24 BAHAMAN TRIP 



Fresh Creek being the nearest approach to one. What the negroes 

 termed roads were only the roughest kind of footpaths leading back to 

 their fields. The ground was on the whole very much rougher than on 

 New Providence, and walking was often extremely difficult. 



The people all seemed to be very poor. The majority of the men 

 were engaged in sponging, and the women in consequence did most of 

 the work in the fields. Some few owned their land, but the majority 

 cleared a piece of coppet and started a "field" wherever they fancied, 

 often four or five miles back in the bush. They raised corn, cassava, 

 sweet potatoes, bananas, and sometimes a few beans, pigeon-peas, 

 yams, and tomatoes, usually only a few plants of each, set out 

 at random. Their principal tool was the machete, with which they 

 cut down the weeds and bushes and turned up what little soil there was 

 in the cavities of the rock. A number of the gentlemen of Nassau had 

 interests and plantations on the island. There were extensive cocoa- 

 nut groves near Lowe Sound and Nicol's Town; sisal plantations at 

 Conch Sound, and at Kemp Sound just above Deep Creek, and a large 

 pineapple plantation near Long Bay Cay. These, with the two sponge 

 warehouses, one at Nicol's Town and one near Mangrove Cay, com- 

 prised the business interests of the island. 



At the time we were on Andros there were only seven white people 

 on the island, and for weeks at a time we did not see a white face. We 

 found the negroes, without exception, courteous, hospitable, and 

 obliging. More than that, as far as we were concerned, we found 

 them perfectly honest. We frequently left our house open and un- 

 guarded all day, yet not a single article was ever missed. 



We heard that many changes took place shortly after we left. A 

 large English company bought up a number of square miles and began 

 the cultivation of sisal on an extensive scale. After a few years' trial it 

 was found that the financial returns did not come up to the company's 

 expectations, and the work has since been entirely abandoned. 



SUMMARY OF THE COLLECTIONS BROUGHT BACK 



VERTEBRATES 



Mammals. — The only mammals on Andros were bats and rats. The bat was 

 Macrotus waterhousei, kindly determined by Dr. J. A. Allen. The rat was Mus 

 rattus. 



