10 A NATURALIST ON DESERT ISLANDS. 



was news to us), and of how his father owned it, and was, 

 in fact, accredited lord of all he surveyed. 



It appeared that the "laird" was orginally a sea 

 captain, and had drifted here in the service of a guano 

 or phosphate company. For them he worked for several 

 years, and finally, when the discovery of phosphates in 

 Florida killed the enterprise, he bought the island for a 

 "song," and settled down to spend the rest of his days 

 in the peaceful occupation of growing cocoanuts. 

 He had found his haven, and wished to say good-bye 

 to the world with all its fuss and pothers. " Farewell 

 to fame and fortune ! I have played with you long 

 enough, now go and amuse yourself with others," was 

 the old man's motto, and no bad one either, provided 

 you have a little island-de-luxe like this one, that 

 you can call your very own, and are not too 

 particular about the distance of your nearest 

 neighbours. 



Many other things we learnt from Mr. A., who, in the 

 intervals of trying to swallow tea, good-naturedly did his 

 best to answer the dozens of questions with which we 

 plied him ; of the fish they caught for food (two negroes 

 being pretty constantly employed for the purpose), and 

 of the giant fish they caught for sport (of which more 

 anon) ; of the crops, fruit, and vegetables they grew ; 

 of the turtles which annually came to lay their eggs on 

 the sandy beaches ; of the huge devil-fish they sometimes 

 tsaw, and the monster shark — an ocean-going tramp — 

 which gave them an occasional look up. Then he had 

 much to say of the wonders of their coral gardens, a little 

 about the birds, and something of a wonderful race of 

 giant rats which lived upon the eastern island. This 

 island was uninhabited, and they hardly ever went there ; 

 a sort of asylum it was for birds and beasts, which lived 

 as undisturbed as if there were no human beings to harry 

 them in all the world. 



Really it all seemed wonderfully in keeping with one's 

 preconceived notions of "desert islands," or had we indeed 



