UNDER SEA WITH HELMET AND CAMERA 



away from Nassau during the entire time for which the boat was chartered. 

 Here we were disappointed. The town was giving a formal welcome to 

 the Duke and Duchess of Kent; a holiday had been declared, and a British 

 Colonial holiday is taken very seriously. Every commercial building is 

 is closed and barred, including shops, even drugstores and filling stations. 

 If your car runs out of gas, you leave it on the street until the next day. 

 There is nothing to be done unless some kind motorist pushes you home. 

 So we embarked after lunch and sailed to Paradise Beach to have a swim. 

 In the evening we enjoyed the wandering minstrels on the street, negroes, 

 who in groups of three or four, sang with guitar accompaniment. I heard 

 for the first time songs which became familiar on subsequent visits. The 

 most popular one— Mama dori't want no rice, no peas, no coconut oil— 

 has a lilt to it that is catching and I found myself whistling or humming 

 it for days. 



The type of songs, however, is quite different from those that we are 

 accustomed to hearing sung by the colored people in the United States. 

 They are evidently composed for the amusement of tourists who land in 

 Nassau from the cruise boats and stay for a few hours. None of these 

 songs has a religious theme. On each subsequent visit, I noticed that the 

 charm of these street singers decreased. A progressive degeneration was 

 apparent in the quahty of the songs. They are ribald and sometimes even 

 express obscene sentiments, which are not natural to the negro, and suggest 

 inspiration from the white man. The matter is giving concern to those who 

 are responsible for law and order in their attractive little town. 



Next morning we got under way with plenty of fuel and other sup- 

 plies. Not until then did we consult with the Captain regarding our desti- 

 nation. The character of the various out-islands was unknown to all of us. 

 After hearing about the beauty of Eleuthera, we laid our course N.E. x E. 

 after we had cleared Nassau light on the Western end of Hog Island. We 

 had been on this course for about half an hour when Lydia spoke of a 



