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I N A G U A 



from between a few black doorways gave any hint of habita- 

 tion. The same deep sense of poignancy that overwhelmed me 

 when I first stepped ashore in the town swept over me again. 

 In the gray light Mathewtown appeared more desolate than 

 ever. There seemed little hope that it could survive more than 

 a few years. The island's one industry, the harvesting of sea 

 salt from a saltpond in back of the town, had ceased to exist, 

 the laboriously built pans were becoming filled with silt and 

 mud, the crude wooden windmills that sluiced the sea water 

 into the drying basins were falling to pieces, their timbers de- 

 caying from dry rot and neglect. Near the waterfront a huge 

 pile of grayish salt lay waiting for the steamer that would never 

 call. Unless the "salt," as the Inaguans termed the industry, 

 returned the town was finished. 



I followed the road to the saltpond and reached it just as the 

 sun came above the horizon. The pond was about two miles 

 long and the shores were piled three or four feet deep with a 

 thick layer of white foam which the wind had whipped off the 

 water during the night. The bubbles held their form tena- 

 ciously, layer piling on layer until it seemed as though some 

 playful giant had used the lake as a washbasin and daubed the 

 edges with prodigious quantities of shaving cream. I waded 

 through some of this bubbly froth and it clung to my clothing 

 where it dried in little crystals. Wiping some off with my finger 

 I tasted it. It was saturated with salt. 



Turning away from the lake I found a worn path leading 

 to the north toward Man-of-War Bay. This bay cuts a deep 

 groove in the coast before it swings to the east. A magnificent 

 coral reef protects it from the sweep of the rollers and this 

 barrier was the scene of the first event in the history of the island 

 of which there is any accurate record. The chronicle is dated 

 in the year 1800 and is from the report of an English naval 

 officer. It contains only three short paragraphs which state 



