BARBADOS-ANTIGUA EXPEDITION 51 
a pitiless enemy to bathers, with its exceedingly sharp spines 
capable of inflicting dangerous wounds, or at least very painful 
ones. 
There were a number of other buildings on the island, but 
these were not occupied by us and were closed during our stay. 
Taking it all in all, we were delighted with the quarters thus 
supplied by the generosity of the Colonial Government, and 
hardly saw how they could have been improved for our purpose. 
It was considerably cooler there than on the main island of 
Barbados, and there was a practical absence of mosquitoes, al- 
though these were quite troublesome on the mainland. Best 
of all, we were secluded and could ‘‘gang our ain gait’’ unim- 
peded by the swarming population of blacks just opposite. 
There was no turf on the island, and the ground was sandy 
everywhere, but there were a number of trees, including palms 
and many Cordia, with brilliant scarlet blossoms and broad 
leaves. The paths were bordered by rows of ‘‘spider lilies,’’ 
with bayonet-like leaves and strange white flowers having ex- 
ceedingly slender petals. 
The view from the room occupied by Mrs. Nutting and myself 
was exceedingly beautiful, overlooking the blue expanse of 
Carlisle Bay, with its ever-changing array of ships from all over 
the world: for this is one of the most frequented ports in the 
West Indies, an oceanic cross-roads, used as a port of call for 
vessels plying between North and South America, as well as be- 
tween Europe and the east coast of South America. The pre- 
vailing winds being from the north and east, this roadstead is 
well protected nearly all the time. 
We were all fairly comfortably settled by lunch time. The 
cooks had spread themselves on this their first meal. There was 
flying-fish, the most characteristic of the Barbadian foods, and 
it was delicious. Yams and rice and carrots and squash were 
served, as well as oranges and bananas, with a cocoanut pudding 
by way of dessert. Such profusion was gratifying to the palate; 
but was altogether too elaborate to suit our needs and purses, 
and we saw at once that this scale of living would have to be 
modified. 
We had anticipated that the servant problem would be a 
perplexing one, and it was placed in the hands of Mrs. Nutting, 
