Caribbean Cruise

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30342, 18 January 1964, Page 3

Caribbean Cruise

Caribbean Cruise Holiday. By S. P. B. Mais and Gillian Mais. Alvin Redman. 225 pp. Bibiiiography and index.

Mr and Mrs Mais are indefatigable tourists. They have taken three sea cruises, and have, visited for short periods most of the countries of Europe. In every case they have recorded their impressions for the benefit of those of their fellow countrymen whose feet have also begun to itch. In this account of a six-weeks’ itinerary of the Caribbean in which they spent one day each in Barbados and Trinidad and a fortnight in Jamaica, the couple have endeavoured to inspire enthusiasm for these islands—particularly the last —in the breasts of intending followers. Mr Mais has connexions with Jamaica based upon the moral divagations of his great-great-grandfather who, deserting first one and then a second white wife took to himself a third Jamaican one; and this fact, together with the custom by which slaves adopted the name of their masters, has led to a considerable agglomeration of both European and indigenous Maises in the island. Three of the former, his blood relations, were to show him and his wife much kind hospitality. Mr Mais is a conscientious diarist, and, like another more famous one in the gastronomic field—Parson Woodforde—is wont to describe his meals in detail. Though his portion of the book occupies two-thirds of its pages his

descriptions of places, people, scenery and conditions give an off-the-cuff impression, as his sentences are short and in matter not always related. He is, however, concerned to record expenses as he goes along, and this should be a great help to holiday-makers who want to visit the West Indies on a tight budget. The coming of American tourists has raised hotel prices in Jamaica sky-high, and he deplores the fact that this beautiful British island is economically inaccessible to so many English visitors. There is no recognised colour bar, but the Ras Tafari, a rough section of the Jamaican poor, are bitterly anti-British, and look to the Emperor Haile Selassie as a new Messiah who will come and lead them back to Africa. The most notable contact made by the Maises with a local personality was when they visited Colonel Robertson, virtual ruler of the Maroons—a settlement of ex-slaves of the Spaniards. This was an off-the-map expedition, and the colonel himself proved to be a modest and pleasant man, living in a tiny cottage. Mrs Mais’ descriptions of this trip are more connected and detailed than her husband’s, besides being freer of rather tedious personal reflections, and the term "better half” has a double connotation, for her too-short contribution is certainly the mqre readable of the two. There are some fine photographs, and no doubt the book will be welcomed by intending globe-trotters.