198 Natural History Bulletin. 



sing for us. and we never heard children sing with more vim 

 and fidelity to tune and meter. They sang '• God Save the 

 Queen" and "Ring the Bell for Little Nell," and several old- 

 fashioned rounds in excellent style, and there was more sing- 

 ing to the cubic inch of child than we would have deemed 

 possible. Then the young men and women came aboard and 

 showed the fruitage of such training in a delightful extempor- 

 ized concert, and won our hearty applause as they made the 

 shores of Eleuthera resound with the grand and quaint melo- 

 dies of ''Somebody's Dyin' Ever^^ Day" and "The Old-Time 

 Religion is Good Enough for Me." and a score of other favor- 

 ites brought over a century or more ago from Old England. 

 These young people were perfectly willing to admit the 

 superiority of their vocalistic powers, and one of them con- 

 fided to me with perfectly serious conviction that he '-reck- 

 oned" that he '-was about the best bass singer in the world." 

 And so he was. in //A" world, and that person would be heart- 

 less indeed who would impair such naive confidence. 



These people are intensely religious, and take more com- 

 fort in their religion, which is of the strictest Wesleyan type, 

 than do most people. It has a reality and vitality that I have 

 seldom seen elsewhere. Immorality is exceedingly- rare, and 

 the graver social sins appear to be almost inconceivable to 

 most of them. Their shortcomings are more of the nature of 

 peccadillos, and such crimes as serious theft, burglary, arson, 

 or murder are probably as nearly unknown as anywhere else 

 on the globe. 



The advent of a schooner-load of young folks from un- 

 heard of "Iowa" was an event from which to date lesser 

 happenings for a decade to come. The}' were self-contained, 

 however, and did not divulge their opinion of us. Perhaps • 

 that was best. One of the leading men of the place, an old 

 acquaintance, informed me that he had gone so far as to tell 

 the folks that there were '-some good people even among the 

 Americans." The most important occupation engaged in by 

 the Spanish Wells men is the culture of the " pine," or pine- 

 apple as we call it. It seems that many years ago the Queen 



