THE MAKING OF AN ISLAND 137 



possessed roofs but the majority had long since crumbled into 

 dust. I passed one after the other. They were of coral, simple 

 creations like my own house. Fully a half thousand people 

 must have dwelt along the shores of the bay. There was even 

 a church; it, also, was vacant though some of the pews and a 

 portion of the pulpit were still in place. It seemed that all man's 

 endeavors on Inagua were foredoomed to failure. 



A slight spiral of smoke from between a row of palms at- 

 tracted my attention. I strode down the beach toward the point 

 where it was curling between the palms, topped the ridge back 

 of the beach and found two diminutive houses still in good 

 state of repair. Beside one of them was an old man. He turned 

 slowly as I approached, then bade me welcome. His hair was 

 white and a long beard fell down on his chest. Pale blue eyes 

 looked at me from between wrinkled brows; I guessed his age 

 at between seventy-five and eighty; although he was bent with 

 the years, he was not feeble. A battered old straw hat covered 

 a matting of thick white hair; ragged shirt and trousers hung 

 loosely on his frame; his feet were bare and thickly calloused. 



I spent the afternoon and evening with the old fellow. Over 

 a supper of fish, dried com and conch meat he told me his story. 

 As a very young man he had come from one of the more north- 

 ern islands and settled on Inagua. His ancestors were English 

 and they had come to the Bahamas shortly before he was born. 

 With some other venturesome souls he had established himself 

 at Man-of-War Bay and had lived there ever since. He had a 

 number of children but they had left home and had either de- 

 parted from the island or were living in Mathewtown. From his 

 description I recalled a daughter I had seen about the settle- 

 ment. She had married a man of mixed blood. Years later I 

 saw her daughter married to a coal black Negro; there was not 

 much choice in Mathewtown. One by one the famiHes about 

 Man-of-War Bay had moved away until only the old man 



