 – Bahamas become a British crown colony.

1783 – Spain cedes the Bahamas to Britain in accordance with the Treaty of Paris after briefly occupying the islands the previous year.

1834 – Emancipation of slaves.

1940-45 – The Duke of Windsor – formerly King Edward VIII – serves as governor of the Bahamas.

1950 – Britain grants the US a military test range and tracking station for guided missiles in the Bahamas.

1955 – Free trade area established in the town of Freeport, stimulating tourism and attracting offshore banking.

Bahamas founding father, Sir Lynden Pindling Born in 1930 1967: Becomes prime minister 1983: Knighted Died in 2000

1964 – Bahamas granted internal autonomy.

1967 – Lynden Pindling becomes prime minister after his centrist Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) wins the islands’ first legislative elections.

1972 – Negotiations with Britain over independence begin in the wake of an overwhelming victory in the elections by the PLP, which campaigns on a platform of independence.

Independence

1973 – The Bahamas become independent.

1983 – Government ministers face allegations of drug trafficking.

1984 – Pindling is endorsed as PLP leader after denying charges of corruption and ties to drug traffickers.

1992 – Hubert Ingraham becomes prime minister after his centre-left Free National Movement (FNM) wins an absolute majority in the general elections, ending 25 years of rule by Pindling.

1996 – Ingraham reinstates the death penalty for murder.

1997 – Ingraham returns as prime minister after his party is re-elected.

Hurricane Floyd battered the islands in 1999 2004: Hurricane Jeanne batters Bahamas 1999: Picking up after Floyd

1998 – Two convicted murderers are hanged despite international opposition and concern over the use of the death penalty in the Caribbean.

2000 August – “Father of independence” Sir Lynden Pindling dies. He was head of government from 1967-92.

2001 November – Dame Ivy Dumont becomes the Bahama’s first woman governor-general.

2002 May – Veteran politician Perry Christie leads his Progressive Liberal Party to a landslide victory, unseating the Free National Movement, which has been in power for 10 years.

2004 September – Hurricane Frances sweeps through, causing widespread damage. Weeks later Hurricane Jeanne batters the Bahamas.

2006 March – UK-based final appeals court rules that the mandatory death sentence for murder breaches the Bahamian constitution. It was last used in 2000.

2007 May – Former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham’s Free National Movement wins parliamentary elections.

Lucayan Indians

The Lucayans were an ancient people who are thought to have colonised the Bahamas from South America. It is believed that they travelled on wooden rafts using ocean currents and prevailing winds. A cave on Grand Bahama contains rare evidence of the Lucayan civilisation.

In this underwater cave, a skull has been found which is thought to be Lucayan due to its flat forehead. Lucayans strapped wood to their heads which caused their foreheads to become flatter than those of normal skulls. The Lucayans believed they originated from caves, which may be why they chose to bury their dead there. The Lucayan culture died out as a consequence of European colonisation.

Importance:	This site contains rare evidence of the Lucayan civilisation that populated the Bahamas before colonisation by Europeans.
Dive category:	This is a cave dive which requires cave dive training and experience.
Access:	Due to the rarity of the remains found within these caves access is restricted.

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Whales in Exuma

There is no better place to explore the beauty of the Bahamas than Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, which stretches for 22 miles from Wax Cay Cut in the north to Conch Cut in the south and out four nautical miles on either side of the cays. We cruise the Bahamas for several months each summer–and each year of the past 10 the improvements to Exuma Park above and below the tide line have exceeded our expectations.
Like many cruisers enroute to the Exuma Cays, we docked at Highbourne Cay on the journey south from Nassau where we obtained copies of Exuma Park’s dinghy and snorkel guides for Shroud and Hawksbill Cays. These waterproof guides also indicate the location of the new mooring fields off these two uninhabited cays.
Shroud Cay’s winding tidal creeks called out to our adventurous crew. We tied up to a mooring and launched our dinghy to follow the north creek as it meanders through a mangrove estuary, eventually emptying out into deep Exuma Sound. The sandbar at the creek’s end slices through gin clear, turquoise water and we think the beach is one of the prettiest in the Exumas.
Picking up a mooring at Hawksbill Cay offers visitors a wide array of scenic sand bars and enchanting beaches which can be reached by a new, well-maintained trail that cuts across this uninhabited cay to Exuma Sound. There are also the ruins of the Loyalist-period Russell Plantation to explore.
Warderick Wells, home of the park headquarters and visitor center, is our favorite destination. The park was established in 1958 to preserve the flora and fauna on these fragile islands. For the past 50 years, the park has served as a sanctuary for marine, bird and animal life throughout the central Bahamas.

from: Southern Boating    Text & Photos By Molly Potter Thayer

Early Settlers

Hermitage Plantation – This 970-acre plantation is the last surviving example of the many cotton plantations that once dotted The Bahamas. Highlights include the oldest building in the Exumas, Cotton House, circa 1780′s.

Drive into Williams Town and meander through the ruins of the Hermitage Plantation, a reminder of how British loyalists tried – and eventually failed – to establish a plantation economy on the island after the American Revolution. Another reminder, incidentally, is the wild cotton you see the entire length (about 60 miles) and breadth (about 7 miles) of Great and Little Exuma. For lunch, stop at Santanna’s roadside stand in Williams Town (242-345-4102) and chat with Dee Rolle-Styles as she fixes you a plate of cracked lobster ($18). On your way back to George Town, take a right in the middle of the big bend leading into Forbes Hill and put some more sand between your toes at the sweeping beach there.

Hermitage Plantation Ruins at Williams Town: The ruins of this simple, but classic plantation home, and it’s accompanying grave crypts, kitchen house and slave quarters bring back visions of the time when Exuma was a British Loyalist colony. On the way to Williams Town, you will want to see the old salt flats and the stone monument built to signal ships that salt was available for sale.

The Ferguson family from the Carolinas settled in the small settlement of Hermitage, after the American War of Independence.  There are three tombs and a grave with different inscriptions to the memories of George Butler (1759 – 1822), Henderson Ferguson (1772 – 1825) and Constance McDonald (1755 – 1759).  The unmarked grave is believed to be that of an unnamed slave.

Many visitors come to Little Exuma to visit the Hermitage, a plantation constructed by Loyalist settlers. It is the last surviving example of the many that once stood in the Exumas. It was originally built by the Kendall family, who came to Little Exuma in 1784. The family established their plantation at Williamstown and, with their slaves, set about growing cotton. But they encountered so many difficulties having the cotton shipped to Nassau that in 1806 they advertised the plantation for sale. The ad promised “970 acres more or less,” along with “160 hands” (referring to the slaves). There are local guides who can show you around the several old tombs in the area as well as other points of interest.

Exuma History (Part 3)

Coincidentally with the decline of the cotton estates, the abolition movement was gaining momentum and strength in England. This led to the fourth major event that would influence Exuma’s future: the emancipation of the slaves. Beginning in the first decade of the 1800′s, the Parliament in Britain began enacting resolutions designed to restrict the slave trade, improve the treatment of slaves, and establish certain slave rights. Most of these measures, opposed by the Colonies in the West Indies, were reluctantly ratified by the Bahamas General assembly and not strictly enforced. But the tide favoring the abolition of slavery continued to rise, and the result was predictable. There were several instances of slave unrest, in 1829 there was a revolt on the Rolle plantations in Exuma and in 1833, Governor Smythe had to send 55 armed men to Exuma to stabilize the situation. In the same year, the Emancipation Act Was passed in the British Parliament.

The Bahamas General assembly bowed to the inevitable and enacted laws that would free the slaves. An “apprenticeship” period was to begin on August 1st, 1834 with full freedom to be realized in 1840. This so-called apprenticeship was vacuous, impossible to administer and all slaves were actually freed on August 1st, 1838.

By this time, the old Loyalist estates in Exuma were in shambles. The end of slavery destroyed the last hope of reviving a viable agricultural economy on the Island and most descendants of the old Loyalists families had died or left years before. But a few did remain and, for example, there are some present day Exumians who trace their ancestry back to Nicholas Almgreen.

The slaves were now free, but they were essentially abandoned on worn-out, non-productive land, having few skills aside from farming. Under these conditions they subsisted. In most cases, they had assumed their slave master’s names and continued to work the land for their own support. Since Lord John Rolle was by far Exuma’s largest land owner and slave holder, the Rolle name is proudly borne by many, many Exumians – reported to be near one third of the population. On much of tile land property titles were confused. But by purchase, grant, gift, inheritance or squatting most of the land gradually came to be owned by the former slaves and their descendants.

It is indeed a tribute to the strength and fortitude of Exumians who persisted during the next century, raising families and supporting themselves with a number of aid and support from the colonial government. It was not until World War II, and the years that followed that tourism began to provide some measure of prosperity for the Island. As more and more people from the United States and Europe came to appreciate Exuma’s beauty and advantages, tourism, yachting and winter residents began to contribute to the economy. Jobs were created, local enterprises started up and a new era of slow growth was begun.

Finally, in Exuma’s fifth major milestone the Bahamas became an independent nation in 1973, casting off its last colonial links with Great Britain. This transition from colonial status to independence was achieved peacefully and smoothly, much to the credit of its citizens, the Bahamas is now a democracy in its own right with free elections and a free press and with Exuma playing a significant role as one of tile major Family Islands.

Exuma History (part 2)

The beginning of the 19th Century introduced to Exuma (and to the other islands of the Bahamas) the third, and tragic, turning point in its history: the failure of cotton crops. It was a slow, creeping catastrophe for the Loyalists and from this time on their fortunes took a steady downward course.

The original soil of Exuma had limited capacity at best with only a thin layer of topsoil atop coral sand or harder coral base material. While these conditions supported some virgin growth, virtually all the soil was removed as the Loyalists cleared the land for their cotton fields. As a result the soil was then exposed, vulnerable to high winds, the occasional downpours and the rare hurricanes that beset the island. The land was then overplanted and exhausted with no means to revitalize it and the weakened plants also became infested with chenille bug, a caterpillar-like worm that turned the cotton fibers a reddish color.

The government of the colony attempted to act, but its efforts were ineffective. Investigations were conducted; questionnaires were sent to the prominent planters asking for opinion and advice; and the assembly was quickly adjourned to permit the members to return to their troubled fields. But even the most experienced and knowledgeable planters saw little hope for successful cotton growing in the future. By 1802, the reign of the cotton economy was dead, never to rule again on Exuma or elsewhere in the Islands. Planters began to drift away. Some went to Nassau to enter business or trade, some few went to England, others returned to the United States where the climate had improved for returning Loyalists. A handful stayed on in Exuma, hoping to resuscitate their cotton fields, and some probably had nowhere else to go. Efforts were made to sell properties. but under these depressed conditions sales were rarely successful. In many cases, the lands were simply abandoned and the slaves left to shift for themselves.

Exuma History – Loyalists from America (Part 1)

During most of the 18th century the islands of the Bahamas, lying astride Spanish sailing routes from the Caribbean, were contested by the British and Spanish – a matter unresolved until the Treaty of Versailles in 1783. In this pact, England gained uncontested rights to the Bahamas while ceding the peninsula of Florida to Spain.

Then, with the arrival in the Bahamas of the British loyalists from colonial America beginning in 1783, Exuma experienced its second major upheaval. This Loyalist immigration ushered in a new era and laid the foundation for Exuma’s modem history. The American Revolution had ended, and as a result of the British defeat, many colonists who had remained loyal to the British Crown were in serious trouble. Convicted of treason, their property confiscated, and ostracized by their neighbors they were forced to leave the former colonies, (including Florida recently ceded to Spain). In an effort to aid these loyal, unfortunate subjects, the British government offered some financial compensation and extensive land grants in the virtually empty Bahamas.

Several of these beleaguered Loyalists came to Exuma and, since most of them were from the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida, cotton culture was at the core of their hopes for the future. England was hungry for cotton, paying high prices and the mills in Manchester were operating at capacity to meet the demand, offering the Loyalists an opportunity to recoup the losses suffered in the American colonies. For about 15 years – from the mid 1780′s until the turn of the century – Exuma flourished. With a few exceptions the entire island was divided into Loyalist land grants, most of which were cleared by the slash-and-burn technique, and field after field was devoted to the growing of cotton. These new landowners came to the island with slaves brought from the southern colonies since slave labor was a necessity if the cotton economy was to flourish. Additional slaves were imported from West Africa and there was a small slave market at the then Bowe’s Tavern, believed to have been on the site of the present Peace and Plenty Hotel.

In this prosperous period, the Port of Exuma was an active, bustling waterfront. There were at least two merchants, Walter Brown and Thomas Teffair and Co., that carried extensive stocks of clothing, food and household needs from England. Vessels departed the island direct for London and Liverpool loaded with cotton and often carrying passengers as well. And, of course, there was frequent boat traffic to and from Nassau – the seat of government. The Loyalists, having become a majority of the population in the Bahamas, gradually assumed – after much political struggle – leadership in the General assembly. Exuma gained its first representation in that body with three members elected in 1784. Several Exumians were prominent in the politics of the colony and John Kelsall, from Little Exuma, was chosen as the Speaker of the Assembly in 1794.

There is no evidence that the plantation houses on Exuma were in any way grand or imposing. Perhaps the Loyalist settlers decided to begin with modest buildings, believing they could be expanded or re-built once the new enterprises were safely launched and thriving. Probably the most extensive facilities of this period were the Kelsall estates in Little Exuma and those on Crab Cay believed to have been built by William Walker. Many of the old walls and foundations of other estates can still be found in Exuma’s undergrowth.

A road was built the length of both Great and Little Exuma, probably in much the same location as the present Queen’s Highway. Each landowner was responsible for that section of the road on his property and, as a result, was not always in good shape. While much of the intra-island travel was by horse, many of the estates had “back landings” on the south-west side of the island and these properties communicated by small shallow draft sail boats along this lee shore.

Some of the Exuma loyalists held land grants here, but spent much of their time in Nassau occupied with trade, business or the legal profession, their cotton enterprises being managed by overseers. On the other hand there were full time residents on the island and the more prominent ones could be likened to an Exuma Chamber of Commerce. They maintained an active interest in the affairs of the island, serving as Commissioners of Roads, on a committee to build a church, as representatives to the General assembly, etc. The record of these times is replete with such names as John Kelsall, Jacob Winfree, Charles Dames, Thomas Forbes, John Mowbray, Walter Brown, Nathaniel Hall, Nicholas Almgreen, William Clarke, Martin Jollie, Benjamin Morley and John Stewart.

In 1791, a bill was introduced before the General assembly in Nassau “to purchase a piece of Ground on the Island of Great Exuma and thereon to lay out a Town”. The bill was finally approved in 1792, the town established in 1793, and lots were offered for sale in 1794. The new community was named “Georgetown,” (spelled as one word in those days) after George III, King of England. This year, 1993, we celebrate the 200th Anniversary of its founding.

In those years, the state religion was the Church of England – or the Anglican Church – where the Loyalists worshipped. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, the Anglican missionary arm, sent out the Rev. Twining to Exuma in 1787. After the ministry of several missionaries, a church building was erected and consecrated in 1802 The present St. Andrew’s structure is reported to be the third church building to stand on this site. The Anglicans never gave much consideration to the slave population and it was not until early in the 1880′s that the “dissident” churches – the Baptists and Methodists – actively proselyted the slaves under the banner of emancipation. A school, apparently very modest, was constructed by the Church…….. to be continued

History of Exuma in The Bahamas

The peaceful Lucayan Indians had lived on Exuma and throughout the Bahamas for centuries prior to Columbus’ discovery of the islands in 1492. After the Spanish enslaved the Lucayans to work in Central and South America, Exuma and the rest of the Bahamas were left empty and uninhabited until the arrival of the British to Eleuthera around 1648.

In the 1700′s salt became a major product of Exuma.  And, during this same period, there might have been an occasional visit by a buccaneer or two to the secluded cays and coves of Exuma’s shores. These pirates certainly were creating havoc in Nassau during this time.

Beginning in 1783, British Loyalists from colonial America began arriving after the American Revolution to escape the political scene in the colonies.  Since most had been farmers in the south, they planted cotton, their mainstay, and brought slaves in to work the fields.

In 1793 George Town was founded, and the island was prospering.  However, the thin layer of topsoil could not sustain the years of over planting, and the weakened plants were then open to the attacks of insects.  By the time of the abolishment of slavery and the Emancipation Act in 1834, Exuma was in decline.  Most of the Loyalist farmers had left the island and the decimated land gradually became the property of the abandoned slaves.  These hardy individuals subsisted, and persisted for more than a century by farming the weary soil and fishing.  The advent of tourism after World War II has brought new jobs and a gradual prosperity back to the economy of Exuma.