Chapter XII (2)

On the principle that sparing the rod spoils the child, (for these people are viewed only as children,) their owners are not at all reserved in the use of this instrument of chastisement; and along with the gangs at labor may the overseer be seen applying it without remorse. As the blow generally falls on the skull, I can see little reason for a preference of this to the method of punishment by lashes on the back in vogue in our Southern States. This, however, is not their only way of punishment. I saw several instances of gross personal abuse. In one case I saw the slave thrown down, and dragged by the waistband over the sharp points of the macadamized street, with nothing to protect his buttocks from laceration except several thicknesses of calico. The poor fellow, apparently aware of its uselessness, made no complaint. This occurred, not in an obscure place--not in the purlieus of the town, but in a public street, where people were constantly passing, and who, if any feeling at all were expressed by them, only laughed at the ludicrousness of the scene. A police-officer stood looking on apathetically, as though the whole affair were a matter of course.

Impelled with a desire to know what Englishmen thought of the apprentice-system, I put the question to every intelligent one that I could get at. In nine cases out of ten my auditor would waive the question by starting some other subject of conversation; but by the employment of a little finesse I generally managed to corner him, when, upon argument and hearing explanations of our system, he would confess that there was but a shade of difference between the two. One candid specimen of the John Bull character, whom I accidentally formed an acquaintance with, (and one, too, who had made the tour of our Southern States from Delaware to Texas--a man of strong mind and superior intelligence, and from the knowledge he possessed of the subject, also a man of observation,) stated that our slaves were better housed than the apprentices under the control of magnanimous and philanthropic Britain! Verily, England should look at home; and, if she can, apologize, and legislate for her factory-system, which heretofore has been the set-off advanced by Americans to her abuse of our slavery-system. Here is the same system, with such a close affinity to ours, that she cannot apologize for or mitigate it, without rendering us justice, and thereby exposing her previous hypocrisy and selfishness.

Strange--strange, very strange--it is, that the philanthropists of the United Kingdom have never taken cognizance of these facts. What a splendid theater Mauritius presents for the Address drawn up by the Ladies of Great Britain and sent to the Ladies of the United States, (which, however, to the honor of our countrywomen be it said, was contemptuously rejected,) and signed by I do not remember how many thousands of the mothers, daughters, and wives of Merry England and her dependencies; which ladies, in a body, had the most disinterested wish for the amelioration of the condition of the black races held in thraldom by their white cotempories, (or, to use the words of Lucy Stone, they had “a fellow-feeling in their bosoms for the oppressed of all nations,” though whether the “fellow” ever found these martyrs I do not know). Here, I repeat, is an excellent field for their Address; though, as to whether it will meet with the same contumelious reception as it did in the “land of the free,” or meet with a reception adequate to its fitness for the city of Port Louis, a trial only can determine. Perhaps the editor of the Thunderer could bring the feasibility of such a proceeding to the notice of those fair reformers through the columns of his widely-circulated journal.

In writing the above description of the apprentice-system, I have not only embodied my own, but the collective convictions of the whole crew of the vessel; and, as two-thirds of them were from Massachusetts, their opinions, if not my own, are worthy of belief: beside, there was no Southerner aboard, to convert us to Southern opinions--not one of us having been reared to the southward of Mason and Dixon’s line; so that no personal interest or feeling sways our description of this evil. Hence I think that our observations are entitled to the regard of those who laud the freedom, philanthropy, and disinterestedness of the government of the British Islands at the expense of our own; and if I can enable but one of them to see and confess the error of his or her ways, I shall consider my labor well repaid. And here I now leave this subject.

I cannot imagine why whalers visit this port in preference to others where they could be much better supplied. To be sure the American consul is resident, and through him they can draw money to the extent of their necessities; but, on the other hand, provisions are excessively dear, and so are all other supplies needful for shipping. Two articles are cheap--liquors and segars; the latter being made from tobacco grown on the island. Instead of being filled, as with us, and enclosed in a wrapper, the natives make them entirely of wrappers. They are very mild, and can be purchased for a song; everybody smokes them and the consumption must be immense. The plug tobacco is of American manufacture, and, from the duty imposed upon it by the government, commands a high price.

Notwithstanding the cheapness of liquors, there is but very little intoxication to be seen amongst the community, although all seem to indulge, more or less, in its use. The favorite drinks are the lighter wines, such as the claret and Vermouth; these are pleasant, but are detrimental to a healthy condition of the bowels, and, therefore, excessive indulgence in them in this climate is purchased at a dear rate.

There is no scarcity of money, most of the exchanges being made in the metallic currency of Great Britain, and as our Scrimshawing, or to use a less outlandish term, our different manufactures from the bone and ivory procured from the whale, were to these people great curiosities, they commanded good prices. It was not unusual to get from twenty to thirty shillings for a bone cane; and jagged knives, used by the pastry cook for filagreeing the edges of his pies and tarts, were eagerly bought up at a pound the pair. Consequently, all our boys who possessed numbers of these articles were well supplied with the rhino. The reason these articles are so eagerly sought for in this port, is that no whalers are fitted out or belong here; neither is there any market for the sale of whale oil--the inhabitants universally burning the oil expressed from the cocoa-nut; and as the cocoa tree is indigenous to the island, and grows in great profusion, it is readily obtainable at a low rate. The captain of the Nauticon, who lost his ship among the Seychelle Islands, is here, and has been importuned over and over again by the merchants of the port, to return to the United States, build and fit a vessel with all necessary accouterments, and bring her here to sail as a colonial whaler belonging to Port Louis. The future must decide as to whether he coincides with them so far as to act out their wishes; but it is easily seen that such a proceeding must necessarily be remunerative, as no sooner has a whaler left the port than she is on the very best sperm whaling-ground in the Indian Ocean, and the prevalence of the trade-winds and general good weather for nine months of the year, render it an eligible cruising ground.

There is an excessive jealousy existing between the French and English residents--the French considering themselves as the rightful owners of the soil, lords to the manor born; whilst the English plume themselves upon the conquest of the island, and consider possession nine points of the law. Little intercourse, apart from their business relations, exists between the two nations, and the same feeling prevails, not only among the residents, but among the sailors of ships belonging to the two countries. Sunday night, generally, is the occasion of broils between them, and these, the police informed me, were the most serious disturbances they had to contend with.

The German sailors were the merriest of any nation whom I saw on liberty--gathering in little knots, and singing the songs of their fatherland with the utmost good-fellowship, and not without melody. They were very exclusive in their associations, and mixed with none but their own circle of shipmates.

The markets of Mauritius were filled with fruit of the various kinds to be found in tropical climates--the pine-apple, cocoa-nut, banana, oranges, lemons, and limes, all being found here in abundance. The favorite condiment of the blacks is the sugar-cane, which they suck in pieces as long as themselves; and two youngsters may be seen, each supporting and sucking away at either end of a piece of green sugar-cane a fathom in length.

This city differs very much from Hobartown in two of its striking features. In the latter city, at every corner is to be seen a mendicant; in Port Louis I did not see a single person soliciting charity. The other feature that I refer to is the absence of all itinerant hawkers, except the cake venders, who are the only class of petty tradesmen who make a depot of the streets for the sale of their goods; whilst in the capital of Van Diemen’s Land, as I have remarked elsewhere in my notice on it, at every step one is beset by these pertinacious leeches, anxious to make a sale.

But in another point there is a perfect resemblance between both cities--that is the presence of a regiment of British infantry; a provision that Great Britain never neglects in any of her colonies, governing her subjects by appealing to their fears of the bayonet, wielded by a hireling and remorseless soldiery. This regiment is about leaving its station here for the seat of war in India. I conversed freely with several of its members, and although they displayed no symptoms of fear at the prospect of being engaged with an enemy, still there was a total lack of enthusiasm or patriotism. From the atrocities so glaringly held before the public by the English journals, as committed by the Sikhs on British residents in India, I had expected to find an eagerness on the part of the gentlemen with the red coats, to avenge their countrymen and countrywomen so barbarously maltreated; but so wags the world, one half caring not or feeling not for the miseries or misfortunes of the other half.

How I shall change the subject from a consideration of the biped portion of the population to an analysis of the condition and quality of the quadrupeds. On account of the trouble and expense attending the procreation of the horse, he is here quite a dignified animal, and is only used by the aristocratic portion of the population for the lightest draughting. His high price, too, ensures his careful treatment; and all who can afford to keep a carriage, whose business requires its use all day, change the animal and put a fresh one in the traces at noon. The reason why the horse commands so high a price here is, that the Government interdicts the introduction of mares into the island; whether the climate is prejudicial to the breed of the animal, or Great Britain, in her forethought, vetoes their importation, for the purpose of securing a market for the surplus stock of her Australian colonies, is a point which, in the absence of any authority, I am unable to decide.

The vehicles are of English construction, and are moderately light; the rattan body, which is so conducive to ventilation and comfort in warm weather, being in general use. Their harness, too, is of European manufacture--made light, to conform with the oppressiveness of the climate.

And now that we have pretty thoroughly reviewed the town and its purlieus, we will return to our proper element, and give an account of what transpired in the harbor during our stay. First we will notice the whaling barque, Belle of Warren, which came in to post letters; of the boat’s crew who went ashore for this purpose, one did not return, having taken leg bail for security. I saw him ashore several times afterward, and he was wandering about without a discharge and without a home, looking destitute and woebegone. The Belle remained but a few days; meantime the whaleship Martha made her appearance, for the purpose of landing her third mate, who goes to the hospital to be treated for a pulmonary affection. The Martha reports that the portion of the whaling fleet which went to the northward humpbacking, were as unsuccessful as ourselves; seeing nothing, and, consequently, doing nothing. This goes to strengthen our theory of the absence of whale feed on the coast during the preceding season. The Martha made as short a stay as the Belle--both vessels having, like us, seen sperm whales near the Island of Rodrique, and both intending to return there. Hence their haste to leave port.

The next whaler that made her appearance was the barque Columbus, of New Bedford: she, like the Martha, had accomplished nothing humpbacking, but on her passage from New Holland to this port, had captured three hundred and fifty barrels of sperm oil, in the vicinity of the Island of Rodrique. Like us, the Columbus came in for provisions, and to give her crew liberty. Her crew comprised, for the most part, men who had been shipped in Hobartown; and they had scarcely set foot ashore when they were squabbling.

Soon after the Columbus’s arrival, the barque Mechanic, of Newport, came in. She was seventeen days from Angiers, and, although there was no sickness on board, was compelled, by a law of the port, to go into quarantine until the expiration of twenty-one days from the time of her leaving Angiers, that being the time set by the law. After performing the quarantine she was hauled into the inner harbor to undergo repairs.

And now, for the time being, we have done with American whalers, and come to one sailing under the flag of England--the brig Elizabeth and Jane, of Hobartown. She was fitted out as a tender for some larger vessel, and sent to Desolation for the capture of whales, sea-elephants, and seals, indiscriminately; she had a Yankee mate, and was intended by the Hobartown merchants to be the pioneer of a fleet to compete with the Yankees in the procuring of oil, which trade has, for many years, been a prolific source of wealth to those engaged in it; the bleak shores of Kerguleus land being a favorite resort for those creatures so eagerly sought for by the whaleman. Scarcely had the brig arrived at the scene of her anticipated operations before she commenced leaking so badly, that the crew were kept continually pumping, day and night; necessitating her being carried into port, and either being thoroughly repaired or condemned as unseaworthy. On bringing her into Mauritius, the captain preferred a complaint to the authorities against his men, charging them with mutiny and threatening his life. Before the authorities had time to act upon his information, about one half of the crew took one of the boats, went ashore, and got drunk. A fight followed as a matter of course, and in this condition they were easily captured by the police. Those who were left aboard were brought ashore in irons; but they did not seem to mind the manacles, all of them being convicts, who, no doubt, had been accustomed to such bracelets before. After landing, they were conveyed to the jail, where their companions were already lodged. The following morning they were brought before the magistrate, who, after hearing both sides of the case, dismissed the charge as unfounded and frivolous, at the same time adding some wholesome advice to the master of the vessel for the future government of those under his command. A few days after the brig was condemned as unseaworthy.

We will now return to our own vessel and crew. As I stated in the former part of my journal, we shipped Irishmen in Hobartown, and Englishmen in Vasse. During the time they have been aboard we have been thoroughly convinced of their utter uselessness--their indolence preventing their acquiring sufficient insight into a seaman’s duties to render them a useful part of the ship’s company; and our captain was anxious to get rid of them. On the first liberty-day, two, whom we shipped at Vasse, overstaid their liberty, and were informed by the captain that he would not receive them aboard again. On the same day, one, whom we shipped in Hobartown, was discharged for inability to do duty. W. B. Wood, whom we brought from New Bedford, was also discharged sick. Joseph A. Lewis and John Cunningham, discharged sick, and sent to the hospital. Wood and Cunningham were both of our original crew; the remaining one, whom we shipped at Vasse, deserted. A seaman, shipped in Hobartown, was discharged with the consent of the contracting parties; one, shipped in Vasse, in January, 1857, and who, during the time he has been aboard, has been acting as fourth mate, was discharged with his own consent; and one, whom we got in Hobartown, is in jail--so that we are ten less in number than when we dropped anchor on the day of our entering the harbor. In their places we have shipped five men, all of whom are Americans, and have been whaling before. I said that we had shipped five, but two of the five came aboard without any agreement with the captain. These two were policemen, who had become disgusted with wearing her majesty’s button, and on their hinting their wish to get afloat again, our boys readily offered to assist them. Besides these, we shipped a lad of fifteen as steerage-boy.

Although we had thus replaced the ten with but five men, we found, as soon as we got into blue water, that we had a much more effective crew than we had had at any time during the preceding sixteen months. The ten discharged and deserted comprised all the useless material in the ship--the foreign portion of them, in fact, being worse than useless; for, together with their incapacity, they had a propensity to growl, and made both themselves and those with whom they were associated uncomfortable. Their thievishness, too, had still adhered to them, notwithstanding their penal servitude. One of them, we discovered after leaving port, had on his dismissal carried away with him a considerable portion of the cooper’s tools. This was Leonard, professedly a cooper by trade.