THINGS NEW AND OLD. 



21 



In a word, you could be playing at Robinson Crusoe and 

 still keep in touch with the world, lagging after it little 

 more than a week or so. " How is it done ? " Why, 

 this is a very up-to-date coral island, and it has a wireless 

 telegraph installation on it. The owner has allowed 

 the " American Fruit Company " to erect it for the purpose 

 of forwarding messages from New Orleans to their fruit 

 plantations near Port Limon in Costa Rica. These 

 messages cannot reach all the way, so they give them a 

 fresh start at Swan Island. These tall, lattice-work 

 towers seem, no doubt, considerably out of place in a 

 Robinson Crusoe island. From an sesthetic point of 

 view they are, we must confess, a rather jarring twentieth 

 century blot — a monstrous outrage — as well have a 

 motor garage in the Garden of Eden — but in return for 

 the accommodation, the owner of the island can stop 

 any of the Company's steamers by simply hoisting a flag 

 to the top of his flagstaff, which stands just outside his 

 house. 



** Yes," you say again, " but how often does he sight 

 one ? " Well ! it so happens that Swan Island lies 

 nearly in the direct track of vessels making down from 

 New Orleans through the Yucatan channel to Port Limon 

 or Carthagena, or vice versa ; and it also so happens that the 

 navigation over the Honduran banks, and in this region 

 generally, is particularly tricky. Consequently it is the 

 custom for vessels making this passage to sight Swan 

 Island and so make an absolute certainty of their position. 



Thus, as far as these happy islanders are concerned, 

 the difficulty of getting the Company's vessels to stop, of 

 keeping up communication with the outside world, and 

 of getting rid of produce raised on the island is reduced 

 to a minimum. But also please note how history has 

 repeated itself, if in rather an inverse way. The buccaneers 

 used to waylay ships passing through this danger-zone 

 and rob them. This far-seeing American has posted 

 himself on the same trade track and intercepts the vessels 

 for a more legitimate purpose. In the long run the result. 



