WHERE BANANAS GROW. 



499 



pany, at Port Antonio, which supplies its Jamaica fruit to the 

 Philadelphia market, and J. E. Kerr & Co., the leading buyers 

 between Annotto Bay and Lucca, who run steamers to New York. 

 Besides these there are numerous smaller buyers. Unfortunately, 

 it can not be said that all buyers deal fairly with the people, 

 though they keep their trade by taking all fruit that offers, re- 

 gardless of its quality or fitness. Many of them are dealers in 

 general merchandise, and, by paying their ignorant clients in 

 goods, not only make a double profit, but keep running accounts 

 with them which are never closed and always show a balance on 



Fig. 5. Loading from a Boat, Buff Bat. 



the dealer's side. While this may not be carried as far as the in- 

 famous truck system, which holds the people of the Bahamas in 

 practical slavery, the tendency is the same, and should be sharply 

 checked before its logical conclusion is realized. 



And now something as to the people who are engaged in the 

 work of culture and shipment already described. With few ex- 

 ceptions they are native Jamaicans. Some of the most respon- 

 sible positions in the Boston Fruit Company's offices at Port An- 

 tonio and Port Morant are filled by Americans, who with their 

 families form a delightful colony at the former place. To them 



