Chapter VII: Part 7

[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.

FROM A JAMAICA PORTFOLIO--FRANCIS WILLIAMS[210]

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 Don Acosta, "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 styled his 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 to the 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 the man, 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 something more 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 Fortissimo
Viro
GEORGIO 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_) clara
Felices populi, terraque lege virens.
(_g_) Te duce, (_h_) quæ fuerant malesuada mente peracta
Irrita, conspectu non reditura tuo.
Ergo omnis populus, nee non plebecula cernet
(_h_) Hæsurum collo te (_i_) _relegasse_ jugum,
Et mala, quæ diris quondam cruciatibus, insons
Insula passa fuit; condoluisset onus
Ni victrix tua Marte manus prius inclyta, nostris
Sponte (_k_) ruinosis rebus adesse velit.
Optimus es servus _Regi_ servire _Britanno_,
Dum gaudet genio (_l_) _Scotica_ terra tuo:
Optimus heroum populi (_m_) fulcire ruinam:
Insula dum superest ipse (_n_) superstes eris.
Victorem agnoscet te _Guadaloupa_, suorum
Despiciet (_o_) merito dirutà castra ducum.
Aurea vexillis flebit jactantibus (_p_) _Iris_,
Cumque suis populis, oppida victa gemet.
Crede, (_q_) menum non est, vir _Marti_ chare! (_r_) _Minerva_
Denegat _Æthiopi_ bella sonare ducum.
Concilio, caneret te _Buchananus_ et armis,
Carmine _Peleidae_ scriberet ille parem.
Ille poeta, decus patriæ, tua facta referre
Dignior, (_s_) altisono vixque Marone minor.
(_t_) Flammiferos agitante suos sub sole _jugales_ (_u_)
Vivimus; eloquium deficit omne focis.
Hoc demum accipias, multa fuligine fusum
Ore sonaturo; non cute, corde valet.
Pollenti stabilita manu, [(_w_) Deus almus, eandem
Omnigenis animam, nil prohibente dedit]
Ipsa coloris egens virtus, prudentia; honesto
Nulus inest animo, nullus in arte color.
Cur timeas, quamvis, dubitesve, nigerrima celsam
_Cæsaris occidui_, candere (_x_) _Musa_ domum?
(_y_) Vade salutatum, nec sit tibi causa pudoris,
(_z_) _Candida quod nigra corpora pelle geris!_
Integritas morum (_a_) _Maurum_ magis ornat, et ardor
Ingenii, et _docto_ (_b_) _dulcis in ore decor_;
Hunc, mage, _cor sapines, patriæ_ virtutis amorque,
(_c_) Eximit e sociis, conspicuumque facit.
(_d_) Insula me genuit, celebres aluere _Britianni_,
Insula, te salvo non dolitura (_e_) patre!
Hoc precor; o (_f_) nullo videant te fine, regentem
Florentes 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 to
_Imago_.

(_g_) _Te duce_, si qua manent sceleris vestigia nostri
_Irrita_, perpetua solvent formidine terras.
_Virg. E._ iv. 13.

(_h_) Alluding perhaps to the contest about removing the seat of
government and public offices from _Spanish Town_ to
_Kingston_, during the administration of governor Kn----s.

(_i_) Pro _relevasse_.

(_k_) Quem vocet divum populus _ruentis_
Imperi _rebus. Hor. Lib._ I. _Od_. ii.

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

(_m_) Tu Ptolomaee potes magni _fulcire 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_) Egerit _justo domitos_ triumpho.
_Hor. Lib._ I. _Od_. xii.

(_p_) _Iris._ Botanic name of the _fleur-de-luce_,
alluding to the arms of France.

(_q_) _Phoebus_, volentem prælia me loqui
Victas et urbes, increpuit lyra
Ne. _Hor_.

(_r_) Invita Minerva. _Hor. de Art. Poet._

(_s_) _Maronis altisoni_ carmina.
_Juv. Sat._ xi. _ver._ 178.

(_t_) _Flammiferas_ rotas toto cælo _agitat_.

(_u_) I apprehend Mr. Williams mistook this for _jubara_, fun beams.

(_w_) This is a _petitio 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,
"The _Scale_ of sensual _mental_ powers ascends."

(_x_) Mr. Williams has added a _black Muse_ to 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 salutatum_ subito perarata parentem
Litera. _Ovid._

(_z_) See his apophthegms before mentioned.

(_a_) _Maurus_ is not in classic strictness proper Latin for a
_Negroe_.

(_b_) _Mollis_ in ore decor. Incert.

(_c_) Me _doctarum_ ederæ præmia frontium
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
_Secernunt populo. Hor. Lib. I. Od. 1._

(_d_) Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere. _Virg._

(_e_) Hic ames dici _pater_ atque princeps. _Hor._

(_f_) Serus in coelum redeas, _diuque_
_Lætus intersis populo. Hor._

This is Long's translation:

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

AT length revolving fates th' expected year
Advance, and joy the live-long day shall cheer,
Beneath the fost'ring law's auspicious dawn
New harvests rife to glad th' enliven'd (_g_) lawn.
With the bright prospect blest, the swains repair
In 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 fee
Their neck reliev'd, the yoke unbound by thee.
Ere now our guiltless isle, her wretched fate
Had wept, and groan'd beneath th' oppressive weight
Of 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 serve _Britannia's_ crown,
While _Scotia_ claims thee for her darling son;
Oh! best of heroes, ablest to sustain
A 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 victor _Guadaloupe_ shall 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 golden _Iris_ the 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 of _Mars!_ believe, th' attempt were vain,
It is not mine to try the arduous strain.
What! shall an _Æthiop_ touch the martial string,
Of battles, leaders, great achievements sing?
Ah no! _Minerva_, with th' indignant _Nine_,
Restrain him, and forbid the bold design.
To a _Buchanan_ does the theme belong;
A theme, that well deserves _Buchanan's_ song,
'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 great _Peleides'_ son.
That bard, his country's ornament and pride,
Who e'en with _Maro_ might 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 the _skin_, but from the _heart_ it 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'd
To 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 the _Cæsar_ of the _West!_
Dispel thy doubts, with confidence ascend
The 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 glow
Of genius, burning with desire to _know_;
And learned speech, with modest accent worn,
Shall best the sooty _African_ adorn.
An heart with wisdom fraught, a patriot flame.
A love of virtue; these shall lift his name
Conspicuous, far beyond his kindred race,
Distinguish'd from them by the foremost place.
In this prolific isle I drew my birth,
And _Britain_ nurs'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 of
Sir George Haldane, Knt.,
A most virtuous and brave man,

Governor of the island of Jamaica, on whom all the endowments of
morals 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 of _morals_ more adorns a
_Moor_, 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, eandem
Omnigenis animam, nil prohibente dedit.
Ipsa coloris egens virtus, prudentia; honesto
Nullus 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 this JOURNAL specially 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 the JOURNAL in 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 the _Jamaica 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, _ergo_ inferior,'" 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.

NOTES ON THE NOMOLIS OF SHERBROLAND

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, or _nomolis_, 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 the _nomoli_ is the presiding deity 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 the _nomoli_ is 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, a _nomoli_) 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 his _nomoli_ becomes forfeited to the crown in the bargain. Obviously, then, it does not pay to prosecute for _nomoli_ stealing, 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 the _nomoli_ the 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 the _nomoli_ is 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 the _nomolis_ are 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 by members 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 the _nomolis_ were 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 the _nomoli_ to 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 and _buried_.

Is it not possible, then, that the _nomolis_ are 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 these _nomolis_ are 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

DOCUMENTS

OBSERVATIONS ON THE NEGROES OF LOUISIANA

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.

CONSIDERATIONS SUR L'ESCLAVAGE; NÈGRES LIBRES; MULÂTRES DE LA LOUISIANE, 1801

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 un intérêt 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 de
_braguet_. 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 moins évidente, 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.

OBSERVATIONS OF BERQUIN DUVALLON ON THE FREED PEOPLE OF COLOUR IN LOUISIANA IN 1802

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.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE NEGRO SLAVE

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 the discipline 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.