BARBADOS-ANTIGUA EXPEDITION 229 
tives and sold at a reasonable price furnished very little sign 
of this disease, and I for one, am loath to believe that anything 
with so noble an exterior and so sweet a flavor can be guilty of 
harboring a black heart. During the year 1909, the last of which 
I find a record, the pines were exported to the value of £828, 
while back in 1903 the crop yielded a revenue of £2,762. It is 
to be sincerely hoped that someone will find a way to prevent 
the black heart and introduce the Antigua pine to an apprecia- 
tive world. 
Most of the people are agriculturalists in a small way, work- 
ing little plots of ground which they rent from the government 
for a few shillings per year. Here they raise small quantities 
of garden truck such as yams and potatoes for their own use, 
the women doing a good share of the work in the field as well as 
in the home. Many of these people are abjectly poor, as wages 
are very low and the war has inflated the prices of most of the 
ordinary necessities of life. These negroes are as a rule less in- 
dependent and aggressive than at Barbados, but also somewhat 
less efficient. They are ordinarily neat in person, although their 
clothes may be in tatters. 
I was told by a prominent planter that eighty per cent of the 
births were illegitimate. That being the case, there is little 
stigma attached to unmarried unions and public opinion does 
not act as a deterrent. Indeed this gentleman, who by the way 
is quite prominent in both the agricultural and religious life 
of the colony, believed that these unlawful unions were in gen- 
eral happier than those legalized by the church. His argument 
was to the effect that so long as the bond was contingent upon 
mutual agreement and satisfaction, the man, knowing that the 
woman would leave him if not reasonably well treated, would 
be fairly kind and considerate. The usual arrangement is for 
him to pay the woman three shillings per week, for which sum 
she is to all intents and purposes his wife, and attends to the 
household duties and also her share of the field work. If 
there are children born to them, he adds an extra shilling per 
week. This arrangement being perfectly well understood and 
according to custom, is regarded as quite proper by their friends 
and neighbors and does not involve loss of self-respect. In fact 
my informant thought that it worked well. 
