THE ISLES OF THE INDIES 7 



the coast. As the time to return home came close I became in- 

 terested in a research problem that made it desirable to visit a 

 number of the other West Indian Islands, particularly some of 

 the small uninhabited and less frequented ones. 



It was the spell of these islands, lying low under the horizon, 

 that drove the dream into reality. Just beyond reach they lay, 

 dozens of them strewn over the blue water from the reaches 

 of the Bahamas to the deserty coasts of Yucatan. On many no 

 student of natural science had stepped, or stepped only casu- 

 ally, lingering for a few hours at the most. It was my desire to 

 remain at each until its faunal peculiarities were digested and 

 understood. At that moment it seemed more important to seek 

 these islands fully equipped to piece together the biological 

 puzzle which interested me more intensely than anything else 

 I could think of. Also, it was a splendid reason to justify the 

 long latent dream. I knew from previous experience that native 

 vessels were unseaworthy and uncomfortable, swarming with 

 lice and sour with bilge. To work successfully one must be 

 able to live in comfort, with a mind relaxed and at ease, to be 

 free of insects and worrisome natives and also to have with one 

 some of the more pleasant things, good clean food, stimulating 

 books, music, when the monotony of the daily task was done. 

 Why not give up business, seek the islands in one's own ship, 

 in a vessel fitted expressly for the purpose? 



Why not? Well, there was the matter of money. That puz- 

 zled me considerably. There was the matter of some eighteen 

 hundred miles of open ocean between home and the islands of 

 the Indies. There was the matter of storms and hurricanes, the 

 mysteries of navigation to fathom and, above all, the problem 

 of finding and outfitting a ship for the task. 



So fired was I by the idea that I mailed a letter to my old 

 friend Wally Coleman. Would he be willing to consider such 

 a voyage? Impatiently I waited his reply. It came soon after. 



