2^2 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



They increased in number and frequency of visits as 

 darkness deepened. After waiting several evenings 

 on the veranda, I secured a quick shot at one, just as 

 it hovered above the top of the tree. Long had I 

 waited ; the wind had died away, leaving the trees 

 rigid as stone, every leaf motionless ; the depths 

 among the leaves were impenetrable, but against the 

 sky I could discern a dark object. Directly I had 

 fired, down dropped a large, dark body ; but though 

 we searched a lon^ time with a lantern we could not 

 find it in the long guinea-grass ; and the hogs had 

 been through the place in the morning long before I 

 was up. Three months later I obtained the same 

 animals in Tobago, and found that they were frugiv- 

 orous bats ; in the latter island they were robbing a 

 spadillo tree of its soft fruit. 



With a bread-fruit and a strip of salt fish, the Ethi- 

 opian is happy, is contented ; so long as bread-fruits 

 grow and fishes swim the sea, so long will the labor 

 question remain a perplexing one to the planter. In 

 the time of slavery the planters of the West Indies set 

 out a great many bread-fruit trees, so that at the pres- 

 ent time they may be found wild in the forest. That 

 their introduction has been a questionable benefit to 

 the islands, nearly every one viewing the subject with 

 unprejudiced eye is inclined to believe. The negro 

 will not work while he can obtain his bread so easily. 

 He will endure hunger and inferior food in preference 

 to plenty and work. 



To aid the planters in their difficulty, natives of the 

 East Indies were imported as laborers. These came 

 out indentured for a term of years, generally five, to 

 work at a stated price per day. The planter is obliged 



