THE OSPREY. 



23 



a quaint old Martello tower, which once per- 

 tained to a castle erected by the buccaneers. 

 There were no other structures of note in si<;-ht, 

 and only after a weary walk of about three miles 

 was I cheered by arriving;- at the "f;reat house," 

 built in the flourishing^- times of the Codring-tons. 

 ,A g^reat wall had accomj)anied me along the 

 road, broad topped, high and deeply based, 

 showing- that compulsorj^ labor was at one time 

 abundant. 



The white g'entlemen residing there had leased 

 the island from the Crown and were "working 

 it for all it was worth". One of them was a 

 clerg3'man of the Church of Eng'land and the 

 other a planter bred to the raising- of sugarcane 

 and the oversight of laborers; so both tog'-ether 

 .made a very successful combination. As the 

 "parson" was pledged to attend to the spiritual 

 needs of the black people and the overseer to 

 their physical wants, the blacks were contented 

 and happy, apparently. They worked hard in 

 the fields six days in the week, under the eye 

 of the superintendent, and on the seventh at- 

 tended services at the chapel. 



As the island had been without news fi^om 

 outside for many moons, I was made more than 

 welcome, and immediately my wants were made 

 known I was furnished with a horse, a sable 

 servant and dog-, who accompanied me on my 

 excursions afield. Our first visit was to a vast 

 inclosure where the guinea fowl were said to 

 be abundant, and we arrived at their scratching 

 g-round about mid-afternoon. The dog- put up a 

 fine male bird and I let go both barrels at him 

 without touching- a feather. It was the same 

 with the second and the third bird that got up 

 iini sai'ed a\7ny into the dim distance, like a 

 railroad train making- iip for lost time. 



Puzzle i and ashamed at m3' poor shooting, I 

 vowed that the next flock I saw on the around 

 should not be allowed to take wing without a 

 pot shot, anyway, but even then there was 

 somehow a discrepency between m^' anticipa- 

 tions and realizations. I never in my life before 

 saw such fast birds on the wing- nor such rapid 

 ones afoot. The\' were thoroug-hl^' wild, and 

 probably had been for many g-enerations. At 

 last, as the sun was sinking behind' the sea 

 grapes on the shoi^e, we approached an old field 

 where mj^ guide said, there was sure to be a 

 flock "dusting", and if warily approached could 

 be taken easily. This time, as the chattering 

 fowl hurled themselves into the air, I caug-ht 

 two of them, rig-ht and left, by firing- ahead of 

 them about half a rod, it seemed to me. Any- 

 way they tumbled end over end, and I was re- 

 warded for my hours of toil beneath the ardent 

 rays of a tropical sun. The pair weighed seven 

 pounds, and that night we had the tenderer of 

 the two, a comely pullet, roasted for dinner. It 

 was brought to the table garnished with all sorts 

 of good things, the huge platter on which it la^- 

 being borne aloft upon the head of a grinning- 

 cook who could boast lineal descent from the 

 very first of his line brought to the island by 

 "Massa Codrington". And it was toothsome — 

 the pullet- despite the haste with which it had 

 been divested of its feathers and driven direct to 

 the spit. This hurried mode of preparation was 



not due to any exigency of the occasion, but to the 

 culinary customs of the tropics. The people have 

 no cold storage, hardly anj' of them refrigerators, 

 in the islands. The journey from the coop or 

 fowl yard to the pot or spit is only delayed long- 

 enough to deprive the victim of such portion of 

 its tegumentai-y covering and internal arrange- 

 ments as are considered superfluous; and the 

 hen, cock or chicken that gazes up at you so un- 

 suspiciouslj' as 3'ou arrive at the great house an 

 hour or so later may be reposing on a platter 

 with his toes turned up to the ceiling. The 

 smaller fowl, particularly pigeons and chickens, 

 are generally' roasted with their feet on, and as 

 they lie on their backs in supplicatory pose they 

 present a most affecting spectacle. 



After a refreshing'- night beneath the mos- 

 quito curtains, at dawn next morning I was 

 called for a bath, and then, swallowing a biscuit 

 and cup of strong coffee, was oft' with my guide 

 for the deer preserves. Whatever maj- be the 

 heat of the dav in those islands, the nights, and 

 early mornings are delightfully cool; so we 

 tramped through the lanes and across the 

 fields to the woods as vig^orously as though tak- 

 ing a spin in the north. The woods were dense, 

 and we merelj' skirted their borders, keeping- 

 well in their shadows, for at that hour the deer 

 would be feeding mostly in the open fields. 

 Finally my man pointed eagerly ahead to a 

 bunch of wild cattle grazing quietly about 300 

 yards away and exclaimed: "Look dah. sah; 

 yander's a fine buck, right close C dat ole bull. 

 My heart, what ho'ns he goti" Uiifortunately 

 for the success of mj' plans, the cur dog with us, 

 who always jogged at our heels when wanted 

 ahead on the trail, saw or sniffed the deer at the 

 same time, and immediate^' straightened out 

 his crooked leg-s and darted off" in the direction 

 of the herd, yelping in a way that would have 

 waked the dead. Of course, no deer in posses- 

 sion of his faculties would wait for us after that 

 rude salution, and there was a lightning'--like 

 stampede, not only of three bucks and does, 

 which had been feeding unobserved, but of the 

 wild cattle in whose compan3' theA' were. 



We tramped all that morning, saw several 

 deer at a distance, and signs of an innumerable 

 multitude; but the only real satisfaction I ex- 

 perienced was when William Jack, my g-uide, 

 after a hard chase, captured and "lambasted dat 

 fool dawg" until he begged for mercy. 



A turn in the g-uinea grounds brought me 

 three fowl, and after an hour or two at the "bull 

 hole", where ground and turtle doves were con- 

 gregated by hundreds, we went home, laden 

 with spoil. 



Said Mr. Hopkins, the overseer, as we sat on 

 the veranda after dinner: "Day after tomorrow 

 is Sunday, and the only day I have off. Just 

 kesp shy of the parson and I'll put )'ou up to a 

 bunch of deer that have never been shot at. But 

 mum's the word, my boy". 



Said the parson, as he lighted me co my room 

 that night: "I've got my sermon finished, and 

 not much to do tomorrow. I'll take you with 

 me over to the Bat Cave, and if we don't get a 

 fine fat buck, going or coming- back, there will 

 be something- amiss". 



