The following is a piece of research we did for the writing of the Harbour Island Story.

Paragraphs for Chapter 9 – Halcyon Days of “The Harbour Island Story” by Anne and Jim Lawlor.

The most suitable soil for pineapple cultivation is the small areas of Bahama Red Loam found in the deep pockets of the honeycombed rocks on the leeward shoreline slopes of Eleuthera. The hilltops surrounding Bluff have the highest percentage of the organic minerals that give the soil its peculiar fitness for the growth of fruit. But the many small areas of The Crosskill Hills near Gregory Town, The Red Bay slopes, and a strip that starts behind Tarpum Bay, widens at Savanna Sound and  stretches to Governor’s Harbour have been highly successful in the cultivation of ‘pines’. A sliver of this valuable redland stretches eastwards of Ridley Head into the Commonages of Spanish Wells and Harbour Island. (see map)

It is of no surprise that the Harbour Island leaders of Deveaux’ Raiders and their descendants became the leading Merchants and Traders of the 19^th Century. Samuel Higgs, Thomas and George Johnson, Richard Roberts, Benjamin Saunders, Benjamin Kemp, Richard Curry and John Cleare left widows, sons and daughters, who intermarried and maintained a Harbour Island cartel. Perhaps the most successful was Thomas Johnson, whose 1806 will shows that his total worth was over 9,000 pounds and that he maintained a home on Harbour Island and New Providence, Three Plantations on Eleuthera (Hermitage, Eleuthera, Land of 100 acres near water on Eleuthera, Mount Pleasant Plantation House) and a ‘lot of land’ eastward of Nassau. He also owned a sloop Betsy, Schooner Johnson’s Plan, forty three negroes, sixteen head of horned cattle and four horses. The Higgs and Johnson families, joined by Cash, Eneas, Roberts, Saunders and Albury dominated the shipping of Pineapples and other commodities.

Description of Red Loam and its location on Eleuthera.

a)       Most predominant on the bay side slopes between Rock Sound and Powell 

Point, especially Red Bays.

b)      Rich on the shoreline slopes North of Tarpum Bay to north of Governor’s 

Harbour. And forming the plain that gives Savannah Sound

      c)   The Crosskill Hills around Gregory Town

      d)   Hilltops behind Bluff (the most fertile)

Small areas   lower slopes   honeycombed rock deep pockets peculiar fitness for pineapples  highest % of organic minerals at Bluff and Gregory Town 

Red Soil of Eleuthera, Shattuck, Plate xxix, Geographicla Society of Baltimore, 1905