Narrative and Preliminary Report of Bahama Expedition (Volume 3, Nos. 1-2) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1895. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VI. KEY WEST AND THE POURTALES PLATEAU. On Saturday, June 17th, we again put into Key West, tying up to the government wharf, where a berth was secured for the "Emily E.Johnson" through the kind offices of Dr. Murray. It was really a relief to be again allowed to mingle with our fellow men, and not bear the stigma which Uncle Sam had so promptly put upon us when we entered the port before. Being tabooed by one's kind is doubtless sometimes for the general good, but it makes the victim feel as if there were some moral obliquity involved, and tends to decidedly diminish one's self-esteem. Being pronounced once more fit for contact with American citizens, we welcomed the advent of the numerous parties who were willing to supply us with fruits, provisions, curios, clean linen, etc., with a cordiality which must have seemed unduly emphatic, and patronized ice-cream saloons and soda-water fountains with a zest unknown since childhood. Key West is a Spanish city, with a strong Bahaman flavor, placed on American soil. Its main industries are spongecuring, cigar-making, and the hatching of Cuban rebellions. If the Spanish authorities could swoop down on that city some night and exterminate its inhabitants of Spanish blood, it would be safe to insure Cuba against revolutions for a generation to come. This city, of twenty-odd thousand inhabitants, is an anomaly. The only thing about it that is American is the coral rock upon which it stands, and a few of the government officials. One can enter store after store without being able to transact his business in English, and when he does find a man who speaks English it isn't American English, but Bahaman English, a curious-patois composed of negro dialect and the language of the London cocknev, in which the h's ...