THE ISLES OF THE INDIES ii 



those things peculiar to naturalists. Guns and cases of ammuni- 

 tion—seemingly enough to start a private revolution— type- 

 writers, cameras and film in watertight cases, solution jars, and 

 the thousand and one things incident to an expedition. All this 

 and still more went into the bowels of our ship, disappeared 

 into carefully constructed racks and lockers, so placed that all 

 would be readily available. 



Summer slipped into early fall, October into November, and 

 the day of departure was at hand. Proudly we surveyed our 

 vessel. We had spared no effort to make her seaworthy, spared 

 nothing that she should be all the dream intended. Now the 

 dream was reality, was a vision no longer, but a hope fulfilled 

 in stout hull, stately masts and billowing canvas. We would not 

 have exchanged places with the wealthiest banker in Wall 

 Street. 



There was no fanfare or blowing of trumpets when we left 

 Baltimore, our port of registry. Our vessel, unheralded, un- 

 noticed except for a few dock loiterers, slipped quietly out 

 of her quay and headed downstream. Gently the bow turned 

 outward, past the soil laden piers of Baltimore, past the great 

 shipyards and the clouds of billowing smoke, and on into the 

 open bay. Slowly the blurred outlines of the tall buildings 

 melted into the haze, faded and passed from view. A quick 

 breeze sprang out of the north, fanned out the spreading sails 

 and pressed the hull far into the water. From down along the 

 keel came the surge of moving liquid, an indefinable movement 

 that pressed against the rudder face and transmitted itself into 

 a keen vibration of the wheel. A sailing ship on the move! The 

 white of sails and the islands of the Indies in the offing. What if 

 the ship was only thirty-eight feet long? 



Almost immediately after leaving the port of Baltimore, 

 while still within sound of the bell buoys that clanged mourn- 

 fully at the harbor entrance, the haze deepened, thickened and 



