232 : CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 
They increased in number and frequency of visits as 
darkness deepened. After waiting several evenings 
on the veranda, I secured a quick shot at one, just as 
it hovered above the top of the tree. Long had I 
waited; the wind had died away, leaving the trees 
rigid as stone, every leaf motionless; the depths 
among the leaves were impenetrable, but against the 
sky I could discern a dark object. Directly I had 
fired, down dropped a large, dark body; but though 
we searched a long time with a lantern we could not 
find it in the long guinea-grass; and the hogs had 
been through the place in the morning long before I 
was up. Three months later I obtained the same 
animals in Tobago, and found that they were frugiv- 
orous bats; in the latter island they were robbing a 
spadillo tree of its soft fruit. 
With a bread-fruit and a strip of salt fish, the Ethi- 
opian is happy, is contented; so long as bread-fruits 
grow and fishes swim the sea, so long will the labor 
question remain a perplexing one to the planter. In 
the time of slavery the planters of the West Indies set 
out a great many bread-fruit trees, so that at the pres- 
ent time they may be found wild in the forest. That 
their introduction has been a questionable benefit to 
the islands, nearly every one viewing the subject with 
unprejudiced eye is inclined to believe. The negro 
will not work while he can obtain his bread so easily. 
He will endure hunger and inferior food in preference 
to plenty and work. 
To aid the planters in their difficulty, natives of the 
East Indies were imported as laborers. These came 
out indentured for a term of years, generally five, to 
work at a stated price perday. The planter is obliged 
