ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS 283 



portion on only so much as they please to reckon the 

 whole. In the pass the ship's people are warned : should 

 they find a stranded ship, to prevent no one from ren- 

 dering the unfortunates every timely assistance ; for 

 the Bahama islanders are suspected, it is said, of mak- 

 ing bargains with the crews of lost ships, in the matter 

 of the salvage of ship and cargo, so that often from 

 selfish motives all other assistance has been repelled. 



When a wrecker (I may be permitted for brevity to 

 use the expression) lights upon a foundered ship, and 

 but a single member of the crew is on board alive, the 

 owners are by that fact assured their right to the cargo 

 or what can be saved of it ; the Bahama ship's people 

 rendering aid receive for their trouble, according to 

 the circumstances, a greater or lesser part of what is 

 saved, or an indemnity called salvage. But if they find 

 the ship wholly deserted or the crew all dead, every- 

 thing that can be saved or is saved belongs to the 

 finders. These hard and fast conditions, it is said, 

 often tempt those of inhuman dispositions (and such 

 people may well be of that character, living as they do 

 by the misfortunes of others), so that without much 

 scruple they put to death any persons found alone and 

 helpless on a stranded ship of great value, in order 

 that they themselves may have the right to lay claim 

 to the entire wreck. Such cases may indeed have 

 happened; but it would be difficult to fix upon recent 

 instances ; and on the other hand it cannot be denied 

 that these wreckers swimming- about save the lives of 

 many people who but for them would inevitably be 

 lost. How often have they not found many upon 

 naked, solitary rocks, men who having escaped one 

 mortal danger, for lack of food and drink now were 



