Footnotes:

Footnotes:[194]Félix DuBois, "Timbuctoo the Mysterious," 310.[195]Ibid., 315.[196]This work has been translated into French by M. Octave Houdas, Professor of the Oriental School of Languages in Paris.[197]Félix DuBois, "Timbuctoo the Mysterious," 312.[198]Félix DuBois, "Timbuctoo the Mysterious," 313-314.[199]Félix DuBois, "Timbuctoo the Mysterious," 90-91.[200]"Like Homer, Abderrahman sometimes wanders astray," says DuBois, "pen in hand. Side by side with the gravest events he mentions that 'a white crow appeared from the 22nd of Rebia to the 28th of Djoumada, on which day the children caught and killed it.' Elsewhere in the narratives of his voyage to Massina, one of his hosts gave him his daughter in marriage. He was fifty years of age at the time, and in possession of several other wives. Not content with imparting the event to posterity, he adds, 'My union with Fatima was concluded on the twelfth day of Moharrem, 1645, but the marriage was not consummated until Friday the sixteenth.' I believe he would have given us his washing-bills if the use of body linen had been familiar to the Sudanese. In referring to this tendency of the annalist, DuBois does not mean to say anything which might be taken as an undervaluation of this work. He aims to show how the Tarik reminds the reader of works of some of the leading writers of the most civilized countries." See DuBois, "Timbuctoo the Mysterious," p. 316.[201]It was said "He made a pilgrimage to the house of God, accompanied by a thousand foot-soldiers and five hundred horse, and carrying with him three hundred thousand mitkals of gold from the treasure of Sunni Ali. He scattered this treasure in the holy places, at the tomb of the Prophet in Medina, and at the sacred mosque at Mecca. In the latter town he bought gardens and established a charitable institute for the people of the Sudan. This place is well known in Mecca, and cost five thousand mitkals."He rendered homage to the Khalif Abassid Motewekkel in Egypt, praying to be made his deputy in the Sudan in general and in Songhois in particular. The Abassid consented, requiring the king of Songhois to abdicate for three days and to place the power in his hands. On the fourth day Motewekkel solemnly proclaimed Askia Mohammed the representative of the sultan in Sudan. He accompanied this by placing a green fez and white turban upon his head and returning him his sabre." "Timbuctoo the Mysterious," 110.[202]Félix DuBois, "Timbuctoo the Mysterious," 119-120.[203]Lady Lugard, "A Tropical Dependency," 283-284.[204]Félix DuBois, "Timbuctoo the Mysterious," 314.[205]Lady Lugard, "A Tropical Dependency," 154.[206]Ibid., 154-155.[207]Félix DuBois, "Timbuctoo the Mysterious," 313.[208]Félix DuBois, "Timbuctoo the Mysterious," 312.[209]Ibid., 316.

[194]Félix DuBois, "Timbuctoo the Mysterious," 310.

[195]Ibid., 315.

[196]This work has been translated into French by M. Octave Houdas, Professor of the Oriental School of Languages in Paris.

[197]Félix DuBois, "Timbuctoo the Mysterious," 312.

[198]Félix DuBois, "Timbuctoo the Mysterious," 313-314.

[199]Félix DuBois, "Timbuctoo the Mysterious," 90-91.

[200]"Like Homer, Abderrahman sometimes wanders astray," says DuBois, "pen in hand. Side by side with the gravest events he mentions that 'a white crow appeared from the 22nd of Rebia to the 28th of Djoumada, on which day the children caught and killed it.' Elsewhere in the narratives of his voyage to Massina, one of his hosts gave him his daughter in marriage. He was fifty years of age at the time, and in possession of several other wives. Not content with imparting the event to posterity, he adds, 'My union with Fatima was concluded on the twelfth day of Moharrem, 1645, but the marriage was not consummated until Friday the sixteenth.' I believe he would have given us his washing-bills if the use of body linen had been familiar to the Sudanese. In referring to this tendency of the annalist, DuBois does not mean to say anything which might be taken as an undervaluation of this work. He aims to show how the Tarik reminds the reader of works of some of the leading writers of the most civilized countries." See DuBois, "Timbuctoo the Mysterious," p. 316.

[201]It was said "He made a pilgrimage to the house of God, accompanied by a thousand foot-soldiers and five hundred horse, and carrying with him three hundred thousand mitkals of gold from the treasure of Sunni Ali. He scattered this treasure in the holy places, at the tomb of the Prophet in Medina, and at the sacred mosque at Mecca. In the latter town he bought gardens and established a charitable institute for the people of the Sudan. This place is well known in Mecca, and cost five thousand mitkals."He rendered homage to the Khalif Abassid Motewekkel in Egypt, praying to be made his deputy in the Sudan in general and in Songhois in particular. The Abassid consented, requiring the king of Songhois to abdicate for three days and to place the power in his hands. On the fourth day Motewekkel solemnly proclaimed Askia Mohammed the representative of the sultan in Sudan. He accompanied this by placing a green fez and white turban upon his head and returning him his sabre." "Timbuctoo the Mysterious," 110.

"He rendered homage to the Khalif Abassid Motewekkel in Egypt, praying to be made his deputy in the Sudan in general and in Songhois in particular. The Abassid consented, requiring the king of Songhois to abdicate for three days and to place the power in his hands. On the fourth day Motewekkel solemnly proclaimed Askia Mohammed the representative of the sultan in Sudan. He accompanied this by placing a green fez and white turban upon his head and returning him his sabre." "Timbuctoo the Mysterious," 110.

[202]Félix DuBois, "Timbuctoo the Mysterious," 119-120.

[203]Lady Lugard, "A Tropical Dependency," 283-284.

[204]Félix DuBois, "Timbuctoo the Mysterious," 314.

[205]Lady Lugard, "A Tropical Dependency," 154.

[206]Ibid., 154-155.

[207]Félix DuBois, "Timbuctoo the Mysterious," 313.

[208]Félix DuBois, "Timbuctoo the Mysterious," 312.

[209]Ibid., 316.

A great dividing line in the history of Jamaica runs across the record between the years 1834 and 1838. On the further side lay slavery; on the hitherward side lies the freedom, partially proclaimed on August 1, 1834, and made complete and absolute on a like date in the year of grace 1838. Amid the noise and gloom of the period from these years back into the past, it is only here and there that the face and figure of a son of Africa stands out with anything like clearness or distinction against the background of historic events. It was in 1494 that the European first came to Jamaica. The island was then discovered by Columbus. Fifteen years later the Spaniards, who had meantime harried and slain the native Indians, set to work seriously to settle in the island. As the Arrowaks withered from the land, before the cruelty of the conqueror, the African was brought in to supply slave labor.[211]It is not our immediate task to enquire into the condition of the slaves during the Spanish occupation, nor does there exist very much material for answering such an enquiry, but it may be noted, as an interesting fact, that a black priest was in the deputation that came forth to negotiate with the British conqueror when, in 1655, the surrender of the capital city, St. Jago de la Vega, became a necessity. The Spanish Governor, Don Arnoldi Gasi, sent as one of his representatives DonAcosta, "a noble Portuguese." Belonging to his establishment and accompanying him as chaplain was a Negro priest. His name has not come down to us but we know his fate. One of the conditions of the surrender was that the Spaniards were not to attempt to remove their belongings.[212]The town, however, contained a party, chiefly of Portuguese, hostile to the surrender. The first article of the capitulation required that all "goods, wares, merchandizes, or what else upon the said island, be delivered up, etc., without any deceit, embezzlement, or concealment whatever." A certain Colonel made bold to drive away into the woodlands all the cattle he could collect. Don Acosta was not only as a man of honor shocked at this breach of a solemnly signed agreement, but he had the painful personal interest in it of being a hostage in the hands of the British for the due performance of the treaty of surrender. He therefore, we are told, sent to the Colonel "his priest, a discreet Negro, to remonstrate."[213]The Colonel put the priest to death, and apparently suffered no worse punishment for this dastardly act than to have the cattle he had gone away with discovered and brought back to the British lines.[214]

When the Spaniards a few weeks after evacuated the island, going by ship to Cuba, they took the liberty of further transgressing the treaty made with Penn and Venables, the British commanders, for, instead of taking their slaves with them, they turned them loose into the hills, with directions to harass the British as much as was possible. These slaves formed the nucleus of the Maroons, a body of mountain warriors whose deeds of daring and battle form a story too long and too interesting to be dealt with here.[215]

The British speedily introduced African slaves into the island, and, after a few generations, the population had taken the contour it still preserves, namely, the pure whites,the colored folk (mixed breeds) and the pure blacks. For one reason and another, individuals in the last-named section obtained their freedom. Sometimes it was granted to them by masters who appreciated some special service rendered. Sometimes it was bequeathed to them by kind-hearted masters. At times it was a gift from the state for services rendered in times of rebellion or other disaster to the commonwealth.[216]

Among the colored element of the population the tendency towards manumission was even more marked and extensive, for there the white fathers often not only bestowed freedom on their offspring but bequeathed to them comfortable, if not ample, means. Our immediate interest is, however, to be found among the blacks, for it is among them that we see a face and figure that holds our attention.

Among the earliest Negroes in Jamaica freed because of services rendered to the state was one John Williams. Under date of 1708, a law stands on record, the first of its kind, forbidding slave testimony being received in evidence against two Negroes, to wit, Manuel Bartholomew and John Williams. This was bestowing on them one of the vital privileges as a rule confined to whites. Eight years later there was passed another act extending the privilege to Dorothy Williams, wife of John, and also to the sons of these two, namely, John, Thomas, and Francis. Exactly what led to such marked discrimination in favor of Williams and his family the records have not so far revealed, but the mere continuation of the concession and its extension suggest that there was something special about the character and worth of John Williams, Senior, as viewed by the ruling authorities. Another fact emphasizes this. John Williams, between 1708 and 1716, had to endure the rather dangerous hostility of a member of the legislature. This legislator applied to Williams the term "a black Negro," as one of contempt. Williams replied with the term, self-contradictory no doubt but effective enough to rile a Jamaican legislator in the early part of the eighteenth century. He styledhis would-be traducer a "white Negro." As a result he ran the risk of seeing his valued privileges withdrawn once and for all. Supported by a few of his friends, the irate legislator brought the matter before the House of Assembly, and it was actually proposed that the Act of 1708, the Magna Charta so to speak of the Williams family, should be revoked. The effort, however, failed, and it seems reasonable to view that fact as a testimony to something of worth in John Williams, especially when we find that soon after his privileges were extended to his wife and his three sons.[217]

Francis Williams now replaces John, his father, and Dorothy, his mother, against the background of the past. The Duke of Montague wished to put to the test some of his opinions about the capabilities of the Negro. He desired to see whether a black boy taken and trained at an English school and then at a university would not equal in intellectual attainments a white youth similarly educated.[218]The links that would explain how it was that the choice for this experiment fell on Francis Williams are missing, but there it did fall. He must certainly have been, as Gardner suggests, "a lively, intelligent lad,"[219]but that by itself would not fully explain his being chosen. Someone fairly high up in Jamaica must have been taking a special interest in the Williams family, and that interest, in view of the collateral facts, must have been based on something of note in John Williams, Senior.

Francis received preliminary training in Jamaica, and then was sent to an English grammar school. Thence he went to Cambridge University. Only the bare facts of his story remain, like a skeleton, but we can safely argue that he did not disappoint the expectations of his patron to any serious extent, for, when the time came for Francis to return to Jamaica, the Duke of Montague used his influence with some determination to get his protégé appointed to a seat in the Council, that his abilities might be fully put tothe test. The Governor of the island with whom the Duke had to do was Edward Trelawny, and this shows that Williams returned to Jamaica between 1738 and 1748, for it was between those years that Trelawny held sway. They were stormy times, and Trelawny was a man with anything but a placid temper or compliant views. The famous war of "Jenkin's ear," between Britain and Spain, began in 1738. Porto Bello was destroyed by Vernon and Cartagena was attacked with troops whose base was Jamaica. In fact, Trelawny added a Negro detachment to the army employed.[220]In the quarrels that followed the disastrous failure at Cartagena, Trelawny had even more than his fair share of the cursing, and it is hardly surprising to find that a man of such temper, and amid such storms of fate, was anything but malleable to the Duke's request. The Governor knew his mind, and it was that setting a black man in the Council would excite restlessness among the slave population. The Duke's experiment with Williams was, therefore, not completed as the Duke himself intended it should be.[221]

Williams settled down in Spanish Town (St. Jago de la Vega), the then capital of the island, and conducted a school for imparting a classical and mathematical education. He became known also in the island, and to some extent abroad, as a poet and the fragments of his work that have come down to us show that he was at any rate a fair literary craftsman. Of the sort of man he was personally, we have not the material for a fair judgment, for we are practically shut up to surveying the man through the very colored glass that the historian Long inserts in the loophole of observation he has turned on Williams. Long, who published his History of Jamaica in 1774, was of the planter class, and his prejudice on such a matter was probably so complete that he was not even conscious that prejudice existed. He says of Williams: "In regard to the general character of theman, he was haughty, opinionated, looked down with sovereign contempt on his fellow blacks, entertained the highest opinion of his own knowledge, treated his parents with much disdain, and behaved towards his own children and slaves with a severity bordering on cruelty. He was fond of having great deference paid to him, and exacted it with the utmost degree from the negroes about him. He affected a singularity of dress and a particularly grave cast of countenance, to impart an idea of his wisdom and learning; and to second this view, he wore in common a huge wig, which made a very venerable figure."[222]The influence of prejudice on this picture is easily to be detected. There is not a single line of sympathy through the whole presentation, and it is something more than probable that there is actual misrepresentation of facts. Long would repeat what was current in his own circle, without feeling himself at all bound to investigate the assertions before setting them down for future generations to read.[223]

That Williams was set in a most difficult position is obvious. It was one that could only be creditably filled by one highly and exceptionally gifted, both in intellect and spirit. Still more difficult was it so to fill that position that he would appear before an age of wider and sweeter altruistic principles without disfavor in its eyes. Long credits him with the saying: "Show me a negro, and I show you a thief";[224]and Gardner, who enters in his behalf a defence that is in many ways effective, merely says regarding this accusation: "The race to which he belonged was then almost universally despised, and the temptation to curry favor with the whites by denouncing the negroes was too great for him to resist."[225]But it seems to me that somethingmore deserves to be said on the subject. We do not know whether Williams' epigram was a sober opinion or merely one cast off in a fit of irritation, that moment of "haste," which even the Psalmist knew, when he was led to sweep all mankind in under the term of "liar." But, further, if Williams was the deliberate sycophant and racial toady Gardner strives to shelter behind his shield of excuse, how was it that he had not won from the planter party, whose voice reaches us through Long, a more softened if not a more favorable opinion? There must have been some marked independence of spirit about a man who cut himself off thus on the one side and on the other. He was an educated man, placed in a false position; cut off by the narrowmindedness of the educated men around him from the environment for which training and education had fitted him. Had his savage epigram employed the term "slave," instead of "negro," and that was practically what it meant, it could stand as a thought-compelling truth, pointing beyond the slave to the tyrant system that made the slave.

Gardner, whose history was published in 1876, was, by class, of the missionaries, and by disposition a liberal, and a conscientious liberal. His estimate of Williams is thoroughly well-intentioned, and not wholly inadequate. It lacks subtlety, rather than sympathy. I cannot help hoping that time will bring to light material by which something may be attempted regarding the personality and character of Francis Williams, nearer what one feels instinctively is the truth than the outline at present holding the field.

Francis Williams has been mentioned as the author of the song: "Welcome, welcome, fellow debtor," but on what grounds, beyond tradition, it is not clear. We have, however, a Latin poem which is indubitably his work. It was addressed to General George Haldane, who arrived in Jamaica as Governor, April 17, 1758. It is panegyric, after the fashion of the eighteenth century, that is excessively so, but there are lines in it worth remembering. It is thus inscribed:

Integerrimo et FortissimoViroGEORGIO HALDANO, ARMIGERO,Insulæ Jamaicensis Gubernatori;Cui, omnes morum, virtutumque dotes billicarum,In cumulum accesserunt,CARMEN.[226]DENIQUE venturum fatis volventibus annum (e)Cuncta per extensum læta videnda diem,Excussis adsunt curis, sub inagine (f) claraFelices populi, terraque lege virens.(g) Te duce, (h) quæ fuerant malesuada mente peractaIrrita, conspectu non reditura tuo.Ergo omnis populus, nee non plebecula cernet(h) Hæsurum collo te (i)relegassejugum,Et mala, quæ diris quondam cruciatibus, insonsInsula passa fuit; condoluisset onusNi victrix tua Marte manus prius inclyta, nostrisSponte (k) ruinosis rebus adesse velit.Optimus es servusRegiservireBritanno,Dum gaudet genio (l)Scoticaterra tuo:Optimus heroum populi (m) fulcire ruinam:Insula dum superest ipse (n) superstes eris.Victorem agnoscet teGuadaloupa, suorumDespiciet (o) merito dirutà castra ducum.Aurea vexillis flebit jactantibus (p)Iris,Cumque suis populis, oppida victa gemet.Crede, (q) menum non est, virMartichare! (r)MinervaDenegatÆthiopibella sonare ducum.Concilio, caneret teBuchananuset armis,CarminePeleidaescriberet ille parem.Ille poeta, decus patriæ, tua facta referreDignior, (s) altisono vixque Marone minor.(t) Flammiferos agitante suos sub solejugales(u)Vivimus; eloquium deficit omne focis.Hoc demum accipias, multa fuligine fusumOre sonaturo; non cute, corde valet.Pollenti stabilita manu, [(w) Deus almus, eandemOmnigenis animam, nil prohibente dedit]Ipsa coloris egens virtus, prudentia; honestoNulus inest animo, nullus in arte color.Cur timeas, quamvis, dubitesve, nigerrima celsamCæsaris occidui, candere (x)Musadomum?(y) Vade salutatum, nec sit tibi causa pudoris,(z)Candida quod nigra corpora pelle geris!Integritas morum (a)Maurummagis ornat, et ardorIngenii, etdocto(b)dulcis in ore decor;Hunc, mage,cor sapines, patriævirtutis amorque,(c) Eximit e sociis, conspicuumque facit.(d) Insula me genuit, celebres aluereBritianni,Insula, te salvo non dolitura (e) patre!Hoc precor; o (f) nullo videant te fine, regentemFlorentes populos, terra, Deique locus!FRANCISCUS WILLIAMS(e)Aspice venturo lætentur ut omnia Sæclo. Virg. E.iv. 52.(f) Clara seems to be rather an improper epithet joined toImago.(g)Te duce, si qua manent sceleris vestigia nostriIrrita, perpetua solvent formidine terras.Virg. E.iv. 13.(h) Alluding perhaps to the contest about removing the seat of government and public offices fromSpanish TowntoKingston, during the administration of governor Kn——s.(i) Prorelevasse.(k) Quem vocet divum populusruentisImperirebus. Hor. Lib.I.Od. ii.(l) Mr. Haldane was a native of North Britain.(m) Tu Ptolomaee potes magnifulcire ruinam. Lucan.Lib.viii. 528.(n) This was a promise of somewhat more than antediluvian longevity. But the poet proved a false prophet, for Mr. Haldane did not survive the delivery of this address many months.(o) Egeritjusto domitostriumpho.Hor. Lib.I.Od. xii.(p)Iris.Botanic name of thefleur-de-luce, alluding to the arms of France.(q)Phœbus, volentem prælia me loqui Victas et urbes, increpuit lyra Ne.Hor.(r) Invita Minerva.Hor. de Art. Poet.(s)Maronis altisonicarmina.Juv. Sat.xi.ver.178.(t)Flammiferasrotas toto cæloagitat.(u) I apprehend Mr. Williams mistook this forjubara, fun beams.(w) This is apetitio principii, or begging the question, unless with Mr. Pope,"All are but parts of one stupendous whole,"Whose body nature is, and God the Soul."But,"Far as creation's ample range extends,"TheScaleof sensualmentalpowers ascends."(x) Mr. Williams has added ablack Museto the Pierian choir; and, as he has not thought proper to bestow a name upon her, we may venture to announce her by the title of madam Æthiopissa.(y)Vade salutatumsubito perarata parentem Litera.Ovid.(z) See his apophthegms before mentioned.(a)Maurusis not in classic strictness proper Latin for aNegroe.(b)Mollisin ore decor. Incert.(c) Medoctarumederæ præmia frontium. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Secernunt populo. Hor. Lib. I. Od. 1.(d) Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere.Virg.(e) Hic ames dicipateratque princeps.Hor.(f) Serus in cœlum redeas,diuqueLætus intersis populo. Hor.

Integerrimo et FortissimoViroGEORGIO HALDANO, ARMIGERO,Insulæ Jamaicensis Gubernatori;Cui, omnes morum, virtutumque dotes billicarum,In cumulum accesserunt,CARMEN.[226]

DENIQUE venturum fatis volventibus annum (e)Cuncta per extensum læta videnda diem,Excussis adsunt curis, sub inagine (f) claraFelices populi, terraque lege virens.(g) Te duce, (h) quæ fuerant malesuada mente peractaIrrita, conspectu non reditura tuo.Ergo omnis populus, nee non plebecula cernet(h) Hæsurum collo te (i)relegassejugum,Et mala, quæ diris quondam cruciatibus, insonsInsula passa fuit; condoluisset onusNi victrix tua Marte manus prius inclyta, nostrisSponte (k) ruinosis rebus adesse velit.Optimus es servusRegiservireBritanno,Dum gaudet genio (l)Scoticaterra tuo:Optimus heroum populi (m) fulcire ruinam:Insula dum superest ipse (n) superstes eris.Victorem agnoscet teGuadaloupa, suorumDespiciet (o) merito dirutà castra ducum.Aurea vexillis flebit jactantibus (p)Iris,Cumque suis populis, oppida victa gemet.Crede, (q) menum non est, virMartichare! (r)MinervaDenegatÆthiopibella sonare ducum.Concilio, caneret teBuchananuset armis,CarminePeleidaescriberet ille parem.Ille poeta, decus patriæ, tua facta referreDignior, (s) altisono vixque Marone minor.(t) Flammiferos agitante suos sub solejugales(u)Vivimus; eloquium deficit omne focis.Hoc demum accipias, multa fuligine fusumOre sonaturo; non cute, corde valet.Pollenti stabilita manu, [(w) Deus almus, eandemOmnigenis animam, nil prohibente dedit]Ipsa coloris egens virtus, prudentia; honestoNulus inest animo, nullus in arte color.Cur timeas, quamvis, dubitesve, nigerrima celsamCæsaris occidui, candere (x)Musadomum?(y) Vade salutatum, nec sit tibi causa pudoris,(z)Candida quod nigra corpora pelle geris!Integritas morum (a)Maurummagis ornat, et ardorIngenii, etdocto(b)dulcis in ore decor;Hunc, mage,cor sapines, patriævirtutis amorque,(c) Eximit e sociis, conspicuumque facit.(d) Insula me genuit, celebres aluereBritianni,Insula, te salvo non dolitura (e) patre!Hoc precor; o (f) nullo videant te fine, regentemFlorentes populos, terra, Deique locus!

FRANCISCUS WILLIAMS

(e)Aspice venturo lætentur ut omnia Sæclo. Virg. E.iv. 52.(f) Clara seems to be rather an improper epithet joined toImago.(g)Te duce, si qua manent sceleris vestigia nostriIrrita, perpetua solvent formidine terras.Virg. E.iv. 13.(h) Alluding perhaps to the contest about removing the seat of government and public offices fromSpanish TowntoKingston, during the administration of governor Kn——s.(i) Prorelevasse.(k) Quem vocet divum populusruentisImperirebus. Hor. Lib.I.Od. ii.(l) Mr. Haldane was a native of North Britain.(m) Tu Ptolomaee potes magnifulcire ruinam. Lucan.Lib.viii. 528.(n) This was a promise of somewhat more than antediluvian longevity. But the poet proved a false prophet, for Mr. Haldane did not survive the delivery of this address many months.(o) Egeritjusto domitostriumpho.Hor. Lib.I.Od. xii.(p)Iris.Botanic name of thefleur-de-luce, alluding to the arms of France.(q)Phœbus, volentem prælia me loqui Victas et urbes, increpuit lyra Ne.Hor.(r) Invita Minerva.Hor. de Art. Poet.(s)Maronis altisonicarmina.Juv. Sat.xi.ver.178.(t)Flammiferasrotas toto cæloagitat.(u) I apprehend Mr. Williams mistook this forjubara, fun beams.(w) This is apetitio principii, or begging the question, unless with Mr. Pope,"All are but parts of one stupendous whole,"Whose body nature is, and God the Soul."But,"Far as creation's ample range extends,"TheScaleof sensualmentalpowers ascends."(x) Mr. Williams has added ablack Museto the Pierian choir; and, as he has not thought proper to bestow a name upon her, we may venture to announce her by the title of madam Æthiopissa.(y)Vade salutatumsubito perarata parentem Litera.Ovid.(z) See his apophthegms before mentioned.(a)Maurusis not in classic strictness proper Latin for aNegroe.(b)Mollisin ore decor. Incert.(c) Medoctarumederæ præmia frontium. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Secernunt populo. Hor. Lib. I. Od. 1.(d) Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere.Virg.(e) Hic ames dicipateratque princeps.Hor.(f) Serus in cœlum redeas,diuqueLætus intersis populo. Hor.

(e)Aspice venturo lætentur ut omnia Sæclo. Virg. E.iv. 52.

(f) Clara seems to be rather an improper epithet joined toImago.

(g)Te duce, si qua manent sceleris vestigia nostriIrrita, perpetua solvent formidine terras.Virg. E.iv. 13.

(h) Alluding perhaps to the contest about removing the seat of government and public offices fromSpanish TowntoKingston, during the administration of governor Kn——s.

(i) Prorelevasse.

(k) Quem vocet divum populusruentisImperirebus. Hor. Lib.I.Od. ii.

(l) Mr. Haldane was a native of North Britain.

(m) Tu Ptolomaee potes magnifulcire ruinam. Lucan.Lib.viii. 528.

(n) This was a promise of somewhat more than antediluvian longevity. But the poet proved a false prophet, for Mr. Haldane did not survive the delivery of this address many months.

(o) Egeritjusto domitostriumpho.Hor. Lib.I.Od. xii.

(p)Iris.Botanic name of thefleur-de-luce, alluding to the arms of France.

(q)Phœbus, volentem prælia me loqui Victas et urbes, increpuit lyra Ne.Hor.

(r) Invita Minerva.Hor. de Art. Poet.

(s)Maronis altisonicarmina.Juv. Sat.xi.ver.178.

(t)Flammiferasrotas toto cæloagitat.

(u) I apprehend Mr. Williams mistook this forjubara, fun beams.

(w) This is apetitio principii, or begging the question, unless with Mr. Pope,

"All are but parts of one stupendous whole,"Whose body nature is, and God the Soul."But,"Far as creation's ample range extends,"TheScaleof sensualmentalpowers ascends."

(x) Mr. Williams has added ablack Museto the Pierian choir; and, as he has not thought proper to bestow a name upon her, we may venture to announce her by the title of madam Æthiopissa.

(y)Vade salutatumsubito perarata parentem Litera.Ovid.

(z) See his apophthegms before mentioned.

(a)Maurusis not in classic strictness proper Latin for aNegroe.

(b)Mollisin ore decor. Incert.

(c) Medoctarumederæ præmia frontium. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Secernunt populo. Hor. Lib. I. Od. 1.

(d) Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere.Virg.

(e) Hic ames dicipateratque princeps.Hor.

(f) Serus in cœlum redeas,diuqueLætus intersis populo. Hor.

This is Long's translation:

ToThat most upright and valiant Man,GEORGE HALDANE, Esq;Governor of the Island of Jamaica;Upon whomAll military and moral Endowments are accumulated.An ODE.AT length revolving fates th' expected yearAdvance, and joy the live-long day shall cheer,Beneath the fost'ring law's auspicious dawnNew harvests rife to glad th' enliven'd (g) lawn.With the bright prospect blest, the swains repairIn social bands, and give a loose to care.Rash councils now, with each malignant plan,Each faction, that in evil hour began,At your approach are in confusion fled,Nor, while you rule, shall rear their dastard head.Alike the master and the slave shall feeTheir neck reliev'd, the yoke unbound by thee.Ere now our guiltless isle, her wretched fateHad wept, and groan'd beneath th' oppressive weightOf Cruel woes; save thy victorious hand,Long fam'd in war, from Gallia's hostile land;And wreaths of fresh renown, with generous zeal,Had freely turn'd, to prop our sinking weal.Form'd as thou art, to serveBritannia'scrown,WhileScotiaclaims thee for her darling son;Oh! best of heroes, ablest to sustainA falling people, and relax their chain.Long as this isle shall grace the Western deep,From age to age, thy fame shall never sleep.Thee, her dread victorGuadaloupeshall own,Crusht by thy arm, her slaughter'd chiefs bemoan;View their proud tents all level'd in the dust,And, while she grieves, confess the cause was just.The goldenIristhe sad scene will share,Will mourn her banners scattered in the air;Lament her vanquisht troops with many a sigh,Nor less to see her towns in ruin lie.Fav'rite ofMars!believe, th' attempt were vain,It is not mine to try the arduous strain.What! shall anÆthioptouch the martial string,Of battles, leaders, great achievements sing?Ah no!Minerva, with th' indignantNine,Restrain him, and forbid the bold design.To aBuchanandoes the theme belong;A theme, that well deservesBuchanan'ssong,'Tis he, should swell the din of war's alarms,Record thee great in council, as in arms;Recite each conquest by thy valour won,And equal thee to greatPeleides'son.That bard, his country's ornament and pride,Who e'en withMaromight the bays divide:Far worthier he, thy glories to rehearse,And paint thy deeds in his immortal verse.We live, alas! where the bright god of day,Full from the zenith whirls his torrid ray:Beneath the rage of his consuming fires,All fancy melts, all eloquence expires.Yet may you deign accept this humble song,Tho' wrapt in gloom, and from a faltering tongue;Tho' dark the stream on which the tribute flows,Not from theskin, but from theheartit rose.To all of human kind, benignant heaven(Since nought forbids) one common soul has given.This rule was 'stablish'd by th' Eternal Mind;Nor virtue's self, nor prudence are confin'dTo colour; none imbues the honest heart;To science none belongs, and none to art.Oh!Muse, of blackest tint, why shrinks thy breast.Why fears t' approach theCæsarof theWest!Dispel thy doubts, with confidence ascendThe regal dome, and hail him for thy friend:Nor blush, altho' in garb funereal drest,Thy body's white, tho' clad in sable vest.Manners unsullied, and the radiant glowOf genius, burning with desire toknow;And learned speech, with modest accent worn,Shall best the sootyAfricanadorn.An heart with wisdom fraught, a patriot flame.A love of virtue; these shall lift his nameConspicuous, far beyond his kindred race,Distinguish'd from them by the foremost place.In this prolific isle I drew my birth,AndBritainnurs'd, illustrious through the earth;This, my lov'd isle, which never more shall grieve,Whilst you our common friend, our father live.Then this my pray'r—"My earth and heaven survey"A people ever blest, beneath your sway!"

ToThat most upright and valiant Man,GEORGE HALDANE, Esq;Governor of the Island of Jamaica;Upon whomAll military and moral Endowments are accumulated.An ODE.

AT length revolving fates th' expected yearAdvance, and joy the live-long day shall cheer,Beneath the fost'ring law's auspicious dawnNew harvests rife to glad th' enliven'd (g) lawn.With the bright prospect blest, the swains repairIn social bands, and give a loose to care.Rash councils now, with each malignant plan,Each faction, that in evil hour began,At your approach are in confusion fled,Nor, while you rule, shall rear their dastard head.Alike the master and the slave shall feeTheir neck reliev'd, the yoke unbound by thee.Ere now our guiltless isle, her wretched fateHad wept, and groan'd beneath th' oppressive weightOf Cruel woes; save thy victorious hand,Long fam'd in war, from Gallia's hostile land;And wreaths of fresh renown, with generous zeal,Had freely turn'd, to prop our sinking weal.Form'd as thou art, to serveBritannia'scrown,WhileScotiaclaims thee for her darling son;Oh! best of heroes, ablest to sustainA falling people, and relax their chain.Long as this isle shall grace the Western deep,From age to age, thy fame shall never sleep.Thee, her dread victorGuadaloupeshall own,Crusht by thy arm, her slaughter'd chiefs bemoan;View their proud tents all level'd in the dust,And, while she grieves, confess the cause was just.The goldenIristhe sad scene will share,Will mourn her banners scattered in the air;Lament her vanquisht troops with many a sigh,Nor less to see her towns in ruin lie.Fav'rite ofMars!believe, th' attempt were vain,It is not mine to try the arduous strain.What! shall anÆthioptouch the martial string,Of battles, leaders, great achievements sing?Ah no!Minerva, with th' indignantNine,Restrain him, and forbid the bold design.To aBuchanandoes the theme belong;A theme, that well deservesBuchanan'ssong,'Tis he, should swell the din of war's alarms,Record thee great in council, as in arms;Recite each conquest by thy valour won,And equal thee to greatPeleides'son.That bard, his country's ornament and pride,Who e'en withMaromight the bays divide:Far worthier he, thy glories to rehearse,And paint thy deeds in his immortal verse.We live, alas! where the bright god of day,Full from the zenith whirls his torrid ray:Beneath the rage of his consuming fires,All fancy melts, all eloquence expires.Yet may you deign accept this humble song,Tho' wrapt in gloom, and from a faltering tongue;Tho' dark the stream on which the tribute flows,Not from theskin, but from theheartit rose.To all of human kind, benignant heaven(Since nought forbids) one common soul has given.This rule was 'stablish'd by th' Eternal Mind;Nor virtue's self, nor prudence are confin'dTo colour; none imbues the honest heart;To science none belongs, and none to art.Oh!Muse, of blackest tint, why shrinks thy breast.Why fears t' approach theCæsarof theWest!Dispel thy doubts, with confidence ascendThe regal dome, and hail him for thy friend:Nor blush, altho' in garb funereal drest,Thy body's white, tho' clad in sable vest.Manners unsullied, and the radiant glowOf genius, burning with desire toknow;And learned speech, with modest accent worn,Shall best the sootyAfricanadorn.An heart with wisdom fraught, a patriot flame.A love of virtue; these shall lift his nameConspicuous, far beyond his kindred race,Distinguish'd from them by the foremost place.In this prolific isle I drew my birth,AndBritainnurs'd, illustrious through the earth;This, my lov'd isle, which never more shall grieve,Whilst you our common friend, our father live.Then this my pray'r—"My earth and heaven survey"A people ever blest, beneath your sway!"

The following translation of this poem has been supplied by Mr. E.J. Chinock, M.A., LL.B.:

A Poem in Honour ofSir George Haldane, Knt.,Amost virtuous and brave man,Governor of the island of Jamaica, on whom all the endowments ofmorals and of warlike virtues have been accumulated.Since the Fates wish the year should come at last, all the joys which are to be seen through a lengthened day are present. The people having shaken off their anxieties, are prosperous under a bright image, and the land flourishing under law. While thou art ruler, the useless things which had been done by an ill-advising mind will not return at thy appearance. Therefore, all the people, even the rabble, will see that thou hast removed the yoke clinging to their necks, and the ills which the guiltless island has formerly endured with dreadful tortures. The burden would have been excessively painful did not thy victorious hand, previously renowned for valour, wish of its own accord to aid our state going to ruin. The British King has no better servant than thou art, whilst Scotland rejoices in thy talent. Thou are the best of heroes to prop up the fall of a nation; while the island survives, the memory of thee will also survive. Quadaloupe will recognise thee as her conqueror, and will deservedly despise the plundered camps of its governors. The golden Iris will weep for her boastful standards, and together with her inhabitants will groan for the conquered towns. Believe me, it is not in my power, O man, dear to Mars! Minerva denies to an Ethiopian to celebrate the wars of generals. Buchanan would sing thee in a poem, he would describe thee as equal to Achilles in counsel and in war. That famous poet, the honour of his country, is more worthy to relate thy exploits, and is scarcely inferior to the majestic Virgil. We live under an Apollo driving his own flame-bringing team. Every kind of eloquence is lacking to slaves. Receive this at any rate. Though poured forth from one very black, it is valuable, coming from a sonorous mouth; not from his skin, but from his heart. The bountiful Deity, with a hand powerfully and firm, has given the same soul to men of all races, nothing standing in his way. Virtue itself, and prudence, are free from colour; there is no colour in an honourable mind, no colour in skill. Why dost thou fear or doubt that the blackest Muse may scale the lofty house of the western Caesar? Go and salute him, and let it not be to thee a cause of shame that thou wearest a white body in a black skin. Integrity ofmoralsmore adorns aMoor, and ardour of intellect and sweet elegance in a learned mouth. A wise heart and a love of his ancestral virtue the more remove him from his comrades and make him conspicuous. The island (of Jamaica) gave me birth; the renowned Britons brought me up; the island which will not grieve while thou its father art well. This I pray: O may earth and heaven see thee without end, ruling a flourishing people.[227]

A Poem in Honour ofSir George Haldane, Knt.,Amost virtuous and brave man,Governor of the island of Jamaica, on whom all the endowments ofmorals and of warlike virtues have been accumulated.

Since the Fates wish the year should come at last, all the joys which are to be seen through a lengthened day are present. The people having shaken off their anxieties, are prosperous under a bright image, and the land flourishing under law. While thou art ruler, the useless things which had been done by an ill-advising mind will not return at thy appearance. Therefore, all the people, even the rabble, will see that thou hast removed the yoke clinging to their necks, and the ills which the guiltless island has formerly endured with dreadful tortures. The burden would have been excessively painful did not thy victorious hand, previously renowned for valour, wish of its own accord to aid our state going to ruin. The British King has no better servant than thou art, whilst Scotland rejoices in thy talent. Thou are the best of heroes to prop up the fall of a nation; while the island survives, the memory of thee will also survive. Quadaloupe will recognise thee as her conqueror, and will deservedly despise the plundered camps of its governors. The golden Iris will weep for her boastful standards, and together with her inhabitants will groan for the conquered towns. Believe me, it is not in my power, O man, dear to Mars! Minerva denies to an Ethiopian to celebrate the wars of generals. Buchanan would sing thee in a poem, he would describe thee as equal to Achilles in counsel and in war. That famous poet, the honour of his country, is more worthy to relate thy exploits, and is scarcely inferior to the majestic Virgil. We live under an Apollo driving his own flame-bringing team. Every kind of eloquence is lacking to slaves. Receive this at any rate. Though poured forth from one very black, it is valuable, coming from a sonorous mouth; not from his skin, but from his heart. The bountiful Deity, with a hand powerfully and firm, has given the same soul to men of all races, nothing standing in his way. Virtue itself, and prudence, are free from colour; there is no colour in an honourable mind, no colour in skill. Why dost thou fear or doubt that the blackest Muse may scale the lofty house of the western Caesar? Go and salute him, and let it not be to thee a cause of shame that thou wearest a white body in a black skin. Integrity ofmoralsmore adorns aMoor, and ardour of intellect and sweet elegance in a learned mouth. A wise heart and a love of his ancestral virtue the more remove him from his comrades and make him conspicuous. The island (of Jamaica) gave me birth; the renowned Britons brought me up; the island which will not grieve while thou its father art well. This I pray: O may earth and heaven see thee without end, ruling a flourishing people.[227]

Gardner quotes the line

"Candida quod nigra corpora pelle geris,"

giving it an interpretation disparaging to Williams' racial self-respect. With more understanding of the poet's surroundings it may be taken rather to express the poet's desire to be marked as distinct from the then condition of those who represented his race round him, namely slaves.

The following lines especially deserve praise for the height in emotion and manliness to which they ascend:

Pollenti stabilita manu, Deus almus, eandemOmnigenis animam, nil prohibente dedit.Ipsa coloris egens virtus, prudentia; honestoNullus inest animo, nullus in arte color.

Mr. Chinook's rendering conveys some of their stirring force, but they deserve a better translation, and one reason for giving the whole poem here is the hope that it may elicit another translation from some one entering more feelingly and with equal lingual knowledge into the poet's conception.

T. H. MacDermot

Redeam,Kingston,Jamaica, B. W. I.

Footnotes:[210]The writer of the following article, though not of the race to serve which thisJournalspecially exists, offers a contribution to its pages because of the deep and sympathetic interest he has long taken in the African race, and because of his belief in its future. He would also interest readers of theJournalin his native island, Jamaica, where, although the creation still bears marks of human imperfection and incompleteness, a community has been brought into being in which the racial elements, in such fierce and embittered antagonism elsewhere, are gradually, but surely, blending into a whole of common citizenship.T.H. MacDermot, Editor of theJamaica Times, Ltd.[211]Gardner, "History of Jamaica," 10.[212]Gardner, "History of Jamaica," 31.[213]Bridges, "Annals of Jamaica," I, 204.[214]Long, "History of Jamaica," 234; and Gardner, "History of Jamaica," 31-32.[215]See Dallas's "History of the Maroons," I, 26.[216]This is the history of gradual emancipation in most slaveholding states.[217]Gardner, "History of Jamaica," 207.[218]Long, "History of Jamaica," II, 476.[219]Gardner, "History of Jamaica," 207.[220]Gardner, "History of Jamaica," 123.[221]Long, "History of Jamaica," II, 476; and Gardner, "History of Jamaica," 207.[222]Long, "History of Jamaica," II, 478.[223]Long says: "He defined himself 'a white man acting under a black skin,' He endeavored to prove logically, that a Negroe was superior in quality to a Mulatto, or other craft, or other cast. His proposition was, that 'a simple white or simple black complexion was respectively perfect: but a Mulatto, being an heterogeneous medley of both, was imperfect,ergoinferior,'" Long, "History of Jamaica," II, 478.[224]ibid., II, 478[225]Gardner, "History of Jamaica," 208.[226]Edward Long undertook to analyze this poem in such a way as to show the inferiority of the Negro. These notes are all his. See Long's "History of Jamaica," II, 478-485.[227]Gardner,History of Jamaica, appendix.

[210]The writer of the following article, though not of the race to serve which thisJournalspecially exists, offers a contribution to its pages because of the deep and sympathetic interest he has long taken in the African race, and because of his belief in its future. He would also interest readers of theJournalin his native island, Jamaica, where, although the creation still bears marks of human imperfection and incompleteness, a community has been brought into being in which the racial elements, in such fierce and embittered antagonism elsewhere, are gradually, but surely, blending into a whole of common citizenship.T.H. MacDermot, Editor of theJamaica Times, Ltd.

[211]Gardner, "History of Jamaica," 10.

[212]Gardner, "History of Jamaica," 31.

[213]Bridges, "Annals of Jamaica," I, 204.

[214]Long, "History of Jamaica," 234; and Gardner, "History of Jamaica," 31-32.

[215]See Dallas's "History of the Maroons," I, 26.

[216]This is the history of gradual emancipation in most slaveholding states.

[217]Gardner, "History of Jamaica," 207.

[218]Long, "History of Jamaica," II, 476.

[219]Gardner, "History of Jamaica," 207.

[220]Gardner, "History of Jamaica," 123.

[221]Long, "History of Jamaica," II, 476; and Gardner, "History of Jamaica," 207.

[222]Long, "History of Jamaica," II, 478.

[223]Long says: "He defined himself 'a white man acting under a black skin,' He endeavored to prove logically, that a Negroe was superior in quality to a Mulatto, or other craft, or other cast. His proposition was, that 'a simple white or simple black complexion was respectively perfect: but a Mulatto, being an heterogeneous medley of both, was imperfect,ergoinferior,'" Long, "History of Jamaica," II, 478.

[224]ibid., II, 478

[225]Gardner, "History of Jamaica," 208.

[226]Edward Long undertook to analyze this poem in such a way as to show the inferiority of the Negro. These notes are all his. See Long's "History of Jamaica," II, 478-485.

[227]Gardner,History of Jamaica, appendix.

Among Sierra Leoneans the Sherbro country enjoys a reputation for mysteriousness. A country where every object, from the sandy soil one treads in the streets to the bamboo chair one sits upon at home, is supposed to possess intelligence and to be capable of "catching" one, to wit, afflicting one with disease; a country where the penalty for such a venal offence as stubbing one's devoted foot against the roots of a famous cotton tree, which stands perilously near the roadside, is a sure attack of elephantiasis; a country which boasts of a certain holy city upon whose soil no man on earth may walk shod and live to see the next day, a tradition for which the District Commissioners, adventurous Britons as they are, have had so much respect that they have been content to get only a cruising knowledge of the place, always summoning the headmen to conferences on the beach and delivering instructions from the safe precincts of a boat awning; such a country evidently deserves to be called a land of mystery.

Now, to this air of mystery is added one of interest for students of archæology in general, and particularly for all Negroes who are interested in the study of the history of their race with a view to discover whether it has really made any worthy achievements in the past or, as its traducers love to make us believe, it is indeed a backward race, that is only just emerging from barbarism and beginning to enjoy and assimilate the blessings of Western culture. I refer to certain sculptured finds which are from time to time made in the country and are naturally looked upon by the unsophisticated native mind as nothing short of a mystery.

These images, ornomolis, as they are called in the vernacular, are by no means the empirical efforts of some crude artists, but are the products of finished workmanship wrought in steatite or soapstone, which abounds in the Protectorate. They present purely Egyptian and Ethiopian features, and are apparently of great antiquity, possibly thousands of years old. They are dug out from old graves in the course of ploughing, and the finder of one of them considers himself a lucky man indeed. He sees visions of an unprecedentedly rich harvest, or of an extraordinarily brisk trade, if he happens to be in the commercial line, as thenomoliis the presidingdeity of crops and commerce. If the good services of the god are required on the farm a small shrine is erected there for it and a great big hamper and a bundle of rods placed in front of it. The demon is then addressed in some such manner as this: "I wish you to protect this farm from injury. Make the crop prosper more than everybody's else, and, to do this, every day you must steal from other people's farms and fill this hamper to the full. If you do this I shall treat you well; but if you fail, this bundle of rods is reserved for your punishment." The god is then heartily treated to a sample of the walloping it should expect in case of default. When its help is needed in the store a similar temple is put up for it in a corner within, and its duty is then to protect the store from burglary, to replenish it by theft and to "draw" custom by a sort of personal magnetism. In either case it must be well cared for. Whatever food or drink its owner partakes every day, a portion must be given to it—and don't forget the whipping. Whether you realize or are disappointed in your expectations of it the guardian angel respects force more than gentleness, and must be whipped soundly every morning.

It will be seen from this that the morality of thenomoliis of a rather naughty order. The controlling principle of its life is theft; in fact it idealizes this vice, since ownership in regard to it cannot be transferred except by stealing. The god argues it this way: "He who is so careless of me that he allows me to be stolen from him, is not worthy to be my master; but he who so much believes in my powers that he risks the consequences of theft for the sake of getting possession of me, is deserving to be my master and I will serve him." In the event of discovery the culprit is taken to the barre or native court and the Chief inflicts a fine on him; and, "whereas, contrary to customary law, Kai Baki, the plaintiff, did harbour a 'big man' stranger (to wit, anomoli) in the chiefdom without intimating the Chief in order that his majesty might pay his homage etc., etc.," the aforesaid plaintiff, who in native law is entitled to receive the amount of defendant's fine as compensation, is not only mulcted in the same amount more or less, but hisnomolibecomes forfeited to the crown in the bargain. Obviously, then, it does not pay to prosecute fornomolistealing, and the robbed native would rather bear his trouble like a philosopher, secretly admiring the cuteness of the other fellow and stealing his property back at the earliest opportunity.

Origin of the Nomoli

If one depends upon the aborigines for a clue as to the origin of thenomolithe enquiry would, like Kipling's "eathen," "end where it began." The whole thing is veiled in mystery; there is not even a legend about it. All that the native would tell you, and it is what he honestly believes to be the truth, is that the image was created by Gehwor (God) and came down directly from heaven. The fact that no sculpturing of the kind is now-a-days prosecuted in the country, although the Sherbros are clever at wood-carving, makes him ridicule the idea that thenomoliis man's handiwork. The enquiring student must for the present, therefore, go upon very scanty basis to formulate his theory. In order to help in the solution of this problem I shall state one or two facts about the natives of these regions. The Sherbros and Mendis, both of whom inhabit the vast territory known as Sherbroland, are, of all primitive Africans, the least given to fetish worship. This fact has always proved a stumbling-block to the spread of Mohammedanism in that part of the world. Arab as well as Negro Moslem missionaries have always found the Sherbro and Mendi man rather hard nuts to crack. Many an emissary of the prophet has invaded Sherbroland, exposing for sale all the tempting superstitious paraphernalia of the faith, but the native has almost invariably beaten him with his cold logic.

"How long does it take to come here from Mecca?" once asked a native of an Arab Sheik, who went out hawking some charms in the course of a religious tour. "Oh, more than a month," answered the unsuspecting Moslem. "A month!" exclaimed the intended convert. "Yes." "And you have come all that distance to help us with these things?" "Yes." "Then you must have paid quite a lot of money for your passage?" "Quite a lot." "And I dare say, you must have only a little money left now?" pursued the native. "Oh, yes, that's why I am selling these potent charms so cheaply, because I wish to raise money to go back home," confessed the true believer. "But how is that?" queried the native; "if, as you say, these charms can make a poor man become rich, how is it that you did not stay in Mecca and use them yourself to become rich instead of coming all the way here to sell them to get money?"

As this attitude towards charms, which is typical of the Sherbro natives, shows that they are not a fetish worshipping people, it can hardly be supposed that thenomolisare relics of that superstition. If this were the case, it could easily be suggested by those who wish to discredit the race that the images might have been made bymembers of some foreign race and exported to the "heathen," who are supposed to delight in "bowing down to wood and stone," a sort of execution to order. This should be quite possible, because it was recently discovered that a certain London firm did a thriving business in idols with China; and it has even been suggested that thenomoliswere imported into Sherbroland from Phoenicia.

But such a contingency being ruled out of court, in view of the Sherbro native's antipathy to idol worship, we must look for an explanation of the origin of thenomolito one other feature in the customs of Sherbroland. The Sherbros have a custom almost similar to that of the Timnis, a kindred people. The latter are given to ancestor worship. At the burial of a Timni, a few stones are placed upon the grave, and after three days, when the spirit of the deceased is supposed to have entered into the stones, they are removed to a little shrine in the porch of the family house. The spirit then becomes a guardian angel, and offerings are made at the shrine from day to day. The Sherbros also make use of stones for the reception of the spirits of their departed ones, but not with a view to ancestor worship. If a Sherbro happened to die away from home, which is considered a great calamity, the remains are either exhumed and brought back to the old familiar scenes, or, if the distance be too great, three stones are taken to the last resting place and, after three days in the case of a male, or four days in the case of a female, the spirit is supposed to have entered the stones, and the latter are brought to the old town andburied.

Is it not possible, then, that thenomolisare real pictures of some ancient Sherbro men and women, and that these people, dying away from "home, sweet home," their images, after having supposedly received their spirits, were interred in the old homeland? I believe the Rev. Dr. Hayford in his "Ethiopia Unbound" suggests that Ethiopia or Negrodom was once the mistress of the world; that much-talked-of Egypt was but a province of hers, and the pharaohs not real kings, but merely governors sent from the mother country. If this be true, might it not be that some of thesenomolisare sculptures of eminent men and women, natives of the region now known as Sherbroland, who went to far-away Egypt as Empire builders, lost their lives in the land of the sphynx; and, since distance prevented the return of their bodies, their busts, after receiving their imperishable parts, were brought back home and buried with due solemnity "under the stately walls of Troy?"

Walter L. Edwin

Sierra Leone, West Africa

To present a broad view of the Negroes concerned in this and the subsequent series of documents we have given below accounts appearing from decade to decade, written by men of different classes and of various countries. Some received one impression and some another, as the situation was viewed from different angles. In the mass of information, however, there is the truth which one may learn for himself.

L'esclavage, le plus grand de tous les maux nécessaires, soit relativement à ceux qui l'endurent, soit par rapport à ceux qui sont contraints d'en employer les victimes, existe dans toute l'étendue des deux Louisianes. Il ne seroit pas facile de determiner pendant combien d'années la partie septentrionale en aura besoin; mais on peut assurer qu'il doit exister bien des siècles encore dans le Midi si le Gouvernement veut y encourager l'agriculture, qui est son unique ressource. Les Nègres seuls peuvent se livrer aux travaux dans ces climats brûlans: le Blanc qui y périt jeune malgré toutes sortes de ménegemens, ne feroit qu s'y montrer s'il étoit obligé d'y cultiver son champ de ses propres mains. Pour tirer parti de cette colonie, l'on doit donc protéger l'importation des Nègres qui y sont en trop petit nombre; mais il est en même temps de l'intérêt du Gouvernement, de veiller a ce que les habitans n'y abusent pas du pouvoir que la loi et droit de propriété leur donnent.Après la cruelle expérience de Saint-Domingue, qui probablement aura ouvert les yeux de tous ces philantropes qui ne comptent pour rien la prosperité des empires, lorsqu'elle semble être en contradiction avec ces sentimens d'humanité, dont ils feignent souvent d'avoir été doués par la nature; je suis loin d'engager aucun gouvernement à relâcher les liens de l'esclavage: on doit les laisser subsister dans leur intégrité, ou perdre les colonies. Cependant doivent-ils négliger cette branche d'administration et s'en rapporter aveuglément aux proprietaires, qui paroissent avoir unintérêt direct à ménager leurs esclaves? C'est ce que je suis loin de croire. Les passions agissent trop fortement sur le coeur des hommes, pour ne pas en restreindre la vivacité par des règlemens sages; leur intérêt même souvent mal-entendu les aveugle sur leurs propres avantages. L'avarice crie à l'un que ses esclaves mal vêtus et mal nourris, n'en sont pas moins tenus a lui rendre les services qu'l exige; la colère conduit l'autre à faire des exemples terribles, sous prétexte d'effrayer ceux qui seroient tentés de lui manquer; un grand nombre enfin se croit autorisé à s'en servir pour assouvir ses passions et servir ses passions et servir ses gouts, fussent-ils même contraires aux devoirs de la société et opposés aux principes religieux. Aux yeux des gouvernans les hommes ne doivent être que de grands enfans, dont, en sages précepteurs, ils dirigent les caprices de manière à les faire tourner à leur plus grand bien.Dans la basse Louisiane les Nègres sont très mal nourris: chacun ne reçoit pas par mois audelà, d'un baril de maïs en épis, ce qui ne fait que le tiers d'un baril en grain;[228]encore beaucoup de propriétaries prélèvent-ils quelque chose sur leur ration. Ils doivent se procurer le suplus de leur nourriture, ainsi que leurs vêtemens, avec le produit de leur travail du dimanche. S'ils ne le font pas, ils sont exposés à rester nus pendant la saison rigoureuse. Ceux qui leur fournissent des vêtemens, le contraignent à employer pour eux les jours de repos, jusqu'a ce qu'ils aient été remboursés de leurs avances. Pendant tout l'été, les Nègres ne sont pas vêtus. Les parties naturelles sont uniquement cachées par une pièce d'étoffe, qui s'attache à la ceinture par devant et par derrière, et qui a conservé dans toute l'Amérique septentrionale habitée par les François, le nom debraguet. L'hiver ils ont généralement une chemise et une couverture de laine, faite en forme de redingotte. Les enfans restent souvent nus jusqu'à l'age de huit ans, qu'ils commencent à rendre quelques services.Un maître ne doit-il pas a son esclave le vêtement et une nourriture substantielle, à proportion du travail qu'il en exige? Le jour du repos n'appartient-il pas à tous les hommes, et plus particulièrement à ceux qui sont employés aux penibles travaux de la campagne? Ce sont des questions qui n'en seroient pas, si l'avarice, plus forte que l'humanité, ne dominoit presque tous les hommes, mais sur-tout les habitans des colonies. Que résulte-t-il cependant de cette avarice mal entendue? les Nègres mal nourris et trop fatigués s'épuisent et ne peuplent pas; de l'épuisement nait la foiblesse, de la foiblesse le decouragement, la maladie et la mort.Pour augmenter son revenue le propriétaire perd donc le capital, sans que son expérience le rende ordinairement plus sage. Je n'ignore pas que les Nègres sont loin de ressembler aux autres hommes; qu'ils ne peuvent être conduits ni par la douceur, ni par les sentimens; qu'ils se moquent de ceux qui les traitent avec bonté; qu'ils tiennent par la morale à la brute, autant qu'à l'homme par leur constitution physique; mais ayons au moins pour eux soins que nous avons pour les quadrupèdes, dont nous nous servons: nourrissons-les bien pour qu'ils travaillent bien, et n'exigeons pas au-dela de leurs facultés ou de leurs forces.Les Nègres sont naturellement fourbes, paresseux, voleurs et cruels; il est inutile d'ajouter qu'ils sont tous dans le coeur ennemis des Blancs: le serpent cherche à mordre celui qui le foule aux pieds; l'esclave doit haïr son maître. Mais ce dontil est difficile de rendre compte, c'est l'aversion et la brutalité des Noirs libres pour ceux de leur espèce. Parviennent-ils à se procurer des esclaves? ils les traitent avec une barbarie dont rien ne peut approcher; ils les nourrissent plus mal encore que ne font les Blancs, et les surchargent de travail: heureusement leur penchant à la fainéantise et a l'ivrognerie, les tient dans un état de mediocrité dont ils sortent rarement.Quoique les Nègres libres perdent très-peu de leur haine pour les Blancs, ils sont cependant loin d'être aussi dangereux que les Mulâtres. Ces hommes qui semblent participer aux vices des deux espèces, comme ils out participé à leurs couleurs, sont méchans, vindicatifs, traîtres et également ennemis des Noirs qu'ils méprisent, et des Blancs qu'ils ont en horreur. Cruels jus qu'à la barbarie envers les premiers, ils sont toujours prêts à saisir l'occasion de tourner leurs bras contre les seconds. Fruits du libertinage de leurs pères, dont ils recoivent presque tous la liberté et une éducation assez soignée, ils sont loin d'en être reconnaissans; ils voudroient en être traités comme des enfans légitimes, et la différence que l'on met entr'eux les porte à détester même les auteurs de leurs jours. On en a vu un grand nombre, dans le massacre de Saint-Domingue, porter sur eux leurs mains parricides. Les plus délicats se chargeoient mutuellement de cette détestable commission. Vas tuer mon père, se disoient-ils, je tuerai le tien.Mais, dira-t-on, le premier droit de la nature est de se racheter de l'esclavage, comme c'en est un aussi de faire jouir des bienfaits de la liberté l'être qui tient de nous l'existence. Ces vérités ne peuvent être contestées; mais une troisième qui n'est pas moinsévidente, c'est qu'il est du devoir d'un bon gouvernement d'assurer par toutes sortes de moyens la vie et la propriété des peuples qui vivent sous sa domination: or, par-tout où il y aura des Nègres libres ou des Mulâtres, l'une et l'autre seront chaque jour exposées au plus imminent danger. Un esclave fuit-il son maître? c'est chez un Nègre libre qu'il va se réfugier. Un vol a-t-il été commis? si le Nègre libre n'en est point l'auteur, il en est au moins le receleur. Lorsque par la suite de son travail ou de son économie un esclave peut racheter sa liberté, qu'il aille en jouir parmi les nations qui voudront le recevoir, ou qu'il retourne dans son pays, c'est tout ce que le Gouvernement lui doit. Mais je ne crains pas d'assurer que toute colonie où l'on souffrira des Nègres libres, sera le repaire du brigandage et des crimes.Quant aux hommes de couleur, plus dangereux encore, il seroit probablement très-avantageux d'en former des colonies dans quelques parties inhabitées du continent: cette mesure auroit une suite doublement utile; elle priveroit les colonies de ces êtres par lesquels elles seront tôt ou tard anéanties, et elle diminueroit ce goût crapuleux des Blancs pour leurs esclaves, qui est la ruine de la société et la cause première du pen de population des pays qu'ils habitent.—Voyage dans Les Deux Louisianes, 1801, 1802, and 1803, pp. 408-415, par M. Perrin Du Lac.

Après la cruelle expérience de Saint-Domingue, qui probablement aura ouvert les yeux de tous ces philantropes qui ne comptent pour rien la prosperité des empires, lorsqu'elle semble être en contradiction avec ces sentimens d'humanité, dont ils feignent souvent d'avoir été doués par la nature; je suis loin d'engager aucun gouvernement à relâcher les liens de l'esclavage: on doit les laisser subsister dans leur intégrité, ou perdre les colonies. Cependant doivent-ils négliger cette branche d'administration et s'en rapporter aveuglément aux proprietaires, qui paroissent avoir unintérêt direct à ménager leurs esclaves? C'est ce que je suis loin de croire. Les passions agissent trop fortement sur le coeur des hommes, pour ne pas en restreindre la vivacité par des règlemens sages; leur intérêt même souvent mal-entendu les aveugle sur leurs propres avantages. L'avarice crie à l'un que ses esclaves mal vêtus et mal nourris, n'en sont pas moins tenus a lui rendre les services qu'l exige; la colère conduit l'autre à faire des exemples terribles, sous prétexte d'effrayer ceux qui seroient tentés de lui manquer; un grand nombre enfin se croit autorisé à s'en servir pour assouvir ses passions et servir ses passions et servir ses gouts, fussent-ils même contraires aux devoirs de la société et opposés aux principes religieux. Aux yeux des gouvernans les hommes ne doivent être que de grands enfans, dont, en sages précepteurs, ils dirigent les caprices de manière à les faire tourner à leur plus grand bien.

Dans la basse Louisiane les Nègres sont très mal nourris: chacun ne reçoit pas par mois audelà, d'un baril de maïs en épis, ce qui ne fait que le tiers d'un baril en grain;[228]encore beaucoup de propriétaries prélèvent-ils quelque chose sur leur ration. Ils doivent se procurer le suplus de leur nourriture, ainsi que leurs vêtemens, avec le produit de leur travail du dimanche. S'ils ne le font pas, ils sont exposés à rester nus pendant la saison rigoureuse. Ceux qui leur fournissent des vêtemens, le contraignent à employer pour eux les jours de repos, jusqu'a ce qu'ils aient été remboursés de leurs avances. Pendant tout l'été, les Nègres ne sont pas vêtus. Les parties naturelles sont uniquement cachées par une pièce d'étoffe, qui s'attache à la ceinture par devant et par derrière, et qui a conservé dans toute l'Amérique septentrionale habitée par les François, le nom debraguet. L'hiver ils ont généralement une chemise et une couverture de laine, faite en forme de redingotte. Les enfans restent souvent nus jusqu'à l'age de huit ans, qu'ils commencent à rendre quelques services.

Un maître ne doit-il pas a son esclave le vêtement et une nourriture substantielle, à proportion du travail qu'il en exige? Le jour du repos n'appartient-il pas à tous les hommes, et plus particulièrement à ceux qui sont employés aux penibles travaux de la campagne? Ce sont des questions qui n'en seroient pas, si l'avarice, plus forte que l'humanité, ne dominoit presque tous les hommes, mais sur-tout les habitans des colonies. Que résulte-t-il cependant de cette avarice mal entendue? les Nègres mal nourris et trop fatigués s'épuisent et ne peuplent pas; de l'épuisement nait la foiblesse, de la foiblesse le decouragement, la maladie et la mort.Pour augmenter son revenue le propriétaire perd donc le capital, sans que son expérience le rende ordinairement plus sage. Je n'ignore pas que les Nègres sont loin de ressembler aux autres hommes; qu'ils ne peuvent être conduits ni par la douceur, ni par les sentimens; qu'ils se moquent de ceux qui les traitent avec bonté; qu'ils tiennent par la morale à la brute, autant qu'à l'homme par leur constitution physique; mais ayons au moins pour eux soins que nous avons pour les quadrupèdes, dont nous nous servons: nourrissons-les bien pour qu'ils travaillent bien, et n'exigeons pas au-dela de leurs facultés ou de leurs forces.

Les Nègres sont naturellement fourbes, paresseux, voleurs et cruels; il est inutile d'ajouter qu'ils sont tous dans le coeur ennemis des Blancs: le serpent cherche à mordre celui qui le foule aux pieds; l'esclave doit haïr son maître. Mais ce dontil est difficile de rendre compte, c'est l'aversion et la brutalité des Noirs libres pour ceux de leur espèce. Parviennent-ils à se procurer des esclaves? ils les traitent avec une barbarie dont rien ne peut approcher; ils les nourrissent plus mal encore que ne font les Blancs, et les surchargent de travail: heureusement leur penchant à la fainéantise et a l'ivrognerie, les tient dans un état de mediocrité dont ils sortent rarement.

Quoique les Nègres libres perdent très-peu de leur haine pour les Blancs, ils sont cependant loin d'être aussi dangereux que les Mulâtres. Ces hommes qui semblent participer aux vices des deux espèces, comme ils out participé à leurs couleurs, sont méchans, vindicatifs, traîtres et également ennemis des Noirs qu'ils méprisent, et des Blancs qu'ils ont en horreur. Cruels jus qu'à la barbarie envers les premiers, ils sont toujours prêts à saisir l'occasion de tourner leurs bras contre les seconds. Fruits du libertinage de leurs pères, dont ils recoivent presque tous la liberté et une éducation assez soignée, ils sont loin d'en être reconnaissans; ils voudroient en être traités comme des enfans légitimes, et la différence que l'on met entr'eux les porte à détester même les auteurs de leurs jours. On en a vu un grand nombre, dans le massacre de Saint-Domingue, porter sur eux leurs mains parricides. Les plus délicats se chargeoient mutuellement de cette détestable commission. Vas tuer mon père, se disoient-ils, je tuerai le tien.

Mais, dira-t-on, le premier droit de la nature est de se racheter de l'esclavage, comme c'en est un aussi de faire jouir des bienfaits de la liberté l'être qui tient de nous l'existence. Ces vérités ne peuvent être contestées; mais une troisième qui n'est pas moinsévidente, c'est qu'il est du devoir d'un bon gouvernement d'assurer par toutes sortes de moyens la vie et la propriété des peuples qui vivent sous sa domination: or, par-tout où il y aura des Nègres libres ou des Mulâtres, l'une et l'autre seront chaque jour exposées au plus imminent danger. Un esclave fuit-il son maître? c'est chez un Nègre libre qu'il va se réfugier. Un vol a-t-il été commis? si le Nègre libre n'en est point l'auteur, il en est au moins le receleur. Lorsque par la suite de son travail ou de son économie un esclave peut racheter sa liberté, qu'il aille en jouir parmi les nations qui voudront le recevoir, ou qu'il retourne dans son pays, c'est tout ce que le Gouvernement lui doit. Mais je ne crains pas d'assurer que toute colonie où l'on souffrira des Nègres libres, sera le repaire du brigandage et des crimes.

Quant aux hommes de couleur, plus dangereux encore, il seroit probablement très-avantageux d'en former des colonies dans quelques parties inhabitées du continent: cette mesure auroit une suite doublement utile; elle priveroit les colonies de ces êtres par lesquels elles seront tôt ou tard anéanties, et elle diminueroit ce goût crapuleux des Blancs pour leurs esclaves, qui est la ruine de la société et la cause première du pen de population des pays qu'ils habitent.—Voyage dans Les Deux Louisianes, 1801, 1802, and 1803, pp. 408-415, par M. Perrin Du Lac.

The class of free people of colour is composed of negroes and mulattoes, but chiefly of the last, who have either obtained or purchased their liberty from their masters, or held it in virtue of the freedom of their parents. Of these, some residing in the country, cultivate rice and a little cotton; a great number, men, women and children collected in the city, are employed in mechanical arts, and menial offices.The mulattoes are in general vain and insolent, perfidious and debauched, much giving to lying, and great cowards. They have an inveterate hatred against the whites, the authors of their existence, and primitive benefactors. It is the policy of the Spanish government to cherish this antipathy; but nothing is to be feared from them. There is a proportion of six whites to one man of colour, which, with their natural pusillanimity, is a sufficient restraint.The mulatto women have not all the faults of the men. But they are full of vanity, and very libertine; money will always buy their caresses. They are not without personal charms; good shapes, polished and elastic skins. They live in open concubinage with the whites; but to this they are incited more by money than any attachment. After all we love those best, and are most happy in the intercourse of those, with whom we can be the most familiar and unconstrained. These girls, therefore, only affect a fondness for the whites; their hearts are with men of their own colour.They are, however, not wanting in discernment, penetration, finesse; in this light they are superior to many of the white girls in the lower classes of society, girls so impenetrably dull, that like that of Balsac's village, they are too stupid to be deceived by a man of breeding, gallantry and wit.

The mulattoes are in general vain and insolent, perfidious and debauched, much giving to lying, and great cowards. They have an inveterate hatred against the whites, the authors of their existence, and primitive benefactors. It is the policy of the Spanish government to cherish this antipathy; but nothing is to be feared from them. There is a proportion of six whites to one man of colour, which, with their natural pusillanimity, is a sufficient restraint.

The mulatto women have not all the faults of the men. But they are full of vanity, and very libertine; money will always buy their caresses. They are not without personal charms; good shapes, polished and elastic skins. They live in open concubinage with the whites; but to this they are incited more by money than any attachment. After all we love those best, and are most happy in the intercourse of those, with whom we can be the most familiar and unconstrained. These girls, therefore, only affect a fondness for the whites; their hearts are with men of their own colour.

They are, however, not wanting in discernment, penetration, finesse; in this light they are superior to many of the white girls in the lower classes of society, girls so impenetrably dull, that like that of Balsac's village, they are too stupid to be deceived by a man of breeding, gallantry and wit.

We come now to the class of negro slaves, the most numerous but least fortunate of all. The negro Creoles of the country, or born in some other European colony, and sent hither, are the most active, the most intelligent, and the least subject to chronic distempers; but they are also the most indolent, vicious and debauched.Those who come from Guinea are less expert in domestic service, and the mechanical arts, less intelligent, and oftener victims of violent sickness or grief (particularly in the early part of their transportation) but more robust, more laborious, more adapted to the labours of the field, less deceitful and libertine than the others. Such are the discriminative characteristics of each, and as to the rest, there is a strong relation between their moral and physical character.Negroes are a species of beings whom nature seems to have intended for slavery; their pliancy of temper, patience under injury, and innate passiveness, all concur to justify this position; unlike the savages or aborigines of America, who could never be brought to servile controul.This colony of Louisiana, offers a philosophic and instructive spectacle on this subject, from which I shall make a number of deductions. If nature had imparted the same instinct to negroes that she has to savages, it is certain that, instead of subjecting themselves mechanically to the eternal labours of the field, and thediscipline of an imperious task-master, they would abandon those places (to which they are not chained), and gaining the woods, encamp themselves in the interior of the country; in this imitating the savages, or aborigines, who sooner than live in the vicinity of the whites, retire at their approach.Is it the uncertainty of a subsistence in this new mode of life, that deters them from undertaking it? They have never any solicitude for their future support. Is it the fear of being pursued and overtaken that is an obstacle to the project? Ignorant as they are, they cannot but know that, protected by almost impenetrable woods, and formidable in numbers, they might set at defiance a handful of whites. Does the apprehension of being combated by the Indians damp their enterprize? Such a chimera could never affright them, since the Indians roving in detached parties, would be the first to flee; nay, they would probably court their union, there having been instances of negroes finding an asylum among them, but after a lapse of time, unworthy to enjoy freedom, the fugitives have returned to their plantation, like a dog, who, having escaped from his kennel, returns to it by an instinct of submission. To multiply comparisons, as the ox resigns himself to his yoke, so the negro bends to his burden.Their defect in instinct is apparent. Could the Indians be ever brought to that state of slavery which the negroes bear without repining; every method hitherto practiced to deprive them of their liberty, has been ineffectual.But it is not so with the negroes. In their own country, or abroad, if they have ever discovered a desire to emerge from slavery this flame as resembled a meteor which appears only for a moment. And even, the scenes, which have been witnessed in the French colonies, and, particularly, the island of Saint Domingo,[229]serve to corroborate and support my theory. It is undeniable that the negroes of that colony have never ceased to be slaves. Before their insurrection they were the slaves of the legitimate masters; in the early part of the revolution they were slaves to the French commissioners and mulattoes; and afterwards they became subject to the nod of negroes like themselves. We do not alter the substance of a thing by changing the name.Nature may be modified but cannot be essentially changed. It is not possible to impart to the dog the habits of the wolf, nor tothe ape those of the sheep. This position cannot be refuted. Sophistry may for a while delude, but the mind reposes upon the stability of truth.From this digression let us return to the examination of the negro slave of Louisiana. He has the faults of a slave. He is lazy, libertine, and given to lying, but not incorrigibly wicked. His labour is not severe, unless it be at the rolling of sugars, an interval of from two to three months, when the number of labourers is not proportionate to the labour; then he works both by day and night. It must be allowed that forty negroes rolling a hundred and twenty thousand weight of sugar, and as many hogsheads of syrup, in the short space of two cold, foggy, rainy months (November and December) under all the difficulties and embarrassments resulting from the season, the shortness of the days, and the length of the nights, cannot but labour severely; abridged of their sleep, they scarce retire to rest during the whole period. It is true they are then fed more plentifully, but their toils are nevertheless excessive.[230]In the country where there are not those resources that distinguishedthe Antilles, nor its spontaneous supplies, such as bananas, yams, sweet potatoes, &c. the food of the negroes is less abundant.The fixed ration of each negro a month is a barrel of maize not pounded; indian corn being the only grain of the colony which can assure an unfailing subsistence to the slaves. The rice, beans and potatoes cultivated here, would not supply a quarter of them with food. Some masters, more humane than others, add to the ration a little salt.The negro, during his hours of respite from labour, is busied in pounding his corn; he has afterwards to bake it with what wood he can procure himself. Both in summer and winter, he must be in the fields at the first dawn of day. He carries his sorry pittance of a breakfast with him, which he eats on the spot; he is, however, scarce allowed time to digest it. His labour is suspended from noon till two, when he dines, or rather makes a supplement to his former meal. At two his labour re-commences, and he prosecutes it till dark, sometimes visited by his master, but always exposedto the menaces, blows and scourges either of a white overseer, or a black driver.The good negro, during the hours of respite allowed him, is not idle. He is busy cultivating the little lot of ground granted him, while his wife (if he has one) is preparing food for him and their children. For it is observable that in this colony, the children of the slaves are not nourished by their masters, as they are at the Antilles; their parents are charged with them, and allowed half a ration more for every child, commencing from the epoch when it is weaned.Retired at night to their huts, after having made a frugal meal, they forget their labors in the arms of their mistresses. But those who cannot obtain women (for there is a great disproportion between the numbers of the two sexes) traverse the woods in search of adventures, and often encounter those of an unpleasant nature. They frequently meet a patrole of the whites, who tie them up and flog them, and then send them home.They are very fond of tobacco; they both smoke and chew it with great relish.Nothing can be more simple than the burial of a slave; he is put into the plainest coffin, knocked together by a carpenter of his own colour, and carried unattended by mourners to the neighbouring grave-field. The most absolute democracy, however, reigns there; the planter and slave, confounded with one another, rot in conjunction.Under ground precedency is all a jest!"Imperial Caesar dead, and turned to clay,"May stop some hole to keep the wind away!"—Pope.Death is not so terrible in aspect to these negroes as to the whites. In fact death itself is not so formidable to any man as the pageantry with which it is set forth. It is not death that is so terrible, but the cries of mothers, wives and children, the visits of astonished and afflicted friends, pale and blubbering servants, a dark room set round with burning tapers, our beds surrounded with physicians and divines. These, and not death itself, affright the minds of the beholders, and make that appear so dreadful with which armies, who have an opportunity of being thoroughly acquainted and often seeing him without any of these black and dismal disguises, converse familiarly, and meet with mirth and gaiety.The only cloathing of a slave is a simple woollen garment; it is given to them at the beginning of winter. And will it be believed,that the master, to indemnify himself for this expense, retrenches half an hour from his negro's hours of respite, during the short days of the rigorous season!Their ordinary food is indian corn, or rice and beans, boiled in water, without fat or salt. To them nothing comes amiss. They will devour greedily racoon, opossum, squirrels, wood-rats, and even the crocodile; leaving to the white people the roebuck and rabbit, which they sell them when they kill those animals.They raise poultry and hogs, but seldom eat either. They prefer selling them, and purchasing from their profits, cloathing and brandy. They love brandy to excess. Promise a negro a dram, and he will go through fire and water to serve you.Their smoaky huts admit both wind and rain. An anecdote offers itself to my pen on this subject, which will exhibit the frigid indifference of the colonists of Louisiana towards every thing that interests humanity. Being on a visit at a plantation on the Mississippi, I walked out one fine evening in winter, with some ladies and gentlemen, who had accompanied me from the town, and the planters at whose house we were entertained. We approached the quarter where the huts of the negroes stood. "Let us visit the negroes," said one of the party; and we advanced towards the door of a miserable hut, where an old negro woman came to the threshold in order to receive us, but so decrepit as well as old, that it was painful for her to move.Notwithstanding the winter was advanced, she was partly naked; her only covering being some old thrown away rags. Her fire was a few chips, and she was parching a little corn for supper. Thus she lived abandoned and forlorn; incapable from old age to work any longer, she was no longer noticed.But independently of her long services, this negro woman had formerly suckled and brought up two brothers of her master, who made one of our party. She perceived him, and accosting him, said, "My master, when will you send one of your carpenters to repair the roof of my hut? Whenever it rains, it pours down upon my head." The master lifting his eyes, directed them to the roof of the hut, which was within the reach of his hand. "I will think of it," said he.—"You will think of it," said the poor creature. "You always say so, but never do it."—"Have you not," rejoined the master, "two grandsons who can mend it for you?"—"But are they mine," said the old woman, "do they not work for you, andare you not my son yourself? who suckled and raised your two brothers? who was it but Irrouba? Take pity then on me, in my old age. Mend at least the roof of my hut, and God will reward you for it."I was sensibly affected; it wasle cri de la bonne nature. And what repairs did the poor creature's roof require? What was wanting to shelter her from the wind and rain of heaven? A few shingles!—"I will think of it," repeated her master, and departed.The ordinary punishment inflicted on the negroes of the colony is a whipping. What in Europe would condemn a man to the galleys or the gallows incurs here only the chastisement of the whip. But then a king having many subjects does not miss them after their exit from this life, but a planter could not lose a negro without feeling the privation.I do not consider slavery either as contrary to the order of a well regulated society, or an infringement of the social laws. Under a different name it exists in every country. Soften then the word which so mightily offends the ear; call it dependence.The most common maladies of the negroes are slight fevers in the spring, more violent ones in the summer, dysenteries in autumn, and fluxions of the breast in winter. Their bill of mortality, however, is not very considerable. The births exceed the deaths.The language of the negro slaves, as well as of a great number of the free mulattoes, is a patois derived from the French, and spoken according to rules of corruption. There are some house-slaves, however, who speak French with not less purity than their masters: their language, it may be presumed, is depraved with many words not to be found in a Voltaire, a Thomas or a Rousseau.—Travels in Louisiana and The Floridas, in the Year, 1802, by Berquin Duvallon, pp. 79-94. Trans. by Davis.John Davis, 1806

Those who come from Guinea are less expert in domestic service, and the mechanical arts, less intelligent, and oftener victims of violent sickness or grief (particularly in the early part of their transportation) but more robust, more laborious, more adapted to the labours of the field, less deceitful and libertine than the others. Such are the discriminative characteristics of each, and as to the rest, there is a strong relation between their moral and physical character.

Negroes are a species of beings whom nature seems to have intended for slavery; their pliancy of temper, patience under injury, and innate passiveness, all concur to justify this position; unlike the savages or aborigines of America, who could never be brought to servile controul.

This colony of Louisiana, offers a philosophic and instructive spectacle on this subject, from which I shall make a number of deductions. If nature had imparted the same instinct to negroes that she has to savages, it is certain that, instead of subjecting themselves mechanically to the eternal labours of the field, and thediscipline of an imperious task-master, they would abandon those places (to which they are not chained), and gaining the woods, encamp themselves in the interior of the country; in this imitating the savages, or aborigines, who sooner than live in the vicinity of the whites, retire at their approach.

Is it the uncertainty of a subsistence in this new mode of life, that deters them from undertaking it? They have never any solicitude for their future support. Is it the fear of being pursued and overtaken that is an obstacle to the project? Ignorant as they are, they cannot but know that, protected by almost impenetrable woods, and formidable in numbers, they might set at defiance a handful of whites. Does the apprehension of being combated by the Indians damp their enterprize? Such a chimera could never affright them, since the Indians roving in detached parties, would be the first to flee; nay, they would probably court their union, there having been instances of negroes finding an asylum among them, but after a lapse of time, unworthy to enjoy freedom, the fugitives have returned to their plantation, like a dog, who, having escaped from his kennel, returns to it by an instinct of submission. To multiply comparisons, as the ox resigns himself to his yoke, so the negro bends to his burden.

Their defect in instinct is apparent. Could the Indians be ever brought to that state of slavery which the negroes bear without repining; every method hitherto practiced to deprive them of their liberty, has been ineffectual.

But it is not so with the negroes. In their own country, or abroad, if they have ever discovered a desire to emerge from slavery this flame as resembled a meteor which appears only for a moment. And even, the scenes, which have been witnessed in the French colonies, and, particularly, the island of Saint Domingo,[229]serve to corroborate and support my theory. It is undeniable that the negroes of that colony have never ceased to be slaves. Before their insurrection they were the slaves of the legitimate masters; in the early part of the revolution they were slaves to the French commissioners and mulattoes; and afterwards they became subject to the nod of negroes like themselves. We do not alter the substance of a thing by changing the name.

Nature may be modified but cannot be essentially changed. It is not possible to impart to the dog the habits of the wolf, nor tothe ape those of the sheep. This position cannot be refuted. Sophistry may for a while delude, but the mind reposes upon the stability of truth.

From this digression let us return to the examination of the negro slave of Louisiana. He has the faults of a slave. He is lazy, libertine, and given to lying, but not incorrigibly wicked. His labour is not severe, unless it be at the rolling of sugars, an interval of from two to three months, when the number of labourers is not proportionate to the labour; then he works both by day and night. It must be allowed that forty negroes rolling a hundred and twenty thousand weight of sugar, and as many hogsheads of syrup, in the short space of two cold, foggy, rainy months (November and December) under all the difficulties and embarrassments resulting from the season, the shortness of the days, and the length of the nights, cannot but labour severely; abridged of their sleep, they scarce retire to rest during the whole period. It is true they are then fed more plentifully, but their toils are nevertheless excessive.[230]In the country where there are not those resources that distinguishedthe Antilles, nor its spontaneous supplies, such as bananas, yams, sweet potatoes, &c. the food of the negroes is less abundant.

The fixed ration of each negro a month is a barrel of maize not pounded; indian corn being the only grain of the colony which can assure an unfailing subsistence to the slaves. The rice, beans and potatoes cultivated here, would not supply a quarter of them with food. Some masters, more humane than others, add to the ration a little salt.

The negro, during his hours of respite from labour, is busied in pounding his corn; he has afterwards to bake it with what wood he can procure himself. Both in summer and winter, he must be in the fields at the first dawn of day. He carries his sorry pittance of a breakfast with him, which he eats on the spot; he is, however, scarce allowed time to digest it. His labour is suspended from noon till two, when he dines, or rather makes a supplement to his former meal. At two his labour re-commences, and he prosecutes it till dark, sometimes visited by his master, but always exposedto the menaces, blows and scourges either of a white overseer, or a black driver.

The good negro, during the hours of respite allowed him, is not idle. He is busy cultivating the little lot of ground granted him, while his wife (if he has one) is preparing food for him and their children. For it is observable that in this colony, the children of the slaves are not nourished by their masters, as they are at the Antilles; their parents are charged with them, and allowed half a ration more for every child, commencing from the epoch when it is weaned.

Retired at night to their huts, after having made a frugal meal, they forget their labors in the arms of their mistresses. But those who cannot obtain women (for there is a great disproportion between the numbers of the two sexes) traverse the woods in search of adventures, and often encounter those of an unpleasant nature. They frequently meet a patrole of the whites, who tie them up and flog them, and then send them home.

They are very fond of tobacco; they both smoke and chew it with great relish.

Nothing can be more simple than the burial of a slave; he is put into the plainest coffin, knocked together by a carpenter of his own colour, and carried unattended by mourners to the neighbouring grave-field. The most absolute democracy, however, reigns there; the planter and slave, confounded with one another, rot in conjunction.Under ground precedency is all a jest!

"Imperial Caesar dead, and turned to clay,"May stop some hole to keep the wind away!"—Pope.

Death is not so terrible in aspect to these negroes as to the whites. In fact death itself is not so formidable to any man as the pageantry with which it is set forth. It is not death that is so terrible, but the cries of mothers, wives and children, the visits of astonished and afflicted friends, pale and blubbering servants, a dark room set round with burning tapers, our beds surrounded with physicians and divines. These, and not death itself, affright the minds of the beholders, and make that appear so dreadful with which armies, who have an opportunity of being thoroughly acquainted and often seeing him without any of these black and dismal disguises, converse familiarly, and meet with mirth and gaiety.

The only cloathing of a slave is a simple woollen garment; it is given to them at the beginning of winter. And will it be believed,that the master, to indemnify himself for this expense, retrenches half an hour from his negro's hours of respite, during the short days of the rigorous season!

Their ordinary food is indian corn, or rice and beans, boiled in water, without fat or salt. To them nothing comes amiss. They will devour greedily racoon, opossum, squirrels, wood-rats, and even the crocodile; leaving to the white people the roebuck and rabbit, which they sell them when they kill those animals.

They raise poultry and hogs, but seldom eat either. They prefer selling them, and purchasing from their profits, cloathing and brandy. They love brandy to excess. Promise a negro a dram, and he will go through fire and water to serve you.

Their smoaky huts admit both wind and rain. An anecdote offers itself to my pen on this subject, which will exhibit the frigid indifference of the colonists of Louisiana towards every thing that interests humanity. Being on a visit at a plantation on the Mississippi, I walked out one fine evening in winter, with some ladies and gentlemen, who had accompanied me from the town, and the planters at whose house we were entertained. We approached the quarter where the huts of the negroes stood. "Let us visit the negroes," said one of the party; and we advanced towards the door of a miserable hut, where an old negro woman came to the threshold in order to receive us, but so decrepit as well as old, that it was painful for her to move.

Notwithstanding the winter was advanced, she was partly naked; her only covering being some old thrown away rags. Her fire was a few chips, and she was parching a little corn for supper. Thus she lived abandoned and forlorn; incapable from old age to work any longer, she was no longer noticed.

But independently of her long services, this negro woman had formerly suckled and brought up two brothers of her master, who made one of our party. She perceived him, and accosting him, said, "My master, when will you send one of your carpenters to repair the roof of my hut? Whenever it rains, it pours down upon my head." The master lifting his eyes, directed them to the roof of the hut, which was within the reach of his hand. "I will think of it," said he.—"You will think of it," said the poor creature. "You always say so, but never do it."—"Have you not," rejoined the master, "two grandsons who can mend it for you?"—"But are they mine," said the old woman, "do they not work for you, andare you not my son yourself? who suckled and raised your two brothers? who was it but Irrouba? Take pity then on me, in my old age. Mend at least the roof of my hut, and God will reward you for it."

I was sensibly affected; it wasle cri de la bonne nature. And what repairs did the poor creature's roof require? What was wanting to shelter her from the wind and rain of heaven? A few shingles!—"I will think of it," repeated her master, and departed.

The ordinary punishment inflicted on the negroes of the colony is a whipping. What in Europe would condemn a man to the galleys or the gallows incurs here only the chastisement of the whip. But then a king having many subjects does not miss them after their exit from this life, but a planter could not lose a negro without feeling the privation.

I do not consider slavery either as contrary to the order of a well regulated society, or an infringement of the social laws. Under a different name it exists in every country. Soften then the word which so mightily offends the ear; call it dependence.

The most common maladies of the negroes are slight fevers in the spring, more violent ones in the summer, dysenteries in autumn, and fluxions of the breast in winter. Their bill of mortality, however, is not very considerable. The births exceed the deaths.

The language of the negro slaves, as well as of a great number of the free mulattoes, is a patois derived from the French, and spoken according to rules of corruption. There are some house-slaves, however, who speak French with not less purity than their masters: their language, it may be presumed, is depraved with many words not to be found in a Voltaire, a Thomas or a Rousseau.—Travels in Louisiana and The Floridas, in the Year, 1802, by Berquin Duvallon, pp. 79-94. Trans. by Davis.

John Davis, 1806

In the region where I live, the masters allow entire liberty to the slaves to attend public worship, and as far as my knowledge extends, it is generally the case in Louisiana. We have regular meetings of the blacks in the building where I attend public worship. I have, in the years past, devoted myself assiduously, every Sabbath morning, to the labour of learning them to read.I find them quick of apprehension. They learn the rudiments of reading quicker than even the whites, but it is with me an undoubting conviction, that having advanced them to a certain point, it is much more difficult to carry them beyond. In other words, they learn easily to read, to sing, and scrape the fiddle. But it would be difficult to teach them arithmetic, or combination of ideas or abstract thinking of any kind. Whether their skull indicates this by the modern principles of craniology, or not, I cannot say. But I am persuaded, that this susceptible and affectionate race have heads poorly adapted to reasoning and algebra.I had heard, before I visited the slave states in the West, appalling stories of the cruelty and barbarity of masters to slaves. In effect I saw there instances of cruel and brutal masters. But I was astonished to find that the slaves in general had the most cheerful countenances, and were apparently the happiest people that I saw. They appeared to me to be as well fed and clothed, as the labouring poor at the North. Here I was told, that the cruelty and brutality were not here, but among the great planters down the Mississippi. So strongly is this idea inculcated, that it is held up to the slave, as a bugbear over his head to bind him to good behaviour, that if he does not behave well, he will be carried down the river, and be sold. When I descended to this country, I had prepared myself to witness cruelty on the one part, and misery on the other. I found the condition of the slaves in the lower country to be still more tolerable, than in that above; they are more regularly and better clothed, endure less inclemency of the seasons, are more systematically supplied with medical attendance and medicine, when diseased, and what they esteem a great hardship, but what is in fact a most fortunate circumstance in their condition, they cannot, as in the upper country, obtain whiskey at all.It is a certain fact, and to me it is a delightful one, that a good portion of the lights of reason and humanity, that have been pouring such increasing radiance upon every part of the country, have illumined the huts of the slaves, and have dawned in the hearts of their masters. Certain it is, that in visiting great numbers of plantations, I have generally discovered in the slaves affection for their masters, and sometimes, though not so generally, for the overseers. It appears to be a growing desire among masters, to be popular with their slaves, and they have finally become impressed, that humanity is their best interest, that cheerful, well fed and clothed slaves, perform so much more productive labour, as tounite speculation and kindness in the same calculation. In some plantations they have a jury of negroes to try offences under the eye of the master, as judge, and it generally happens that he is obliged to mitigate the severity of their sentence. The master too has hold of the affection of the slaves, by interposing his authority in certain cases between the slave and the overseer. Where the master is really a considerate and kind man, the patriarchal authority on the one hand, and the simple and affectionate veneration on the other, render this relation of master and slave not altogether so forbidding, as we have been accustomed to consider it.The negro village that surrounds a planter's house, is, for the most part, the prototype of the village of Owen of Lanark. It is generally oblong rows of uniform huts. In some instances I have seen them of brick, but more generally of cypress timber, and they are made tight and comfortable. In some part of the village is a hospital and medicine chest. Most masters have a physician employed by the job, and the slave, as soon as diseased, is removed there. Provision is also made for the subsistence and comfort of those that are aged and past their labour. In this village by night you hear the hurdy-gurdy, and the joyous and unthinking laugh of people, who have no care nor concern for the morrow. I enter among them, and the first difficulty appears to arise from jealousy, and mutual charges of inconstancy, between the husbands and wives. In fact, the want of any sanction or permanence to their marriage connexions, and the promiscuous intimacies that subsist among them, are not only the sources of most of their quarrels and troubles, but are among the most formidable evils, to a serious mind, in their condition. You now and then see a moody and sullen looking negro, and if you inquire into the cause of his gloom, you will be informed that he has been a fugitive, that he has lived long in the woods upon thieving, that he has been arrested and whipped, and is waiting his opportunity to escape again. Judging of their condition from their countenances, and from their unthinking merriment, I should think them the happiest people here, and in general, far more so than their masters.It is a most formidable part of the evil of slavery, that the race is far more prolific than that of the whites, and that their population advances in a greater ratio. They are at present in this region more numerous than the whites, and this inequality is increasing every day. Thinking people here, who look to the condition of their posterity, are appalled at this view of things, andadmit that something must be done to avert the certain final consequences of such an order of things. I remark, in concluding this subject, that the people here always have under their eye the condition and character of the free blacks. It tends to confirm them in their opinions upon the subject. The slaves are addicted to theft, but the free blacks much more so. They, poor wretches, have had the privilege of getting drunk, and they avail themselves of it. The heaviest scourge of New Orleans is its multitudes of free black and coloured people. They wallow in debauchery, are quarrelsome and saucy, and commit crimes, in proportion to the slaves, as a hundred to one.The population of Louisiana is supposed to be, at present, between two and three hundred thousand. After New Orleans, the most populous parishes are Baton Rouge, Feliciana, Rapidé, and Natchitoches. Parishes in this region are civil divisions, derived from the former regime. They are often larger than our counties at the North. This country, from the character of its soil, cannot have a dense population, until the swamps are drained. The population, except the sparse inhabitants of the pine woods, is fixed along the margin of the water courses, and the greater part of the planters can convey their produce immediately on board the steam-boats.—Recollections of the Last Ten Years. Passed in Occasional Residences and Journeyings in the Valley of the Mississippi, by Timothy Flint, 1826, pp. 345-349.

I had heard, before I visited the slave states in the West, appalling stories of the cruelty and barbarity of masters to slaves. In effect I saw there instances of cruel and brutal masters. But I was astonished to find that the slaves in general had the most cheerful countenances, and were apparently the happiest people that I saw. They appeared to me to be as well fed and clothed, as the labouring poor at the North. Here I was told, that the cruelty and brutality were not here, but among the great planters down the Mississippi. So strongly is this idea inculcated, that it is held up to the slave, as a bugbear over his head to bind him to good behaviour, that if he does not behave well, he will be carried down the river, and be sold. When I descended to this country, I had prepared myself to witness cruelty on the one part, and misery on the other. I found the condition of the slaves in the lower country to be still more tolerable, than in that above; they are more regularly and better clothed, endure less inclemency of the seasons, are more systematically supplied with medical attendance and medicine, when diseased, and what they esteem a great hardship, but what is in fact a most fortunate circumstance in their condition, they cannot, as in the upper country, obtain whiskey at all.

It is a certain fact, and to me it is a delightful one, that a good portion of the lights of reason and humanity, that have been pouring such increasing radiance upon every part of the country, have illumined the huts of the slaves, and have dawned in the hearts of their masters. Certain it is, that in visiting great numbers of plantations, I have generally discovered in the slaves affection for their masters, and sometimes, though not so generally, for the overseers. It appears to be a growing desire among masters, to be popular with their slaves, and they have finally become impressed, that humanity is their best interest, that cheerful, well fed and clothed slaves, perform so much more productive labour, as tounite speculation and kindness in the same calculation. In some plantations they have a jury of negroes to try offences under the eye of the master, as judge, and it generally happens that he is obliged to mitigate the severity of their sentence. The master too has hold of the affection of the slaves, by interposing his authority in certain cases between the slave and the overseer. Where the master is really a considerate and kind man, the patriarchal authority on the one hand, and the simple and affectionate veneration on the other, render this relation of master and slave not altogether so forbidding, as we have been accustomed to consider it.

The negro village that surrounds a planter's house, is, for the most part, the prototype of the village of Owen of Lanark. It is generally oblong rows of uniform huts. In some instances I have seen them of brick, but more generally of cypress timber, and they are made tight and comfortable. In some part of the village is a hospital and medicine chest. Most masters have a physician employed by the job, and the slave, as soon as diseased, is removed there. Provision is also made for the subsistence and comfort of those that are aged and past their labour. In this village by night you hear the hurdy-gurdy, and the joyous and unthinking laugh of people, who have no care nor concern for the morrow. I enter among them, and the first difficulty appears to arise from jealousy, and mutual charges of inconstancy, between the husbands and wives. In fact, the want of any sanction or permanence to their marriage connexions, and the promiscuous intimacies that subsist among them, are not only the sources of most of their quarrels and troubles, but are among the most formidable evils, to a serious mind, in their condition. You now and then see a moody and sullen looking negro, and if you inquire into the cause of his gloom, you will be informed that he has been a fugitive, that he has lived long in the woods upon thieving, that he has been arrested and whipped, and is waiting his opportunity to escape again. Judging of their condition from their countenances, and from their unthinking merriment, I should think them the happiest people here, and in general, far more so than their masters.

It is a most formidable part of the evil of slavery, that the race is far more prolific than that of the whites, and that their population advances in a greater ratio. They are at present in this region more numerous than the whites, and this inequality is increasing every day. Thinking people here, who look to the condition of their posterity, are appalled at this view of things, andadmit that something must be done to avert the certain final consequences of such an order of things. I remark, in concluding this subject, that the people here always have under their eye the condition and character of the free blacks. It tends to confirm them in their opinions upon the subject. The slaves are addicted to theft, but the free blacks much more so. They, poor wretches, have had the privilege of getting drunk, and they avail themselves of it. The heaviest scourge of New Orleans is its multitudes of free black and coloured people. They wallow in debauchery, are quarrelsome and saucy, and commit crimes, in proportion to the slaves, as a hundred to one.

The population of Louisiana is supposed to be, at present, between two and three hundred thousand. After New Orleans, the most populous parishes are Baton Rouge, Feliciana, Rapidé, and Natchitoches. Parishes in this region are civil divisions, derived from the former regime. They are often larger than our counties at the North. This country, from the character of its soil, cannot have a dense population, until the swamps are drained. The population, except the sparse inhabitants of the pine woods, is fixed along the margin of the water courses, and the greater part of the planters can convey their produce immediately on board the steam-boats.—Recollections of the Last Ten Years. Passed in Occasional Residences and Journeyings in the Valley of the Mississippi, by Timothy Flint, 1826, pp. 345-349.

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