Tarpon Fishiiio- in Florida. 49 



superiority of his negro boatman over the peon whom one has to 

 emplo\- in Mexico; though this latter costs exactl)' half as much. 

 The only language spoken by these guides, as they like to call 

 themselves, is luiglish, or rather American. They are keen 

 sportsmen and there is considerable emulation between them. 

 1 he tish, like some hurricanes, seem to travel along a narrow 

 track ; so five or six boats will often be fishini> close together, and 

 the guide whosa proU'gc is getting the greatest number of strikes, 

 will be the object of many envious glances. The depth at which 

 he is fishing (if ascertained) and even the movements of his boat 

 will be copied. One of our guides, by name Billy Washington 

 (but blacker than any hat), was universally recognised as facile 

 princeps. He was watched from the moment we got on the 

 lishing grounds, as is a particularly brilliant footballer by the 

 players on the other side. Unlike Launcelot his title of '* best 

 guide" was a source of great pleasure to him. but like that famous 

 knight to lose it for one day was gall. Any darkey who could 

 boast at the nightly imiaba after the day's sport that he had beaten 

 Washington, was a proud and happy man. All this was quite 

 satisfactory to us, for though it caused our guides to set their 

 faces against anything in the way of an experinient, and to show 

 an inclinati(jn to be autocratic, they tried all they knew and were 

 always ready to go on hshing as long as we were. We paid them 

 3^ dollars a d.iy and i dollar a day for their food, but they were too 

 deeply imbued with the prevailing idea that a tarpon fisherman 

 must ipso facto be a gold mine, not to attempt to extract a little 

 more. The evening before we left they deputed one Giles, the 

 Ulysses of the party, to s(jueeze if possible an extra dollar a day. 



D 



