On this field there were many _first_ things to be done. Among these were the feeding of the people, rebuilding the houses, cleaning out the wells, draining the land of salt water, clothing and placing the people in ways to help themselves; half a million feet of lumber to be rafted down to accessible points, from the mills on the rivers which emptied into the waters of these island inlets. While this was being floated down, the well men and women were instructed in different kinds of work: to take care of the helpless, rebuild their homes, and to provide shelter and food for themselves. While the people of these islands, in great measure, own their little tracts of land, they retain the old plantation name for their home. These plantations usually contain from twenty to forty families. The inhabitants of each plantation were directed to select a representative from their own number who should be the representative and committeeman for that plantation, whose duty it should be to communicate with the Red Cross, receive and distribute supplies for his people, and be the director of the various kinds of work that should be carried on among his people. These committeemen from all over the islands would come to headquarters to receive their instruction--food, seeds, tools, clothing, and learn the methods of work. These committeemen were received at headquarters by Miss Barton personally as well as by her officers, and careful explanations given to them that the supplies and the help that we were to give were in no way from the government, as many supposed from their memory of the old "Freedmen Bureau" days, but that they were the contributions very largely of poor people from over the country, who themselves had little to give, for the times were hard, but these had heard of the pitiable condition of the storm sufferers, and were willing and glad to divide the little they had to help them into their homes again. The funds we had in hand, they were made to understand, were very small, far less than we could wish, not likely to be much increased, and we should depend upon them to help us to use them to the very best advantage, and we would do our best in the same way to help them. Among the early contributions were a quantity of garden seeds. More were sent for, particularly of those vegetables that would grow there profitably during the late autumn and winter. It may not be generally known that it was not the custom of these people to plant anything but cotton, corn, sweet potatoes and rice. Hence they knew almost nothing about the raising of other field or garden products.