BARBADOS-ANTIGUA EXPEDITION 133 
catastrophe was shortly due! He also expressed his opinion of 
the Colonial authorities who were so blind as to allow these 
dangerous enemies to have quarters on Pelican Island; and 
the opinion thus expressed was, to say the least, far from com- 
plimentary. 
The small destroyers that daily cruised along the coast 
sometimes came and looked us over while the launch was at 
work; but only hailed us once, and seemed satisfied when in- 
formed that we were part of the scientific party on Pelican Is- 
land. Occasionally not only the negroes, but white people of 
more than ordinary intelligence were far from convinced of the 
harmless nature of our proceedings. To be perfectly fair to 
them, it must be acknowledged that our daily habit of eruising 
in an erratic way a mile or two off shore and occasionally stop- 
ping to put over the dredge, which at that distance might well 
look like a mine to the watcher on the shore, would be a cause of 
concern to anyone unable to comprehend the facts that a party 
of nineteen people from far-away America should visit Bar- 
bados wholly in pursuit of knowledge of the animal life of those 
waters. 
On one occasion it looked for a time as if our work would be 
seriously interfered with, and in a perfectly legitimate way. 
It seems that a transport was expected that brought with it a 
number of West Indian soldiers invalided home from Europe, 
and the military authorities had some intention of quartering 
about eighty of them on Pelican Island; which would have 
made our position far from pleasant, if not entirely imprac- 
ticable on account of the women in our party. Mr. Sanderson, 
representing the Board of Health and personally in charge of 
the island, Captain Hutson of the Military Medical Staff, and 
Captain Hancock, called on us to look over the situation. We 
explained that we would regret more than anything else to 
‘stand in the slightest degree in the way of the comfort of the 
invalided soldiers and that we were ready at once to vacate 
Pelican Island, if it was needed for any military purpose what- 
ever. The officers were entirely courteous and tactful, looked 
the ground over carefully, inspected our quarters and the lab- 
oratory, which was in full operation, and gave their decision on 
the spot. This was to the effect that they were ‘“‘unwilling to 
