880 An Isolated Community in the Bahama Islands. (i 
There appears to be little social life among the people, each 
family living very much apart, and the church being the one | 
common meeting-place. A lack of knowledge of and interest 
in the affairs of the outer world was evidenced continually. A 
few of the boys growing up would like to go off “to see Amer 
ica,” that unknown land from which come the ships,—their chief 
source of interest and profit; but the mass of the people seems 
never to dream of emigration anymore than if they were rooted 
-in the rocky soil,—a condition very puzzling to the visitor at 
first, but plain enough on later study. The announcement that 
a “ Yankee” (vessel) is visible on the horizon never fails to rouse 
the entire community. The reason is complex. First of all, 
the old wrecking spirit only slumbers, and is not dead. ~The 
community is ever ready for “ something to turn up;” if a wrea 
well; if a vessel to take a cargo of pineapples, still well; for 
will not the sailors want some fruit, which the poorer residents 
have to sell, if not to eat,—and some shells or corals? And, 
what child has not some of these? Possibly some service tobe 
paid for at an extravagant rate; not to mention that if the ships 
come not the inhabitants find their occupation gone. Ever 
thing depends on the ripening of the pineapple, which is practi- 
cally certain; and the exportation of it at a fair figure, which 8 
by no means certain; and as the prices given by the shippes 
for this fruit annually tend to lessen, the people are becoming 
a will be clearer after an examination of the climatic 
itions under which they live. I had not myself been 
