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Acting Assistant Military Secretary,

Returned with remarks called for, with plan.

April 29, 1878.

(Signed) F. C. HASSARD, Colonel,

Commanding Royal Engineer, South Africa.

Inclosure 6 in No. 189.

Sketch to accompany the Report of the Commanding Royal Engineer, dated April 29, 1878.

tore feat.

No. 190.

Governor Robinson, C.M.G., to the Right Hon. Sir M. E. Hicks Beach, Bart.-(Received June 24.) (No. 69.) Sir,

Government House, Nassau, May 20, 1878.

I HAVE to inform you that Her Majesty's ship "Zephyr" left here on the 18th instant, and that it is reported to be the intention of the naval authorities on the station to withdraw the gun-boat altogether from these waters.

2. The Bahamas are called the key of the West Indies," and looking to their position and to the Imperial interests at stake, I cannot conscientiously state that I consider sufficient naval and military protection would be afforded to them by a detach- ment of 90 or 100 men of a West India Regiment now stationed here, and an occasional visit to Nassau of a gun-boat from Bermuda or Jamaica.

3. The Bahamas are between two streams of trade, one of which passes through North-west Providence Channel and the other through the Crooked Island passage.

4. British shipping of the value of 20,0001. has been in the port of Nassau alone during the last month, and looking to the commercial interests of the mother country in these waters and the Imperial interests in the way of lighthouses, &c., I adhere to the opinion already expressed in my despatch No. 183 of the 26th December, 1876,* that & naval force is of far more importance in the Bahamas than a military one.

5. As bearing upon this matter from another point of view, I beg also to refer you to Mr. Rawson's despatch No. 78 of the 25th May, 1867,† in which I thoroughly concur.

I have, &c.

(Signed) WILLIAM ROBINSON.

No. 191.

Governor Robinson, C.M.G., to the Right Hon. Sir M. E. Hicks Beach, Bart.--(Received June 24.) (Secret.) Sir,

Government House, Nassau, May 28, 1878.

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Secret Circular of the 20th March, furnishing me with instructions on certain points relating to the defence of the Bahamas in the event of any outbreak of war in Europe.

2. The day before the receipt of your despatch an order for the withdrawal of the gun-boat which has been permanently stationed in these waters since 1869 was received, and it is reported that these scattered islands are for the future to be deprived of this protection.

3. For the sake of the large British interests in the Bahamas I sincerely hope there is no truth in this report.

4. The ordnance in the Colony is all of an old and nearly obsolete pattern, and though it might be possible to repel with success an attack upon this city and harbour (if made in boats) by the detachment of troops, supplemented by the police, who have been drilled in the use of firearms since my arrival, and the volunteer force which could be raised, there can be no doubt that an unarmoured cruizer, with two or three guns of long range, could, without incurring any risk to herself and crew, reduce the public and private buildings to ruins at her leisure.

5. The instructions contained in your despatch will, in the event of hostilities, be acted upon as far as possible, but I would observe that the Bahamas are without

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