128 I N A G U A 



to my ship made the fact irritating. That the sea should tear 

 the vessel apart was reasonable and acceptable, that the Daxons 

 should hack at her with axes was a form of sacrilege. 



Robinson Crusoe was happy in that he could survey his total 

 kingdom from one hilltop. I was not so fortunate. Inagua 

 stretches away, headland succeeding headland, for fifty miles 

 or more! Except for the few acres surrounding the settlement 

 it is as wild and desolate as on that memorable day in mid- 

 October over four centuries ago when Columbus first sighted 

 the Bahamas. It is a strange piece of irony that the islands which 

 were the first land trod by Europeans in the new world should 

 remain to the very last the most forsaken. Without any of the 

 side excursions which were necessary to accomplish my pur- 

 pose the very minimum distance to be covered would be a 

 hundred and fifty miles. I knew that this was going to be a 

 tough trip, all of it on foot, in a place where water was scarce 

 or only to be found in far distant waterholes. No rain had fallen 

 since the light shower the evening we ran aground off Sheep 

 Cay, nearly two months before. 



At most, with the other equipment which I must take to care 

 for my specimens, all the water I could comfortably carry 

 would be about three or four quarts. Even this would be an 

 intolerable load. I eliminated every possible bit of luggage. 

 There was no need to take a tent, rain was very unlikely, day 

 after day the hot sun glared in a clear blue sky unmarred except 

 for a few racing clouds; the tropical heat made blankets un- 

 necessary; the air grew cool at night but by making some sort 

 of crude shelter from the wind I knew I could sleep undis- 

 turbed. In a light but cleverly woven native grass bag with a 

 shoulder thong I thrust a vial of formaldehyde and a small 

 hypodermic syringe with a roll of gauze for wrapping and 

 preserving specimens. I decided to restrict my collecting to the 

 lizards and other reptiles, as the biological problem with which 



