census enumerator. West Indians, however, are for the most part
well acquainted with the affairs of friends and room-mates, and
enrolment of the absent was often possible. Occasionally I ran
into a den of impertinence that must be frowned down, notably a
notorious swarming tenement over a lumber-yard. But on the whole
the courtesy of British West Indians, even among themselves, was
noteworthy. Of the two great divisions among them, Barbadians
seemed more well-mannered than Jamaicans--or was it merely more
subtle hypocrisy? Among them all the most unspoiled children of
nature appeared to be those from the little island of Nevis.

"You ain't no American?"

"Yes, ah is."

"Why, you de bery furst American ah eber see dat was perlite."

Which spoke badly indeed for the others, that not being one of the
virtues I strive particularly to cultivate.

But "perlite" or not, there can be no question of the astounding
stupidity of the West Indian rank and file, a stupidity amusing if
you are in an amusable mood, unendurable if you neglect to pack
your patience among your bag of supplies in the morning. Tropical
patience, too, is at best a frail child. The dry-season sun rarely
even veiled his face, and there were those among the enumerators
who complained of the taxing labor of all-day marching up and down
streets and stairs and Zone hills beneath it; but to me, fresh
from tramping over the mountains of Central America with twenty
pounds on my shoulders, this was mere pastime. Heat had no terrors