FLORIDA AND THE WEST INDIES 251 



Government would do well to throw the short cut 

 open once more, though I have not the faintest 

 idea what such an improvement would cost. It is 

 a fishful anchorage, and as far back as the glorious 

 days of Drake, the abundance of good fish in those 

 waters was acknowledged by every adventurer who 

 sacked a church or robbed a nunnery. 



A recent writer on the Spanish Main, referring 

 to the escapades of Drake, commiserates the 

 buccaneers at Panama as having had a slow time of 

 it, since " there could have been nothing for them 

 to do, save go a-fishing." Well, I have not in my 

 veins the blood of buccaneers (for which I offer 

 every apology), but am a mild, unenterprising 

 creature, to whom the capture of sea-fish offers 

 greater attractions than even the cutting of throats. 

 An old writer has it that there was " great plenty " 

 of fish in the creeks round Cartagena, and I am 

 convinced that the extraordinary wealth of fish on 

 that coast is as yet but imperfectly understood. 

 With constantly improved methods of cold storage 

 and transportation, as well as the increasing 

 exhaustion of grounds nearer home, this untouched 

 harvest of the Spanish Main appeals to me strongly, 

 and I hope on some future occasion to deal with it 

 at greater length in the light of a more intimate 

 acquaintance. 



At all the Colombian ports, and in those of 

 Venezuela, all manner of live stock, including 

 monkeys, macaws, agoutis, hawks, snakes and the 

 like, is offered for sale. Passengers buy these 

 freely for reasons best known to themselves, but 

 few survive the ordeal of the voyage. It is 

 iniquitous to attempt to evade the Company's rules 



