Chapter 15

7Thus called by Herrera. Bernal Diaz also calls Teuhtlile, Teudili. It is singular that scarcely two writers, ancient or modern, call the same South American person by the same name. Our modern travellers not only differ from the Spanish historians, but from one another. Even the familiar name of Montezuma, is Moctezuma and Motezuma; that of Guatimozin, Guatimotzin and Quauhtemotzin. The same confusion prevails amongst our authors, in nearly all the proper names of America, Asia, or Africa.

8Engravings of these may be seen in Clavigero.

9The Ithualco of other authors.

10Clavigero says only six days.

11Charlevoix gives another instance of that sort of Catholicpietywhich such ruffians as these find quite compatible with the commission of the blackest crimes. During these expeditions these man-hunters surprised the Reduction of St. Theresa, and carried off all the inhabitants. This happened a few days before Christmas; yet on Christmas day these banditti came to church, every man with a taper in his hand, in order to hear mass. The minute the Jesuit had finished, he mounted the pulpit, and reproached them in the bitterest terms for their injustice and cruelty; to all which they listened with as much calmness as if it did not at all concern them.

12“I sincerely believe they are as fine a set of men as ever existed, under the circumstances in which they are placed. In the mines I have seen them using tools which our miners declared they had not strength to work with, and carrying burdens which no man in England could support; and I appeal to those travellers who have been carried over the snow on their backs, whether they were able to have returned the compliment; and if not, what can be more grotesque than the figure of a civilized man riding upon the shoulders of a fellow-creature whose physical strength he has ventured to despise?”Head’s Rough Notes, p. 112.

Head’s Rough Notes, p. 112.

13Mills’s Hist. of British India, i. 74. Bruce, iii. 78.

14According to Orme, 2,750,000l.

15Tanjore Papers. Mills’ History.

16Governor-general’s own Narrative. Second Report of Select Committee, 1781.

17Fifth Parliamentary Report.—Appendix, No. 21.

18Mills, ii. 624.

19Mills, ii. 480.

20Sir Thomas Roe was sent in 1614, on an embassy to the Great Mogul. In his letters to the Company, he strongly advised them against the expensive ambition of acquiring territory. He tells them, “It is greater than trade can bear; for to maintain a garrison will cut out your profit: a war and traffic are incompatible. The Portuguese, notwithstanding their many rich residences, are beggared by keeping of soldiers: and yet their garrisons are but mean. They never made advantage of the Indies since they defended them;—observe this well. It has also been the error of the Dutch, who seek plantations here by the sword. They turn a wonderful stock; they prowl in all places; they possess some of the best: yet their dead pays consume all the gain. Let this be received as a rule, that if you will profit, seek it at sea, and in quiet trade: for without controversy, it is an error to affect garrisons, and land-wars in India.”Had Sir Thomas been inspired, could he have been a truer prophet? The East India Company, after fighting and conquering in India for two centuries, have found themselves, at the dissolution of their charter, nearly fifty millions in debt; while their trade with China, a country in which they did not possess a foot of land, had become the richest commerce in the world! The article of tea alone returning between three and four millions annually, and was their sole preventive against bankruptcy. Can, indeed, any colonial acquisition be pointed out that is not a loss to the parent state?

Had Sir Thomas been inspired, could he have been a truer prophet? The East India Company, after fighting and conquering in India for two centuries, have found themselves, at the dissolution of their charter, nearly fifty millions in debt; while their trade with China, a country in which they did not possess a foot of land, had become the richest commerce in the world! The article of tea alone returning between three and four millions annually, and was their sole preventive against bankruptcy. Can, indeed, any colonial acquisition be pointed out that is not a loss to the parent state?

21Macpherson’s Annals, ii. 652, 662.

22Mills, ii. 560–2.

23It is said that infanticide, spite of the legal prohibition, is still privately perpetrated to a great extent in Cutch and Guzerat.

24Nominally, in 1829; but not actually till considerably later.

25Even so recently as 1827 we find some tolerably regal instances of regal gifts to our Indian representatives. Lord and Lady Amherst on a tour in the provinces arrived at Agra. Lady Amherst received a visit from the wife of Hindoo Row and her ladies. They proceeded to invest Lady Amherst with the presents sent for her by the Byza Bhye. They put on her a turban richly adorned with the most costly diamonds, a superb diamond necklace, ear-rings, anklets, bracelets, and amulets of the same, valued at 30,000l.sterling. A complete set of gold ornaments, and another of silver, was then presented. Miss Amherst was next presented with a pearl necklace, valued at 5,000l., and other ornaments of equal beauty and costliness. Other ladies had splendid presents—the whole value of the gifts amounting to 50,000l.sterling!In the evening came Lord Amherst’s turn. On visiting the Row, his hat was carried out and brought back on a tray covered. The Row uncovered it, and placed it on his lordship’s head, overlaid with the most splendid diamonds. His lordship was then invested with other jewels to the reputed amount of 20,000l.sterling. Presents followed to the members of his suite. Lady Amherst took this opportunity of retiring to the tents of the Hindu ladies,where presents were again given; and a bag of 1000 rupees to her ladyship’s female servants, and 500 rupees to her interpretess.Oriental Herald, vol. xiv. p. 444.

In the evening came Lord Amherst’s turn. On visiting the Row, his hat was carried out and brought back on a tray covered. The Row uncovered it, and placed it on his lordship’s head, overlaid with the most splendid diamonds. His lordship was then invested with other jewels to the reputed amount of 20,000l.sterling. Presents followed to the members of his suite. Lady Amherst took this opportunity of retiring to the tents of the Hindu ladies,where presents were again given; and a bag of 1000 rupees to her ladyship’s female servants, and 500 rupees to her interpretess.

Oriental Herald, vol. xiv. p. 444.

26How clearly these shrewd Indians saw through the designs of their enemies, and how happily they could ridicule them, is shewn by the speech of Garangula, one of their chiefs, when M. de la Barre, the governor in 1684, was proposing one of these hollow alliances. All the time that de la Barre spoke, Garangula kept his eyes fixed on the end of his pipe. As soon as the governor had done, he rose up, and said most significantly, “Yonondio!” (the name they always gave to the governor of Canada), “you must have believed, when you left Quebec, that the sun had burnt up all the forests which render our country inaccessible to the French; or that the lakes had so far overflowed their banks that they had surrounded our castles, and that we could not get out of them. Yes, Yonondio, surely you must have dreamt so, and the curiosity of seeing so great a wonder has brought you so far. Now you are undeceived, since I and the warriors here present, are come to assure you that the Senekas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Oneidas, and Mohawks, are yet alive! I thank you, in their name, for bringing back into their country theCalumutwhich your predecessor received from their hands. It was happy for you that you left under ground that murdering hatchet that has been so often dyed in the blood of the French. Hear, Yonondio! I do not sleep; I have my eyes open; and the sun which enlightens me, shews me a great captain at the head of a company of soldiers, who speaks as if he were dreaming.Hesays that he came to the lake to smoke on the greatCalumutwith the Onondagas; butGarangulasays that he sees to the contrary—it was to knock them on the head, if sickness had not weakened the arms of the French.”Colden’s Hist. of the Five Nations, vol. i. p. 70.

Colden’s Hist. of the Five Nations, vol. i. p. 70.

27Raynal.

28Colden, i. 81.

29Colden, i. 441.

30Colden’s Hist. of “The Five Nations,” i. 195.

31The natives of this coast had some years before been carried off in considerable numbers by a British kidnapper, one Captain Hunt, who sold them in the Mediterranean to the Spaniards as Moors of Barbary. The indignation of the Indians on the discovery of this base transaction and their warlike character, put a stop to this trade, which might otherwise have become as regular a department of commerce as the African slave-trade; but it naturally threw the most formidable obstacles in the way of settling colonies here, and brought all the miseries of mutual outrage and revenge on both settlers and natives.—Douglass’s Summary of the First Planting of North America, vol. i. p. 364.

32Purchases were, indeed, made by others; but it was seize first, and bargain afterwards, when the soil was already defended by muskets, and the only question with the natives was, “Shall we take a trifle for our lands, or be knocked on the head for them?”

33Douglass’ Summary, i. 556–65.

34Ibid. i. 321.

35Douglass’ Summary, i. 199.

36Drake’s Book of the Indians.

37Hutchinson—Gov. Winthrop’s Journal.

38Hutchinson’s Massachusets Bay, p. 113.

39Hutchinson, p. 138.

40Hutchinson’s Hist. of Massachusets Bay. Also Douglass, Hubbard, Gorge, and other historians of the time.

41Missionaries, especially the Jesuits, and the English in the South Sea Islands, form the only exceptions, and these partially. The Jesuits, though they did not commonly bear arms, taught the use of them, and led, in fact, the most effective troops to battle in Paraguay. The South Sea missionaries form the strongest exceptions: they are, indeed, but guests, and not the governors; but their conduct is admirable, and we may believe will not alter with power.

42Mr. Bannister, in an excellent little work (British Colonization and the Coloured Tribes), just published, and which ought to be read by every one for its right-mindedness and sound and most important views, has regretted that William Penn did not take a guarantee from the British crown, in his charter, for the protection of the Indians from other states, and from his own successors. It is to be regretted; nor is it meant here to assert that the provisions of his government were as complete as they were pure in principle. Embarrassments of various kinds prevented him from perfecting what he had so nobly begun; yet the feeling with which his political system is regarded, must be that of the following passage:—“Virtue had never perhaps inspired a legislation better calculated to promote the felicity of mankind. The opinions, the sentiments, and the morals, corrected whatever might be defective in it. Accordingly the prosperity of Pennsylvania was very rapid. This republic, without either wars, conquests, struggles, or any of those revolutions which attract the eyes of the vulgar, soon excited the admiration of the whole universe. Its neighbours, notwithstanding their savage state, were softened by the sweetness of its manners; and distant nations, notwithstanding their corruption, paid homage to its virtues. All delighted to see those heroic days of antiquity realized, which European manners and laws had long taught every one to consider as entirely fabulous.”—Raynal, vol. vii. p. 292.

“Virtue had never perhaps inspired a legislation better calculated to promote the felicity of mankind. The opinions, the sentiments, and the morals, corrected whatever might be defective in it. Accordingly the prosperity of Pennsylvania was very rapid. This republic, without either wars, conquests, struggles, or any of those revolutions which attract the eyes of the vulgar, soon excited the admiration of the whole universe. Its neighbours, notwithstanding their savage state, were softened by the sweetness of its manners; and distant nations, notwithstanding their corruption, paid homage to its virtues. All delighted to see those heroic days of antiquity realized, which European manners and laws had long taught every one to consider as entirely fabulous.”—Raynal, vol. vii. p. 292.

43Adair’s History of the American Indians, p. 249.

44Adair, p. 314–321.

45Colden, i. 148.

46Mr. Johnson, who was originally a trader amongst the Mohawks, indulged them in all their whims. They were continually dreaming that he had given them this, that, and the other thing; and no greater insult can, according to their opinions, be offered to any man than to call in question the spiritual authenticity of his dream. At length the chiefdreamedthat Mr. Johnson had given him his uniform of scarlet and gold. Mr. Johnson immediately made him a present of it: but the next time he met him, he told him thathehad now begun to dream, and that he had dreamed that the Mohawks had given him certain lands, describing one of the finest tracts in the country, and of great extent. The Indians were struck with consternation. They said: “He surely had not dreamed that, had he?” He replied that he certainly had. They therefore held a council, and came to inform him that they had confirmed his dream; but begged that he would not dream any more. He had no further occasion.

47Cotton Mather records that, amongst the early settlers, it was considered a “religious act to kill Indians.”A similar sentiment prevailed amongst the Dutch boors in South Africa, with regard to the natives of the country. Mr. Barrow writes, “A farmer thinks he cannot proclaim a more meritorious action than the murder of one of these people. A boor from Graaf Reinet, being asked in the secretary’s office, a few days before we left town, if the savages were numerous or troublesome on the road, replied, ‘he had only shot four,’ with as much composure and indifference as if he had been speaking of four partridges. I myself have heard one of the humane colonists boast of having destroyed, with his own hands, near 300 of these unfortunate wretches.”

47Cotton Mather records that, amongst the early settlers, it was considered a “religious act to kill Indians.”

A similar sentiment prevailed amongst the Dutch boors in South Africa, with regard to the natives of the country. Mr. Barrow writes, “A farmer thinks he cannot proclaim a more meritorious action than the murder of one of these people. A boor from Graaf Reinet, being asked in the secretary’s office, a few days before we left town, if the savages were numerous or troublesome on the road, replied, ‘he had only shot four,’ with as much composure and indifference as if he had been speaking of four partridges. I myself have heard one of the humane colonists boast of having destroyed, with his own hands, near 300 of these unfortunate wretches.”

48See Evidence given by Capt. Buchan.

49Papers, Abor. Tribes, 1834, p. 135.

50Ibid. 147.

51Ibid. 22.

52Papers, Abor. Tribes, p. 24.

53See Papers relating to Red River Settlement, 1815, 1819: especially Mr. Coltman’s Report, pp. 115, 125.

54Letter from Jas. Hackett, Esq., Civil Commissioner, to Sir B. D’Urban. Papers, Abor. Tribes, 1834, pp. 194, 198.

55Papers, Abor. Tribes, pp. 183, 193.

56Papers, p. 182.

57Papers, Abor. Tribes, pp. 181, 182.

58Mr. Mayhew in his journal, writes, that the Indians told him, that they could not observe the benefit of Christianity, because the English cheated them of their lands and goods; and that the use of books made them more cunning in cheating. In his Indian itineraries, he desired of Ninicroft, sachem of the Narragansets, leave to preach to his people. Ninicroft bid him go and make the English good first, and desired Mr. Mayhew not to hinder him in his concerns. Some Indians at Albany being asked to go into a meeting-house, declined, saying, “the English went into those places to study how to cheat poor Indians in the price of beaver, for they had often observed that when they came back from those places they offered less money than before they went in.”

59Spirituous liquors.

60Winterbottom’s America.

61Stuart’s Three Years in North America, ii. 177.

62Stuart, ii. 173.

63See Adair’s History of the American Indians.

64Pringle’s African Sketches, p. 380.

65See pp. 38–42 of Ball’s edit.

66Report, 1837, p. 32, 33.

67William Penn is the only exception, and he was a preacher and in some degree a missionary.

68African Sketches, p. 414.

69Col. Graham’s Campaign in 1811–12.

70Col. Brereton’s Expedition in 1818.

71Thompson, ii. 347.

72Ibid. and Kay, 266.

73Captain Stockenstrom.

74Pringle’s African Sketches.

75Thompson, ii. 348.

76There were about 200 traders from the colony residing in Caffreland, many of them with their wives and children, at the moment Macomo was thus treated!

77African Sketches, 467.

78Dr. Murray’s Letter in the South African Advertizer, Feb. 20, 1836.

79Report on the Aboriginal Tribes, 1837. Ball’s edit. p. 115.

80Mr. Bannister.

81Despatch to Sir James Stirling, 23d July, 1835.

82Despatch to Lord Goderich, 6th April, 1833.

83Parl. Papers, 1835. No. 585. p. 7.

84Captain Johnson’s report to the Governor of New South Wales. Parl. Papers, 1835. No. 583, p. 10.

85Everything connected with this trade is astonishing. Queen Elizabeth eagerly embarked in it in 1563, and sent the notorious John Hawkins, knighted by her for this and similar deeds, out to Sierra Leone for a human cargo, with four vessels, three of which, as if it were the most pious of expeditions, bore the names of Jesus! Solomon! and John the Baptist!—SeeHakluyt’s Voyages.

86This excellent man was a martyr to his advocacy of the claims of the Caffres. Powerful appeals on behalf of his widow, left in painful circumstances, have been made by Mr. Leitch Ritchie, in his “Life of Pringle,” and by Mr. Bannister, in his “Colonization and the Coloured Tribes,” which, if they are not effective, will reflect but little credit upon the government, or the philanthropic public.

87See a Lecture on this settlement, with letters from the settlers, by Henry Watson, of Chichester.

LONDON:PRINTED BY MANNING AND SMITHSON,IVY-LANE, PATERNOSTER-ROW.

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