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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3644d00 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #54800 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/54800) diff --git a/old/54800-0.txt b/old/54800-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 0385e15..0000000 --- a/old/54800-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,14350 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's Colonization and Christianity, by William Howitt - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Colonization and Christianity - A popular history of the treatment of the natives by the - Europeans in all their colonies - -Author: William Howitt - -Release Date: May 27, 2017 [EBook #54800] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COLONIZATION AND CHRISTIANITY *** - - - - -Produced by Turgut Dincer and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - - -COLONIZATION AND CHRISTIANITY. - - - - - COLONIZATION AND CHRISTIANITY: - - A - - POPULAR HISTORY - - OF THE - - TREATMENT OF THE NATIVES - - BY THE EUROPEANS - - IN ALL THEIR COLONIES. - - - BY - - WILLIAM HOWITT. - - - Have we not all one father?—hath not one God created us? - Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother? - - _Malachi_ ii. 10. - - - LONDON: - LONGMAN, ORME, BROWN, GREEN, & LONGMANS. - 1838. - - - LONDON: - - PRINTED BY MANNING AND SMITHSON, - IVY-LANE, PATERNOSTER-ROW. - - -The object of this volume is to lay open to the public the most -extensive and extraordinary system of crime which the world ever -witnessed. It is a system which has been in full operation for more -than three hundred years, and continues yet in unabating activity -of evil. The apathy which has hitherto existed in England upon this -subject has proceeded in a great measure from want of knowledge. -National injustice towards particular tribes, or particular -individuals, has excited the most lively feeling, and the most -energetic exertions for its redress,—but the whole wide field of -unchristian operations in which this country, more than any other, is -engaged, has never yet been laid in a clear and comprehensive view -before the public mind. It is no part of the present volume to suggest -particular plans of remedy. The first business is to make known the -nature and the extent of the evil,—that once perceived, in this great -country there will not want either heads to plan or hands to accomplish -all that is due to the rights of others, or the honour and interest of -England. - - _West End Cottage, Esher, - June 8th, 1838._ - - - - -CONTENTS. - - - CHAPTER I. PAGE - - Introduction 1 - - - II. - - The Discovery of the New World 11 - - - III. - - The Papal Gift of all the Heathen World to the Portuguese - and Spaniards 19 - - - IV. - - The Spaniards in Hispaniola 28 - - - V. - - The Spaniards in Hispaniola and Cuba 43 - - VI. - - The Spaniards in Jamaica and other West Indian Islands 56 - - - VII. - - The Spaniards in Mexico 62 - - - VIII. - - The Spaniards in Peru 92 - - - IX. - - The Spaniards in Peru—(_continued_) 104 - - - X. - - The Spaniards in Paraguay 119 - - - CHAPTER XI. - - The Portuguese in Brazil 145 - - - XII. - - The Portuguese in Brazil—(_continued_) 158 - - - XIII. - - The Portuguese in India 173 - - - XIV. - - The Dutch in India 185 - - - XV. - - The English in India.—System of Territorial Acquisition 202 - - - XVI. - - The English in India—(_continued_).—Treatment of the - Natives 252 - - XVII. - - The English in India.—Treatment of the Natives— - (_continued_) 272 - - - XVIII. - - The English in India—(_continued_) 285 - - - XIX. - - The English in India—(_concluded_) 298 - - - XX. - - The French in their Colonies 312 - - - XXI. - - The English in America 330 - - - XXII. - - The English in America—Settlement of Pennsylvania 356 - - - XXIII. - - The English in America till the Revolt of the Colonies 367 - - - XXIV. - - Treatment of the Indians by the United States 386 - - - XXV. - - Treatment of the Indians by the United States— - (_continued_) 402 - - - XXVI. - - The English in South Africa 417 - - - XXVII. - - The English in South Africa—(_continued_) 443 - - - XXVIII. - - The English in New Holland and the Islands of the Pacific 469 - - - XXIX. - - Conclusion 499 - - - - -COLONIZATION AND CHRISTIANITY. - - - - -CHAPTER I. - - These are they, O Lord! - Who in thy plain and simple gospel see - All mysteries, but who find no peace enjoined, - No brotherhood, no wrath denounced on them - Who shed their brethren’s blood! Blind at noon-day - As owls; lynx-eyed in darkness.—_Southey._ - - -Christianity has now been in the world upwards of ONE THOUSAND EIGHT -HUNDRED YEARS. For more than a thousand years the European nations -have arrogated to themselves the title of CHRISTIAN! some of their -monarchs, those of MOST SACRED and MOST CHRISTIAN KINGS! We have long -laid to our souls the flattering unction that we are a civilized and a -Christian people. We talk of all other nations in all other quarters of -the world, as savages, barbarians, uncivilized. We talk of the ravages -of the Huns, the irruptions of the Goths; of the terrible desolations -of Timour, or Zenghis Khan. We talk of Alaric and Attila, the sweeping -carnage of Mahomet, or the cool cruelties of more modern Tippoos and -Alies. We shudder at the war-cries of naked Indians, and the ghastly -feasts of Cannibals; and bless our souls that we are redeemed from all -these things, and made models of beneficence, and lights of God in the -earth! - -It is high time that we looked a little more rigidly into our -pretences. It is high time that we examined, on the evidence of facts, -whether we are quite so refined, quite so civilized, quite so Christian -as we have assumed to be. It is high time that we look boldly into the -real state of the question, and learn actually, whether the mighty -distance between our goodness and the moral depravity of other people -really exists. WHETHER, IN FACT, WE ARE CHRISTIAN AT ALL! - -Have bloodshed and cruelty then ceased in Europe? After a thousand -years of acquaintance with the most merciful and the most heavenly of -religions, do the national characters of the Europeans reflect the -beauty and holiness of that religion? Are we distinguished by our -peace, as the followers of the Prince of Peace? Are we renowned for -our eagerness to seek and save, as the followers of the universal -Saviour? Are our annals redolent of the delightful love and fellowship -which one would naturally think must, after a thousand years, -distinguish those who pride themselves on being the peculiar and -adopted children of Him who said, “By this shall all men know that -ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another?” These are very -natural, but nevertheless, very awkward questions. If ever there was a -quarter of the globe distinguished by its quarrels, its jealousies, its -everlasting wars and bloodshed, it is Europe. Since these _soi-disant_ -Christian nations have risen into any degree of strength, what single -evidence of Christianity have they, as nations, exhibited? Eternal -warfare!—is that Christianity? Yet that is the history of _Christian_ -Europe. The most subtle or absurd pretences to seize upon each other’s -possessions,—the contempt of all faith in treaties,—the basest -policy,—the most scandalous profligacy of public morals,—the most -abominable international laws!—are they Christianity? And yet they are -the history of Europe. Nations of men selling themselves to do murder, -that ruthless kings might ravish each other’s crowns—nations of men, -standing with jealous eyes on the perpetual watch against each other, -with arms in their hands, oaths in their mouths, and curses in their -hearts;—are those Christian? Yet there is not a man acquainted with -the history of Europe that will even attempt to deny that _that_ is -the history of Europe. For what are all our international boundaries; -our lines of demarcation; our frontier fortresses and sentinels; our -martello towers, and guard-ships; our walled and gated cities; our -bastions and batteries; and our jealous passports? These are all -barefaced and glaring testimonies that our pretence of Christianity -is a mere assumption; that after upwards of a thousand years of the -boasted possession of Christianity, Europe has not yet learned to -govern itself by its plainest precepts; and that her children have -no claim to, or reliance in that spirit of “love which casteth out -all fear.” It is very well to vaunt the title of Christian one to -another—every nation knows in its own soul, it is a hollow pretence. -While it boasts of the Christian name, it dare not for a moment throw -itself upon a Christian faith in its neighbour. No! centuries of the -most unremitted hatred,—blood poured over every plain of Europe, and -sprinkled on its very mountain tops, cry out too dreadfully, that it -is a dismal cheat. Wars, the most savage and unprovoked; oppressions, -the most desperate; tyrannies, the most ruthless; massacres, the most -horrible; death-fires, and tortures the most exquisite, perpetuated -one on another for the faith, and in the very name of God; dungeons -and inquisitions; the blood of the Vaudois, and the flaming homes of -the Covenanters are all in their memories, and give the lie to their -professions. No! Poland rent in sunder; the iron heel of Austria on the -prostrate neck of Italy; and invasions and aggressions without end, -make Christian nations laugh with a hollow mockery in their hearts, in -the very midst of their solemn professions of the Christian virtue and -faith. - -But I may be told that this character applies rather to past Europe -than to the present. What! are all these things at an end? For what -then are all these standing armies? What all these marching armies? -What these men-of-war on the ocean? What these atrocities going on from -year to year in Spain? Has any age or nation seen such battles waged -as we have witnessed in our time? How many WATERLOOS can the annals -of the earth reckon? What Timour, or Zenghis Khan, can be compared to -the Napoleon of modern Europe? the greatest scourge of nations that -ever arose on this planet; the most tremendous meteor that ever burnt -along its surface! Have the multitude of those who deem themselves -the philosophical and refined, as well as the Christian of Europe, -ceased to admire this modern Moloch, and to forget in _his_ individual -and retributory sufferings at St. Helena, the countless agonies and -the measureless ruin that he inflicted on innocent and even distant -nations? While we retain a blind admiration of martial genius, wilfully -shutting our senses and our minds to the crimes and the pangs that -constitute its shadow, it is laughable to say that we have progressed -beyond our fathers in Christian knowledge. At this moment all Europe -stands armed to the teeth. The peace of every individual nation is -preserved, not by the moral probity and the mutual faith which are the -natural growth of Christian knowledge, but by the jealous watch of -armed bands, and the coarse and undisguised force of brute strength. To -this moment not the slightest advance is made towards a regular system -of settling national disputes by the head instead of the hand. To this -moment the stupid practice of settling individual disputes between -those who pride themselves on their superior education and knowledge, -by putting bullets instead of sound reasons into each other’s heads, -is as common as ever. If we really are a civilized people, why do -we not abandon barbarian practices? If we really are philosophical, -why do we not shew it? It is a poor compliment to our learning, our -moral and political philosophy, and above all, to our religion, that -at this time of day if a dispute arise between us as nations or as -men, we fall to blows, instead of to rational inquiry and adjustment. -Is Christianity then so abstruse? No! “He that runneth may read, and -the way-faring man, though a fool, cannot err therein.” Then why, in -the name of common sense, have we not learned it, seeing that it so -closely concerns our peace, our security, and our happiness? Surely -a thousand years is time enough to teach that which is so plain, and -of such immense importance! We call ourselves civilized, yet we are -daily perpetrating the grossest outrages; we boast of our knowledge, -yet we do not know how to live one with another half so peaceably as -wolves; we term ourselves Christians, yet the plainest injunction of -Christ, “to love our neighbour as ourselves,” we have yet, one thousand -eight hundred and thirty-eight years after his death, to adopt! But -most monstrous of all has been the moral blindness or the savage -recklessness of ourselves as Englishmen. - - Secure from actual warfare, we have loved - To swell the war-whoop, passionate for war! - Alas! for ages ignorant of all - Its ghastlier workings (famine or blue plague, - Battle, or siege, or flight through wintry snows,) - We, this whole people, have been clamorous - For war and bloodshed; animating sports, - The which we pay for as a thing to talk of, - Spectators and not combatants! Abroad - Stuffed out with big preamble, holy names, - And adjurations of the God in heaven, - We send our mandates for the certain death - Of thousands and ten thousands! Boys and girls, - And women, _that would groan to see a child_ - _Pull off an insect’s leg_, all read of war, - The best amusement for our morning’s meal! - The poor wretch who has learnt his only prayers - From curses, who knows scarce words enough - To ask a blessing from his heavenly Father, - Becomes a fluent phraseman, absolute, - Technical in victories, and deceit, - _And all our dainty terms for fratricide_; - Terms which we trundle smoothly o’er our tongues - Like mere abstractions, empty sounds, to which - We join no feeling, and attach no form! - As if the soldier died without a wound; - As if the fibres of this god-like frame - Were gored without a pang; as if the wretch - Who fell in battle, doing bloody deeds, - Passed off to heaven, translated and not killed; - As though he had no wife to pine for him, - No God to judge him! Therefore evil days - Are coming on us, O my countrymen! - And what, if all-avenging Providence, - Strong and retributive, should make us know - The meaning of our words, force us to feel - The desolation and the agony of our fierce doings? - - _Coleridge._ - -This is the aspect of the Christian world in its most polished and -enlightened quarter:—there surely is some need of serious inquiry; -there must surely be some monstrous practical delusion here, that wants -honestly encountering, and boldly dispersing. - -But if such is the internal condition of Christian Europe, what -is the phasis that it presents to the rest of the world? With the -exception of our own tribes, now numerously scattered over almost -every region of the earth, all are in our estimation barbarians. We -pride ourselves on our superior knowledge, our superior refinement, -our higher virtues, our nobler character. We talk of the heathen, the -savage, and the cruel, and the wily tribes, that fill the rest of the -earth; but how is it that these tribes know _us_? Chiefly by the very -features that we attribute exclusively to them. They know us chiefly -by our crimes and our cruelty. It is we who are, and must appear to -them the savages. What, indeed, are civilization and Christianity? -The refinement and ennoblement of our nature! The habitual feeling -and the habitual practice of an enlightened justice, of delicacy and -decorum, of generosity and affection to our fellow men. There is not -one of these qualities that we have not violated for ever, and on -almost all occasions, towards every single tribe with which we have -come in contact. We have professed, indeed, to teach Christianity to -them; but we had it not to teach, and we have carried them instead, all -the curses and the horrors of a demon race. If the reign of Satan, in -fact, were come,—if he were let loose with all his legions, to plague -the earth for a thousand years, what would be the characteristics -of his prevalence? Terrors and crimes; one wide pestilence of vice -and obscenity; one fearful torrent of cruelty and wrath, deceit and -oppression, vengeance and malignity; the passions of the strong would -be inflamed—the weak would cry and implore in vain! - -And is not that the very reign of spurious Christianity which has -lasted now for these thousand years, and that during the last three -hundred, has spread with discovery round the whole earth, and made -the name of Christian synonymous with fiend? It is shocking that -the divine and beneficent religion of Christ should thus have been -libelled by base pretenders, and made to stink in the nostrils of -all people to whom it ought, and would, have come as the opening of -heaven; but it is a fact no less awful than true, that the European -nations, while professing Christianity, have made it odious to the -heathen. They have branded it by their actions as something breathed -up, full of curses and cruelties, from the infernal regions. On them -lies the guilt, the stupendous guilt of having checked the gospel in -its career, and brought it to a full stop in its triumphant progress -through the nations. They have done this, _and then wondered at their -deed_! They have visited every coast in the shape of rapacious and -unprincipled monsters, and then cursed the inhabitants as besotted -with superstition, because they did not look on them as angels! -People have wondered at the slow progress, and in many countries, the -almost hopeless labours of the missionaries;—why should they wonder? -The missionaries had Christianity to teach—and their countrymen -had been there before them, and called themselves Christians! That -was enough: what recommendations could a religion have, to men who -had seen its professors for generations in the sole characters of -thieves, murderers, and oppressors? The missionaries told them that -in Christianity lay their salvation;—they shook their heads, they -had already found it their destruction! They told them they were come -to comfort and enlighten them;—they had already been comforted by -the seizure of their lands, the violation of their ancient rights, -the kidnapping of their persons; and they had been enlightened by the -midnight flames of their own dwellings! Is there any mystery in the -difficulties of the missionaries? Is there any in the apathy of simple -nations towards Christianity? - -The barbarities and desperate outrages of the so-called Christian -race, throughout every region of the world, and upon every people -that they have been able to subdue, are not to be paralleled by those -of any other race, however fierce, however untaught, and however -reckless of mercy and of shame, in any age of the earth. Is it fit -that this horrible blending of the names of Christianity and outrage -should continue? Yet it does continue, and must continue, till the -genuine spirit of Christianity in this kingdom shall arouse itself, -and determine that these villanies shall cease, or they who perpetrate -them shall be stripped of the honoured name of—Christian! If foul -deeds are to be done, let them be done in their own foul name; and -let robbery of lands, seizure of cattle, violence committed on the -liberties or the lives of men, be branded as the deeds of devils -and not of Christians. The spirit of Christianity, in the shape of -missions, and in the teaching and beneficent acts of the missionaries, -is now sensibly, in many countries, undoing the evil which wolves in -the sheep’s clothing of the Christian name had before done. And of -late another glorious symptom of the growth of this divine spirit has -shown itself, in the strong feeling exhibited in this country towards -the natives of our colonies. To fan that genuine flame of love, is the -object of this work. To comprehend the full extent of atrocities done -in the Christian name, we must look the whole wide evil sternly in the -face. We must not suffer ourselves to aim merely at the redress of this -or that grievance; but, gathering all the scattered rays of aboriginal -oppression into one burning focus, and thus enabling ourselves to feel -its entire force, we shall be less than Englishmen and Christians if we -do not stamp the whole system of colonial usage towards the natives, -with that general and indignant odium which must demolish it at once -and for ever. - - - - -CHAPTER II. - -THE DISCOVERY OF THE NEW WORLD. - - The spoilers are come upon all high places through the - wilderness.—_Jeremiah_ xii. 12. - - Forth rush the fiends as with the torrent’s sweep, - And deeds are done that make the angels weep.—_Rogers._ - - -We have thus in our first chapter glanced at the scene of crime and -abomination which Europe through long ages presented, still daring -to clothe itself in the fair majesty of the Christian name. It is -a melancholy field of speculation—but our business is not there -just now; we must hasten from it, to that other field of sorrow and -shame at which we also glanced. For fifteen centuries, during which -Christianity had been promulgated, Europe had become little aware of -its genuine nature, though boastful of its profession; but during the -latter portion of that period its nations had progressed rapidly in -population, in strength, and in the arts of social life. They had, -amid all their bickerings and butcherings, found sufficient leisure -to become commercial, speculative, and ambitious of still greater -wealth and power. Would to God, in their improvements, they could -have numbered that of religious knowledge! Their absurd crusades, -nevertheless, by which they had attempted to wrest the Holy City from -the infidels to put it into the possession of mere nominal Christians, -whose very act of seizing on the Holy Land proclaimed their ignorance -of the very first principles of the divine religion in whose cause -they assumed to go forth—these crusades, immediately scandalous -and disastrous as they were, introduced them to the East; gave them -knowledge of more refined and immensely wealthy nations; and at once -raised their notions of domestic luxury and embellishment; gave them -means of extended knowledge; and inspired them with a boundless thirst -for the riches of which they had got glimpses of astonishment. The -Venetians and Genoese alternately grew great by commerce with that -East of which Marco Polo brought home such marvellous accounts; and -at length, Henry of Portugal appeared, one of the noblest and most -remarkable princes in earth’s annals! He devoted all the energies of -his mind and the resources of his fortune to discovery! Fixing his -abode by the ocean, he sent across it not merely the eyes of desire, -but the far-glances of dawning science. Step by step, year by year, -spite of all natural difficulties, disasters and discouragements, he -threw back the cloud that had for ages veiled the vast sea; his ships -brought home news of isle after isle—spots on the wide waste of -waters, fairer and more sunny than the fabled Hesperides; and crept -along the vast line of the African coast to the very Cape of Hope. -He died; but his spirit was shed abroad in an inextinguishable zeal, -guided and made invincible by the Magnet, “the spirit of the stone,” -the adoption of which he had suggested.[1]—At once arose Gama and -Columbus, and as it were at once—for there were but five years and a -few months between one splendid event and the other,—the East and the -West Indies by the sea-path, and America, till then undreamed of, were -discovered! - -What an era of amazement was that! Worlds of vast extent and wonderful -character, starting as it were into sudden creation before the eyes of -growing, inquisitive, and ambitious Europe! Day after day, some news, -astounding in its very infinitude of goodness, was breaking upon their -excited minds; news which overturned old theories of philosophy and -geography, and opened prospects for the future equally confounding -by their strange magnificence! No single Paradise discovered; but -countless Edens, scattered through the glittering seas of summer -climes, and populous realms, stretching far and wide beneath new -heavens, from pole to pole— - - Another nature, and a new mankind.—_Rogers._ - -Since the day of Creation, but two events of superior influence on -the destinies of the human race had occurred—the Announcement of -God’s Law on Sinai, and the Advent of his Son! Providence had drawn -aside the veil of a mighty part of his world, and submitted the lives -and happiness of millions of his creatures to the arbitrium of that -European race, which now boasted of superior civilization—and far -more, of being the regenerated followers of his Christ. Never was so -awful a test of sincerity presented to the professors of a heavenly -creed!—never was such opportunity allowed to mortal men to work in the -eternal scheme of Providence! It is past! Such amplitude of the glory -of goodness can never again be put at one moment into the reach of the -human will. God’s providence is working out its undoubted design in -this magnificent revelation of - - That maiden world, twin-sister to the old;—_Montgomery._ - -But they who should have worked with it in the benignity and -benevolence of that Saviour whose name they bore, have left to all -futurity the awful spectacle of their infamy! - -Had the Europeans really at this eventful crisis been instructed in -genuine Christianity, and imbued with its spirit, what a signal career -of improvement and happiness must have commenced throughout the vast -American continent! What a source of pure, guiltless, and enduring -wealth must have been opened up to Europe itself! Only let any one -imagine the natives of America meeting the Europeans as they did, -with the simple faith of children, and the reverence inspired by an -idea of something divine in their visitors; let any one imagine them -thus meeting them, and finding them, instead of what they actually -were, spirits base and desperate as hell could have possibly thrown -up from her most malignant regions—finding them men of peace instead -of men of blood, men of integrity instead of men of deceit, men of -love and generosity instead of men of cruelty and avarice—wise, -enlightened, and just! Let any one imagine that, and he has before -him such a series of grand and delightful consequences as can only -be exhibited when Christianity shall _really_ become the actuating -spirit of nations; and they shall as the direct consequence, “beat -their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks.” -Imagine the Spaniards and the Portuguese to have been merely what -they pretended to be,—men who had been taught in the divine law of -the New Testament, that “God made of one blood all the nations of the -earth;” men who, while they burned to “plant the Cross,” actually -meant by it to plant in every new land the command, “thou shalt love -thy neighbour as thyself;” and the doctrine, that the religion of the -Christian is, to “do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before -God.” Imagine that these men came amongst the simple people of the New -World, clothed in all the dignity of Christian wisdom, the purity of -Christian sentiment, and the sacred beauty of Christian benevolence; -and what a contrast to the crimes and the horrors with which they -devastated and depopulated that hapless continent! The historian would -not then have had to say—“The bloodshed and attendant miseries which -the unparalleled rapine and cruelty of the Spaniards spread over the -New World, indeed disgrace human nature. The great and flourishing -empires of Mexico and Peru, _steeped in the blood of_ FORTY MILLIONS -of their sons, present a melancholy prospect, which must excite the -indignation of every good heart.”[2] If, instead of that lust of gold -which had hardened them into actual demons, they had worn the benign -graces of true Christians, the natives would have found in them a -higher image of divinity than any which they had before conceived, -and the whole immense continent would have been laid open to them as -a field of unexampled and limitless glory and felicity. They might -have introduced their arts and sciences—have taught the wonders and -the charms of household enjoyments and refinements—have shewn the -beauty and benefit of cultivated fields and gardens; their faith would -have created them confidence in the hearts of the natives, and the -advantages resulting from their friendly tuition would have won their -love. What a triumphant progress for civilization and Christianity! -There was no wealth nor advantage of that great continent which might -not have become legitimately and worthily theirs. They would have -walked amongst the swarming millions of the south as the greatest of -benefactors; and under their enlightened guidance, every species of -useful produce, and every article of commercial wealth would have -sprung up. Spain need not have been blasted, as it were, by the -retributive hand of Divine punishment, into the melancholy object which -she is this day. That sudden stream of gold which made her a second -Tantalus, reaching to her very lips yet never quenching her thirst, and -leaving her at length the poorest and most distracted realm in Europe, -might have been hers from a thousand unpolluted sources, and bearing -along with it God’s blessing instead of his curse: and mighty nations, -rivalling Europe in social arts and political power, might have been -now, instead of many centuries hence, objects of our admiration, and -grateful repayers of our benefits. - -But I seem to hear many voices exclaiming, “Yes! these things _might_ -have been, had men been what they are not, nor ever were!” Precisely -so!—that is the point I wish expressly to illustrate before I proceed -to my narrative. These things might have been, and would have been, -had men been merely what they professed. They called themselves -Christians, and I merely state what Christians would and must, as -a matter of course, have done. The Spaniards professed to be, and -probably really believed that they were, Christians. They professed -zealously that one of their most ardent desires was to bring the -newly-discovered hemisphere under the cross of Christ. Columbus -returned thanks to God for having made him a sort of modern apostle to -the vast tribes of the West. Ferdinand and Isabella, when he returned -and related to them the wonderful story of his discovery, fell on -their knees before their throne, and thanked God too! They expressed -an earnest anxiety to establish the empire of the Cross throughout -their new and splendid dominions. The very Spanish adventurers, with -their hands heavy with the plundered gold, and clotted with the -blood of the unhappy Americans, were zealous for the spread of their -faith. They were not more barbarous than they were self-deluded; and -I shall presently shew whence had sprung, and how had grown to such a -blinding thickness, that delusion upon them. But the truth which I am -now attempting to elucidate and establish, is of far higher and wider -concernment than as exemplified in the early adventurers of Spain and -Portugal. This grand delusion has rested on Europe for a thousand -years; and from the days of the Spaniards to the present moment, has -gone on propagating crimes and miseries without end. For the last -three hundred years, Europe has been boasting of its Christianity, and -perpetrating throughout the vast extent of territories in every quarter -of the globe subjected to its power, every violence and abomination -at which Christianity revolts. There is no nation of Europe that is -free from the guilt of colonial blood and oppression. God knows what -an awful share rests upon this country! It remains therefore for us -simply to consider whether we will abandon our national crimes or our -Christian name. Whether Europe shall continue so to act towards what -it pleases to term “savage” nations, as that it must seem to be the -very ground and stronghold of some infernal superstition, or so as -to promote, what a large portion of the British public at least, now -sincerely desires,—the Christianization, and with it the civilization, -of the heathen. - -I shall now pass in rapid review, the treatment which the natives -of the greater portion of the regions discovered since the days of -Columbus and Gama, have received at the hands of the nations styling -themselves Christian, that every one may see what has been, and still -is, the actual system of these nations; and I shall first follow -Columbus and his immediate successors to the Western world, because it -was first, though only by so brief a period, reached by the ships of -the adventurers. - - - - -CHAPTER III. - -THE PAPAL GIFT OF ALL THE HEATHEN WORLD TO THE PORTUGUESE AND SPANIARDS. - - Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast born me a man - of strife, and a man of contention to the whole - earth.—_Jeremiah_ xv. 10. - - Also in their skirts is found the blood of the souls of - the poor innocents.—_Jeremiah_ v. 16. - - -Columbus, while seeking for a western track to the East Indies, on -Friday, Oct. 12th, 1492, stumbled on a New World! The discoveries by -Prince Henry of Portugal, of Madeira, and of a considerable extent of -the African coast, had impressed him with a high idea of the importance -of what yet was to be discovered, and of the possibility of reaching -India by sea. This had led him to obtain a Bull from Pope Eugene -IV. granting to the crown of Portugal all the countries which the -Portuguese should discover from Cape Non to India. Columbus, having now -discovered America, although unknown to himself, supposing it still to -be some part of India, his monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, lost no -time in applying for a similar grant. Alexander VI., a Spaniard, was -equally generous with his predecessor, and accordingly divided the -world between the Spaniards and Portuguese! “The Pope,” says Robertson, -“as the vicar and representative of Jesus Christ, was supposed to have -a right of dominion over all the kingdoms of the earth. Alexander VI., -a pontiff infamous for every crime which disgraces humanity, filled the -papal throne at that time. As he was born Ferdinand’s subject, and very -solicitous to procure the protection of Spain, in order to facilitate -the execution of his ambitious schemes in favour of his own family, he -was extremely willing to gratify the Spanish monarchs. By an act of -liberality, which cost him nothing, and that served to establish the -jurisdiction and fortunes of the papal see, he granted in full right -to Ferdinand and Isabella, all the countries inhabited by infidels -which they had discovered, or should discover; and in virtue of that -power which he derived from Jesus Christ, he conferred on the crown of -Castile vast regions, to the possession of which he himself was so far -from having any title, that he was unacquainted with their situation, -and ignorant even of their existence. As it was necessary to prevent -this grant from interfering with that formerly made to the crown of -Portugal, he appointed that a line, supposed to be drawn from pole to -pole, a hundred leagues to the westward of the Azores, should serve -as a limit between them; and, in the plenitude of his power, bestowed -all to the east of this imaginary line upon the Portuguese, and all to -the west of it, upon the Spaniards. Zeal for propagating the Christian -faith, was the consideration employed by Ferdinand in soliciting this -Bull, and is mentioned by Alexander as his chief motive for issuing -it.” - -It is necessary, for the right understanding of this history, to pause -upon this remarkable fact, and to give it the consideration which -it demands. In this one passage lies the key to all the atrocities, -which from that hour to the present have been perpetrated on the -natives of every country making no profession of Christianity, which -those _making_ such a profession have been able to subdue. An Italian -priest,—as the unfortunate Inca, Atahualpa, afterwards observed with -indignant surprise, when told that the pope had given his empire to -the Spaniards,—here boldly presumes to give away God’s earth as if he -sate as God’s acknowledged vicegerent. Splitting this mighty planet -into two imaginary halves, he hands one to the Spanish and the other to -the Portuguese monarch, as he would hand the two halves of an orange -to a couple of boys. The presumption of the act is so outrageous, that -at this time of day, and forgetting for a moment all the consequences -which flowed from this deed, one is ready to burst into a hearty fit -of laughter, as at a solemn farce, irresistibly ludicrous from its -grave extravagance. But it was a farce which cost, and still costs the -miserable natives of unproselyted countries dear. It was considered no -farce—there was seen no burlesque in it at the time of its enactment. -Not only the kings of Spain and Portugal, but the kings and people of -all Europe bowed to this preposterous decision, and never dreamed for a -moment of calling in question its validity. - -Edward IV. of England, on receiving a remonstrance from John II. of -Portugal on account of some English merchants attempting to trade -within the limits assigned to the Portuguese by the pope’s bull, so -far from calling in question the right thus derived by the Portuguese -from the pope, instantly ordered the merchants to withdraw from the -interdicted scene. - -Here then, we have the root and ground of that grand delusion which -led the first discoverers of new lands, to imagine themselves entitled -to seize on them as their own, and to violate every sacred right of -humanity without the slightest perception of wrong, and even in many -instances, in the fond belief that they were extending the kingdom -of Christ. We have here the man of sin, the anti-Christ, so clearly -foretold by St. Paul,—“the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth -himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped; so that -he as God, sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is -God.... Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with -all power, and signs and lying wonders; and _with all deceivableness -of unrighteousness_ in them that perish; because they received not -the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this cause -_God shall send them a strong delusion, that they should believe a -lie_.”—_Second Epistle to the Thessalonians_, ii. 3, 4, 9, 10, 11. - -Strange and abounding in most singular transactions as is the history -of the Papal church, there is not to be found in it one fact in which -the son of perdition, the proud anti-Christ, is more characteristically -shown than in this singular transaction. We have him here enacting -the God indeed! and giving away a world in a breath. Vast and mighty -nations, isles scattered through unknown oceans, continents stretching -through all climates, and millions on millions of human beings, who -never heard of his country or his religion, much less of his name, -are disposed of with all their fortunes; given up as so many cattle -to the sword or the yoke of the oppressor—the very ground given from -beneath their feet, and no place left them on God’s earth—no portion -in his heritage, in time or in eternity, unless they acknowledged the -mysterious dogmas and more mysterious power of this hoary and shaven -priest! Never was “the son of perdition” more glaringly revealed; -for perdition is the only word that can indicate that fulness of -misery, devastation, and destruction, which went forth with this -act, upon millions of innocent and unconscious souls. Never was “the -deceivableness of unrighteousness” so signally exemplified; for here -was all Europe,—monarchs, ministers,—whatever it possessed of wise, -or learned, powerful, or compassionate, all blinded with such “a strong -delusion,” that they could implicitly “believe a lie” of so monstrous -and flagrant a kind. - -It is difficult for us now to conceive how so gross a delusion could -have wrapped in darkness all the intellect of the most active and -aspiring portion of the globe; but it is necessary that we should fix -this peculiar psychological phenomenon firmly and clearly in our minds, -for on it depends the explication of all that was done against humanity -during the reign of Papacy, and much that still continues to be done -to this very day by ourselves, even while we are believing ourselves -enfranchised from this “strong delusion,” and too much enlightened to -“believe a lie.” - -We must bear in mind then, that this strange phenomenon was the effect -of nearly a thousand years’ labour of the son of perdition. For ages -upon ages, every craft, priestly and political; every form of regal -authority, of arms, and of superstition; every delusion of the senses, -and every species of play upon the affections, hopes and fears of men, -had been resorted to, and exerted, to rivet this “strong delusion” upon -the human soul, and to make it capable of “believing a lie.” - -In the two preceding chapters, I have denied the possession of -Christianity to multitudes and nations who had assumed the name, with -a sternness and abruptness, which no doubt have startled many who have -now read them; but I call earnestly upon every reader, to attend to -what I am now endeavouring deeply to impress upon him; for, I must -repeat, that there is more of what concerns the progress of Christian -truth, and consequently, the happiness of the human race, dependent -on the thorough conception of the fact which I am going to state, -than probably any of us have been sufficiently sensible of, and which -we cannot once become really sensible of, without joining heart and -hand in the endeavour to free our own great country, and Christendom -in general, from the commission of cruelties and outrages that mock -our profession of Christ’s religion, and brand the national name with -disgrace. - -There is no fact then, more clearly developed and established past -all controversy, in the history of the Papal church, than that from -its very commencement it set aside Christianity, and substituted in -the words of the apostle, “a strong delusion” and “the belief of a -lie.” The Bible—that treasury and depository of God’s truth—that -fountain of all pure and holy and kindly sentiments—that charter of -all human rights— that guardian of hope and herald of salvation, -was withdrawn from the public eye. It was denounced as the most -dangerous of two-edged instruments, and feared as the worst enemy of -the Papal system. Christianity was no longer taught, the Bible being -once disposed of; but an artful and deadly piece of machinery was put -in action, which bore its name. Instead of the pure and holy maxims -of the New Testament—its sublime truths full of temporal and eternal -freedom, its glorious knowledge, its animating tidings, its triumphant -faith—submission to popes, cardinals, friars, monks and priests, was -taught—a Confessional and a Purgatory took their place. Christianity -was no longer existent; but the very religion of Satan—the most -cunning invention, by which working on human cupidity and ambition, -he was enabled to achieve a temporary triumph over the Gospel. Never -was there a more subtle discovery than that of the Confessional and -the Purgatory. Once having established a belief in confession and -absolution, and who would not be religious at a cheap rate?—in the -Confessional—the especial closet of Satan, every crime and pollution -might be practised, and the guilty soul made to believe that its sin -was that moment again obliterated. Even if death surprised the sinner, -there was power of redemption from that convenient purgatory. Paid -prayers were substituted for genuine repentance—money became the -medium of salvation, and Beelzebub and Mammon sate and laughed together -at the credulity of mankind! - -Thus, as I have stated, Christianity was no longer taught; but a -totally different system, usurping its name. Instead of simple -apostles, it produced showy popes and cardinals; instead of humble -preachers, proud temporal princes, and dignitaries as proud; instead -of the Bible, the mass-book and the legends of saints; instead of one -God and one Saviour Jesus Christ, the eyes of its votaries were turned -for help on virgins, saints, and anchorites—instead of the inward -life and purity of the gospel-faith, outward ceremonies, genuflexions, -and pageantry without end. Every man, however desperate his nature -or his deeds, knew that for a certain amount of coin, he could have -his soul white-washed; and, instead of a healthy and availing piety, -that spurious and diabolical devotion was generated, which is found -at the present day amongst the bandits of Italy and Spain—who one -moment plunge their stiletto or bury their bullet in the heart of the -unsuspecting traveller, and the next kneel at the shrine of the Virgin, -perform some slight penance, offer some slight gift to the church, and -are perfectly satisfied that they are in the way of salvation. It is -that spurious devotion, indeed, which marks every superstition—Hindoo, -Mahometan, or Fetish—wherever, indeed, mere outward penance, or the -offering of money, is substituted for genuine repentance and a new life. - -Let any one, therefore, imagine the effect of this state of things -on Europe through seven or eight centuries. The light of the genuine -gospel withdrawn—all the purity of the moral law of Christ—all the -clear and convincing annunciations of the rights of man—all the -feelings of love and sympathy that glow alone in the gospel;—and -instead of these an empty show; legends and masses, miracle-plays and -holiday pageants; such doctrines of right and wrong, such maxims of -worldly policy preached as suited ambitious dignitaries or luxurious -friars—and it will account for that singular state of belief and -of conscience which existed at the time of the discovery of the new -countries of the East and West. It would have been impossible that -such ignorance, or such shocking perversion of reason and faith, could -have grown up and established themselves as the characteristics of the -public mind, had every man had the Bible in his hand to refer to, and -imbue himself daily with its luminous sense of justice, and its spirit -of humanity. - -We shall presently see what effects it had produced on even the best -men of the 15th and 16th centuries; but what perhaps is not quite so -much suspected, we shall have to learn in the course of this volume -to what an extent the influence of this system still continues on the -_Protestant_ mind. So thoroughly had it debauched the public morality, -that it is to this source that we alone can come to explain the laxity -of opinion and the apathy of feeling that have ever since characterized -Europe in its dealings with the natives of all new countries. To this -day, we no more regard the clearest principles of the gospel in our -transactions with them, than if such principles did not exist. The -Right of Conquest, and such robber-phrases, have been, and even still -continue to be, “as smoothly trundled from our tongues,” as if we -could find them enjoined on our especial approbation in the Bible. But -genuine Christianity is at length powerfully awaking in the public -mind of England; and I trust that even the perusal of this volume will -strengthen our resolution to wash the still clinging stains of popery -out of our garments, and to determine to stand by the morality of the -Bible, and by that alone. - -In closing this chapter, let me say that I should be very sorry to hurt -the feelings of any modern Catholic. The foregoing strictures have no -reference to them. However much or little of the ancient faith of the -Papal church any of them may retain, I believe that, as a body, they -are as sincere in their devotion as any other class of Christians; but -the ancient system, character, and practice of the Church of Rome, are -matters of all history, and too closely connected with the objects of -this work, and with the interests of millions, to be passed without, -what the author believes to be, a faithful exposition. - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - -THE SPANIARDS IN HISPANIOLA. - -The gathering signs of a long night of woe.—_Rogers._ - - -The terms of the treaty between the Spanish monarchs and Columbus, -on his being engaged as a discoverer, signed by the parties on -the 17th of April, 1492, are sufficiently indicative of the firm -possession which the doctrines of popery had upon their minds. The -sovereigns constituted Columbus high-admiral of all the seas, islands, -and continents which should be discovered by him, as a perpetual -inheritance for him and his heirs. He was to be _their viceroy_ -in those countries, with a tenth of the free profits upon all the -productions and the commerce of those realms. This was pretty well -for monarchs professing to be Christians, and who ought to have been -taught—“thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house; thou shalt not -covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, -nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.” But -they had been brought up in another faith: the Pope had exclaimed— - - Creation’s heir! the world, the world is mine! - -and they took him literally and really at his word. And it will soon be -seen that Columbus, though naturally of an honorable nature, was not -the less the dupe of this fearful system. He proceeded on his voyage, -discovered a portion of the West Indies, and speedily plunged into -atrocities against the natives that would have been pronounced shocking -in Timour or Attila. James Montgomery, in his beautiful poem, the West -Indies, has strongly contrasted the character of Columbus and that of -his successors. - - The winds were prosperous, and the billows bore - The brave adventurer to the promised shore; - Far in the west, arrayed in purple light, - Dawned the New World on his enraptured sight. - Not Adam, loosened from the encumbering earth, - Waked by the breath of God to instant birth, - With sweeter, wilder wonder gazed around, - When life within, and light without he found; - When all creation rushing o’er his soul, - He seemed to live and breathe throughout the whole. - So felt Columbus, when divinely fair - At the last look of resolute despair, - The Hesperian isles, from distance dimly blue, - With gradual beauty opened on his view. - In that proud moment, his transported mind - The morning and the evening worlds combined; - And made the sea, that sundered them before, - A bond of peace, uniting shore to shore. - - Vain, visionary hope! rapacious Spain - Followed her hero’s triumph o’er the main; - Her hardy sons in fields of battle tried, - Where Moor and Christian desperately died;— - A rabid race, fanatically bold, - And steeled to cruelty by lust of gold, - Traversed the waves, the unknown world explored; - _The cross their standard, but their faith the sword;_ - _Their steps were graves; o’er prostrate realms they trod;_ - _They worshipped Mammon_, while they vowed to God. - -To estimate the effect of his theological education on such a man -as Columbus, we have only to pause a moment, to witness the manner -of his first landing in the new world, and his reception there. On -discovering the island of Guanahani, one of the Bahamas, the Spaniards -raised the hymn of _Te Deum_. At sunrise they rowed towards land with -colours flying, and the sound of martial music; and amid the crowds of -wondering natives assembled on the shores and hills around, Columbus, -like another Mahomet, set foot on the beach, _sword in hand_, and -_followed by a crucifix_, which his followers planted in the earth, -and then prostrating themselves before it, _took possession of the -country_ in the name of his sovereign. The inhabitants gazed in silent -wonder on ceremonies so pregnant with calamity to them, but without any -suspicion of their real nature. Living in a delightful climate, hidden -through all the ages of their world from the other world of labour and -commerce, of art and artifice, of avarice and cruelty, they appeared -in the primitive and unclad simplicity of nature. The Spaniards, says -Peter Martyr,—“Dryades formossissimas, aut nativas fontium nymphas -de quibus fabulatur antiquitas, se vidisse arbitrati sunt:”—they -seemed to behold the most beautiful dryads, or native nymphs of the -fountains, of whom antiquity fabled. Their forms were light and -graceful, though dusky with the warm hues of the sun; their hair hung -in long raven tresses on their shoulders, unlike the frizzly wool of -the Africans, or was tastefully braided. Some were painted, and armed -with a light bow, or a fishing spear; but their countenances were full -of gentleness and kindness. Columbus himself, in one of his letters -to Ferdinand and Isabella, describes the Americans and their country -thus:—“This country excels all others, as far as the day surpasses the -night in splendour: the natives love their neighbour as themselves; -their conversation is the sweetest imaginable; their faces always -smiling, and so gentle, so affectionate are they, that I swear to your -highnesses there is not a better people in the world.” The Spaniards -indeed looked with as much amazement on the simple people, and the -paradise in which they lived, as the natives did on the wonderful -spectacle of European forms, faces, dress, arts, arms, and ships.—Such -sweet and flowing streams; such sunny dales, scattered with flowers -as gorgeous and beautiful as they were novel; trees covered with a -profusion of glorious and aromatic blossoms, and beneath their shade -the huts of the natives, of simple reeds or palm-leaves; the stately -palms themselves, rearing their lofty heads on the hill sides; the -canoes skimming over the blue waters, and birds of most resplendent -plumage flying from tree to tree. They walked - - Through citron-groves and fields of yellow maize, - Through plantain-walks where not a sunbeam plays. - Here blue savannas fade into the sky; - There forests frown in midnight majesty; - Ceiba, and Indian fig, and plane sublime, - Nature’s first-born, and reverenced by time! - There sits the bird that speaks! there quivering rise - Wings that reflect the glow of evening skies! - Half bird, half fly, the fairy king of flowers, - Reigns there, and revels through the fragrant bowers; - Gem full of life, and joy, and song divine, - Soon in the virgin’s graceful ear to shine. - The poet sung, if ancient Fame speaks truth, - “Come! follow, follow to the Fount of Youth! - I quaff the ambrosial mists that round it rise, - Dissolved and lost in dreams of Paradise!” - And there called forth, to bless a happier hour, - It met the sun in many a rainbow-shower! - Murmuring delight, its living waters rolled - ’Mid branching palms, and amaranths of gold! - - _Rogers._ - -It were an absurdity to say that they were _Christians_ who broke in -upon this Elysian scene like malignant spirits, and made that vast -continent one wide theatre of such havoc, insult, murder, and misery as -never were before witnessed on earth. But it was not exactly in this -island that this disgraceful career commenced. Lured by the rumour of -gold, which he received from the natives, Columbus sailed southward -first to Cuba, and thence to Hispaniola. Here he was visited by the -cazique, Guacanahari, who was doomed first to experience the villany of -the Spaniards. This excellent and kind man sent by the messengers which -Columbus had despatched to wait on him, a curious mask of beaten gold, -and when the vessel of Columbus was immediately afterwards wrecked -in standing in to the coast, he appeared with all his people on the -strand,—for the purpose of plundering and destroying them, as we might -expect from _savages_, and as the Cazique would have been served had he -been wrecked himself on the Spanish, or on our own coast at that time? -No! but better Christian than most of those who bore that name, he came -eagerly to do the very deed enjoined by Christ and his followers,—to -succour and to save. “The prince,” says Herrera, their own historian, -“appeared all zeal and activity at the head of his people. He placed -armed guards to keep off the press of the natives, and to keep clear -a space for the depositing of the goods as they came to land: he sent -out as many as were needful in their canoes to put themselves under -the guidance of the Spaniards, and to assist them all in their power -in the saving of their goods from the wreck. As they brought them to -land, he and his nobles received them, and set sentinels over them, -not suffering the people even to gratify that curiosity which at -such a crisis must have been very great, to examine and inspect the -curious articles of a new people; and his subjects participating in -all his feelings, wept tears of sincere distress for the sufferers, -and condoled with them in their misfortune. But as if this was not -enough, the next morning, when Columbus had removed to one of his other -vessels, the good Guacanahari appeared on board to comfort him, and to -offer all that he had to repair his loss!” - -This beautiful circumstance is moreover still more particularly related -by Columbus himself, in his letter to his sovereigns; and it was on -this occasion that he gave that character of the country and the people -to which I have just referred. Truly had he a great right to say -that “they loved their neighbour as themselves.” Let us see how the -Spaniards and Columbus himself followed up this sublime lesson. - -Columbus being now left on the coast of the new world with but one -crazy vessel,—for Pinzon the commander of the other, had with true -Spanish treachery, set off on his way homewards to forestall the glory -of being the first bearer of the tidings of this great discovery -to Europe,—he resolved to leave the number of men which were now -inconvenient in one small crowded vessel, on the island. To this -Guacanahari consented with his usual good nature and good faith. -Columbus erected a sort of fort for them; gave them good advice for -their conduct during his absence, and sailed for Spain. In less than -eleven months he again appeared before this new settlement, and found -it levelled with the earth, and every man destroyed. Scarcely had he -left the island when these men had broken out in all those acts of -insult, rapacity, and oppression on the natives which only too soon -became the uniform conduct of the _Christians_! They laid violent hands -on the women, the gold, the food of the very people who had even kindly -received them; traversed the island in the commission of every species -of rapacity and villany, till the astonished and outraged inhabitants -now finding them fiends incarnate instead of the superior beings which -they had deemed them, rose in wrath, and exterminated them. - -Columbus formed a fresh settlement for his newcomers, and having -defended it with mounds and ramparts of earth, went on a short voyage -of discovery among the West Indian isles, and came back to find that -the same scene of lust and rapine had been acted over again by his -colony, and that the natives were all in arms for their destruction. -It is curious to read the relation of the conduct of Columbus on this -discovery, as given by Robertson, a _Christian_ and _Protestant_ -historian. He tells us, on the authority of Herrera, and of the son -of Columbus himself, that the Spaniards had outraged every human and -sacred feeling of these their kind and hospitable entertainers. That -in the voracity of their appetites, enormous as compared with the -simple temperance of the natives, they had devoured up the maize and -cassado-root, the chief sustenance of these poor people; that their -rapacity threatened a famine; that the natives saw them building forts -and locating themselves as permanent settlers where they had apparently -come merely as guests; and that from their lawless violence as well -as their voracity, they must soon suffer destruction in one shape or -another from their oppressors. Self preservation prompted them to -take arms for the expulsion of such formidable foes. “_It was now_,” -adds Robertson, “_necessary to have recourse to arms_; the employing -of which against the Indians, Columbus had hitherto avoided with -the greatest solicitude.” Why necessary? Necessary for what? is the -inquiry which must spring indignantly in every rightly-constituted -mind. Because the Spaniards had been received with unexampled kindness, -and returned it with the blackest ingratitude; because they had by -their debauched and horrible outrages roused the people into defiance, -those innocent and abused people must be massacred? That is a logic -which might do for men who had been educated in the law of anti-Christ -instead of Christ, and who went out with the Pope’s bull as a title to -seize on the property of other people, wherever the abused and degraded -cross had not been erected; but it could never have been so coolly -echoed by a _Protestant_ historian, if it had not been for the spurious -morality with which the Papal hierarchy had corrupted the world, till -it became as established as gospel truth. Hear Robertson’s relation of -the manner in which Columbus repaid the _Christian_ reception of these -poor islanders. - -“The body which took the field consisted only of two hundred foot, -twenty horse, and twenty large dogs; and how strange soever it may -seem to mention the last as composing part of a military force, they -were not perhaps the least formidable and destructive on the whole, -when employed against naked and timid Indians. All the caziques in the -island, Guacanahari excepted, who retained an inviolable attachment -to the Spaniards, were in arms, with forces amounting—if we may -believe the Spanish historians—to a hundred thousand men. Instead of -attempting to draw the Spaniards into the fastnesses of the woods and -mountains, they were so improvident as to take their station in the -Vega Real, the most open plain in the country. Columbus did not allow -them to perceive their error, or to alter their position. He attacked -them during the night, when undisciplined troops are least capable of -acting with union and concert, and obtained _an easy and bloodless -victory_. The consternation with which the Indians were filled by the -noise and havoc made by the fire-arms, by the impetuous force of the -cavalry, and the fierce onset of the dogs, was so great, that they -threw down their weapons, and fled without attempting resistance. _Many -were slain; more were taken prisoners and reduced_ to servitude; -and so thoroughly were the rest intimidated, that, from that moment, -they abandoned themselves to despair, relinquishing all thoughts of -contending with aggressors whom they deemed invincible. - -“_Columbus employed several months_ in marching through the island, -_and in subjecting it to the Spanish government, without meeting -with any opposition_. He imposed a tribute upon all the inhabitants -above the age of fourteen. Every person who lived in those districts -where gold was found, was obliged to pay quarterly as much gold-dust -as filled a hawk’s bell; from those in other parts of the country, -twenty-five pounds of cotton were demanded. This was the first regular -taxation of the Indians, and served as a precedent for exactions still -more intolerable.” - -This is a most extraordinary example of the Christian mode of repaying -benefits! These were the very people thus treated, that a little time -before had received with tears, and every act of the most admirable -charity, Columbus and his people from the wreck. And a Protestant -historian says that this was necessary! Again we ask, necessary for -what? To shew that Christianity was hitherto but a name, and an excuse -for the violation of every human right! There was no necessity for -Columbus to repay good with evil; no necessity for him to add the -crime of Jezebel, “to kill and take possession.” If he really wanted -to erect the cross in the new world, and to draw every legitimate -benefit for his own country from it he had seen that all that might -be effected by legitimate means. Kindness and faith were only wanted -to lay open the whole of the new world, and bring all its treasures -to the feet of his countrymen. The gold and gems might be purchased -even with the toys of European children; and commerce and civilization, -if permitted to go on hand in hand, presented prospects of wealth and -glory, such as never yet had been revealed to the world. But Columbus, -though he believed himself to have been inspired by the Holy Ghost -to discover America,—thus commencing his will, “In the name of the -most Holy Trinity, who inspired me with the idea, and who afterwards -made it clear to me, that by traversing the ocean westwardly, etc.;” -though Herrera calls him a man “ever trusting in God;” and though his -son, in his history of his life, thus speaks of him:—“I believe that -he was chosen for this great service; and that because _he was to be -so truly an apostle_, as in effect he proved to be, therefore was his -origin obscure; that therein he might the more resemble those who -were called to make known the name of the Lord from seas and rivers, -and from courts and palaces. And I believe also, that _in most of -his doings he was guarded by some_ special providence; his very name -was not without some mystery; for in it is expressed the wonder he -performed, inasmuch as _he conveyed to the new world_ the grace of -the Holy Ghost.” Notwithstanding these opinions—Columbus had been -educated in the spurious Christianity, which had blinded his naturally -honest mind to every truly Christian sentiment. It must be allowed -that he was an apostle of another kind to those whom Christ sent out; -and that this was a novel way of conveying the Holy Ghost to the new -world. But he had got the Pope’s bull in his pocket, and that not -only gave him a right to half the world, but made all means for its -subjection, however diabolical, sacred in his eyes. We see him in -this transaction, notwithstanding the superiority of his character to -that of his followers, establishing himself as the apostle and founder -of that system of destruction and enslavement of the Americans, which -the Spaniards followed up to so horrible an extent. We see him here -as the first to attack them, in their own rightful possessions, with -arms—the first to pursue them with those ferocious dogs, which became -so infamously celebrated in the Spanish outrages on the Americans, -that some of them, as the dog Berezillo, received the full pay of -soldiers; the first to exact gold from the natives; and to reduce them -to slavery. Thus, from the first moment of modern discovery, and by -the first discoverer himself, commenced that apostleship of misery -which has been so zealously exercised towards the natives of all newly -discovered countries up to this hour! - -The immediate consequences of these acts of Columbus were these: the -natives were driven to despair by the labours and exactions imposed -upon them. They had never till then known what labour, or the curse of -avarice was; and they formed a scheme to drive out their oppressors -by famine. They destroyed the crops in the fields, and fled into the -mountains. But there, without food themselves, they soon perished, and -that so rapidly and miserably, that in a few months one-third of the -inhabitants of the whole island had disappeared! Fresh succours arrived -from Spain, and soon after, as if to realize to the afflicted natives -all the horrors of the infernal regions, Spain, and at the suggestions -of Columbus too, emptied all her gaols, and vomited all her malefactors -on their devoted shores! A piece of policy so much admired in Europe, -that it has been imitated by all other colonizing nations, and by none -so much as by England! The consequences of this abominable system soon -became conspicuous in the distractions, contentions, and disorders -of the colony; and in order to soothe and appease these, Columbus -resorted to fresh injuries on the natives, dividing their lands amongst -his mutinous followers, and giving away the inhabitants—the real -possessors—along with them as slaves! Thus he was the originator of -those REPARTIMENTOS, or distribution of the Indians that became the -source of such universal calamities to them, and of the extinction of -more than fifty millions of their race. - -Though Providence permitted these things, it did not leave them -unavenged. If ever there was a history of the divine retribution -written in characters of light, it is that of Spain and the Spaniards -in America. On Spain itself the wrath of God seemed to fall with a -blasting and enduring curse. From being one of the most powerful and -distinguished nations of Europe, it began from the moment that the gold -of America, gathered amidst the tears and groans, and dyed with the -blood of the miserable and perishing natives, flowed in a full stream -into it, to shrink and dwindle, till at once poor and proud, indolent -and superstitious, it has fallen a prey to distractions that make it -the most melancholy spectacle in Europe. On one occasion Columbus -witnessed a circumstance so singular that it struck not only him but -every one to whom the knowledge of it came. After he himself had been -disgraced and sent home in chains, being then on another voyage of -discovery,—and refused entrance into the port of St. Domingo by the -governor—he saw the approach of a tempest, and warned the governor of -it, as the royal fleet was on the point of setting sail for Spain. His -warning was disregarded; the fleet set sail, having on board Bovadillo, -the ex-governor, Roldan, and other officers, men who had been not only -the fiercest enemies of Columbus, but the most rapacious plunderers -and oppressors of the natives. The tempest came; and these men, with -sixteen vessels laden with an immense amount of guilty wealth, were all -swallowed up in the ocean—leaving only two ships afloat, one of which -contained the property of Columbus! - -But the fortunes of Columbus were no less disastrous. Much, and perhaps -deservedly as he has been pitied for the treatment which he received -from an ungrateful nation, it has always struck me that, from the -period that he departed from the noble integrity of his character; -butchered the naked Indians on their own soil, instead of resenting and -redressing their injuries; from the hour that he set the fatal example -of hunting them with dogs, of exacting painful labours and taxes, that -he had no right to impose,—from the moment that he annihilated their -ancient peace and liberty, the hand of God’s prosperity went from -him. His whole life was one continued scene of disasters, vexations, -and mortifications. Swarms of lawless and rebellious spirits, as if -to punish him for letting loose on this fair continent the pestilent -brood of the Spanish prisons, ceased not to harass, and oppose him. -Maligned by these enemies, and sent to Europe in chains; there seeking -restoration in vain, he set out on fresh discoveries. But wherever he -went misfortune pursued him. Denied entrance into the very countries -he had discovered; defeated by the natives that his men unrighteously -attacked; shipwrecked in Jamaica, before it possessed a single European -colony, he was there left for above twelve months, suffering incredible -hardships, and amongst his mutinous Spaniards that threatened his life -on the one hand, and Indians weary of their presence on the other. -Having seen his authority usurped in the new world, he returned to -the old,—there the death of Isabella, the only soul that retained a -human feeling, extinguished all hope of redress of his wrongs; and -after a weary waiting for justice on Ferdinand, he died, worn out with -grief and disappointment. He had denied justice to the inhabitants of -the world he had found, and justice was denied him; he had condemned -them to slavery, and he was sent home in chains; he had given over the -Indians to that thraldom of despair which broke the hearts of millions, -and he himself died broken-hearted. - - - - -CHAPTER V. - -THE SPANIARDS IN HISPANIOLA AND CUBA. - - Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening - for the prey; to shed blood, and to destroy souls, and to - get dishonest gain.—Ezekiel xxii. 27. - - -But whether Columbus or others were in power, the miseries of the -Indians went on. Bovadillo, the governor who superseded Columbus, and -loaded him with irons, only bestowed allotments of Indians with a -more liberal hand, to ingratiate himself with the fierce adventurers -who filled the island. Raging with the quenchless thirst of gold, -these wretches drove the poor Indians in crowds to the mountains, and -compelled them to labour so mercilessly in the mines, that they melted -away as rapidly as snow in the sun. It is true that the atrocities thus -committed reaching the ears of Isabella, instructions were from time to -time sent out, declaring the Indians free subjects, and enjoining mercy -towards them; but like all instructions of the sort sent so far from -home, they were resisted and set aside. The Indians, ever and anon, -stung with despair, rose against their oppressors, but it was only to -perish by the sword instead of the mine—they were pursued as rebels, -their dwellings razed from the earth, and their caziques, when taken, -hanged as malefactors. - - In vain the simple race - Kneeled to the iron sceptre of their grace, - Or with weak arms their fiery vengeance braved; - They came, they saw, they conquered, they enslaved, - And they destroyed! The generous heart they broke; - They crushed the timid neck beneath the yoke; - Where’er to battle marched their fell array, - The sword of conquest ploughed resistless way; - Where’er from cruel toil they sought repose, - Around the fires of devastation rose. - The Indian as he turned his head in flight, - Beheld his cottage flaming through the night, - And, mid the shrieks of murder on the wind, - Heard the mute bloodhound’s death-step close behind. - The conquest o’er, the valiant in their graves, - The wretched remnant dwindled into slaves; - Condemned in pestilential cells to pine, - Delving for gold amidst the gloomy mine. - The sufferer, sick of life-protracting breath, - Inhaled with joy the fire-damp blast of death,— - Condemned to fell the mountain palm on high, - That cast its shadow to the evening sky, - Ere the tree trembled to his feeble stroke, - The woodman languished, and his heart-strings broke; - Condemned in torrid noon, with palsied hand, - To urge the slow plough o’er the obdurate land, - The labourer, smitten by the sun’s fierce ray, - A corpse along the unfinished furrow lay. - O’erwhelmed at length with ignominious toil, - Mingling their barren ashes with the soil, - Down to the dust the Charib people past, - Like autumn foliage withering in the blast; - The whole race sunk beneath the oppressor’s rod, - And left a blank amongst the works of God. - - _Montgomery._ - -In all the atrocities and indignities practised on these poor -islanders, there were none which excite a stronger indignation than -the treatment of the generous female cazique, Anacoana. This is the -narrative of Robertson, drawn from Ovieda, Herrera, and Las Casas. -“The province anciently named Zaragua, which extends from the fertile -plain where Leogane is now situated, to the western extremity of -the island, was subject to a female cazique, named Anacoana, highly -respected by the natives. She, from the partial fondness with which the -women of America were attached to the Europeans, had always courted -the friendship of the Spaniards, and loaded them with benefits. But -some of the adherents of Roldan having settled in her country, were so -much exasperated at her endeavouring to restrain their excesses, that -they accused her of having formed a plan to throw off the yoke, and -to exterminate the Spaniards. Ovando, though he well knew what little -credit was due to such profligate men, marched without further inquiry -towards Zaragua, with three hundred foot, and seventy horsemen. To -prevent the Indians from taking alarm at this hostile appearance, he -gave out that his sole intention was to visit Anacoana, to whom his -countrymen had been so much indebted, in the most respectful manner, -and to regulate with her the mode of levying the tribute payable to the -king of Spain. - -“Anacoana, in order to receive this illustrious guest with due honour, -assembled the principal men in her dominions, to the number of three -hundred, and advancing at the head of these, accompanied by a great -crowd of persons of inferior rank, she welcomed Ovando with songs and -dances, according to the mode of the country, and conducted him to -the place of her residence. There he was feasted for some days, with -all the kindness of simple hospitality, and amused with the games -and spectacles usual among the Americans upon occasions of mirth and -festivity. But amid the security which this inspired, Ovando was -meditating the destruction of his unsuspicious entertainer and her -subjects; and the mean perfidy with which he executed this scheme, -equalled his barbarity in forming it. - -“Under colour of exhibiting to the Indians the parade of an European -tournament, he advanced with his troops in battle array towards the -house in which Anacoana and the chiefs who attended her were assembled. -The infantry took possession of all the avenues which led to the -village. The horsemen encompassed the house. These movements were the -objects of admiration without any mixture of fear, until upon a signal -which had been concerted, the Spaniards suddenly drew their swords -and rushed upon the Indians, defenceless, and astonished at an act -of treachery which exceeded the conception of undesigning men. In a -moment, Anacoana was secured; all her attendants were seized and bound; -fire was set to the house; and without examination or conviction, all -these unhappy persons, the most illustrious in their country, were -consumed in the flames. Anacoana was reserved for a more ignominious -fate. She was carried in chains to St. Domingo, and after the formality -of a trial before Spanish judges, was condemned upon the evidence of -those very men who had betrayed her, _to be publicly hanged_!” - -It is impossible for human treachery, ingratitude, and cruelty to go -beyond that. All that we could relate of the deeds of the Spaniards -in Hispaniola, would be but the continuance of this system of demon -oppression. The people, totally confounded with this instance of -unparalleled villany and butchery, sunk into the inanition of despair, -and were regularly ground away by the unremitted action of excessive -labour and brutal abuse. In fifteen years they sunk from one million -to sixty thousand!—a consumption of _upwards of sixty thousand -souls a-year in one island_! Calamities, instead of decreasing, only -accumulated on their heads. Isabella of Spain died; and the greedy -adventurers feeling that the only person at the head of the government -that had any real sympathy with the sufferings of the natives was gone, -gave themselves now boundless license. Ferdinand conferred grants of -Indians on his courtiers, as the least expensive mode of getting rid -of their importunities. Ovando, the governor, gave to his own friends -and creatures similar gifts of living men, to be worked or crushed to -death at their mercy—to perish of famine, or by the suicidal hand of -despair. The avarice and rapacity of the adventurers became perfectly -rabid. Nobles at home, farmed out these Indians given by Ferdinand to -those who were going out to take part in the nefarious deeds— - - They sate at home, and turned an easy wheel, - That set sharp racks at work to pinch and peel. - -The small and almost nominal sum which had been allowed to the -natives for their labour was now denied them; they were made absolute -and unconditional slaves, and groaned and wasted away in mines and -gold-dust streams, rapidly as those streams themselves flowed. The -quantity of wealth drawn from their very vitals was enormous. Though -Ovando had reduced the royal portion to one-fifth, yet it now amounted -to above a hundred thousand pounds sterling annually—making the whole -annual produce of gold in that island, five hundred thousand pounds -sterling; and considering the embezzlement and waste that must take -place amongst a tribe of adventurers on fire with the love of gold, and -fearing neither God nor man in their pursuit of it, probably nearer a -million. Enormous fortunes sprung up with mushroom rapidity; luxury and -splendour broke out with proportionate violence at home, and legions of -fresh tormentors flocked like harpies to this strange scene of misery -and aggrandizement. To add to all this, the sugar-cane—that source of -a thousand crimes and calamities—was introduced! It flourished; and -like another upas-tree, breathed fresh destruction upon this doomed -people. Plantations and sugar-works were established, and became -general; and the last and faintest glimmer of hope for the islanders -was extinguished! Gold _might_ possibly become exhausted, worked as -the mines were with such reckless voracity; but the cane would spring -afresh from year to year, and the accursed juice would flow for ever. - -The destruction of human life now went on with such velocity, that some -means were necessarily devised to obtain a fresh supply of victims, -or the Spaniards must quit the island, and seek to establish their -inferno somewhere else. But having perfected themselves in that part -of Satan’s business which consisted in tormenting, they now very -characteristically assumed the other part of the fiend’s trade—that -of alluring and inveigling the unsuspicious into their snares. Were -this not a portion of unquestionable history, related by the Spanish -historians themselves, it is so completely an assumption of the art -of the “father of lies,” and betrays such a consciousness of the -real nature of the business they were engaged in, that it would be -looked upon as a happy burlesque of some waggish wit upon them. The -fact however stands on the authority of Gomera, Herrera, Oviedo, and -others. Ovando, the governor, seeing the rapidly wasting numbers of -the natives, and hearing the complaints of the adventurers, began to -cast about for a remedy, and at length this most felicitous scheme, -worthy of Satan in the brightest moment of his existence, burst upon -him.—There were the inhabitants of the Lucayo Isles, living in heathen -idleness, and ignorant alike of _Christian_ mines and _Christian_ -sugar-works. It was fitting that they should not be left in such -criminal and damnable neglect any longer. He proposed, therefore, -that these benighted creatures should be brought to the elysium of -Hispaniola, and _civilized_ in the gold mines, and _instructed in the -Christian religion_ in the sugar-mills! The idea was too happy, and -too full of the milk of _Christian_ kindness to be lost. At once, -all the amiable gold-hunters clapped their hands with ecstasy at -the prospect of so _many new martyrs to the Christian faith_; and -Ferdinand, the benevolent and _most Catholic_ Ferdinand, assented to -it with the zeal of a royal nursing father of the church! A fleet was -speedily fitted out for the benighted Lucayos; and the poor inhabitants -there, wasting their existence in merely cultivating their maize, -plucking their oranges, or fishing in their streams, just as their -need or their inclination prompted them, were told by the Spaniards -that they came from the heaven of their ancestors—isles of elysian -beauty and fertility; where all pain and death were unknown, and where -their friends and relations, living in heavenly felicity, needed only -their society to render that felicity perfect!—that these beatified -relatives had prayed them to hasten and bring them to their own scene -of enjoyment—now waited impatiently for their arrival—and that -they were ready to convey them thither, to the fields of heaven, -in fact, without the black transit of death! The simple creatures, -hearing a story which chimed in so exactly with their fondest belief, -flocked on board with a blind credulity, not even to be exceeded by -the Bubble-dupes of modern England, and soon found themselves in the -grasp of fiends, and added to the remaining numbers of the Hispaniolan -wretches in the mines and plantations. Forty thousand of these poor -people were decoyed by this hellish artifice; and Satan himself, on -witnessing this Spanish _chef d’œuvre_, must have felt ashamed of -his inferiority of tact in his own profession![3] - -But the climax yet remained to be put to the inflictions on these -islanders:—and that was found in the pearl fishery of Cubagua. -Columbus had discovered this little wretched island—Columbus had -suggested and commenced the slavery of the Indians,—and it seemed -as though a Columbus was to complete the fabric of their misery. Don -Diego, Columbus’s son, had compelled an acknowledgment of his claims -in the vice-royalty of the New World. He had enrolled himself by his -marriage with the daughter of Don Ferdinand de Toledo, brother of the -Duke of Alva, and a relative of the king, amongst the highest nobility -of the land. Coming over to assume his hereditary station, he brought a -new swarm of these proud and avaricious hidalgoes with him. He seized -upon and distributed amongst them whatever portions of Indians remained -unconsumed; and casting his eyes on this sand-bank of Cubagua, he -established a colony of pearl-fishers upon it—where the Indians, and -especially the wretched ones decoyed from the Lucayos, were compelled -to find in diving the last extremity of their sufferings. - -And was there no voice raised against these dreadful enormities? -Yes—and with the success which always attends the attempt to defend -the weak against the powerful and rapacious in distant colonies. The -Dominican monks, much to their honour, inveighed, from time to time, -against them; but the Franciscans, on the other hand, sanctioned -them, on the old plea of policy and necessity. It was _necessary_ -that the Spaniards should compel the Indians to labour, or they must -abandon their grand source of wealth. That was conclusive. Where are -the people that carry their religion or their humanity beyond their -interest? The thing was not to be expected. One man, indeed, roused -by the oppressions of Diego Columbus, and his notorious successor, -Albuquerque, a needy man, actually appointed by Ferdinand to the -office of Distributor of the Indians!—one man, Bartholomew de Las -Casas, dared to stand forward as their champion, and through years -of unremitting toil to endeavour to arrest from the government some -mitigation of their condition. Once or twice he appeared on the eve of -success. At one time Ferdinand declared the Indians free subjects, and -to be treated as such; but the furious opposition which arose in the -colony on this decision, soon drew from the king another declaration, -to wit, that the Pope’s bull gave a clear and satisfactory right to -the Indians—that no man must trouble his conscience on account of -their treatment, for the king and council would take all that on -their own responsibility, and that the monks must cease to trouble -the colony with their scruples. Yet the persevering Las Casas, by -personal importunity at the court of Spain, painting the miseries -and destruction of the Indians, now reduced from a million—not -to sixty thousand as before,[4] but to _fourteen thousand_—again -succeeded in obtaining a deputation of three monks of St. Jerome, as -superintendents of all the colonies, empowered to relieve the Indians -from their heavy yoke; and returned thither himself, in his official -character of Protector of the Indians. But all his efforts ended in -smoke. His coadjutors, on reaching Hispaniola, were speedily convinced -by the violence and other persuasives of the colonies, that it was -_necessary_ that the Indians should be slaves; and the only resource of -the benevolent Las Casas was to endeavour to found a new colony where -he might employ the Indians as free men, and civilize and Christianize -them. But this was as vain a project as the other. His countrymen -were now prowling along every shore of the New World that they were -acquainted with, kidnapping and carrying off the inhabitants as slaves, -to supply the loss of those they had worked to death. The dreadful -atrocities committed in these kidnapping cruizes, had made the name of -the Spaniards terrible wherever they had been; and as the inhabitants -could no longer anywhere be _decoyed_, he found the Spanish admiral on -the point of laying waste with fire and sword, so as to seize on all -its people in their flight, the very territory granted him in which to -try his new experiment of humanity. The villany was accomplished; and -amid the desolation of Cumana—the bulk of whose people were carried -off as slaves to Hispaniola, and the rest having fled from their -burning houses to the hills—the sanguine Las Casas still attempted to -found his colony. It need not be said that it failed; the Protector of -the Indians retired to a monastery, and the work of Indian misery went -on unrestrained. To their oppression, a new and more lasting one had -been added; from their destruction, indeed, had now sprung that sorest -curse of both blacks and whites—that foulest stain on the Christian -name—the Slave Trade. Charles V. of Spain, with that perfect freedom -to do as they pleased with all heathen nations which the Papal church -had given to Spain and Portugal, had granted a patent to one of his -Flemish favourites, for the importation of negroes into America. This -patent he had sold to the Genoese, and these worthy merchants were -now busily employed in that traffic in men which is so _congenial_ -to _Christian_ maxims, that it has from that time been the favourite -pursuit of the _Christian_ nations; has been defended by all the -arguments of the most civilized assemblies in the world, and by the -authority of Holy Writ, and is going on at this hour with undiminished -horrors. - -It has been charged on Las Casas, that with singular inconsistency -he himself suggested this diabolical trade; but of that, and of this -trade, we shall say more anon. We will now conclude this chapter -with the brief announcement, that Diego Columbus had now conquered -Cuba, by the agency of Diego Velasquez, one of his father’s captains, -and thus added another grand field for the consumption of natives, -and the importation of slaves. We are informed that the Cubaans -were so unwarlike that no difficulty was found in overrunning this -fine island, except from a chief called Hatuey, who had fled from -Hispaniola, and knew enough of the Spaniards not to desire their -further acquaintance. His obstinacy furnishes this characteristic -anecdote on the authority of Las Casas. “He stood upon the defensive at -their first landing, and endeavoured to drive them back to their ships. -His feeble troops, however, were soon broken and dispersed; and he -himself being taken prison, Velasquez, according to the barbarous maxim -of the Spaniards, considered him as a slave who had taken arms against -his master, and condemned him to the flames.” - -When Hatuey was fastened to the stake, a Franciscan friar, _labouring -to convert him_, promised him immediate admission into the joys of -heaven, if he could embrace the Christian faith. “Are there any -Spaniards,” says he, after some pause, “in that region of bliss which -you describe?” “Yes,” replied the monk, “but such only as are worthy -and good.” “The best of them,” returned the indignant Cazique, “have -neither worth nor goodness! I will not go to a place where I may meet -with that accursed race!”[5] - -The torch was clapped to the pile—Hatuey perished—and the Spaniards -added Cuba to the crown without the loss of a man on their own part. - - - - -CHAPTER VI. - -THE SPANIARDS IN JAMAICA AND OTHER WEST INDIAN ISLANDS. - - -The story of one West India Island, is the story of all. Whether -Spaniards, French, or English took possession, the slaughter and -oppression of the natives followed. I shall, therefore, quit these -fair islands for the present, with a mere passing glance at a few -characteristic facts. - -Herrera says that Jamaica was settled prosperously, because Juan -de Esquival having brought the natives to submission _without any -effusion of blood_, they laboured in planting cotton, and raising -other commodities, which yielded great profit. But Esquival in a very -few years died in his office, and was buried in Sevilla Nueva, a town -which he had built and destined for the seat of government. There is -a dark tradition connected with the destruction of this town, which -would make us infer that the mildness of Esquival’s government was -not imitated by his successors. The Spanish planters assert that the -place was destroyed by a vast army of ants, but the popular tradition -still triumphs over this tradition of the planters. It maintains, that -the injured and oppressed natives rose in their despair and cut off -every one of their tyrants, and laid the place in such utter and awful -ruin that it never was rebuilt, but avoided as a spot of horror. The -city must have been planned with great magnificence, and laid out in -great extent, for Sloane, who visited it in 1688, could discover the -traces or remains of a fort, a splendid cathedral and monastery, the -one inhabited by Peter Martyr, who was abbot and chief missionary of -the island. He found a pavement at two miles distance from the church, -an indication of the extent of the place, and also many materials for -grand arches and noble buildings that had never been erected. The -ruins of this city were now overgrown with wood, and turned black with -age. Sloane saw timber trees growing within the walls of the cathedral -upwards of sixty feet in height; and General Venables in his dispatches -to Cromwell, preserved in Thurlow’s State Papers, vol. iii., speaks of -Seville as a town that had existed _in times past_. - -Both ancient tradition, and recent discoveries, says Bryan Edwards, -in his History of the West Indies, give too much room to believe that -the work of destruction proceeded not less rapidly in this island, -after Esquival’s death, than in Hispaniola; for to this day caves are -frequently discovered in the mountains, wherein the ground is covered -almost entirely with human bones; the miserable remains, without all -doubt, of some of the unfortunate aborigines, who, immured in those -recesses, were probably reduced to the sad alternative of perishing -with hunger or bleeding under the swords of their merciless invaders. -That these are the skeletons of Indians is sufficiently attested by -the skulls, which are preternaturally compressed. “When, therefore,” -says Edwards, “we are told of the fate of the Spanish inhabitants of -Seville, it is impossible to feel any other emotion than an indignant -wish that the story were better authenticated, and that heaven, in -mercy, had permitted the poor Indians in the same moment to have -extirpated their oppressors altogether! But unhappily this faint -glimmering of returning light to the wretched natives, was soon lost -in everlasting darkness, since it pleased the Almighty, for reasons -inscrutable to finite wisdom, to permit the total destruction of this -devoted people; who, to the number of 60,000, on the most moderate -estimate, were at length wholly cut off and exterminated by the -Spaniards—not a single descendant of either sex being alive when the -English took the island in 1655, nor I believe for a century before.” - -The French historian, Du Tertre, informs us that his countrymen made a -_lawful purchase_ of the island of Grenada from the natives for _some -glass beads, knives and hatchets, and a couple of bottles of brandy -for the chief himself_. The nature of the bargain may be pretty well -understood by the introduction of the brandy for the chief, and by the -general massacre which followed, when Du Tertre himself informs us that -Du Parquet, the very general who made this bargain, gave orders for -extirpating the natives altogether, which was done with circumstances -of the most savage barbarity, even to the women and children. The -same historian assures us that St. Christopher’s, the principal of -the Caribbee Isles, was won by the joint exertions of Thomas Warner, -an Englishman, and D’Esnambuc, the captain of a French privateer, who -both seem to have entered with hearty good-will into the business of -massacre and extermination; by which means, and by excessive labour, -the total aboriginal population of the West Indian islands were -speedily reduced from six millions, at which Las Casas estimated them, -to nothing. - -Let any one read the following account from Herrera and Peter -Martyr, of the manner in which the Spaniards were received in these -islands:—“When any of the Spaniards came near to a village, the most -ancient and venerable of the Indians, or the cazique himself, if -present, came out to meet them, and gently conducting them into their -habitations, seated them on stools of ebony curiously ornamented. These -benches seemed to be seats of honour reserved for their guests, for -the Indians threw themselves on the ground, and kissing the hands and -feet of the Spaniards, offered them fruits and the choicest of their -viands, entreating them to prolong their stay with such solicitude -and reverence as demonstrated that they considered them as beings of -a superior nature, whose presence consecrated their dwellings, and -brought a blessing with it. One old man, a native of Cuba, approaching -Columbus with great reverence, and presenting a basket of fruit, thus -addressed him:—‘Whether you are divinities or mortal men we know -not. You come into these countries with a force, against which, were -we inclined to resist it, resistance would be a folly. We are all -therefore at your mercy: but if you are men subject to mortality like -ourselves, you cannot be unapprised that after this life there is -another, wherein a very different portion is allotted to good and bad -men. If, therefore, you expect to die, and believe with us that every -one is to be rewarded in a future state according to his conduct in -the present, you will do no hurt to those who do none to you.’” - -Let the reader also, after listening to these exalted sentiments -addressed by a _savage_, as we are pleased to term him, to a -_Christian_, a term likewise used with as little propriety, read -this account of the reception of Bartholomew Columbus by Behechio, -a powerful cazique of Hispaniola. “As they approached the king’s -dwelling, they were met by his wives to the number of thirty, carrying -branches of the palm-tree in their hands, who first saluted the -Spaniards with a solemn dance, accompanied with a song. These matrons -were succeeded by a train of virgins, distinguished as such by their -appearance; the former wearing aprons of cotton cloth, while the -latter were arrayed only in the innocence of pure nature. Their hair -was tied simply with a fillet over their foreheads, or suffered to -flow gracefully on their shoulders and bosoms. Their limbs were finely -proportioned, and their complexions though brown, were smooth, shining -and lovely. The Spaniards were struck with admiration, believing that -they beheld the dryads of the woods, and the nymphs of the fountains -realizing ancient fable. The branches which they bore in their -hands, they now delivered with lowly obeisance to the lieutenant, -who, entering the palace, found a plentiful, and according to the -Indian mode of living, a splendid repast already provided. As night -approached, the Spaniards were conducted to separate cottages, wherein -each was accommodated with a cotton hammock, and the next morning they -were again entertained with dancing and singing. This was followed by -matches of wrestling and running for prizes; after which two great -bodies of armed Indians suddenly appeared, and a mock engagement -ensued, exhibiting their modes of warfare with the Charaibes. For three -days were the Spaniards thus royally entertained, and on the fourth the -affectionate Indians regretted their departure.” - -What beautiful pictures of a primitive age! what a more than -realization of the age of gold! and what a dismal fall to that actual -_age of gold_ which was coming upon them! To turn from these delightful -scenes to the massacres and oppressions of millions of these gentle and -kind people, and then to the groans of millions of wretched Africans, -which through three long centuries have succeeded them, is one of the -most melancholy and amazing things in the criminal history of the -earth; nor can we wonder at the feelings with which Bryan Edwards -reviews this awful subject:—“All the murders and desolations of the -most pitiless tyrants that ever diverted themselves with the pangs and -convulsions of their fellow-creatures, fall infinitely short of the -bloody enormities committed by the Spanish nation in the conquest of -the New World—a conquest, on a low estimate, effected by the murder of -ten millions of the species! After reading these accounts, who can help -forming an indignant wish that the hand of Heaven, by some miraculous -interposition, had swept these European tyrants from the face of the -earth, who like so many beasts of prey, roamed round the world only to -desolate and destroy; and more remorseless than the fiercest savage, -thirsted for human blood without having the impulse of natural appetite -to plead in their defence!” - - - - -CHAPTER VII. - -THE SPANIARDS IN MEXICO. - - And he knew their desolate palaces, and he laid waste - their cities.—_Ezekiel_ xix. 7. - - How Cortez conquered,—Montezuma fell.—_Montgomery._ - - Much of a Southern Sea they spake, - And of that glorious city won, - Near the setting of the sun, - Throned in a silver lake: - Of seven kings in chains of gold, - And deeds of death by tongue untold,— - Deeds such as breathed in secret there, - Had shaken the confession-chair!—_Rogers._ - - -Six and twenty years had now elapsed since Columbus arrived in the -New World. During this period the Spaniards had not merely committed -the crimes we have been detailing, but they had considerably extended -their discoveries. Columbus, who first discovered the West Indian -islands, was the first also to discover the mainland of America. He -reached the mouth of the Orinoco; traversed the coasts of Paria and -Cumana; Yanez Pinzon, steering southward, had crossed the line to the -river Amazon; the Portuguese under Alvarez Cabral had by mere accident -made the coast of Brazil; Bastidas and De la Cosa had discovered the -coast of Tierra Firmè; in his fourth voyage, Columbus had reached -Porto Bello in Panama; Pinzon and De Solis discovered Yucatan, and in -a second voyage extended their route southward beyond the Rio de la -Plata; Ponce de Leon had discovered Florida; and Balboa in Darien had -discovered the South Sea. These were grand steps in discovery towards -those mighty kingdoms that were soon to burst upon them. Cordova -discovered the mouth of the river Potonchan, beyond Campeachy; and -finally, Grijalva ranged along the whole coast of Mexico from Tabasco -to the river Panuco. Of their transactions on these coasts during their -progress in discovery, nothing further need be said than that they were -characterized by their usual indifference to the rights and feelings of -the natives, and that, finding them for the most part of a more warlike -disposition, several of these commanders had suffered severely from -them, and some of them lost their lives. - -But a strange and astounding epoch was now at hand. The names of -Cortez and Pizarro, Mexico and Peru, are become sounds familiar to all -ears—linked together as in a spell of wild wonder, and stand as the -very embodiment of all that is marvellous, dazzling, and romantic in -history. Here were vast empires, suddenly starting from the veil of -ages into the presence of the European world, with the glitter of a -golden opulence beyond the very extravagance of Arabian fable; populous -as they were affluent; with a new and peculiar civilization; with arts -and a literature unborrowed of other realms, and unlike those of any -other. Here were those fairy and most interesting kingdoms as suddenly -assaulted and subdued by two daring adventurers with a mere handful -of followers; and as suddenly destroyed! Their young civilization, -their fair and growing fabric of policy, ruthlessly dashed down and -utterly annihilated; their princes murdered in cold blood; their wealth -dissipated like a morning dream; and their swarming people crushed into -slaves, or swept from their cities and their fair fields, as a harvest -is swept away by the sickle! - -It is difficult, amid the intoxication of the imagination on -contemplating such a spectacle,—for there is nothing like it in the -history of the whole world—it is difficult, dazzled by military -triumph, and seduced by the old sophisms of glory and adventure, to -bring the mind steadily to contemplate the real nature and consequences -of these events. The names of Cortez and Pizarro, indeed, through -all the splendour of that renown with which the acclamations of -their interested cotemporaries, and the false morality of their -historians have surrounded them, still retain the gloom and terror of -their cruelties. But this is derived rather from particular acts of -outrageous atrocity, than from a just estimate of the total villany -and unrighteous nature of their entire undertakings. Their entrance, -assault, and subduction of the kingdoms of Mexico and Peru, were from -first to last, _in limine et in termino_, the acts of daring robbers, -on flame with the thirst of gold, and of a spurious and fanatical -renown,—setting at defiance every sentiment of justice, mercy and -right, and bound by no scruples of honour or conscience, in the pursuit -of their object. It is not to be denied that in the prosecution of -their schemes, they displayed the most chivalrous courage, and Cortez -the most consummate address,—but these are the attributes of the -arch-fiend himself—boundless ambition, gigantic talent, the most -matchless and successful address without one feeling of pity, or one -sentiment of goodness! These surely are not the qualities for which -Christians ought to applaud such men as Cortez and Pizarro! They are -these false and absurd notions, derived from the spirit of gentile -antiquity, that have so long mocked the progress of Christianity, and -held civilization in abeyance. It is to these old sophisms that we owe -all the political evils under which we groan, and under which we have -made all nations that have felt our power groan too. To every truly -enlightened and Christian philosopher can there be a more melancholy -subject of contemplation, than these romantic empires thus barbarously -destroyed by an irruption of worse than Goths and Vandals? But that -melancholy must be tenfold augmented, when we reflect what _would_ -have been the fate of these realms if Europe had been not nominally, -but _really_ Christianized at the moment of their discovery. If it -had learned that the “peace on earth and good-will towards men,” with -which the children of heaven heralded the gospel into the world, -was not a mere flourish of rhetoric,—not a mere phrase of eastern -poetry, “beautiful exceedingly;” but actually the promulgation of the -grandest and most pregnant axiom in social philosophy, that had ever -been, or should be made known to mankind, or that it was possible for -heaven itself from the infinitude of its blessedness to send down to -it. That in it lay concentrated the perfection of civil policy, the -beauty of social life, the harmony of nations, and the prosperity -of every mercantile adventure. That it was the triumphant basis, on -which arts and sciences, literature and poetry, should raise their -proudest fabrics, and society from its general adoption, date its -genuine civilization and a new era of glory and enjoyment. Suppose -that to have been the mind and feeling of Europe at that time—and it -is merely to suppose it to be what it pretended to be—in possession -of Christianity—what would have been the simple consequence? To the -wonder that thrilled through Europe at the tidings of such discovered -states, an admiration as lively would have succeeded. Vast kingdoms in -the heart of the new world, with cities and cultivated fields; with -temples and palaces; monarchs of great state and splendour; vessels -of silver and gold in gorgeous abundance; municipal police; national -couriers; and hieroglyphic writing, and records of their own invention! -Why, what interesting intelligence to every lover of philosophy, of -literature, and of the study of human nature! Genuine intelligence, and -enlightened curiosity would have flocked thither to look and admire; -genuine philanthropy, to give fresh strength and guidance to this -germinating civilization,—and Christian spirits would have glowed -with delight at the thought of shewing, in the elevated virtues, the -justice, generosity and magnanimity derived by them from their faith, -the benefits which it could confer on these growing states. - -But to have expected anything of this kind from the Spaniards, -would have been the height of folly. They had no more notion of -what Christianity is, than the Great Mogul had. They knew no more -than what Rome chose to tell them. They were not distinguished by -one Christian virtue,—for they had been instructed in none. They -were not more barbarous to the Americans, than they were faithless, -jealous, malignant, and quarrelsome amongst each other. Disorderly and -insubordinate as soldiers, nothing but the terrors of their destructive -arms, and the fatal paralysis of mind which singular prophesies had -cast on the Americans, could have prevented them from being speedily -swept away in the midst of their riot and contention. The idea which -the Spaniards had of Christianity, is best seen in the form of -proclamation which Ojeda made to the inhabitants of Tierra Firmè, and -which became the Spanish model in all future usurpations of the kind. -After stating that the popes, as the successors of St. Peter, were -the possessors of the world, it thus went on: “One of these pontiffs, -as lord of the world, hath made a grant of these islands, and of -Tierra Firmè of the ocean sea, to the Catholic kings of Castile, Don -Ferdinand and Donna Isabella of glorious memory, and their successors, -our sovereigns, with all they contain, as is more fully expressed in -certain deeds passed upon that occasion, which you may see if you -desire it, (Indians, who neither knew Latin, Spanish, nor the art of -reading!). Thus his majesty is king and lord of these islands, and -of the continent, in virtue of this donation; and as king and lord -aforesaid, most of the islands to which his title hath been notified, -have recognised his majesty, and now yield obedience and subjection to -him as their lord, _voluntarily and without resistance_! and instantly, -as soon as they received information (from the sword and musket!) they -obeyed the religious men sent by the king to preach to them, and _to -instruct them in our holy faith_!... You are _bound and obliged_ (true -enough!) to act in the same manner.... If you do this, you act well, -and perform that to which you are bound and obliged; his majesty, and -I in his name, _will receive you with love and kindness_, and _will -leave you and your children free and exempt from servitude, and in the -enjoyment of all you possess, in the same manner as the inhabitants -of the islands_! (ay, love and kindness, _such_ as they had shewn to -the islanders. Satan’s genuine glozing—“lies like truth, and yet most -truly lies.”) Besides this, his majesty _will bestow upon you many -privileges, exemptions, and rewards_! (Ay, such as they had bestowed on -the islanders—but here begins the simple truth.) But if you will not -comply, or maliciously delay to obey my injunctions, then, _with the -help of God_, I will enter your country by force; I will carry on war -against you with the utmost violence; I will subject you to the yoke -of the church and the king; I will take your wives and children, and -will make slaves of them, and sell or dispose of them according to his -majesty’s pleasure; I will seize your goods, and do all the mischief -in my power to you as rebellious subjects, who will not acknowledge or -submit to their lawful sovereign. And I protest that all the bloodshed -and calamities which shall follow are to be imputed to you, and not -to his majesty, or to me, or to the gentlemen who serve under me, -etc.”—_Herrera._ - -Here then we have the romance stripped away from such ruffians as -Cortez and Pizarro. We have here the very warrant under which they -acted—a tissue of such most impudent fictions, and vindictive -truths, as could only issue from that great office of delusion and -oppression which corrupted all Europe with its abominable doctrine. The -last sentence, however, betrays the inward feeling and consciousness -of those who used it, that blood-guiltiness was not perfectly -removed to their satisfaction, and is a miserable attempt at further -self-delusion. These apostles of the sword, before whose proclamation -our sarcasms against Mahomet and his sword-creed, fall to the ground, -knew only too well that all their talk of love and kindness to the -islanders was the grossest falsehood. The Pope’s bull could not blind -them to that; and though the misery they inflicted is past, Europe -still needs the warning of their deeds, to open its eyes to the nature -of much of its own morality. - -Cortez commenced his career against Mexico with breach of faith to his -employer. It was villain using villain, and with the ordinary results. -Velasquez, the governor of Cuba, who had sent out Grijalva, roused by -the description of the new and beautiful country which he had coasted, -now sought for a man, so humble in his pretensions and so destitute -of alliance, that he might trust him with a fleet and force for the -acquisition of it. Such a man he believed he had found in Hernando -Cortez,—a man, like many other men in Spain, of noble blood, but very -ignoble fortune—poor, proud, so hot and overbearing in his disposition -and so dissipated in his habits, that his father was glad to send him -out as an adventurer. Ovando, governor of Hispaniola, the notorious -betrayer of Anacoana, and murderer of her chiefs, was his relation, -and received him with open arms as a fit instrument in such work as -he had to do. Cortez attended Velasquez in that expedition to Cuba in -which the cazique Hatuey was burnt at the stake for his resistance to -their invasion, and died bearing that memorable testimony to Spanish -Christianity. Velasquez, who had acted the traitor towards Diego -Columbus, whose deputy in the government of Cuba he was, had however -scarcely sent out Cortez, when he conceived a suspicion that he would -show no better faith than he himself had done. Scarcely had Cortez -sailed for Trinidad, when Velasquez sent instructions after him, to -deprive him of his commission. Cortez eluded this by hastening to the -Havanna, where an express also to arrest him was forwarded. Cortez, -fully justified the suspicions of Velasquez; for, from the moment -that he found himself at the head of a fleet, he abandoned every idea -of acknowledging the authority which had put it into his command. He -boldly avowed his intentions to his fellow adventurers, and as their -views, like his own, were plunder and dominion, he received their -applause and their vows of adherence. Thus supported in his schemes of -ambition, he set sail for the Mexican coast, with eleven vessels of -various burdens and characters. His own, or admiral’s ship, was of a -hundred tons, three of seventy or eighty tons, and the others were open -boats. He carried with him six hundred and seventeen men; amongst whom -were to be found only thirteen muskets, thirty-two cross-bows, sixteen -horses, ten small field-pieces, and four falconets. Behold Cortez and -his comrades thus on their way to conquer the great kingdom of Mexico, -bearing on their great banner the figure of a large cross, and this -inscription,—LET US FOLLOW THE CROSS, FOR UNDER THIS SIGN WE SHALL -CONQUER! - -“So powerfully,” says Robertson,—to whose curious remarks I shall -occasionally draw the attention of my readers,—“were Cortez and his -followers animated with both these passions (religion and avarice) -that no less eager to plunder the opulent country whither they were -bound, than _zealous to propagate the Christian faith (!)_ among its -inhabitants, they set out, not with the solicitude natural to men -going upon dangerous services, but with that confidence which arises -from security of success, and certainty of the divine protection.” No -doubt they believed the cross which they followed was the cross of -Christ, but every one now will be quite as well satisfied that it was -the cross of one of the two thieves, a most fitting ensign for such -an expedition. Cortez, indeed, was a fiery zealot, and frequently -endangered the success of his enterprise by his assault on the gods and -temples of the natives, just as Mahomet or Omar would have done; for -there was not a pin to choose between the faith in which he had been -educated, and that of the prophet of Mecca. One followed the cross, the -other the crescent, but their faith alike was—the sword.[6] - -After touching at different spots, to remind the natives of the -Christian faith by “routing them with great slaughter,” and carrying -off provisions, cotton garments, gold, and twenty female slaves, one of -whom was the celebrated woman, called by the Spaniards Donna Marina, -who rendered them such services as interpreter, they entered, on the -2nd of April 1519, the harbour of St. Juan de Ulua. Here we are told -by the Spanish historians, that the natives came on board in the most -friendly and unsuspicious manner. Two of them were officers from the -local government, sent to inquire what was the object of Cortez in -coming thither, and offering any assistance that might be necessary -to enable him to proceed in his voyage. Cortez assured them that _he -came with the most friendly intentions_, to seek an interview with -the king, of great importance to the welfare of their country; and -next morning, in proof of the sincerity and friendliness of his views, -landed his troops and ammunition, and began a fortification. This -brought Teutile and Pilpatoe, as Robertson calls them, or Teuhtlile -and Cuitlalpita, according to Clavigero, himself a Mexican, the local -governors, into the camp with a numerous attendance. Montezuma, the -emperor, had been alarmed, as well he might, by the former appearance -of the Spaniards on his coast, and these officers urged Cortez to take -his departure. He persisted, however, that he must see Montezuma, -being come as an ambassador from the king of Spain to him, and charged -with communications that could be opened to no one else—falsehoods -worthy of a robber, for he not only had no commission from the king -of Spain, but was in open rebellion to the Spanish government at the -moment. To induce him to depart, these simple people resorted to the -same unlucky policy as our ancestors the Saxons did with the Danes, -and presented him with a present of ten loads of fine cotton cloth, -plumes of various colours, and articles in gold and silver of rich and -curious workmanship, besides a quantity of provisions. These not only -inflamed his cupidity to the utmost, but another circumstance served -to convince him that he had stumbled upon a different country to what -any of his countrymen had yet found in America; and stimulated equally -his ambition to conquer it. He observed painters at work in the train -of Teuhtlile and Pitalpatoe,[7] sketching on cotton cloth, himself, -his men, his horses, ships and artillery. To give more effect to these -drawings, he sounded his trumpets, threw his army into battle array, -put it through a variety of striking military movements, and tore up -the neighbouring woods with the discharge of his cannon. The Mexicans, -struck with terror and admiration at these exhibitions, dispatched -speedy information of all these particulars by the couriers, and in -seven days received the answer of the emperor, though his capital was -one hundred and eighty miles off, that Cortez must instantly depart -the country. But had he had the slightest intention of the kind, the -unlucky courtesy of the emperor would have changed his resolve. To -render his command the more palatable, he sent an ambassador of rank, -with a hundred men of burden carrying presents, and they again poured -out before Cortez such a flood of treasures, as astonished him and his -greedy followers. - -There were boxes full of pearls and precious stones; gold in its -native state, and gold wrought into the richest trinkets; two wheels, -the one of gold, the other of silver. That of gold, representing the -Mexican century, had the image of the sun engraved in the middle, -round which were different figures in bass-relief. Bernal Diaz says -the circumference was thirty palms of Toledo, and the value of it ten -thousand sequins. The one of silver, in which the Mexican year was -represented, was still larger, with a moon in the middle, surrounded -also with figures in bass-relief.[8] Thirty loads or bales of cotton -cloths of the most exquisite fineness, and pictures in feather-work of -surprising brilliancy and art. These were all opened out on mats in the -most tempting manner; and besides these, was a vizor, which Cortez had -desired at the last interview might be filled with gold dust, telling -the officer most truly—that “the Spaniards had a disease of the heart -which could only be cured by gold.” - -Cortez took the presents, and coolly assured the ambassador that he -should not quit the country till he had seen the emperor. A third -message, accompanied by a third and more peremptory order for his -departure, producing no greater effect, the officers left the camp in -displeasure, and Cortez prepared to march into the country. - -But before he commenced his expedition there were a few measures to be -taken. He was a traitor to the governor of Cuba who had sent him out; -and the governor had still adherents in the army, who objected to what -appeared to them this rash enterprise against so powerful and populous -an empire. It was necessary to silence these people, and his mode of -doing this reminds one of the solemn artifices of Oliver Cromwell. -He held out to the soldiers such prospects of booty as secured them -to his interests, and on the discontented remonstrating with him, he -appeared to fall in with their views, and gave instant orders for -the return home, at the same time sending his emissaries amongst the -soldiers to exasperate them against the return. When the order for -re-embarkation the next day was therefore issued, the whole army seemed -in a fury against it, and Cortez feigning to have believed the order -for the return was their own desire, now declared that he was ready -to lead them forwards. But this was not sufficient. Knowing that he -was a traitor to the trust reposed in him, he resorted to one of those -grave farces by which usurpers often attempt to give an appearance of -title to their power, though they know well enough the emptiness of -it. He laid out the plan of a town,—named it Villa Rica de la Vera -Cruz, or the Rich Town of the True Cross, established magistrates and -a municipal council, and then appeared before them and resigned his -command into their hands, having taken good care that the magistrates -were so much his creatures as instantly to re-invest him with it. -Assuming now this command, not as flowing from the governor of Cuba, -but from the constituted authorities under the crown, and therefore -from the crown itself, he immediately seized on the officers who had -murmured at his breach of faith, clapped them in chains, and sent them -aboard the fleet! So far so good; but the reflection still came, how -would all these deeds sound at home? and Cortez therefore took the -only means that could secure him in that quarter. He collected all the -gold that could be procured by any means, and sent it by the hand of -two of the mock magistrates of Vera Cruz to the King of Spain, giving a -plausible colouring to their assumption of power independent of Cuba, -and soliciting a confirmation of it. - -These were the measures of an adventurer not more daring than artful; -yet a single circumstance shewed him still his insecurity. At the -moment that his magistrates were about to sail for Spain, he discovered -that a conspiracy was in existence to seize one of the vessels in -the harbour, and to sail to Cuba, and give the alarm to Velasquez. -This startling fact determined him to put the _coup de grace_ to his -measures,—to destroy his fleet, and let his followers see that there -was no longer any resource but to follow him boldly in his attack upon -Mexico, or perish. He had the address to bring his men to commit this -act themselves: they dragged the vessels ashore—stripped them of -sails, rigging, iron-work—whatever might be useful, and then broke -them up. A more daring and politic action is not upon record. Cortez, -in fact, had nothing to hope from his fleet, and had cast his life and -fortune on the conquest of this great and wealthy realm. - -When we contemplate him at this juncture, we are however not more -struck with his daring and determined policy, than as Christians we -are indignant at the real nature of the act that he meditated. This -was no other than to ravage this young and growing empire, to plunder -it of its gold, and consume its millions of inhabitants in mines and -plantations, by the sword and by the lash, as his countrymen had -consumed the wealth and the people of the islands,—and all this on -pretence of planting the Cross! It was the cool speculation of a daring -robber, hardened by a false faith, and by witnessing deeds of blood and -outrage, to a total insensibility to every feeling but the diseased -overgrowth of selfish ambition. - -The attempt to subdue a kingdom stretching from the Atlantic to the -Pacific Ocean in a breadth of above five hundred leagues from east to -west, and of upwards of two hundred from north to south—a kingdom -populous, fertile, and of a warlike reputation; and that with a force -of not seven hundred men, appears at first view an act of madness: but -Cortez was too well acquainted with American warfare to know that it -was not impracticable. In the first place, he knew that the weapons -of the natives had very little effect upon the quilted cotton dress -which the Spaniards adopted on these expeditions, and that by the -terror of their fire-arms and their union of movement, they could in -almost all cases and situations keep them at that distance which took -away even that little effect, while it left them open to the full play -of the European missives. He knew the terror that the natives had of -the Spanish horses, dogs, and artillery; and moreover he had speedily -discovered, through the means of one of the women slaves brought from -Darien who proved to be a Mexican by birth, that Mexico was a kingdom -newly cemented by the arms of Montezuma and his immediate predecessors, -and therefore full of provinces still smarting under the sense of their -subjugation, and ready to seize on an occasion of revenge. In fact, he -had speedily practical evidence of this, for the cazique of Chempoalla, -a neighbouring town, sent an embassy to him soliciting his friendship, -and offering to join him in his designs against Montezuma, whom he -represented as a haughty and exacting tyrant to the provinces. Cortez -of course caught gladly at this alliance, and removing his settlement, -planted it at Quiabislan, near Chempoalla. The hint was given him of -the real condition of the empire, and he was too crafty to neglect it. -He immediately gave himself out as the champion of the aggrieved and -oppressed, come to redress all their wrongs, and restore them to their -liberties! - -But there was another and most singular cause which gave Cortez a -fair prospect of success. Throughout the American kingdoms ancient -prophecies prevailed,—that a new race was to come in, and seize -upon the reins of power, and before it the American tribes were to -quail and give place. In the islands, in Mexico, in Peru,—far and -wide,—this mysterious tradition prevailed. Everywhere these terrible -people were expected to come from towards the rising of the sun: they -were to be completely clad, and to lay waste every country before -them;—circumstances so entirely verified in the Spaniards, that the -spirit of the American natives died within them at the rumour of their -approach, as the natives of Canaan did at that of the Israelites coming -with the irresistible power and the awful miracles of God. For ages -these prophecies had weighed on the public mind, and had been sung -with loud lamentations at their solemn festivals. Cazziva, a great -cazique, declared that in a supernatural interview with one of the -Zemi, this terrible event had been revealed to him. “The demons which -they worshipped,” says Acosta, “in this instance, told them true.” -Montezuma therefore, though naturally haughty, warlike, and commanding, -on so appalling an event as the fulfilment of these ancient prophecies, -lost his courage, his decision, his very power of mind, and exhibited -nothing but the most utter vacillation and weakness, while Cortez was -advancing towards his capital in defiance of his orders. - -Having strengthened himself by the alliance of the Chempoallans, and -others of the Totonacas, and chastised the Tlascalans, a fierce people -who gave no credit to his pretences, he advanced to Cholula, a place -of great importance, consisting, according to Cortez’s account, of -forty thousand houses and many populous suburban villages. Montezuma -had now consented to his reception, and he was received in this city -by his orders. It was a sacred city,—“the Rome of Anahuac or Mexico,” -says Clavigero, full of temples, and visited by hosts of pilgrims. -Here, suspecting treachery, he determined to strike terror into both -the emperor and the people. “For this purpose,” says Robertson, “the -Spaniards and Zempoallans were drawn up in a large court which had -been allotted for their quarters near the centre of the town. The -Tlascalans had orders to advance; the magistrates, and several of the -chief citizens, were sent for, under various pretences, and seized. -On a signal given, the troops rushed out, and fell upon the multitude -destitute of leaders, and so much astonished, that the weapons -dropping from their hands, they stood motionless and incapable of -defence. While the Spaniards pressed them in front, the Tlascalans -attacked them in the rear. The streets were filled with bloodshed -and death; the temples, which afforded a retreat to the priests and -some of the leading men, were set on fire, and they perished in the -flames. This scene of horror continued two days, during which the -wretched inhabitants suffered all that the destructive rage of the -Spaniards, or the implacable revenge of their Indian allies, could -inflict. At length the carnage ceased, after the slaughter of six -thousand Cholulans, without the loss of a single Spaniard! Cortez -then released the magistrates, and reproaching them bitterly for -their intended treachery, declared that as justice was now appeased -he forgave the offence, but required them to recall the citizens who -had fled, and reestablish order in the town. Such was the ascendant -which the Spaniards had acquired over this superstitious race of men, -and so deeply were they impressed with an opinion of their superior -discernment, as well as power, that in obedience to this command, -the city was in a few days again filled with people, who amidst -the ruins of their sacred buildings, yielded respectful service to -men whose hands were stained with the blood of their relatives and -fellow-citizens. - -“From Cholula,” adds Robertson, “Cortez marched directly towards -Mexico, which was only twenty leagues distant:”—and that is all the -remark that he makes on this brutal butchery of an innocent people, -by a man on his march to plant the cross! A Christian historian sees -only in this most savage and infernal action, a piece of necessary -policy—so obtuse become the perceptions of men through the ordinary -principles of historic judgment. But the Christian mind asks what -business Cortez had there at all? The people were meditating his -destruction? True;—and it was natural and national that they should -get rid of so audacious and lawless an enemy, who entered their country -with the intentions of a robber, set at defiance the commands of their -king, and stirred up rebellion at every step he took. The Mexicans -would have been less than men if they had not resolved to cut him off. -What right had he there? What right to disturb the tranquillity of -their country, and shed the blood of its people? These are questions -that cannot be answered on any Christian principles, or on any -principles but those of the bandit and the murderer. _Six thousand -people butchered in cold blood—two days employed in hewing down -trembling wretches, too fearful to even raise a single weapon against -the murderers!_ Heavens! are these the deeds that we admire as heroic -and as breathing of romance? Yet, says Clavigero, “He ordered the great -temple to be cleaned from the gore of his murdered victims; and raised -there the standard of the cross; _after giving the Cholulans, as he did -all the other people among whom he stopped_,” SOME IDEA OF THE CHRISTIAN -RELIGION!!! What _idea_ had the Abbé Don Francesco Saverio Clavigero of -Christianity himself? - -But Cortez had plunged headlong into the enterprise—he had set his -life and that of his followers at stake on the conquest of Mexico, and -there was no action, however desperate, that he was not prepared to -commit. And sure enough his hands became well filled with treachery -and blood. It is not my business to dwell particularly upon these -atrocities, but merely to recall the memory of them; yet it may be -as well to give, in the words of Robertson, the manner in which the -Spaniards were received into the capital, because it contrasts -strongly with the manner in which the Christians behaved in this same -city, and to this same monarch. - -“In descending from the mountains of Chalco,[9] across which the -road lay, the vast plain of Mexico opened gradually to their view. -When they first beheld this prospect, one of the most striking and -beautiful on the face of the earth—when they observed fertile and -cultivated fields stretching further than the eye could reach—when -they saw a lake resembling the sea in extent, encompassed with large -towns; and discovered the capital city, rising upon an island in the -middle, adorned with its temples and turrets—the scene so far exceeded -their imagination, that some believed the fanciful dreams of romance -were realized, and that its enchanted palaces and gilded domes were -presented to their sight. Others could hardly persuade themselves -that this wonderful spectacle was anything more than a dream. As they -advanced, their doubts were removed; but their amazement increased. -They were now fully satisfied that the country was rich beyond any -conception which they had formed of it, and flattered themselves that -at length they should obtain an ample recompense for all their services -and sufferings. - -“When they drew near the city, about a thousand persons, who appeared -to be of distinction, came forth to meet them, adorned with plumes, -and clad in mantles of fine cotton. Each of these, in his order, -passed by Cortez, and saluted him according to the mode deemed most -respectful and submissive in their country. They announced the approach -of Montezuma himself, and soon after his harbingers came in sight. -There appeared first, two hundred persons in an uniform dress, with -large plumes of feathers alike in fashion, marching two and two in deep -silence, barefooted, with their eyes fixed on the ground. These were -followed by a company of higher rank, in their most showy apparel; -in the midst of whom was Montezuma, in a chair or litter, richly -ornamented with gold and feathers of various colours. Four of his -principal favourites carried him on their shoulders; others supported -a canopy of curious workmanship over his head. Before him marched -three officers with rods of gold in their hands, which they lifted up -on high at certain intervals, and at that signal all the people bowed -their heads, and hid their faces, as unworthy to look on so great a -monarch. When he drew near, Cortez dismounted, advancing towards him -with officious haste, and in a respectful posture. At the same time -Montezuma alighted from his chair, and leaning on the arms of two -of his near relatives, approached with a slow and stately pace, his -attendants covering the street with cotton cloths that he might not -touch the ground. Cortez accosted him with profound reverence after the -European fashion. He returned the salutation according to the mode of -his country, by touching the earth with his hand, and then kissing it. -This ceremony, the customary expression of veneration from inferiors -towards those who were above them in rank, appeared such amazing -condescension in a proud monarch, who scarcely deigned to consider -the rest of mankind as of the same species with himself, that all his -subjects firmly believed those persons before whom he humbled himself -in this manner, to be something more than human. Accordingly, as they -marched through the crowd, the Spaniards frequently, and with much -satisfaction, heard themselves denominated _Teules_, or divinities. -Montezuma conducted Cortez to the quarter which he had prepared for his -reception, and immediately took leave of him, with a politeness not -unworthy of a court more refined. ‘You are now,’ says he, ‘with your -brothers in your own house; refresh yourselves after your fatigue; and -be happy till I return.’” - -The Spanish historians give some picturesque particulars of this -interview, which Robertson has not copied. The dress of Montezuma is -thus described: As he rode in his litter, a parasol of green feathers -embroidered with fancy-work of gold was held over him. He wore hanging -from his shoulders a mantle adorned with the richest jewels of gold -and precious stones; on his head a thin crown of the same metal; and -upon his feet shoes of gold, tied with strings of leather worked -with gold and gems. The persons on whom he leaned, were the king of -Tezcuco and the lord of Iztapalapan. Cortez put on Montezuma’s neck -a thin cord of gold strung with glass beads, and would have embraced -him, but was prevented by the two lords on whom the king leaned. In -return for this paltry necklace, Montezuma gave Cortez two of beautiful -mother-of-pearl, from which hung some large cray-fish of gold in -imitation of nature. - -Here, then, to their own wonder and admiration, were this handful of -Spanish adventurers in the “glorious city,” - - Near the setting of the sun, - Throned in a silver lake. - -Generous minds would have rejoiced in the glory of such a discovery, -and have exulted in the mutual benefits to be derived from an -honourable intercourse between their own country and this new and -beautiful one,—but Cortez and his men were merely gazing on the -novel splendour of this interesting city with the greedy eyes of -robbers, and thinking how they might best seize upon its power, and -clutch its wealth. Who is not familiar with their rapid career of -audacious villany, in this fairy capital? Scarcely were they received -as guests,[10] when they seized on the monarch, and that at the very -moment that he gave to Cortez his own daughter, and heaped on him other -favours—and compelled him, under menaces of instantly stabbing him to -the heart, to quit his palace, and take up his residence in their own -quarters. The astonished and distressed king, now a puppet in their -hands, was made to command every thing which they desired to be done; -and they were by no means scrupulous in their exercise of this power, -knowing that the people looked on the person of the monarch as sacred, -and would not for a moment refuse to obey his least word, though in -the hands of his enemies. The very first thing which they required him -to do, was to order to be delivered up to them Qualpopoca, one of his -generals, who had been employed in quelling one of the insurrections -that the Spaniards had raised near Villa Rica, and who being attacked -by the Spanish officer Escalante, left in command there, had killed -him, with seven of his men, and taken one other alive. The order was -obeyed, and the brave general, his son, and five of his principal -officers, were burnt alive by these Christian heroes! To add to the -cruelty and indignity of the deed, Montezuma himself was put into irons -during the transaction, accompanied by threats of a darker kind. - -The simplicity of Robertson’s remarks on this affair are singular: “In -these transactions, as represented by the Spanish historians, we search -in vain for the qualities which distinguish other parts of Cortez’s -conduct.” What qualities? “To usurp a jurisdiction which could not -belong to a stranger, who assumed no higher character than that of an -ambassador from a foreign prince, and under colour of it, to inflict -a capital punishment on men whose conduct entitled them to esteem, -appears an act of barbarous cruelty.” - -Why, the whole of Cortez’s conduct, from the moment that he entered -with arms the kingdom of Mexico, was a usurpation that “could not -belong to a stranger assuming merely the title of an ambassador.” What -ambassador comes with armed troops; or when the monarch orders him to -quit his realm, marches further into it; or foments rebellion as he -goes along; or massacres the inhabitants by wholesale? Was the butchery -of six thousand people at Cholula, no act of barbarous cruelty? - -Well, by what Robertson complacently terms “the fortunate temerity in -seizing Montezuma,” the Spaniards had suddenly usurped the sovereign -power, and they did not pause here. They sent out some of their number -to survey the whole kingdom; to spy out its wealth, and pitch on -fitting stations for colonies. They put down such native officers as -were too honest or able for them; they compelled Montezuma, though with -tears and groans, to acknowledge himself the vassal of the Spanish -crown. They divided the Mexican treasures amongst them; and finally -drove the Mexicans to desperation. - -The arrival of the armament from Cuba under Narvaez, sent by Velasquez -to punish Cortez for his treason, and his victory over Narvaez, and the -union of those troops with his own, belong to the general historian—my -task is to exhibit his treatment to the natives; and his next exploit, -is that of exposing Montezuma to the view of his exasperated subjects -from the battlements of his house, in the hope that his royal puppet -might have authority enough to appease them; a scheme which proved -the death of the emperor—for his own subjects, indignant at his tame -submission to the Spaniards, let fly their arrows at him. The fury of -the Mexicans on this catastrophe, the terrible nocturnal retreat of -Cortez from the city, still called amongst the inhabitants of Mexico, -_La Noche Triste_, the sorrowful night,—the strange battle of Otumba, -where Cortez, felling the standard-bearer of the army, dispersed in -a moment tens of thousands like a mist,—the flight to Tlascala, and -the return again to the siege,—the eight thousand _Tamenes_, or -servile Indians, bearing through the hostile country to the lake the -brigantines in parts, ready to put together on their arrival,—Father -Olmedo blessing the brigantines as they were launched on the lake in -the presence of wondering multitudes,—and the desperate siege and -assault themselves, all are full of the most stirring interest, and -display a sort of satanic grandeur in the man, amidst the horrors into -which his ambitious guilt had plunged him, that are only to be compared -to that of Napoleon in Russia, beset, in his extremity, by the -vengeful warriors of the north. But the crowning disgrace of Cortez, -is that of putting to the torture the new emperor, Guatimotzin, the -nephew and son-in-law of Montezuma, whom the Mexicans, in admiration -of his virtues and talents, had placed on the throne. The bravery with -which Guatimotzin had defended his city, the frankness with which he -yielded himself when taken, would have made his person sacred in the -eyes of a generous conqueror; but Guatimotzin had committed the crime, -unpardonable in the eyes of a Spaniard, of casting the treasures for -which the Spaniards harassed his country into the lake,—and Cortez had -him put to the severest torture to force from him the avowal of where -they lay. Even _he_ is said at length to have been ashamed of so base -and horrid a business; yet he afterwards put him to death, and the -manner in which this, and other barbarities are related by Robertson, -is worthy of observation. - -“It was not, however, without difficulty that the Mexican empire could -be entirely reduced to the form of a Spanish province. Enraged and -rendered desperate by oppression, the natives forgot the superiority -of their enemies, and ran to arms in defence of their liberties. In -every contest, however, the European valour and discipline prevailed. -But fatally for the honour of their country, the Spaniards sullied -the glory redounding from these repeated victories, by their mode -of treating the vanquished people. After taking Guatimotzin, and -becoming masters of his capital, they supposed that the king of Castile -entered on possession of all the rights of the captive monarch, and -affected to consider every effort of the Mexicans to assert their own -independence, as the rebellion of vassals against their sovereign, -or the mutiny of slaves against their master. Under the sanction of -these ill-founded maxims, they violated every right that should be -held sacred between hostile nations. After each insurrection, they -reduced the common people, in the provinces which they subdued, to -the most humiliating of all conditions, that of personal servitude. -Their chiefs, supposed to be more criminal, were punished with greater -severity, and put to death in the most ignominious or the most -excruciating mode that the insolence or the cruelty of their conquerors -could devise. In almost every district of the Mexican empire, the -progress of the Spanish arms is marked with blood, and with deeds so -atrocious, as disgrace the enterprising valour that conducted them to -success. In the country of Panuco, sixty caziques, or leaders, and four -hundred nobles were burnt at one time. Nor was this shocking barbarity -perpetrated in any sudden sally of rage, or by a commander of inferior -note. It was the act of Sandoval, an officer whose name is entitled to -the second rank in the annals of New Spain; and executed after a solemn -consultation with Cortez; and to complete the horror of the scene, the -children and relatives of the wretched victims were assembled, and -compelled to be spectators of their dying agonies. - -“It seems hardly possible to exceed in horror this dreadful example of -severity; but it was followed by another, which affected the Mexicans -still more sensibly, as it gave them a more feeling proof of their -own degradation, and of the small regard which their haughty masters -retained for the ancient dignity and splendour of their state. On -a slight suspicion, confirmed by a very imperfect evidence, that -Guatimotzin had formed a scheme to shake off the yoke, and to excite -his former subjects to take arms, Cortez, without the formality of -a trial, ordered the unhappy monarch, together with the caziques of -Tezeuco and Tacuba, the two persons of the greatest eminence in the -empire, to be hanged; and the Mexicans, with astonishment and horror, -beheld this disgraceful punishment inflicted upon persons to whom they -were accustomed to look up with reverence hardly inferior to that -which they paid to the gods themselves. The example of Cortez and his -principal officers, encouraged and justified persons of subordinate -rank to venture upon committing greater excesses.” - -It is not easy to see how Cortez and his men “sullied the glory of -their repeated victories,” by these actions—for these very victories -were gained over a people who had no chance against European arms,—and -were infamous in themselves, being violations of every sacred right of -humanity. What, indeed, could sully the reputation of the man after -the butchery of six thousand Cholulas in cold blood? The notions of -glory with which Robertson, in common with many other historians, was -infected, are mere remnants of that corrupted morality which Popery -disseminated, and which created the Cortezes and Pizarros of those -days, and the Napoleons of our own. No truth can be plainer to the -sound sense of a real Christian, than that true glory can only be the -result of great deeds done in a just cause. But Cortez’s whole career -was one perpetual union of perfidy and blood. His words were not to be -relied on for a moment. His promises of kindness and of restoration -to both Montezuma and Guatimotzin, were followed only by fetters, -tortures, and hanging. - -Such were the horrors of the siege of Mexico, that Bernal Diaz says, -they can be compared to nothing but those of the destruction of -Jerusalem. According to Bernal Diaz, the slain exceeded one hundred -thousand; and those who died of famine, bad food and water, and -infection, Cortez himself asserts, were more than fifty thousand. -Cortez, on gaining possession of the city, ordered all the Mexicans -out of it; and Bernal Diaz, an eye-witness, says, that “for three days -and three nights, all the three roads leading from the city, were seen -full of men, women, and children; feeble, emaciated, and forlorn, -seeking refuge where they could find it. The fetid smell which so many -thousands of putrid bodies emitted was intolerable, and occasioned some -illness to the general of the conquerors. The houses, streets, and -canals, were full of disfigured carcases; the ground of the city was in -some places dug up by the citizens in search of roots to feed on; and -many trees stripped of bark for the same purpose. The general caused -the dead bodies to be buried, and large quantities of wood to be burnt -through all the city, as much in order to purify the infected air, as -to celebrate his victory.” - -But Providence failed not to visit the deeds of Cortez on himself, as -he had done on Columbus. Bernal Diaz says, that “after the death of -Guatimotzin, he became gloomy and restless; rising continually from -his bed, and wandering about in the dark.” That “nothing prospered -with him, and that it was ascribed to the curses he was loaded with.” -His government was acknowledged late by the crown, and soon divided -with other authorities. He returned, like Columbus, to Europe to -seek redress of wrongs heaped on _him_; like him, not obtaining this -redress, he sought to amuse his mind by fresh discoveries, and added -California to the known regions; but the attempt to soothe his uneasy -spirit was vain. Neglected, and even insulted by the crown, to which he -had thus guiltily added vast dominions, he ended his days in the same -fruitless and heart-wearing solicitation of the court which Columbus -had done before. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. - -THE SPANIARDS IN PERU. - - Their quiver is an open sepulchre; they are all mighty - men.—_Jeremiah_ v. 16. - - They are cruel and have no mercy, their voice roareth - like the sea; and they ride upon horses set in array as - men of war.—_Jeremiah_ vi. 23. - - -The scene widened, and with it the rapacity and rage for gold in the -Spaniards. The possession and the plunder of Mexico only served to whet -their appetite for carnage, and for one demon of avarice and cruelty -to raise up ten. They had seen enough to convince them that the -continent which they had reached was immense, and Mexico filled their -imagination with abundance of wealthy empires to seize upon and devour. -Into these very odd Christians, not the slightest atom of Christian -feeling or Christian principle ever entered. They were troubled with -no remorse for the horrible excesses of crime and ravage which they -had committed. The cry of innocent nations that they had plundered, -enslaved, and depopulated, and which rose to heaven fearfully against -them, never seemed to pierce the proud brutishness of their souls. -They had but one idea: that all these swarming nations were revealed -to them by Providence for a prey. The Pope had given them up to them; -and they had but one feeling,—a fiery, quenchless, rabid lust of gold. -That they might enlighten and benefit these nations—that they might -establish wise and beneficent relations with them; that they might -enrich themselves most innocently and legitimately in the very course -of dispensing equivalent advantages, never came across their brains. -It was the spirit of the age, coolly says Robertson—but he does not -tell us how such came to be its spirit, after a thousand years of the -profession of Christianity. We have seen how that came to pass; and we -must go on from that time to the present, tracing the dreadful effects -of the substitution of Popery for Christian truth and mercy. - -Rumours of lands lying to the south came ever and anon upon the -eager ears of the Spaniards,—lands still more abundant in gold, -and vast in extent. On all hands the locust-armies of Moloch and -Mammon were swarming, “seeking whom they might devour:” and amongst -these beautiful specimens of the teaching of the infallible and holy -Mother Church, were three individuals settled in Panama, who were -busily employed in concocting a scheme of discovery and of crime, of -blood and rapine, southward; and who were destined to succeed to a -marvellous degree. These worthy personages, who were occupied with -so commendable and truly Catholic a speculation as that of finding -out some peaceful or feeble people whom they might, as a matter of -business, fall upon, plunder, and if necessary, assassinate, for their -own aggrandizement—were no other than Francis Pizarro, the bastard of -a Spanish gentleman, by a very low woman, who had been employed by his -father in keeping his hogs till he ran away and enlisted for a soldier; -Diego de Almagro, a foundling; and Hernando de Luque, schoolmaster, and -priest! a man who, by means which are not related, but may be imagined, -had scraped together sufficient money to inspire him with the desire of -getting more. - -Pizarro was totally uneducated, except in hog-keeping, and the trade -of a mercenary. He could not even read; and was just one of the most -hardened, unprincipled, crafty, and base wretches which history in its -multitudinous pages of crime and villany, has put on record. Almagro -was equally daring, but had more honesty of character; and as for -Luque, he appears to have been a careful, cunning attender to the -main chance. Having clubbed together their little stock of money, and -their large one of impudent hardihood, they procured a small vessel -and a hundred and twelve men, and Pizarro taking the command, set out -in quest of whatever good land fortune and the Pope’s bull might put -in their way. For some time their fortune was no better than their -object deserved; they were tossed about by tempestuous weather, exposed -to great hardships, and discouraged by the prudential policy of the -governor of Panama; but at length, in 1526, about seven years after -Cortez had entered Mexico, they came in sight of the coast of Peru, -and landing at a place called Tumbez, where there was a palace of -the Incas, were delighted to find that they were in a beautiful and -cultivated country, where the object of their desires—gold, was in -wonderful abundance. - -Having found the thing they were in quest of—a country to be harried, -and having the Pope’s authority to seize on it, they were now in haste -to get that of the emperor. The three speculators agreed amongst -themselves on the manner in which they would share the country they had -in view. Pizarro was to be governor; Almagro, lieutenant-governor; and -Luque, having the apostle’s warrant, that he who desires a bishopric, -desires a good thing, desired _that_—he was to be bishop of this new -country. These preliminaries being agreed upon, Pizarro was sent off -to Spain. Here he soon shewed his associates what degree of faith they -were to put in him. He procured the governorship for himself, and -not being ambitious of a bishopric, he got that for Luque; but poor -Almagro was dignified with the office of commandant of the fortress of -Tumbez—when such fortress should be raised. Almagro was, as might be -expected, no little enraged at this piece of cool villany, especially -when he compared it with the titles and the powers which Pizarro had -secured to himself, viz.—a country of two hundred leagues in extent, -in which he was to exercise the supreme authority, both civil and -military, with the title of Governor, Adelantado and Captain-general. -To appease this natural resentment, the greedy adventurer agreed -to surrender the office of Adelantado to Almagro; and having thus -parcelled out the poor Peruvians and their country in imagination, they -proceeded to do it in reality. But before we follow them to the scene -of their operations, let us for a moment pause, and note exactly what -was the actual affair which they were thus comfortably proposing to -themselves as a means of making their fortunes, and for which they had -thus the ready sanction of Pope and Emperor. - -Peru,—a splendid country, stretching along the coast of the Pacific -from Chili to Quito, a space of fifteen hundred miles. Inland, -the mighty Andes lifted their snowy ridges, and at once cooled -and diversified this fine country with every variety of scene and -temperature. Like Mexico, it had once consisted of a number of -petty and savage states, but had been reduced into one compact and -well-ordered empire by the Incas, a race of mysterious origin, who had -ruled it about four hundred years. The first appearance of this race in -Peru is one of the most curious and inexplicable mysteries of American -history. Manco Capac and Mama Ocollo, a man and woman of commanding -aspects, and clad in garments suitable to the climate, appeared on -the banks of the lake Titiaca, declaring that they were the children -of the Sun, sent by him, who was the parent of the human race, to -comfort and instruct them. They were received by the Peruvians with -all the reverence which their claims demanded. They taught the men -agriculture, and the women spinning and weaving, and other domestic -arts. Who these people might be, it is in vain to imagine; but if we -are to judge from the nature of their institutions, they must have been -of Asiatic origin, and might by some circumstances of which we now -can know nothing, be driven across the Pacific to these shores. The -worship of the sun, which they introduced; the perfect despotism of the -government; the inviolable sanctity of the reigning family, all point -to Asia for their origin. They soon, however, raised the Peruvians -above all the barbarous nations by whom they were surrounded; and one -by one they added these nations to their own kingdom, till Peru had -grown into the wide and populous realm that the Spaniards found it. -That they had made great progress in the arts of smelting, refining, -and working in the precious metals, the immense quantity of gold and -silver vessels found by the Spaniards testify. Their agriculture was -admirable: they had introduced canals and reservoirs for irrigating -the dry and sandy parts of the country; and employed manures with the -greatest judgment and effect. They had separated the royal family -from the public, it is true, by the very singular constitution of -marrying only in the family, but they had given to all the people a -common proportion of labour in the lands, and a common benefit in their -produce. They had established public couriers, like the Mexicans, and -constructed bridges of ropes, formed of the cord-like running plants -of the country, and thrown them across the wildest torrents. They had -at the time the Spaniards entered the country, two roads running the -whole length of the kingdom; one along the mountains, which must have -cost incalculable labour, in hewing through rocks and filling up the -deepest chasms, the other along the lower country. These roads had at -that time no equals in Europe, and are said by the Inca, Garcillasso -de la Vega, to have been constructed in the reign of Huana Capac, the -father of Atahualpa, the Inca whom they found on the throne. In some of -the finest situations, he says that the Indians had cut steps up to the -summits of the Andes, and constructed platforms, so that when the Inca -was travelling, the bearers of his litter could carry him up with ease, -and allow him to enjoy a survey of the splendid views around and below. -These were evidences of great advances in civilization, but there were -particulars in which they were far more civilized than their invaders, -and far more Christian too. Their Incas conquered only to civilize and -improve the adjoining states. They were advocates for peace, and the -enjoyment of its blessings. They even forbad the fishing for pearls, -because, says Garcillasso, they preferred the preservation of their -people, rather than the accumulation of wealth, and would not consent -to the sufferings which the divers must necessarily undergo. When did -the Christians ever shew so much true philanthropy and human feeling? - -And these are the people whom Robertson, falling miserably in with the -views, or rather, the pretensions of the Spaniards, says, appeared so -feeble in intellect as to be incapable of receiving Christianity. The -idea is a gross absurdity. What! a people who, like the Mexicans and -Peruvians, had cities, temples, palaces, a regular form of government; -who cultivated the ground, and refined metals, and wrought them into -trinkets and vessels, not capable of receiving the simple truths of -Christianity which “the wayfaring man though a fool cannot err in?” -The Mexicans had introduced their hieroglyphic writing, the Peruvians -their quipos, or knotted and coloured cords, by which they made -calculations, and transmitted intelligence, and handed down history of -facts, yet they could not understand so plain a thing as Christianity! -It is the base policy of those who violate the rights of men, always -to add to their other injuries that of calumniating their victims as -mere brutes in capacity and in the scale of being. By turns, Negroes, -Hottentots, and the whole race of the Americans, have been declared -incapable of freedom, and of embracing that simple religion which was -sent for the good of the whole human family. If such an absurdity -needed any refutation, it has had it amply in the reception of this -religion by great numbers of all these races: but the fact is, that -it would have been a disgrace to the understanding of the American -Indians to have embraced the wretched stuff which was presented to them -by the Spaniards as Christianity. A wooden cross was presented to the -wondering natives, and they were expected instantly to bow down to it, -and to acknowledge the pope, a person they had never heard of till that -moment, or they were to be instantly cut to pieces, or burnt alive. -No pains were taken to explain the beautiful truths of the Christian -revelation—those truths, in fact, were lost in the rubbish of papal -mummeries, and violent dogmas; and what could the astonished people see -in all this but a species of Moloch worship in perfect keeping with -the desperate and rapacious character of the invaders? Garcillasso -de la Vega, the Inca, tells us that Huana Capac, a prince whose life -had more of the elements of true Christianity in it than those of the -Spaniards altogether, being full of love and humanity, was accustomed -to say, that he was convinced that the sun was not God, because he -always went on one track through the heavens,—that he had no liberty -to stop, or to turn out of his ordinary way, into the wide fields of -space around him; and that it was clear that he was therefore only a -servant, obeying a higher power. The Peruvians had, like the Athenians, -an unknown god, to whom they had a temple, and whom they called -Pachacamac, but as he was invisible and was everywhere, they could not -conceive any shape for him, and therefore worshipped him in the secret -of their hearts. How ridiculous to say that people who had arrived -at such a pitch of reasoning, and at such practice of the beneficent -principles of love and humanity which Christianity inculcates, were -incapable of embracing doctrines so consonant to their own views and -habits. - -How lamentable, that a British historian should suffer himself to -follow the wretched calumnies of Buffon and De Paw against the -Americans, with the examples of Mexico and Peru, and the effects of the -Jesuit missions staring him in the face. The Spaniards and Portuguese, -as we shall presently see, and as Robertson must have known, soon found -that the Indians were delighted to embrace Christianity, even in the -imperfect form in which it was presented to them, and by thousands upon -thousands exhibited the beauty of Christian habits as strikingly as -these Europeans did the most opposite qualities. - -But the strangest remark of Robertson is, “that the fatal defect of -the Peruvians was their unwarlike character.” Fatal, indeed, their -inability to contend with the Europeans proved to them; but what -a burlesque on the religion of the Europeans—that the _peaceful_ -character of an innocent people should prove fatal to them only -from—_the followers of the Prince of Peace_! - -But the fact is, that the Peruvians as well as the Mexicans were -not unwarlike. On the contrary, by their army they had extended and -consolidated their empire to a surprising extent. They had vanquished -all the nations around them; and it was only the bursting upon them of -a new people, with arts so novel and destructive as to confound and -paralyse their minds, that they were so readily overcome. A variety -of circumstances combined to prostrate the Americans before the -Europeans. Those prophecies to which we have alluded, the fire-arms, -the horses, the military movements, and the very art of writing, all -united their influence to render them totally powerless. The Inca, -Garcillasso, says that at the period of Pizarro’s appearance in Peru, -many prodigies and omens troubled the public mind, and prepared them -to expect some terrible calamity. There was a comet—the tides rose -and fell with unusual violence—the moon appeared surrounded by three -bands of different colours, which the priests interpreted to portend -civil war, and total change of dynasty. He says that the fire-arms, -which vomited thunder and lightning, and mysteriously killed at a -distance—the neighing and prancing of the war-horses, to people who -had never seen creatures larger than a llama, and the art of conveying -their thoughts in a bit of paper above all, gave them notions of the -spiritual intercourse of these invaders, that it was totally hopeless -to contend against. The very cocks, birds which were unknown there -before their introduction by the Spaniards, were imagined to pronounce -the name of Atahualpa, as they crew in triumph over him, and became -called Atahualpas, or Qualpas, after him. He assures us that even after -the Spaniards had become entire masters of the country, the Indians on -meeting a horseman on the highway, betrayed the utmost perturbation, -running backward and forward several times, and often falling on their -faces till he was gone past. And he relates an anecdote, which amusing -as it is, shews at once what was the effect of the art of writing, and -that the humblest natives did not want natural ingenuity even in their -deepest simplicity. The steward of Antonio Solar, a gentleman living -at a distance from his estate, sent one day by two Indians ten melons -to him. With the melons he gave them a letter, and said at the same -time—“now mind you don’t eat any of these, for if you do this letter -will tell.” The Indians went on their way; but as it was very hot, and -the distance four leagues, they sate down to rest, and becoming very -thirsty, longed to eat one of the melons. “How unhappy are we that we -cannot eat a melon that grows in our master’s ground.”—“Let us do it,” -says one—“Ah,” said the other, “but then the letter.”—“Oh,” replied -the first speaker, “we can manage that—we will put the letter under a -stone, and what it does not see it cannot tell.” The thing was done; -the melon eaten, and afterwards another, that they might take in an -equal number. Antonio Solar read the letter, looked at the melons, and -instantly exclaimed—“But where are the other two?” The confounded -Indians declared, that those were all they had received. “Liars,” -replied Antonio Solar, “I tell you, the letter says you had ten, and -you have eaten two!” It was no use persisting in the falsehood—the -frightened Indians ran out of the house, and concluded that the -Spaniards were more than mortal, while even their letter watched the -Indians, and told all that they did. - -Such were the Peruvians; children in simplicity, but possessing -abundant ingenuity, and principles of human action far superior to -their invaders, and capable of being ripened into something peculiarly -excellent and beautiful. Twelve monarchs had reigned over them, and -all of them of the same beneficent character. Let us now see how the -planters of the Cross conducted themselves amongst them. - - - - -CHAPTER IX. - -THE SPANIARDS IN PERU—CONTINUED. - - For gold the Spaniard cast his soul away: - His gold and he were every nation’s prey.—_Montgomery._ - - -The three speculators of Panama had made up their band of mercenaries, -or what the Scotch very expressively term “rank rievers,” to plunder -the Peruvians. These consisted of one hundred and eighty men, thirty -of whom were horsemen. These were all they could raise; and these were -sufficient, as experience had now testified, to enable them to overrun -a vast empire of Americans. Almagro, however, remained behind, to -gather more spoilers together as soon as circumstances would permit, -and Pizarro took the command of his troop, and landed in the Bay of -St. Matthew, in the north of the kingdom. He resolved to conduct his -march southward so near to the coast as to keep up the communication -with his vessels; and falling upon the peaceable inhabitants, he went -on fighting, fording rivers, wading through hot sands, and inflicting -so many miseries upon his own followers and the natives, as made him -look more like an avenging demon than a man. It is not necessary that -we should trace very minutely his route. In the province of Coaque -they plundered the people of an immense quantity of gold and silver. -From the inhabitants of the island of Puna, he met with a desperate -resistance, which cost him six months to subdue, and obliged him to -halt at Tumbez, to restore the health of his men. Here he received -a reinforcement of troops from Nicaragua, commanded by Sebastian -Benalcazor, and Hernando Soto. Having also his brothers, Ferdinand, -Juan, and Gonzalo, and his uncle Francisco de Alcantara, with him in -this expedition, he pushed forwards towards Caxamalca, destroying and -laying waste before him. Fortunately for him, that peace and unity -which had continued for four hundred years in Peru, was now broken by -two contending monarchs, and as unfortunately for the assertion of -Robertson, that the Peruvians were unwarlike, they were at this moment -in the very midst of all the fury of a civil war. The late Inca, Huana -Capac, had added Quito to the realm, and at his death, had left that -province to Atahualpa, his son by the daughter of the conquered king -of Quito. His eldest son, who ascended the throne of Peru, demanded -homage of Atahualpa or surrender of the throne of Quito; but Atahualpa -was too bold and ambitious a prince for that, and the consequence was -a civil contest. So engrossed were the combatants in this warfare, -that they had no time to watch, much less to oppose, the progress of -the Spaniards. Pizarro had, therefore, advanced into the very heart -of the kingdom when Atahualpa had vanquished his brother, put him in -prison, and taken possession of Peru. Having been solicited during the -latter part of his march by both parties to espouse their cause, and -holding himself in readiness to act as best might suit his interests, -he no sooner found Atahualpa in the ascendant, than he immediately -avowed himself as his partizan, and declared that he was hastening -to his aid. Atahualpa was in no condition to repulse him. He was in -the midst of the confusions necessarily existing on the immediate -termination of a civil war. His brother, though his captive, was still -held by the Peruvians to be their rightful monarch, and it might be of -the utmost consequence to his security to gain such extraordinary and -fearful allies. The poor Inca had speedy cause to rue the alliance. -Pizarro determined, on the very first visit of Atahualpa to him in -Caxamalca, to seize him as Cortez had seized on Montezuma. He did -not wait to imitate the more artful policy of Cortez, but trusted to -the now too well known ascendency of the Spanish arms, to take him -without ceremony. He and his followers now saw the amazing wealth -of the country, and were impatient to seize it. The capture of the -unsuspecting Inca is one of the most singular incidents in the history -of the world; a mixture of such naked villany, and impudent mockery -of religion, as has scarcely a parallel even in the annals of these -Spanish missionaries of the sword—these red-cross knights of plunder. -He invited Atahualpa to an interview in Caxamalca, and having drawn up -his forces round the square in which he resided, awaited the approach -of his victim. The following is Robertson’s relation of the event:— - -“Early in the morning the Peruvian camp was all in motion. But as -Atahualpa was solicitous to appear with the greatest splendour -and magnificence in his first interview with the strangers, the -preparations for this were so tedious, that the day was far advanced -before he began his march. Even then, lest the order of the procession -should be deranged, he moved so slowly, that the Spaniards became -impatient, and apprehensive that some suspicion of their intention -might be the cause of this delay. In order to remove this, Pizarro -dispatched one of his officers with fresh assurances of his friendly -disposition. At length the Inca approached. First of all appeared -four hundred men, in an uniform dress, as harbingers to clear the way -before him. He himself, sitting on a throne or couch, adorned with -plumes of various colours, and almost covered with plates of gold and -silver, enriched with precious stones, was carried on the shoulders of -his principal attendants. Behind him came some chief officers of his -court, carried in the same manner. Several bands of singers and dancers -accompanied this cavalcade; and the whole plain was covered with -troops, amounting to more than thirty thousand men. - -“As the Inca drew near to the Spanish quarters, Father Vincent -Valverde, chaplain to the expedition, advanced with a crucifix in one -hand and a breviary in the other, and in a Jong discourse explained to -him the doctrine of the creation; the fall of Adam; the incarnation, -the sufferings, and resurrection of Jesus Christ; the appointment -of St. Peter as God’s vicegerent on earth; the transmission of his -apostolic power by succession to the Popes; the donation made to the -king of Castile by Pope Alexander, of all the regions in the New -World. In consequence of all this, he required Atahualpa to embrace -the Christian faith; to acknowledge the supreme jurisdiction of the -Pope, and to submit to the king of Castile as his lawful sovereign; -promising, if he complied instantly with his requisition, that the -Castilian monarch would protect his dominions, and permit him to -continue in the exercise of his royal authority; but if he should -impiously refuse to obey this summons, he denounced war against him in -his master’s name, and threatened him with the most dreadful effect of -his vengeance. - -“This strange harangue, unfolding deep mysteries, and alluding to -unknown facts, of which no powers of eloquence could have conveyed -at once a distinct idea to an American, was so lamely translated by -an unskilful interpreter, little acquainted with the idiom of the -Spanish tongue, and incapable of expressing himself with propriety -in the language of the Inca, that its general tenor was altogether -incomprehensible to Atahualpa. Some parts of it, of more obvious -meaning, filled him with astonishment and indignation. His reply, -however, was temperate. He began with observing, that he was lord of -the dominions over which he reigned by hereditary succession; and -added, that he could not conceive how a foreign priest should pretend -to dispose of territories which did not belong to him; that if such a -preposterous grant had been made, he, who was the rightful possessor, -refused to confirm it. That he had no inclination to renounce the -religious institutions established by his ancestors; nor would he -forsake the service of the Sun, the immortal divinity whom he and -his people revered, in order to worship the God of the Spaniards who -was subject to death. That, with respect to other matters contained -in this discourse, as he had never heard of them before, and did not -understand their meaning, he desired to know where the priest had -learned things so extraordinary. “In this book,” answered Valverde, -reaching out to him his Breviary. The Inca opened it eagerly, and -turning over the leaves, lifted it to his ear. “This,” said he, “is -silent; it tells me nothing;” and threw it with disdain to the ground. -The enraged monk, running towards his countrymen, cried out, ‘To -arms! Christians, to arms! The word of God is insulted; avenge this -profanation on these impious dogs!’ - -“Pizarro, who, during this long conference, had with difficulty -restrained his soldiers, eager to seize the rich spoils of which they -had now so near a view, immediately gave the signal of assault. At once -the martial music struck up, the cannon and muskets began to fire, the -horses sallied out fiercely to the charge; the infantry rushed on, -sword in hand. The Peruvians, astonished at the suddenness of an attack -which they did not expect, and dismayed with the destructive effects -of the fire-arms, and the irresistible impression of the cavalry, fled -with universal consternation on every side, without attempting either -to annoy the enemy or to defend themselves. Pizarro, at the head of his -chosen band, advanced directly towards the Inca; and though his nobles -crowded round him with officious zeal, and fell in numbers at his feet, -while they vied with one another in sacrificing their own lives that -they might cover the sacred person of their sovereign, the Spaniards -soon penetrated to the royal seat, and Pizarro seizing the Inca by the -arm, dragged him to the ground, and carried him as a prisoner to his -quarters. The fate of the monarch increased the precipitate flight of -his followers. The Spaniards pursued them towards every quarter, and, -with deliberate and unrelenting barbarity, continued to slaughter the -wretched fugitives, who never once offered to resist. The carnage did -not cease till the close of the day. _Above four thousand Peruvians -were killed. Not a single Spaniard fell, nor was one wounded_, but -Pizarro himself, whose hand was slightly hurt by one of his own -soldiers, while struggling eagerly to lay hold on the Inca. - -“The plunder of the field was rich beyond any idea which the -Spaniards had yet formed concerning the wealth of Peru, and they -were so transported with the value of their acquisition, as well as -the greatness of their success, that they passed the night in the -extravagant exultation natural to indigent adventurers on such an -extraordinary change of fortune.” - -Daring, perfidious, and every way extraordinary as this capture of -the Inca was, his ransom was still more extraordinary. Observing the -insatiable passion of the Spaniards for gold, he offered to fill the -room in which he was kept with vessels of gold as high as he could -reach. This room was twenty-two feet in length, and sixteen in breadth; -and the proposal being immediately agreed to, though never for a moment -meant on the part of the Spaniards to be fulfilled, a line was drawn -along the walls all round the room to mark the height to which the -gold was to rise. Instantly the Inca, in the simple joy of his heart -at the hope of a liberty which he was never to enjoy, issued orders to -his subjects to bring in the gold; and from day to day the faithful -Indians came in laden from all quarters with the vessels of gold. The -sight must have been more like a fairy dream, than any earthly reality. -The splendid and amazing mass, such as no mortal eyes on any other -occasion probably ever witnessed, soon rose to near the stipulated -height, and the avarice of the soldiers, and the joy of Atahualpa rose -rapidly with it. But the exultation of the Inca received a speedy and -cruel blow. He learned that fresh troops of Spaniards had arrived, and -that those in whose hands he was, had been tampering with Huascar, -his brother, in his prison. Alarmed lest, after all, they should, on -proffer of a higher price, liberate his brother, and detain himself, -the wretched Inca was driven in desperation to the crime of dooming his -brother to death. He issued his order, and it was done. Scarcely was -this effected, when the Spaniards, unable to wait for the gold quite -reaching the mark, determined to part it; and orders were given to melt -the greater portion of it down. They chose the festival of St. James, -the patron saint of Spain, as the most suitable to distinguish by this -act of national plunder, and proceeded to appropriate the following -astonishing sums.—Certain of the richest vessels were set aside first -for the crown. Then the fifth claimed by the crown was set apart. Then -a hundred thousand pesos, equal to as many pounds sterling, were given -to the newly arrived army of Almagro. Then Pizarro and his followers -divided amongst them, one million five hundred and twenty-eight -thousands five hundred pesos: every horseman obtained above eight -thousand, and every footman four! - -Imagine the privates of an army of foot soldiers pocketing for -prize-money, each four thousand pounds! the troopers each eight -thousand! But enormous as this seems, there is no doubt that it would -have been vastly more had the natives been as confident in the faith -of the Spaniards as they had reason to be of the reverse. The Inca, -Garcillasso, and some of the Spanish historians, tell us that on the -Spaniards displaying their greedy spirit of plunder, vast quantities -of treasure vanished from public view, and never could be discovered -again. Amongst these were the celebrated emerald of Manta, which was -worshipped as a divinity; was as large as an ostrich egg, and had -smaller emeralds offered to it as its children; and the chain of gold -made by order of Huana Capac, to surround the square at Cuzco on days -of solemn dancing, and was in length seven hundred feet, and of the -thickness of a man’s wrist. - -The Inca having fulfilled, as far as the impatience of the Spaniards -would permit him, his promises, now demanded his freedom. Poor man! his -tyrants never intended to give him any other freedom than the freedom -of death. They held him merely as a lure, by which to draw all the -gold and the power of his kingdom into their hands. But as, after this -transaction, they could not hope to play upon him much further, they -resolved to dispatch him. The new adventurers who had arrived with -Almagro were clamorous for his destruction, because they looked upon -him as a puppet in the hands of Pizarro, by which he would draw away -gold that might otherwise fall into their hands. The poor Inca too, by -an unwitting act, drew this destruction more suddenly on his own head. -Struck with admiration at the art of writing, he got a soldier to write -the word Dios (God) on his thumb-nail, and shewing it to everybody -that came in, saw with surprise that every man knew in a moment the -meaning of it. When Pizarro, however, came, he could not read it, -and blushed and shewed confusion. Atahualpa saw, with a surprise and -contempt which he could not conceal, that Pizarro was more ignorant -than his own soldiers; and the base tyrant, stung to the quick with the -affront which he might suppose designed, resolved to rid himself of the -Inca without delay. For this purpose, he resorted to the mockery of a -trial; appointed himself, and his companion in arms, Almagro, the very -man who had demanded his death, judges, and employed as interpreter, an -Indian named Philippillo, who was notoriously desirous of the Inca’s -death, that he might obtain one of his wives. This precious tribunal -charged the unfortunate Inca with being illegitimate; with having -dethroned and put to death his brother; with being an idolater—the -faith of the country; with having a number of concubines—the custom of -the country too; with having embezzled the royal treasures, which he -had done to satisfy these guests, and for which he ought now to have -been free, had these wretches had but the slightest principle of right -left in them. On these and similar charges they condemned him to be -burnt alive! and sent him instantly to execution, only commuting his -sentence into strangling instead of burning, on his agreeing, in his -terror and astonishment, to acknowledge the Christian faith! What an -idea he must have had of the Christian faith! - -The whole career of Pizarro and his comrades, and especially this -last unparalleled action, exhibit them as such thoroughly desperado -characters—so hardened into every thing fiendly, so utterly destitute -of every thing human, that nothing but the most fearful scene of misery -and crime could follow whenever they were on the scene; and Peru, -indeed, soon was one wide field of horror, confusion, and oppression. -The Spaniards had neither faith amongst themselves, nor mercy towards -the natives, and therefore an army of wolves fiercely devouring one -another, or Pandemonium in its fury can only present an image of Peru -under the herds of its first invaders. It is not my province to follow -the quarrels of the conquerors further than is necessary to shew their -effect on the natives; and therefore I shall now pass rapidly over -matters that would fill a volume. - -Pizarro set up a son of Atahualpa as Inca, and held him as a puppet -in his hands; but the Peruvians set up Manco Capac, brother of Huana; -and as if the example of the perfidy of the Spaniards had already -communicated itself to the heretofore orderly Peruvians, the general -whom Atahualpa had left in Quito, rose and slew the remaining family -of his master, and assumed that province to himself. The Spaniards -rejoiced in this confusion, in which they were sure to be the gainers. -The adventurers who had shared amongst them the riches of the royal -room, had now reached Spain with Ferdinand Pizarro at their head, -bearing to the court the dazzling share which fell to its lot. Honours -were showered on Pizarro and his fellow-marauders,—fresh hosts of -harpies set out for this unfortunate land, and Pizarro marching -to Cuzco, made tremendous slaughter amongst the Indians, and took -possession of that capital and a fresh heap of wealth more enormous -than the plunder of Atahualpa’s room. To keep his fellow officers, -thus flushed with intoxicating deluges of affluence, in some degree -quiet, he encouraged them to undertake different expeditions against -the natives. Benalcazar fell on Quito,—Almagro on Chili; but the -Peruvians were now driven to desperation, and taking the opportunity -of the absence of those forces, they rose, and attacked their -oppressors in various quarters. The consequence was what may readily -be supposed—after keeping the Spaniards in terror for some time, -they were routed and slaughtered by thousands. But no sooner was this -over than the Spaniards turned their arms against each other. “Civil -discord,” says Robertson, “never raged with a more fell spirit than -amongst the Spaniards in Peru. To all the passions which usually -envenom contests amongst countrymen, avarice was added, and rendered -their enmity more ravenous. Eagerness to seize the valuable forfeitures -expected upon the death of every opponent, shut the door against mercy. -To be wealthy, was of itself sufficient to expose a man to accusation, -or to subject him to punishment. On the slightest suspicions, Pizarro -condemned many of the most opulent inhabitants in Peru to death. -Carvajal, without seeking for any pretext to justify his cruelty, cut -off many more. The number of those who suffered by the hand of the -executioner, was not much inferior to what fell in the field; and the -greater part was condemned without the formality of any legal trial.” - -Providence exhibited a great moral lesson in the fate of these -discoverers of the new world. As they shewed no regard to the feelings -or the rights of their fellow men, as they outraged and disgraced -every principle of the sacred religion which they professed, scarcely -one of them but was visited with retributive vengeance even in this -life; and many of them fell miserably in the presence of the wretched -people they had so ruthlessly abused, and not a few by each other’s -hands. We have already shewn the fortunes of Columbus and Cortez; -that of Pizarro and his lawless accomplices is still more striking -and awful. Almagro, one of the three original speculators of Panama, -was the first to pay the debt of his crimes. A daring and rapacious -soldier, but far less artful than Pizarro, he had, from the hour that -Pizarro deceived him at the Spanish court, and secured honours and -commands to himself at his expense, always looked with suspicious eyes -upon his proceedings, and sought advancement rather from his own sword -than from his old but perfidious comrade. Chili being allotted to him, -he claimed the city of Cuzco as his capital;—a bloody war with the -Pizarros was the consequence; Almagro was defeated, taken prisoner, -and put to death, being strangled in prison and afterwards publicly -beheaded. But Pizarro’s own fate was hastened by this of his old -comrade. The friends of Almagro rallied round young Almagro his son. -They suddenly attacked Pizarro in his house at noon, and on a Sunday; -slew his maternal uncle Alcantara, and several of his other friends, -and stabbed him mortally in the throat. The younger Almagro was taken -in arms against the new governor, Vaca de Castro, and publicly beheaded -in Cuzco; five hundred of these adventurers falling in the battle -itself, and forty others perishing with him on the scaffold. Gonzalo -Pizarro, after maintaining a war against the viceroy Nugnez Vela, -defeating and killing him, was himself defeated by Gasca, and put to -death, with Carvajal and some other of the most notorious offenders. - -Such were the crimes and the fate of the Spaniards in Peru. Robertson, -who relates the deeds of the Spanish adventurers in general with a -coolness that is marvellous, thus describes the character of these men. - -“The ties of honour, which ought to be held sacred amongst soldiers, -and the principle of integrity, interwoven as thoroughly in the -Spanish character as in that of any nation, seem to have been equally -forgotten. Even the regard for decency, and the sense of shame were -totally lost. During their dissensions, there was hardly a Spaniard in -Peru who did not abandon the party which he had originally espoused, -betray the associates with whom he had united, and violate the -engagements under which he had come. The viceroy Nugnez Vela was ruined -by the treachery of Cepeda and the other judges of the royal audience, -who were bound by the duties of their function to have supported his -authority. The chief advisers and companions of Gonzalo Pizarro’s -revolt were the first to forsake him, and submit to his enemies. His -fleet was given up to Gasca by the man whom he had singled out among -his officers to entrust with that important command. On the day that -was to decide his fate, an army of veterans, in sight of the enemy, -threw down their arms without striking a blow, and deserted a leader -who had often led them to victory.... It is only where men are far -removed from the seat of government, where the restraints of law and -order are little felt; where the prospect of gain is unbounded, and -where immense wealth may cover the crimes by which it is acquired, -that we can find any parallel to the cruelty, the rapaciousness, the -perfidy and corruption prevalent amongst the Spaniards in Peru.” - -While such was their conduct to each other, we may very well imagine -what it was to the unhappy natives. These fine countries, indeed, were -given up to universal plunder and violence. The people were everywhere -pursued for their wealth, their dwellings ransacked without mercy, -and themselves seized on as slaves. As in the West Indian Islands and -in Mexico, they were driven to the mines, and tasked without regard -to their strength,—and like them, they perished with a rapidity -that alarmed even the Court of Spain, and induced them to send out -officers to inquire, and to stop this waste of human life. Las Casas -again filled Spain with his loud remonstrances, but with no better -success. When their viceroys, visitors, and superintendents arrived, -and published their ordinances, requiring the Indians to be treated as -free subjects, violent outcries and furious remonstrances, similar to -what England has in modern times received from the West Indies when -she has wished to lighten the chains of the negro, were the immediate -result. The oppressors cried out that they should all be ruined,—that -they were “robbed of their just rights,” and there was no prospect but -of general insurrection, unless they might continue to devour the blood -and sinews of the unfortunate Indians. One man, the President Gasca, a -simple ecclesiastic, exhibited a union of talents and integrity most -remarkable and illustrious amid such general corruption; he went out -poor and he returned so, from a country where the temptations to wink -at evil were boundless; and he effected a great amount of good in the -reduction of civil disorder; but the protection of the Indians was -beyond even his power and sagacity, and he left them to their fate. - - - - -CHAPTER X. - -THE SPANIARDS IN PARAGUAY. - - -One more march in the bloody track of the Spaniards, and then, thank -God! we have done with them—at least, in this hemisphere. In this -chapter we shall, however, have a new feature presented. Hitherto we -have seen these human ogres ranging through country after country, -slaying, plundering, and laying waste, without almost a single arm -of power raised to check their violence, or a voice of pity to plead -successfully for their victims. The solitary cry of Las Casas, -indeed, was heard in Hispaniola; but it was heard in vain. The name -of Christianity was made familiar to the natives, but it was to them -a terrible name, for it came accompanied by deeds of blood, and lust -and infamy. It must have seemed indeed, to them, the revelation -of some monstrous Moloch, more horrible, because more widely and -indiscriminately destructive than any war-god of their own. How -dreadful must have appeared the very rites of this religion of the -white-men! They baptized thousands upon thousands, and then sent them -to the life-in-death of slavery—to the consuming pestilence of the -plantation and the mine. We are assured by their own authors, that the -moment after they had baptized numbers of these unhappy creatures, they -cut their throats that they might prevent all possibility of a relapse, -and send them straight to heaven! Against these profanations of the -most humane of religions, what adequate power had arisen? What was -there to prove that Christianity was really the very opposite in nature -to what those wretches, by their deeds, had represented it? Nothing, or -next to nothing. The remonstrances and the enactments of the Spanish -crown were non-existent to the Indians, for they fell dead before they -reached those distant regions where such a tremendous power of avarice -and despotism had raised itself in virtual opposition to authority, -human or divine. Some of the ecclesiastics, indeed, denounced the -violence and injustice of their countrymen; but they were few, and -disconnected in their efforts, and abodes; and their assurances that -the religion of Christ was in reality merciful and kind, were belied -by the daily and hourly deeds of their kindred; and were doubly belied -by the lives of the far greater portion of their own order, who -yielded to none in unholy license, avarice, and cruelty. How could the -Indians be persuaded of its divine power?—for it exhibited no power -over nine-tenths of all that they saw professing it. But now there -came a new era. There came an order of men who not only displayed the -effects of Christian principle in themselves, but who had the sagacity -to combine their efforts, till they became sufficiently powerful to -make Christianity practicable, and capable of conferring some of its -genuine benefits on its neophytes. These were the Jesuits—an order -recent in its origin, but famous above all others for the talent, the -ambition and the profound policy of its members. We need not here -enter further into its general history, or inquire how far it merited -that degree of odium which has attached to it in every quarter of the -globe—for in every quarter of the globe it has signalised its spirit -of proselytism, and has been expelled with aversion. I shall content -myself with stating, that I have formerly ranked its operations in -Paraguay and Brazil amongst those of its worst ambition; but more -extended inquiry has convinced me that, in this instance, I, in -common with others, did them grievous wrong. A patient perusal of -Charlevoix’s History of Paraguay, and of the vast mass of evidence -brought together by Mr. Southey from the best Spanish authorities in -his History of Brazil, must be more than sufficient to exhibit their -conduct in these countries as one of the most illustrious examples -of Christian devotion—Christian patience—Christian benevolence and -disinterested virtue upon record. It gives me the sincerest pleasure, -having elsewhere expressed my opinion of the general character of the -order, amid the bloody and revolting scenes of Spanish violence in the -New World, to point to the Jesuits as the first to stand collectively -in the very face of public outrage and the dishonour of the Christian -religion, as the friends of that religion and of humanity. - -I do not mean to say that they exhibited Christianity in all the -splendour of its unadulterated truth;—no, they had enough of the empty -forms and legends, and false pretences, and false miracles of Rome, -about them; but they exhibited one great feature of its spirit—love to -the poor and the oppressed, and it was at once acknowledged by them to -be divine. I do not mean to say that they adopted the soundest system -of policy in their treatment of the Indians; for their besetting sin, -the love of power and the pride of intellectual dominance, were but -too apparent in it; and this prevented their labours from acquiring -that permanence which they otherwise would: but they did this, which -was a glorious thing in that age, and in those countries—they showed -what Christianity, even in an imperfect form, can accomplish in the -civilization of the wildest people. They showed to the outraged -Indians, that Christianity was really a blessing where really embraced; -and to the Spaniards, that their favourite dogmas of the incapacity -of the Indians for the reception of divine truth, and for the patient -endurance of labour and civil restraint, were as baseless as their own -profession of the Christian faith. They stood up against universal -power and rapacity, in defence of the weak, the innocent, and the -calumniated; and they had the usual fate of such men—they were -the martyrs of their virtue, and deserve the thanks and honourable -remembrance of all ages. - -In strictly chronological order we should have noticed the Portuguese -in Brazil, before following the Spaniards to Paraguay; as Paraguay was -not taken possession of by the Spaniards till about twenty years after -the Portuguese had seized upon Brazil: but it is of more consequence -to us to take a consecutive view of the conduct of the Spaniards in -South America, than to take the settlement of different countries in -exact order of time. Having with this chapter dismissed the Spaniards, -we shall next turn our attention to the Portuguese in the neighbouring -regions of Brazil, and then pursue our inquiries into their treatment -of the natives in their colonies in the opposite regions of the world. - -The Spaniards entered this beautiful country with the same spirit that -they had done every other that they had hitherto discovered;—but -they found here a different race. They had neither creatures gentle -as those of the Lucayo Islands, nor of Peru, nor men so far civilized -as these last, nor as the Mexicans to contend with. They did not find -the natives of these regions appalled with their wonder, or paralysed -with prophecies and superstitious fears; but like the Charaib natives, -they were fierce and ferocious—tattooed and disfigured with strange -gashes and pouches for stones in their faces; quick in resentment, -and desperate cannibals. When Juan Diaz de Solis discovered the Plata -in 1515, he landed with a party of his men in order to seize some of -the natives; but they killed, roasted, and devoured, both him and -his companions. Cabot, who was sent out to form a settlement there -ten years afterwards, treated the natives with as little ceremony, -and found them as quick to return the insult. Diego Garcia, who soon -followed Cabot, came with the intention of carrying off _eight hundred -slaves to Portugal_, which he actually accomplished, putting them and -his vessel into the charge of a Portuguese of St. Vincente. Garcia made -war on the great tribe of the Guaranies for this purpose, and thus made -them hostile to the settlement of the Spaniards. In 1534, the powerful -armament of Don Pedro de Mendoza, consisting of eleven ships and eight -hundred men, entered the Plata, and laid the foundation of Buenos -Ayres. One of his first acts was to murder his deputy-commandant, Juan -Osorio; and one of the next to make war on the powerful and vindictive -tribe of the Quirandies, who possessed the country round his new -settlement: the consequences of which were, that they reduced him to -the most horrid state of famine, burnt his town about his ears, and -eventually obliged him to set sail homeward, on which voyage he died. - -These were proceedings as impolitic as they were wicked, in the attempt -to colonize a new, a vast, and a warlike country; but it was the mode -which the Spaniards had generally practised. They seemed to despise -the natives alike as enemies and as men; and they went on fighting, -and destroying, and enslaving, as matters of course. As they were now -in a great country, abounding with martial tribes, we must necessarily -take a very rapid glance at their proceedings. They advanced up the -Paraguay, under the command of Ayolas, whom Mendoza had left in -command, and seized on the town of Assumpcion, a place which, from -its situation, became afterwards of the highest consequence. This -noble country, stretching through no less than twenty degrees of south -latitude, and surrounded by the vast mountains of Brazil to the east, -of Chili to the west, and of Moxos and Matto Grosso to the north, -is singularly watered with some of the noblest rivers in the world, -descending from the mountains on all sides, and as they traverse it in -all its quarters, fall southward, one after another, into the great -central stream, till they finally _debouche_ in the great estuary of -the Plata. Assumpcion, situated at the junction of the Paraguay and -the Pilcomayo, besides the advantages of a direct navigation, was so -centrally placed as naturally to be pointed out as a station of great -importance in the discovery and settlement of the country. - -Ayolas, whom Mendoza had left in command, having subdued several tribes -of the natives to the Spanish yoke, set out up the river Paraguay in -quest of the great lure of the Spaniards, gold, where he and all his -men were cut off by the Indians of the Payagoa tribe. His deputy, -Yrala, after sharing his fate, caught two of the Payagoas, tortured -and burnt them alive; and then, spite of the fate of their comrades, -and only fired by the same news of gold, resolved to follow in the -same track; fresh forces in the mean time arriving from Spain, and -committing fresh aggressions on the natives along the course of the -river. Cabeza de Vaca being appointed Adelantado in the place of -Mendoza, arrived at Assumpcion in 1542, and after subduing the two -great tribes of the Guaranies and Guaycurus, set off also in the -great quest of gold. He sent out expeditions, moreover, in various -directions; but Vaca, though he had no scruples in conquering the -Indians, was too good for the people about him. He would not suffer -them to use the men as slaves, and to carry off the women. So they -mutinied against him, and shipped him off for Spain. Yrala was thus -again left in power, and to keep his soldiers in exercise, actually -marched across the country three hundred and seventy-two leagues, and -reached the confines of Peru. Returning from this stupendous march, -he next attacked the Indians on the borders of Brazil, and defined -the limits of the provinces of Portugal and Spain. He then divided -the land into _Repartimientos_, as the Spaniards had done every where -else; thus giving the country to the adventurers, and the people upon -it as a part of the property. “The settlers,” says Southey, “in the -mean time, went on in those habits of lasciviousness and cruelty which -characterize the Creoles of every stock whatever. He made little or no -attempt to check them, perhaps because he knew that any attempt would -be ineffectual, ... perhaps because he thought all was as it should be, -... that the Creator had destined the people of colour to serve those -of a whiter complexion, and be at the mercy of their lust and avarice.” - -By such men, Yrala, Veyaor who founded Ciudad Real on the Parana, -Chaves who founded the town of Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Moxos, and -the infamous Zarate, were the name, power, and crimes of the Spaniards -spread in Paraguay, when the Jesuits were invited thither from Brazil -and Peru in 1586. - -This is one of the greatest events in the history of the Spaniards in -the New World. With these men they introduced a power, which had it -been permitted to proceed, would have speedily put a stop to their -cruelties on the natives, and would eventually have civilized all that -mighty continent. But the Spaniards were not long in perceiving this, -and such a storm of vengeance and abuse was raised, as ultimately -broke up one of the most singular institutions that ever existed, and -dispersed those holy fathers and their works as a dream. - -They were, indeed, received at first with unbounded joy. Those from -Peru, says Southey, came from Potosi; and were received at Salta with -incredible joy as though they had been angels from heaven. For although -the Spaniards were corrupted by plenty of slaves and women whom they -had at command, they, nevertheless, regretted the want of that outward -religion, the observance of which was so easily made compatible with -every kind of vice. At Santiago de Estero, which was then the capital -and episcopal city, triumphal arches were erected; the way was strewn -with flowers; the governor, with the soldiers and chief inhabitants -went out to meet them, and solemn thanksgiving was celebrated, at -which the bishop chanted the Te Deum. At Corduba, they met with five -brethren of their order who had arrived from Brazil: Leonardo Armenio, -the superior, an Italian; Juan Salernio; Thomas Filds, a Scotchman; -Estevam de Grao, and Manoel de Ortiga, both Portuguese. The Jesuits -found, wherever the Spaniards had penetrated, the Indians groaning -under their oppressions and licentiousness, ready to burst out, and -take summary vengeance at the first opportunity; and they were on all -sides surrounded by tribes of others in a state of hostile irritation, -regarding the Spaniards as the most perfidious as well as powerful -enemies, from whom nothing was to be hoped, and against whom every -advantage was to be seized. Yet amongst these fierce tribes, the -Jesuits boldly advanced, trusting to that principle which ought always -to have been acted upon by those calling themselves Christians, that -where no evil is intended evil will seldom be received. It is wonderful -how successful this system was in their hands. With his breviary in -his hand, and a cross of six feet high, which served him for a staff, -the Jesuit missionary set out to penetrate into some new region. He -was accompanied by a few converted Indians who might act as guides and -interpreters. They took with them a stock of maize as provision in the -wilderness, where the bows of the Indians did not supply them with -game; for they carefully avoided carrying fire-arms, lest they should -excite alarm or suspicion. They thus encountered all the difficulties -of a wild country; climbing mountains, and cutting their way through -pathless woods with axes; and at night, if they reached no human -habitation, they made fires to keep off the wild beasts, and reposed -beneath the forest trees. When they arrived amongst the tribes they -sought, they explained through their interpreters, that they came thus -and threw themselves into their power, to prove to them that they were -their friends; to teach them the arts, and to endow them with the -advantages of the Europeans. In some cases they had to suffer for the -villanies of their countrymen—the natives being too much exasperated -by their wrongs to be able to conceive that some fresh experiment of -evil towards them was not concealed under this peaceful shew. But, in -the far greater number of cases, their success was marvellous. They -speedily inspired the Indians with confidence in their good intentions -towards them; for the natives of every country yet discovered, have -been found as quick in recognizing their friends as they have been -in resenting the injuries of their enemies. The following anecdote -given by Charlevoix, is peculiarly indicative of their manner of -proceeding.—Father Monroy, with a lay-brother Jesuit, called Juan de -Toledo, had at length reached the Omaguacas, whose cacique Piltipicon -had once been baptized, but, owing to the treatment of the Spaniards, -had renounced their religion, and pursued them with every possible -evil; massacred their priests; burnt their churches; and ravaged their -settlements. Father Monroy was told that certain and instant death -would be the consequence of his appearing before Piltipicon; but armed -with all that confidence which Jesus Christ has so much recommended -to the preachers of his gospel, he entered the house of the terrible -cacique, and thus addressed him: “The good which I desire you, has made -me despise the terrors of almost certain death; but you cannot expect -much honour in taking away the life of a naked man. If, contrary to my -expectation, you will consent to listen to me, all the advantage of -our conversation will be yours; whereas, if I die by your hands, an -immortal crown in heaven will be my reward.” Piltipicon was so amazed, -or rather softened by the missionary’s boldness, that he immediately -offered him some of the beer brewed from maize, which the Omaguacas -use; and not only granted his request to proceed further up his -country, but furnished him with provisions for the journey. The end of -it was, that Piltipicon made peace with the Spaniards, and ultimately -embraced Christianity, with all his people. - -The Jesuits, once admitted by the Indians, soon convinced them that -they could have no end in view but their good; and the resistance -which they made to the attempts of the Spaniards to enslave them, -gave them such a fame amongst all the surrounding nations as was most -favourable to the progress of their plans. When they had acquired an -influence over a tribe, they soon prevailed upon them to come into -their settlements, which they called REDUCTIONS, and where they -gradually accustomed them to the order and comforts of civilized life. -These Reductions were principally situated in Guayra, on the Parana, -and in the tract of country between the Parana and the Uruguay, the -great river which, descending from the mountains of Rio Grande, runs -southward parallel with the Parana, and debouches in the Plata. In -process of time they had established thirty of these Reductions in -La Plata and Paraguay, thirteen of them being in the diocese of the -Assumpcion, besides those amongst the Chiquitos and other nations. In -the centre of every mission was the Reduction, and in the centre of -the Reduction was a square, which the church faced, and likewise the -arsenal, in which all the arms and ammunition were laid up. In this -square the Indians were exercised every week, for there were in every -town two companies of militia, the officers of which had handsome -uniforms laced with gold and silver, which, however, they only wore on -those occasions, or when they took the field. At each corner of the -square was a cross, and in the centre an image of the Virgin. They had -a large house on the right-hand of the church for the Jesuits, and -near it the public workshops. On the left-hand of the church was the -public burial-ground and the widows’ house. Every necessary trade was -taught, and the boys were taken to the public workshops and instructed -in such trades as they chose. To every family was given a house, and -a piece of ground sufficient to supply it with all necessaries. Oxen -were supplied from the common stock for cultivating it, and while -this family was capable of doing the necessary work, this land never -was taken away. Besides this private property, there were two larger -portions, called Tupamba, or God’s Possession, to which all the -community contributed the necessary labour, and raised provisions for -the aged, sick, widows, and orphans, and income for the public service, -and the payment of the national tribute. The boys were employed in -weeding, keeping the roads in order, and various other offices. They -went to work with the music of flutes and in procession. The girls were -employed in gathering cotton, and driving birds from the fields. Every -one had his or her proper avocation, and officers were appointed to -superintend every different department, and to see that all was going -on well in shops and in fields. They had, however, their days and hours -of relaxation. They were taught singing, music, and dancing, under -certain regulations. On holidays, the men played at various games, -shot at marks, played with balls of elastic gum, or went out hunting -and fishing. Every kind of art that was innocent or ornamental was -practised. They cast bells, and carved and gilded with great elegance. -The women, beside their other domestic duties, made pottery, and spun -and wove cotton for garments. The Jesuits exported large quantities of -the Caa, or Paraguay tea, and introduced valuable improvements in the -mode of its preparation. - -Such were some of the regulations which the Jesuits had established -in these settlements; and notwithstanding the regular system of -employment kept up, the natives flocked into them in such numbers, that -it required all the ingenuity of the fathers to accommodate them all. -The largest of their Reductions contained as many as eight thousand -inhabitants; the smallest fifteen hundred; the average was about three -thousand. To preserve that purity of morals which was inculcated, it -was found necessary to obtain a royal mandate, that no Spaniard should -enter these Reductions except when going to the bishop or superior. -“And one thing,” says Charlevoix, “greatly to their honour, was -universally allowed by all the Europeans settled in South America: -the converted Indians inhabiting them, no longer exhibited traces of -their former proneness to vengeance, cruelty, and the grosser vices. -They were no longer, in any respect, the same men they formerly were. -The most cordial love and affection for each other, and charity for -all men, delighted all who visited them, the infidels especially, whom -their behaviour served to inspire with the most favourable opinion of -the Christian religion.” “It is,” he adds, “no ways surprising that -God should work such wonders in such pure souls; nor that those very -Indians, to whom some learned doctors would not allow reason enough to -be received into the bosom of the church, should be at this day one of -its greatest ornaments, and perhaps the most precious portion of the -flock of Christ.” - -There is nothing more wonderful in all the inscrutable dispensations of -Providence, than that this beautiful scene of innocence and happiness -should have been suffered to be broken in upon by the wolves of avarice -and violence, and all dispersed as a morning dream. But the Jesuits, -by their advocacy and civilization of these poor people, had raised -up against them three hostile powers,—the Spaniards—the man-hunters -of Santo Paulo—and political demagogues. The Spaniards soon hated -them for standing between them and their victims. They hated them for -presuming to tell them that they had no right to enslave, to debauch, -to exterminate them. They hated them because they would not suffer -them to be given up to them as property—mere live stock—beasts of -labour, in their Encomiendas. They regarded them as robbing them of -just so much property, and as setting a bad example to the other -Indians who were already enslaved, or were yet to be so. They hated -them because their refusing them entrance into their Reductions was a -standing and perpetual reproof of the licentiousness of their lives. -They foresaw that if this system became universal, the very pillars of -their indolent and debased existence would be thrown down: “for,” says -Charlevoix, “the Spaniards here think it beneath them to exercise any -manual employment. Those even who are but just landed from Spain, put -every stitch they have brought with them upon their backs, and set up -for gentlemen, above serving in any menial capacity.” - -Whoever, therefore, sought to seize upon any unauthorized power in -the colony, began to flatter these lazy people, by representing the -Jesuits as their greatest enemies, who were seeking to undermine their -fortunes, and deprive them of the services of the Indians. Such men -were, Cardenas the bishop of Assumpcion, and Antequera;—Cardenas, -entering irregularly into his office in 1640, and Antequera who was -sent as judge to Assumpcion in 1721, more than eighty years afterwards, -and who seized on the government itself. Both attacked the Jesuits -as the surest means of winning the popular favour. They knew the -jealousy with which their civilization of the Indians was regarded, -and they had only to thunder accusations in the public ears calculated -to foment that jealousy, in order to secure the favour of the people. -Accordingly, these ambitious, intriguing, and turbulent persons, made -not only South America, but Europe itself ring with alarms of the -Jesuits. They contended that they were ruining the growing fortunes of -the Spanish states,—that they were aiming at an independent power, -and were training the Indians for the purpose of effecting it. They -talked loudly of wealthy mines, which the Jesuits worked while they -kept their location strictly secret. These mines could never be found. -They represented that they dwelt in wealthy cities, adorned with the -most magnificent churches and palaces, and lived in a condition the -most sensual with the Indians. These calumnies, only too well relished -by the lazy and rapacious Spaniards, did not fail of their effect—the -Jesuits were attacked in their Reductions, harassed in a variety of -modes, and eventually driven out of the country; where circumstances -connected with the less worthy members of their order in Europe, added -their fatal influence to the odium already existing here. But of that -anon. - -During their existence in this country, the greatest curse and scourge -of their Reductions were the Paulistas, or Man-hunters, of Santo Paulo -in Brazil. These people were a colony of Mamelucoes, or descendants of -Portuguese and Indians; and a more dreadful set of men are not upon -record. Their great business was to hunt for mines, and for Indians. -For this purpose they ranged through the interior, sometimes in -large troops, armed and capable of reducing a strong town, at others, -they were scattered into smaller parties prowling through the woods, -and pouncing on all that fell into their clutches. They were fierce, -savage, and merciless. They seemed to take a wild delight in the -destruction of human settlements, and in the blaze of human abodes. -They maintained themselves in the wilds by hunting, fishing, the -plunder of the natives; and when that failed, they could subsist on -the pine-nuts, and the flour prepared from the carob, or locust-tree, -termed by them war-meal. - -Their abominable practices had been vehemently denounced by the -Jesuits of Santo Paulo, and in consequence they became bitter enemies -of the order. One of their favourite stratagems, was to appear in -small parties, led by commanders in the habits of Jesuits, in those -places which they knew the Jesuits frequented in the hopes of making -proselytes. The first thing they did there, was to erect crosses. They -next made little presents to the Indians they met; distributed remedies -amongst the sick; and as they were masters of the Guarani language, -exhorted them to embrace the Christian religion, of which they -explained to them in a few words, the principal articles. When they -had, by these arts, assembled a great number of them, they proposed to -them to remove to some more convenient spot, where they assured them -they should want for nothing. Most of these poor creatures permitted -themselves to be thus led by these wolves in sheep’s clothing, till the -traitors, dropping the mask, began to tie them, cutting the throats of -those who endeavoured to escape, and carried the rest into slavery. -Some, however, escaped from time to time, and alarmed the whole -country. This scheme served two purposes; it for a time procured them -great numbers of Indians, and it cast an odium on the Jesuits, to whom -it was attributed, which long operated against them. But it was not -long that these base miscreants were contented with this mischief. It -struck them, that the Reductions of the Jesuits in Guayra, a province -adjoining their own, might be made an easy prey; and would furnish -them with a rich booty of human flesh at a little cost of labour. They -accordingly soon fell upon them, and the relation of the miseries and -desolation inflicted on these peaceful and flourishing settlements, -as given by Charlevoix, is heart-rending. Nine hundred Mamelucoes, -accompanied by two thousand Indians, under one of their most famous -commanders Anthony Rasposo, broke into Guayra, and beset the reduction -of St. Anthony, which was under the care of Father Mola. They put to -the sword all the Indians that attempted to resist; butchered, even -at the foot of the altar, such as fled there for refuge; loaded the -principal men with chains, and plundered the church. Some of them -having entered the missionary’s house, in hopes of a rich booty, -finding nothing but a threadbare soutane and a few tattered shirts, -told the Indians they must be very foolish to take for masters, -strangers who came into their country because they had not wherewith -to live in their own; that they would be much happier in Brazil, where -they would want for nothing, and would not be obliged to maintain their -pastors. - -These were, no doubt, fine speeches to be made to people loaded with -chains, and whose relatives and countrymen had been but that instant -butchered before their eyes. Father Mola in vain threw himself at the -commander’s feet; represented to him the innocence and simplicity of -these poor Indians; conjured him by all that was most sacred, to set -bounds to the fury of the soldiers; and at last, threatened them with -the indignation of heaven: but these savages answered him, that it was -enough to be baptized again to be admitted into heaven, and that they -would make their way into it though God himself should oppose their -entrance.[11] They carried away into slavery two thousand five hundred -Indians. - -Some of the prisoners escaped, and returned to join Father Mola and -such of their brethren as had fled to the woods. The father, they found -amid the ruins of his Reduction sunk in the deepest sorrow. However, he -roused himself and persuaded them to retire with him to the Reduction -of the Incarnation. The Reductions of St. Michael and of Jesus-Maria, -were speedily treated in the same manner; and they set out for Santo -Paulo, driving their victims before them as so many cattle. Nine months -the march continued. The merciless wretches urged them forward till -numbers fell by the way, worn out with fatigue and famine. The first -who gave way were sick women and aged persons; who begged in vain that -their husbands, wives, or children, might remain with them in their -dying hours. All that could be forced on by goading and blows, were, -and when they fell, they were left to perish by the wild beasts. Two -Jesuit fathers, Mansilla and Maceta, however, followed their unhappy -people, imploring more gentleness towards the failing, and comforting -the dying. When Father Maceta first beheld his people chained like -galley slaves, he could not contain himself. He ran up to embrace them, -in spite of the cocked muskets, with which he was threatened, and -volleys of blows poured upon him at every step. Seeing in the throng -the cazique Guiravara and his wife chained together, he ran up to the -cazique, who before his conversion had used Father Maceta very cruelly, -and kissing his chain, told him that he was overjoyed to be able to -shew him that he entertained no resentment of his ill usage, and would -risk his life to procure his liberty. He procured both their freedom, -and that of several other Indians, on promise of a ransom. Thus these -noble men followed their captive people through the whole dreadful -journey, administering every comfort and hope of final liberation in -their power; and their services and sympathy, we may well imagine, were -sufficiently needed, for out of the whole number of captives collected -in Guayra, fifteen hundred only arrived in life at Santo Paulo. - -But the journey of the fathers did not end here. They could get no -redress; and therefore hastened to Rio Janeiro; and succeeding no -better there, went on to the Bay of All-Saints, to Don Diego Lewis -Oliveyra, governor and captain-general of the kingdom. The governor -ordered an officer to repair with them to Santo Paulo; but it was too -late, the prisoners were distributed far and wide, and the commissary -could not or dared not attempt to recall them. News also of fresh -enterprises meditated against the Paraguay Reductions, by these hideous -man-hunters, made the fathers hasten away to put their brethren upon -their guard. - -The story of the successive devastation of the Reductions is long. The -Jesuits were compelled to retreat southward from one place to another -with their wretched neophytes. The magistrates and governors gave them -no aid, for they entertained no good-will towards them; and they were, -even in the central ground between the Parana and Uruguay, compelled -to train their people to arms, and defend themselves. It is not only -a long but sorrowful recital, both of the injuries received from the -Paulistas and from their own countrymen—we must therefore pass it -over, and merely notice the manner of their final expulsion. - -The court of Spain ordered the banishment of the Jesuits, and the -authorities, only too happy to execute the order, surrounded their -colleges in the night with soldiers, seized the persons of the -missionaries,—their libraries and manuscripts, which in time became -destroyed, an irreparable loss to historical literature. Old men in -their beds even were not suffered to remain and die in peace, but were -compelled to accompany the rest, till they died on their mules in the -immense journey from some of the settlements, and across the wildest -mountains to the sea. The words of Mr. Southey may well close this -strange and melancholy history. - -“Bucarelli shipped off the Jesuits of La Plata, Tucuman, and -Paraguay, one hundred and fifty-five in number, before he attacked -the Reductions. This part of the business he chose to perform in -person; and the precautions which he took for arresting seventy-eight -defenceless missionaries, will be regarded with contempt, or with -indignation, as they may be supposed to have proceeded from ignorance -of the real state of things, or from fear, basely affected for the -purpose of courting favour by countenancing successful calumnies. He -had previously sent for all the Caciques and Corregidores to Buenos -Ayres, and persuaded them that the king was about to make a great -change for their advantage. Two hundred soldiers from Paraguay were -ordered to guard the pass of the Tebiquary; two hundred Corrientines to -take post in the vicinity of St. Miguel; and he defended the Uruguay -with threescore dragoons, and three companies of grenadiers. They -landed at the Falls; one detachment proceeded to join the Paraguay -party, and seize the Parana Jesuits; another incorporated itself with -the Corrientines, and marched against those on the eastern side of the -Uruguay; and the Viceroy himself advanced upon Yapeyen, and those which -lay between the two rivers. The Reductions were peaceably delivered up. -The Jesuits, without a murmur, followed their brethren into banishment; -and Bucarelli was vile enough to take credit in his dispatches for the -address with which he had so happily performed a dangerous service; and -to seek favour by loading the persecuted Company with charges of the -grossest and foulest calumnies.” - -The American Jesuits were sent from Cadiz to Italy, where Faenza and -Ravenna were assigned for their places of abode. Most of the Paraguay -brethren settled at Faenza. There they employed the melancholy hours -of age and exile in preserving, as far as they could from memory -alone (for they had been deprived of all their papers), the knowledge -which they had so painfully acquired of strange countries, strange -manners, savage languages, and savage man. The Company originated -in extravagance and madness; in its progress it was supported and -aggrandized by fraud and falsehood; and its history is stained by -actions of the darkest dye. But it fell with honour. No men ever -behaved with greater equanimity, under undeserved disgrace, than the -last of the Jesuits; and the extinction of the order was a heavy loss -to literature, a great evil to the Catholic world, and an irreparable -injury to the tribes of South America. - -“Bucarelli replaced the exiled missionaries by priests from the -different Mendicant orders; but the temporal authority was not vested -in their hands—this was vested in lay-administrators.... Here ended -the prosperity of these celebrated communities—here ended the -tranquillity and welfare of the Guaranies. The administrators, hungry -ruffians from the Plata, or fresh from Spain, neither knew the language -nor had patience to acquire it. It sufficed for them that they could -make their commands intelligible by the whip. The priests had no -authority to check the enormities of these wretches; nor were they -always irreproachable themselves. A year had scarce elapsed before -the Viceroy discovered that the Guaranies, for the sake of escaping -from this intolerable state of oppression, were beginning to emigrate -into the Portuguese territories, and actually soliciting protection -from their old enemies. Upon the first alarm of so unexpected an -occurrence, Bucarelli displaced all the administrators; but the new -administrators were as brutal and rapacious as their predecessors; -the governor was presently involved in a violent struggle with the -priests, touching their respective powers, and the confusion which -ensued, evinced how wisely the Jesuits had acted in combining the -spiritual and temporal authorities.... The Viceroy then instituted a -new form of administration. The Indians were declared exempt from all -personal service, not subject to the Encomienda system, and entitled -to possess property—a right of which, Bucarelli said, they had been -deprived by the Jesuits; for this governor affected to emancipate -the Guaranies, and talked of placing them under the safeguard of the -law, and purifying the Reductions from tyranny! They were to labour -for the community under the direction of the administrators; and as -an encouragement to industry, the Reductions were opened to traders -during the months of February, March, and April. The end of all -this was, that compulsory and cruel labour left the Indians neither -time nor inclination—neither heart nor strength—to labour for -themselves. The arts which the Jesuits had introduced, were neglected -and forgotten; their gardens lay waste; their looms fell to pieces; -and in these communities, where the inhabitants for many generations -had enjoyed a greater exemption from physical and moral evil than any -other inhabitants of the globe, the people were now made vicious and -miserable. Their only alternative was to remain, and to be treated -like slaves, or fly to the woods, and take their chance as savages.” - -Here we must close our review of the Spaniards in the New World. -Our narrative has been necessarily brief and rapid, for the history -of their crimes extends over a vast continent, and through three -centuries; and would, related at length, fill a hundred volumes. We -have found them, however, everywhere the same—cruel, treacherous, and -regardless of the feelings of humanity and the sense of justice. They -have wreaked alike their vengeance on the natives of every country -they have entered, and on those of their own race who dared to espouse -the cause of the sufferers. This spirit continued to the last. In all -their colonies, the natives, whether of Indian blood, or the Creoles -descended of their own, were carefully excluded from the direction of -their own affairs, and the emoluments of office. Spaniards from the -mother country were sent over in rapacious swarms, to fatten on the -vitals of these vast states, and return when they had sucked their -fill. The retribution has followed; and Spain has not now left a single -foot of all these countries which she has drenched in the blood, and -filled with the groans of their native children. - -Mr. Ward, in his “Mexico in 1827,” says that in 1803, the number of -Indians remaining in Mexico was two millions and a half; but that their -history is everywhere a blank. Some have become habituated to civil -life, and are excellent artizans, but the greater portion are totally -neglected. That, during the Revolution, the sense of the injuries which -the race had received from the Spaniards, and which seemed to have -slumbered in their bosoms for three centuries, blazed up and shewed -itself in the eager and burning enthusiasm with which they flocked -to the revolutionary standard to throw off the yoke of their ancient -oppressors. He adds, “Whatever may be the advantages which they may -derive from the recent changes, and the nature of these time alone can -determine, the fruits of the introduction of boasted civilization into -the New World have been hitherto bitter indeed. Throughout America the -Indian race has been sacrificed; nor can I discover that in New Spain -any one step has been taken for their improvement. In the neighbourhood -of the capital nothing can be more wretched than their appearance; -and although under a republican form of government, they must enjoy, -in theory at least, an equality of rights with every other class of -citizens, they seemed practically, at the period of my first visit, to -be under the orders of every one, whether officer, soldier, churchman, -or civilian, who chose to honour them with a command.”—vol. ii. p. -215. - - - - -CHAPTER XI. - -THE PORTUGUESE IN BRAZIL. - - -Though we now make our first inquiry into the conduct of the Portuguese -towards the natives of their colonies, and enter upon so immense a -scene of action as that of the vast empire of Brazil, our notice may -happily be condensed into a comparatively small space, because the -features of the settlement of Paraguay by the Spaniards, and that of -Brazil by the Portuguese are wonderfully similar. The natives were of -a like character, bold and warlike, and were treated in like fashion. -They were destroyed, enslaved, given away in Encomiendos, just as it -suited the purpose of the invaders; the Jesuits arrived, and undertook -their defence and civilization, and were finally expelled, like their -brethren of Paraguay, as pestilential fellows, that would not let the -colonists “do as they pleased with their own.” - -Yanez Pinzon, the Spaniard, was the first who discovered the coast -of Brazil, in A.D. 1500, and coasting northward from Cape Agostinho, -he gave the natives such a taste of the faith and intentions of the -whites as must have prepared them to resist them to the utmost on -their reappearance. Betwixt Cape Agostinho and the river Maranham, -seeing a party of the natives on a hill near the shore, they landed, -and endeavoured to open some degree of intercourse; but the natives not -liking their appearance, attempted to drive them away, killed eight -of them, wounded more, and pursued them with fury to their boat. The -Spaniards, of course, did not spare the natives, and soon afterwards -shewed that the natives were very much in the right in repelling -them, for on entering the Maranham, where the natives _did_ receive -them cordially, they seized about thirty of these innocent people and -carried them off for slaves. - -Scarcely had Pinzon departed, when Cabral, with the Portuguese -squadron, made his accidental visit to the same coast. In the following -year Amerigo Vespucci was sent thither to make further discoveries, -and having advanced as far southward as 52°, returned home. In 1503, -he was sent out again, and effected a settlement in 18° S. in what -was afterwards called the Captaincy of Porto Seguro. One of the very -first acts of Portugal was to ship thither as colonists the refuse of -her prisons, as Spain had done to her colonies, and as Portugal also -had done to Africa and India; a horrible mode of inflicting the worst -curses of European society on new countries, and of presenting to the -natives under the name of Christians, men rank and fuming with every -species of brutal vice and pestiferous corruption. - -Ten years after the discovery of Brazil, a young noble, Diego Alvarez, -who was going out on a voyage of adventure, was wrecked on the coast -of Bahia, and was received with cordiality by the natives, and named -Caramuru, or the Man of Fire, from the possession of fire-arms. Here he -married the daughter of the chief, and finally became the great chief -himself, with a numerous progeny around him. Another man, Joam Ramalho, -who also had been shipwrecked, married a daughter of the chief of -Piratininga, and these circumstances gave the Portuguese a favourable -reception in different places of this immense coast. In about thirty -years after its discovery the country was divided into captaincies, the -sugar-cane was introduced, and the work of colonization went rapidly -on. The natives were attacked on all sides; they defended themselves -with great spirit, but were compelled to yield before the power of -fire-arms. But while the natives suffered from the colonists, the -colonists suffered too from the despotism of the governors of the -captaincies; a Governor-general was therefore appointed just half a -century after the discovery, in the person of Thome de Sousa, and some -Jesuits were sent out with him to civilize the natives. - -Amongst these was Father Manoel de Nobrega, chief of the mission, -who distinguished himself so nobly in behalf of the Indians. The -city of Salvador, in the bay of All-Saints, was founded as the -seat of government, and the Jesuits immediately began the work of -civilization. There was great need of it both amongst the Indians -and their own countrymen. “Indeed, the fathers,” says Southey, -“had greater difficulties to encounter in the conduct of their own -countrymen than in the customs and disposition of the natives. During -half a century, the colonization of Brazil had been left to chance; -the colonists were almost without law and religion. Many settlers had -never either confessed or communicated since they entered the country; -the ordinances of the church were neglected for want of a clergy to -celebrate them, and the moral precepts had been forgotten with the -ceremonies. Crimes which might easily at first have been prevented, had -become habitual, and the habit was now too strong to be overcome. There -were indeed individuals in whom the moral sense could be discovered, -but in the majority it had been utterly destroyed. They were of that -description of men over whom the fear of the gallows may have some -effect; the fear of God has none. A system of concubinage was practised -among them, worse than the loose polygamy of the savages. The savage -had as many women as consented to become his wives—the colonist as -many as he could enslave. There is an ineffaceable stigma upon the -Europeans in their intercourse with those whom they treat as inferior -races—there is a perpetual contradiction between their lust and their -avarice. The planter will one day take a slave for his harlot, and sell -her the next as a being of some lower species—a beast of labour. If -she be indeed an inferior animal, what shall be said of the one action? -If she be equally with himself an human being and an immortal soul, -what shall be said of the other? Either way there is a crime committed -against human nature. Nobrega and his companions refused to administer -the sacraments of the church to those persons who retained native women -as concubines, or men as slaves. Many were reclaimed by this resolute -and Christian conduct; some, because their consciences had not been -dead, but sleeping; others, for worldly fear, because they believed the -Jesuits were armed with secular as well as spiritual authority. The -good effect which was produced on such persons was therefore only for -a season. Mighty as the Catholic religion is, avarice is mightier; and -in spite of all the best and ablest men that ever the Jesuit order, so -fertile of great men, has had to glory in, the practice of enslaving -the natives continued.” - -Yet, according to the same authority, the country had not been entirely -without priests; but they had become so brutal that Nobrega said, “No -devil had persecuted him and his brethren so greatly as they did. These -wretches encouraged the colonists in their abominations, and openly -maintained that it was lawful to enslave the natives, because they -were beasts; and then lawful to use the women as concubines, because -they were slaves. This was their public doctrine! Well might Nobrega -say they did the work of the devil. They opposed the Jesuits with the -utmost virulence. Their interest was at stake. They could not bear -the presence of men who said mass and performed all the ceremonies of -religion gratuitously.” Much less, it may be believed, who maintained -the freedom of the natives. - -Such were the people amongst which the Jesuits had to act, yet they set -to work with their usual alacrity. Fresh brethren came out to their -aid; and Nobrega was appointed Vice-provincial of Brazil. They soon -ingratiated themselves with the natives by their usual affability and -kindness. They zealously acquainted themselves with the language; gave -presents to the children; visited the sick; but above all, stood firmly -between them and the atrocities of their countrymen. When the Jesuits -arrived, these atrocities had driven many tribes into the fiercest -hostility, and so evident was it that nothing but these atrocities had -made, or kept them hostile, that when they heard the joyful report -that the Jesuits were come as friends and protectors of the Indians, -and when they saw their conduct so consonant to these tidings, _they -brought their bows to the governor, and solicited to be received -as allies_! How universally, on the slightest opportunity, have -those called savage nations shamed the Europeans styling themselves -civilized, by proofs of their greater faith and disposition to peace! -Amicable intercourse and civilization are the natural order of things -between the powerful and enlightened, and the weak and simple, if -avarice and lust did not intervene. - -Nobrega and his brethren soon produced striking changes on these poor -people. They persuaded them to live in peace, to abandon their old -habits, to build churches and schools. The avidity of the children to -learn to read was wonderful. One of the natives soon was able to make -a catechism in the Tupi tongue, and to translate prayers into it. They -taught them not only reading, writing, and arithmetic, but to sing in -the church; an accomplishment which perfectly enchanted them. “Nobrega -usually took with him four or five of these little choristers on his -preaching expeditions. When they approached an inhabited place, one -carried the crucifix before them, and they began singing the Litany. -The savages, like snakes, were won by the voice of the charmer. They -received him joyfully; and when he departed with the same ceremony, the -children followed the music. He set the catechism, creed, and ordinary -prayers to _sol fa_; and the pleasure of learning to sing was such -a temptation, that the little Tupis sometimes ran away from their -parents to put themselves under the care of the Jesuits.” - -Fresh coadjutors arrived, and with them the celebrated Joseph de -Anchieta, who became more celebrated than Nobrega himself. Nobrega -now established a college in the plains of Piratininga, and sent -thither thirteen of the brethren, with Anchieta as schoolmaster. If -our settlers, in the different new nations where they have located -themselves, had imitated the conduct of this great man, what a world -would this be now! what a history of colonization would have to be -written! how different to the scene I am doomed to lay open. “Day -and night,” says the historian, “did this indefatigable man labour -in discharging the duties of his office. There were no books for the -pupils; he wrote for every one his lesson on a separate leaf, after the -business of the day was done, and it was sometimes day-light before his -task was completed. The profane songs that were in use, he parodied -into hymns in Portugueze, Castilian, Latin and Tupinamban. The ballads -of the natives underwent the same travesty in their own tongue.” He did -not disdain to act as physician, barber, nor even shoemaker, to win -them and to benefit them. - -But it was not merely in such peaceful and blessed acts that the -Jesuits were obliged to employ themselves. They were soon called upon -to save the very colonies from their enemies. The French entered -the country, and the native tribes smarting under the wrongs which -the Portuguese had heaped plentifully on them, were only too glad -to unite with them against their merciless oppressors. The Jesuits -defended their own settlements, and then proceeded to give one of the -most splendid examples in history of the power there is in Christian -principle to suspersede wars, and to extort attention and protection -even from men in the fiercest irritation and resentment of injuries. -While the Portuguese were making war on the Tamoyos, and other martial -tribes, Nobrega denounced their proceedings as heaping injustice upon -injustice, for the natives would, he said, trust in the Portuguese if -they saw any hope of fair treatment—any safety from the man-hunters. -But when the Indians were triumphant, and had surrounded Espirito -Santo, and threatened the very existence of the place, Nobrega and -Anchieta set sail for that port, everybody looking upon them as madmen -rushing upon certain destruction. A more fearful, and to all but that -noble faith in truth and justice which is capable of working wonders, -a more hopeless enterprise never was undertaken. As they entered the -port, a host of war-canoes came out to meet them; but the moment they -saw that they were Jesuits, the Indians knew that they came with -peaceful intentions, and dropped their hostile attitude. Spite of -all the exasperation of their wrongs, and the natural presumption of -success, they carried the vessel without injury or insult into port, -and listened with attention to the words of the fathers. - -For two months these excellent men lived in the midst of those -exasperated Indians, nay, one of them remained there alone for a -considerable time, labouring to soothe their wrath, to convince them -of better treatment, and dispose them to peace. The fiercer natives -threatened them daily with death, and with being devoured, but the -better spirits and their own blameless lives protected them. They -built a little church, and thatched it with palm-leaves, where they -preached and celebrated mass daily, and at length effected a peace, -and the salvation of the colonies; for they found that a wide-spread -coalition was forming amongst the Indian tribes to sweep their -oppressors out of the land. - -One would have thought that such instances as these of the wisdom -and sound policy of virtue, would have been enough to persuade the -Portuguese to adopt more righteous measures towards the natives; but -avarice and cruelty are not easily eradicated—a famine broke out—they -purchased the Indians for slaves with provisions! Nothing can equal -the blindness of base minds. Whenever affairs went wrong with them, -the Portuguese had recourse to the Jesuits, and the Jesuits by their -influence with the Indians, achieved the most signal service for -them. They marched against the French, and drove them out. They built -towns; they protected the state from hostile tribes. A Jesuit, with -his crucifix in his hand, was of more avail at the head of armies than -the most able general; but these things once accomplished, all these -services were forgotten—the slave-hunters were at work again, and the -colonies fell again as rapidly into troubles and consequent decline. -By the end of the century, from the discovery of Brazil, the Jesuits -had collected all the natives along the coast as far as the Portuguese -territories reached, into their aldeas, or villages, and were busy -in the work of civilization. Nothing indeed would have been easier -than for them to civilize the whole country, had it been possible to -civilize the Portuguese first. But their conduct to the natives was -but one continued practice of treachery and outrage. When they needed -their aid to defend them from their enemies, out marched the natives -under their Jesuit leaders, and fought for them; and the first act -of the colonists, when the victory was won, was to seize on their -benefactors and portion them out as slaves. The man-hunters broke into -the villages and carried off numbers, having, in fact, depopulated the -whole country besides. There is no species of kidnapping, no burnings -of huts, no fomenting of wars between different tribes; no horror, in -short, which has made the names of Christians so infamous for the last -three hundred years in Africa that had not its parallel then in Brazil. - -Besides, for more than a hundred years, Brazil was the constant scene -of war and contention between the European powers terming themselves -Christian. French, English, and Dutch, were in turn endeavouring to -seize upon one part or other of it; and every description of rapine, -bloodshed, and treachery which can disgrace nations pretending to any -degree of civilization was going on before the eyes of the astonished -natives. What notions of Christianity must the Indians have had, when -these people called themselves Christians? They saw them assailing one -another, fighting like madmen for what in reality belonged to none of -them; burning towns, destroying sugar plantations; massacring all, -native or colonist, that fell into their hands, or seizing them for -slaves. They saw bishops contending with governors, priests contending -with one another; they saw their beautiful country desolated from end -to end (down to 1664), and every thing which is sacred to heaven or -honourable or valuable to men, treated with contempt.—What was it -possible for them to believe of Christianity, than that it was some -devilish compact, which at once invested men with a terrible power, and -with the will to wield it, for the accomplishment of the widest ruin -and the profoundest misery? - -Through all this, under all changes, whoever were masters, or whoever -were contending—the Indians experienced but one lot, slavery and ruin. -Laws indeed were repeatedly enacted in Portugal on their behalf—they -were repeatedly declared free—but as everywhere else, they were -laughed at by the colonists, or resisted with rebellious fury. - -Amid this long career of violence, the only thing which the mind -can repose on with any degree of pleasure, is the conduct of the -Jesuits, the steady friends of justice and the Indians; and towards -the latter part of this period there arrived in Maranham one of the -most extraordinary men, which not only that remarkable order, but -which the world has produced. This was Antonio Vieyra, a young Jesuit, -who had left the favour of the king and court, and the most brilliant -prospects, for the single purpose of devoting himself to the cause -of the Indians. His boldness, his honesty of speech and purpose, his -resolute resistance to the system of base oppression, operating through -the whole mass of society around him—were perhaps equalled by his -fellows; but the greatness of his talents, and the vehement splendour -of his eloquence, have few equals in any age. Mr. Southey has given the -substance of a sermon preached by him before the governor at St. Lewis, -which so startled and moved the whole people, by the novel and fearful -view in which he exhibited to them their treatment of the Indians, -that with one accord they resolved to set them free. - -It is worth while here to give a slight specimen or two of this -extraordinary discourse. His text was, the offer of Satan:—“All -these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship -me.”—“Things,” said he, “are estimated at what they cost. What then -did the world cost our Saviour, and what did a soul cost him? The -world cost him a word—He spoke, and it was made. A soul cost Him his -life, and his blood. But if the world cost only a word of God, and a -soul cost the blood of God, a soul is worth more than all the world. -This Christ thought, and this the devil confessed. Yet you know how -cheaply we value our souls? you know at what rate we sell them? We -wonder that Judas should have sold his Master and his soul for thirty -pieces of silver; but how many are there who offer their own to the -devil for less than fifteen! Christians! I am not now telling you -that you ought not to sell your souls, for I know that you must sell -them;—I only entreat that you will sell them by weight. Weigh well -what a soul is worth, and what it cost, and then sell it and welcome! -But in what scales is it to be weighed? You think I shall say, In those -of St. Michael the archangel, in which souls are weighed. I do not -require so much. Weigh them in the devil’s own balance, and I shall be -satisfied! Take the devil’s balance in one hand, put the whole world -in one scale and a soul in the other, and you will find that your soul -weighs more than the world.—‘All this will I give thee, if thou wilt -fall down and worship me.’... But at what a different price now does -the devil purchase souls from that which he formerly offered for them? -I mean in this country. The devil has not a fair in the world where -they go cheaper! In the Gospel he offers all the kingdoms of the world -to purchase a single soul;—he does not require so large a price to -purchase all that are in Maranham. It is not necessary to offer worlds; -it is not necessary to offer kingdoms, nor cities, nor towns, nor -villages;—it is enough for the devil to point at a plantation, and a -couple of Tapuyas, and down goes the man upon his knees to worship him! -Oh what a market! A negro for a soul, and the soul the blacker of the -two! The negro shall be your slave for the few days you have to live, -and your soul shall be my slave through all eternity—as long as God is -God! This is the bargain which the devil makes with you.” - -Amazing as was the effect of this celebrated sermon, of course it did -not last long. But Vieyra did not rest here. He hastened to Portugal, -and stated the treatment of the Indians to the king. He obtained an -order, that all the Indian settlements in the state of Maranham should -be under the direction of the Jesuits; that Vieyra should direct all -expeditions into the interior, and settle the reduced Indians where he -pleased; and that all ransomed Indians should be slaves for five years -and no longer, their labour in that time being an ample compensation -for their original cost. Here was a sort of apprenticeship system more -favourable than the modern British one, but destined to be just as -little observed. - - - - -CHAPTER XII. - -THE PORTUGUESE IN BRAZIL,—CONTINUED. - - -I regret that my limits will not permit me to follow further the -labours and enterprises of Vieyra and his brethren in behalf of the -Indians, whom they sought far and wide in that immense region, and -brought in thousands upon thousands into settlements, only to arouse -afresh the furious opposition, and bring down upon themselves the -vengeance of the colonists. But the history of this great strife -between Christianity and Injustice, in Brazil, fills three massy quarto -volumes, and runs through three centuries. It is full of details of the -deepest interest; but there is no chapter, either in that history or -any other, more heart-rending, than that of the transfer of the seven -Reductions of the Jesuits lying east of the Uruguay. These were ceded -by Spain to Portugal in 1750, in a treaty of demarcation. - -“They contained,” to use the words of Mr. Southey, “thirty thousand -Guaranies, not fresh from the woods or half reclaimed, and therefore -willing to revert to a savage state, and capable of enduring its -exposure, hardships, and privations; but born as their fathers and -grandfathers had been, in easy servitude, and bred up in the comforts -of regular domestic life. These persons, with their wives and their -children, their sick and their aged, their horses, and their sheep and -their oxen, were to turn out, like the children of Israel from Egypt, -into the wilderness; not to escape from bondage, but in obedience -to one of the most tyranical commands that ever were issued in the -recklessness of unfeeling power.” Mr. Southey adds, “Yet Ferdinand must -be acquitted of intentional injustice. His disposition was such, that -he would have rather suffered martyrdom than have issued so wicked an -edict, had he been sensible of its inhumanity and wickedness.” - -This might more readily be credited, if, when the abominable enormity -of the measure was made manifest to him, any disposition was shewn to -stop the proceedings, or make reparation for the misery inflicted. -But nothing of the kind took place. The Jesuits made immediate and -earnest representations; the Indians cried out vehemently against -their expatriation; the colonists of both countries were averse to -the measure; the very governors and officers proceeded tardily with -it, in the hope that the moment the evil was discovered it would be -countermanded; but no such countermand was ever issued. And what was -there to hinder it? The King of Spain and the Queen of Portugal, were -man and wife, dwelling in one palace, and of the greatest accord in -life and sentiment; it had only to be willed by one of them, and -it might, and would have been, speedily done. If ever there was a -cold-blooded transaction, in which the lives and happiness of thirty -thousand innocent people were reckoned of no account in the mere -tracing of a boundary line between two countries, this appears to be -one; and if ever the retribution of heaven was displayed in this world, -it would seem to have been in the persons of the monarchs who issued -this brutal order, and suffered it to stand, spite of the cries of the -thousands of sufferers. Happy in each other, while they thus remained -insensible to the happiness of these poor Indians, the queen was -consumed by a slow and miserable malady, and the king, a weak man of a -melancholy temperament, sunk heartbroken for her loss. - -But meantime, commissioners and armies of both Spanish and Portuguese -were drawing towards the confines of the doomed land, to carry into -effect the expulsion of its rightful inhabitants. The Jesuits behaved -with the utmost submission and propriety. Finding that they could do -nothing by remonstrance, they offered to yield up the charge of the -Reductions to whatever parties might be appointed to receive it. The -natives appealed vehemently to the Spanish governor. “Neither we nor -our forefathers,” said they, “have ever offended the king, or ever -attacked the Spanish settlements. How then, innocent as we are, can we -believe that the best of princes would condemn us to banishment? Our -fathers, our forefathers, our brethren, have fought under the king’s -banner, often against the Portuguese, often against the savages. Who -can tell how many of them have fallen in battle, or before the walls of -Nova Colonia, so often besieged? We ourselves can shew in our scars, -the proofs of our fidelity and our courage. We have ever had it at -heart to extend the limits of the Spanish empire, and to defend it -against all enemies; nor have we ever been sparing of our blood, or -our lives. Will then the Catholic king requite these services by the -bitter punishment of expelling us from our native land, our churches, -our homes, and fields, and fair inheritance? This is beyond all -belief! By the royal letters of Philip V., which, according to his own -injunctions, were read to us from the pulpits, we were exhorted never -to suffer the Portuguese to approach our borders, because they were his -enemies and ours. Now we are told that the king will have us yield up, -to these very Portuguese, this wide and fertile territory, which for -a whole century we have tilled with the sweat of our brows. Can any -one be persuaded that Ferdinand the son should enjoin us to do that -which was so frequently forbidden by his father Philip? But if time and -change have indeed brought about such friendship between old enemies, -that the Spaniards are desirous to gratify the Portuguese, there are -ample tracts of country to spare, and let those be given them. What! -shall we resign our towns to the Portuguese? The Portuguese!—by whose -ancestors so many hundred thousands of ours have been slaughtered, or -carried away into cruel slavery in Brazil? This is as intolerable to -us, as it is incredible that it should be required. When, with the -Holy Gospels in our hands, we promised and vowed fidelity to God and -the king of Spain, his priests and governors promised us on his part, -friendship and perpetual protection,—and now we are commanded to give -up our country! Is it to be believed that the promises, and faith, and -friendship of the Spaniards can be of so little stability?” - -But the Spaniards and Portuguese advanced with their troops into -their country. The poor people, driven frantic by their grief and -indignation, determined to resist. They brought out their cannon, -made of pieces of large cane, covered with wet hides and bound with -iron hoops, and determined with such arms even, to oppose those more -dreadful ones, of which they had too often witnessed the effect. For -some time they repelled their enemies, and even obliged them to retire -from the territory; but in the next campaign, the allied army made -dreadful havoc amongst them. Yet they still remained in arms; and their -sentiments may be well understood by the following characteristic -extract, sent from one of their officers to an officer of the Spanish -troops,—“Sir, look well; it is a well-known thing, that since our Lord -God in his infinite wisdom created the heavens and the earth, with -all which beautifies it, which is to endure till the day of judgment, -we have not known that God, who is the Lord of these lands, gave them -to the Spaniards before he came into the world. Three parts of the -earth are for them; namely, Europe, Asia, and Africa, which are to -the east; and this remaining part in which we dwell, our Lord Jesus -Christ, as soon as he died, set apart for us. We poor Indians have -fairly possessed this country during all these years, as children of -God, according to his will, not by the will of any other living being. -Our Lord God permitted all this that it might be so. We of this country -remember our unbelieving grandfathers, and we are greatly amazed when -we think that God should have pardoned so many sins as we ourselves -have committed. Sir, consider that which you are about is a thing -which we poor Indians have never seen done amongst Christians!” - -Poor people! how little did they know how feeble are the strongest -reasons drawn from the Christian faith, when addressed to those who -would resent as a deadly insult the true charge that they are no -Christians at all. In this case the Indians were the only Christians -concerned in this melancholy affair. Well might they say, “Your actions -are so different from your words, that we are more amazed than if we -saw two suns in the firmament.” Well might they ask, “What will God say -to you after your death on this account? What answer will you make in -the day of judgment when we shall all be gathered together?” Like all -other Europeans when doing their will on the natives of their colonies, -they cared neither for God, nor the day of judgment; they went on and -drove the genuine Christians, the poor simple-hearted Indians, to -the woods, or compelled them to submit. Their lands were laid waste, -their towns burnt; many were slain, many were dispersed, many died -heartbroken in the homeless woods,—and scarcely was all this misery -and wickedness completed,—when the news of the king’s death arrived, -and soon after, the annulment of this very treaty; so that these lands -were not to be yielded to the Portuguese, and all this evil had been -done, even politically, in vain. The poor people were invited to return -to their possessions, and the Jesuits to their sorrowful labour of -repairing the ravages so foolishly and heartlessly committed. - -Mr. Southey thinks that the Portuguese in Brazil were more lenient -to the natives than the Spaniards in their South-American colonies. -I must confess that his own History of Brazil does not give me that -impression. It is true that they did not succeed in so speedily -depopulating the country; but that in part, must be attributed to -the more warlike and hardy character of the people, and to the fact -that Brazil did not for a long time become a mining country. By the -time that it did, all the Indians that the horrible man-hunters of -San Paulo could seize in their wild excursions, were wanted in the -cultivated lands and sugar plantations, and negroes were imported in -abundance—the English for a long time supplying by contract four -thousand annually. The final expulsion of the Jesuits deprived the -Indians of the only body of real friends that they ever knew. Finer -materials than those poor people for civilization, no race on the -earth ever presented. Had the Jesuits been permitted to continue -their peaceful labours, the whole continent would have become one -wide scene of peace, fertility, and happiness. What a contrast does -Brazil present, after the lapse of three centuries, and even after the -introduction of European royalty! The people are described by modern -travellers as living in the utmost filth, idleness, licentiousness, and -dishonesty. “The Indians are driven into the interior, where,” says Mr. -Luccock, “they form a great bar to civilization; their animosity to the -whites being of the bitterest sort, and their purposes of vengeance -for injuries received, so long bequeathed from father to son, as to be -rooted in their hearts as firmly as the colour is attached to their -skin. Under the influence of this passion, they destroy every thing -belonging to the Europeans or their descendants, which falls in their -way; even the cow and the dog are not spared. For such outrages they -pay dearly; small forts, or military stations, being placed around -the colonized parts of the district, from whence a war of plunder and -extermination is carried on against them. In this warfare not only are -fire-arms made use of, but the lasso, dogs, and all the stratagems -which are usually employed against beasts of prey.” Mr. Luccock met -with one man who had been thus engaged against the Indians _forty -years, and was on his way to ask some honorary distinction from the -sovereign for his services_! - -Instead of a country swarming with labourers and good citizens, as it -would have been under a Christian policy, Brazil now suffers for want -of inhabitants, and the barbarous slave-trade is made to supply the -whole country with servants. Ten thousand negroes are annually brought -into Rio alone, whence we may infer how vast must be the demand for -the whole empire; and of the estimation in which they are held, and of -the sort of religion which still bears the abused name of Christianity -there, one anecdote will give us sufficient idea. “Two negroes,” says -Mr. Luccock, “being extremely ill, a clergyman was sent for, who on -his arrival found one of them gone beyond the reach of his art; and -the other, having crawled off his bed, was lying on the floor of his -cabin. As we entered, the priest was jesting and laughing in the most -volatile manner—then filled both his hands with water, and dropped -it on the poor creature’s head, pronouncing the form of baptism. The -dying man, probably experiencing some little relief from the effusion, -exclaimed, ‘Good—very good.’ ‘Oh,’ said the priest, ‘it is very good, -is it?—then there is more for you;’ dashing upon him what remained in -the basin. Without delay he resumed his jokes, and in the midst of them -the man expired.” - -We must now quit South America, to follow the European _Christians_ -in their colonial career in another quarter of the globe. And in thus -taking leave of this immense portion of the New World, where such -cruelties have been perpetrated, and so much innocent blood shed by -the avarice and ambition of Europe, we may ask,—What has been done -by way of atonement; or what is the triumph of civilization? We have -already quoted Mr. Ward on the present state of the aborigines of -Mexico, and Mr. Luccock on those of Rio Janeiro. Baron Humboldt can -furnish the reader with ample indications of a like kind in various -parts of South America. Maria Graham tells us, so recently as 1824, -that in Chili, Peru, and the provinces of La Plata, the system of -Spain, which had driven those realms to revolt, had diffused “sloth -and ignorance” as their necessary consequences. That in Brazil, -“the natives had been either exterminated or wholly subdued. The -slave-hunting, which had been systematic on the first occupation of -the land, and more especially after the discovery of the mines, had so -diminished the wretched Indians, that the introduction of negroes was -deemed necessary: _they_ now people the Brazilian fields; and if here -and there an Indian aldea is to be found, the people are wretched, with -less than negro comforts, and much less than negro spirit or industry: -_the Indians are nothing in Brazil_.” - -That the system of exterminating the Indians has been continued to the -latest period where any remained, we may learn from a horrible fact, -which she tells us she relates on good authority. “In the Captaincy of -Porto Seguro, _within these twenty years_, an Indian tribe had been -so troublesome that the Capitam Môr resolved to get rid of it. It was -attacked, but defended itself so bravely, that the Portuguese resolved -to desist from open warfare; but with unnatural ingenuity exposed -ribbons and toys, infested with small-pox matter, in the places where -the poor savages were likely to find them. The plan succeeded. The -Indians were so thinned that they were easily overcome!”—_Voyage to -Brazil_, p. 9. - -But if any one wishes to learn what are the wretched fruits of all the -bloodshed and crimes perpetrated by the Spaniards in America, he has -only to look into Sir F. B. Head’s “Rough Notes on the Pampas,” made -in 1826. What a scene do these notes lay open! Splendid countries, -overrun with a most luxuriant vegetation, and with countless troops of -wild horses and herds of wild cattle, but thinly peopled, partly with -Indians and partly with the Gauchos, or descendants of the Spanish, -existing in a state of the most hideous hostility and hatred one -towards another. The Gauchos, inflamed with all the ancient demoniacal -cruelty and revenge of the Spaniards,—the Indians, educated, raised, -and moulded by ages of the most inexpiable wrongs into an active -and insatiable spirit of vengeance, coming, like the whirlwind -from the deserts, as fleet and unescapable, to burn, destroy, and -exterminate—in a word, to inflict on the Gauchos all the evils of -injury and death that they and their fathers have inflicted on them. As -Captain Head scoured across those immense plains, from Buenos Ayres, -and across the Andes to Chili, he was ever and anon coming to the ruins -of huts where the Indians had left the most terrible traces of their -fury. It may be well to state, in his own words, what every family of -the Gauchos is liable to:— - -“In invading the country, the Pampas Indians generally ride all night, -and hide themselves on the ground during the day; or if they do travel, -crouch almost under the bellies of their horses, who, by this means, -appear to be dismounted and at liberty. They usually approach the huts -at night, at a full gallop, with their usual shriek, striking their -mouths with their hands; and this cry, which is to intimidate their -enemies, is continued through the whole of the dreadful operation. - -“Their first act is to set fire to the roof of the hut, and it is -almost too dreadful to fancy what the feelings of a family must be, -when, after having been alarmed by the barking of the dogs, which the -Gauchos always keep in great numbers, they first hear the wild cry -which announces their doom, and in an instant afterwards find the roof -burning over their heads. - -“As soon as the families rush out, which they of course are obliged -to do, the men are wounded by the Indians with their lances, which -are eighteen feet long; and as soon as they fall, they are stripped -of their clothes; for the Indians, who are very desirous to get the -clothes of the Christians, are careful not to have them spotted with -blood. While some torture the men, others attack the children, and -will literally run the infants through the body with their lances, and -raise them to die in the air. The women are also attacked; and it would -form a true but dreadful picture to describe their fate, as it is -decided by the momentary gleam which the burning roof throws upon their -countenances. - -“The old women, and the ugly young ones, are instantly butchered; but -the young and beautiful are idols by whom even the merciless hand of -the savage is arrested. Whether the poor girls can ride or not, they -are instantly placed upon horses, and when the hasty plunder of the -hut is concluded, they are driven away from its smoking ruins, and -from the horrid scene which surrounds it. At a pace which in Europe is -unknown, they gallop over the trackless regions before them, feed upon -mare’s flesh, sleeping on the ground, until they arrive in the Indian’s -territory, when they have instantly to adopt the wild life of their -captors.” - -Scenes of such horrors, where the mangled remains of the victims were -still lying around the black ruins of their huts, which Captain Head -passed, are too dreadful to transcribe. But what are the feelings -of the Gaucho towards these terrible enemies? Captain Head asked -a Gaucho what they did with their Indian prisoners when they took -any.—“To people accustomed to the cold passions of England, it would -be impossible to describe the savage, inveterate, furious hatred which -exists between the Gauchos and the Indians. The latter invade the -country for the ecstatic pleasure of murdering the Christians, and in -the contests which take place between them, mercy is unknown. Before -I was quite aware of those feelings, I was galloping with a very -fine-looking Gaucho who had been fighting with the Indians, and after -listening to his report of the killed and wounded, I happened, very -simply, to ask him how many prisoners they had taken. The man replied -with a look which I shall never forget—he clenched his teeth, opened -his lips, and then sawing his fingers across his bare throat for a -quarter of a minute, bending towards me, with his spurs sticking into -his horse’s sides, he said, in a sort of low, choking voice, ‘Se matan -todas,’—we kill them all!” - -Here then we have a thinly populated country inhabited, so far as it -is inhabited at all, by men that are inspired towards each other by -the spirit of fiends. It is impossible that civilization can ever come -there except by some fresh and powerful revolution. We hear of the new -republics of South America, and naturally look for more evidences of -good from the spirit of liberty: but in the towns we find the people -indolent, ignorant, superstitious, and most filthy; and in the country -naked Indians on horseback, scouring the wilds, and making use of the -very animals by which the Spaniards subjugated them, to scourge and -exterminate their descendants. In the opinion of Captain Head, they -only want fire-arms, which one day they may get, to drive them out -altogether! And what are they whom they would drive out? Only another -kind of savages. People who, calling themselves Christians, live in -most filthy huts swarming with vermin—sit on skeletons of horses’ -heads instead of chairs—lie during summer out of doors in promiscuous -groups—and live entirely on beef and water; the beef, chiefly mare’s -flesh, being roasted on a long spit, and every one sitting round and -cutting off pieces with long knives. The cruelty and beastliness of -their nature exceeding even that of the Indians themselves. - -This then is the result of three centuries of bloodshed and tyranny -in those regions—one species of barbarism merely substituted for -another. What a different scene to that which the same countries would -now have exhibited, had the Jesuits not been violently expelled from -their work of civilization by the lust of gold and despotism. “When we -compare,” says Captain Head, “the relative size of America with the -rest of the world, it is singular to reflect on the history of these -fellow-creatures, who are the aborigines of the land; and after viewing -the wealth and beauty of so interesting a country, it is painful to -consider what the sufferings of the Indians have been, and still may -be. Whatever may be their physical or natural character[12] ... still -they are the human beings placed there by the Almighty; the country -belonged to them; and they are therefore entitled to the regard of -every man who has religion enough to believe that God has made nothing -in vain, or whose mind is just enough to respect the persons and the -rights of his fellow-creatures.” - -The view I have been enabled in my space to take of the treatment -of the South Americans by their invaders, is necessarily a mere -glance,—for, unfortunately for the Christian name and the name -of humanity, the history of blood and oppression there is not more -dreadful than it is extensive. I have not staid to describe the conduct -of the French, Dutch, and English, in their possessions on the southern -continent, simply because they are only too much like those of the -Spaniards and Portuguese—they form no bright exception, and we shall -only too soon meet with these refined nations in other regions. - - -_Note._—The fate of Venezuela ought not to be quite passed over. It -is a striking instance of the indifference with which the lives and -fortunes of a whole nation are often handed over by great kings to -destruction as a mere matter of business. Charles V. of Spain being -deeply indebted to a trading house of Augsburgh, the Welsers, gave -them this province. They, in their turn, made it over to some German -military mercenaries, who overrun the whole country in search of -mines, and plundered and oppressed the people with the most dreadful -rapacity. In the course of a few years their avarice and exactions -had so completely exhausted and ruined the province that the Germans -threw it up, and it fell again into the hands of the Spaniards, but in -such a miserable condition that it continued to languish and drag on a -miserable existence, if it has even recovered from its fatal injuries -at the present time. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII. - -THE PORTUGUESE IN INDIA. - - Son mui buenos Catolicos, pero mui malos - Christianos;—They are very good Catholics, but - nevertheless very bad Christians indeed. - - _Saying of an old Catholic priest. Ward’s Mexico._ - - Most of the countries in India have been filled with - tyrants who prefer piracy to commerce—who acknowledge - no right but that of power; and think that whatever is - practicable is just. - - _The Abbé Raynal._ - - -Scarcely had Columbus made known the New World when the Portuguese, -under Vasco de Gama, opened the sea-path to the East Indies. Those -affluent and magnificent regions, which had so long excited the wonder -and cupidity of Europe, and whose gems, spices, and curious fabrics, -had been introduced overland by the united exertions of the Arabs, -the Venetians, and Genoese, were now made accessible by the great -highway of the ocean; and the Pope generously gave all of them to -the Portuguese! The language of the Pontiff was like the language of -another celebrated character to our Saviour, and founded on about as -much real right: “All these kingdoms will I give unto thee, if thou -wilt fall down and worship me.” The Portuguese were nothing loath. -They were, in the expressive language of a great historian, “all -on fire for plunder and the propagation of their religion!” Away, -therefore, they hastened, following the sinuous guidance of those -African coasts which they had already traced out—on which they had -already commenced that spoliation and traffic in men which for three -centuries was to grow only more and more extensive, dreadful, and -detestable—“those countries where,” says M. Malte Brun, “tyranny and -ignorance have not had the power to destroy the inexhaustible fecundity -of the soil, but have made them, down to the present times, the theatre -of eternal robbery, and one vast market of human blood.” - -They landed in Calicut, under Gama, in 1498, and speedily gave -sufficient indications of the object of their visit, and the nature of -their character. But in India they had more formidable obstacles to -their spirit of dominance and extermination than they and the Spaniards -had found in the New World. They beheld themselves on the limits of -a vast region, inhabited by a hundred millions of people—countries -of great antiquity, of a higher civilization, and under the rule of -active and military princes. Populous cities, vast and ancient temples, -palaces, and other public works; a native literature, science handed -down from far-off times, and institutions of a fixed and tenacious -caste, marked them as a people not so easily to be made a prey of as -the Mexicans or Peruvians. Peaceful as were the habits, and bloodless -as were the religion and the social principles of a vast body of the -Hindoos, their rulers, whether the descendants of the great Persian -and Tartar conquerors, and Mahomedans in faith, or of their own race -and religion, were disposed enough to resist any foreign aggression. -At sea, indeed, swarmed the Moorish fleets, which had long enjoyed the -monopoly of the trade of these rich and inexhaustible regions; but -these they soon subdued. Their conquests and cruelties were therefore -necessarily confined chiefly to the coasts and to the paradisiacal -islands which stud the Indian seas, and, as Milton has beautifully -expressed it, cast their spicy odours abroad, till - - Many a league - Cheered with the grateful smell, old Ocean smiles. - -We must take a rapid view of the Portuguese in India,—for our object -is not a history of European conquests, but of European treatment of -the natives of the countries they have entered; and the atrocities -of the Portuguese in the East are too notorious to require tracing -minutely, and step by step in their progress. Every reader is familiar -with the transactions between Gama and the Zamorin of Calicut, through -the splendid poem of Camoens. Alvarez Cabral, the discoverer of Peru, -who succeeded him, was by no means particular in his policy. On the -slightest suspicion of evil intention, he fell upon the people and made -havoc amongst them. The inhabitants of Calicut, between the intrigues -of the Moorish merchants and those of the Portuguese adventurers, were -always the dupes and the sufferers. They attempted to drive out the -Portuguese, and Cabral, in revenge, burnt all the Arabian vessels in -the harbour, cannonaded the town, and then sailed, first to Cochin, -and then to Cananor. These and other places being tributary to the -Zamorin, received them as saviours, and enabled them to build forts, -to gain command of the seas, and drive from them the ships of the -Zamorin and the Moors. But the celebrated Alphonso Albuquerque made -the most rapid strides, and extended the conquests of the Portuguese -there beyond any other commander. He narrowly escaped with his life -in endeavouring to sack and plunder Calicut. He seized on Goa, which -thenceforward became the metropolis of all the Portuguese settlements -in India. He conquered Molucca, and gave it up to the plunder of his -soldiers. The fifth part of the wealth thus thievishly acquired, was -reserved for the king, and was purchased on the spot by the merchants -for 200,000 pieces of gold. Having established a garrison in the -conquered city, he made a traitor Indian, who had deserted from the -king of Molucca, and had been an instrument in the winning of the -place, supreme magistrate; but again finding Utimut, the renegade, as -faithless to himself, he had him and his son put to death, even though -100,000 pieces of gold, a bait that was not easily resisted by these -Christian marauders, was offered for their lives. He then proceeded to -Ormuz in the Persian Gulph, which was a great harbour for the Arabian -merchants; reduced it, placed a garrison in it, seized on fifteen -princes of the blood, and carried them off to Goa. Such were some of -the deeds of this celebrated general, whom the historians in the same -breath in which they record these unwarrantable acts of violence, -robbery and treachery, term an excellent and truly glorious commander. -He made a descent on the isle of Ceylon, and detached a fleet to the -Moluccas, which established a settlement in those delightful regions -of the cocaa, the sago-tree, the nutmeg, and the clove. The kings of -Persia, of Siam, Pegu, and others, alarmed at his triumphant progress, -sought his friendship; and he completed the conquest of the Malabar -coast. With less than forty thousand troops the Portuguese struck -terror, says the historian, “into the empire of Morocco, the barbarous -nations of Africa, the Mamelucs, the Arabians, and all the eastern -countries from the island of Ormuz to China.” How much better for their -pretensions to Christianity, and for their real interests, if they had -struck them with admiration of that faith and integrity, and of those -noble virtues which Christianity can inspire, and which were never -yet lost on the attention of nations where they have been righteously -displayed. But the Portuguese unfortunately did not understand what -Christianity was. Their notions of religion made avarice, lust, and -cruelty, all capable of dwelling together in one heart; and, in the -language of their own historians, the vessels bound for the east were -crowded with adventurers who wanted to enrich themselves, secure their -country, and make proselytes. They were on the eve of opening a most -auspicious intercourse with China, when some of these adventurers, -under Simon Andrada, appeared on the coast. This commander treated the -Chinese in the same manner as the Portuguese had been in the habit of -treating all the people of Asia. He built a fort without permission, in -the island of Taman, from whence he took opportunities of pillaging, -and extorting money from all the ships bound from, or to, all the ports -of China. He carried off young girls from the coast; he seized upon the -men and made them slaves; he gave himself up to the most licentious -acts of piracy, and the most shameful dissoluteness. His soldiers and -sailors followed his example with avidity; and the Chinese, enraged at -such outrages, fell upon them, drove them from the coast, and for a -long time refused all overtures of trade from them. - -In Japan, they were for a time more fortunate. They exported, in -exchange for European goods or commodities, from India, gold, silver, -and copper to the value of about 634,000_l._ annually. They married the -richest heiresses, and allied themselves to the most powerful families. - -“With such advantages,” says the Abbé Raynal, “the avarice as well as -the ambition of the Portuguese might have been satisfied. They were -masters of the coast of Guinea, Arabia, Persia, and the two peninsulas -of India. They were possessed of the Moluccas, Ceylon, and the isles -of Sunda, while their settlement at Macao insured to them the commerce -of China and Japan. Throughout these immense regions, the will of -the Portuguese was the supreme law. Earth and sea acknowledged their -sovereignty. Their authority was so absolute, that things and persons -were dependent upon them, and moved entirely by their directions. No -native, nor private person dared to make voyages, or carry on trade, -without obtaining their permission and passport. Those who had this -liberty granted them, were prohibited trading in cinnamon, ginger, -pepper, timber, and many other articles, of which the conquerors -reserved to themselves the exclusive benefit. - -“In the midst of so much glory, wealth, and conquest, the Portuguese -had not neglected that part of Africa which lies between the Cape -of Good Hope and the Red Sea, and in all ages has been famed for the -richness of its productions. The Arabians had been settled there for -several ages; they had formed along the coast of Zanguebar several -small independent states, abounding in mines of silver and gold. To -possess themselves of this treasure was deemed by the Portuguese -an indispensable duty. Agreeable to this principle, these Arabian -merchants were attacked and subdued about the year 1508. Upon their -ruin was established an empire extending from Sofala as far as Melinda, -of which the island of Mozambique was made the centre. - -“These successes properly improved, might have formed a power so -considerable that it could not have been shaken; but the vices and -follies of some of their chiefs, the abuse of riches and power, the -wantonness of victory, the distance of their own country, changed the -character of the Portuguese. Religious zeal, which had added so much -force and activity to their courage, now produced in them nothing but -ferocity. They made no scruple of pillaging, cheating, and enslaving -the idolaters. They supposed that the pope, in bestowing the kingdoms -of Asia on the Portuguese monarchs, had not withholden the property of -individuals from their subjects. Being absolute masters of the Eastern -seas, they extorted a tribute from the ships of every country; they -ravaged the coasts, insulted the princes, and became the terror and -scourge of all nations. - -“The king of Sidor was carried off from his own palace, and murdered, -with his children, whom he had entrusted to the care of the Portuguese. - -“At Ceylon, the people were not suffered to cultivate the earth, except -for their new masters, who treated them with the greatest barbarity. - -“At Goa they established the inquisition, and whoever was rich became a -prey to the ministers of that infamous tribunal. - -“Faria, who was sent out against the pirates from Malacca, China, and -other parts, made a descent on the island of Calampui, and plundered -the tombs of the Chinese emperors. - -“Sousa caused all the pagodas on the Malabar coast to be destroyed, and -his people inhumanly massacred the wretched Indians who went to weep -over the ruins of their temples. - -“Correa terminated an obstinate war with the king of Pegu, and both -parties were to swear on the books of their several religions to -observe the treaty. Correa swore on a collection of songs, and thought -by this vile stratagem to elude his engagement. - -“Nuno d’ Acughna attacked the isle of Daman on the coast of Cambaya. -The inhabitants offered to surrender to him if he would permit them to -carry off their treasures. This request was refused, and Nuno put them -all to the sword. - -“Diego de Silveira was cruizing in the Red Sea. A vessel richly laden -saluted him. The captain came on board, and gave him a letter from a -Portuguese general, which was to be his passport. The letter contained -only these words: _I desire the_ captains of ships belonging to the -king of Portugal, to seize upon this Moorish vessel as lawful prize. - -“Henry Garcias, when governor of the Moluccas, was requested by -the king of Tidore, who was ill, to send him a physician. Garcias -accordingly sent one who villanously poisoned him. He then made a -descent upon the island; besieged the capital, took it, plundered it, -and used the inhabitants very cruelly. This event happening in time of -peace, and without the least provocation, caused an implacable hatred -to the Portuguese amongst all the people, not only of that island, but -of all the Moluccas. - -“In a short time the Portuguese preserved no more humanity or good -faith with each other than with the natives. Almost all the states, -where they had the command, were divided into factions. There prevailed -everywhere in their manners, a mixture of avarice, debauchery, cruelty, -and devotion. They had most of them seven or eight concubines, whom -they kept to work with the utmost rigour, and forced from them the -money they gained by their labour. Such treatment of women was very -repugnant to the spirit of chivalry. The chiefs and principal officers -admitted to their tables a multitude of those singing and dancing -women, with which India abounds. Effeminacy introduced itself into -their houses and armies. The officers marched to meet the enemy in -palanquins. That brilliant courage which had confounded so many -nations, existed no longer amongst them. They were with difficulty -brought to fight, except for plunder. In a short time, the king no -longer received the tribute which was paid him by one hundred and -fifty eastern princes. It was lost on its way from them to him. Such -corruption prevailed in the finances, that the tributes of sovereigns, -the revenues of provinces, which ought to have been immense, the -taxes levied on gold, silver, and spices, on the inhabitants of the -continent and islands, were not sufficient to keep up a few citadels, -and to fit out the shipping necessary for the protection of trade.” - -Some gleams of valour blazed up now and then; Don Juan de Castro -revived the spirit of the settlers for awhile; Ataida, and fresh troops -from Portugal repelled the native powers, who, worn out with endurance -of outrages and indignities, and alive to the growing effeminacy of -their oppressors, rose against them on all hands. But these were only -temporary displays. The island of Amboyna was the first to avenge -itself; and the words addressed to them by one of its citizens are -justly descriptive of their real character. A Portuguese had, at a -public festival, seized upon a very beautiful woman, and regardless -of all decency, had proceeded to the grossest of outrages. One of the -islanders, named Genulio, armed his fellow-citizens; after which he -called together the Portuguese, and addressed them in the following -manner:—“To revenge affronts so cruel as those we have received from -you, requires actions, not words; yet we will speak to you. You preach -to us a Deity, who delights, you say, in generous actions; but theft, -murder, obscenity, and drunkenness are your common practice: your -hearts are inflamed with every vice. Our manners can never agree with -yours. Nature foresaw this when she separated us by immense seas, and -you have overleaped her barriers. This audacity, of which you are not -ashamed to boast, is a proof of the corruption of your hearts. Take -my advice; leave to their repose those nations that resemble you so -little; go, fix your habitations amongst those who are as brutal as -yourselves; an intercourse with you would be more fatal to us than all -the evils which it is in the power of your God to inflict upon us. We -renounce your alliance for ever. Your arms are more powerful than ours; -but we are more just than you, and we do not fear them. The Itons are -from this day your enemies;—fly from this country, and beware how you -approach it again.” - -Equally detested in every quarter, they saw a confederacy forming to -expel them from the east. All the great powers of India entered into -the league, and for two or three years carried on their preparations in -secret. Their old enemy, the Zamorin, attacked Manjalor, Cochin, and -Cananor. The king of Cambaya attacked Chaul, Daman, and Baichaim. The -king of Achen laid siege to Malacca. The king of Ternate made war on -them in the Moluccas. Agalachem, a tributary to the Mogul, imprisoned -the Portuguese merchants at Surat; and the queen of Gareopa endeavoured -to drive them out of Onor. The exertions of Ataida averted immediate -destruction; but a more formidable power was now preparing to expel -them from their ill-acquired and ill-governed possessions,—the Dutch. -In little more than a century from the appearance of the Portuguese -in India, this nation drove them from Malacca and Ceylon; from most -of their possessions on the coast of Malabar; and had, moreover, made -settlements on the Coromandel coast. It was high time that this reign -of crime and terror came to an end, had a better generation succeeded -them. After the death of Sebastian, and the reduction of Portugal by -Philip II., the last traces of order or decency seemed to vanish from -the Indian settlements. Portugal itself exhibited, with the usual -result of ill-gotten wealth, a scene of miserable extremes—profusion -and poverty. Those who had been in India were at once indolent and -wealthy; the farmer and the artizan were reduced to the most abject -condition. “In the colonies the Portuguese gave themselves,” says -Raynal, “up to all those excesses which make men hated, though they -had not courage enough left to make them feared. They were monsters. -Poison, fire, assassination, every sort of crime was become familiar -to them; nor were they private persons only who were guilty of such -practices,—men in office set them the example! They massacred the -natives; they destroyed one another. The governor just arrived, loaded -his predecessor with irons, that he might deprive him of his wealth. -The distance of the scene, false witnesses, and large bribes secured -every crime from punishment.” - - - - -CHAPTER XIV. - -THE DUTCH IN INDIA. - - A free nation, which is its own master, is born to - command the ocean. It cannot secure the dominion of the - sea without seizing upon the land, which belongs to the - first possessor; that is, to him who is able to drive - out the ancient inhabitants. They are to be enslaved by - force or fraud, and exterminated in order to get their - possessions. - - _Raynal._ - - -We come now to the conduct of a Protestant people towards the natives -of their colonies; and happy would it be if we came with this change -to a change in their policy and behaviour. But the Dutch, though -zealous Protestants at home, were zealous Catholics abroad in cruelty -and injustice. Styling themselves a reformed people, there was no -reformation in their treatment of Indians or Caffres. They, as well -as other Protestant nations, cast off the outward forms and many of -the inward superstitions of the Roman church: but they were far, far -indeed from comprehending Christianity in its glorious greatness; -in the magnificence of its moral elevation; in the sublimity of its -objects; in the purity of its feeling, and the beautiful humanity of -its spirit. The temporal yoke of Rome was cast off, but the mental -yoke still lay heavy on their souls, and it required ages of bitter -experience to restore sufficiently their intellectual sensibility -to permit them even to feel it. Popery was dethroned in them, but -not destroyed. They recognized their rights as men, and the slavery -under which they had been held; but their vision was not enough -restored to allow them to recognize the rights of others, and to see -that to hold others in slavery, was only to take themselves out of -the condition of the victim, to put themselves into the more odious, -criminal, and eventually disastrous one of the tyrant. They were still -infinitely distant from the condition of freemen. They were free from -the immediate compulsion of their spiritual task-masters, but they -were not free from the iron which they had thrust into their very -souls,—from the corrupt morals, the perverted principles, the debased -tone of feeling and perception, which the Papal church had inflicted -on them. The wretched substitution of ceremonies, legends, and false -maxims, for the grand and regenerating doctrines of Christian truth, -which had existed for more than a thousand years, had generated a -spurious morality, which ages only could obliterate. It is a fallacy -to suppose that the renunciation of the Romish faith, carried with -it a renunciation of the habits of mind which it had created,—or -that those who called themselves reformers were thoroughly reformed, -and rebaptized with the purity and fulness of Christianity. Many -and glorious examples were given of zeal for the right, even unto -death; of the love of truth, which cast out all fear of flames and -scaffolds; of that devotion to the dictates of conscience that shrunk -from no sacrifice, however severe;—but even in the instance of the -noblest of those noble martyrs, it would be self-delusion for us to -suppose that they had sprung from the depth of darkness to perfect -light at one leap; that they rose instantaneously from gross ignorance -of Christian truths, to the perfection of knowledge; that they had -miraculously cast off at one effort all slavery of spirit, and the -dimness of intellectual vision, which were the work of ages. They had -regained the wish and the will to explore the regions of truth; they -had made some splendid advances, and shewn that they descried some of -the most prominent features of the genuine faith: but they were, the -best of them, but babes in Christ. To become full-grown men required -the natural lapse of time; and to expect them to start up into the full -standard of Christian stature, was to expect an impossibility. And if -the brightest and most intrepid, and most honest intellects were thus -circumstanced, what was the condition of the mass? That may be known -by calling to mind how readily Protestants fell into the spirit of -persecution, and into all the cruelties and outrages of their Popish -predecessors. Ages upon ages were required, to clear away the dusty -cobwebs of error, with which a spurious faith had involved them; and to -raise again the Christian world to the height of Christian knowledge. -We are yet far and very far from having escaped from the one, or risen -to the other. There are yet Christian truths, of the highest import to -humanity, that are treated as fables and fanatic dreams by the mass of -the Christian world; and we shall see as we proceed, that to this hour -the most sacred principles of Christianity are outraged; and the worst -atrocities of the worst ages of Rome are still perpetrated on millions -of millions of human beings, over whom we vaunt our civilization, -and to whom we present our religion as the spirit of heaven, and the -blessing of the earth. - -When, therefore, we see the Dutch, ay, and the English, and the -Anglo-Americans, still professing truth and practising error; still -preaching mercy, and perpetrating the basest of cruelties; still -boasting of their philosophy and refinement, and enacting the savage; -still vapouring about liberty, with a whip in one hand and a chain in -the other; still holding the soundness of the law of conquest, and the -equal soundness of the commandment, Not to covet our neighbour’s goods; -the soundness of the belief that Negroes, Indians, and Hottentots, -are an inferior species, and the equal soundness of the declaration -that “God made of one blood all the nations of the earth;” still -declaring that LOVE, the love of our neighbour as of ourselves, is -the great distinction of Christians;—and yet persisting in slavery, -war, massacres, extermination of one race, and driving out of others -from their ancient and hereditary lands—we must bear in mind that we -behold only the melancholy result of ages of abandonment of genuine -Christianity for a base and accommodating forgery of its name,—and -the humiliating spectacle of an inconsistency in educated nations -unworthy of the wildest dwellers in the bush, entailed on us by the -active leaven of that very faith which we pride ourselves in having -renounced. We have, indeed, renounced mass and the confessional, and -the purchase of indulgences; but have tenaciously retained the mass of -our tyrannous propensities. We practise our crimes without confessing -them; we indulge our worst desires without even having the honesty to -pay for it; and the old, spurious morality, and political barbarism -of Rome, are as stanchly maintained by us as ever—while we claim to -look back on Popery with horror, and on our present condition as the -celestial light of the nineteenth century. - -What a glorious thing it would have been, if when the Dutch and English -had appeared in America and the Indies, they had come there too as -Protestants and Reformed Christians! If they had protested against the -cruelties and aggressions of the popish Spaniards and Portuguese—if -they had reformed all their rapacious practices, and remedied their -abuses—if they had, indeed, shown that they were really gone back to -the genuine faith of Christ, and were come to seek honest benefit by -honest means; to exchange knowledge for wealth, and to make the Pagans -and the Mahomedans _feel_ that there was in Christianity a powder to -refine, to elevate, and to bless, as mighty as they professed. But -that day was not arrived, and has only partially arrived yet, and that -through the missions. For anything that could be discovered by their -practice, the Dutch and English might be the papists, and the Spaniards -and Portuguese the reformed. From their deeds the natives, wherever -they came, could only imagine their religion to be something especially -odious and mischievous. - -The Dutch having thrown off the Spanish yoke at home, applied -themselves diligently to commerce; and they would have continued to -purchase from the Spaniards and Portuguese, the commodities of the -eastern and western worlds, to supply their customers therewith;—but -Philip II., smarting under the loss of the Netherlands, and being -master of both Spain and Portugal, commanded his subjects to hold no -dealings with his hated enemies. Passion and resentment are the worst -of counsellors, and Philip soon found it so in this instance. The -Dutch, denied Indian goods in Portugal, determined to seek them in -India itself. They had renounced papal as well as Spanish authority, -and had no scruples about interfering with the pope’s grant of the -east to the Portuguese. They soon, therefore, made their appearance -in the Indian seas, and found the Portuguese so thoroughly detested -there, that nothing was easier for them than to avenge past injuries -and prohibitions, by supplanting them. It was only in 1594 that Philip -issued his impolitic order that they should not be permitted to receive -goods from Portuguese ports,—and by 1602, under their admirals, -Houtman and Van Neck, they had visited Madagascar, the Maldives, and -the isles of Sunda; they had entered into alliance with the principal -sovereigns of Java; established factories in several of the Moluccas, -and brought home abundance of pepper, spices, and other articles. -Numerous trading companies were organized; and these all united by -the policy of the States-general into the one memorable one of the -East India Company, the model and original of all the numerous ones -that sprung up, and especially of the far greater one under the same -name, of England. The natives of India had now a similar spectacle -exhibited to their eyes, which South America had about the same -period—the Christian nations, boasting of their superior refinement -and of their heavenly religion, fighting like furies, and intriguing -like fiends one against another. But the Portuguese were now become -debauched and effeminate, and were unsupported by fresh reinforcements -from Europe; the Dutch were spurred on by all the ardour of united -revenge, ambition, and the love of gain. The time was now come when -the Portuguese were to expiate their perfidy, their robberies, and -their cruelties; and the prediction of one of the kings of Persia was -fulfilled, who, asking an ambassador just arrived at Goa, how many -governors his master had beheaded since the establishment of his power -in India, received for answer—“none at all.” “So much the worse,” -replied the monarch, “his authority cannot be of long duration in a -country where so many acts of outrage and barbarity are committed.” - -The Dutch commenced their career in India with an air of moderation -that formed a politic contrast with the arrogance and pretension of the -Portuguese. They fought desperately with the Portuguese, but they kept -a shrewd eye all the time on mercantile opportunities. They sought to -win their way by duplicity, rather than by decisive daring. By these -means they gradually rooted their rivals out of their most important -stations in Java, the Moluccas, in Ceylon, on the Coromandel and -Malabar coasts. Their most lucrative posts were at Java, Bantam, and -the Moluccas. No sooner had they gained an ascendency than they assumed -a haughtiness of demeanor that even surpassed that of the Portuguese; -and in perfidy and cruelty, they became more than rivals. All -historians have remarked with astonishment the fearful metamorphosis -which the Dutch underwent in their colonies. At home they were -moderate, kindly, and liberal; abroad their rapacity, perfidy, and -infamous cruelty made them resemble devils rather than men. Whether -contending with their European rivals, or domineering over the natives, -they showed no mercy and no remorse. Their celebrated massacre of -the English in Amboyna has rung through all lands and languages, and -is become one of the familiar horrors of history. There is, in fact, -no narrative of tortures in the annals of the Inquisition, that can -surpass those which the Dutch practised on their English rivals on this -occasion. The English had five factories in the island of Amboyna, and -the Dutch determined to crush them. For this purpose they got up a -charge of conspiracy against the English—collected them from all their -stations into the town of Amboyna, and after forcing confessions of -guilt from them by the most unheard-of torture, put them to death. The -following specimen of the agonies which Protestants could inflict on -their fellow-protestants, may give an idea of what sort of increase of -religion the Reformation had brought these men. - -“Then John Clark, who also came from Hitto, was fetched in, and -soon after was heard to roar out amain. They tortured him with fire -and water for two hours. The manner of his torture, as also that of -Johnson’s and Thompson’s, was as followeth:— - -“They first hoisted him by the hands against a large door, and there -made him fast to two staples of iron, fixed on both sides at the top -of the door-posts, extending his arms as wide as they could stretch -them. When thus fastened, his feet, being two feet from the ground, -were extended in the same manner, and made fast to the bottom of the -door-trees on each side. Then they tied a cloth about the lower part -of his face and neck, so close that scarce any water could pass by. -That done, they poured water gently upon his head till the cloth was -full up to his mouth and nostrils, and somewhat higher, so that he -could not draw breath but he must swallow some, which being continually -poured in softly, forced all his inward parts to come out at his nose, -ears, and eyes, and often, as it were choking him, at length took away -his breath, and caused him to faint away. Then they took him down in -a hurry to vomit up the water, and when a little revived, tied him -up again, using him as before. In this manner they served him three -or four times, till his belly was as big as a tun, his cheeks like -bladders, his eyes strutting out beyond his forehead; yet all this -he bore without confessing anything, insomuch that the fiscal and -tormentors reviled him, saying he was a devil, and no man; or was -enchanted, that he could bear so much. Hereupon they cut off his hair -very short, supposing he had some witchcraft hidden therein. Now they -hoisted him up again, and burnt him with lighted candles under his -elbows and arm-pits, in the palms of his hands, and at the bottoms -of his feet, even till the fat dropped out on the candles. Then they -applied fresh ones; and under his arms they burnt so deep that his -inwards might be seen.”—_History of Voyages to the East and West -Indies._ - -And all this that they might rule sole kings over the delicious islands -of cloves and cinnamon, nutmegs and mace, camphor and coffee, areca -and betel, gold, pearls and precious stones; every one of them more -precious in the eyes of the thorough trader, whether he call himself -Christian or Infidel, than the blood of his brother, or the soul of -himself. - -To secure the dominion of these, they compelled the princes of Ternate -and Tidore to consent to the rooting up of all the clove and nutmeg -trees in the islands not entirely under the jealous safeguard of -Dutch keeping. For this they utterly exterminated the inhabitants of -Banda, because they would not submit passively to their yoke. Their -lands were divided amongst the white people, who got slaves from -other islands to cultivate them. For this Malacca was besieged, its -territory ravaged, and its navigation interrupted by pirates; Negapatan -was twice attacked; Cochin was engaged in resisting the kings of -Calicut and Travancore; and Ceylon and Java have been made scenes of -perpetual disturbances. These notorious dissensions have been followed -by as odious oppressions, which have been practised at Japan, China, -Cambodia, Arracan, on the banks of the Ganges, at Achen, Coromandel, -Surat, in Persia, at Bassora, Mocha, and other places. For this they -encouraged and established in Celebes a system of kidnapping the -inhabitants for slaves which converted that island into a perfect hell. - -Sir Stamford Raffles has given us a most appalling picture of this -system, and the miseries it produced, in an official document in his -History of Java. In this document it is stated that whole villages -were made slaves of; that there was scarcely a state or a family that -had not its assortment of these unhappy beings, who had been reduced -to this condition by the most cruel and insidious means. There are few -things in history more darkly horrible than this kidnapping system -of the Celebes. The Vehme Gerichte, or secret tribunals of Germany, -were nothing to the secret prisons of the Celebes. In Makásar, and -other places, these secret prisons existed; and such was the dreadful -combination of power, influence, and avarice, in this trade,—for the -magistrates and princes were amongst the chief dealers in it,—that no -possibility of exposing or destroying these dens of thieves existed. -Any man, woman, or child might be suddenly pounced on, and immured in -one of these secret prisons till there were sufficient victims to send -to the slave-ships. They were then marched out chained at midnight, -and put on board. Any one may imagine the terror and insecurity which -such a state of things occasioned. Everybody knew that such invisible -dungeons of despair were in the midst of them, and that any moment he -might be dragged into one of them, beyond the power or any hope of -rescue. - -“A rich citizen,” says this singular official report, “who has a -sufficient number of emissaries called bondsmen, carries on this trade -of kidnapping much more easily than a poor one does. The latter is -often obliged to go himself to the _Kámpong Búgis_, or elsewhere, to -take a view of the stolen victim, and to carry him home; while the -former quietly smokes his pipe, sure that his thieves will in every -corner find out for him sufficient game without his exerting himself -at all. The thief, the interpreter, the seller, are all active in his -service, because they are paid by him. In some cases the purchaser -unites himself with the seller to deceive the interpreter, while in -others the interpreter agrees with the thief and pretended seller to -put the victim into the hands of the purchaser. What precautions, what -scrutiny can avail, when we reflect, that the profound secrecy of the -prisons is equalled only by the strict precautions in carrying the -person on board?” - -The man-stealers were trained for the purpose. They marked out their -victims, watched for days, and often weeks, endeavoured to associate -themselves with them, and beguile them into some place where they might -be easily secured. Or they pounced on them in the fields or woods. They -roved about in gangs during the night, and in solitary places. None -dare cry for help, or they were stabbed instantly, even though it were -before the door of the purchaser. - -What hope indeed could there be for anybody, when the authorities were -in this diabolical league? and this was the custom of legalizing a -kidnapping: “A person calling himself an interpreter, repairs, at the -desire of one who says that he has bought a slave, to the secretary’s -office, accompanied by any native who, provided with a note from -the purchaser, gives himself out as the seller. For three rupees, a -certificate of sale in the usual form is immediately made out; three -rupees are paid to the notary; two rupees are put into the hands of -the interpreter; the whole transaction is concluded, and the purchaser -has thus become the owner of a free-born man, who is very often stolen -without his (the purchaser’s) concurrence; but about this he does not -trouble himself, for the victim is already concealed where nobody can -find him; nor can the transaction become public, because there never -were found more faithful receivers than the slave-traders. It is a -maxim with them, in their own phrase, “never to betray their prison.” -Both purchaser and seller are often fictitious—the public officers -being in league with the interpreters. By such means it is obvious a -stolen man is as easily procured as if he were already pinioned at the -door of his purchaser. You have only to give a rupee to any one to -say that he is the seller, and plenty are ready to do that. Numbers -maintain themselves on such profits, and slaves are thus often bribed -against their own possessors. The victims are never examined, nor do -the Dutch concern themselves about the matter, so that at any time -any number of orders for transport may, if necessary, be prepared -before-hand with the utmost security. - -“Let us,” continues the report, “represent to ourselves this one town -of Makásar, filled with prisons, the one more dismal than the other, -which are stuffed with hundreds of wretches, the victims of avarice -and tyranny, who, chained in fetters, and taken away from their wives, -children, parents, friends, and comforts, look to their future destiny -with despair.” - -On the other hand, wives missing their husbands, children their -parents, parents their children, with their hearts filled with rage and -revenge, were running through the streets, if possible, to discover -where their relatives were concealed. It was in vain. They were -sometimes stabbed, if too troublesome in their inquiries; or led on by -false hopes of ransom, till they were themselves thrown into debt, and -easily made a prey of too. Such was the terror universally existing in -these islands when the English conquered them, that the inhabitants did -not dare to walk the streets, work in the fields, or go on a journey, -except in companies of five or six together, and well armed. - -Such were some of the practices of the Protestant Dutch. But their -sordid villany in gaining possession of places was just as great -as that in getting hold of people. Desirous of becoming masters of -Malacca, they bribed the Portuguese governor to betray it into their -hands. The bargain was struck, and he introduced the enemy into the -city in 1641. They hastened to his house, and massacred him, to save -the bribe of 500,000 livres—21,875_l._ of English money! The Dutch -commander then tauntingly asked the commander of the Portuguese -garrison, as he marched out, when he would come back again to the -place. The Portuguese gravely replied—“_When your crimes are greater -than ours!_” - -Desirous of seizing on Cochin on the coast of Malabar, they had no -sooner invested it than the news of peace between Holland and Portugal -arrived; but they kept this secret till the place was taken, and when -reproached by the Portuguese with their base conduct, they coolly -replied—“Who did the same on the coast of Brazil?” - -Like all designing people, they were as suspicious of evil as they knew -themselves capable of it. On first touching at the isle of Madura, -the prince intimated his wish to pay his respects to the commander on -board his vessel. It was assented to; but when the Dutch saw the number -of boats coming off, they became alarmed, fired their cannon on the -unsuspicious crowd, and then fell upon the confounded throng with such -fury that they killed the prince, and the greater part of his followers. - -Their manner of first gaining a footing in Batavia is thus recorded by -the Javan historians. “In the first place they wished to ascertain -the strength of _Jákatra_ (the native town on the ruins of which -Batavia was built). They therefore landed like máta-mátas (peons or -messengers); the captain of the ship disguising himself with a turban, -and accompanying several _Khójas_, (natives of the Coromandel coast.) -When he had made his observations, he entered upon trade; offering -however much better terms than were just, and making more presents -than were necessary. A friendship thus took place between him and the -prince: when this was established, the captain said that his ship was -in want of repairs, and the prince allowed the vessel to come up the -river. There the captain knocked out the planks of the bottom, and -sunk the vessel, to obtain a pretence for further delay, and then -requested a very small piece of ground on which to build a shed for the -protection of the sails and other property during the repair of the -vessel. This being granted, the captain raised a wall of mud, so that -nobody could know what he was doing, and continued to court the favour -of the prince. He soon requested as much more land as could be covered -by a buffalo’s hide, on which to build a small _póndok_. This being -complied with, he cut the hide into strips, and claimed all the land he -could inclose with them. He went on with his buildings, engaging to pay -all the expenses of raising them. When the fort was finished, he threw -down his mud wall, planted his cannon, and refused to pay a _doit_!” - -But the whole history of the Dutch in Java is too long for our purpose. -It may be found in Sir Stamford Raffles’s two great quartos, and it -is one of the most extraordinary relations of treachery, bribery, -massacre and meanness. The slaughter of the Chinese traders there is -a fearful transaction. On pretence of conveying those who yielded -out of the country, they took them to sea, and threw them overboard. -On one occasion, they demanded the body of _Surapáti_—a brave man, -who rose from the rank of a slave to that of a chief, and a very -troublesome one to them—from the very grave. They placed it upright -in a chair, the commandant approached it, made his obeisance, treated -it as a living person, with an expression of ironical mockery, and the -officers followed his example. They then burnt the body, mixed it with -gun-powder, and fired a salute with it in honour of the victory. - -Such was their treatment of the natives, that the population of one -province, _Banyuawngi_, which in 1750 amounted to upwards of 80,000 -souls, in 1811 was reduced to 8,000. It is no less remarkable, says Sir -Stamford Raffles, that while in all the capitals of British India the -population has increased, wherever the Dutch influence has prevailed -the work of depopulation has followed. In the Moluccas the oppressions -and the consequent depopulation was monstrous. Whenever the natives -have had the opportunity they have fled from the provinces under -their power to the native tracts. With the following extract from Sir -Stamford Raffles we will conclude this dismal notice of the deeds of a -European people, claiming to be Christian, and what is more, Protestant -and Reformed. - -“Great demands were at all times made on the peasantry of Java for the -Dutch army. Confined in unhealthy garrisons, exposed to unnecessary -hardships and privations, extraordinary casualties took place amongst -them, and frequent new levies became necessary, while the anticipation -of danger and suffering produced an aversion to the service, which was -only aggravated by the subsequent measures of cruelty and oppression. -The conscripts raised in the provinces were usually sent to the -metropolis by water; and though the distance be short between any two -points of the island, a mortality similar to that of a slave-ship in -the middle passage took place on board these receptacles of reluctant -recruits. They were generally confined in the stocks till their arrival -at Batavia.... Besides the supply of the army, one half of the male -population of the country was constantly held in readiness for other -public services, and thus a great portion of the effective hands -were taken from their families, and detained at a distance from home -in labours which broke their spirit and exhausted their strength. -During the administration of Marshal Daendals, it has been calculated -that the construction of public roads alone destroyed the lives of -at least ten thousand workmen. The transport of government stores, -and the capricious requisitions of government agents of all classes, -perpetually harassed, and frequently carried off numbers of the people. -If to these drains we add the waste of life occasioned by insurrections -which tyranny and impolicy excited in Chéribon; the blighting effects -of the coffee monopoly, and forced services in the Priáng’en Regencies, -and the still more desolating operations of the policy pursued, and the -consequent anarchy produced, in Bantam, we shall have some idea of the -depopulating causes which existed under the Dutch administration.” - - - - -CHAPTER XV. - -THE ENGLISH IN INDIA.—SYSTEM OF TERRITORIAL ACQUISITION. - - “And Ahab came into his house, heavy and displeased, - because of the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had - spoken to him; for he had said, I will not give thee - the inheritance of my fathers. And he laid him down - upon his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat - no bread. But Jezebel his wife came to him and said - unto him, Why is thy spirit so sad that thou eatest no - bread? And he said unto her, Because I spoke unto Naboth - the Jezreelite, and said unto him, give me thy vineyard - for money; or else if it please thee, I will give thee - _another_ vineyard for it; and he answered I will not - give thee my vineyard. - - “And Jezebel, his wife, said unto him, Dost thou now - govern the kingdom of Israel? Arise, and eat bread, and - let thine heart be merry; I will give thee the vineyard - of Naboth the Jezreelite. - - * * * * * - - “And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, - saying, Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, which - is in Samaria; behold he is in the vineyard of Naboth, - whither he is gone down to possess it. And thou shalt - speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord, Hast thou - killed, and also taken possession?” _1 Kings_ xxi. 4-19. - - -The appearance of the Europeans in India, if the inhabitants could have -had the Bible put into their hands, and been told that that was the law -which these strangers professed to follow, must have been a curious -spectacle. They who professed to believe the commands that they -should not steal, covet their neighbour’s goods, kill, or injure—must -have been seen with wonder to be the most covetous, murderous, and -tyrannical of men. But if the natives could have read the declaration -of Christ—“By this shall men know that ye are my disciples, that -ye love one another,”—the wonder must have been tenfold; for never -did men exhibit such an intensity of hatred, jealousy, and vengeance -towards each other. Portuguese, Dutch, French, English, and Danes, -coming together, or one after the other, fell on each other’s forts, -factories, and ships with the most vindictive fury. They attacked each -other at sea or at land; they propagated the most infamous characters -of each other wherever they came, in order to supersede each other in -the good graces of the people who had valuable trading stations, or -were in possession of gold or pearls, nutmegs or cinnamon, coffee, or -cotton cloth. They loved one another to that degree that they were -ready to join the natives any where in the most murderous attempts -to massacre and drive away each other. What must have seemed most -extraordinary of all, was the English expelling with rigour those -of their own countrymen who ventured there without the sanction of -the particular trading company which claimed a monopoly of Indian -commerce. The rancour and pertinacity with which Englishmen attacked -and expelled Englishmen, was even more violent than that which they -shewed to foreigners. The history of European intriguers, especially -of the Dutch, Portuguese, English, and French, in the East, in which -every species of cruelty and bad faith have been exhibited, is one -of the most melancholy and humiliating nature. Those of the English -and French did not cease till the very last peace. At every outbreak -of war between these nations in Europe, the forts and factories and -islands which had been again and again seized upon, and again and again -restored by treaties of peace in India, became immediately the scene -of fresh aggressions, bickerings, and enormities. The hate which burnt -in Europe was felt hotly, even to that distance; and men of another -climate, who had no real interest in the question, and to whom Europe -was but the name of a distant region which had for generations sent out -swarms of powerful oppressors, were called upon to spill their blood -and waste their resources in these strange deeds of their tyrants. -It is to be hoped that the bulk of this evil is now past. In the -peninsula of India, to which I am intending in the following chapters -to confine my attention, the French now retain only the factories of -Chandernagore, Caricall, Mahee, and Pondicherry; the Portuguese Goa, -Damaun, and Diu; the Dutch, Serampore and Tranquebar; while the English -power had triumphed over the bulk of the continent—over the vast -regions of Bengal, Madras, Bombay, the Deccan and the Carnatic—over -a surface of upwards of five hundred thousand square miles, and a -population of nearly a hundred millions of people! These states are -either directly and avowedly in British possession, or are as entirely -so under the name of allies. We may well, therefore, leave the history -of the squabbles and contests of the European Christians with each -other for this enormous power, disgraceful as that history is to the -name of Christianity—to inquire how we, whose ascendency has so -wonderfully prevailed there, have gained this dominion and how we have -used it. - - When Europe sought your subject-realms to gain, - And stretched her giant sceptre o’er the main, - Taught her proud barks the winding way to shape, - And braved the stormy spirit of the Cape; - Children of Brama! then was Mercy nigh, - To wash the stain of blood’s eternal dye? - Did Peace descend to triumph and to save, - When free-born Britons crossed the Indian wave? - Ah no!—to more than Rome’s ambition true, - The muse of Freedom gave it not to you! - She the bold route of Europe’s guilt began, - And, in the march of nations, led the van! - - _Pleasures of Hope._ - -We are here to witness a new scene of conquest. The Indian natives -were too powerful and populous to permit the Europeans to march at -once into the heart of their territories, as they had done into -South America, to massacre the people, or to subject them to instant -slavery and death. The old inhabitants of the empire, the Hindoos, -were indeed, in general, a comparatively feeble and gentle race, but -there were numerous and striking exceptions; the mountaineers were, -as mountaineers in other countries, of a hardy, active, and martial -character. The Mahrattas, the Rohillas, the Seiks, the Rajpoots, and -others, were fierce and formidable tribes. But besides this, the ruling -princes of the country, whether Moguls or Hindoos, had for centuries -maintained their sway by the same power by which they had gained it, -that of arms. They could bring into the field immense bodies of troops, -which though found eventually unable to compete with European power -and discipline, were too formidable to be rashly attacked, and have -cost oceans of blood and treasure finally to reduce them to subjection. -Moreover, the odium which the Spaniards and Portuguese had everywhere -excited by their unceremonious atrocities, may be supposed to have had -their effect on the English, who are a reflecting people; and it is -to be hoped also that the progress of sound policy and of Christian -knowledge, however slow, may be taken into the account in some -degree. They went out too under different circumstances—not as mere -adventurers, but as sober traders, aiming at establishing a permanent -and enriching commerce with these countries; and if Christianity, if -the laws of justice and of humanity were to be violated, it must be -under a guise of policy, and a form of law. - -We shall not enter into a minute notice of the earliest proceedings -of the English in India, because for upwards of a century from the -formation of their first trading association, those proceedings are -comparatively insignificant. During that period Bombay had been -ceded as part of a marriage-portion by the Portuguese to Charles -II.; factories had been established at Surat, Madras, Masulipatam, -Visigapatam, Calcutta, and other places; but it was not till the -different chartered companies were consolidated into one grand company -in 1708, styled “The United Company of Merchants trading to the East -Indies,” that the English affairs in the east assumed an imposing -aspect. From that period the East India Company commenced that career -of steady grasping at dominion over the Indian territories, which has -never been relaxed for a moment, but, while it has for ever worn the -grave air of moderation, and has assumed the language of right, has -gone on adding field to field and house to house—swallowing up state -after state, and prince after prince, till it has finally found itself -the sovereign of this vast and splendid empire, as it would fain -persuade itself and the world, by the clearest claims, and the most -undoubted justice. By the laws and principles of modern policy, it may -be so; but by the eternal principles of Christianity, there never was -a more thorough repetition of the hankering after Naboth’s vineyards, -of the “slaying and taking possession” exhibited to the world. It is -true that, as the panegyrists of our Indian policy contend, it may -be the design of Providence that the swarming millions of Indostan -should be placed under our care, that they may enjoy the blessings of -English rule, and of English knowledge: but Providence had no need -that we should violate all his most righteous injunctions to enable -him to bring about his designs. Providence, the Scriptures tell us, -intended that Jacob should supersede Esau in the heritage of Israel: -but Providence had no need of the deception which Rebecca and Jacob -practised,—had no need of the mess of pottage and the kid-skins, to -enable Him to effect his object. We are much too ready to run the -wilful career of our own lusts and passions, and lay the charge at -the door of Providence. It is true that English dominion is, or will -become, far better to the Hindoos than that of the cruel and exacting -Moguls; but who made us the judge and the ruler over these people? -If the real object of our policy and exertions in India has been the -achievement of wealth and power, as it undoubtedly has, it is pitiful -and hypocritical to endeavour to clothe it with the pretence of working -the will of Providence, and seeking the good of the natives. We shall -soon see which objects have been most zealously and undeviatingly -pursued, and by what means. If our desires have been, not to enrich -and aggrandize ourselves, but to benefit the people and rescue them -from the tyranny of bad rulers, heaven knows what wide realms are yet -open to our benevolent exertions; what despots there are to pull down; -what miserable millions to relieve from their oppressions;—and when we -behold Englishmen levelling their vengeance against such tyrants, and -visiting such unhappy people with their protective power, where neither -gold nor precious merchandise are to be won at the same time, we may -safely give the amplest credence and the profoundest admiration to -their claims of disinterested philanthropy. If they present themselves -as the champions of freedom, and the apostles of social amelioration, -we shall soon have opportunities of asking how far they have maintained -these characters. - -Mr. Auber, in his “History of the British Power in India,” has quoted -largely from letters of the Board of Directors of the Company, passages -to shew how sincerely the representatives of the East India Company at -home have desired to arrest encroachment on the rights of the natives; -to avoid oppressive exactions; to resist the spirit of military and -political aggression. They have from year to year proclaimed their -wishes for the comfort of the people; they have disclaimed all lust of -territorial acquisition; have declared that they were a mercantile, -rather than a political body; and have rebuked the thirst of conquest -in their agents, and endeavoured to restrain the avidity of extortion -in them. Seen in Mr. Auber’s pages, the Directors present themselves -as a body of grave and honorable merchants, full of the most admirable -spirit of moderation, integrity, and benevolence; and we may give -them the utmost credit for sincerity in their professions and desires. -But unfortunately, we all know what human nature is. Unfortunately the -power, the wealth, and the patronage brought home to them by the very -violation of their own wishes and maxims were of such an overwhelming -and seducing nature, that it was in vain to resist them. Nay, in such -colours does the modern philosophy of conquest and diplomacy disguise -the worst transactions between one state and another, that it is not -for plain men very readily to penetrate to the naked enormity beneath. -When all the world was applauding the success of Indian affairs,—the -extension of territory, the ability of their governors, the valour -of their troops; and when they felt the flattering growth of their -greatness, it required qualities far higher than mere mercantile -probity and good intentions, to enable them to strip away the false -glitter of their official transactions, and sternly assure themselves -of the unholiness of their nature. We may therefore concede to the -Directors of the East India Company, and to their governors and -officers in general, the very best intentions, knowing as we do, the -force of influences such as we have already alluded to, and the force -also of modern diplomatic and military education, by which a policy -and practices of the most dismal character become gradually to be -regarded not merely unexceptionable, but highly honorable. We may -allow all this, and yet pronounce the mode by which the East India -Company has possessed itself of Hindostan, as the most revolting and -unchristian that can possibly be conceived. The most masterly policy, -regarded independent of its _morale_, and a valour more than Roman -have been exhibited by our governors-generals and armies on the plains -of Hindostan: but if there ever was one system more Machiavelian—more -appropriative of the shew of justice where the basest injustice was -attempted—more cold, cruel, haughty and unrelenting than another,—it -is the system by which the government of the different states of -India has been wrested from the hands of their respective princes and -collected into the grasp of the British power. Incalculable gainers -as we have been by this system, it is impossible to review it without -feelings of the most poignant shame and the highest indignation. -Whenever we talk to other nations of British faith and integrity, they -may well point to India in derisive scorn. The system which, for more -than a century, was steadily at work to strip the native princes of -their dominions, and that too under the most sacred pleas of right -and expediency, is a system of torture more exquisite than regal or -spiritual tyranny ever before discovered; such as the world has nothing -similar to shew. - -Spite of the repeated instructions sent out by the Court of Directors -to their servants in India, to avoid territorial acquisitions, and to -cultivate only honest and honorable commerce; there is evidence that -from the earliest period the desire of conquest was entertained, and -was, spite of better desires, always too welcome to be abandoned. In -the instructions forwarded in 1689, the Directors expounded themselves -in the following words: “The increase of our revenue is the subject -of our care, as much as our trade:—’tis that must maintain our force -when twenty accidents may interrupt our trade;—’tis that must make -us a nation in India. Without that, we are but as a great number of -interlopers, united by his Majesty’s royal charter, fit only to trade -where nobody of power thinks fit only to prevent us; and upon this -account it is that the wise Dutch, in all their general advices which -we have seen, write ten paragraphs concerning their government, their -civil and military policy, warfare, and the increase of their revenue, -for one paragraph they write concerning trade.”[13] - -Spite of all pretences to the contrary—spite of all advices and -exhortations from the government at home of a more unambitious -character, this was the spirit that never ceased to actuate the -Company, and was so clearly felt to be it, that its highest servants, -in the face of more peaceful injunctions, and in the face of the Act -of Parliament strictly prohibiting territorial extension, went on -perpetually to add conquest to conquest, under the shew of necessity -or civil treaty; and they who offended most against the letter of the -law, gratified most entirely the spirit of the company and the nation. -Who have been looked upon as so eminently the benefactors and honourers -of the nation by Indian acquisition as Lord Clive, Warren Hastings, -and the Marquess Wellesley? It is for the determined and successful -opposition to the ostensible principles and annually reiterated -advices of the Company, that that very Company has heaped wealth and -distinctions upon these and other persons, and for which it has just -recently voted an additional pension to the latter nobleman. - -What then is this system of torture by which the possessions of the -Indian princes have been wrung from them? It is this—the skilful -application of the process by which cunning men create debtors, and -then force them at once to submit to their most exorbitant demands. -From the moment that the English felt that they had the power in India -to “divide and conquer,” they adopted the plan of doing it rather by -plausible manœuvres than by a bold avowal of their designs, and a -more honest plea of the right of conquest—the ancient doctrine of -the strong, which they began to perceive was not quite so much in -esteem as formerly. Had they said at once, these Mahomedan princes are -arbitrary, cruel, and perfidious—we will depose them, and assume the -government ourselves—we pretend to no other authority for our act -than our ability to do it, and no other excuse for our conduct than -our determination to redress the evils of the people: that would have -been a candid behaviour. It would have been so far in accordance with -the ancient doctrine of nations that little would have been thought of -it; and though as Christians we could not have applauded the “doing -evil that good might come of it,” yet had the promised benefit to more -than eighty millions of people followed, that glorious penance would -have gone far in the most scrupulous mind to have justified the crime -of usurpation. But the mischief has been, that while the exactions -and extortions on the people have been continued, and in many cases -exaggerated, the means of usurpation have been those glozing and -hypocritical arts, which are more dangerous from their subtlety than -naked violence, and more detestable because wearing the face, and using -the language, of friendship and justice. A fatal friendship, indeed, -has that of the English been to all those princes that were allured by -it. It has pulled them every one from their thrones, or has left them -there the contemptible puppets of a power that works its arbitrary will -through them. But friendship or enmity, the result has been eventually -the same to them. If they resisted alliance with the encroaching -English, they were soon charged with evil intentions, fallen upon, -and conquered; if they acquiesced in the proffered alliance, they -soon became ensnared in those webs of diplomacy from which they never -escaped, without the loss of all honour and hereditary dominion—of -every thing, indeed, but the lot of prisoners where they had been -kings. The first step in the English friendship with the native -princes, has generally been to assist them against their neighbours -with troops, or to locate troops with them to protect them from -aggression. For these services such enormous recompense was stipulated -for, that the unwary princes, entrapped by their fears of their native -foes rather than of their pretended friends, soon found that they were -utterly unable to discharge them. Dreadful exactions were made on their -subjects, but in vain. Whole provinces, or the revenues of them, were -soon obliged to be made over to their grasping _friends_; but they did -not suffice for their demands. In order to pay them their debts or -their interest, the princes were obliged to borrow large sums at an -extravagant rate. These sums were eagerly advanced by the English in -their private and individual capacities, and securities again taken on -lands or revenues. At every step the unhappy princes became more and -more embarrassed, and as the embarrassment increased, the claims of the -Company became proportionably pressing. In the technical phraseology -of money-lenders, “the screw was then turned,” till there was no longer -any enduring it. The unfortunate princes felt themselves, instead of -being relieved by their artful friends, actually introduced by them into - - Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace - And rest can never dwell; hope never comes - That comes to all; but torture without end - Still urges. - -To escape it, there became no alternative but to throw themselves -entirely upon the mercy of their inexorable creditors, or to break out -into armed resistance. In the one case they found themselves speedily -stripped of every vestige of their power—their revenues and management -of their territories given over to these creditors, which still never -were enough to liquidate their monstrous and growing demands; so -that the next proposition was that they should entirely cede their -territories, and become pensioners on their usurpers. In the other -case, they were at once declared perfidious and swindling,—no faith -was to be kept with them,—they were assaulted by the irresistible arms -of their oppressors, and inevitably destroyed or deposed. - -If they sought aid from another state, that became a fortunate plea -to attack that state too; and the English were not contented to -chastise the state thus aiding its ancient neighbour, it was deemed -quite sufficient ground to seize and subjugate it also. There was no -province that was for a moment safe from this most convenient system -of policy, which feared public opinion sufficiently to seek arguments -to make a case before it, but resolved still to seize, by hook or by -crook, all that it coveted. It did not suffice that a province merely -refused an alliance, if the proper time was deemed to be arrived for -its seizure—some plea of danger or suspicion was set up against it. -It was called good policy not to wait for attack, but to charge it -with hostile designs, though not a hostile indication was given—it -was assailed with all the forces in the empire. Those princes that -were once subjected to the British power or the British _friendship_, -were set up or pulled down just as it suited their pleasure. If -necessary, the most odious stigmas were fixed on them to get rid of -them—they were declared weak, dissolute, or illegitimate. If a prince -or princess was suspected of having wealth, some villainous scheme -was hatched to plunder him or her of it. For more than a century this -shocking system was in operation, every day growing more daring in -its action, and more wide in its extent. Power both gave security and -augmented audacity—for every British subject who was not belonging to -the Company, and therefore interested in its operations, was rigidly -excluded from the country, and none could therefore complain of the -evil deeds that were there done under the sun. It is almost incredible -that so abominable an influence could be for a century exercised over -a great realm, by British subjects, many of whom were in all other -respects worthy and most honourable men; and, what is more, that it -could be sanctioned by the British parliament, and admired by the -British nation. But we have yet the proofs to adduce, and unfortunately -they are only too abundant and conclusive. Let us see them. - -We will for the present pass the operations of Clive in the Carnatic -at once to destroy the French influence there, and to set up Mahomet -Ali, a creature of the English. We shall anon see the result of that: -we will observe in the first place the manner of obtaining Bengal, as -it became the head of the English empire in India, and the centre of -all future transactions. - -In 1756, Suraja Dowla, the Subahdar of Bengal, demanded an officer -belonging to him who, according to the custom amongst the colonists -there, had taken refuge at Calcutta. The English refused to give him -up. The Subahdar attacked and took the place. One hundred and forty-six -of the English fell into the conqueror’s hands, and were shut up for -the night in the celebrated _Black-hole_, whence only twenty-three -were taken out alive in the morning. It may be said in vindication of -the Subahdar, that the act of immuring these unfortunate people in -this horrible den was not his, but that of the guards to whom they -were entrusted for the night, and who put them there as in a place of -the greatest security; and it may be added, not to the credit of the -English, that this very _black-hole_ was the _English_ prison, where -they were in the habit of confining _their_ prisoners. As Mr. Mills -very justly asks—“What had they to do with a _black-hole_? Had no -_black-hole_ existed, as none ought to exist anywhere, least of all in -the sultry and unwholesome climate of Bengal, those who perished in the -_black-hole_ of Calcutta would have experienced a different fate.” - -On the news of the capture of Calcutta arriving at Madras, a body of -troops was dispatched under Admiral Watson and Colonel Clive, for -its recovery; which was soon effected, and Hoogly, a considerable -city about twenty-three miles further up the river, was also attacked -and reduced. A treaty was now entered into with Suraja Dowla, the -Subahdar, which was not of long continuance; for, lest the Subahdar, -who was not at bottom friendly to the English, as he had in reality -no cause, should form an alliance with the French at Chandernagore, -they resolved to depose him! This bold and unwarrantable scheme of -deposing a prince in his own undoubted territories, and that by -mere strangers and traders on the coast, is the beginning of that -extraordinary and unexampled assumption which has always marked the -conduct of the English in India. Scarcely had they entered into the -treaty with this Subahdar than they resolved to depose him because he -would protect the French, who were also permitted to hold a factory -in his territory as well as they. This audacious scheme was Clive’s. -Admiral Watson, on the contrary, declared it an extraordinary thing -to depose a man they had so lately made a solemn treaty with. But -Clive, as he afterwards avowed, when examined before the House of -Commons, declared that “they must now go further; they could not stop -there. _Having established themselves by force and not by consent of -the Nabob_, he would endeavour to drive them out again.” This is the -robber’s doctrine;—having committed one outrage, a second, or a series -of outrages must be committed, to prevent punishment, and secure the -booty. But having once entertained the idea of pulling the Subahdar -from his throne, they did not scruple to add treason and rebellion -to the crime of invading the rights of the sovereign. They began by -debauching his own officers. They found out one Meer Jaffier Khan, -a man of known traitorous mind, who had been paymaster-general under -the former Subahdar, and yet retained great power in the army. This -wretch, on condition of being placed on the throne, agreed to betray -his master, and seduce as many of the influential of his officers -as possible. The terms of this diabolical confederacy between this -base traitor and the baser _Christian English_, as they stand in the -first parliamentary report on Indian affairs, and as related by Orme -in his History of India (ii. 153), and by Mills (ii. 110), are very -instructive. - -The English had got an idea which wonderfully sharpened their desire to -depose Suraja Dowla, that he had an enormous treasure. The committee -(of the council of Calcutta) really believed, says Mr. Orme, the wealth -of Suraja Dowla much greater than it possibly could be, even if the -whole life of the late Nabob Aliverdi had not been spent in defending -his dominions against the invasions of ruinous enemies; and even if -Suraja Dowla had reigned many, instead of one year. They resolved, -accordingly, not to be sparing in their commands; and the situation -of Meer Jaffier, and the manners and customs of the country, made him -ready to promise whatever they desired. In the name of compensation for -losses by the capture of Calcutta, 10,000,000 rupees were promised to -the English Company; 5,000,000 rupees to English inhabitants; 2,000,000 -to the Indians, and 700,000 to the Armenian merchants. These sums were -specified in the formal treaty. Besides this, the Committee resolved -to ask 2,500,000 rupees for the squadron, and the same amount for the -army. “When this was settled,” says Lord Clive, “Mr. Becher (a member) -suggested to the committee, that he thought that committee, who managed -the great machine of government, was entitled to some consideration, -as well as the army and navy.” Such a proposition in such an assembly -could not fail to appear eminently reasonable. It met with a suitable -approbation. Mr. Becher informs us, that the sums received were 280,000 -rupees by Mr. Drake the governor; 280,000 by Col. Clive; and 240,000 -each by himself, Mr. Watts, and Major Kilpatrick, the inferior members -of the committee. The terms obtained by favour of the Company were, -that all the French factories and effects should be given up; that the -French should be for ever excluded from Bengal; that the territory -surrounding Calcutta to the distance of 600 yards beyond the Mahratta -ditch, and all the land lying south of Calcutta as far as Culpee, -should be granted them on Zemindary tenure, the Company paying the rent -in the same manner as the other Zemindars. - -Thus did these Englishmen bargain with a traitor to betray his prince -and country,—the traitor, for the bribe of being himself made prince, -not merely sell his master, but give two millions three hundred and -ninety-eight thousand pounds sterling,[14] with valuable privileges and -property of the state,—while these dealers in treason and rebellion -pocketed each, from two hundred and forty to two hundred and eighty -thousand pounds sterling! A more infamous transaction is not on record. - -To carry this wicked conspiracy into effect, the English took the -field against their victim Suraja Dowla; and Meer Jaffier, the -traitor, in the midst of of the engagement moved off, and went over -to the English with his troops—thus determining the fate of a great -kingdom, and of thirty millions of people, with the loss of twenty -Europeans killed and wounded, of sixteen Sepoys killed, and only -thirty-six wounded. The unfortunate prince was soon afterwards seized -and assassinated by the son of this traitor Meer Jaffier. The vices -and inefficiency of this bad man soon compelled the English to pull -him down from the throne into which they had so criminally raised him. -They then set up in his stead his son-in-law, Meer Causim. This man -for a time served their purpose, by the activity with which he raised -money to pay their claims upon him. He resorted to every species -of cruelty and injustice to extort the necessary funds from his -unfortunate subjects. But about three years, nearly the same period -as their former puppet-nabob had reigned, sufficed to weary them of -him. He was rigorous enough to raise money to pay them, but he was not -tool enough, when that was done, to humour every scheme of rapacity -which they dictated to him. They complained of his not allowing -their goods to pass duty-free through his territories; he therefore -abolished all duties, and thus laid open the trade to everybody. This -enraged them, and they determined to depose him. Meer Causim, however, -was not so readily dismissed as Meer Jaffier had been. He resisted -vigorously; massacred such of their troops as fell into his hands, and -fleeing into Oude, brought them into war with its nabob. What is most -remarkable, they again set up old Meer Jaffier, whom they had before -deposed for his crimes and his imbecility. But probably, from their -experience of Meer Causim, they now preferred an easy tool to one with -more self-will. In their treaty with him they made a claim upon him -for ten lacs of rupees; which demand speedily grew to twenty, thirty, -forty, and finally to fifty-three lacs of rupees. All delicacy was laid -aside in soliciting the payment, and one half of it was soon extorted -from him. The Subahdar, in fact, was now become the merest puppet in -their hands. They were the real lords of Bengal, and in direct receipt -of more than half the revenues. Within less than ten years from the -disgraceful bargain with the traitor Meer Jaffier, they had made -Bengal their own, though they still hesitated to avow themselves as -its sovereigns; they had got possession of Benares; they had acquired -that power over the Nabob of Oude, in consequence of the successful war -brought upon him by his alliance with the deposed nabob Meer Causim, -that would at any time make them entirely his masters; the Mogul -himself was ready and anxious to obtain their friendship; they were, in -short, become the far greatest power in India. - -Here then is an opening instance of the means by which we acquired our -territories in India; and the language of Lord Clive, when he returned -thither as governor of Bengal in 1765, may shew what other scenes were -likely to ensue. “We have at last arrived at that critical period which -I have long foreseen; I mean that period which renders it necessary for -us to determine whether we can or shall take the whole to ourselves. -Jaffier Ali Khan is dead. His natural son is a minor; but I know not -whether he is yet declared successor. Sujah Dowla is beat from his -dominions. We are in possession of it; and it is scarcely hyperbole to -say—to-morrow the whole Mogul empire is in our power. The inhabitants -of the country, we know by long experience, have no attachment to any -obligation. Their forces are neither disciplined, commanded, nor paid -like ours. Can it then be doubtful that a large army of Europeans will -effectually preserve us sovereigns?” - -The scene of aggression and aggrandizement here indicated, soon grew -so wide and busy, that it would far exceed the whole space of this -volume to trace even rapidly its great outlines. The Great Mogul, the -territories of Oude and Arcot, Mysore, Travancore, Benares, Tanjore, -the Mahrattas, the whole peninsula in fact, speedily felt the effect of -these views, in diplomatic or military subjection. We can point out no -fortunate exception, and must therefore content ourselves with briefly -touching upon some of the more prominent cases. - -The first thing that deserves attention, is the treatment of the Mogul -himself. This is the statement of it by the French historian: “The -Mogul having been driven out of Delhi by the Pattans, by whom his son -had been set up in his room, was wandering from one province to another -in search of a place of refuge in his own territories, and requesting -succour from his own vassals, but without success. Abandoned by his -subjects, betrayed by his allies, without support and without an -army, he was allured by the power of the English, and implored their -protection. They promised to conduct him to Delhi, and re-establish -him on his throne; but they insisted that he should previously cede -to them the absolute sovereignty over Bengal. This cession was made by -an authentic act, attended by all the formalities usually practised -throughout the Mogul empire. The English, possessed of this title, -which was to give a kind of legitimacy to their usurpation, at least -in the eyes of the vulgar, soon forgot the promises they had made. -They gave the Mogul to understand, that particular circumstances -would not suffer them to be concerned in such an enterprise; but some -better opportunity was to be hoped for; and to make up for his losses, -they assigned him a pension of six millions of rupees, (262,500_l._), -with the revenue of Allahabad, and Sha Ichanabad, or Delhi, upon -which that unfortunate prince was reduced to subsist himself, in -one of the principal towns of Benares, where he had taken up his -residence.”—_Raynal._ - -Hastings, in fact, made it a reason for depriving him again even of -this pension, that he had sought the aid of the Mahrattas, to do -that which he had vainly hoped from the English—to restore him to -his throne. This is Mills’s relation of this fact, founded on the -fifth Parliamentary Report.—“Upon receiving from him the grant of -the duannee, or the receipt and management of the revenues of Bengal, -Bahar, and Orissa, it was agreed that, as the royal share of these -revenues, twenty-six lacs of rupees should be annually paid to him by -the Company. His having accepted of the assistance of the Mahrattas -to place him on the throne of his ancestors, was now made use of as a -reason for telling him, that the tribute of these provinces should be -paid to him no more. Of the honour, or the discredit, however, of this -transaction, the principal share belongs not to the governor, but to -the Directors themselves; who, in their letter to Bengal, of the 11th -of November 1768, had said, ‘If the emperor flings himself into the -hands of the Mahrattas, or any other power, we are disengaged from him, -_and it may open a fair opportunity of withholding_ the twenty-six lacs -we now pay him.’” Upon the whole, indeed, of the measure dealt out to -this unhappy sovereign,—depriving him of the territories of Corah -and Allahabad; depriving him of the tribute which was due to him from -these provinces of his which they possessed—the Directors bestowed -unqualified approbation; and though they condemned the use which had -been made of their troops in subduing the country of the Rohillas, -they frankly declare, “We, upon the maturest deliberation, confirm -the treaty of Benares.” “Thus,” adds Mills, “they had plundered the -unhappy emperor of twenty-six lacs per annum, and the two provinces of -Corah and Allahabad, which they had sold to the Vizir for fifty lacs of -rupees, on the plea that he had forfeited them by his alliance with the -Mahrattas;” though he was not free, if one party would not assist him -to regain his rights, to seek that assistance from another. - -Passing over the crooked policy of the English, in seizing upon the -isles of Salsette and Bassein, near Bombay, and treating for them -afterwards, and all the perfidies of the war for the restoration of -Ragabah, the Peshwa of the Mahrattas, the fate of the Nabob of Arcot, -one of their earliest allies, is deserving of particular notice, as -strikingly exemplifying their policy. They began by obtaining a grant -of land in 1750, surrounding Madras. They then were only too happy to -assist the Nabob against the French. For these military aids, in which -Clive distinguished himself, the English took good care to stipulate -for their usually monstrous payments. Mahomed Ali, the nabob, soon -found that he was unable to satisfy the demands of his allies. They -urged upon him the maintenance of large bodies of troops for the -defence of his territories against these French and other enemies. -This threw him still more inextricably into debt, and therefore more -inextricably into their power. He became an unresisting tool in -their hands. In his name the most savage exactions were practised -on his subjects. The whole revenues of his kingdom, however, proved -totally inadequate to the perpetually accumulating demands upon them. -He borrowed money where he could, and at whatever interest, of the -English themselves. When this interest could not be paid, he made over -to them, under the name of _tuncaus_, the revenues of some portion -of his domains. These assignments directly decreasing his resources, -only raised the demands of his other creditors more violently, and -the fleecing of his subjects became more and more dreadful. In this -situation, he began to cast his eyes on the neighbouring states, and -to incite his allies, by the assertion of various claims upon them, -to join him in falling upon them, and thus to give him an opportunity -of paying them. This exactly suited their views. It gave them a -prospect of money, and of conquest too, under the plausible colour -of assisting their ally in urging his just claims. They first joined -him in falling on the Rajah of Tanjore, whom the Nabob claimed as a -tributary, and indebted to him in a large amount of revenue. The Rajah -was soon reduced to submission, and agreed to pay thirty lacs and -fifty thousand rupees, and to aid the Nabob in all his wars. Scarcely, -however, was this treaty signed, than they repented of it; thought they -had not got enough; hoped the Rajah would not be exact to a day in -his payment, in which case they would fall on him again for breach of -treaty. It so happened;—they rushed out of their camp, seized on part -of Vellum, and the districts of Coiladdy and Elangad, to the retention -of which the poor Rajah was obliged to submit. - -This affair being so fortunately adjusted, the Nabob called on his -willing allies to attack the Marawars. They too, he said, owed him -money; and money was what the English were always in want of. They -readily assented, though they declared that they believed the Nabob to -have no real claim on the Marawars whatever. But then, they said, the -Nabob has made them his enemies, and it is necessary for his security -that they should be reduced. They did not pretend it was just—but -then, it was politic. The particulars of this war are barbarous and -disgraceful to the English. The Nabob thirsted for the destruction of -these states: he and his Christian-allies soon reduced Ramnadaporam, -the capital of the great Marawar, seized the Polygar, a minor of twelve -years old, his mother, and the Duan; they came suddenly upon the -Polygar of the lesser Marawar while he was trusting to a treaty just -made, and killed him; and pursued the inhabitants of the country with -severities that can only be represented by the language of one of the -English officers addressed to the Council. Speaking of the animosity of -the people against them, and their attacking the baggage, he says, “I -can only determine it by reprisals, which will oblige me to plunder -and burn the villages; kill every man in them; and take prisoners the -women and children. These are actions which the nature of this war will -require.”[15] - -Such were the unholy deeds into which the Nabob and the great scheme -of acquisition of territory had led our countrymen in 1773; but this -was only the beginning of these affairs. This bloody campaign ended, -and large sums of money levied, the Nabob proposed _another_ war on the -Rajah of Tanjore! There was not the remotest plea of injury from the -Rajah, or breach of treaty. He had paid the enormous sum demanded of -him before, by active levies on his subjects, and by mortgaging lands -and jewels; but the Nabob had now made him a very dangerous enemy—he -_might_ ally himself with Hyder Ali, or the French, or some power or -other—therefore it was better that he should be utterly destroyed, -and his country put into the power of the Nabob! “Never,” exclaims Mr. -Mills, “I suppose, was the resolution taken to make war upon a lawful -sovereign, with the view of reducing him entirely, that is, stripping -him of his dominions, and either putting him and his family to death, -or making them prisoners for life, upon a more accommodating reason! -We have done the Rajah great injury—we have no intention of doing him -right—this is a sufficient reason for going on to his destruction.” -But it was not only thought, but done; and this was the bargain: The -Nabob was to advance money and all due necessaries for the war, and -to pay 10,000 instead of 7,000 sepoys. The unhappy Rajah was speedily -defeated, and taken prisoner with his family; and his country put -into the hands of his mortal enemy. There were men of honour and -virtue enough amongst the Directors at home, however, to feel a proper -disgust, or at least, regard for public opinion, at these unprincipled -proceedings, and the Rajah, through the means of Lord Paget was -restored, not however without having a certain quantity of troops -quartered upon him; a yearly payment of four lacs of pagodas imposed; -and being bound not to make any treaty or assist any power without the -consent of the English. He was, in fact, put into the first stage of -that process of subjection which would, in due time, remove from him -even the shadow of independence. - -Such were the measures by which the Nabob of Arcot endeavoured to -relieve himself from his embarrassments with the English; but they -would not all avail. Their demands grew faster than he could find means -to satisfy them. Their system of action was too well devised to fail -them; their victims rarely escaped from their toils: he might help -them to ruin his neighbours, but he could not escape them himself. -During his life he was surrounded by a host of cormorant creditors; -his country, harassed by perpetual exactions, rapidly declined; and -the death of his son and successor, Omdut ul Omrah, in 1801, produced -one of the strangest scenes in this strange history. The Marquis -Wellesley was then Governor-general, and, pursuing that sweeping -course which stripped away the hypocritical mask from British power in -India, threw down so many puppet princes, and displayed the English -dominion in Indostan in its gigantic nakedness. The revenues of the -Carnatic had been before taken in the hands of the English, but Lord -Wellesley resolved to depose the prince; and the manner in which this -deposition was effected, was singularly despotic and unfeeling. They -had come to the resolution to depose the Nabob, and only looked about -for some plausible pretence. This they professed to have found in a -correspondence which, by the death of Tippoo Saib, had fallen into -their hands—a correspondence between Tippoo and some officers of the -Nabob. They alleged, that this correspondence contained injurious and -even treasonable language towards the English. When, therefore, the -Nabob lay on his death-bed they surrounded his house with troops, and -immediately that the breath had departed from him they demanded to see -his will. This rude and unfeeling behaviour, so repugnant to the ideas -of every people, however savage and brutal, at a moment so solemn and -sacred to domestic sorrow, was respectfully protested against—but -in vain. The will they insisted upon seeing, and it accordingly was -put into their hands by the son of the Nabob, now about to mount the -throne himself. Finding that the son was nominated as his heir and -successor by the Nabob, the Commissioners immediately announced to -him the charge of treason against his father, and that the throne was -thereby forfeited by the family. This charge, of course, was a matter -of surprise to the family; especially when the papers said to contain -the treason were produced, and they could find in them nothing but -terms of fidelity and respect towards the English government. But the -English had resolved that the charge should be a sufficient charge, and -the young prince manfully resisting it, they then declared him to be -of illegitimate birth,—a very favourite and convenient plea with them. -On this they set him aside, and made a treaty with another prince, in -which for a certain provision the Carnatic was made over to them for -ever. The young nabob, Ali Hussein, did not long survive this scene of -indignity and arbitrary deposition—his death occurring in the spring -of the following year. - -Such was the English treatment of their friend the Nabob of Arcot;—the -Nabob of Arcot, whose name was for years continually heard in England -as the powerful ally of the British, as their coadjutor against -the French, against the ambitious Hyder Ali, as their zealous and -accommodating friend on all occasions. It was in vain that either -the old Nabob, or the young one, whom they so summarily deposed, -pleaded the faith of treaties, their own hereditary right, or ancient -friendship. Arcot had served its turn; it had been the stalking-horse -to all the aggressions on other states that they needed from it,—they -had exacted all that could be exacted in the name of the Nabob from -his subjects—they had squeezed the sponge dry; and moreover the time -was now come that they could with impunity throw off the stealthy -crouching attitude of the tiger, the smiling meek mask of alliance, and -boldly seize upon undisguised sovereign powers in India. Arcot was but -one state amongst many that were now to be so treated. Benares, Oude, -Tanjore, Surat, and others found themselves in the like case. - -Benares had been a tributary of Oude; but in 1764, when the English -commenced war against the Nabob of Oude, the Rajah of Benares joined -the English, and rendered them the most essential services. For these -he was taken under the English protection. At first with so much -delicacy and consideration was he treated, that a resident was not -allowed, as in the case of other tributaries, to reside in his capital, -lest in the words of the minute of the Governor-general in command -in 1775: “such resident might acquire an improper influence over the -Rajah and his country, which would in effect render him master of -both; lest it should end,” as they knew that such things as a matter -of course did end, “in reducing him to the mean and depraved state of -a mere Zemindar.” The council expressed its anxiety that the Rajah’s -independence should be in no way compromised than by the mere fact of -the payment of his tribute, which, says Mills, continued to be paid -with an exactness rarely exemplified in the history of the tributary -princes of Hindustan. But unfortunately, the Rajah gave some offence -to the powerful Warren Hastings, and there was speedily a requisition -made upon him for the maintenance of three battalions of Sepoys, -estimated at five lacs of rupees. The Rajah pleaded inability to pay it -forthwith; but five days only were given him. This was followed by a -third and fourth requisition of the same sort. Seeing how the tide was -running against him, the unhappy Rajah sent a private gift of two lacs -of rupees to Mr. Hastings,—the pretty sum of 20,000_l._, in the hope -of regaining his favour, and stopping this ruinous course of exaction. -That unprincipled man took the money, but exacted the payment of the -public demand with unabated rigour, and even fined him 10,000_l._ for -delay in payment, and ordered troops, as he had done before, to march -into his country to enforce the iniquitous exaction! - -The work of diplomatic robbery on the Rajah now went on rapidly. “The -screw was now turned” with vigour,—to use a homely but expressive -phrase, the nose was held desperately to the grind-stone. No bounds -were set to the pitiless fury of spoliation, for the Governor’s revenge -had none; and besides, there was a dreadful want of money to defray -the expenses of the wars with Hyder into which the government had -plunged. “I was resolved,” says Hastings, “to draw from his guilt” -(his having offended Mr. Hastings—the guilt was all on the other -side) “the means of relief to the Company’s distresses. In a word, I -had determined to make him pay largely for his pardon, or to exact a -severe vengeance for his past delinquency.”[16] What this delinquency -could possibly be, unless it were not having sent Mr. Hastings a -_second_ present of _two lacs_, is not to be discovered; but the -success of the first placebo was not such as to elicit a second. The -Rajah, therefore, tried what effect he could produce upon the council -at large; he sent an offer of TWENTY LACS _for the public service_. It -was scornfully rejected, and a demand of FIFTY _lacs_ was made! The -impossibility of compliance with such extravagant demands was what was -anticipated; the Governor hastened to Benares, arrested the Rajah in -his own capital; set at defiance the indignation of the people at this -insult. The astounded Rajah made his escape, but only to find himself -at war with his insatiable despoilers. In vain did he propose every -means of accommodation. Nothing would now serve but his destruction. -He was attacked, and compelled to fly. Bidgegur, where, says Hastings -himself, “he had left his wife, a woman of amiable character, his -mother, all the other women of his family, and the survivors of the -family of his father, Bulwant Sing,” was obliged to capitulate; and -Hastings, in his fell and inextinguishable vengeance, even, says -Mills, “in his letters to the commanding officer, employed expressions -which implied that the plunder of these women was the due reward of -the soldiers; and which suggested one of the most dreadful outrages -to which, in the conception of the country, a human being could be -exposed.” - -The fort was surrendered oh express stipulation for the safety, and -freedom from search, of the females; but, adds Mills, “the idea -suggested by Mr. Hastings diffused itself but too perfectly amongst the -soldiery; and when the princesses, with their relatives and attendants, -to the number of three hundred women, besides children, withdrew -from the castle, the capitulation was shamefully violated; they were -plundered of their effects, and their persons otherwise rudely and -disgracefully treated by the licentious people, and followers of the -camp.” He adds, “one is delighted for the honour of distinguished -gallantry, that in no part of the opprobrious business the commanding -officer had any share. He leaned to generosity and the protection of -the princesses from the beginning. His utmost endeavours were exerted -to restrain the outrages of the camp; and he represented them with -feeling to Mr. Hastings, who expressed his concurrence, etc.” - -The only other consolation in this detestable affair is, that the -soldiers, in spite of Hastings, got the plunder of the Rajah, and that -the Court of Directors at home censured his conduct. But these are -miserable drops of satisfaction in this huge and overflowing cup of -bitterness,—of misery to trusting, friendly, and innocent people; and -of consequent infamy on the British name. - -We must, out of the multitudes of such cases, confine ourselves to -one more. The atrocities just recited had put Benares into the entire -power of the English, but it had only tended to increase the pecuniary -difficulties. The soldiery had got the plunder—the expenses of the -war were added to the expenses of other wars;—some other kingdom must -be plundered, for booty must be had: so Mr. Hastings continued his -journey, and paid a visit to the Nabob of Oude. It is not necessary -to trace the complete progress of this Nabob’s friendship with the -English. It was exactly like that of the other princes just spoken of. -A treaty was made with him; and then, from time to time, the usual -exactions of money and the maintenance of troops for his own subjection -were heaped upon him. As with the Nabob of Arcot, so with him, they -were ready to sanction and assist him in his most criminal views on -his neighbours, to which his need of money drove him. He proposed to -Mr. Hastings, in 1773, to assist him in _exterminating the Rohillas_, -a people bordering on his kingdom; “a people,” says Mills, “whose -territory was, by far, the best governed part of India: the people -protected, their industry encouraged, and the country flourishing -beyond all parallel.” It was by a careful neutrality, and by these -acts, that the Rohillas sought to maintain their independence; and it -was of such a people that Hastings, sitting at table with his tool, -the Nabob of Oude, coolly heard him offer him a bribe of forty lacs -of rupees (400,000_l._) and the payment of the troops furnished, to -assist him to destroy them utterly! There does not seem to have -existed in the mind of Hastings one human feeling: a proposition which -would have covered almost any other man with unspeakable horror, was -received by him as a matter of ordinary business. “Let us see,” said -Hastings, “we have a heavy bonded debt, at one time 125 lacs of rupees. -By this a saving of near one third of our military expenses would be -effected during the period of such service; the forty lacs would be an -ample supply to our treasury; and the Vizir (the Nabob of Oude) would -be freed from a troublesome neighbour.” These are the monster’s own -words; the bargain was struck, but it was agreed to be kept secret from -the council and court of Directors. In one of Hastings’ letters still -extant, he tells the Nabob, “should the Rohillas be guilty of a breach -of their agreement (a demand of forty lacs suddenly made upon them—for -in this vile affair everything had a ruffian character—they first -demanded their money, and then murdered them), _we will thoroughly -exterminate them_, and settle your excellency in the country.”[17] The -extermination was conducted to the letter, as agreed, as far as was -in their power. The Rohillas defended themselves most gallantly; but -were overpowered,—and their chief, and upwards of a hundred thousand -people fled to the mountains. The whole country lay at the mercy of the -allies, and the British officers themselves declared that perhaps never -were the rights of conquest more savagely abused. Colonel Champion, -one of them, says in a letter of June 1774, published in the Report -alluded to below, “the inhumanity and dishonour with which the late -proprietors of this country and their families have been used, is -known all over these parts. A relation of them would swell this letter -to an enormous size. I could not help compassionating such unparalleled -misery, and my requests to the Vizir to shew lenity were frequent, -but as fruitless as even those advices which I almost hourly gave him -regarding the destruction of the villages; with respect to which he -always promised fair, but did not observe one of his promises, nor -cease to overspread the country with flames, till three days after the -fate of Hafez Rhamet was decided.” The Nabob had frankly and repeatedly -assured Hastings that his intention was to _exterminate_ the Rohillas, -and every one who bore the name of Rohilla was either butchered, or -found his safety in flight and in exile. Such were the diabolical deeds -into which our government drove the native princes by their enormous -exactions, or encouraged them in, only in the end to enslave them the -more. - -Before the connexion between the English and Oude, its revenue had -exceeded three millions sterling, and was levied without being -accused of deteriorating the country. In the year 1779, it did not -exceed one half of that sum, and in the subsequent years it fell far -below it, while the rate of taxation was increased, and the country -exhibited every mark of oppressive exaction.[18] In this year the Nabob -represented to the council the wretched condition to which he was -reduced by their exactions: that the children of the deceased Nabob -had subsisted in a very distressed manner for two years past; that the -attendants, writers, and servants, had received no pay for that period; -that his father’s private creditors were daily pressing him, and there -was not a foot of country which could be appropriated to their payment; -that the revenue was deficient fifteen lacs, (a million and a half -sterling); that the country and cultivation were abandoned; the old -chieftains and useful attendants of the court were forced to leave it; -that the Company’s troops were not only useless, but caused great loss -to the revenue and confusion in the country; and that the support of -his household, on the meanest scale, was beyond his power. - -This melancholy representation produced—what?—pity, and an endeavour -to relieve the Nabob?—no, exasperation. Mr. Hastings declared that, -both it and the crisis in which it was made were equally alarming. The -only thing thought of was what was to be done if the money did not -come in? But Mr. Hastings, on his visit to the Nabob at Lucknow, made -a most lucky discovery. He found that the mother and widow of the late -Nabob were living there, and possessed of immense wealth. His rapacious -mind, bound by no human feeling or moral principle, and fertile in -schemes of acquisition, immediately conceived the felicitous design -of setting the Nabob to strip those ladies, well known to English -readers since the famous trial of Mr. Hastings, as “the Begums.” It -was agreed between the Nabob and Mr. Hastings, that his Highness -should be relieved of the expense which he was unable to bear, of the -English troops and gentlemen; and he, on his part, engaged to strip the -Begums of both their treasure and their jaghires (revenues of certain -lands), delivering to the Governor-general the proceeds. As a plea for -this most abominable transaction, in which a prince was compelled by -his cruel necessities and the grinding exactions and threats of the -English to pillage forcibly his near relatives, a tale of treason was -hatched against these poor women. When they refused to give up their -money, the chief eunuchs were put to the torture till the ladies in -compassion gave way: 550,000_l._ sterling were thus forced from them: -the torture was still continued, in hope of extracting more; the women -of the Zenana were deprived of food at various times till they were on -the point of perishing for want; and every expedient was tried that -the most devilish invention could suggest, till it was found that -they had really drawn the last doit from them. But what more than all -moves one’s indignation against this base English Inquisitor, was, -that he received as his share of these spoils the sum of ten lacs, or -100,000_l._!—and that notwithstanding the law of the Company against -the receipt of presents; its avowed distress for want of money; and -the poverty of the kingdom of Oude, which was thus plundered and -disgraced from the very inability to pay its debts, if debts such -shameful exactions can be called. Hastings did not hesitate to apprise -the council of what he had received, and requested their permission to -retain it for himself. - -Of the numerous transactions of a most wicked character connected with -these affairs; of the repugnance of the Nabob to do the dirty work -of Hastings on his relatives, the Begums; of the haughty insolence -by which his tyrant compelled him to the compact; of the restoration -of the jaghires, but not the moneys to the Begums; of the misery and -desolation which forced itself even upon the horny eyes of Hastings as -he made his second progress through the territories of Oude, the work -of his own oppressions and exactions; of the twelve and a half millions -which he added by his wars and political manœuvres to the Indian -debt—we have not here room to note more than the existence of such -facts, which are well known to all the readers of Indian history, or of -the trial of Warren Hastings, where every artifice of the lawyers was -employed to prevent the evidence of these things being brought forward; -and where a House of Peers was found base or weak enough to be guided -by such artifices, to refuse the most direct evidence against the -most atrocious transactions in history; and thus to give sanction and -security to the commission of the most dreadful crimes and cruelties in -our distant colonies. Nothing could increase from this time the real -power of the English over Oude, though circumstances might occasion a -more open avowal of it. Even during the government of Lord Cornwallis -and Sir John Shore, now Lord Teignmouth, two of the most worthy and -honourable rulers that British India ever had, the miseries and -exactions continued, and the well-intentioned financial measures of -Lord Cornwallis even tended to increase them. In 1798, the governor, -Sir John Shore, proceeded to depose the ruling Nabob as illegitimate -(a plea on which the English set aside a number of Indian princes), -and elevated another in his place, and that upon evidence, says the -historian, “upon which an English court of law would not have decided -against him a question of a few pounds.” - -It was not, however, till 1799, under the government of the Marquis -Wellesley, that the hand of British power was stretched to the utmost -over this devoted district. That honest and avowed usurper, who -disdained the petty acts of his predecessors, but declared that the -British dominion over the peninsula of India must be frankly avowed and -fearlessly asserted—certainly a much better doctrine than the cowardly -and hypocritical one hitherto acted upon;—that every Englishman who -did not belong to the Company must and should be expelled from that -country; and that the English power and the Corporate monopoly should -be so strenuously and unflinchingly exerted, that foreign aggression -or domestic complaint should be alike dispersed;—this straightforward -Governor-general soon drove the Nabob of Oude to such desperation, by -the severity of his measures and exactions, that he declared his wish -to abdicate. Nothing could equal the joy of the Governor-general at the -prospect of this easy acquisition of this entire territory: but that -joy was damped by discovering that the Nabob only wished to resign in -favour of—his own son! The chagrin of the Governor-general on this -discovery is not to be expressed; and the series of operations then -commenced to force the Nabob to abdicate in favour of the Company; when -that could not be effected, to compel him to sacrifice one half of his -territories to save the rest; when that sacrifice was made, to inform -him that he was to have no independent power in his remaining half—is -one of the most instructive lessons in the art of diplomatic fleecing, -of forcing a man out of his own by the forms of treaty but with the -iron-hand of irresistible power, which any despot who wishes to do a -desperate deed handsomely, and in the most approved style, can desire. -It was in vain that the Nabob declared his payment of exactions; his -hereditary right; his readiness shewn on all occasions to aid and -oblige; the force of treaties in his favour. It was in vain that he -asked to what purpose should he give up one half of his dominions if -he were not to have power over the other, when it was to secure this -independent power that he gave up that half? What are all the arguments -of right, justice, reason, or humanity, when Ahab wants the vineyard -of Naboth, and the Jezebel of political and martial power tells him -that she will give it him? The fate of Oude was predetermined, along -with that of various other states, by the Governor-general, and it was -decided as he determined it should be. - -Before we close this chapter, we will give one instance of the manner -in which the territories of those who held aloof, and did not covet the -fatal friendship of the English were obtained, and the most striking of -these are the dominions of Hyder Ali—the kingdom of Mysore. - -Hyder was a soldier of fortune. He had risen by an active and -enterprising disposition from the condition of a common soldier to -the head of the state. The English considered him as an ambitious, -able, and therefore very dangerous person in India. There can be no -doubt that he considered them the same. He was an adventurer; so were -they. He had acquired a great territory by means that would not bear -the strictest scrutiny; so had they;—but there was this difference -between them, Hyder acted according to the customs and maxims in which -he had been educated, and which he saw universally practised by all -the princes around him. He neither had the advantage of Christian -knowledge and principle, nor pretended to them. The English, on the -contrary, came there as merchants; they were continually instructed by -their masters at home not to commit military aggressions. They were -bound by the laws of their country not to do it. They professed to be -in possession of a far higher system of religion and morals than Hyder -and his people had. They pretended to be the disciples of the Prince of -Peace. Their magnanimous creed they declared to be, “To do to others as -they would wish to be done by.” But neither Hyder nor any other Indian -ever saw the least evidence of any such superiority of morals, or of -faith, in their conduct. They were as ambitious, and far more greedy -of money than the heathen that they pretended to despise for their -heathenism. They ought to have set a better example—but they did not. -There never was a people that grasped more convulsively at dominion, or -were less scrupulous in the means of obtaining it. They declared Hyder -cruel and perfidious. He knew them to be both. This was the ground -on which they stood. There were reasons why the English should avoid -interfering with Hyder. There were none why he should avoid encroaching -on them, for he did not profess any such grand principles of action as -they did. If they were what they pretended to be, they ought to preach -peace and union amongst the Indian princes: but union was of all things -in the world the very one which they most dreaded; for they _were not_ -what they pretended to be; but sought on the divisions of the natives -to establish their own power. Had Hyder attacked them in their own -trading districts, there could have been no reason why they should not -chastise him for it. But it does not appear that he ever did attack -them at all till they fell upon him, and that with the avowed intention -to annihilate his power as dangerous. No, say they, but he attacked the -territories of our ally the Subahdar of Deccan, which we were bound to -defend. And here it is that we touch again upon that subtle policy by -which it became impossible, when they had once got a footing in the -country that, having the will and the power, they should not eventually -have the dominion. While professing to avoid conquest, we have seen -that they went on continually making conquests. But it was always on -the plea of aiding their allies. They entered knowingly into alliances -on condition of defending with arms their allies, and then, when they -committed aggressions, it was _for_ these allies. In the end the allies -were themselves swallowed up, with all the additional territories thus -gained. It was a system of fattening allies as we fatten oxen, till -they were more worthy of being devoured. They cast their subtle threads -of policy like the radiating filaments of the spider’s web, till the -remotest extremity of India could not be touched without startling -them from their concealed centre into open day, ready to run upon the -unlucky offender. It was utterly impossible, on such a system, but that -offences should come, and wo to them by whom they did come. - -The English were unquestionably the aggressors in the hostilities -with Hyder. They entered into a treaty with Nizam Ali, the Subahdar -of Deccan, offensive and defensive; and the very first deed which -they were to do, was to seize the fort of Bangalore, which belonged -to Hyder. They had actually marched in 1767 into his territories, -when Hyder found means to draw the Nizam from his alliance, and in -conjunction with him fell upon them, and compelled them to fly to -Trincomalee. By this unprovoked and voluntary act they found themselves -involved at once in a war with a fierce and active enemy, who pursued -them to the very walls of Madras; scoured their country with his -cavalry; and compelled them to a dishonourable peace in 1769, by which -they bound themselves to assist _him_ too in his defensive wars! To -enter voluntarily into such conditions with such a man, betrayed no -great delicacy of moral feeling as to what wars they engaged in, or -no great honesty in their intentions as regarded the treaty itself. -They must soon either fight with some of Hyder’s numerous enemies, or -break faith with him. Accordingly the very next year the Mahrattas -invaded his territories; he called earnestly on his English allies -for aid, and aid they did not give. Hyder had now the justest reason -to term them perfidious, and to hold them in distrust. Yet, though -deeply exasperated by this treachery, he would in 1778 most willingly -have renewed his alliance with them; and the presidency of Madras -acknowledged their belief that, had not the treaty of 1769 been evaded, -Hyder would never have sought other allies than themselves.[19] There -were the strongest reasons why they should have cultivated an amicable -union with him, both to withdraw him from the French, and on account of -his own great power and revenues. But they totally neglected him, or -insulted him with words of mere cold courtesy; and a new aggression -upon the fortress of Mahé, a place tributary to Hyder, which they -attacked in order to expel the French, and which Hyder resented on the -same principle as they would resent an attack upon any tributary of -their own, well warranted the declaration of Hyder, that they “were -the most faithless and usurping of mankind.” They were these arbitrary -and impolitic deeds which brought down Hyder speedily upon them, with -an army 100,000 strong; and soon showed them Madras menaced, the -Carnatic overrun, Arcot taken, and a war of such a desperate and bloody -character raging around them, as they had never yet seen in India, and -which might probably have expelled them thence, had not death released -them in 1782 from so formidable a foe, who had been so wantonly -provoked. - -Tippoo Sultaun, with all his activity and cunning, had not the masterly -military genius of his father,—but he possessed all the fire of his -resentment, and it was not to be expected that, after what had passed, -there could be much interval of irritation between him and the English. -They had roused Hyder as a lion is roused from his den, and he had -made them feel his power. They would naturally look on his son with -suspicion, and Tippoo had been taught to regard them as “the most -faithless and usurping of mankind.” Whatever, therefore, may be said -for or against him, on the breaking out of the second war with him, -the original growth of hostility between the British and the Mysorean -monarchs, must be charged to the former, and in the case of the last -war, there appears to have been no real breach of treaty on the part -of Tippoo. He had been severely punished for any act of irritation -which he might have committed against any of the British allies, by -the reduction of his capital, the surrender of his sons as hostages, -and the stripping away of one half of his territories to be divided -amongst his enemies, each of whom had enriched himself with half a -million sterling of annual revenue at his expense. Tippoo must have -been nothing less than a madman in his shattered condition, and with -his past experience, to have lightly ventured on hostilities with the -English. But it was charged on him that he was seeking an alliance -with the French. What then? He had the clearest right so to do. So -long as he maintained the terms of his treaty, the English had no -just right to violate theirs towards him. The French were his ancient -and hereditary friends. Tippoo persisted to the last that he had done -nothing to warrant an attack upon him; but Lord Mornington had adopted -his notions about consolidating the British power in India, and every -possible circumstance, or suspicion of a circumstance, was to be seized -upon as a plea for carrying his plans into effect. It was enough that -a fear _might_ be entertained of Tippoo’s designs. It became good -policy to get the start; and when once that forestalling system in -hostilities, that outstripping in the race of mischief, is adopted, -there is no possible violence nor enormity which may not be undertaken, -or defended upon it. Tippoo was assailed by the British, and their -ally the Nizam; and though he again and again protested his innocence, -again and again asked for peace, he was pursued to his capital, and -killed bravely defending it. His territories were divided amongst those -who had divided the former half of them in like manner, the English, -the Nizam, and the Mahrattas, with a little state appropriated to a -puppet-rajah. Thus did the English shew what they would do to those who -dared to decline their protection. Thus did they pursue, beat down, and -destroy with all their mighty resources an independent prince, whose -whole revenue, after their first partition of his realm, did not much -exceed a million sterling. We have heard a vast deal in Europe of the -partition of Poland, but how much better was the forcible dismemberment -of Mysore? The injury of this dismemberment of his kingdom is, however, -not the least heaped upon Tippoo. On his name have been heaped all the -odious crimes that make us hate the worst of tyrants. Cruelty, perfidy, -low cunning, and all kinds of baseness, make up the idea of Tippoo -which we have derived from those who profited by his destruction. But -what say the most candid historians? “That the accounts which we have -received from our countrymen, who dreaded and feared him, are marked -with exaggeration, is proved by this circumstance, that his servants -adhered to him with a fidelity which those of few princes in any age -or country have displayed. Of his cruelty we have heard the more, -because our own countrymen were amongst the victims of it. But it is -to be observed, that unless in certain instances, the proof of which -cannot be regarded as better than doubtful, their sufferings, however -intense, were only the sufferings of a very rigorous imprisonment, of -which, considering the manner in which it is lavished upon them by -their own laws, Englishmen ought not to be very forward to complain. At -that very time, in the dungeons of Madras or Calcutta, it is probable -that unhappy sufferers were enduring calamities for debts of 100_l._, -not less atrocious than those which Tippoo, a prince born and educated -in a barbarous country, and ruling over a barbarous people, inflicted -upon imprisoned enemies, part of a nation, who, by the evils they -had brought upon him, exasperated him almost to frenzy, and whom he -regarded as the enemies both of God and man. Besides, there is among -the papers relating to the intercourse of Tippoo with the French, -a remarkable proof of his humanity, which, when these papers are -ransacked for matters to criminate him, ought not to be suppressed. -In a draught of conditions on which he desired to form a treaty with -them, these are the words of a distinct article:—‘demand that male and -female prisoners, as well English as Portuguese, who shall be taken by -the republican troops, or by mine, shall be treated with humanity; and, -with regard to their persons, that they shall (their property becoming -the right of the allies) be transported, at our joint expense, out of -India, to places far distant from the territories of the allies.’ - -“Another feature in the character of Tippoo was his religion, with -a sense of which his mind was most deeply impressed. He spent a -considerable part of every day in prayer. He gave to his kingdom a -particular religious title, _Cudadad_, or God-given; and he lived under -a peculiarly strong and operative conviction of the superintendence -of a Divine Providence. To one of his French advisers, who urged -him zealously to obtain the support of the Mahrattas, he replied, -‘I rely solely on Providence, expecting that I shall be alone and -unsupported; but God and my courage will accomplish everything.’... -He had the discernment to perceive, what is so generally hid from -the eyes of rulers in a more enlightened state of society, that it is -the prosperity of those who labour with their hands which constitutes -the principle and cause of the prosperity of states. He therefore -made it his business to protect them against the intermediate orders -of the community, by whom it is so difficult to prevent them from -being oppressed. His country was, accordingly, at least during the -first and better part of his reign, the best cultivated, and his -population the most flourishing, in India: while under the English and -their pageants, the population of Carnatic and Oude, hastening to the -state of deserts, was the most wretched upon the face of the earth; -and even Bengal itself, under the operations of laws ill adapted to -their circumstances, was suffering almost all the evils which the -worst of governments could inflict.... For an eastern prince he was -full of knowledge. His mind was active, acute, and ingenious. But in -the value which he set upon objects, whether as means, or as an end, -he was almost perpetually deceived. Besides, a conviction appears -to have been rooted in his mind that the English had now formed a -resolution to deprive him of his kingdom, and that it was useless -to negotiate, because no submission to which he could reconcile his -mind, would restrain them in the gratification of their ambitious -designs.”—_Mills._ - -Tippoo was right. The great design of the English, from their first -secure footing in India, was to establish their control over the whole -Peninsula. The French created them the most serious alarm in the -progress of their career towards this object; and any native state -which shewed more than ordinary energy, excited a similar feeling. -For this purpose all the might of British power and policy was exerted -to expel these European rivals, and to crush such more active states. -The administration of the Marquis Wellesley was the exhibition of this -system full blown. For this, all the campaigns against Holkar and -Scindia; the wars from north to south, and from east to west of India, -were undertaken; and blood was made to flow, and debts to accumulate -to a degree most monstrous. Yet the admiration of this system of -policy in England has shewn how little human life and human welfare, -even to this day, weigh in the scale against dominion and avarice. We -hear nothing of the horrors and violence we have perpetrated, from -the first invasion of Bengal, to those of Nepaul and Burmah; we have -only eulogies on the empire achieved:—“See what a splendid empire we -have won!” True,—there is no objection to the empire, if we could -only forget the means by which it has been created. But amid all this -subtle and crooked policy—this creeping into power under the colour -of allies—this extortion and plunder of princes, under the name of -protection—this forcible subjection and expatriation of others, we -look in vain for the generous policy of the Christian merchant, and the -Christian statesman.[20] - -The moderation of a Teignmouth, a Cornwallis, or a Bentinck, is deemed -mere pusillanimity. Those divine maxims of peace and union which -Christianity would disseminate amongst the natives of the countries -that we visit, are condemned as the very obstacles to the growth of our -power. When we exclaim, “what might not Englishmen have done in India -had they endeavoured to pacify and enlighten, instead of to exact and -destroy?” we are answered by a smile, which informs us that these are -but romantic notions,—that the only wisdom is to get rich! - - - - -CHAPTER XVI. - -THE ENGLISH IN INDIA—CONTINUED. - -TREATMENT OF THE NATIVES. - - Rich in the gems of India’s gaudy zone, - And plunder, piled from kingdoms not their own, - Degenerate trade! thy minions could despise, - The heart-born anguish of a thousand cries; - Could lock, with impious hands their teeming store, - While famished nations died along the shore; - Could mock the groans of fellow-men; and bear - The curse of kingdoms peopled with despair; - Could stamp disgrace on man’s polluted name, - And barter, with their gold, eternal shame. - - _Pleasures of Hope._ - - -We have in some degree caught a glimpse of the subject of this chapter -in the course of the last. The treatment of the native chiefs in our -pursuit of territorial possession is in part the treatment of the -natives, but it is unhappily a very small part. The scene of exaction, -rapacity, and plunder which India became in our hands, and that upon -the whole body of the population, forms one of the most disgraceful -portions of human history; and while the temptations to it existed -in full force, defied all the powers of legislation, or the moral -influence of public opinion to check the evil. In vain the East India -Company itself, in vain the British Parliament legislated on the -subject; in vain did the Court of Directors from year to year, send -out the most earnest remonstrances to their servants,—the allurement -was too splendid, the opportunities too seducing, the example too -general, the security too great, to permit any one to attend to either -law, remonstrance, or the voice of humanity. The fame of India, as a -vast region of inexhaustible wealth, had resounded through the world -for ages; the most astonishing notions of it floated through Europe, -before the sea-track to it was discovered; and when that was done, the -marvellous fortunes made there by bold men, as it were in a single -day, and by a single stroke of policy, seemed more than to warrant -any previous belief. Men in power received their presents of ten, -twenty, or a hundred thousand pounds. Clive, for the assistance of the -British army, was presented with the magnificent gift of a jaghire, -or hereditary revenue of 30,000_l._ a year! On another occasion he -received his 28,000_l._, and his fellow-rulers each a similar sum. -Hastings received his twenty and his hundred thousand pounds, as -familiarly as a gold snuff-box or a piece of plate would be given as -a public testimony of respect for popular services, in England. Every -man, according to his station and his influence, found the like golden -harvest. Who could avoid being inflamed with the thirst for Indian -service?—who avoid the most exaggerated anticipations of fortune? -It was a land, and a vast land, hedged about with laws of exclusion -to all except such as went through the doors of the Company. There -were there no interlopers,—no curious, because obstructed observers. -There was but one object in going thither, and one interest when -there. It was a soil made sacred, or rather, doomed, to the exclusive -plunder of a privileged number. The highest officers in the government -had the strongest motives to corruption, and therefore could by no -possibility attempt to check the the same corruption in those below -them. When the power and influence of the Company became considerably -extended over Bengal, Bahar, Orissa, Oude, the Carnatic, and Bombay, -the harvest of presents grew into a most affluent one. Nothing was to -be expected, no chance of justice, of attention, of alleviation from -the most abominable oppression, but through the medium of presents, and -those of such amounts as fairly astonish European ears. Every man, in -every department, whether civil, military, or mercantile, was in the -certain receipt of splendid presents. When the government had found -it necessary to forbid the receipt of presents by any individual in -the service, not only for themselves, but for the Company, the highest -officers set the laws at defiance, and the mischief was made more -secret, but not less existent. - -But besides presents and official incomes, there were the farming of -the revenues, and domestic trade, which opened up boundless sources -of profit. The revenues were received in each district by zemindars -from the ryots or husbandmen, and handed, after a fixed deduction, to -the chief office of the revenue. But between these zemindars and the -ryots were aumils, or other inferior officers, who farmed the revenues -in each lesser district or village; that is, contracted with the -zemindars for the revenues at a certain sum, and took the trouble of -exacting them from the ryots, who paid a rate fixed by law or ancient -custom, and could not be turned out of their lands while such rate was -regularly paid. Wherever the English obtained a claim over the revenues -of a prince, which we have seen they speedily did, they soon became the -zemindars, or their agents, the aumils, or other middlemen between them -and the ryots. Anciently, the ryots paid one tenth of their produce, -for all their taxes were paid in kind, but in time the rate grew to -more than half. When the English power became more fixed and open, -and it was found that under the native zemindars the exactions of the -revenues did not at all satisfy their demands, they took on themselves -the whole business of collecting these revenues. This, as we shall see, -on the evidence of the Company’s own officers, became a dreadful system -to the people. The Mahomedan exactions had been generally regarded more -considerate than those of the native Hindu chiefs; but the grinding -pressure of the English system brought on the unfortunate ryot the most -unexampled misery. Of this, however, anon. It only requires here to -be pointed out as one of the various sources of enormous profits and -jobbing which made India so irresistibly attractive to Englishmen. - -The private trade was another grand source of revenue. The public -trade, that is, the transit of goods to and from Europe, was the -peculiar monopoly of the Company; but all coasting trade—trade to and -between the isles, and in the interior of India, became a monopoly of -the higher servants of the Company, who were at once engaged in the -Company’s concerns and their own. The monopoly of salt, opium, betel, -and other commodities became a mine of wealth. The Company’s servants -could fix the price at whatever rate they pleased, and thus enhance -it to the unfortunate people so as to occasion them the most intense -distress. Fortunes were made in a day by this monopoly, and without -the advance of a single shilling. The very Governor-general himself -engaged in this private trade; and contracts were given to favourites -on such terms, that two or three fortunes were made out of them before -they reached the merchant. In one case that came out on the trial of -Warren Hastings, a contract for opium had been given to Mr. Sullivan, -though he was going into quite a different part of India, and on public -business; this, of course, he sold again, to Mr. Benn, for 40,000_l._; -and Mr. Benn immediately sold it again for 60,000_l._, clearing -20,000_l._ by the mere passing of the contract from one hand to the -other; and the purchaser then declared that he made a large sum by it. - -All these things put together, made India the theatre of sure and -splendid fortune to the adventurer, and of sore and abject misery to -the native. We have only to look about us in any part of England, -but especially in the metropolis, and within fifty miles round it, -to see what streams of wealth have flowed into this country from -India. What thousands of splendid mansions and estates are lying -in view, which, when the traveller inquires their history, have -been purchased by the gold of India. We are told that those days of -magical accumulation of wealth are over; that this great fountain of -affluence is drained comparatively dry; that fortunes are not now -readily made in India; yet the Company, though they have lost their -monopoly of trade, and their territories are laid open to the free -observation of their countrymen, are in possession of the government -with a revenue of twenty millions. But all this time, what has been -doing with and for the natives. We shall see that anon; yet it may -here be asked, What _could_ be doing? For what did men go to India? -For what did they endure its oppressive and often fatal climate? Was -it from philanthropical or personal motives? Did they seek the good -of the Indians or their own? The latter, assuredly: and it was not -to be expected that the majority of men should be so high-minded or -disinterested as to seek the good of others at the expense of their -own. The temptations to visit India were powerful, but not the less -powerful were the motives to hasten away at the very earliest possible -period. It was not to be expected from human nature that the natives -could be much thought of. What _has_ been done for them by the devoted -few, we shall recognise with delight; at present we must revert to the -evil influences of nearly two hundred years. - -Amongst the first to claim our attention, are those doings in high -places which have excited so strongly the cupidity of thousands, and -especially those dazzling presents which became the direct causes of -the most violent exactions on the people, for out of them had all these -things to be drawn. The Company could, indeed, with a very bad grace, -condemn bribery in its officers, for it has always been accused of -this evil practice at home in order to obtain its exclusive privileges -from government; and so early as 1693, it appeared from parliamentary -inquiry, that its annual expenditure under the head of gifts to men -in power previous to the Revolution, seldom exceeded 1,200_l._, -but from that period to that year it had grown to nearly 90,000_l._ -annually. The Duke of Leeds was impeached for a bribe of 5,000_l._, -and 10,000_l._ were even said to be traced to the king.[21] Besides -this, whenever any rival company appeared in the field, government -was tempted with the loans of enormous sums, at the lowest interest. -Like fruits were to be expected in India, and were not long wanting. -We cannot trace this subject to its own vast extent—it would require -volumes—we can only offer a few striking examples:— - -None can be more remarkable than the following list, which, besides -sums that we may suppose it to have been in the power of the receivers -to conceal, and of the amount of which it is not easy to form a -conjecture, were detected and disclosed by the Committee of the House -of Commons in 1773. - -The rupees are valued according to the rate of exchange of the -Company’s bills at the different periods. - - _Account of such sums as have been proved or acknowledged - before the Committee to have been distributed by the - Princes and other natives of Bengal, from the year 1757 - to the year 1766, both inclusive; distinguishing the - principal times of the said distributions, and specifying - the sums received by each person respectively_:— - - Resolution in favour of Meer Jaffier—1757. - - Rupees. Rupees. £. - Mr. Drake (Governor) 280,000 31,500 - Col. Clive, as second in the Select } - Committee } 280,000 - Ditto, as Commander-in-Chief 200,000 - Ditto, as a private donation 1,600,000 - ————————— 2,080,000 234,000 - - - Mr. Watts, as a Member of the } - Committee } 240,000 - Ditto, as a private donation 800,000 - ——————— 1,040,000 117,000 - Major Kilpatrick 240,000 27,000 - Ditto, as a private donation 300,000 33,750 - Mr. Maningham 240,000 27,000 - Mr. Becher 240,000 27,000 - Six Members of Council, one lac each 600,000 68,000 - Mr. Walsh 500,000 56,250 - Mr. Scrafton 200,000 22,500 - Mr. Lushington 50,000 5,625 - Captain Grant 100,000 11,250 - Stipulation to the Navy and Army 600,000 - ————————— - 1,261,075 - Memorandum—the sum of two lacs to Lord - Clive, as Commander-in-Chief, must be deducted - from this account, it being included in - the donation to the army 22,500 - ————————— - 1,238,575 - - - Resolution in favour of Causim in 1760. - - Mr. Sumner 28,000 - Mr. Holwell 270,000 30,937 - Mr. M’Guire 180,000 20,628 - Mr. Smyth 130,300 15,354 - Major Yorke 134,000 15,354 - General Caillaud 200,000 22,916 - Mr. Vansittart, 1762, received seven lacs, but - the two lacs to Gen. Caillaud are included; - so that only five lacs must be accounted for - here 500,000 58,333 - Mr. M’Guire 5,000 gold morhs 75,000 8,750 - ——————— - 200,269 - - Resolution in favour of Jaffier in 1763. - - Stipulation to the Army 2,500,000 291,666 - Ditto to the Navy 1,250,000 145,833 - ——————— - 437,499 - - Major Munro, in 1764, received from Bulwant - Sing 10,000 - Ditto, from the Nabob 3,000 - The Officers belonging to Major Munro’s - family from ditto 3,000 - The Army, from the merchants at Benares 400,000 46,666 - —————— - 62,666 - - Nudjeem ul Dowla’s Accession, 1765. - - Mr. Spencer 200,000 23,333 - Messrs. Pleydell, Burdett, and Grey, one lac each 300,000 35,000 - Mr. Johnstone 237,000 27,650 - Mr. Leycester 112,500 13,125 - Mr. Senior 172,500 20,125 - Mr. Middleton 122,500 14,291 - Mr. Gideon Johnstone 50,000 5,833 - ——————— - 139,357 - - General Carnac received from Bulwant Sing, - in 1765 80,000 9,333 - Ditto from the king 200,000 23,333 - Lord Clive received from the Begum, in 1766 500,000 58,333 - —————— - 90,999 - - Restitution.—Jaffier, 1757. - - East India Company 1,200,000 - Europeans 600,000 - Natives 250,000 - Armenian 100,000 - ————————— - 2,150,000 - - Causim. 1760. - - East India Company 62,500 - - Jaffier. 1763. - - East India Company 375,000 - Europeans, Natives, etc. 600,000 - ——————— - 975,000 - - Peace with Sujah Dowla. - - East India Company 5,000,000 583,333 - ——————— - - Total of Presents, £2,169,665. Restitution, etc., £3,770,833. - Total amount, exclusive of Lord Clive’s Jaghire, £5,940,498. - -These are pretty sums to have fallen into the pockets of the English, -chiefly _douceurs_, in ten years. Let the account be carried on for all -India at a similar rate for a century, and what a sum! Lord Clive’s -jaghire alone was worth 30,000_l._ per annum. And, besides this, -it appears from the above documents that he also pocketed in these -transactions 292,333_l._ No wonder at the enormous fortunes rapidly -made; at the enormous debts piled on the wretched nabobs, and the -dreadful exactions on the still more wretched people. No man could more -experimentally than Clive thus address the Directors at home, as he -did in 1765: “Upon my arrival, I am sorry to say, I found your affairs -in a condition so nearly desperate as would have alarmed any set of -men whose sense of honour and duty to their employers had not been -estranged by the too eager pursuit of their own immediate advantages. -The sudden, and among many, the unwarrantable acquisition of riches -(who was so entitled to say this?) had introduced luxury in every -shape, and in its most pernicious excess. These two enormous evils -went hand in hand together through the whole presidency, infecting -almost every member of every department. Every inferior seemed to have -grasped at wealth, that he might be enabled to assume that spirit -of profusion which was now the only distinction between him and his -superiors. Thus all distinction ceased, and every rank became, in a -manner, upon an equality. Nor was this the end of the mischief; for a -contest of such a nature amongst our servants necessarily destroyed all -proportion between their wants and the honest means of satisfying them. -In a country _where money is plenty, where fear is the principle of -government, and where your arms are ever victorious, it is no wonder -that the lust of riches should readily embrace the proffered means of -its gratification, or that the instruments of your power should avail -themselves of their authority, and proceed even to extortion in those -cases where simple corruption could not keep pace with their rapacity_. -Examples of this sort, set by superiors, could not fail being followed, -in a proportionate degree, by inferiors. The evil was contagious, and -spread among the civil and military, down to the writer, the ensign, -and the free merchant.”—Clive’s Letter to the Directors, Third Report -of Parliamentary Committee, 1772. - -The Directors replied to this very letter, lamenting their conviction -of its literal truth.—“We have the strongest sense of the deplorable -state to which our affairs were on the point of being reduced, from the -corruption and rapacity of our servants, and _the universal depravity -of manners throughout the settlement_. The general relaxation of all -discipline and obedience, both military and civil, was hastily tending -to a dissolution of all government. Our letter to the Select Committee -expresses our sentiments of what has been obtained by way of donations; -and to that we must add, that we think the vast fortunes acquired in -the inland trade _have been obtained by a scene of the most tyrannic -and oppressive conduct that was ever known in any age or country_!” - -But however the Directors at home might lament, they were too far -off to put an end to this “scene of the most tyrannic and oppressive -conduct that was ever known in any age or country.” This very same -grave and eloquent preacher on this oppression and corruption, Clive, -was the first to set the example of contempt of the Directors’ orders, -and commission of those evil practices. The Directors had sent out -fresh covenants to be entered into by all their servants, both civil -and military, binding them not to receive presents, nor to engage in -inland trade; but it was found that the governor had not so much as -brought the new covenants under the consideration of the council. The -receipt of presents, and the inland trade by the Company’s servants -went on with increased activity. When at length these covenants were -forwarded to the different factories and garrisons, General Carnac, -and everybody else signed them. General Carnac however delayed his -signing of them till he had time to obtain a present of two lacs of -rupees (upwards of 20,000_l._) from the reduced and impoverished -Emperor. Clive appointed a committee to inquire into these matters, -which brought to light strange scenes of rapacity, and of “threats to -extort gifts.” But what did Clive? He himself entered largely into -private trade and into a vast monopoly of salt, an article of the -most urgent necessity to the people; and this on the avowed ground of -wishing some gentlemen whom he had brought out to make a fortune. His -committee sanctioned the private trade in salt, betel-nut, and tobacco, -out of which nearly all the abuses and miseries he complained of had -grown, only confining it to the _superior servants_ of the Company: -and he himself, when the orders of the Directors were laid before -him in council, carelessly turned them aside, saying, the Directors, -when they wrote them, could not know what changes had taken place in -India. No! they did not know that he and his council were now partners -in the salt trade, and realizing a profit, including interest, of -upwards of fifty per cent.! Perhaps Clive thought he had done a great -service when he had attempted to lessen the number of harpies by -cutting off the trading of the juniors, and thus turning the tide of -gain more completely into his own pockets, and those of his fellows -of the council. It must have been a very provoking sight to one with -a development of acquisitiveness so ample as his own, to witness what -Verelst, in his “View of Bengal,” describes as then existing. “At this -time many black merchants found it expedient to purchase the name of -any young writer in the Company’s service by loans of money, and under -this sanction harassed and oppressed the natives. So plentiful a supply -was derived from this source, that many young writers were enabled to -spend 1500_l._ and 2000_l._ per annum, were clothed in fine linen, -and fared sumptuously every day.” What were the miseries and insolent -oppressions under which the millions of Bengal were made to groan by -such practices, and by the lawless violence with which the revenues -were collected about that period by the English, may be sufficiently -indicated by the following passages. Mr. Hastings, in a letter to the -President Vansittart, dated Bauglepore, April 25th, 1762, says—“I beg -to lay before you a grievance which loudly calls for redress, and will, -unless duly attended to, render ineffectual any endeavour to create a -firm and lasting harmony between the Nabobs and the Company: I mean -the oppressions committed under the sanction of the English name, and -through the want of spirit to oppose them. The evil, I am well assured, -is not confined to our dependents alone, _but is practised all over -the country, by people falsely assuming the habit of our sepoys, or -calling themselves our gomastahs_. On such occasions, the great power -of the English intimidates the people from making any resistance; so, -on the other hand, the indolence of the Bengalees, or the difficulty -of gaining access to those who might do them justice, prevents our -having knowledge of the oppressions. I have been surprised to meet with -several English flags flying in places which I have passed; and on the -river I do not believe I passed a boat without one. By whatever title -they have been assumed, I am sure their frequency can boast no good to -the Nabob’s revenues, the quiet of the country, or the honour of our -nation. A party of sepoys, who were on the march before us, afforded -sufficient proofs of the rapacious and insolent spirit of these people -when they are left to their own discretion. Many complaints against -them were made to us on the road; _and most of the petty towns and -serais were deserted at our approach, and the shops shut up, from the -apprehension of the same treatment from us_.” - -Mr. Vansittart endeavoured zealously to put a stop to such abominable -practices; but what could he do? The very members of the council were -deriving vast emoluments from this state of things, and audaciously -denied its existence. Under such sanction, every inferior plunderer -set at defiance the orders of the president and the authority of the -officers appointed to prevent the commission of such oppressions on the -natives. The native collectors of the revenue, when they attempted to -levy, under the express sanction of the governor, the usual duties on -the English, were not only repelled by them, but seized and punished -as enemies of the Company and violaters of its privileges. The native -judges and magistrates were resisted in the discharge of their duties; -and even their functions usurped. Everything was in confusion, and many -of the zemindars and other collectors refused to be answerable for -the revenues. Even the nabob’s own officers were refused the liberty -to make purchases on his account. One of them, of high connexions -and influence, was seized for having purchased from the nabob some -saltpetre; the trade in which they claimed as belonging exclusively -to them. He was put in irons and sent to Calcutta, where some of the -council voted for having him publicly whipped, others desired that -his ears might be cut off, and it was all that the president could -effect to get him sent back to his own master to be punished. In Mr. -Vansittart’s own narrative, is given a letter from one officer to the -nabob, complaining that though he was furnished with instructions to -send away Europeans who were found committing disorders to Calcutta, -notwithstanding any pretence they shall make for so doing; he had used -persuasions, and conciliated, and found them of no avail. That he had -then striven by gentle means to stop their violences; upon which he -was threatened that if he interfered with them or their servants, they -would treat him in such a manner as should cause him to repent. That -all their servants had boasted publicly, that this was what would be -done to him did he presume to meddle. He adds, “Now sir, I am to inform -you what I have obstructed them in. _This place (Backergunge) was of -great trade formerly, but now brought to nothing by the following -practices._ A gentleman sends a gomastah here to buy or sell. He -immediately looks upon himself as sufficient to force every inhabitant -either to buy his goods, or to force them to sell him theirs; and -on refusal, or non-capacity, a flogging or confinement immediately -ensues. This is not sufficient even when willing; but a second force is -made use of, which is, to engross the different branches of trade to -themselves, and not to suffer any persons to buy or sell the articles -they trade in. They compel the people to buy or sell at just what rate -they please, and my interfering occasions an immediate complaint. -These, _and many other oppressions which are daily practised_, are the -reasons that this place is growing destitute of inhabitants.... Before, -justice was given in the public cutcheree, but now every gomastah is -become a judge; they even pass sentence on the zemindars themselves; -and draw money from them for pretended injuries.” - -Such was the state of the country in 1762, as witnessed by Mr. -Hastings, and such it continued till Clive’s government,—Clive, who -so forcibly described it to the Directors; and what did Clive do? He -aggravated it, enriched himself enormously by the very system, and -so left it. Such it continued till Mr. Hastings,—this Mr. Hastings, -who so feelingly had written his views and abhorrence of it to the -President Vansittart, came into supreme power, and what did the wise -and benevolent Mr. Hastings? He became the Aaron’s-rod of gift-takers; -the prince of exactors, and the most unrelenting oppressor of the -natives that ever visited India, or perhaps any other country. In -the mean time this system of rapacity and extortion had reduced the -people to the most deplorable condition of poverty and wretchedness -imaginable. The monopoly of trade, and the violent abduction of all -their produce in the shape of taxes, dispirited them to the most -extreme degree, and brought on the country those famines and diseases -for which that period is so celebrated. In 1770 occurred that dreadful -famine, which has throughout Europe excited so much horror of the -English. They have been accused of having directly created it, by -buying up all the rice, and refusing to sell any of it except at the -most exorbitant price. The author of the “Short History of the English -Transactions in the East Indies,” thus boldly states the fact. Speaking -of the monopoly just alluded to, of salt, betel-nut, and tobacco, he -says, “Money in this current came but by drops. It could not quench -the thirst of those who waited in India to receive it. An expedient, -such as it was, remained to quicken it. The natives could live with -little salt, but could not want food. Some of the agents saw themselves -well situated for collecting the rice into stores; they did so. They -knew that the Gentoos would rather die than violate the principles -of their religion by eating flesh. The alternative would therefore -be between _giving what they had_, or _dying_! The inhabitants sunk. -They that cultivated the land, and saw the harvest at the disposal of -others, planted in doubt; scarcity ensued. Then the monopoly was easier -managed,—sickness ensued. In some districts, the languid living left -the bodies of their numerous dead unburied.”—p. 145. - -Many and ingenious have been the attempts to remove this awful -opprobrium from our national character. It has been contended that -famines are, or were of frequent occurrence in India;—that the -natives had no providence; and that to charge the English with the -miserable consequences of this famine is unreasonable, because it was -what they could neither foresee nor prevent. Of the drought in the -previous autumn there is no doubt; but there is unhappily as little, -that the regular rapacity of the English had reduced the natives to -that condition of poverty, apathy, and despair, in which the slightest -derangement of season must superinduce famine;—that they were grown -callous to the sufferings of their victims, and were as alive to -their gain by the rising price through the scarcity, as they were in -all other cases. Their object was sudden wealth, and they cared not, -in fact, whether the natives lived or died, so that that object was -effected. This is the relation of the Abbé Raynal, a foreign historian, -and the light in which this event was beheld by foreign nations. - -“It was by a drought in 1769, at the season when the rains are -expected, that there was a failure of the great harvest of 1769, and -the less harvest of 1770. It is true that the rice on the higher -grounds did not suffer greatly by this disturbance of the seasons, but -there was far from a sufficient quantity for the nourishment of all the -inhabitants of the country; add to which the English, who were engaged -beforehand to take proper care of their subsistence, as well as of -the Sepoys belonging to them, did not fail to keep locked up in their -magazines a part of the grain, though the harvest was insufficient.... -This scourge did not fail to make itself felt throughout Bengal. Rice, -which is commonly sold for one sol (1/2d.) for three pounds, was -gradually raised so high as four or even six sols (3d.) for one pound; -neither, indeed, was there any to be found, except in such places where -the Europeans had taken care to collect it for their own use. - -“The unhappy Indians were perishing every day by thousands under this -want of sustenance, without any means of help and without any revenue. -They were to be seen in their villages; along the public ways; in the -midst of our European colonies,—pale, meagre, emaciated, fainting, -consumed by famine—some stretched on the ground in expectation -of dying; others scarce able to drag themselves on to seek any -nourishment, and throwing themselves at the feet of the Europeans, -entreating them to take them in as their slaves. - -“To this description, which makes humanity shudder, let us add other -objects, equally shocking. Let imagination enlarge upon them, if -possible. Let us represent to ourselves, infants deserted, some -expiring on the breasts of their mothers; everywhere, the dying and the -dead mingled together; on all sides, the groans of sorrow and the tears -of despair; and we shall then have some faint idea of the horrible -spectacle which Bengal presented for the space of six weeks. - -“During this whole time, the Ganges was covered with carcases; the -fields and highways were choked up with them; infectious vapours filled -the air, and diseases multiplied; and one evil succeeding another, -it appeared not improbable that the plague would carry off the total -population of that unfortunate kingdom. It appears, by calculations -pretty generally acknowledged, that the famine carried off a fourth -part, that is to say—_about three millions_! What is still more -remarkable, is, that such a multitude of human creatures, amidst this -terrible distress, remained in absolute inactivity. All the Europeans, -especially the English, were possessed of magazines. These were not -touched. Private houses were so too. No revolt, no massacre, not the -least violence prevailed. The unhappy Indians, resigned to despair, -confined themselves to the request of succours they did not obtain; and -peacefully awaited the relief of death. - -“Let us now represent to ourselves any part of Europe afflicted with a -similar calamity. What disorder! what fury! what atrocious acts! what -crimes would ensue! How should we have seen amongst us Europeans, some -contending for their food, dagger in hand, some pursuing, some flying, -and without remorse massacring one another! How should we have seen -men at last turn their rage on themselves; tearing and devouring their -own limbs; and, in the blindness of despair, trampling under foot all -authority, as well as every sentiment of nature and reason! - -“Had it been the fate of the English to have had the like events to -dread on the part of the people of Bengal, perhaps the famine would -have been less general and less destructive. For, setting aside, as -perhaps we ought, every charge of monopoly, no one will undertake to -defend them against the reproach of negligence and insensibility. And -in what a crisis have they merited that reproach? In the very instant -of time in which the life or death of several millions of their -fellow-creatures was in their power. One would think that in such -alternative, the very love of humankind, that sentiment innate in all -hearts, might have inspired them with resources.”—i. 460-4. - -CHAPTER XVII. - -THE ENGLISH IN INDIA, CONTINUED.—TREATMENT OF THE NATIVES, CONTINUED. - - -“If,” says the same historian, in whose language we concluded the last -chapter, “to this picture of public oppressions we were to add that of -private extortions, we should find the agents of the Company almost -everywhere exacting their tribute with extreme rigour, and raising -contributions with the utmost cruelty. We should see them carrying -a kind of inquisition into every family, and sitting in judgment on -every fortune; robbing indiscriminately the artizan and the labourer; -imputing it often to a man, as a crime, that he is not sufficiently -rich, and punishing him accordingly. We should view them selling their -favour and their credit, as well to oppress the innocent as to oppress -the guilty. We should find, in consequence of these irregularities, -despair seizing every heart, and an universal dejection getting the -better of every mind, and uniting to put a stop to the progress and -activity of commerce, agriculture, and population.” This, which is the -language of a foreigner, was also the language of the Directors at -the same period, addressed to their servants in India. They complained -that their “orders had been disregarded; that oppression pervaded the -whole country; that youths had been suffered with impunity to exercise -sovereign jurisdiction over the natives, and to acquire rapid fortunes -by monopolizing commerce.” They ask “whether there be a thing which -had not been made a monopoly of? whether the natives are not more -than ever oppressed and wretched?” They were just then appointing -Mr. Hastings their first Governor-general, and expressed a hope that -he would “set an example of temperance, economy, and application.” -Unfortunately Mr. Hastings set an example of a very different kind. It -was almost immediately after his appointment to his high station that -he entered into that infamous bargain with the Nabob of Oude for the -extermination of the Rohillas; and during his government scarcely a -year passed without the most serious charges being preferred against -him to the supreme council, of which he himself was the head, of his -reception of presents and annuities contrary to the express injunctions -of the Company, and for the purpose of corrupt appointments. In 1775 -he was charged with the receipt of 15,000 rupees, as a bribe for the -appointment of the Duan of Burdwan, or manager of the revenues; in -1776, of receiving an annual salary from the Phousdar of Hoogly of -36,000 rupees for a similar cause. About the same time it came out -too, that in 1772, that is, immediately on entering the governorship, -he received from the Munny Begum a present of one lac and a half of -rupees, for appointing her the guardian and superintendent of the -affairs of the Nabob of Bengal, a minor; and the same sum had been -received by Mr. Middleton, his agent. The council felt itself bound to -receive evidence on these charges. The Maha Rajah Nundcomar, who had -been appointed to various important offices by Mr. Hastings himself, -came forward and accused the governor of acquitting Mahmud Reza Khan, -the Naib Duan of Bengal, and Rajah Shitabroy the Naib Duan of Bahar, -of vast embezzlements in their accounts, and also offered proof of the -bribe of upwards of three and a half lacs from Munny Begum and Rajah -Gourdass. What answer did he make to these charges? He refused to enter -into them; but immediately commenced a prosecution of Nundcomar, on -a charge of conspiracy; which failing, he had him tried on a charge -of forgery, said to be committed five years before. On this he was -convicted by a jury of Englishmen, and hanged, though the crime was -not capital by the laws of his country. This was a circumstance that -cast the foulest suspicions upon him. It was said that a man standing -in the position and peculiar circumstances of the governor, accused of -the high crimes of bribery and corruption, would, had he been innocent, -have used every exertion to have saved the life of an accuser, had he -been prosecuted by others, instead of himself hastening him out of -the way; which must leave the irresistible conviction in the public -mind, of his own guilt. But on the celebrated trial of Mr. Hastings, -this was exactly the mode in which every accusation was met. When the -most celebrated men of the time had united to reiterate these and -other charges; when he stood before the House of Peers, impeached by -the Commons, instead of standing forward as a man conscious of his -innocence, and glad of the opportunity to clear his name from such foul -taint, every technical obstruction which the ingenuity of his council -could devise was thrown in the way of evidence. When the evidence of -this Rajah Nundcomar, as taken by the supreme council of Calcutta, -was tended, it was rejected because it was not given in the council -upon oath; though Mr. Hastings well knew that the Hindoos never gave -evidence upon oath, being contrary to their religion; that it was never -required,—that this very evidence had been received by the council -as legal; and that he himself had always contended during his own -government, that such evidence was legal. When a letter of Munny Begum -was presented, proving the reception of her bribe by Mr. Hastings, -that letter was not admitted because it was merely a copy, though an -attested one; the original letter itself was however produced, and -persons high in office in India at the time of the transaction, came -forward to swear to the hand and seal as those of the Begum. And what -then? the original letter itself was rejected because it made part of -the evidence before the council, which had been rejected before on -other grounds! - -Such was the manner in which these and the other great charges against -this celebrated governor, which we have noticed in a former chapter, -were met. Every piece of decisive evidence against him was resisted by -every possible means: so that had he been the most innocent man alive, -the only conviction that could remain on the mind of the public must -have been that of his guilt. He had neither acted like an innocent, -high-minded man, to whom the imputation of guilt is intolerable, -himself in India, nor had his advocates in England been instructed -to do so. Evidence on every charge, of the most conclusive nature, -was offered, and resolutely rejected; and spite of all the endeavours -to clear the memory of Warren Hastings of cruelty and corruption, the -very conduct of himself and his counsel on the trial, must stamp the -accusing verdict indelibly on his name. - -But his individual conduct is here of no further concern than to -shew what must have been the contagion of his example, and what the -license given by the House of Peers, by the rejection of evidence -in such a case, to all future adventurers in India. Well might -Burke exclaim, “That it held out to all future governors of Bengal -the most certain and unbounded impunity. Peculation in India would -be no longer practised, as it used to be, with caution and with -secresy. It would in future stalk abroad at noon-day, and act without -disguise; because, after such a decision as had just been made by -their lordships, there was no possibility of bringing into a court -the proofs of peculation.” And indeed every misery which the combined -evils of war, official plunder, and remorseless exaction could heap -upon the unhappy natives, seems to have reigned triumphant through -the British provinces and dependencies of India at this period. The -destructive contests with Hyder Ali, the ravages of the English and -their ally, the Nabob of Arcot, in Tanjore and the Marawars, were -necessarily productive of extreme ruin and misery. During Mr. Hastings’ -government the duannee, or management of the revenues was assumed in -Bengal by the English. Reforms both in the mode of collecting the -taxes and in the administration of justice were attempted. The lands -were offered on leases of five years, and those leases put up to -auction to the best bidders. The British Parliament in 1773 appointed -a Supreme Court of Judicature, in which English judges administered -English law. But as the great end aimed at was not the relief of the -people, but the increase of the amount of taxation, these changes were -only disastrous to the natives. Native officers were in many cases -removed, and the native ryots only the more oppressed. Every change, -in fact, seemed to be tried except the simple and satisfactory one of -reducing the exactions and cultivating the blessings of peace. Ten -years after these changes had been introduced, and had been all this -time inflicting unspeakable calamities on the people, Mr. Dundas moved -inquiry into Indian affairs, and pronounced the most severe censures -on both the Indian Presidencies and the Court of Directors. He accused -the Presidencies, and that most justly, of plunging the nation into -wars for the sake of conquest, of contemning and violating treaties, -and plundering and oppressing the people of India. The Directors he -charged with blaming the misconduct of their servants only when it was -unattended with profit, and exercising a very constant forbearance as -often as it was productive of gain or territory. - -Of the effects of his own military and financial changes Mr. Hastings -had a good specimen in his journey through the province of Benares -in 1784. This was only three years after he had committed the -atrocities in this province, related in a former chapter, and driven -the Rajah from his throne; and these are his own words, in a letter -to the Council, dated Lucknow, April, 1784:—“From the confines of -Buxar to Benares, I was followed and fatigued by the clamours of the -discontented inhabitants. The distresses which were produced by the -long-continued drought unavoidably tended to heighten the general -discontent: yet I have reason to fear that the cause principally -existed in a defective, if not a corrupt and oppressive administration. -From Buxar to the opposite boundary I have seen nothing but traces of -complete devastation in every village.” And what had occasioned those -devastations? The wars and the determined resolve introduced by Mr. -Hastings himself, to have the very uttermost amount that could be wrung -from the people. - -For the sort of persons to whom Mr. Hastings was in the habit of -farming out the revenues of the provinces, and the motives for which -they were appointed, we must refer to particulars which came out on -his trial respecting such men as Kelleram, Govind Sing, and Deby Sing; -but nothing can give a more lively idea of the horrid treatment which -awaited the poor natives under such monsters as these collectors, than -the statements then made of the practices of the last mentioned person, -Deby or Devi Sing. This man was declared to have been placed on his -post for corrupt ends. He was a man of the most infamous character; yet -that did not prevent Mr. Hastings placing him in such a responsible -office, though he himself declared on the trial that he “so well knew -the character and abilities of Rajah Deby Sing that he could easily -conceive it was in his power both to commit great enormities and to -conceal the real grounds of them from the British collectors in the -district.”— Well, notwithstanding this opinion, the Rajah offered -a very convenient sum of money, four lacs of rupees—upwards of -40,000_l._—and he was appointed renter of the district of Dinagepore. -Complaints of his cruelties were not long in arriving at Calcutta. -Mr. Patterson, a gentleman in the Company’s service, was sent as a -commissioner to inquire into the charges against him; and the account -of them, as given by Mr. Patterson, is thus quoted by Mills, from “The -History of the Trial of Warren Hastings, Esq.” - -“The poor ryots, or husbandmen, were treated in a manner that would -never gain belief if it was not attested by the records of the Company: -and Mr. Burke thought it necessary to apologize to their lordships for -the horrid relation with which he would be obliged to harrow their -feelings. The worthy Commissioner Patterson, who had authenticated -the particulars of this relation, had wished, that for the credit of -human nature, he might have drawn a veil over them; but as he had been -sent to inquire into them, he must, in the discharge of his duty state -those particulars, however shocking they were to his feelings. The -cattle and corn of the husbandmen were sold for a third of their value, -and their huts reduced to ashes! The unfortunate owners were obliged -to borrow from usurers, that they might discharge their bonds, which -had unjustly and illegally been extorted from them while they were in -confinement; and such was the determination of the infernal fiend, Devi -Sing, to have these bonds discharged, that the wretched husbandmen -were obliged to borrow money, not at twenty, or thirty, or forty, or -fifty, but at SIX HUNDRED per cent. to satisfy him! Those who could -not raise the money were most cruelly tortured. _Cords were drawn -tight round their fingers, till the flesh of the four on each hand was -actually incorporated, and became one solid mass. The fingers were then -separated again by wedges of iron and wood driven in between them!_ -Others were tied, two and two, by the feet, and thrown across a wooden -bar, upon which they hung with their feet uppermost. They were then -beat on the soles of the feet till the toe-nails dropped off! They were -afterwards beat about the head till the blood gushed out at the mouth, -nose, and ears. They were also flogged upon the naked body with bamboo -canes, and prickly bushes, and above all, with some poisonous weeds, -which were of a caustic nature, and burnt at every touch. The cruelty -of the monster who had ordered all this, had contrived how to tear the -mind as well as the body. He frequently had a father and son tied naked -to one another by the feet and arms, and then flogged till the skin -was torn from the flesh; and he had the devilish satisfaction to know, -that every blow must hurt; for if one escaped the son, his sensibility -was wounded by the knowledge he had, that the blow had fallen upon his -father. The same torture was felt by the father, when he knew that -every blow that missed him had fallen upon his son. - -“The treatment of the females could not be described. Dragged from the -inmost recesses of their houses, which the religion of the country -had made so many sanctuaries, they were exposed naked to public view. -The Virgins were carried to the Court of Justice, where they might -naturally have looked for protection, but they now looked for it in -vain; for in the face of the ministers of justice, in the face of the -spectators, in the face of the sun, those tender and modest virgins -were brutally violated. The only difference between their treatment -and that of their mothers was, that the former were dishonoured in the -face of day, the latter in the gloomy recesses of their dungeon. Other -females had the nipples of their breasts put in a cleft bamboo, and -torn off.” What follows is too shocking and indecent to transcribe! -It is almost impossible, in reading of these frightful and savage -enormities, to believe that we are reading of a country under the -British government, and that these unmanly deeds were perpetrated by -British agents, and for the purpose of extorting the British revenue. -Thus were these innocent and unhappy people treated, because Warren -Hastings wanted money, and sold them to a wretch whom he knew to be a -wretch, for a bribe; thus were they treated, because Devi Sing had paid -his four lacs of rupees, and must wring them again out of the miserable -ryots, though it were with their very life’s blood, and with fire and -torture before unheard of even in the long and black catalogue of -human crimes. And it should never be forgotten, that though Mr. Burke -pledged himself, if permitted, under the most awful imprecations, to -prove every word of this barbarous recital, such permission was stoutly -refused; and that, moreover, the evidence of the Commissioner Patterson -stands in the Company’s own records. - -But it was not merely the commission of these outrages which the poor -inhabitants had to endure. The English courts of justice, which should -have protected them, became an additional means of torture and ruin. -The writs of the supreme court were issued at the suit of individuals -against the zemindars of the country in ordinary actions of debt. -They were dragged from their families and affairs, with the frequent -certainty of leaving them to disorder and ruin, any distance, even -as great as 500 miles, to give bail at Calcutta; a thing, which, if -they were strangers, and the sum more than trifling, it was next to -impossible they should have in their power. In default of this, they -were consigned to prison for all the many months which the delays -of English judicature might interpose between this calamitous stage -and the termination of the suit. Upon the affidavit, into the truth -of which no inquiry was made, upon the unquestioned affidavit of any -person whatsoever—a person of credibility, or directly the reverse, no -difference—the natives were seized, carried to Calcutta, and consigned -to prison, where, even when it was afterwards determined that they were -not within the jurisdiction of the court, and, of course, that they had -been unjustly persecuted, they were liable to lie for several months, -and whence they were dismissed totally without compensation. Instances -occurred, in which defendants were brought from a distance to the -Presidency, and when they declared their intention of pleading, that -is, objecting to the jurisdiction of the court, the prosecution was -dropped; but was again renewed; the defendant brought down to Calcutta, -and again upon his offering to plead, the prosecution was dropped. The -very act of being seized, was in India, the deepest disgrace, and so -degraded a man of any rank that, under the Mahomedan government, it -never was attempted but in cases of the utmost delinquency.[22] - -In merely reading these cases of - - The proud man’s contumely, the oppressor’s wrong, - -it is difficult to repress the burning indignation of one’s spirit. -What shame, what disgrace, that under the laws of England, and in a -country to which we owe so much wealth and power, such a system of -reckless and desperate injustice should for a long series of years -have been practising! But if it be difficult to read of it without -curses and imprecations, what must it have been to bear? How must -the wretched, hopeless, harassed, persecuted, and outraged people -have called on Brahma for that tenth Avatar which should sweep their -invincible, their iron-handed and iron-hearted oppressors, as a swarm -of locusts from their fair land! Let any one imagine what must be the -state of confusion when the zemindars, or higher collectors of the -revenues were thus plagued in the sphere of their arduous duties, and -called out of it, to the distant capital. When they were degraded in -the eyes, and removed from the presence of the ryots, what must have -been the natural consequence, but neglect and license on the part -of the ryot, only too happy to obtain a little temporary ease? But -the ryots themselves did not escape, as we have already seen. Such, -however, continued this dismal state of things to the very end of the -century. Lord Cornwallis complained in 1790, “that excepting the class -of shroffs and banyans, who reside almost entirely in great towns, the -inhabitants of these provinces were hastily advancing to a general -state of poverty and wretchedness.” Lord Cornwallis projected _his_ -plans, and in 1802, Sir Henry Strachey, in answer to interrogatories -sent to the Indian judges, drew a gloomy picture of the result of -all the schemes of finance and judicature that had been adopted. He -represented that the zemindars, by the sale of their lands, in default -of the payment of their stipulated revenue, were almost universally -destroyed, or were reduced to the condition of the lowest ryots. That, -in one year (1796) nearly one tenth of all the lands in Bengal, Bahar, -and Orissa, had been advertised for sale. That in two years alone, of -the trial of the English courts, the accumulated causes threatened to -arrest the course of justice: in one single district of Burdwan more -than thirty thousand suits were before the judge; and that no candidate -for justice could expect it in the course of an ordinary life. “The -great men, formerly,” said Sir Henry, “were the Mussulman rulers, whose -places we have taken, and the Hindoo zemindars. These two classes are -now ruined and destroyed.” He adds, “exaction of revenue is now, I -presume, and, perhaps, always was, the most prevailing crime throughout -the country; and I know not how it is that extortioners appear to us -in any other light than that of the worst and most pernicious species -of robbers.” He tells us that the lands of the Mahrattas in the -neighbourhood of his district, Midnapore, were more prosperous than -ours, though they were without regular courts of justice, or police. -“Where,” says he, “no battles are fought, the ryots remain unmolested -by military exactions, and the zemindars are seldom changed, the -country was in high cultivation, and the population frequently superior -to our own.” - -Such was the condition and treatment of the natives of Indostan, at the -commencement of the present century. In another chapter, on our policy -and conduct in this vast and important region—it remains only to -take a rapid glance at the effect of these two centuries of despotism -upon these subjected millions, and to inquire what we have since been -doing towards a better state of things,—more auspicious to them, and -honourable to ourselves. - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII. - -THE ENGLISH IN INDIA, CONTINUED. - - We are accustomed to govern India—a country which God - never gave us, by means which God will never justify. - - _Lord Erskine—Speech on Stockdale’s Trial._ - - -We have traced something of the misery which a long course of avarice -and despotism has inflicted on the natives of India, but we have not -taken into the account its moral effect upon them. Generation after -generation of Englishmen flocked over to Indostan, to gather a harvest -of wealth, and to return and enjoy it at home. Generation after -generation of Indians arose to create this wealth for their temporary -visitors, and to sink deeper and deeper themselves into poverty. Happy -had it been for them, had poverty and physical wretchedness come alone. -But the inevitable concomitant of slavery and destitution appeared -with them, and to every succeeding generation in a more appalling -form—demoralization, vast as their multitude and dreadful as their -condition. They were not more unhappy than they were degraded in -spirit and debased in feeling. Ages of virtual though not nominal -slavery, beneath Mahomedan and Christian masters, had necessarily -done their usual work on the Hindus. They had long ceased to be the -gentle, the pure-minded, the merciful Hindus. They had become cruel, -thievish, murderous, licentious, as well as blindly superstitious. -They had seen no religious purity, no moral integrity practised—how -were they to become pure and honest? They had felt only cruelty and -injustice—how were they to be anything but cruel and unjust? They -had seen from age to age, from day to day, from hour to hour, every -sacred tie of blood or honour, every moral obligation, every great and -eternal principle of human action violated around them—how were they -to reverence such things? How were they to regard them but as solemn -and unprofitable mockeries? They were accordingly corrupted into a -mean, lying, depraved, and perfidious generation—could the abject -tools of a money-scraping race of conquerors be anything else?—was -it probable? was it possible? Philosophers and poetical minds, when -such, now and then, reached India, were astonished to find, instead of -those delicate and spiritual children of Brahma, of whom they had read -such delightful accounts—a people so sordid, and in many instances so -savage and cruel. They had not calculated, as they might have done, the -certain consequences of long years of slavery’s most fatal inflictions. -What an eternal debt of generous and Christian retribution do we owe -India for all this! What, indeed, are the pangs we have occasioned, -the poverty we have created, the evils of all kinds that we have -perpetrated, to the moral degradation we have induced, and the gross -darkness, gross superstition, the gross sensuality we have thus, in -fact, fostered and perpetuated? Had we appeared in India as Christians -instead of conquerors; as just merchants instead of subtle plotters, -shunning the name of tyrants while we aimed at the most absolute -tyranny; had we been as conspicuous for our diffusion of knowledge as -for our keen, ceaseless, and insatiable gathering of coin; long ago -that work would have been done which is but now beginning, and our -power would have acquired the most profound stability in the affections -and the knowledge of the people. - -At the period of which I have been speaking—the end of the last and -the opening of the present century, the character of the Hindus, as -drawn by eye witnesses of the highest authority, was most deplorable. -Even Sir William Jones, than whom there never lived a man more -enthusiastic in his admiration of the Hindu literature and antiquities, -and none more ready to see all that concerned this people in sunny -hues—even he, when he had had time to observe their character, was -compelled to express his surprise and disappointment. He speaks of -their cruelties with abhorrence: in his charge to the grand jury at -Calcutta, June 10th, 1787, he observed, “Perjury seems to be committed -by the meanest, and encouraged by some of the better sort of the -Hindus and Mussulmans with as little remorse as if it were a proof of -ingenuity, or even of merit”—that he had “no doubt that affidavits -of any imaginary fact might be purchased in the markets of Calcutta as -readily as any other article—and that, could the most binding form of -religious obligation be hit upon, there would be found few consciences -to bind.” - -All the travellers and historians of the time, Orme, Buchanan, -Forster, Forbes, Scott Waring, etc., unite in bearing testimony to -their grossness, filth, and disregard of their words; their treachery, -cowardice, and thievishness; their avarice, equal to that of the -whites, and their cunning and duplicity more than European; their foul -language and quarrelsome habits—all the features of a people depraved -by hereditary oppression and moral neglect. Their horrid and barbarous -superstitions, by which thousands of victims are destroyed every -year, are now familiar to all Europe. Every particular of these evil -lineaments of character were most strikingly attested by the Indian -judges, in their answers to the circular of interrogatories put to -them in 1801, already alluded to. They all coincided in describing the -general moral character of the inhabitants as at the lowest pitch of -infamy; that very few exceptions to that character were to be found; -that there was no species of fraud or villany that the higher classes -would not be guilty of; and that, in the lower classes, were to be -added, murder, robbery, adultery, perjury, etc., on the slightest -occasion. One of them, the magistrate of Juanpore, added, “I have -observed, among the inhabitants of this country, some possessed of -abilities qualified to rise to eminence in other countries, _but a -moral, virtuous man, I have never met amongst them_.” - -Mr. Grant described the Bengalese as depraved and dishonest to a degree -to which Europe could furnish no parallel; that they were “cunning, -servile, intriguing, false, and hypocritically obsequious; that -they, however, indemnified themselves for their passiveness to their -superiors by their tyranny, cruelty, and violence to those in their -power.” Amongst themselves he says, “discord, hatred, abuse, slanders, -injuries, complaints, and litigations prevail to a surprising degree. -No stranger can sit down among them without being struck with the -temper of malevolent contention and animosity as a prominent feature -in the character of the society. It is seen in every village: the -inhabitants live amongst each other in a sort of repulsive state. Nay, -it enters into almost every family: seldom is there a household without -its internal divisions and lasting enmities, most commonly, too, on the -score of interest. The women, too, partake of this spirit of discord. -Held in slavish subjection by the men, they rise in furious passions -against each other, which vent themselves in such loud, virulent, and -indecent railings, as are hardly to be heard in any other part of the -world.... Benevolence has been represented as a leading principle in -the minds of the Hindus; but those who make this assertion know little -of their character. Though a Hindu would shrink with horror from the -idea of directly slaying a cow, which is a sacred animal amongst them, -yet he who drives one in his cart, galled and excoriated as she is by -the yoke, beats her unmercifully from hour to hour, without any care or -consideration of the consequence.” Mr. Fraser Tytler, Lord Teignmouth, -Sir James Mackintosh, and others, only expand the dark features of -this melancholy picture; we need not therefore dwell largely upon it. -The French missionary, the Abbé Dubois, and Mr. Ward, the English one, -bear a like testimony. The latter, on the subject of Hindu humanity, -asks—“Are these men and women, too, who drag their dying relations to -the banks of rivers, at all seasons, day and night, and expose them to -the heat and cold in the last agonies of death, without remorse; who -assist men to commit self-murder, encouraging them to swing with hooks -in their backs, to pierce their tongues and sides—to cast themselves -on naked knives or bury themselves alive—throw themselves in rivers, -from precipices, and under the cars of their idols;—who murder their -own children—burying them alive, throwing them to the alligators, or -hanging them up alive in trees, for the ants and crows, before their -own doors, or by sacrificing them to the Ganges;—who burn alive, -amidst savage shouts, the heart-broken widow, by the hands of her own -son, and with the corpse of a deceased father;—who every year butcher -thousands of animals, at the call of superstition, covering themselves -with blood, consigning their carcases to the dogs, and carrying their -heads in triumph through the streets? are these the benignant Hindus.” - -It may be said that these cruelties are the natural growth of their -superstitions. True; but, up to the period in question, who had -endeavoured to correct, or who cared for their superstitions so that -they paid their taxes? To this hour, or, at least, till but yesterday, -many of these bloody superstitions have had the actual sanction of the -British countenance! To this hour the dreadful indications of their -cruel and treacherous character, apart from their superstitions, -from time to time affright Europe. We have latterly heard much of -the horrible deeds of the Thugs and Phasingars. Where such dreadful -associations and habits are prevalent to the extent described, there -must be a most monstrous corruption of morals, shocking neglect of the -people, and consequent annihilation of everything like social security -and civilization. In what, indeed, does the practice and temper of the -Thugs differ from those of the Decoits, who abounded at the period -in question? These were gangs of robbers who associated for their -purposes, and practised by subtle subterfuge or open violence, as best -suited the occasion. They went in troops, and made a common assault on -houses and property, or dispersed themselves under various disguises, -to inveigle their victims into their power. Mr. Dowdeswell, in a report -to government, in 1809, says, “robbery, rape, and murder itself are not -the worst figures in this horrid and disgusting picture. An expedient -of common occurrence with the Decoits, merely to induce a confession -of property supposed to be concealed, is to burn the proprietor with -straws or torches until he discloses the property or perishes in the -flames.” He mentions one man who was convicted of having committed -fifteen murders in nineteen days, and adds that, “volumes might be -filled with the atrocities of the Decoits, every line of which would -make the blood run cold with horror.” He does, indeed, give some -details of them of the most amazing and harrowing description. - -Sir Henry Strachey in his Report already quoted, says, “the crime of -decoity, in the district of Calcutta, has, I believe, greatly increased -since the British administration of justice. The number of convicts -confined at the six stations of this division (independent of Zillah -twenty-four pergunnahs) is about 4000. Of them _probably nine-tenths -are decoits_. Besides these, some hundreds of late years have been -transported. The number of persons convicted of decoity, however great -it may appear, is certainly small in proportion to those who are -guilty of the crime. At Midnapore I find, by the reports of the police -darogars, that in the year 1802, a period of peace and tranquillity, -they sent intelligence of no less than ninety-three robberies, most of -them, as usual, committed by large gangs. With respect to fifty-one of -these robberies, not a man was taken, and for the remaining forty-two, -very few, frequently only one or two in each gang.” Other judges -describe the extent to which decoity existed, as being much vaster than -was generally known, and calculated to excite the most general terror -throughout the country. - -This is an awful picture of a people approaching to one hundred -millions, and of a great and splendid country, which has been for the -most part in our hands for more than a century. It only remains now to -inquire what has been done since the opening of the nineteenth century -for the instruction and general amelioration of the condition of this -vast multitude of human beings, and thereby for our own justification -as a Christian nation. Warren Hastings said most truly, that throwing -aside all pretences of any other kind that many were disposed to set -up, the simple truth was that “by the sword India had been acquired, -and by the sword it must be maintained.” If the forcible conquest of a -country be, therefore, a crime against the rights of nations and the -principles of religion, what retribution can we make for our national -offences, except by employing our power to make the subjected people -happy and virtuous? But if we do not even hold conquest to be a crime, -or war to be unchristian, where is the man that will not deem that -we have assumed an awful responsibility on the plainest principles -of the gospel, by taking into our hands the fate of so many millions -of human creatures, thus degraded, thus ignorant and unhappy? It is -impossible either to “do justice, to love mercy, or to walk humbly -before God,” without as zealously seeking the social and eternal -benefit of so great a people, as we have sought, and still seek, our -own advantage, in the possession of their wealth. Over this important -subject I am unfortunately bound to pass, by my circumscribed limits, -in a hasty manner. The subject would require a volume. It is with -pleasure, however, that we can point to certain great features in the -modern history of improvement in India. It is with pleasure that we can -say that some of the most barbarous rites of the Hindu superstitions -have been removed. That infanticide, and the burning of widows have -been abolished by the British influence; and that though the horrible -immolations of Juggernaut are not terminated, they are no longer so -unblushingly sanctioned, and even encouraged by British interference. -These are great steps in the right path. To Colonel Walker, and Mr. -Duncan, the governor of Bombay, immortal thanks and honour are due, -for first leading the way in this track of great reforms, by at once -discouraging, dissuading from, and finally abolishing infanticide in -Guzerat. One of the most beneficial acts of the Marquis Wellesley’s -government, was to put this horrible custom down in Saugur. How little -anything, however, but the extraction of revenue had throughout all the -course of our dominion in India been regarded till the present century, -the Christian Researches of Mr. Buchanan made manifest. The publication -of that book, coming as it did from a gentleman most friendly to our -authorities there, was the commencement of a new era in our Indian -history. It at once turned, by the strangeness of its details, the eyes -of all the religious world on our Indian territories, and excited a -feeling which more than any other cause has led to the changes which -have hitherto been effected. At that period (1806), in making a tour -through the peninsula of Indostan, he discovered that everything like -attention to the moral or religious condition of either natives or -colonists was totally neglected. That all the atrocious superstitions -of the Hindus were not merely tolerated, but even sanctioned, and some -of them patronized by our government. That though there were above -twenty English regiments in India at that time, _not one of them had a -chaplain_, (p. 80). That in Ceylon, where the Dutch had once thirty-two -Protestant churches, we had then but two English clergymen in the -whole island! (p. 93). That there were in it by computation 500,000 -natives professing Christianity; who, however, “had not one complete -copy of the Scriptures in the vernacular tongue,” and consequently, -they were fast receding into paganism, (p. 95). That the very English -were more notorious for their infidelity than for anything else, and -by their presence did infinite evil to the natives. That, in that very -year, when the governor of Bombay announced to the supreme government -at Calcutta, his determination to attempt to extirpate infanticide -from Guzerat—a practice, be it remembered, which in that province -alone _destroyed annually 3000 children_![23]—this cool commercial -body warned him, not “even for the _speculative_ success of that -benevolent project, to hazard the _essential interests_ of the state!” -(p. 52). That all the horrors of burning widows were perpetrated to -the amount of from seven hundred to _one thousand_ of such diabolical -scenes annually. That the disgusting and gory worship of Juggernaut -was not merely practised, but was actually licensed and patronized by -the English government. That very year it had imposed a tax on all -pilgrims going to the temples in Orissa and Bengal, had appointed -British officers, British gentlemen to superintend the management of -this hideous worship and the receipt of its proceeds. That the internal -rites of the temple consisted in one loathsome scene of prostitution, -hired bands of women being kept for the purpose; its outward rites the -crushing of human victims under the car of the idol. - -Thus the Indian government had, in fact, instead of discouraging such -practices in the natives, taken up the trade of public murderers, -and keepers of houses of ill fame, and that under the sacred name of -religious tolerance! A more awful state of things it is impossible to -conceive; nor one which more forcibly demonstrates what the whole of -this history proclaims, that there is no state of crime, corruption, -or villany, which by being familiarized to them, and coming to regard -them as customary, educated men, and men of originally good hearts and -pure consciences, will not eventually practise with composure, and even -defend as right. What defences have we not heard in England of these -very practices? It was not till recently that public opinion was able -to put down the immolation of widows,[24] nor till this very moment -that the Indian government has been shamed out of trading in murder and -prostitution in the temples of Juggernaut. Thus, for more than thirty -years has this infamous trade at Juggernaut been persisted in, from -the startling exposure of it by Buchanan, and in the face of all the -abhorrence and remonstrances of England—for more than a century and a -half it has been tolerated. The plea on which it has been defended is -that of delicacy towards the _opinions_ of the natives. That delicacy -thus delicately extended where money was to be made, has not in a -single case been practised for a single instant where our interest -prompted a different conduct. We have seized on the lands of the -natives; on their revenues; degraded their persons by the lash, or put -them to death without any scruple. But this plea has been so strongly -rebutted by one well acquainted with India, in the Oriental Herald, -that before quitting this subject it will be well to quote it here. -“The assumption that our empire is an empire of opinion in India, and -that it would be endangered by restraining the bloody and abominable -rites of the natives, is as false as the inference is unwarranted. Our -empire is _not_ an empire of opinion, it is not even an empire of law: -it has been acquired; it is still governed; and can only be retained, -unless the whole system of its government is altered, by the direct -influence of force. No portion of the country has been voluntarily -ceded, from the love borne to us by the original possessors. We -were first permitted to land on the sea coast to sell our wares, as -humble and solicitous traders, till by degrees, sometimes by force -and sometimes by fraud, we have possessed ourselves of an extent of -territory containing nearly a hundred millions of human beings. We -have put down the ancient sovereigns of the land, we have stripped the -nobles of all their power; and by continual drains on the industry -and resources of the people, we take from them all their surplus and -disposable wealth. There is not a single province of that country that -we have ever acquired but by the direct influence which our strength -and commanding influence could enforce, or by the direct agency of -warlike operations and superior skill in arms. There is not a spot -throughout the whole of this vast region whereon we rule by any other -medium than that by which we first gained our footing there—simple -force. There is not a district in which the natives would not gladly -see our places as rulers supplied by men of their own nation, faith, -and manners, so that they might have a share in their own affairs; nor -is there an individual, out of all the millions subject to our rule -in Asia, whose opinion is ever asked as to the policy or impolicy of -any law or regulation about to be made by our government, however it -may press on the interests of those subject by its operation. It is a -delusion which can never be too frequently exposed, to believe that our -empire in India is an empire of opinion, or to imagine that we have any -security for our possession of that country, except the superiority of -our means for maintaining the dominion of force.”—vol. ii. p. 174. - - - - -CHAPTER XIX. - -THE ENGLISH IN INDIA,—CONCLUDED. - - -The preceding chapter is an awful subject of contemplation for a -Christian nation. An empire over one hundred millions acquired by -force, and held by force for the appropriation of their revenues! -Even this dominion of force is a fragile tenure. We even now watch -the approaches of the gigantic power of Russia towards these regions -with jealousy and alarm; and it is evident that at once security to -ourselves, and atonement to the natives, are only to be found in the -amelioration of their condition: in educating and Christianizing -them, and in amalgamising them with British interests and British -blood as much as possible. The throwing open of these vast regions, -by the abolition of the Company’s charter of trade, to the enterprise -and residence of our countrymen, now offers us ample means of moral -retribution; and it is with peculiar interest that we now turn to every -symptom of a better state of things. - -A new impulse is given to both commerce and agriculture. The march of -improvement in the cultivation and manufacture of various productions -is begun. The growth of wheat is encouraged, and even large quantities -of fine flour imported thence into England. The indigo trade has become -amazing by the improvement in the manipulation of that article. Sugar, -coffee, opium, cotton, spices, rice, every product of this rich and -varied region, will all find a greater demand, and consequently a -greater perfection from culture, under these circumstances. There is, -in fact, no species of vegetable production which, in this glorious -country, offering in one part or another the temperature of every -known climate, may not be introduced. Such is the fertility of the -land under good management, that the natives often now make 26_l._ per -acre of their produce. The potato is becoming as much esteemed there -as it has long been in Europe and America. Tea is likely to become one -of its most important articles of native growth. Our missionaries of -various denominations—episcopalians, catholics, baptists, methodists, -moravians, etc., are zealously labouring to spread knowledge and -Christianity; and there is nothing, according to the Christian brahmin, -Rammohun Roy, which the Indian people so much desire as an English -education. Let that be given, and the fetters of caste must be broken -at once. The press, since the great struggle in which Mr. Buckingham -was driven from India for attempting its freedom, has acquired a great -degree of freedom. The natives are admitted to sit on petty juries; -slavery is abolished; and last, and best, education is now extensively -and zealously promoted. The Company was bound by the terms of its -charter in 1813 to devote 10,000_l._ annually to educating natives -in the English language and English knowledge, which, though but -a trifling sum compared with the vast population, aided by various -private schools, must have produced very beneficial effects. Bishop -Heber states that on his arrival in Bengal he found that there -were fifty thousand scholars, chiefly under the care of Protestant -missionaries. These are the means which must eventually make British -rule that blessing which it ought to have been long ago. These are the -means by which we may atone, and more than atone, for all our crimes -and our selfishness in India. But let us remember that we are—after -the despotism of two centuries, after oceans of blood shed by us, and -oceans of wealth drained by us from India, and after that blind and -callous system of exaction and European exclusion which has perpetuated -all the ignorance and all the atrocities of Hindu superstition, and -laid the burthen of them on our own shoulders—but at this moment on -the mere threshold of this better career. Let us remember that still, -at this hour, Indostan is, in fact, the IRELAND OF THE EAST! It is -a country pouring out wealth upon us, while it is swarming with a -population of one hundred millions in the lowest state of poverty and -wretchedness. It swarms with robbers and assassins of the most dreadful -description: and it is impossible that it should be otherwise. It is -said to be happy and contented under our rule; but such a happiness -as its boldest advocates occasionally give us a glimpse of, may God -soon remove from that oppressed country. Indeed, such are the features -of it, even as drawn by its eulogists, as make us wonder that such -wretchedness should exist under English sway. Our travellers describe -the mass of the labouring people as stunted in stature, especially -the women; as half famished, and with hardly a rag to their backs. -Mr. Tucker, himself a Director, and Deputy-Chairman of the Court of -Directors, asks, “Whether it be possible for them to believe that -a government, which seems disposed to appropriate a vast territory -as _universal landlord_, and to collect, not _revenue_, but _rent_, -can have any other view than to extract from the people the utmost -portion which they can pay?” and adds, that “if the deadly hand of the -tax-gatherer perpetually hover over the land, and threaten to grasp -that which is not yet called into existence, its benumbing influence -must be fatal, and the fruits of the earth will be stifled in the very -germ.” - -Yet this is the constant system; and the poor ryots who cultivate -farms of from six to twenty-four acres, but generally of the smaller -kind, requiring only one plough, which, with other implements and a -team of oxen, costs about 6_l._, are compelled to farm not such as -they chose, but such as are allotted to them; to pay from one-half to -two-thirds of their gross produce. If they attempt to run away from -it, they are brought back and flogged, and forced to work. If after -all, they cannot pay their quota, Sir Thomas Munro tells you, “_it must -be assessed upon the rest_.” That where a crop _even is less than the -seed_, the peasantry _should always be made to pay the full_ rent where -they can. And that all complaints on the part of the ryot, “should be -listened to with very great caution.” Is it any wonder that Indostan -is, and always has been full of robbers? Is this system not enough to -make men run off, and do anything but work thus without hope? But it -is not merely the work: look at the task-masters set over them. “A -very large proportion of the talliars,” says Sir Thomas Munro, “are -themselves thieves; all the kawilgars are themselves robbers exempting -them; and though they are now afraid to act openly, there is no doubt -that many of them still secretly follow their former practices. Many -potails and curnums also harbour thieves; so that no traveller can -pass through the ceded districts without being robbed, who does not -employ his own servants or those of the village to watch at night; and -even this precaution is often ineffectual. Many offenders are taken, -but great numbers also escape, for connivance must also be expected -among the kawilgars and the talliars, who are themselves thieves; and -the inhabitants are often backward in giving information from the -fear of _assassination_.” Colonel Stewart in 1825, asserted in his -“Considerations on the Policy of the Government of India,” that “if -we look for absolute and bodily injury produced by our misgovernment, -he did not believe that all the cruelties practised _in the lifetime_ -of the worst tyrant that ever sat upon a throne, even amounted to the -quantity of human suffering inflicted by the Decoits _in one year_ in -Bengal.” The prevalence of Thugs and Phasingars does not augur much -improvement in this respect yet; nor do recent travellers induce us to -believe that the picture of popular misery given us about half a dozen -years ago by the author of “Reflections on the Present state of British -India,” is yet become untrue. - -“Hitherto the poverty of the cultivating classes, men who have both -property and employment, has been alone considered; but the extreme -misery to which the immense mass of the unemployed population are -reduced, would defy the most able pen adequately to describe, or the -most fertile imagination to conceive.... On many occasions of ceremony -in families of wealthy individuals, it is customary to distribute alms -to the poor; sometimes four annas, about three-pence, and rarely more -than eight annas each. When such an occurrence is made known, the poor -assemble in astonishing numbers, and the roads are covered with them -from twenty to fifty miles in every direction. On their approaching -the place of gift, no notice is taken of them, though half famished, -and almost unable to stand, till towards the evening, when they are -called into an inclosed space, and huddled together for the night, in -such crowds, that notwithstanding their being in the open air, it is -surprising how they escape suffocation. When the individual who makes -the donation perceives that all the applicants are in the inclosure, -(by which process he guards against the possibility of any poor wretch -receiving his bounty twice), he begins to dispense his alms, either in -the night, or on the following morning, by taking the poor people, one -by one, from the place of their confinement, and driving them off as -soon as they have received their pittance. The number of people thus -accumulated, generally amounts to from twenty to fifty thousand; and -from the distance they travel, and the hardships they endure for so -inconsiderable a bounty, some idea may be formed of their destitute -condition. - -“In the interior of Bengal there is a class of inhabitants who live by -catching fish in the ditches and rivulets; the men employing themselves -during the whole day, and the women travelling to the nearest city, -often a distance of fifteen miles, to sell the produce. The rate at -which these poor creatures perform their daily journey is almost -incredible, and the sum realized is so small as scarcely to afford -them the necessaries of life. In short, throughout the whole of the -provinces the crowds of poor wretches who are destitute of the means of -subsistence are beyond belief. On passing through the country, they are -seen to pick the undigested grains of food from the dung of elephants, -horses, and camels; and if they can procure a little salt, large -parties of them sally into the fields at night, and devour the green -blades of corn or rice the instant they are seen to shoot above the -surface. Such, indeed, is their wretchedness that they envy the lot of -the convicts working in chains upon the roads, and have been known to -incur the danger of criminal prosecution, in order to secure themselves -from starving by the allowance made to those who are condemned to hard -labour.” - -Such is the condition of these native millions, from whose country our -countrymen, flocking over there, according to the celebrated simile -of Burke, “like birds of prey and of passage, to collect wealth, have -returned with most splendid fortunes to England.” What is the avowed -slavery of some half million of negroes in the West Indies, who have -excited so much interest amongst us, to the virtual slavery of these -_hundred millions_ of Hindus in their own land? It is declared that -these poor creatures are happy under our government,—but it should be -recollected that so it has been, and is, said of the negroes; and it -should be also recollected what Sir John Malcolm said, in 1824, in a -debate at the India-house—himself a governor and a laudator of our -system, that “even the instructed classes of natives have a hostile -feeling towards us, which was not likely to decrease from the necessity -they were under of concealing it. My attention,” he said, “has been -during the last five-and-twenty years particularly directed to this -dangerous species of secret war carried on against our authority, -which is _always carried on_ by numerous though unseen hands. The -spirit is kept up by letters, by exaggerated reports, and by pretended -prophecies. When the time appears favourable from the occurrence of -misfortune to our arms, from rebellion in our provinces, or from mutiny -in our troops, circular letters and proclamations are dispersed over -the country with a celerity that is incredible. _Such documents are -read with avidity._ Their contents are in most cases the same. The -English are depicted as _usurpers_ of low caste, and as tyrants, who -have sought India only to degrade them, to rob them of their wealth, -and subvert their usages and religion. The native soldiers are always -appealed to, and the advice to them is in all instances I have met -with, the same,—‘your European tyrants are few in number—_murder -them_!’” - -How far are these evils diminished since the last great political -change in India—since the abolition of the Company’s charter, and -they became, not the commercial monopolists, but the governors of -India? Dr. Spry, of the Bengal Medical Staff, can answer that in -his “Modern India,” published in 1837. The worthy doctor describes -himself as a short time ago (1833) being on an expedition to reduce -some insurrectionary Coles in the provinces of Benares and Dinapore. -“Next morning,” he says, “Feb. 9th, we went out in three parties to -burn and destroy villages! Good fun, burning villages!” The mode of -expression would lead one to suppose that the doctor extremely enjoyed -“the good fun of burning villages;” but the general spirit of his work -being sensible and humane, we are bound to suppose that his expressions -and his notes of admiration are ironical, and meant to indicate the -abhorrence such acts deserves; for he immediately tells us that these -Coles seemed very inoffensive sort of people, and laid down their arms -in large numbers the moment they were invited to do so. - -Dr. Spry tells us that the Anglo-Indian government, in 1836, had come -to the admirable resolution to make the English language the vernacular -tongue throughout Indostan. That would be, in effect, to make it -entirely an English land—to leaven it rapidly, and for ever, with the -spirit, the laws, the literature, and the religion of England. It is -impossible to make the English language the vernacular tongue, without -at the same time producing the most astonishing moral revolution which -ever yet was witnessed on the earth. English ideas, English tastes, -English literature and religion, must follow as a matter of course. -It is curious, indeed, already to hear of the instructed natives of -Indostan holding literary and philosophical meetings in English forms, -debating questions of morals and polite letters, and adducing the -opinions of Milton, Shakspeare, Newton, Locke, etc. Dr. Spry states -that the Committee of Public Instruction are about to establish schools -for educating the natives in English, at Patnah, Dacca, Hazeeribagh, -Gohawati, and other places; and that the native princes in Nepaul, -Manipúr, Rajpootanah, the Punjaub, etc. were receiving instruction in -English, and desirous to promote it in their territories. This is most -encouraging; but Dr. Spry gives us other facts of a less agreeable -nature. From these we learn that the ancient canker of India, excessive -and unremitting exaction, is at this moment eating into the very -vitals of the country as actively as ever. He says that “it is in the -territories of the independent native chiefs and princes that great and -useful works are found, and maintained. In our territories, the canals, -bridges, reservoirs, wells, groves, temples, and caravansaries, the -works of our predecessors, from revenues expressly appropriated to such -undertakings, are going fast to decay, together with the feelings which -originated them; and unless a new and more enlightened policy shall be -followed, of which the dawn may, perhaps, be distinguished, will soon -leave not a trace behind. A persistence for a short time longer in our -selfish administration will level the face of the country, as it has -levelled the ranks of society, and leave a plain surface for wiser -statesmen to act on. - -“At present, the aspect of society presents no middle class, and the -aspect of the country is losing all those great works of ornament and -utility with which we found it adorned. Great families are levelled, -and lost in the crowd; and great cities have dwindled into farm -villages. The work of destruction is still going on; and unless we -act on new principles will proceed with desolating rapidity. How -many thousand links by which the affections of the people are united -to the soil, and to their government, are every year broken and -destroyed by our selfishness and ignorance; and yet, if our views in -the country extended beyond the returns of a single harvest, beyond -the march of a single detachment, or the journey of a single day, we -could not be so blind to their utility and advantage.” He adds: “By -our revenue management we have shaken the entire confidence of the -rural population, who now no longer lay out their little capital in -village improvement, lest our revenue officers, at the expiration of -their leases, should take advantage of their labours, and impose an -additional rent.... With regard to Hindustan, those natives who are -unfriendly to us _might with justice declare our conduct to be more -allied to Vandalism than to civilization_.... Burke’s severe rebuke -still holds good,—that if the English were driven from India, they -would leave behind them no memorial worthy of a great and enlightened -nation; no monument of art, science, or beneficence; no vestige of -their having occupied and ruled over the country, except such traces -as the vulture and the tiger leave behind them.”—pp. 10-18. He tells -us that a municipal tax was imposed under pretence of improving and -beautifying the towns, but that the improvements very soon stopped, -while the tax is still industriously collected. In the appendix to his -first volume, we find detailed all the miseries of the ryots as we have -just reviewed them; and he tells us that of this outraged class are -_eleven-twelfths of the population_! and quotes the following sentence -from “The Friend of India.” “A proposal was some time since made, or -rather a wish expressed, to domesticate the art of caricaturing in -India. Here is a fine subject. The artist should first draw the lean -and emaciated ryot, scratching the earth at the tail of a plough drawn -by two half-starved, bare-ribbed bullocks. Upon his back he would place -the more robust Seeputneedar, and upon his shoulders the Durputneedar; -he, again, should sustain the well-fed Putneedar; and, seated upon his -shoulders should be represented, to crown the scene, the big zemindar, -that compound of milk, sugar, and clarified butter.... The poor ryot -pays for all! He is drained by these middle-men; he is cheated by his -banker out of twenty-four per cent. at least; and his condition is -beyond description or imagination.” - -Dr. Spry attests the present continuance of those scenes of destitution -and abject wretchedness which I have but a few pages back alluded to. -He has seen the miserable creatures picking up the grains of corn from -the soil of the roads. “I have seen,” says he, “hundreds of famishing -poor, traversing the jungles of Bundlecund, searching for wild berries -to satisfy the cravings of hunger. Many, worn down by exhaustion -or disease, die by the road-side, while mothers, to preserve their -offspring from starvation, sell or give them to any rich man they can -meet!” He himself, in 1834, was offered by such a mother her daughter -of six years old for fourteen shillings!—vol. i. 297. - -These are the scenes and transactions in our great Indian empire—that -splendid empire which has poured out such floods of wealth into this -country; in which such princely presents of diamonds and gold have been -heaped on our adventurers; from the gleanings of which so many happy -families in England[25] “live at home at ease,” and in the enjoyment -of every earthly luxury and refinement. For every palace built by -returned Indian nabobs in England; for every investment by fortunate -adventurers in India stock; for every cup of wine and delicious viand -tasted by the families of Indian growth amongst us, how many of these -Indians themselves are now picking berries in the wild jungles, -sweltering at the thankless plough only to suffer fresh extortions, or -snatching with the bony fingers of famine, the bloated grains from the -manure of the high-ways of their native country! - -I wonder whether the happy and fortunate—made happy and fortunate by -the wealth of India, ever think of these things?—whether the idea -ever comes across them in the luxurious carriage, or at the table -crowded with the luxuries of all climates?—whether they glance in -a sudden imagination from the silken splendour of their own abodes, -to the hot highways and the pestilential jungles of India, and see -those naked, squalid, famishing, and neglected creatures, thronging -from vast distances to the rich man’s dole, or feeding on the more -loathsome dole of the roads? It is impossible that a more strange -antithesis can be pointed out in human affairs. We turn from it with -even a convulsive joy, to grasp at the prospects of education in that -singular country. Let the people be educated, and they will soon cease -to permit oppression. Let the English engage themselves in educating -them, and they will soon feel all the sympathies of nature awaken in -their hearts towards these unhappy natives. In the meantime these are -all the features of a country suffering under the evils of a long and -grievous thraldom. They are the growth of ages, and are not to be -removed but by a zealous and unwearying course of atoning justice. -Spite of all flattering representations to the contrary, the British -public should keep its eye fixed steadily on India, assuring itself -that a debt of vast retribution is their due from us; and that we have -only to meet the desire now anxiously manifested by the natives for -education, to enable us to expiate towards the children all the wrongs -and degradations heaped for centuries on the fathers; and to fix our -name, our laws, our language and religion, as widely and beneficently -there as in the New World! - - - - -CHAPTER XX. - -THE FRENCH IN THEIR COLONIES. - - -We may dismiss the French in a few pages, merely because they are -only so much like their neighbours. It would have been a glorious -circumstance to have been able to present them as an exception; but -while they have shown as little regard to the rights or feelings -of the people whose lands they have invaded for the purpose of -colonization, they seem to have been on the whole more commonplace in -their cruelties. In Guiana they drove back the Indians as the Dutch -and the Portuguese did in their adjoining settlements. In the West -Indies, they exterminated or enslaved the natives very much as other -Europeans did. They were as assiduous as any people in massacring the -Charaibs, and they suffered perhaps more than any other nation from -the Charaibs in return. Their historian, Du Tertre, describes them as -returning from a slaughtering expedition in St. Christopher’s “_bien -joyeux_;” so that it would appear as though they executed the customary -murders of the time, with their accustomed gaiety. In the Mauritius -they found nobody to kill. In Madagascar, they alternately massacred -and were massacred themselves, and finally driven out of of the -country by the exasperated natives for their cruelties. If they made -themselves masters of countries of equal importance with the Spaniards, -Portuguese, English, or even the Dutch, they had not the art to make -them so, for if we include Louisiana, Canada, Newfoundland, Nova -Scotia, Cape Breton, Madagascar, Mauritius, Guiana, various West Indian -islands and settlements on the Indian and African coasts, the amount of -territory is vast. The value of it to them, however, at no time, was -ever proportionate in the least degree to the extent; and no European -nation has been so unfortunate in the loss of colonies. Their attempt -to possess themselves of Florida was abortive, but it was attended by a -circumstance which deserves recording. - -The Spaniards hearing that some Frenchmen had made a settlement in -Florida about 1566, a fleet sailed thither, and discovered them at Fort -Carolina. They attacked them, massacred the majority, and hanged the -rest upon a tree, with this inscription,—“_Not as Frenchmen, but as -heretics_.” They were Huguenots. Dominic de Gourgues, a Gascon of the -same faith, a skilful and intrepid seaman, an enemy to the Spaniards, -from whom he had received personal injuries, passionately fond of his -country, of hazardous expeditions, and of glory, sold his estate, -built some ships, and with a select band of his own stamp, embarked -for Florida. He found, attacked, and defeated the Spaniards. All that -he could catch he hung upon trees, with this inscription,—“_Not as -Spaniards, but as assassins_;”—a sentence which, had it been executed -with equal justice on all who deserved it in that day, would have -half depopulated Europe; for almost every man who went abroad was an -assassin; and the rest who stayed at home applauded, and therefore -abetted. Having thus satisfied his indignant sense of justice, de -Gourgues returned home, and the French abandoned the country. - -The French seemed to take the firmest hold on Canada; but their -powerful neighbours, the English, took even that from them, as they -had done their Acadia (Nova Scotia), Hudson’s Bay, Newfoundland, Cape -Breton, and the Island of St. John. - -In all these settlements, they treated the Indians just as creatures -that might be spared or destroyed,—driven out or not, as it best -suited themselves. Francis I. invaded the papal charter to Spain and -Portugal of all the New World, with an expression very characteristic -of him. “_What! shall the kings of Spain and Portugal quietly divide -all America between them, without suffering me to take a share as their -brother? I would fain see the article of Adam’s will that bequeaths -that vast inheritance to them!_” But he did not seem to suspect for -a moment, that if Adam’s will could be found, the most conspicuous -clause in it would have been that the earth should be fairly divided -amongst his children; and that one family should not covet the heritage -of another, much less that Cain should be always murdering Abel. -Accordingly, Samuel de Champlain, whose name has been given to Lake -Champlain, had scarcely laid the foundations of Quebec, the future -capital of Canada, than the subjects of Francis began to violate every -clause which could possibly have been in Adam’s will. Champlain found -the Indians divided amongst themselves, and he adopted the policy -since employed by the English in the East with so much greater success, -not exactly that recommended by the apostle, to live in peace with all -men, as far as in you lies, but to set your neighbours by the ears, so -that you may take the advantage of their quarrels and disasters. - -One of the greatest curses which befel the North American Indians on -the invasion of the Europeans, was, that several of these _refined_ -and _Christian_ nations came and took possession of neighbouring -regions. Being indeed so refined and Christian, one might naturally -have supposed that this would prove a happy circumstance for the -savages. One would have supposed that thus surrounded on all sides, as -it were, by the light of civilization and the virtue of Christianity, -nothing could possibly prevent the savages from becoming civilized and -Christian too. One would have supposed that such miserable, cruel, -and dishonest savages, seeing whichever way they turned, nothing but -images of peace, wisdom, integrity, self-denial, generosity, and -domestic happiness, would have become speedily and heartily ashamed -of themselves. That they would have been fairly overwhelmed with the -flood of radiance covering those nations which had been for so many -ages in the possession of Christianity. That they would have been -penetrated through and through with the benevolence and goodness, the -sublime graces, and winning sweetness of so favoured and regenerated -a race! Nothing of the sort, however, took place. The savages looked -about them, and saw people more powerful, indeed, but in spirit and -practice ten times more savage than themselves. What a precious crew -of hypocrites must they have regarded these white invaders when they -heard them begin to talk of their superior virtue, and to call them -barbarians! There were the French in Canada, Nova Scotia, and other -settlements; there were the Dutch in their Nova Belgia, and the English -in Massachusets, all regarding each other with the most deadly hatred, -and all rampant to wrest, either from the Indians, or from one another, -the very ground that each other stood upon. - -The people brought with them from Europe, crimes and abominations -that the Indians never knew. The Indians never fought for conquest, -but to defend their hunting grounds—lands which their ancestors had -inhabited for generations, and which they firmly believed were given -to them by the Great Spirit; but these white invaders had a boundless -and quenchless thirst for every region that they could set their eyes -upon. They claimed it by pretences, of which the simple Indians could -neither make head nor tail—they talked of popes and kings on the -other side of the water as having given them the Indians’ countries, -and the Indians could not conceive what business these kings and popes -had with them. But the whites had arguments which they _could not_ -withstand—_gunpowder and rum_! They forced a footing in the Indian -countries, and then they gave them rum to take away their brains, that -they might take away first their peltries, and then more land. There -is nothing in history more horrible than the conduct to which the -Dutch, French and English resorted in their rivalries in the north-east -of America. Each party subdued the tribes of Indians in their own -immediate neighbourhood, by force and fraud, and then employed them -against the Indians who were in alliance with their rivals. Instead -of mutually, as Christians should, inculcating upon them the beauty -and the duty, and the advantages of peace, they instigated them, by -every possible means, and by the most devilish arguments, to betray and -exterminate one another, and not only one another, but to betray and -exterminate, if possible, their white rivals. They made them furious -with rum, and put fire-arms into their hands, and hounded them on -one another with a demoniac glee. They took credit to themselves for -inducing the Indians to _scalp_ one another! They gave them a premium -upon these horrible outrages, and we shall see that even the Puritans -of New England gave at length so much as 1000_l._ for every Indian -scalp that could be brought to them! They excited these poor Indians -by the most diabolical means, and by taking advantage of their weak -side, the proneness to vengeance, to acts of the most atrocious nature, -and then they branded them, when it was convenient, as most fearful -and bloody savages, and on that plea drove them out of their rightful -possessions, or butchered them upon them. - -I am not talking of imaginary horrors—I am speaking with all the -soberness which the contemplation of such things will permit—of a -deliberate system of policy pursued by the French, Dutch, and English, -in these regions for a full century, and which eventually terminated in -the destruction of the greater part of these Indian nations, and in the -expulsion of the remainder. We shall see that even the English urged -their allies—the Five Nations—continually to attack and murder the -French and their Indian allies; and in all their wars with the French -in Canada, hired, or bribed, or compelled these savages to accompany -them, and commit the very devastations for which they afterwards -upbraided them, and which they made a plea for their extirpation. -But of that anon; my present business is with the French; and though -the facts which I have now to relate regard their conduct rather in -our colonies than their own, yet they cannot be properly introduced -anywhere else; and they could not have been introduced impartially here -without these few preliminary observations. - -The French were soon stripped of their other settlements in this -quarter by the English. It was from Canada that they continued to -annoy their rivals of New York and New England, till finally driven -thence by the victory of Wolfe at Quebec; and it was principally on the -northern side of the St. Lawrence that their territory lay. On that -side, the great tribe of the Adirondacks, or, as they termed them, the -Algonquins, lay, and became their allies; with tribes of inferior note. -On the south side lay the great nation of the Iroquois, so termed by -them; or “The Five Nations of United Indians,” as they were called by -the English. These were very warlike nations—the Mohawks, Oneidas, -Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senekas—whose territories extended along the -south-eastern side of the St. Lawrence, into the present States of -Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, and New -Hampshire—a country eighty leagues in length, and more than forty -broad. - -To drive out these nations, so as to deprive them of any share in the -profitable fur trade which the Algonquins carried on for them, and to -get possession of so fine a country, Champlain readily accompanied -the Algonquins in an expedition of extermination against them. The -Algonquins knew all the intricacies of the woods, and all the modes and -stratagems of Indian warfare; and, aided by the arms and ammunition of -the French, they would soon have accomplished Champlain’s desire of -exterminating the Iroquois, had not the Dutch, then the possessors of -New York, furnished the Iroquois also with arms and ammunition, for it -was not to their interest that these five nations, who brought their -furs to them, should be reduced. - -In 1664 the English dispossessed the Dutch of their Nova Belgia, and -turned it into New York; and began to trade actively with the Indian -nations for their furs. The French, who had hoped to monopolise this -trade, which they had found very profitable, by exterminating the -Iroquois, and throwing the whole hunting business into the hands -of tribes in their alliance, now saw the impolicy of having vainly -attacked so powerful a race as that of the Iroquois, or Five Nations. -They now used every means to reconcile them, and win them over. They -sent Jesuit missionaries, who lived in the simplest manner amongst -them, and with their powers of insinuation and persuasion laboured -to give them favourable ideas of their nation. But the English were -as zealous in their endeavours, and, as might naturally be expected, -succeeded in engrossing all the fur trade with the Iroquois, who had -received so many injuries from the French.[26] Irritated by this -circumstance, the French again determined on the ferocious scheme of -exterminating the Iroquois. Nursing this horrible resolve, they waited -their opportunity, and put upon themselves a desperate restraint, -till they should have collected a force in the colony equal to the -entire annihilation of the Iroquois people. This time seemed to -have arrived in 1687, when, under Denonville, they had a population -of 11,249 persons, one third of whom were capable of bearing arms. -Having a disposable force of near 4,000 people, they were secure in -their own mind of the accomplishment of their object; but, to make -assurance doubly sure, they hit upon one of those schemes that have -been so much applauded through all Christian Europe, under the name of -“happy devices,”—“profound strokes of policy,”—“chefs d’œuvres of -statesmanship,”—that is, in plain terms, plans of the most wretched -deceit, generally for the compassing of some piece of diabolical -butchery or oppression. The “happy device,” in this instance, was to -profess a desire for peace and alliance, in order to get the most -able Indian chiefs into their power before they struck the decisive -blow. There was a Jesuit missionary residing amongst the Iroquois—the -worthy Lamberville. This good man, like his brethren in the South, -whose glorious labours and melancholy fate we have already traced, -had won the confidence of the Iroquois by his unaffected piety, his -constant kindness, and his skill in healing their differences and their -bodily ailments. They looked upon him as a father and a friend. The -French, on their part, regarded this as a fortunate circumstance,—not -as one might have imagined, because it gave them a powerful means of -reconciliation and alliance with this people, but because it gave them -a means of effecting their murderous scheme. They assured Lamberville -that they were anxious to effect a _lasting peace_ with the Iroquois, -for which purpose they begged him to prevail on them to send their -principal chiefs to meet them in conference. He found no difficulty -in doing this, such was their faith in him. The chiefs appeared, and -were immediately clapped in irons, embarked at Quebec, and sent to the -galleys! - -I suppose there are yet men calling themselves Christians, and priding -themselves on the depth of their policy, that will exclaim—“Oh, -capital!—what a happy device!” But who that has a head or a heart -worthy of a man will not mark with admiration the conduct of the -Iroquois on this occasion. As soon as the news of this abominable -treachery reached the nation, it rose as one man, to revenge the -insult and to prevent the success of that scheme which now became too -apparent. In the first place they sent for Lamberville, who had been -the instrument of their betrayal, and—put him to death! No, they did -_not_ put him to death. That was what the _Christians_ would have done, -without any inquiry or any listening to his defence. The _savage_ -Iroquois thus addressed him—“We are authorised by every motive to -treat you as an enemy; but we cannot resolve to do it. Your heart has -had no share in the insult that has been put upon us; and it would be -unjust to punish you for a crime you detest still more than ourselves. -But you must leave us. Our rash young men might consider you in the -light of a traitor, who delivered up the chiefs of our nation to -shameful slavery.” These savages, whom Europeans have always termed -Barbarians, gave the Missionary guides, who conducted him to a place of -safety, and then flew to arms.[27] - -The wretched Denonville and his politic people soon found themselves in -a situation which they richly merited. They had a numerous and warlike -nation thus driven to the highest pitch of irritation, surrounding them -in the woods. On the borders of the lakes, or in the open country, the -French could and did carry devastation amongst the Iroquois; but on the -other hand the Indians, continually sallying from the forests, laid -waste the French settlements, destroyed the crops of the planters, and -drove them from their fields. The French became heartily sick of the -war they had thus wickedly raised, and were on the point of putting an -end to it when one of their own Indian allies, a Huron, called by the -English authors Adario, but by the French Le Rat, one of the bravest -and most intelligent chiefs that ever ranged the wilds of America, -prevented it by a stratagem as cunning, and more successful, than their -own. He delivered an Iroquois prisoner with some story of an aggravated -nature to the French commandant of the fort of Machillimakinac, who, -not aware of Denonville being in treaty with the Iroquois, put him to -death, and thus roused again all the ancient flame. - -In this war, such were the barbarities of the French and their Indian -allies, that they roused a spirit of revenge that soon brought the -most cruel evils upon themselves. They laid waste the villages of the -Five Nations with fire. Near Cadarakui Fort, they surprised and put to -death the inhabitants of two villages who had settled there at their -own invitation, and on their faith, but whom they now feared might act -as spies against them. Many of these people were given up to a body of -the Canadian Indians, called _Praying_ or _Christian_ Indians, to be -tormented at the stake. In another village finding only two old men, -they were cut to pieces, and put into the war kettle for the _Praying -Indians_ to feast on.[28] To revenge these unheard of abominations, -the Five Nations carried a war of retaliation into Canada. They came -suddenly in July of the next year, 1688, upon Montreal, 1200 strong, -while Denonville and his lady were there; burnt and laid waste all the -plantations round it, and made a terrible massacre of men, women, and -children. Above a thousand French are said to have been killed on this -occasion, and twenty-six taken, most of whom were burnt alive. In the -autumn they returned, and carried fire and tomahawk through the island; -and had they known how to take fortified places would have driven the -French entirely out of Canada. As it was, they reduced them to the most -frightful state of distress. - -To such a pitch of fury did the French rise against the Five Nations -through the sufferings which they received at their hands, that they -now seemed to have lost the very natures of men. It is to the eternal -disgrace of both French and English that they instigated and bribed the -Indians to massacre and scalp their enemies—but it seems to be the -peculiar infamy of the French to have imitated the Indians in their -most barbarous customs, and have even prided themselves on displaying -a higher refinement in cruelty than the savages themselves. The New -Englanders, indeed, are distinctly stated by Douglass, to have handed -over their Indian prisoners to be tormented by their Naraganset allies, -but with the French this savage practice seems to have been frequent. -I have just noticed a few instances of such inhuman conduct; but the -old governor, Frontenac, stands pre-eminent above all his nation for -such deeds. From 1691 to 1695, nothing was more common than for his -Indian prisoners to be given up to his Indian allies to be tormented. -One of the most horrible of these scenes on record was perpetrated -under his own eye at Montreal in 1691. The intendant’s lady, the -Jesuits, and many influential people used all possible intreaties to -save the prisoner from such a death, but in vain. He was given up to -the _Christian_ Indians of _Loretto_, and tormented in such a manner -as none but a fiend could tolerate.[29] There was only one step beyond -this, and that was for the French to enact the torturers themselves. -That step was reached in 1695, at Machilimakinak Fort; and whoever has -not strong nerves had better pass the following relation, which yet -seems requisite to be given if we are to understand the full extent of -the inflictions the American Indians have received from Europeans. - -The successes of the Iroquois had driven the French to madness—and the -prisoner was an Iroquois. “The prisoner being made fast to a stake, -so as to have room to move round it, a _Frenchman_ began the horrid -tragedy by broiling the flesh of the prisoner’s legs, from his toes to -his knees, with the red-hot barrel of a gun. His example was followed -by an _Utawawa_, and they relieved one another as they grew tired. The -prisoner all this while continued his death-song, till they clapped a -red-hot frying-pan on his buttocks, when he cried out ‘Fire is strong, -and too powerful.’ Then all their Indians mocked him as wanting courage -and resolution. ‘You,’ they said, ‘a soldier and a captain, as you say, -and afraid of fire:—you are not a man.’” - -They continued their torments for two hours without ceasing. An -_Utawawa_, being desirous to outdo the _French_ in their refined -cruelty, split a furrow from the prisoner’s shoulder to his garter, -and, filling it with gunpowder, set fire to it. This gave him exquisite -pain, and raised excessive laughter in his tormentors. When they found -his throat so much parched that he was no longer able to gratify their -ears with his howling, they gave him water to enable him to continue -their pleasure longer. But, at last, his strength failing, an _Utawawa_ -flayed off his scalp, and threw burning coals on his skull. Then they -untied him, and bid him run for his life. He began to run, tumbling -like a drunken man. They shut up the way to the east; and made him run -westward, the way, as they think, to the country of miserable souls. -He had still force left to throw stones, till they put an end to his -misery by knocking him on the head with one. After this, every one cut -a slice from his body, to conclude the tragedy with a feast.[30] - -Such is the condition to which the practice of injustice and cruelty -can reduce men calling themselves civilized. We need not pursue further -the history of the French in Canada, which consists only in bickerings -with the English and butchery of the Indians. Having, therefore, given -this specimen of their treatment of the natives in their colonies, -or in the vicinity of them, we will dismiss them with an incident -illustrative of their policy, which occurred in Louisiana. - -When the French settled themselves in that country, they found, -amongst the neighbouring tribes, the Natchez the most conspicuous. -Their country extended from the Mississippi to the Appalachian -mountains. It had a delightful climate, and was a beautiful region, -well watered, most agreeably enlivened with hills, fine woods, and rich -open prairies. Numbers of the French flocked over into this delicious -country, and it was believed that it would form the centre of the -great colony they hoped to found in that part of America. If the -Natchez were such a people as Chateaubriand has pictured them, they -must have been a noble race indeed. They were, like the Peruvians, -worshippers of the sun, and had vast temples erected to their god. They -received the French as the natives of most discovered countries have -received the Europeans, with the utmost kindness. They even assisted -them in forming their new plantations amongst them, and the most -cordial and advantageous friendship appeared to have grown between the -two nations. Such friendship, however, could not possibly exist between -the common run of Europeans and Indians. The Europeans did not go so -far from home for friendship; they went for dominion. Accordingly, the -French soon threw off the mask of friendship, and treated their hosts -as slaves. They seized on whatever they pleased, dictated their will -to the Natchez, as their masters, and drove them from their cultivated -fields, and inhabited them themselves. The deceived and indignant -people did all in their power to stop these aggressions. They reasoned, -implored, and entreated, but in vain. Finding this utterly useless, -they entered into a scheme to rid themselves of their oppressors, and -engaged all the neighbouring nations to aid in the design. A secret and -universal league was established amongst the Indian nations wherever -the French had any settlements. They were all to be massacred on a -certain day. To apprise all the different nations of the exact day, -the Natchez sent to every one of them a little bundle of bits of wood, -each containing the same number, and that number being the number of -the days that were to precede the day of general doom. The Indians -were instructed to burn in each town one of these pieces of wood every -day, and on the day that they burnt the last they were simultaneously -to fall on the French, and leave not one alive. As usual, the success -of the conspiracy was defeated by the compassion of an individual. -The wife, or mother, of the great chief of the Natchez had a son by -a Frenchman, and from this son she learned the secret of the plot. -She warned the French commandant of the circumstance, but he treated -her warning with indifference. Finding, therefore, that she could not -succeed in putting the French on their guard against a people they had -now come to despise, she resolved that, if she could not avert the fate -of the whole, she would at least afford a chance of safety to a part. -The bits of wood were deposited in the temple of the sun, and her rank -gave her access to the temple. She abstracted a number of the bits of -wood, and thus precipitated the day of rising in that province. The -Natchez, on the burning of the last piece, fell on the French, and, -out of two hundred and twenty-two French, massacred two hundred,—men, -women, and children. The remainder were women, whom they retained as -prisoners. - -The Natchez, having accomplished this destruction, were astonished -to find that not one of their allies had stirred; and the allies -were equally astonished at the rising of the Natchez, whilst they -had yet several pieces of wood remaining. The French, however, in -the other parts of the country, were saved; fresh reinforcements -arrived from Europe, and the unfortunate Natchez felt all the fury -of their vengeance. Part were put to the sword; great numbers were -caught and sent to St. Domingo, as slaves; the rest fled for safety -into the country of the Chickasaws. The Chickasaws were called upon -to give them up; but they had more sense of honour and humanity than -Europeans,—they indignantly refused; and, when the French marched -into their territories, to compel them by force, bravely attacked and -repelled them, with repeated loss. As in Canada, Madagascar, India, -and other places, the French reaped no permanent advantage from their -treachery and cruelties, as the other European nations did. Louisiana -was eventually ceded, in 1762, to the Spaniards, just as the French -families, from Nova Scotia, Canada, St. Vincent, Granada, and other -colonies won by the English, were flocking into it as a place of -refuge. They had all the odium and the crime of aboriginal oppression, -and left the earth so basely obtained, to the enjoyment of others no -better than themselves. - - - - -CHAPTER XXI. - -THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA. - - The man who finds an unknown country out, - By giving it a name, acquires, no doubt, - A gospel title, though the people there - The pious Christian thinks not worth his care. - Bar this pretence, and into air is hurled, - The claim of Europe to the _Western World_. - - _Churchill._ - - -We shall now have to deal entirely with our own nation, or with those -principally derived from it. We shall now have to observe the conduct -entirely of Protestants towards the aborigines of their settlements: -and the Catholic may ask with triumphant scorn, “Where is the mighty -difference between the ancient professors of our faith, and the -professors of that faith which you proudly style the reformed! You -accuse the papal church of having corrupted and debased national -morality in this respect,—in what does the morality of the Protestants -differ?” I am sorry to say in nothing. The Protestants have only too -well imitated the conduct and clung to the doctrine of the Catholics -as it regards the rights of humanity. It is to the disgrace of the -papal church that it did not inculcate a more Christian morality; it -is to the far deeper disgrace of Protestants, that, pretending to -abandon the corruptions and cruelties of the papists, they did not -abandon their wretched pretences for seizing upon the possessions of -the weak and the unsuspecting. So far, however, from the behaviour of, -the Protestants forming a palliation for that of the Catholics, it -becomes an aggravation of it; for it is but the ripened fruit of that -tree of false and mischievous doctrine which they had planted. They had -set the example, and boldly preached the right, and pleaded the divine -sanction for invasion, oppression, and extermination—such example and -exhortation are only too readily adopted—and the Protestant conduct -was but the continuation of papal heresy. The - - New Presbyter was but old Priest writ large. - -While we see, then, to the present hour the perpetuated consequences -of the long inculcation of papal delusions, we must, however, confess -that for the Protestants there was, and is, less excuse than for -the Catholic laity. They had given up the Bible into the hands of -their priests, and as a matter of propriety received the faith which -they held from their dictation: the Protestants professed that “the -Bible and the Bible alone, was the religion of the Protestants.” The -Catholics having once persuaded themselves that the Pope was the -infallible vicegerent of God on earth, might, in their blind zeal, -honestly take all that he proclaimed to them as gospel truth; but the -Protestants disavowed and renounced his authority and infallibility. -They declared him to be the very antiChrist, and his church the great -sorceress that made drunk the nations with the cup of her enchantments. -What business then had they with the papal doctrine, that the heathen -were given to the believers as a possession? The Pope declared that, -as the representative of the Deity on earth, he claimed the world, and -disposed of it as he pleased. But the Protestants protested against -any such assumption, and appealed to the Bible; and where did they -find any such doctrine in the Bible? Yet Elizabeth of England, granted -charters to her subjects to take possession of all countries not yet -seized on by Christian nations, with as much implicit authority as -the Pope himself. It is curious to hear her proclaiming her intimate -acquaintance with the Scripture, and yet so blindly and unceremoniously -setting at defiance all its most sacred precepts. “I am supposed,” -said she, in her speech on proroguing parliament in 1585, “to have -many studies, but most philosophical. I must yield this to be true, -that I suppose few that are not professors, have read more; and I need -not tell you that I am not so simple that I understand not, nor so -forgetful that I remember not; and yet, amidst my many volumes, I hope -God’s book hath not been my seldomest lectures, in which we find that -which by reason all ought to believe.” - -It had been well if she had made good her boasting by proving -practically that she had understood, and had not forgotten the real -doctrines of the Christian code. But Elizabeth, as well as her father, -was, in every respect, except that of admitting the Pope’s supremacy, -as thorough a Catholic as the best of them; and we see her granting to -Sir Humphrey Gilbert, of Compton in Devonshire, in 1578, a charter as -ample in its endowments as that which the king of Spain himself gave to -Columbus, on the authority of the Pope’s bull, and securing to herself -exactly the same ratio of benefit: the Spanish commission was, in fact, -her model. She conferred on Sir Humphrey all lands and countries that -he might discover, that were not already taken possession of by some -Christian prince. He was to hold them of England, with full power of -willing them to his heirs for ever, or disposing of them in sale, on -the simple condition of reserving one-fifth of all the gold and silver -found to the crown. She afterwards gave a similar charter to Sir Walter -Raleigh: and her successor, James I., still further imitated the Pope -by dividing the continent of North America, under the name of North and -South Virginia, between two trading companies, as the Pope had divided -the world between Spain and Portugal. - -It is really lamentable to see how utterly empty was the pretence of -reformation in the government of England at that time. How utterly -ignorant or regardless Protestant England was of the most sacred and -unmistakeable truths of the New Testament, while it professed to model -itself upon them. The worst principles of the papal church were clung -to, because they favoured the selfishness of despotism. The rights of -nations were as infamously and recklessly violated; and from that time -to this, Protestant England and Protestant America continue to spurn -every great principle of Christian justice in their treatment of native -tribes: they have substituted power for conscience, gunpowder and -brandy for truth and mercy, and expulsion from their lands and houses -for charity, “that suffereth long and is kind.” - -The shameless impudence and hypocrisy by which nations calling -themselves Christians have ever persisted, and still persist, in -this sweeping and wholesale public robbery and violence, was happily -ridiculed by Churchill. - - Cast by a tempest on a savage coast, - Some roving buccaneer set up a post; - A beam, in proper form, transversely laid, - Of his Redeemer’s cross the figure made,— - Of that Redeemer, with whose laws his life, - From first to last, had been one scene of strife; - His royal master’s name thereon engraved, - _Without more process the whole race enslaved_; - _Cut off that charter they from Nature drew_, - _And made them slaves to men they never knew_! - Search ancient histories, consult records, - Under this title the _most Christian Lords_, - Hold,—thanks to conscience—more than half the ball;— - O’erthrow this title, they have none at all. - -But the national cupidity that was proof to the caustic ridicule of -Churchill, has been proof to the still more powerful assault of public -execration, under the growth of Christian knowledge. The Bible is now -in almost every man’s hand; its burning and shining light blazes full -on the grand precept, “Do as thou would’st be done by;” and are the -tribes of India, or Africa, or America, or Oceanica, the better for it? -Are they not still our slaves and our Gibeonites, and driven before our -arms like the wild beasts of the desert? We need not therefore stay to -express our abhorrence of Spanish cruelty, or describe at great length -the deeds of own countrymen in any quarter of the globe,—it is enough -to say that English and American treatment of the aborigines of their -colonies is but Spanish cruelty repeated. With one or two beautiful -exceptions, which we shall have the greatest pleasure in pointing out, -no more regard has been paid to the rights or the feelings of the North -American Indians by the English and their descendants, than was paid to -the South Americans by the Spanish and Portuguese. - -Every reader of history is aware of the melancholy and disastrous -commencement of most of our American colonies. The great cause was that -they were founded in injustice. Adventurers, with charters from the -English monarch in their pockets, as the Spaniards and Portuguese had -the Pope’s bull in theirs, landed on the coast of America and claimed -it for their own, reckoning the native inhabitants of no more account -than the bears and fallow-deer of the woods. They had got a grant of -the country from their own king; but whence had he got _his_ grant? -That is not quite so clear. The Pope’s claim is intelligible enough: he -was, in his own opinion, God’s viceroy and steward, and disposed of his -world in that character; but the Bible was the English monarch’s law, -and where did the Bible appoint Elizabeth or James God’s steward? Where -did it appoint either of them “a judge and a ruler over” the Indians? -Truly Elizabeth, with all her vaunting, had read her Bible to little -purpose, as we fear most monarchs and their ministers to the present -hour have done. We must say of the greater part of North America, as -Erskine said of India—“it is a country which God never gave us, and -acquired by means that he will never justify.” - -The misery attending the first planting of our colonies in America was -equal to the badness of our principles. The very first thing which the -colonists in the majority of cases seem to have done, was to insult -and maltreat the natives, thus making them their mortal enemies, and -thus cutting off all chance of the succours they needed from the -land, and the security essential to their very existence. For about a -century, nothing but wretchedness, failure, famine, massacres by the -Indians, were the news from the American colonies. The more northern -ones, as Nova Scotia, Canada, and New York, we took from the French and -the Dutch; the more southern, as Florida and Louisiana, were obtained -at a later day from the Spaniards. We shall here therefore confine our -brief notice chiefly to the manner of settling the central eastern -states, particularly Virginia, New England, and Pennsylvania. - -For eighty-two years from the granting of the charter by Elizabeth to -Sir Humphrey Gilbert, to the abandonment of the country by Sir Walter -Raleigh for his El Dorado visions, the colony of Virginia suffered -nothing but miseries, and was become, at that period, a total failure. -The first settlers were, like the Spaniards, all on fire in quest of -gold. They got into squabbles with the Indians, and the remnant of them -was only saved by Sir Francis Drake happening to touch there on his -way home from a cruise in the West Indies. A second set of adventurers -were massacred by the Indians, not without sufficient provocation; -and a third perished by the same means, or by famine induced by -their unprincipled and impolitic treatment of the natives. The first -successful settlement which was formed was that of James-Town, on James -River, in Chesapeak Bay, in 1607. But even here scarcely had they -located themselves, when their abuse of the Indians involved them in a -savage warfare with them. They took possession of their hunting-grounds -without ceremony; and they cheated them in every possible way in -their transactions with them, especially in the purchases of their -furs. That they might on the easiest terms have lived amicably with -the Indians, the history of the celebrated Captain John Smith of -that time sufficiently testifies. He had been put out of his rank, -and treated with every contumely by his fellow colonists, till they -found themselves on the verge of destruction from the enraged natives. -They then meanly implored him to save them, and he soon effected -their safety by that obvious policy which, if men were not blinded by -their own wickedness, would universally best answer their purpose. He -began to conciliate the offended tribes; to offer them presents and -promises of kindness; and the consequence was, they soon flocked into -the settlement again in the most friendly manner, and with plenty of -provisions. But even Smith was not sufficiently aware of the power of -friendship; he chose rather to attack some of the Indians than to treat -with them, and the consequence was that he fell into their hands, and -was condemned to die the death of torture. - -But here again, the better nature of the Indians saved him: and that -incident occurred which is one of the most romantic in American -history. He was saved from execution at the last moment, by the Indian -beauty Pocahontas, the daughter of the great Sachem Powhatan. This -young Indian woman, who is celebrated by the colonists and writers of -the time, as of a remarkably fine person, afterwards married a Mr. -Rolfe, an English gentleman of the colony. She was brought over by -him to see England, and presented at court, where she was received -in a distinguished manner by James and his queen. This marriage, -which makes a great figure in the early history of the colony, was a -most auspicious event for it. It warmly disposed the Indians towards -the English. They were anxious that the colonists should make other -alliances with them of the same nature, and which might have been -attended with the happiest consequences to both nations; but though -some of the best families of Virginia now boast of their descent from -this connexion, the rest of the colonists of the period held aloof -from Indian marriages as beneath them. They looked on the Indians -rather as creatures to be driven to the woods—for, unlike the negroes, -they could not be compelled to become slaves—than to be raised and -civilized; and therefore, spite of the better principles which the -short government of that excellent man Lord Delaware had introduced, -they were soon again involved in hostilities with them. The Indians -felt deeply the insult of the refusal of alliance through marriage with -them; they felt the daily irritation of attempts to overreach them in -their bargains, and they saw the measures they were taking to seize on -their whole country. They saw that there was to be no common bond of -interest or sympathy between them; that there was to be a usurping and -a suffering party only; and they resolved to cut off the grasping and -haughty invaders at a blow. A wide conspiracy was set on foot; and had -it not been in this case, as in many others, that the compassionate -feelings of one of the Indians partially revealed the plot at the -very moment of its execution, not an Englishman would have been left -alive. As it was, a dreadful massacre ensued; and more than a fourth -of the colonists perished. The English, in their turn, fell on the -Indians, and a bloody war of extermination followed. When the colonists -could no longer reach them in the depths of their woods, they offered -them a deceitful peace. The Indians, accustomed in their own wars to -enter sincerely into their treaties of peace when inclined to bury the -tomahawk—were duped by the more artful Europeans. They came forth from -their woods, planted their corn, and resumed their peaceful hunting. -Just as the harvest was ripe, the English rushed suddenly upon them, -trampled down their crops, set fire to their wigwams, and chased them -again to the woods with such slaughter, that some of the tribes were -totally exterminated! - -Such was the mode of settling Virginia. What trust or cordiality could -there afterwards be between such parties? Accordingly we find, from -time to time, in the history of this colony, fresh plots of the natives -to rid themselves of the whites, and fresh expeditions of the whites to -clear the country of what they termed the wily and perfidious Indians. -These dreadful transactions, which continued for the most part while -the English government continued in that country, gave occasion to that -memorable speech of Logan, the chief of the Shawanees, to Lord Dunmore -the governor: a speech which will remain while the English language -shall remain, to perpetuate the memory of English atrocity, and Indian -pathos.—“I now ask of every white man, whether he hath ever entered -the cottage of Logan when hungry, and been refused food? Whether -coming naked, and perishing with cold, and Logan has not clothed him? -During the last war, so long and so bloody, Logan has remained quietly -upon his mat, wishing to be the advocate of peace. Yes, such is my -attachment to white men, that even those of my nation, when they pass -by me, pointed at me, saying—‘_Logan is the friend of white men!_’ I -had even thought of living among you; but that was before the injury -I received from one of you. Last summer, Colonel Cressup massacred in -cold blood, and without any provocation, all the relations of Logan. He -spared neither his wife nor his children. _There is not now one drop of -my blood in the veins of any living creature!_ This is what has excited -my revenge. I have sought it. I have killed several of your people, and -my hatred is appeased. For my country I rejoice at the beams of peace; -but imagine not that my joy is instigated by my fear. Logan knows not -what fear is. He will never turn his back in order to save his life. -_But alas! no one remains to mourn for Logan when he shall be no more!_” - -The conduct of the English towards the natives in THE CAROLINAS may -be summed up in a single passage of the Abbé Raynal: “Two wars were -carried on against the natives of the most extravagant description. -All the wandering or fixed nations between the ocean and Appalachian -mountains, were attacked and massacred without any interest or motive. -Those who escaped being put to the sword, either submitted or were -dispersed.” The remnant of the tribe of the Tuscaroras fled into the -state of New York. - -MARYLAND, in its early history, also exhibits its quota of Indian -bloodshed; but much of this is chargable to the account of the -colonists of Virginia. Lord Baltimore, who first colonised this -province in the reign of Charles I., was a Catholic, who sought an -asylum for his persecuted brethren of the same faith. Since the change -of religion in England, the Catholics had experienced the bitterness of -that persecution of which they, while in power, had been so liberal. -This seems to have had an excellent effect upon some of them. Lord -Baltimore and the colonists who went out with him, being most of them -of good Catholic families, determined to allow liberty of conscience, -and admitted people of all sorts. This gave great offence to their -royalist neighbours in Virginia, who, not permitting any liberty -of religious sentiment, found those whom they drove away by their -severities flocking into Maryland, and being there well received, -strengthening it at their expense. They therefore circulated all kinds -of calumnies amongst the Indians against the Maryland Catholics, -especially telling them that they were Spaniards—a name of horror to -Indian ears. Alarmed by this representation, they fell on the colonists -whom they had at first received with their usual kindness, laid waste -their fields, massacred without mercy all that they could meet; and -were not undeceived till after a long course of patient endurance and -friendly representation. - -The settlement of NEW ENGLAND presents some new features. It was not -merely a settlement of English Protestants, but of the Protestants of -Protestants—the Puritans. A class of persons having thus made two -removes from Popery; having not only protested against the errors of -Rome, but against those of the very church which had seceded from Rome, -and professed to purify itself from its corruptions; having, moreover, -suffered severely for their religious faith, might be supposed to -have acquired far clearer views of the rights of humanity from their -better acquaintance with the Bible, and might be expected to respect -the persons and the property of the natives in whose lands they went -to settle, more than any that went before them. They went as men who -had been driven out of their own country, and from amongst their own -kindred, for the maintenance of the dearest privileges and the most -sacred claims of men; and they might be supposed to address the natives -as they reached their coast in terms like these: “Ancient possessors of -a free country, give us a place of refuge amongst you. You are termed -savages, but you cannot be more savage than the people of our own land, -who have inflicted dreadful cruelties and mutilations on us and our -friends for the faith we have in God. We fly from savages who pretend -to be civilized, but have learned no one principle of civilization, to -savages who pretend to no civilization, but yet have, on a thousand -occasions, received white men to their shores with benevolence and -tears of joy. What the savages of Europe are, a hundred regions -drenched in the blood of their native children can tell; that we deem -you less savage than them, the very act of our coming to you testifies. -Give us space amongst you, and let us live as brethren.” - -For a time, indeed, they acted as men who might be supposed thus to -speak. The going out and landing in this new country of this band of -religious adventurers, have been and continue to be celebrated as the -setting forth and landing of “The Pilgrim Fathers.” It is in itself -an interesting event: the pilgrimage of a little host of voluntary -exiles, for the sake of their religion, from their native country, to -establish a new country in the wilderness of the New World. It is more -interesting from the fact, that their associates and descendants have -grown into one of the most intelligent and powerful portions of the -freest, and, perhaps, happiest nation on the globe. Their landing on -the coast of Massachusets was effected under circumstances of peculiar -hardship. It took place at a spot to which they gave the name of New -Plymouth, on the 11th of November, 1620. The weather was extremely -severe; and they were but badly prepared to contend with it. During the -winter one half of their number perished through famine, and diseases -brought on by their hardships. The natives, too, came down to oppose -their settlement,[31] and it is difficult now to imagine how such -religious people could reconcile to their consciences an entrance by -force on the territories of a race on whom they had no claim. They had, -indeed, purchased a tract of land of one of the chartered companies -in England; but one is at a loss to conceive how any English company -could sell a country in another hemisphere already inhabited, and to -which they had not the slightest title to show, except “the Bucanier’s -Post.” As well might a company of Indians sell some of their countrymen -a slice of territory on the coast of Kent; and just as good a title -would the Indians have to land, if they could, in spite of our Kentish -yeomen, and establish themselves on the spot. Moreover, these Pilgrim -Fathers had wandered from their original destination, and had not -purchased this land at all of anybody at that time. No doubt the -Fathers _thought_ that they had a right to settle in a wild country; -and simply fell in with the customs and doctrines of the times. We -might, however, have expected clearer notions of natural right from -their acquaintance with the Bible; for we shall presently see that -there were men of their own country, and in their own circumstances, -that would not have been easy to have taken such possession in such a -manner. We may safely believe that the Fathers did according to their -knowledge; but the precedent is dangerous, and could not in these times -be admitted: the Fathers did not, in fact, obtain any grant from the -English till four years afterwards (1624). When they had once got a -firm footing, Massasoit, the father of the famous Philip of Pokanoket, -whom these same settlers pursued to the death with all his tribe, -except such as they sold for slaves to Bermudas, granted them a certain -extent of lands. Subsequently purchases from the Indians began to be -considered more necessary to a good title. - -Eight years afterwards another company of the same people, under -John Endicott, formed a settlement in Massachusets Bay, and founded -the town of Salem. In the following year a third company, of not -less than three hundred in number, joined them. These in the course -of time seeking fresh settlements, founded at different periods, -Boston, Charlestown, Dorchester, Roxborough, and other towns; great -numbers now, allured by the flourishing state of the colony, flocked -over, and amongst them Harry Vane, the celebrated Sir Harry Vane -of the revolutionary parliament, and Hugh Peters, the chaplain of -Oliver Cromwell. Some difference of opinion amongst them occasioned a -considerable body of them to settle in Providence and Rhode Island. -These were under the guidance of their venerable pastor Roger Williams, -a man who deserves to be remembered while Christianity continues to -shed its blessings on mankind. Mr. Williams had penetrated through -the mists of his age, to the light of divine truth, and had risen -superior to the selfishness of his countrymen. He maintained the -freedom of conscience, the right of private judgment, the freedom of -religious opinion from the touch of the magistrate. The spirit of true -Christianity had imbued his own spirit with its love. Above all—for -it was the most novel doctrine, and as we have seen by the practice -of the whole Christian world, the hardest to adopt—he maintained the -sacred right of the natives to their own soil; and refused to settle -upon it without their consent. _He and his followers purchased of the -Indians the whole territory which they took possession of!_ This is -a fact which we cannot record without a feeling of intense delight, -for it is the first instance of such a triumph of Christian knowledge -and principle, over the corrupt morality of Europe. We nowhere read -till now, through all this bloody and revolting history of European -aggressions, of any single man treating with the savage natives -as with men who had the same inalienable rights as themselves.[32] -It is the first bright dawn of Christian day from the darkness of -ages; the first boundary mark put down between the possessions of -the unlettered savage, and the lawless desires of the schooled but -uncivilized European; the first recognition of that law of property -in the possessors of the soil of every country of the earth, until -the complete establishment of which, blood must flow, the weak must -be trodden down by the strong, and civilization and Christianity must -pause in their course. Honour to Roger Williams and his flock in -Narraganset Bay! The Puritan settlements still continued to spread. -Connecticut, and New Hampshire, and Maine were planted by different -bodies from Massachusets Bay; and the Indians, who found that the -whites diffused themselves farther and farther over their territories, -and soon ceased to purchase as Roger Williams had done, or even to -ask permission; began to remonstrate. Remonstrances however produced -little effect. The Indians saw that if they did not make a stand -against these encroachments they must soon be driven out of their -ancestral lands, and exterminated by those tribes on which they must be -forced. They resolved therefore to exterminate the invaders that would -hear no reason. The Pequods, who lay near the colony of Connecticut, -called upon the Narragansets in 1637, to join them in their scheme. -The Narragansets revealed it to the English, and both parties were -speedily in arms against each other. The different colonies of New -England had entered into an association for common defence. The people -of Connecticut called on those of Massachusets Bay for help, which -was accorded; but before its arrival the soldiers of Connecticut, who -seemed on all occasions eager to shed Indian blood, had attacked the -Pequods where they had posted themselves, in a sort of rude camp in -a swamp, defended with stakes and boughs of trees. The Pequods were -supposed to be a thousand strong, besides having all their women and -children with them; but their simple fortification was soon forced, and -set fire to; and men, women, children perished in the flames, or were -cut down on rushing out, or seized and bound. The Massachusets forces -soon after joined them, and then the Indians were hunted from place -to place with unrelenting fury. They determined to treat them, not as -brave men fighting for their invaded territories, for their families -and posterity, but as wild beasts. They massacred some in cold blood, -others they handed over to the Narragansets to be tortured to death; -and great numbers were sold into Bermudas as slaves. In less than -three months, the great and ancient tribe of the Pequods had ceased -to exist. What did Roger Williams say to this butchery by a Christian -people? But the spirit of resentment against the Indians grew to such a -pitch in those states that nothing but the language of Cotton Mather, -(the historian of New England,) can express it. He calls them devils -incarnate, and declares that unless he had “a pen made of a porcupine’s -quill and dipped in aquafortis he could not describe all their -cruelties.” Could they be possibly greater than those of the Puritan -settlers, who were at once the aggressors, and bore the name of -Christian? So deadly, indeed, became the vengeance of these colonists, -that they granted a public reward to any one who should kill an Indian. -The Assembly, says Douglass, in 1703, voted 40_l._ premium for each -Indian scalp or captive. In the former war the premium was 12_l._ In -1706, he says, “about this time premiums for Indian scalps and captives -were advanced by act of Assembly; viz.: per piece to impressed men -10_l._, to volunteers in pay 20_l._, to volunteers serving without pay -50_l._, with the benefit of the captives and plunder. Col. Hilton, -with 220 men, ranges the eastern frontiers, and kills many Indians. -In 1722 the premium for scalps was 100_l._ In 1744 it had risen to -400_l._ old tenor; for the years 1745, 6, and 7, it stood at the -enormous sum of 1000_l._ per head to volunteers, scalp or captive (!) -and 400_l._ per head to impressed men, wages and subsistence money -to be deducted.[33] In 1744 the Cape-Sables, and St. John’s Indians -being at war with the colonies, Massachusets-Bay declared them rebels; -forbad the Pasamaquody, Penobscot, Noridgwoag, Pigwocket, and all other -Indians west of St. John’s to hold any communication with them, and -offered for their scalps,—males 12 years old, and upwards, 100_l._ new -tenor; for such, as captives, 105_l._ For _women and children _50_l._, -scalps!—55_l._, captives! The Assembly soon after, hearing that the -Penobscot and Noridgwoag Indians had joined the French, extended -premiums for scalps and captives to all places west of Nova Scotia, -and advanced them to 250_l._ new tenor, to volunteers; and 100_l._ new -tenor to troops in pay.”[34] - -In 1722, a Captain Harman, with 200 men, surprised the Indians at -Noridgwoag, and brought off twenty-six scalps, _and that of Father -Ralle_, a French Jesuit.[35] The savage atrocities here committed by -the New Englanders were frightful. They massacred men, women, and -children; pillaged the village, robbed and set fire to the church, -and mangled the corpse of Father Ralle most brutally.[36] For these -twenty-six scalps, at the then premium, the good people of Massachusets -paid 2600_l._ A Captain Lovel, also, seems to have been an active -scalper. “He collected,” says Raynal, “a band of settlers as ferocious -as himself, and set out to hunt savages. One day he discovered ten of -them quietly sleeping round a large fire. He murdered them, carried -their scalps to Boston, and secured the promised reward, of course -1000_l._! Who could suppose that the land of the Pilgrim Fathers, the -land of the noble Roger Williams, could have become polluted with -horrors like these!” - -And why were the Indians now so sharply pursued—why such sums given -as tempted these Harmans and Lovels? Why the scalp of Father Ralle -to be stripped away from him?—Because Father Ralle had proclaimed a -very certain, but very disagreeable truth. He preached to the Indians, -“That their lands were given to them and their children unalienably -and for ever, according to the Christian sacred oracles.” What is -so inconvenient as to preach Bible truth in countries flagrant with -injustice? The Indians began to murmur; gave the English formal warning -to leave the lands within a set time, and as they did not move, began -to drive off their cattle. This was declared rebellion, the soldiery -were set on them, and 100_l._ a head proclaimed for their scalps. - -This is called Governor Dummer’s war; but the most celebrated war was -that of Philip of Pokanoket, which occurred between this war and that -of the destruction of the Pequods. The cause of Philip’s war, which -broke out in 1675, and lasted upwards of a year, was exactly that of -this subsequent one, and indeed of every war of New England with the -Indians—the dissatisfaction of the Indians with the usurpation of the -whites. The New England people, religious people though they were, -seem to have been more irritable, more jealous, more regardless of the -rights of the Indians, and more quick and deadly in their vengeance -on any shew of spirit in the natives, than any other of the North -American colonies. The monstrous, and were it not for the testimony -of unimpeachable history, incredible sums offered for scalps by these -states, testify to the malignant spirit of revenge which animated -them. Even towards the Narragansets, their firmest and most constant -friends, who lived amongst them, they shewed an irritability and a -savage relentlessness that are to us amazing. On the faintest murmur of -any dissatisfaction of this tribe on account of their lands, or of any -other tribe making overtures of alliance to it, they were up in arms, -and ready to exterminate it. So early as 1642, they charged Miantinomo, -the great sachem of the Narragansets, with conspiring to raise the -Indians against them. The people of Connecticut immediately proposed, -without further proof or examination, to fall on the Indians and kill -them. This bloody haste was, however, withstood by Massachusets.[37] -They summoned Miantinomo before the court. He came, and it is -impossible not to admire his sedate and dignified bearing there. He -demanded that his accusers should be brought face to face, and that if -they could prove him guilty of conspiracy against the colony, he was -ready to suffer death; but if they could not, they should suffer the -same punishment. “His behaviour,” says Hutchinson, “was grave, and he -gave his answers with great deliberation and seeming ingenuity. _He -would never speak but in the presence_ of two of _his counsellors_, -that they might be witnesses of everything which passed. (No doubt he -had seen enough of ‘that pen and ink work,’ of which the Indians so -often complained). Two days were spent in treaty. He denied all that he -was charged with, and pretended that the reports to his disadvantage -were raised by Uncas, the sachem of the Mohegins, or some of his -people. He was willing to renew his former engagements; that if any of -the Indians, even the Niantics, who, he said, were as his own flesh and -blood, should do any wrong to the English, so as neither he nor they -could satisfy without blood, he would deliver them up, and leave them -to mercy. _The people of Connecticut put little confidence in him, and -could hardly be kept from falling upon him_, but were at last prevailed -upon by the Massachusets to desist for the present.”[38] - -Poor Miantinomo did not long escape. Two years afterwards, in a war -with his enemy, Uncas, he was taken prisoner, and the colonists were -only too glad to have an opportunity of getting rid of a man of mind -and influence, who felt their aggressions and feared for his race—they -outdid the savage captor in their resentment against him. Instead -of interceding on his behalf and recommending mercy, by which they -might, at once, have set a Christian example, and have made a fast -friend, they procured his death. Uncas, with a generosity worthy of -the highest character, instead of killing his captive, as he was -entitled by the rules of Indian war, delivered him into the hands -of the New-Englanders, and the New-Englanders again returned him to -Uncas, desiring him to kill him, but without the usual tortures. It is -wonderful that they did not purchase his scalp, or that they excused -the torture; but a number of the English inhabitants went out and -gratified themselves with witnessing his death.[39] - -It was not to be marvelled at that such general treatment, and such a -crowning deed exasperated the Narragansets to a dangerous degree. They -nourished a rooted revenge, which shewed itself on the breaking out -of Philip of Pokanoket’s war. They engaged to bring to his aid 4000 -Indians. - -Philip was one of the noblest specimens of the North American -Indian. He was of a fine and active person; accomplished in all -exercises of his nation, in war and hunting. He had that quick sense -of injuries, and that sense of the honour and rights of his people -which characterise the patriot; qualities which, though in the most -cultivated and enlightened mind they may hurry their possessor on -occasionally to sharp and vindictive acts, are the very essentials -of that lofty and noble disposition without which no great deed is -ever done. Had Philip contended for his country against its invaders -on anything like equal terms, he would have been its saviour,—the -naked Indians against the powers and resources of the English! It was -hopeless,—he could only become the Caractacus, or the Cassibelaunus of -his nation. - -Philip has been painted by his enemies as a dreadful, perfidious, and -cruel wretch;—but had Philip been the survivor how would he have -painted them? With their shameless encroachments, their destruction of -Indians, their blood-money, and their scalps, purchased at 1000_l._ -each! Philip had the deepest causes of resentment. His father, -Massasoit, had received the strangers and sold them land. They speedily -compelled him to sign a deed, in which by “that pen and ink work” which -the Indians did not understand, but which they soon learned to know -worked them the most cruel wrongs, they had made him to acknowledge -himself and his subjects the subjects of King James. Philip denied that -his father had any idea of the meaning of such a treaty,—any idea of -surrendering to the English more than the land he sold them; or if he -had done so, that he had any right to give away the liberties of his -nation and posterity; the government amongst the Indians not being -hereditary, but elective. Philip, however, was compelled to retract -and renounce such doctrines in another public document. But the moment -he became at liberty, he held himself, and very justly, free from the -stipulations of a compulsory deed. - -But these were not all Philip’s grievances. His only and elder brother, -Wamsutta, or Alexander, for the entertainment of similar patriotic -sentiments, had been seized in his own house by ten armed men sent by -Governor Winslow, and carried before him as a caitiff, though he was at -that time the powerful sachem of the Narragansets, his father being -dead. The outrage and insult had such an effect upon the high-spirited -youth, that they threw him into a fever, which speedily proved -fatal.[40] - -They were these and the like injuries that drove Philip to concert -that union of the Indians which, in 1675, alarmed New England. We need -not follow the particulars of the war. It was hastened by a premature -disclosure; and Philip has been always taxed as a murderer for putting -to death John Sausaman, a renegade Indian who betrayed the plot to the -English. The man was a confessed and undoubted traitor, and his death -was exactly what the English would have inflicted, and was justified, -not merely by the summary proceeding in such cases of the Indians, -but by the laws of _civilized war_, if such an odd contradiction of -terms may pass. Philip, after a stout resistance, and after performing -prodigies of valour, was chased from swamp to swamp, and at length shot -by another traitor Indian, who cut off his hand and head, and brought -them to the English. His head was exposed on a gibbet at Plymouth for -twenty years; his hand, known by a particular scar, was exhibited in -savage triumph, and his mangled body refused burial. His only son, a -mere boy, was sold into slavery. - -It was during this war that the settlers lived in such a state of -continual alarm from the Indians, and such adventures and passages -of thrilling interest took place, as will for ever furnish topics of -conversation in that country. It was then that the congregation was -alarmed while in church at Hadley, in Massachusets, on a fast-day by -the Indians, and were compelled to leave their devotions to defend -themselves, when they were surprised by seeing a grave and commanding -personage, whom they had not before noticed, assume the command, lead -them to victory, and as suddenly again disappear. This person was -afterwards found to be Goffe, one of the English regicide judges, then -hiding in that neighbourhood. These facts Mr. Cooper has made good use -of in his story of “The Borderers.” - -But the facts of more importance to our history are, that in this war -3000 Indians were said to be destroyed. The Narragansets alone, were -reduced from 2000 to about 100 men. After the peace was restored 400 -Indians were ordered to assemble at Major Walker’s, at Catchecho, 200 -of whom were culled as most notorious, some of them put to death, and -the rest sent abroad and sold as slaves. Yet all these severities and -disasters to the Indians did not extinguish their desire to resist -the aggressions of the whites. On all sides, the Tarrateens, the -Penobscots, the Five Nations, and various other tribes, continued to -harass them; filling them with perpetual fears, and inflicting awful -cruelties and devastations on the solitary borderers. These were the -necessary fruits of that rancorous spirit with which the harshness -and injustice of the settlers had inspired them. Randolph, writing to -William Penn from New England in 1688, says—“This barbarous people, -the Indians, were now evilly treated by this government, who made it -their business to encroach upon their lands, and by degrees to drive -them out of all. That was the grounds and the beginning of the last -war.” And that was the ground of all the wars waged in the country -against this unhappy people. - - - - -CHAPTER XXII. - -THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA—SETTLEMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. - - -But it may be said, it is one thing to sit at home in our study -and write of Christian principles, and another to go out into new -settlements amongst wild tribes, and maintain them; that it is easy -to condemn the conduct of others, but might not be so easy to govern -our own temper, when assailed on all sides with signal dangers, -and irritated with cruelties; that the Indians would not listen to -persuasion; that they were faithless, vindictive beyond measure, and -fonder of blood than of peace; that there was no possible mode of -dealing with them but driving them out, or exterminating them.—Arise, -William Penn, and give answer! These are the very things that in his -day he heard on all hands. On all hands he was pointed to arms, by -which the colonies were defended: he was told that nothing but force -could secure the colonists against the red men: he was told that -there was no faith in them, and therefore no faith could be kept with -them. He believed in the power of Christianity, and therefore he did -not believe these assertions. He believed the Indians to be men, and -that they were, therefore, accessible to the language and motives of -humanity. He believed in the omnipotence of justice and good faith, and -disbelieved all the sophistry by which wars and violence are maintained -by an interested generation. He resolved to try the experiment of -kindness and peace: it was a grand and a momentous trial: it was no -other than to put the truth of Christianity to the test, and to learn -whether the World’s philosophy or that of the Bible were the best. -It was attempted to alarm him by all kinds of bloody bugbears: he -was ridiculed as an enthusiast, but he calmly cast himself on his -conviction of the literal truth of the Gospel, and the result was the -most splendid triumph in history. He demonstrated, in the face of the -world, and all its arguments and all its practice, that peace may be -maintained when men will it; and that there is no need, and therefore -no excuse, for the bloodshed and the violence that are perpetually -marking the expanding boundaries of what is oddly enough termed -civilization. - -William Penn received a grant of the province to which he gave the name -of Pennsylvania, as payment for money owing to his father, Admiral -Penn, from the government. He accepted this grant, because it secured -him against any other claimant from Europe. It gave him a title in -the eyes of the Christian world; but he did not believe that it gave -him any other title. He knew in his conscience that the country was -already in the occupation of tribes of Indians, who inherited it from -their ancestors by a term of possession, which probably was unequalled -by anything which the inhabitants of Europe had to shew for their -territories. I cannot better state Penn’s proceedings on this occasion -than in the words of the Edinburgh Review, when noticing Clarkson’s -Life of this Christian statesman. - -“The country assigned to him by the royal charter was yet full of -its original inhabitants; and the principles of William Penn did not -allow him to look upon that gift as a warrant to dispossess the first -inhabitants of the land. He had accordingly appointed his commissioners -the preceding year to treat with them for the fair purchase of part -of their lands, and for their joint possession of the remainder; and -the terms of the settlement being now nearly agreed upon, he proceeded -very soon after his arrival to conclude the settlement, and solemnly to -pledge his faith, and to ratify and confirm the treaty, in right both -of the Indians and the planters. For this purpose a grand convocation -of the tribes had been appointed near the spot where Philadelphia now -stands; and it was agreed that he and the presiding Sachems should -meet and exchange faith under the spreading branches of a prodigious -elm-tree that grew on the banks of the river. On the day appointed, -accordingly, an innumerable company of the Indians assembled in that -neighbourhood, and were seen, with their dark faces and brandished -arms, moving in vast swarms in the depth of the woods that then -overshaded that now cultivated region. On the other hand, William -Penn, with a moderate attendance of friends, advanced to meet them. He -came, of course, unarmed—in his usual plain dress—without banners, -or mace, or guard, or carriages, and only distinguished from his -companions by wearing a blue sash of silk network (which, it seems, -is still preserved by Mr. Kett, of Seething Hall, near Norwich), and -by having in his hand a roll of parchment, on which was engrossed the -confirmation of the treaty of purchase and amity. As soon as he drew -near the spot where the Sachems were assembled, the whole multitude -of the Indians threw down their weapons, and seated themselves on the -ground in groups, each under his own chieftain, and the presiding chief -intimated to William Penn that the natives were ready to hear him. - -“Having been thus called upon he began:—‘The Great Spirit,’ he said, -‘who made him and them, who ruled the heaven and the earth, and who -knew the innermost thoughts of man, knew that he and his friends had -a hearty desire to live in peace and friendship with them, and to -serve them to the uttermost of their power. It was not their custom to -use hostile weapons against their fellow-creatures, for which reason -they had come unarmed. Their object was not to do injury, and thus -provoke the Great Spirit, but to do good. They were then met on the -broad pathway of goodfaith and goodwill, so that no advantage was to -be taken on either side, but all was to be openness, brotherhood, and -love.’ After these and other words, he unrolled the parchment, and, by -means of the same intrepreter, conveyed to them, article by article, -the conditions of the purchase, and the words of the compact then -made for their eternal union. Among other things, they were not to be -molested, even in the territory they had alienated, for it was to be -common to them and the English. They were to have the same liberty to -do all things therein relating to the improvement of their grounds -and providing sustenance for their families, which the English had. -If disputes should arise between the two, they should be settled by -twelve persons, half of whom should be English, and half Indians. He -then paid them for the land, and made them many presents besides from -the merchandise which had been open before them. Having done this, -he laid the roll of parchment on the ground, observing again that -the ground should be common to both people. He then added that he -would not do as the Marylanders did, that is, call them children, or -brothers only: for often parents were apt to whip their children too -severely, and brothers sometimes would differ; neither would he compare -the friendship between him and them to a chain, for the rain might -sometimes rust it, or a tree might fall and break it; but he should -consider them as the same flesh and blood as the Christians, and the -same as if one man’s body was to be divided into two parts. He then -took up the parchment, and presented it to the Sachem who wore the horn -in the chaplet, and desired him and the other Sachems to preserve it -carefully for three generations, that their children might know what -had passed between them, just as if he himself had remained with them -to repeat it. - -“The Indians in return, made long and stately harangues, of which, -however, no more seems to have been remembered, but that ‘they pledged -themselves to live in love with William Penn and his children as long -as the sun and moon shall endure.’ Thus ended this famous treaty, of -which Voltaire has remarked with so much truth and severity, ‘That it -was the only one ever concluded which was not ratified by an oath, and -the only one that never was broken.’ - -“Such indeed was the spirit in which the negotiation was entered into, -and the corresponding settlement concluded, that for the space of more -than seventy years, and so long indeed as the Quakers retained the -chief power in the government, the peace and amity were never violated; -and a large and most striking, though solitary, example afforded of -the facility with which they who are really sincere and friendly in -their own views, may live in harmony with those who are supposed to be -peculiarly fierce and faithless. We cannot bring ourselves to wish that -there were nothing but Quakers in the world, because we fear it would -be insupportably dull; but when we consider what tremendous evils daily -arise from the petulance and profligacy, and ambition and irritability -of sovereigns and ministers, we cannot help thinking it would be the -most efficacious of all reforms to choose all those ruling personages -out of that plain, pacific, and sober-minded sect.” - -There is no doubt that Penn may be declared the most perfect Christian -statesman that ever lived. He had the sagacity to see that men, to be -made trustworthy, need only to be treated as men;—that the doctrines -of the New Testament were to be taken literally and fully; and he -had the courage and honesty, in the face of all the world’s practice -and maxims, to confide in Christian truth. It fully justified him. -What are the cunning and the so-called profound policy of the most -subtle statesmen to this? This confidence, at which the statesmen of -our own day would laugh as folly and simplicity, proved to be a reach -of wisdom far beyond their narrow vision. But it is to be feared -that the selfishness of governments is as much concerned as their -short-sightedness in the clumsy and ruinous manner in which affairs -between nations are managed; for what would become of armies and -navies, places and pensions, if honest treatment should take place of -the blow first and the word after, and of all that false logic by which -aggression is made to appear necessary? - -The results of this treaty were most extraordinary. While the Friends -retained the government of Pennsylvania it was governed without an -army, and was never assailed by a single enemy. The Indians retained -their firm attachment to them; and, more than a century afterwards, and -after the government of the state had long been resumed by England, -and its old martial system introduced there, when civil war broke out -between the colonies and the mother country, and the Indians were -instigated by the mother to use the tomahawk and the scalping-knife -against the children, using,—according to her own language, which -so roused the indignation of Lord Chatham,—“every means which God -and Nature had put into her power,” to destroy or subdue them,—these -Indians, who laid waste the settlements of the colonists with fire, and -drenched them in blood, remembered the treaty with the _sons of Onas_, -AND KEPT IT INVIOLATE! They had no scruple to make war on the other -colonists, for they had not been scrupulous in their treatment of them, -and they had many an old score to clear off; but they had always found -the Friends the same,—their friends and the friends of peace,—and -they reverenced in them the sacred principles of faith and amity. Month -after month the Friends saw the destruction of their neighbours’ houses -and lands; yet they lived in peace in the midst of this desolation. -They heard at night the shrieks of the victims of the red men’s wrath, -and they saw in the morning where slaughter had reached neighbouring -hearths, and where the bloody scalp had been torn away; but their -houses remained untouched. Every evening the Indians came from their -hidden lairs in the woods, and lifted the latches of their doors, to -see if they remained in full reliance on their faith, and then they -passed on. Where a house was secured with lock or bolt, they knew that -suspicion had entered, and they grew suspicious too. But, through all -that bloody and disgraceful war, only two Friends were killed by the -Indians; and it was under these circumstances:—A young man, a tanner, -had gone from the village where he lived to his tan-yard, at some -distance, through all this period of outrage. He went and came daily, -without any arms, with his usual air of confidence, and therefore in -full security. The Indians from the thickets beheld him, but they never -molested him. Unfortunately, one day he went as usual to his business, -but carried a gun on his arm. He had not proceeded far into the country -when a shot from the bush laid him dead. When the Indians afterwards -learned that he was merely carrying the gun to kill birds that were -injuring his corn, “Foolish young man,” they said; “we saw him carrying -arms, and we inferred that he had changed his principles.” - -The other case was that of a woman. She had lived in a village which -had been laid waste, and most of the inhabitants killed, by the -Indians. The soldiers, from a fort not far off, came, and repeatedly -entreated her to go into the fort, before she experienced the same -fate as her neighbours. For a long time she refused, but at length fear -entered her mind, and she went with them. In the fort, however, she -became wretched. She considered that she had abandoned the principles -of peace by putting herself under the protection of arms. She felt that -she had cast a slander on the hitherto inviolate faith of the Indians, -which might bring most disastrous consequences on other Friends who yet -lived in the open country on the faith of the Indian integrity. She -therefore determined to go out again, and return to her own house. She -went forth, but had scarcely reached the first thicket when she was -shot by the Indians, who now looked upon her as an enemy, or at least -as a spy. - -These are the only exceptions to the perfect security of Friends -through all the Indian devastations in America; for wherever there -were Friends, any tribe of Indians felt bound to recognize the sons of -Father Onas: they would have been ashamed to injure an unarmed man, -who was unarmed because he preserved peace as the command of the Great -Spirit. It was during this war that the very treaty made with Penn was -shewn by the Indians to some British officers, being preserved by them -with the most sacred care, as a monument of a transaction without a -parallel, and equally honourable to themselves as to the Friends. - -What a noble testimony is this to the divine nature and perfect -adaptation of Christianity to all human purposes; and yet when has -it been imitated? and how little is heard of it! From that day to -the present both Americans and English have gone on outraging and -expelling the natives from their lands; and it was but the other day -that the English officers at the Cape were astonished that a similar -conduct towards the Caffres produced a similar result. How lost are -the most splendid deeds of the Christian philosopher on the ordinary -statesman! But the Friends are a peaceable people, and “doing good -they blush to find it fame.” If they would make more noise in the -world, and din their good deeds in its ears, they would be never the -worse citizens. The landing of the Pilgrim Fathers in America is -annually celebrated in New England with great ceremony and eclat. -It has been everywhere extolled by those holding similar religious -views, and has been eulogised in poetry and prose. The landing of the -Friends in Pennsylvania was a landing of the Pilgrim Fathers not less -important: they went there under similar circumstances: they fled from -persecution at home—a bitterer and more savage persecution even than -befel the Puritans—to seek a home in the wilderness. They equalled -the good Roger Williams in their justice to the Indians—they bought -their lands of them—and they far exceeded him and his followers in -their conception of the power of Christianity, and their practical -demonstration of it. They are the only people in the history of the -world that have gone into the midst of a fierce and armed race, and -a race irritated with rigour too, without arms;[41] established a -state on the simple basis of justice, and to the last hour of their -government maintained it triumphantly on the same. Their conduct to the -Indians never altered for the worse; Pennsylvania, while under their -administration, never became, as New England, a slaughter-house of the -Indians. The world cannot charge them with the extinction of a single -tribe—no, nor with that of a single man! - -It is delightful to close this chapter of American settlements with so -glorious a spectacle of Christian virtue;—would to God that it were -but more imitated![42] - - - - -CHAPTER XXIII. - -THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA TILL THE REVOLT OF THE COLONIES. - - In Carolina’s palmy bowers, - Amid Kentucky’s wastes of flowers, - Where even the way-side hedge displays - Its jasmines and magnolias; - O’er the monarda’s vast expanse - Of scarlet, where the bee-birds glance - Their flickering wings, and breasts that gleam - Like living fires;—that dart and scream— - A million little knights that run - Warring for wild-flowers in the sun;— - His eye might rove through earth and sky, - His soul was in the days gone by. - - -We may pass rapidly over this space. The colonial principles of action -were established regarding the Indians, and they went on destroying -and demoralizing them till the reduction of Canada by the English. -That removed one great source of Indian destruction; for while there -was such an enemy to repulse, the Indians were perpetually called upon -and urged forward in the business of slaughter and scalping. It was -the same, indeed, on every frontier where there was an enemy, French -or Spanish. We have the history of Adair, who was a resident in the -south-western states for above forty years. This gentleman, who has -given us a very minute account of the manners, customs, and opinions -of the Choctaws, Cherokees, and Chickasaws, amongst whom he chiefly -resided in the Carolinas, and who is firmly convinced that they are -descended from the Ten Tribes of Israel, and, moreover, gives us many -proofs of the excellence of their nature—yet, most inconsistently, is -loud in praise of the French policy of setting the different Indian -nations by the ears; and condemnation of anything like conciliation -and forbearance. Speaking of some such attempts in 1736, he says—“Our -rivals, the French, never neglect so favourable an opportunity of -securing and promoting their interests. We have known more than one -instance wherein _their wisdom_ has not only found out proper means -to disconcert the most dangerous plans of disaffected savages, _but -likewise to foment, and artfully to encourage, great animosities -between the heads of ambitious rival families, till they fixed them in -an implacable hatred against each other, and all of their respective -tribes_.”[43] - -That he was in earnest in his admiration of such a policy, he goes -on to relate to us, with the greatest _naiveté_ and in the most -circumstantial manner, how he recommended to the Governor of South -Carolina to employ the Choctaws to scalp and extirpate the French -traders in Louisiana, who, no doubt, interfered with his own gains. He -lets us know that he got such a commission; and informs us particularly -of the presents and flatteries with which he plied a great Choctaw -chief, called Red Shoes, to set him on this work; in which he was -successful. “I supplied each of them with arms, ammunition, and -presents in plenty; gave them a French scalping-knife, which had been -used against us, and even vermilion, to be used in the flourishing -way, with the dangerous French snakes, when they killed and scalped -them.... They soon went to work—they killed the strolling French -pedlars—turned out against the Mississippi Indians and Mobillians, -and the flame raged very high. A Choctaw woman gave a French pedlar -warning: he mounted his horse, but Red Shoes ran him down in about -fifteen minutes, and had scalped him before the rest came up.... Soon -after a great number of Red Shoes’ women came to me with the French -scalps and other trophies of war.”... “In the next spring, 1747,” he -tells us “a large body of Muskohges and Chickasaws embarked on the -Mississippi, and went down it to attack the French settlements. Here -they burned a large village, and their leader being wounded, they -in revenge killed all their prisoners; and overspread the French -settlements in their fury like a dreadful whirlwind, destroying all -before them, to the astonishment and terror even of those that were far -remote from the skirts of the direful storm.” This candid writer tells -us that the French Louisianians were now in a lamentable state—but, -says he, “they had no reason to complain; we were only retaliating -innocent blood which _they_ had caused to be shed by _their_ red -mercenaries!” He laments that some treacherous traders put a stop -to his scheme, or they would soon have driven all the French out of -Alabama.[44] - -Who were the savages? and how did the English expect the Indians, under -such a course of tuition, to become civilized? This was the state -of things in the south. In the north, not a war broke out between -England and France, but the same scenes were acting between the English -American settlements and Canada. In 1692 we find Captain Ingoldsby -haranguing the chiefs of the Five Nations at Albany, and exhorting them -to “keep the enemy in perpetual alarm by the incursions of parties -into their country.” And the Indian orator shrewdly replying—“Brother -Corlear (their name for the governor of New York) is it not to secure -your frontiers? Why, then, not one word of your people that are to join -us? We will carry the war into the heart of the enemy’s country—but, -brother Corlear, how comes it that none of our brethren, fastened in -the same chain with us, offer their hand in this general war? Pray, -Corlear, how come Maryland, Delaware River, and New England to be -disengaged? Do they draw their arms out of the chain? or has the great -king commanded that the few subjects he has in this place should make -war against the French alone?”[45] - -It was not always, however, that the Indians had to complain that the -English urged them into slaughter of the French and did not accompany -them. The object of England in America now became that of wresting -Canada entirely from France. For this purpose, knowing how essential -it was to the success of this enterprise that they should not only -have the Indians well affected, so as to prevent any incursions of the -French Indians into their own states while the British forces were -all concentrated on Canada, and still more how absolutely necessary -to have a large body of Indians to pioneer the way for them through -the woods, without which their army would be sure to be cut off by the -French Indians—great endeavours were now made to conclude treaties of -peace and mutual aid with all the great tribes in the British American -colonies. Such treaties had long existed with the Five Nations, now -called the Six Nations, by the addition of the remainder of the -Tuscarora Indians who had escaped from our exterminating arms in North -Carolina, and fled to the Five Nations; and also with the Delaware and -Susquehanna Indians. Conferences were held with the chiefs of these -tribes and British Commissioners from Pennsylvania, Maryland, New -York and Virginia, and, ostensibly, a better spirit was manifested -towards the Indian people. The most celebrated of these conferences -were held at Philadelphia in 1742; at Lancaster in Pennsylvania in -1744; and at Albany, in the state of New York, in 1746. The details -of the conferences developed many curious characteristics both of -the white and the red men. Canassateego, an Onondaga chief, was the -principal speaker for the Indians on all these occasions, and it would -be difficult to point to the man in any country, however civilized and -learned, who has conducted national negotiations with more ability, -eloquence, and sounder perception of actual existing circumstances, -amid all the sophistry employed on such occasions by European -diplomatists— - - That lead to bewilder, and dazzle to blind.—_Beattie._ - -It had been originally agreed that a certain sum should be given to the -Indians, or rather its value in goods, to compensate them for their -trouble and time in coming to these conferences; that their expenses -should be paid during their stay; and that all their kettles, guns, and -hatchets should be mended for them; and the speakers took good care to -remind the colonists of these claims, and to have them duly discharged. -As it may be interesting to many to see what sort of goods were given -on these occasions, we may take the following as a specimen, which were -delivered to them at the conference of 1742, in part payment for the -cession of some territory. - - 500 pounds of powder. - 600 pounds of lead. - 45 guns. - 60 Stroud matchcoats. - 100 blankets. - 100 Duffil matchcoats. - 200 yards half-thick. - 100 shirts. - 40 hats. - 40 pairs shoes and buckles. - 40 pairs stockings. - 100 hatchets. - 500 knives. - 100 hoes. - 60 kettles. - 100 tobacco tongs. - 100 scissors. - 500 awl blades. - 120 combs. - 2000 needles. - 1000 flints. - 24 looking-glasses. - 2 pounds of vermilion. - 100 tin pots. - 1000 tobacco pipes. - 200 pounds of tobacco. - 24 dozen of gartering. - 25 gallons of rum. - -In another list we find no less than _four dozens of jew’s harps_. -Canassateego, on the delivery of the above goods, made a speech which -lets us into the real notions and feelings of the Indians on what was -going on in that day. “We received from the proprietor,” said he, -“yesterday, some goods in consideration of our release of the lands on -the west side of Susquehanna. It is true, we have the full quantity -according to agreement; but, if the proprietor had been here in person, -we think, in regard to our numbers and poverty, he would have made -an addition to them. If the goods were only to be divided amongst the -Indians present, a single person would have but a small portion; but if -you consider what numbers are left behind equally entitled with us to -a share, there will be extremely little. We therefore desire, if you -have the keys of the proprietor’s chest, you will open it and take out -a little more for us. - -“We know our lands are now become more valuable. _The white people -think we don’t know their value; but we are sensible that the land is -everlasting, and the few goods we receive for it, are soon worn out and -gone._ For the future we will sell no lands but when Brother Onas is -in the country; and we will know beforehand the quantity of goods we -are to receive. Besides, we are not well used with respect to the lands -still unsold by us. Your people daily settle on our lands, and spoil -our hunting. We must insist on your removing them, as you know they -have no right to settle to the north of the Kittochtinny Hills.” - -As it was necessary to conciliate them, more goods were given and -justice promised. On the other hand, the English complaining of the -Delawares having sold some land without authority from the Six Nations, -on whom they were dependent, Canassateego pronounced a very severe -reprimand to the Delawares, and ordered them to do so no more. - -At the conference of 1744, the Indians gave one of those shrewd turns -for their own advantage to the boastings of the whites, which shew the -peculiar humour that existed in the midst of their educational gravity. -The governor of Maryland vaunting of a great sea-fight in which the -English had beaten the French; Canassateego immediately observed: -“In that great fight you must have taken a great quantity of rum, the -Indians will therefore thank you for a glass.” It was handed round to -them in _very small_ glasses, called by the governor _French glasses_. -The Indians drank it, and at the breaking up of the council that day, -Canassateego said, “Having had the pleasure of drinking a _French -glass_ of the great quantity of rum taken, the Indians would now, -before separating be glad to drink an English glass, to make us rejoice -with you in the victory.” It was impossible to waive so ingenious a -demand, and a _large glass_, to indicate the superiority of English -liberality, was now handed round. - -In this conference, the Indians again complained of the daily -encroachments upon them, and of the inadequate price given for the -lands they sold. The Governor of Maryland boldly told them that the -land was in fact acquired by the English by conquest, and that they had -besides a claim of possession of 100 years. To this injudicious speech -the Indians replied with indignation, “What is one hundred years in -comparison of the time since _our claim_ began?—since we came out of -this ground? For we must tell you that long before one hundred years -_our ancestors came out of this very ground_, and their children have -remained here ever since. _You_ came out of the ground in a country -that lies beyond the seas; _there_ you may have a just claim; but -_here_ you must allow us to be your elder brethren, and the lands to -belong to us long before you knew anything of them.” They then reminded -them of the manner in which they had received them into the country. In -figurative language they observed, “When the Dutch came here, above a -hundred years ago, we were so well pleased with them that we tied their -ship to the bushes on the shore; and afterwards liking them better the -longer they stayed with us, and thinking the bushes too slender, we -removed the rope and tied it to the trees; and as the trees were liable -to be blown down, or to decay of themselves, we, from the affection -that we bore them, again removed the rope, and tied it to a strong and -high rock (here the interpreter said they mean the Oneido country); and -not content with this, for its further security, we removed the rope -to the big mountain (here the interpreter said, they mean the Onondaga -country), and there we tied it very fast, and rolled wampum about it, -and to make it still more secure, we stood upon the wampum, and sat -down upon it to defend it, and to prevent any hurt coming to it, and -did our best endeavours that it might remain for ever. During all this -time the Dutch acknowledged our right to the lands, and solicited us -from time to time, to grant them parts of our country. When the English -governor came to Albany, and we were told the Dutch and English were -become one people, the governor looked at the rope which tied the ship -to the big mountain, and seeing that it was only of wampum and liable -to rot, break, and perish in a course of years, he gave us a silver -chain, which he told us would be much stronger, and would last for ever. - -“We had then,” said they pathetically, “room enough and plenty of -deer, which was easily caught; and though we had not knives, hatchets, -or guns, we had knives of stone, and hatchets of stone, and bows and -arrows, which answered our purpose as well as the English ones do now, -for we are now straitened; we are often in want of deer; we have to go -far to seek it, and are besides liable to many other inconveniences, -and particularly from that _pen-and-ink work that is going on at the -table_!” pointing to the secretary. “You know,” they continued, “when -the white people came here they were poor—they have got our lands, and -now _they_ are become rich, and _we_ are poor. _What little we get for -the land soon goes away, but the land lasts for ever!_” - -It was necessary to soothe them—the governor had raised a spirit -which told him startling truths. It shewed that the Indians were not -blind to the miserable fee for which they were compelled to sell their -country. “Your great king,” said they, “might send you over to conquer -the Indians; but it looks to us that God did not send you—if he had, -he would not have placed the sea where he has, to keep you and us -asunder.” The governor addressed them in flattering terms, and added, -“We have a chest of new goods, and the key is in our pockets. You are -our brethren: the Great King is our common Father, and we will live -with you as children ought to do—in peace and love.” - -The Indians were strenuously exhorted to use all means to bring the -western natives into the league. At the Conference of 1746, held -at Albany, it became sufficiently evident for what object all this -conciliation and these endeavours to extend their alliance amongst -the Indians were used. A great and decisive attack upon Canada was -planning: and it is really awful to read the language addressed to -the assembled Indians, to inflame them with the spirit of the most -malignant hatred and revenge against the French. Mr. Cadwallader -Colden, one of His Majesty’s Council and Surveyor-general of New York, -and the historian of the Five Nations, on whose own authority these -facts are stated, addressed the Indians, owing to the Governor’s -illness, in the speech prepared for the occasion. He called upon them -to remember all the French had done to them; what they did at Onondaga; -how they invaded the Senekas; what mischiefs they did to the Mohawks; -how many of their countrymen suffered at the fire at Montreal; how -they had sent priests amongst them to lull them to sleep, when they -intended to knock them on the head. “I hear,” then added he, “they -are attempting to do the same now. I need not remind you what revenge -your fathers took for these injuries, when they put all the isle of -Montreal, and a great part of Canada, to fire and sword. Can you think -the French forget this? No! they are watching secretly to destroy you. -But if your fathers could now rise out of their graves, how would their -hearts leap with joy to see this day, when so glorious an opportunity -is put into your hands to revenge all the injuries of your country, -etc. etc.” He called on them to accompany the English, to win glory, -and promised them great reward. - -But these horrible fire-brands of speech,—these truly “burning words” -were not all the means used. English gentlemen were sent amongst the -tribes to arouse them by every conceivable means. The celebrated Mr. -William Johnson of Mohawk, who had dreamed himself into a vast estate -in that country,[46] and who afterwards, as Sir William Johnson, was -so distinguished as the leader of the Indians at the fall of Quebec, -and the conquest of Canada, now went amongst the Mohawks, dressed like -a Mohawk chief. He feasted them at his castle on the Mohawk river; he -gave them dances in their own country style, and danced with them; and -led the Mohawk band to this very conference. - -This enterprise came to nothing; but for the successful one of 1759 the -same stimulants were applied, and the natives, to the very Twightwees -and Chickasaws, brought into the league, either to march against -the French, or to secure quiet in the states during the time of the -invasion of Canada. And what was their reward? Scarcely was Canada -reduced, and the services of the Indians no longer needed, when they -found themselves as much encroached upon and insulted as ever. Some of -the bloodiest and most desolating wars which they ever waged against -the English settlements, took place between our conquest of Canada -and our war against the American colonies themselves. It was the -long course of injuries and insults which the Indians had suffered -from the settlers that made them so ready to take up the tomahawk -and scalping-knife at the call, and induced by the blood-money, of -the mother-country against her American children. The employment and -instigation of the Indians to tomahawk the settlers brings down British -treatment of the Indians to the very last moment of our power in that -country. What were our notions of such enormities may be inferred -from their being called in the British Parliament “_means which God -and nature have put into our hands_,”—and from Lord Cornwallis, our -general then employed against the Americans, expressing, in 1780, his -“_satisfaction_ that the Indians had pursued and _scalped_ many of the -enemy!” - -This was our conduct towards the Indians to the last hour of our -dominion in their country. We drove them out of their lands, or cheated -them out of them by making them drunk. We robbed them of their furs -in the same manner; and on all occasions we inflamed their passions -against their own enemies and ours. We made them ten times more -cruel, perfidious, and depravedly savage than we found them, and then -upbraided them as irreclaimable and merciless, and thereon founded -our convenient plea that they must be destroyed, or driven onward as -perishing shadows before the sun of civilization. - -Before quitting the English in America, we need only, to complete our -view of their treatment of the natives, to include in it a glance at -that treatment in those colonies which we yet retain there; and that is -furnished by the following Parliamentary Report, (1837.) - - -NEWFOUNDLAND. - - To take a review of our colonies, beginning with Newfoundland. There, - as in other parts of North America, it seems to have been, for a - length of time, accounted a “meritorious act” to kill an Indian.[47] - - On our first visit to that country, the natives were seen in every - part of the coast. We occupied the stations where they used to hunt - and fish, thus reducing them to want, while we took no trouble to - indemnify them, so that, doubtless, many of them perished by famine; - we also treated them with hostility and cruelty, and “many were - slain by our own people, as well as by the Micmac Indians,” who were - allowed to harass them. They must, however, have been recently very - numerous, since, in one place, Captain Buchan found they had “run up - fences to the extent of 30 miles,” with a variety of ramifications, - for the purpose of conducting the deer down to the water, a work - which would have required the labour of a multitude of hands. - - It does not appear that any measures were taken to open a - communication with them before the year 1810, when, by order of Sir. - J. Duckworth, an attempt was made by Captain Buchan, which proved - ineffectual. At that time he conceived that their numbers around - their chief place of resort, the Great Lake, were reduced to 400 or - 500. Under our treatment they continued rapidly to diminish; and it - appears probable that the last of the tribe left at large, a man - and a woman, were shot by two Englishmen in 1823. Three women had - been taken prisoners shortly before, and they died in captivity. In - the colony of Newfoundland, it may therefore be stated that we have - exterminated the natives.[48] - - -CANADIAN INDIANS. - - The general account of our intercourse with the North American - Indians, as distinct from missionary efforts, may be given in the - words of a converted Chippeway chief, in a letter to Lord Goderich: - “We were once very numerous, and owned all Upper Canada, and lived - by hunting and fishing; but the white men who came to trade with - us taught our fathers to drink the fire-waters, which has made our - people poor and sick, and has killed many tribes, till we have become - very small.”[49] - - It is a curious fact, noticed in the evidence, that, some years ago, - the Indians practised agriculture, and were able to bring corn to - our settlements, then suffering from famine; but we, by driving them - back and introducing the fur trade, have rendered them so completely - a wandering people, that they have very much lost any disposition - which they might once have felt to settle. All writers on the Indian - race have spoken of them, in their native barbarism, as a noble - people; but those who live among civilised men, upon reservations - in our own territory, are now represented as “reduced to a state - which resembles that of gipsies in this country.” Those who live in - villages among the whites “are a very degraded race, and look more - like dram-drinkers than people it would be possible to get to do any - work.” - - To enter, however, into a few more particulars.—The Indians of New - Brunswick are described by Sir H. Douglass, in 1825, as “dwindled in - numbers,” and in a “wretched condition.” - - Those of Nova Scotia, the Micmacs (by Sir J. Kempt), as disinclined - to settle, and in the habit of bartering their furs, “unhappily, for - rum.”[50] - - General Darling’s statement as to the Indians of the Canadas, drawn - up in 1828, speaks of the interposition of the government being - urgently called for in behalf of the helpless individuals whose - landed possessions, where they have any assigned to them, are daily - plundered by their designing and more enlightened white brethren.[51] - - Of the Algonquins and Nipissings, General Darling writes, “Their - situation is becoming alarming, by the rapid settlement and - improvement of the lands on the banks of the Ottawa, on which they - were placed by the government in the year 1763, and which tract they - have naturally considered as their own. The result of the present - state of things is obvious, and such as can scarcely fail in time - to be attended with bloodshed and murder; for, driven from their own - resources, they will naturally trespass on those of other tribes, - who are equally jealous of the intrusion of their red brethren as - of white men. Complaints on this head are increasing daily, while - the threats and admonitions of the officers of the department have - been insufficient to control the unruly spirit of the savage, who, - driven by the calls of hunger and the feelings of nature towards - his offspring, will not be scrupulous in invading the rights of his - brethren, as a means of alleviating his misery, when he finds the - example in the conduct of his white father’s children practised, as - he conceives, towards himself.”[52] - - The general also speaks of the “degeneracy” of the Iroquois, and - of the degraded condition of most of the other tribes, with the - exception of those only who had received Christian instruction. Later - testimony is to the same effect. The Rev. J. Beecham, secretary to - the Wesleyan Missionary Society, says he has conversed with the - Chippeway chief above referred to, on the condition of the Indians - on the boundary of Upper Canada. That he stated most unequivocally - that previously to the introduction of Christianity they were rapidly - wasting away; and he believed that if it had not been for the - introduction of Christianity they would speedily have become extinct. - As the causes of this waste of Indian life, he mentions the decrease - of the game, the habit of intoxication, and the European diseases. - The small-pox had made great ravages. He adds, “The information which - I have derived from this chief has been confirmed by our missionaries - stationed in Upper Canada, and who are now employed among the Indian - tribes on the borders of that province. My inquiries have led me to - believe, that where Christianity has not been introduced among the - aboriginal inhabitants of Upper Canada, they are melting away before - the advance of the white population. This remark applies to the - Six Nations, as they are called, on the Great River; the Mohawks, - Oneidas, Onondagas, Senacas, Cayugas, and Tuscaroras, as well as to - all the other tribes on the borders of the province.” Of the ulterior - tribes, the account given by Mr. King, who accompanied Captain - Back in his late Arctic expedition, is deplorable: he gives it as - his opinion, that “the Northern Indians have decreased greatly, and - decidedly from contact with the Europeans.” - - Thus, the Cree Indians, once a powerful tribe, “have now degenerated - into a few families, congregated about the European establishments, - while some few still retain their ancient rights, and have become - partly allies of a tribe of Indians that were once their slaves.” - He supposes their numbers to have been reduced within thirty or - forty years from 8,000 or 10,000, to 200, or at most 300, and has - no doubt of the remnant being extirpated in a short time, if no - measures are taken to improve their morals and to cultivate habits - of civilization. It should be observed that this tribe had access to - posts not comprehended within the Hudson’s Bay Company’s prohibition, - as to the introduction of spirituous liquors, and that they miserably - show the effects of the privilege. - - The Copper Indians also, through ill-management, intemperance, and - vice, are said to have decreased within the last five years to - one-half the number of what they were. - - The early quarrels between the Hudson’s Bay and the North West - Companies, in which the Indians were induced to take a bloody - part, furnished them with a ruinous example of the savageness of - Christians.[53] - - -SOUTH AMERICA. - - In South America, British Guiana occupies a large extent of country - between the rivers Orinoco and Amazons, giving access to numbers - of tribes of aborigines who wander over the vast regions of the - interior. The Indian population within the colony of Demerara and - Essequibo, is derived from four nations, the Caribs, Arawacks, - Warrows, and Accaways. - - It is acknowledged that they have been diminishing ever since the - British came into possession of the colony. In 1831 they were - computed at 5096; and it is stated “it is the opinion of old - inhabitants of the colony, and those most competent to judge, that - a considerable diminution has taken place in the aggregate number - of the Indians of late years, and that the dimunition, although - gradual, has become more sensibly apparent within the last eight or - ten years.” The diminution is attributed, in some degree, to the - increased use of rum amongst them.[54] - - There are in the colony six gentlemen bearing the title of - “Protectors of Indians,” whose office it is to superintend the - tribes; and under them are placed post-holders, a principal part - of whose business it is to keep the negroes from resorting to the - Indians, and also to attend the distribution of the presents which - are given to the latter by the British government; of which, as was - noticed with reprehension by Lord Goderich, rum formed a part. - - It does not appear[55] that anything has been done by government for - their moral or religious improvement, excepting the grant in 1831, by - Sir B. D’Urban, of a piece of land at Point Bartica, where a small - establishment was then founded by the Church Missionary Society. The - Moravian Mission on the Courantin was given up in 1817; and it does - not appear that any other Protestant Society has attended to these - Indians. - - In 1831, Lord Goderich writes,[56] “I have not heard of any effort to - convert the Indians of British Guiana to Christianity, or to impart - to them the arts of social life.” - - It should be observed that no injunctions to communicate either are - given in the instructions for the “Protectors of Indians,” or in - those for the post-holders; and two of the articles of the latter, - (Art. 14 and Art. 15,) tend directly to sanction and encourage - immorality. All reports agree in stating that these tribes have been - almost wholly neglected, are retrograding, and are without provision - for their moral or civil advancement; and with due allowance for - the extenuating remarks on the poor account to which they turned - their lands, when they had them, and the gifts (baneful gifts some - of them) which have been distributed, and on the advantage of living - under British laws, we must still concur in the sentiment of Lord - Goderich, as expressed in the same letter, upon a reference as to - sentence of death passed upon a native Indian for the murder of - another. “It is a serious consideration that we have subjected these - tribes to the penalties of a code of which they unavoidably live in - profound ignorance; they have not even that conjectural knowledge of - its provisions which would be suggested by the precepts of religion, - if they had even received the most elementary instruction in the - Christian faith. They are brought into acquaintance with civilised - life not to partake its blessings, but only to feel the severity of - its penal sanctions.” - - “A debt is due to the aboriginal inhabitants of British Guiana of a - very different kind from that which the inhabitants of Christendom - may, in a certain sense, be said to owe in general to other barbarous - tribes. The whole territory which has been occupied by Europeans, - on the northern shores of the South American Continent, has been - acquired by no other right than that of superior power; and I fear - that the natives whom we have dispossessed, have to this day received - no compensation for the loss of the lands on which they formerly - subsisted. However urgent is the duty of economy in every branch of - the public service, it is impossible to withhold from the natives - of the country the inestimable benefit which they would derive from - appropriating to their religious and moral instruction some moderate - part of that income which results from the culture of the soil to - which they or their fathers had an indisputable title.”[57] - - -CARIBS. - - Of the Caribs, the native inhabitants of the West Indies, we need not - speak, as of them little more remains than the tradition that they - once existed. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIV. - -TREATMENT OF THE INDIANS BY THE UNITED STATES. - - “We were born on this spot; our fathers lie buried in it. - Shall we say to the bones of our fathers—‘Arise and come - with us into a foreign land?’”—_Speech of a Canadian - Indian to the French invaders._ - - -It was to be hoped that that great republic, the United States of North -America, having given so splendid an example of resistance to the -injustice of despotism, and of the achievement of freedom in a struggle -against a mighty nation, calculated to call forth all the generous -enthusiasm of brave men, would have given a practical demonstration of -true liberty to the whole world: that they would have shewn that it was -possible for a republic to exist, which was wise and noble enough to be -entirely free: that the sarcasm of Milton should not at least be thrown -at them— - - License they mean when they cry liberty! - -The world, however, was doomed to suffer another disappointment in this -instance, and the enemies of freedom to enjoy another triumph. The -Americans left that highest place in human legislation, the adoption -of the divine precept of doing as they would be done by, as the basis -of their constitution, still unoccupied. We had the mortification of -seeing the old selfishness which had disgraced every ancient republic, -and had furnished such destructive arguments to the foes of mankind, -again unblushingly displayed. The Americans proclaimed themselves -not noble, not generous, not high-minded enough to give that freedom -to others which they had declared, by word and by deed, of the same -price as life to themselves. They once more mixed up the old crumbling -composition of iron and clay, slavery and freedom, and moulded them -into an image of civil polity, which must inevitably fall asunder. They -published a new libel on man—in the very moment of his most heroic and -magnanimous enthusiasm—shewing him as mean and sordid. While he raised -his hand to protest to admiring and huzzaing millions, that there was -no value in life without liberty, the manacles prepared for the negroes -protruded themselves from his pocket, his impassioned action at once -took the air of theatrical rant, and the multitudes who were about to -admire, laughed out, or groaned, as they were more or less virtuous. -The pompous phrases of “Divine liberty! Glorious liberty! Liberty the -birthright of every man that breathes!” became the most bitter and -humbling mockery, and gave way to the merry sneer of Matthews—“What! -d’ye call it liberty when a man may not larrup his own nigger?” - -A more natural tone was assumed as regarded the Indians. They -were declared to be free and independent nations; not citizens of -the United States, but the original proprietors of the soil, and -therefore as purely irresponsible to the laws of the United States -as any neighbouring nations. They were treated with, as such, on -every occasion; their territories and right of self-government were -acknowledged by such treaties. “There is an abundance of authorities,” -says Mr. Stuart, in his ‘Three Years in North America,’ “in opposition -to the pretext, that the Indians are not now entitled to live under -their own laws and constitutions; but it would be sufficient to refer -to the treaties entered into, year after year, between the United -States and them as separate nations.” - -“There are two or three authorities, independent of state papers, -which most unambiguously prove that it was never supposed that the -state governments should have a right to impose their constitution or -code of laws upon any of the Indian nations. Thus Mr. Jefferson, in an -address to the Cherokees, says—“I wish sincerely you may succeed in -your laudable endeavours to save the remnant of your nation by adopting -industrious occupations. In this you may always rely on the counsel -and assistance of the United States.” In the same way the American -negotiators at Ghent, among whom were the most eminent American -statesmen, Mr. John Quincy Adams and Mr. Henry Clay, in their note -addressed to the British Commissioners, dated September 9, 1814, use -the following language:—“The Indians residing within the United States -are so far independent that they live under their own customs, and -not under the laws of the United States.” Chancellor Kent, of New York -state (the Lord Coke or Lord Stair of the United States), has expressly -laid it down, that “it would seem idle to contend that the Indians were -citizens or subjects of the United States, and not alien and sovereign -tribes;” and the Supreme Court of the United States have expressly -declared, that “the person who purchases land from the Indians within -their territory incorporates himself with them; and, so far as respects -the property purchased, holds his title under their protection, -_subject to their laws_: if they annul the grant, we know of no -tribunal which can revise and set aside the proceeding.” Mr. Clay’s -language is quite decided:—“The Indians residing within the United -States are so far independent that they live under their own customs, -and not under the laws of the United States; that their rights, where -they inhabit or hunt, are secured to them by boundaries defined in -amicable treaties between the United States and themselves.” Mr. Wirt, -the late Attorney-General of the United States, a man of great legal -authority, has stated it to be his opinion, “that the territory of the -Cherokees is not within the jurisdiction of the State of Georgia, but -within the sole and exclusive jurisdiction of the Cherokee nation; and -that, consequently, the State of Georgia has no right to extend her -laws over that territory.” General Washington in 1790, in a speech to -one of the tribes of Indians, not only recognizes the same national -independence, but adds many solemn assurances on behalf of the United -States. “The general government only has the power to treat with the -Indian nations, and any treaty formed and held without its authority -will not be binding. - -“Here, then, is the security for the remainder of your lands. No state -nor person can purchase your lands, unless by some public treaty held -under the authority of the United States. _The general government will -never consent to your being defrauded, but it will protect you in all -your just rights._ - -“But your great object seems to be the security of your remaining -lands, and I have, therefore, upon this point, meant to be sufficiently -strong and clear.... That, in future, you cannot be defrauded of your -lands. That you possess the right to sell, and the right of refusing to -sell your lands.... That, therefore, the sale of your lands in future -will depend entirely upon yourselves. But that, when you find it for -your interest to sell any part of your lands, the United States must be -present, by their agent, and will be your security that you shall not -be defrauded in the bargain you make.... The United States will be true -and faithful to their engagements.” - -These are plain and just declarations; and, had they been faithfully -maintained, would have conferred great honour on the United States. -How they have been maintained, all the world knows. The American -republicans have followed faithfully, not their own declarations, -but the maxims and the practices of their English progenitors. The -Indians have been declared savage and irreclaimable. They have been -described as inveterately attached to hunting and a roving life, as a -stumbling-block in the path of civilization. As perfectly incapable of -settling down to the pursuits of agriculture, social arts, and domestic -habits. It has been declared necessary, on these grounds, to push them -out of the settled territories, and every means has been used to compel -them to abandon the lands of their ancestors, and to seek a fresh -country in the wilds beyond the Mississippi. Even so respectable an -author as Malte Brun has, in Europe, advanced a doctrine in defence of -this sweeping system of Indian expatriation. “Even admitting that the -use of ardent spirits has deteriorated their habits and thinned their -numbers, we cannot suppose that the Indian population was ever more -than twice as dense as at present, or that it exceeded one person for -each square mile of surface. Now, in highly civilized countries, like -France and England, the population is at the rate of 150 or 200 persons -to the square mile. It may safely be affirmed, therefore, that the same -extent of land from which one Indian family derives a precarious and -wretched subsistence, would support 150 families of civilized men, in -plenty and comfort. But most of the Indian tribes raise melons, beans, -and maize; and were we to take the case of a people who lived entirely -by hunting, the disproportion would be still greater. _If God created -the earth for the sustenance of mankind, this single consideration -decides the question_ as to the sacredness of the Indians’ title to -the lands which they roam over, but do not, in any reasonable sense, -occupy.”—v. 224. - -A more abominable doctrine surely never was broached. It breathes the -genuine spirit of the old Spaniard; and, if acted upon, would produce -an everlasting confusion. Every nation which is more densely populated -than another, may, on this principle, say to that less densely peopled -state, you are not as thickly planted as God intended you to be; -you amount only to 150 persons to the square mile, we are 200 to the -same space; therefore, please to walk out, and give place to us, who -are your superiors, and who more justly fulfil God’s intentions by -the law of density. The Chinese might fairly lay claim to Europe on -that ground; and our own swarming poor to every large park and thinly -peopled district that they happened to see. - -“This single consideration,” indeed, is a very good reason why the -Indians should be advised to leave off a desultory life, and take to -agriculture and the arts; or it is a very sufficient reason why the -Europeans should ask leave to live amongst them, and thus more fully -occupy the country, in what the French geographer calls a reasonable -sense. And it remained for M. Malte Brun to show that they have ever -refused to do either the one or the other. They have, on all occasions -when the Europeans have gone amongst them, “in a reasonable sense,” -received them with kindness, and even joy. They have been willing to -listen to their instructions, and ready to sell them their lands to -live upon. But it has been the “unreasonableness” of the whites that -has everywhere soon turned the hearts, and made deaf the ears, of -the natives. We have seen the lawless violence with which the early -settlers seized on the Indians’ territories, the lawless violence -and cruelty with which they rewarded them evil for good, and pursued -them to death, or instigated them to the commission of all bloody and -desperate deeds. These are the causes why the Indians have remained -uncivilized wanderers; why they have refused to listen to the precepts -of Christianity; and why they roam over, rather than occupy, those -lands on which they have been suffered to remain. From the days of -Elliot, Mayhew, Brainard, and their zealous compeers, there have never -wanted missionaries to endeavour to civilize and christianize; but they -have found, for the most part, their efforts utterly defeated by the -wicked and unprincipled acts, the wicked and unprincipled character -of the Europeans. When the missionaries have preached to the shrewd -Indians the genuine doctrines of Christianity, they have immediately -been struck with the total discrepancy between these doctrines and -the lives and practices of their European professors. “If these are -the principles of your religion,” they have continually said, “go and -preach them to your countrymen. If they have any efficacy in them, -let us see it shewn upon them. Make them good, just, and full of this -love you speak of. Let them regard the rights and property of Indians. -You have also a people amongst you that you have torn from their own -country, and hold in slavery. Go home and give them freedom; do as your -book says,—as you would be done by. When you have done that, come -again, and we will listen to you.” - -This is the language which the missionaries have had everywhere in the -American forests to contend with.[58] When they have made by their -truly kind and christian spirit and lives some impression, the spirit -and lives of their countrymen have again destroyed their labours. The -fire-waters, gin, rum, and brandy, have been introduced to intoxicate, -and in intoxication to swindle the Indians out of their furs and lands. -Numbers of claims to lands have been grounded on drunken bargains, -which in their soberness the Indians would not recognize; and the -consequences have been bloodshed and forcible expulsion. Before these -causes the Indians have steadily melted away, or retired westwards -before the advancing tide of white emigration. Malte Brun would have -us believe that in the United States there never were many more than -twice the present number. Let any one look at the list of the different -tribes, and their numbers in 1822, quoted by himself from Dr. Morse, -and then look at the numbers of all the tribes which inhabited the old -States at the period of their settlement. - - In New England 2,247 - New York 5,184 - Ohio 2,407 - Michigan and N. W. territories 28,380 - Illinois and Indiana 17,006 - Southern States east of Mississippi 65,122 - West of Mississippi and north of Missouri 33,150 - Between Missouri and Red River 101,070 - Between Red River and Rio del Norte 45,370 - West of Rocky Mountains 171,200 - ——————— - 471,136 - -The slightest glance at this table shews instantly the fact, that where -the white settlers have been the longest there the Indians have wofully -decreased. The farther you go into the Western wilderness the greater -the Indian population. Where are the populous tribes that once camped -in the woods of New York, New England, and Pennsylvania? In those -states there were twenty years ago about 8000 Indians; since then, a -rapid diminution has taken place. In the middle of the seventeenth -century, and after several of the tribes were exterminated, and after -all had suffered severely, there could not be less, according to the -historians of the times, than forty or fifty thousand Indians within -the same limits. The traveller occasionally meets with a feeble -remnant of these once numerous and powerful tribes, lingering amid the -now usurped lands of their country, in the old settled states; but -they have lost their ancient spirit and dignity, and more resemble -troops of gypsies than the noble savages their ancestors were. A -few of the Tuscaroras live near Lewistown, and are agriculturists: -and the last of the Narragansets, the tribe of Miantinomo, are to -be found at Charlestown, in Rhode Island, under the notice of the -Boston missionaries. Fragments of the Six Nations yet linger in the -State of New York. A few Oneidas live near the lake of that name, now -christianized and habituated to the manners of the country. Some of the -Senecas and Cornplanters remain about Buffalo, on the Niagara, and at -the head-waters of the Alleghany river. Amongst these Senecas, lived -till 1830, the famous orator Red-Jacket; one of the most extraordinary -men which this singular race has produced. The effect of his -eloquence may be imagined from the following passage, to be found in -“Buckingham’s Miscellanies selected from the Public Journals.” - -“More than thirty years (this was written about 1822) have rolled away -since a treaty was held on the beautiful acclivity that overlooks the -Canandaigua Lake. Two days had passed away in negotiation with the -Indians for the cession of their lands. The contract was supposed to -be nearly completed, when Red-Jacket arose. With the grace and dignity -of a Roman senator he drew his blanket around him, and with a piercing -eye surveyed the multitude. All was hushed. Nothing interposed to break -the silence, save the gentle rustling of the tree-tops under whose -shade they were gathered. After a long and solemn, but not unmeaning -pause, he commenced his speech in a low voice and sententious style. -Rising gradually with the subject, he depicted the primitive simplicity -and happiness of his nation, and the wrongs they had sustained from -the usurpations of white men, with such a bold but faithful pencil, -that every auditor was soon roused to vengeance, or melted into tears. -The effect was inexpressible. But ere the emotions of admiration and -sympathy had subsided, the white men became alarmed. They were in the -heart of an Indian country, surrounded by ten times their number, -who were inflamed by the remembrance of their injuries, and excited -to indignation by the eloquence of a favourite chief. Appalled and -terrified, the white men cast a cheerless gaze upon the hordes around -them. A nod from one of the chiefs might be the onset of destruction, -but at this portentous moment _Farmers-brother_ interposed.” - -In the year 1805 a council was held at Buffalo, by the chiefs and -warriors of the Senecas, at the request of Mr. Cram from Massachusets. -The missionary first made a speech, in which he told the Indians that -he was sent by the Missionary Society of Boston, to instruct them “how -to worship the Great Spirit,” and not to get away their lands and -money; that there was but one true religion, and they were living in -darkness, etc. After consultation, Red-Jacket returned, on behalf of -the Indians, the following speech, which is deservedly famous, and not -only displays the strong intellect of the race, but how vain it was to -expect to christianize them, without clear and patient reasoning, and -in the face of the crimes and corruptions of the whites. - -“_Friend and brother_, it was the will of the Great Spirit that we -should meet together this day. He orders all things, and he has given -us a fine day for our council. He has taken his garment from before -the sun, and caused it to shine with brightness upon us. Our eyes are -opened that we see clearly; our ears are unstopped that we have been -able to hear distinctly the words that you have spoken. For all these -favours we thank the Great Spirit and him only. - -“_Brother_, this council-fire was kindled by you. It was at your -request that we came together at this time. We have listened with great -attention to what you have said; you requested us to speak our minds -freely: this gives us great joy, for we now consider that we stand -upright before you, and can speak whatever we think. All have heard -your voice, and all speak to you as one man; our minds are agreed. - -“_Brother_, you say you want an answer to your talk before you leave -this place. It is right you should have one, as you are at a great -distance from home, and we do not wish to detain you; but we will first -look back a little, and tell you what our fathers have told us, and -what we have heard from the white people. - -“_Brother, listen to what we say._ There was a time when our -forefathers owned this great island. Their seats extended from the -rising to the setting sun. The Great Spirit had made it for the use of -Indians. He had created the buffalo, the deer, and other animals for -food. He made the beaver and the bear, and their skins served us for -clothing. He had scattered them over the country, and taught us how to -take them. He had caused the earth to produce corn for bread. All this -he had done for his red children, because he loved them. If we had any -disputes about hunting-grounds, they were generally settled without the -shedding of much blood; but an evil day came upon us: your forefathers -crossed the great waters, and landed on this island. Their numbers were -small; they found friends, and not enemies; they told us they had fled -from their own country for fear of wicked men, and came here to enjoy -their religion. They asked for a small seat. We took pity on them, -granted their request, and they sate down among us. We gave them corn -and meat, they gave us poison[59] in return. The white people had now -found out our country, tidings were carried back, and more came amongst -us; yet we did not fear them, we took them to be friends: they called -us brothers, we believed them, and gave them a larger seat. At length -their numbers had greatly increased, they wanted more land,—they -wanted our country! Our eyes were opened, and our minds became uneasy. -Wars took place; _Indians were hired to fight against Indians_, and -many of our people were destroyed. They also brought strong liquors -among us; it was strong and powerful, and has slain thousands. - -“_Brother_, our seats were once large, and yours were very small. -You have now become a great people, and we have scarcely a place -left to spread our blankets. You have got our country, but are not -satisfied;—_you want to force your religion upon us_. - -“_Brother, continue to listen._ You say that you are sent to instruct -us how to worship the Great Spirit agreeably to his mind, and if we do -not take hold of the religion which you white people teach, we shall -be unhappy hereafter. You say that you are right, and we are lost; how -do you know this? We understand that your religion is written in a -book; if it was intended for us as well as you, why has not the Great -Spirit given it to us, and not only to us, why did he not give to our -forefathers the knowledge of that book, with the means of understanding -it rightly? We only know what you tell us about it; how shall we know -when to believe, being so often deceived by the white people? - -“_Brother_, you say there is but one way to worship and serve the Great -Spirit. If there is but one religion, why do you white people differ so -much about it? why not all agree, as you can all read the book? - -“_Brother_, we do not understand these things. We are told that your -religion was given to your forefathers, and has been handed down -from father to son. We also have a religion which was given to our -forefathers, and has been handed down to us their children. We worship -that way. _It teaches us to be thankful for all the favours we receive; -to love each other, and to be united;—we never quarrel about religion._ - -“_Brother_, the Great Spirit has made us all; but he has made a great -difference between his white and red children. He has given us a -different complexion, and different customs. To you he has given the -arts; to these he has not opened our eyes. We know these things to -be true. Since he has made so great a difference between us in other -things, why may we not conclude that he has given us a different -religion according to our understanding? The Great Spirit does right: -he knows what is best for his children: we are satisfied. - -“_Brother_, we do not wish to destroy your religion, or take it from -you; we only want to enjoy our own. - -“_Brother_, you say you have not come to get our land or our money, but -to enlighten our minds. I will now tell you that I have been at your -meetings, and saw you collecting money from the meeting. I cannot tell -what this money was intended for, but suppose it was your minister; -and, if we should conform to your way of thinking, perhaps you may want -some from us. - -“_Brother_, we are told that you have been preaching to the white -people in this place. These people are our neighbours; we are -acquainted with them: we will wait a little while, and see what effect -your preaching has upon them. If we find it does them good, makes them -honest and less disposed to cheat Indians, we will then consider again -what you have said. - -“_Brother_, you have now heard our answer to your talk; and this is all -we have to say at present. As we are going to part, we will come and -take you by the hand, and hope the Great Spirit will protect you on -your journey, and return you safe to your friends.” - -The Missionary, hastily rising from his seat, refused to shake hands -with them, saying “there was no fellowship between the religion of -God and the works of the devil.” The Indians smiled and retired in a -peaceable manner.[60] Which of these parties best knew the real nature -of religion? At all events the missionary was awfully deficient in the -spirit of his own, and in the art of winning men to embrace it. - - - - -CHAPTER XXV. - -TREATMENT OF THE INDIANS BY THE UNITED STATES,—CONTINUED. - - -The Friends have for many years had schools for the education of the -children in different States, and persons employed to engage the -Indians in agriculture and manual arts, but they, as well as the -missionaries, complain that their efforts have been rendered abortive -by the continual removals of the red people by the government. - -Scarcely was the war over, and American independence proclaimed, when -a great strife began betwixt the Republicans and the Indians, for -the Indian lands—a strife which extended from the Canadian lakes to -the gulph of Florida, and has continued more or less to this moment. -Under the British government, the boundaries of the American states -had never been well defined. The Americans appointed commissioners to -determine them, and appear to have resolved that all Indian claims -within the boundaries of the St. Lawrence, the great chain of lakes, -and the Mississippi, should be extinguished. They certainly embraced a -compact and most magnificent expanse of territory. It was true that the -Indians, the ancient and rightful possessors of the soil, had yet large -tracts within these lines of demarcation; but, then, what was the power -of the Indians to that of the United States? They _could_ be compelled -to evacuate their lands, and it was resolved that they _should_. It -is totally beyond the limits of my work to follow out the progress of -this most unequal and iniquitous strife; whoever wishes to see it fully -and very fairly portrayed may do so in a work by an American—“Drake’s -Book of the North American Indians.” I can here only simply state, -that a more painful and interesting struggle never went on between the -overwhelming numbers of the white men, armed with all the powers of -science, but unrestrained by the genuine sentiments of religion, and -the sons of the forest in their native simplicity. The Americans tell -us that this apparently hard and arbitrary measure will eventually -prove the most merciful. That the Indians cannot live by the side of -white men; they are always quarrelling with and murdering them; and -that is but too true; and the Indians in strains of the most indignant -and pathetic eloquence, tell us the reason why. It is because the white -invaders are eternally encroaching on their bounds, destroying their -deer and their fish, and murdering the Indians too without ceremony. -It is this recklessness of law and conscience, and the ever-rolling -tide of white population westward, which raised up Tecumseh, and -his companions, to combine the northern tribes in resistance. Brant -assured the American commissioners, that unless they made the Ohio -and the Muskingum their boundaries, there could be no peace with the -Indians. These are the causes that called forth Black-Hauk from the -Ouisconsin, with the Winnebagoes, the Sacs, and Foxes; that roused the -Little-Turtle, with his Miamies, and many other chiefs and tribes, -to inflict bloody retribution on their oppressors, but finally to be -compelled themselves only the sooner to yield up their native lands. -These are the causes that, operating to the most southern point of the -United States, armed the great nations of the Seninoles, the Creeks, -the Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Cherokees; and have made famous the -exterminating campaigns of General Jackson, the bloody spots of Fort -Mimms, Autossee, Tippecanoe, Talladega, Horse-shoe-bend, and other -places of wholesale carnage. At Horse-shoe-bend, General Jackson -says—“determined to exterminate them, I detached General Coffee with -the mounted and nearly the whole of the Indian force, early in the -morning (March 27, 1814), to cross the river about two miles below -their encampment, and to surround the Bend, so that none of them should -escape by crossing the river.” - -“At this place,” says Drake, “the disconsolate tribes of the South -had made a last great stand; and had a tolerably fortified camp. It -was said they were 1000 strong.” They were attacked on all sides; the -fighting was kept up five hours; _five hundred and fifty-seven_ were -left dead on the peninsula, and a great number killed by the horsemen, -in crossing the river. _It is believed that not more than twenty -escaped!_ “We continued,” says the _brave General Jackson_, “to destroy -many of them who had concealed themselves under the banks of the river, -until we were prevented by the night!” - -And what had these unfortunate tribes done, that they should be -exterminated? Simply this:—When the United States remodelled the -southern states, reducing the Carolinas and Georgia, and creating the -new states of Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi, they stipulated, -in behalf of Georgia, to extinguish all the Indian titles to lands in -that State, “as soon as it could be done on peaceable terms.” Georgia, -impatient to seize on these lands, immediately employed all means to -effect this object. When the Indians, in national council, would not -sell their lands, they prevailed on a half-breed chief, M’Intosh, and -a few others, of no character, to sell them; and, on this mock title, -proceeded to expel the Indians. The Indians resisted; an alarm of -rebellion was sounded through the States, and General Jackson sent to -put it down. The Indians, as in all other quarters, were compelled to -give way before the irresistible American power. We cannot go at length -into this bloody history of oppression; but the character of the whole -may be seen in that of a part. - -But the most singular feature of the treatment of the Indians by -the Americans is, that while they assign their irreclaimable nature -as the necessary cause of their expelling or desiring to expel them -from all the states east of the Mississippi, their most strenuous and -most recent efforts have been directed against those numerous tribes, -that were not only extensive but rapidly advancing in civilization. -So far from refusing to adopt settled, orderly habits, the Choctaws, -Chickasaws, Creeks, and Cherokees, were fast conforming both to the -religion and the habits of the Americans. The Creeks were numbered -in 1814 at 20,000. The Choctaws had some years ago 4041 warriors, and -could not therefore be estimated at less than four times that number in -total population, or 16,000. In 1810, the Cherokees consisted of 12,400 -persons; in 1824 they had increased to 15,000. The Chickasaws reckoned -some years ago 1000 warriors, making the tribe probably 4000. - -The Creeks had twenty years ago cultivated lands, flocks, cattle, -gardens, and different kinds of domestic manufactures. They were -betaking themselves to manual trades and farming. “The Choctaws,” Mr. -Stuart says, “have both schools and churches. A few books have been -published in the Choctaw language. In one part of their territory, -where the population amounted to 5627 persons, there were above -11,000 cattle, about 4000 horses, 22,000 hogs, 530 spinning-wheels, -360 ploughs, etc.” The missionaries speak in the highest terms of -their steadiness and sobriety; and one of their chiefs had actually -offered himself as a candidate for Congress. All these tribes are -described as rapidly progressing in education and civilization, but -the Cherokees present a character which cannot be contemplated without -the liveliest admiration. These were the tribes amongst whom Adair -spent so many years, about the middle of the last century, and whose -customs and ideas as delineated by him, exhibited them as such fine -material for cultivation. Since then the missionaries, and especially -the Moravians, have been labouring with the most signal success. A -school was opened in this tribe by them in 1804, in which vast numbers -of Cherokee children have been educated. Such, indeed, have been the -effects of cultivation on this fine people, that they have assumed -all the habits and pursuits of civilized life. Their progress may be -noted by observing the amount of their possessions in 1810, and again, -fourteen years afterwards, in 1824. In the former year they had 3 -schools, in the latter 18; in the former year 13 grist-mills, in the -latter 36; in the former year 3 saw-mills, in the latter 13; in the -former year 467 looms, in the latter 762; in the former year 1,600 -spinning-wheels, in the latter 2,486; in the former year 30 wagons, in -the latter 172; in the former year 500 ploughs, in the latter 2,923; -in the former year 6,100 horses, in the latter 7,683; in the former -year 19,500 head of cattle, in the latter 22,531; in the former year -19,600 swine, in the latter 46,732; in the former year 1,037 sheep, -in the latter 2,546, and 430 goats; in the former year 49 smiths, in -the latter 62 smiths’ shops. Here is a steady and prosperous increase; -testifying to no ordinary existence of industry, prudence, and good -management amongst them, and bearing every promise of their becoming a -most valuable portion of the community. They have, Mr. Stuart tells us, -several public roads, fences, and turnpikes. The soil produces maize, -cotton, tobacco, wheat, oats, indigo, sweet and Irish potatoes. The -natives carry on a considerable trade with the adjoining states, and -some of them export cotton to New Orleans. Apple and peach orchards are -common, and gardens well cultivated. Butter and cheese are the produce -of their dairies. There are many houses of public entertainment kept -by the natives. Numerous and flourishing villages are seen in every -section of the country. Cotton and woollen cloths and blankets are -everywhere. Almost every family in the nation produces cotton for its -own consumption. Nearly all the nation are native Cherokees. - -A printing-press has been established for several years; and a -newspaper, written partly in English, and partly in Cherokee, has been -successfully carried on. This paper, called the Cherokee Phœnix, -is written entirely by a Cherokee, a young man under thirty. It had -been surmised that he was assisted by a white man, on which he put -the following notice in the paper:—“No white has anything to do with -the management of our paper. No other person, whether white or red, -besides the ostensible editor, has written, from the commencement of -the Phœnix, half a column of matter which has appeared under the -editorial head.”[61] - -The starting of this Indian newspaper by an Indian, is one of the most -interesting facts in the history of civilization. In this language -nothing had been written or printed. It had no written alphabet. -This young Indian, already instructed by the missionaries in English -literature, is inspired with a desire to open the world of knowledge -to his countrymen in their vernacular tongue. There is no written -character, no types. Those words familiar to all native ears, have -no corresponding representation to the eye. These are gigantic -difficulties to the young Indian, and as the Christian would call him, -_savage_ aspirant and patriot. But he determines to conquer them all. -He travels into the eastern states. He invents letters which shall -best express the sounds of his native tongue; he has types cut, and -commences a newspaper. There is nothing like it in the history of -nations in their first awakening from the long fixedness of wild life. -This mighty engine, the press, once put in motion by native genius -in the western wilderness, books are printed suitable to the nascent -intelligence of the country. The Gospel of St. Matthew is translated -into Cherokee, and printed at the native press. Hymns are also -translated and printed. Christianity makes rapid strides. The pupils -in the schools advance with admirable rapidity. There is a new and -wonderful spirit abroad. Not only do the Indians throng to the churches -to listen to the truths of life and immortality, but Indians themselves -become diligent ministers, and open places of worship in the more -remote and wild parts of the country. Even temperance societies are -formed. Political principles develop themselves far in philosophical -advance of our proud and learned England. The constitution of the -native state contains admirable stamina; trial by jury prevails; and -universal suffrage—a right, to this moment distrustfully withheld from -the English people, is there freely granted, and judiciously exercised; -every male citizen of eighteen years old having a vote in all public -elections. - -The whole growth and being, however, of this young Indian civilization -is one of the most delightful and animating subjects of contemplation -that ever came before the eye of the lover of his race. Here were these -Indian savages, who had been two hundred years termed irreclaimable; -whom it had been the custom only to use as the demons of carnage, as -creatures fit only to carry the tomahawk and the bloody scalping-knife -through Cherry-Valley, Gnadenhuetten, or Wyoming; and whom, that work -done, it was declared, must be cast out from the face of civilized -man, as the reproach of the past and the incubus of the future,—here -were they gloriously vindicating themselves from those calumnies and -wrongs, and assuming in the social system a most beautiful and novel -position. It was a spectacle on which one would have thought the United -States would hang with a proud delight, and point to as one of the most -noble features of their vast and noble country. What did they do? They -chose rather to give the lie to all their assertions, that they drove -out the Indians because they were irreclaimable and unamalgamable, and -to shew to the world that they expelled them solely and simply because -they scorned that one spot of the copper hue of the aborigines should -mar the whiteness of their population. They compel us to exclaim with -the indignant Abbé Raynal, “And are these the men whom both French and -English have been conspiring to extirpate for a century past?” and -suggest to us his identical answer,—“But perhaps they would be ashamed -to live amongst such models of heroism and magnanimity!” - -However, everything which irritation, contempt, political chicanery, -and political power can effect, have been long zealously at work to -drive these fine Nations out of their delightful country, and beyond -the Mississippi; the boundary which American cupidity at present sets -between itself and Indian extirpation. Spite of all those solemn -declarations, by the venerable Washington and other great statesmen -already quoted; spite of the most grave treaties, and especially one -of July 2d, 1791, which says, “The United States solemnly guarantee -to the Cherokee nation all their lands not hereby ceded,” by a -juggle betwixt the State of Georgia and Congress, the Cherokees -have been virtually dispossessed of their country. From the period -of the American independence to 1802, there had been a continual -pressure on the Cherokees for their lands, and they had been induced -by one means or another to cede to the States more than _two hundred -millions_ of acres. How reluctantly may be imagined, by the decided -stand made by them in 1819, when they peremptorily protested that -they would not sell another foot. That they needed all they had, for -that they were becoming more and more agricultural, and progressing -in civilization. One would have thought this not only a sufficient -but a most satisfactory plea to a great nation by its people; but -no, Georgia ceded to Congress territories for the formation of two -new states, Alabama and Mississippi, and Georgia in part of payment -receives the much desired lands of the Cherokees. Georgia, therefore, -assumes the avowed language of despotism, and decrees by its senate, in -the very face of the clear recognitions of Indian independence already -quoted, _that the right of discovery and conquest was the title of -the Europeans; that every foot of land in the United States was held -by that title; that the right of the Indians was merely temporary; -that they were tenants at will, removable at any moment, either by -negotiation or force_. “It may be contended,” says the Report of 1827, -“with much plausibility, that there is in these claims more of force -than of justice; _but they are claims which have been recognized and -admitted by the whole civilized world_, AND IT IS UNQUESTIONABLY TRUE, -THAT, UNDER SUCH CIRCUMSTANCES, FORCE _becomes_ RIGHT!”[62] - -This language once adopted there needed no further argument about right -or justice. Georgia took its stand upon Rob Roy’s law, - - That he shall take who has the power, - And he shall keep who can; - -and it forthwith proceeded to act upon it. It decreed in 1828, that the -territories of the Cherokees should be divided amongst the different -counties of Georgia; that after June 1st, 1830, the Cherokees should -become the subjects of Georgia; that all Cherokee laws should be -abolished, and all Cherokees should be cut off from any benefit of the -laws of the State—that is, that no Indian, or _descendent of one_, -should be capable to act as a witness, or to be a party in any suit -against a white man. The Cherokees refusing to abandon their hereditary -soil without violence, an act was passed prohibiting any white man from -residing in the Cherokee country without a permit from the governor, -and on the authority of this, soldiers were marched into it, and _the -missionaries carried off_ on a Sunday. An attempt was made to crush -that interesting newspaper press, by forcing away every white man -assisting in the office. Forcible possession was taken of the Indian -gold mines by Georgian laws, and the penal statutes exercised against -the Indians who did not recognize their authority. The Cherokees, on -these outrages, vehemently appealed to Congress. They said—“how far -we have contributed to keep bright the chain of friendship which binds -us to these United States, is within the reach of your knowledge; it -is ours to maintain it, until, perhaps, the plaintive voice of an -Indian from the south shall no more be heard within your walls of -legislation. Our nation and our people may cease to exist, before -another revolving year reassembles this august assembly of great men. -We implore that our people may not be denounced as savages, unfit for -the good neighbourhood guaranteed to them by treaty. We cannot better -express the rights of our nation, than they are developed on the face -of the document we herewith submit; and the desires of our nation, than -to pray a faithful fulfilment of the promises made by its illustrious -author through his secretary. Between the compulsive measures of -Georgia and our destruction, we ask the interposition of your -authority, and remembrance of the bond of perpetual peace pledged for -our safety—the safety of the last fragments of some mighty nations, -that have grazed for a while upon your civilization and prosperity, but -which are now tottering on the brink of angry billows, whose waters -have covered in oblivion other nations that were once happy, but are -now no more. - -“The schools where our children learn to read the Word of God; the -churches where our people now sing to his praise, and where they are -taught ‘that of one blood he created all the nations of the earth;’ -the fields they have cleared, and the orchards they have planted; the -houses they have built,—are dear to the Cherokees; and there they -expect to live and to die, on the lands inherited from their fathers, -as the firm friends of the people of these United States.” - -This is the very language which the simple people of all the new -regions whither Europeans have penetrated, have been passionately -and imploringly addressing for three hundred years, but in vain. -We seem again to hear the supplicating voice of the people of the -Seven Reductions of Paraguay, addressed to the expelling Spaniards -and Portuguese. In each case it was alike unavailing. The Congress -returned them a cool answer, advising the Cherokees to go over the -Mississippi, where “the soil should be theirs while the trees grow, -or the streams run.” But they had heard that language before, and -they knew its value. The State of Georgia had avowed the doctrine of -conquest, which silences all contracts and annuls all promises. It is -to the honour of the Supreme Court of the United States that, on appeal -to it, _it_ annulled the proceedings of Georgia, and recognised the -rightful possession of the country by the Cherokees. But what power -shall restrain all those engines of irritation and oppression, which -white men know how to employ against coloured ones, when they want -their persons or their lands. Nothing will be able to prevent the final -expatriation of these southern tribes: they must pass the Mississippi -till the white population is swelled sufficiently to require them to -cross the Missouri; there will then remain but two barriers between -them and annihilation—the rocky mountains and the Pacific Ocean. -Whenever we hear now of those tribes, it is of some fresh act of -aggression against them—some fresh expulsion of a portion of them—and -of melancholy Indians moving off towards the western wilds. - -Such is the condition to which the British and their descendants -have reduced the aboriginal inhabitants of the vast regions of North -America,—the finest race of men that we have ever designated by the -name of savage. - - What term we savage? The untutored heart - Of Nature’s child is but a slumbering fire; - Prompt at a breath, or passing touch to start - Into quick flame, as quickly to retire; - - Ready alike its pleasance to impart, - Or scorch the hand which rudely wakes its ire: - Demon or child, as impulse may impel, - Warm in its love, but in its vengeance fell. - - And these Columbian warriors to their strand - Had welcomed Europe’s sons, and rued it sore:— - Men with smooth tongues, but rudely armed hand; - Fabling of peace, when meditating gore; - Who their foul deeds to veil, ceased not to brand - The Indian name on every Christian shore. - What wonder, on such heads, their fury’s flame - Burst, till its terrors gloomed their fairer fame? - - For they were not a brutish race, unknowing - Evil from good; their fervid souls embraced - With virtue’s proudest homage, to o’erflowing, - The mind’s inviolate majesty. The past - To them was not a darkness; but was glowing - With splendour which all time had not o’ercast; - Streaming unbroken from creation’s birth, - When God communed and walked with men on earth. - - Stupid idolatry had never dimmed - The Almighty image in their lucid thought. - To Him alone their zealous praise was hymned; - And hoar Tradition from her treasury brought - Glimpses of far-off times, in which were limned, - His awful glory;—and their prophets taught - Precepts sublime,—a solemn ritual given, - In clouds and thunder, to their sires from heaven.[63] - - And in the boundless solitude which fills, - Even as a mighty heart, their wild domains; - In caves and glens of the unpeopled hills; - And the deep shadow that for ever reigns - Spirit-like, in their woods; where, roaring, spills - The giant cataract to the astounded plains,— - Nature, in her sublimest moods, had given - Not man’s weak lore,—but a quick flash from heaven. - - Roaming in their free lives, by lake and stream; - Beneath the splendour of their gorgeous sky; - Encamping, while shot down night’s starry gleam, - In piny glades, where their forefathers lie; - Voices would come, and breathing whispers seem - To rouse within, the life which may not die; - Begetting valorous deeds, and thoughts intense, - And a wild gush of burning eloquence. - - -Such appeared to me ten years ago, when writing these stanzas, the -character of the North American Indians; such it appears to me now. -What an eternal disgrace to both British and Americans if this race of -“mighty hunters before the Lord” shall, at the very moment when they -shew themselves ready to lay down the bow and throw all the energies -of their high temperament into civilized life, still be repelled and -driven into the waste, or to annihilation. Their names and deeds -and peculiar character are already become part of the literature of -America; they will hereafter present to the imagination of posterity, -one of the most singular and interesting features of history. Their -government, the only known government of pure intellect; their grave -councils; their singular eloquence; their stern fortitude; their wild -figures in the war-dance; their “fleet foot” in the ancient forest; -and all those customs, and quick keen thoughts which belong to them, -and them alone, will for ever come before the poetic mind of every -civilized people. Shall they remain, to look back to the days in which -the very strength of their intellects and feelings made them repel the -form of civilization, while they triumph in the universal diffusion of -knowledge and Christian hope? or shall it continue to be said, - - The vast, the ebbless, the engulphing tide - Of the white population still rolls on! - And quailed has their romantic heart of pride,— - The kingly spirit of the woods is gone. - Farther and farther do they wend to hide - Their wasting strength; to mourn their glory flown; - And sigh to think how soon shall crowds pursue - Down the lone stream where glides the still canoe. - - - - -CHAPTER XXVI. - -THE ENGLISH IN SOUTH AFRICA. - - -Having now quitted North America, let us sail southward. There we may -direct our course east or west, we may pass Cape Horn, or the Cape -of Good Hope, and enter the Pacific or the Indian Ocean, secure that -on whatever shore we may touch, whether on continent or island, we -shall find the Europeans oppressing the natives on their own soil, or -having exterminated them, occupying their place. We shall find our own -countrymen more than all others widely diffused and actively employed -in the work of expulsion, moral corruption, and destruction of the -aboriginal tribes. We talk of the atrocities of the Spaniards, of the -deeds of Cortez and Pizarro, as though they were things of an ancient -date, things gone by, things of the dark old days; and seem never for -a moment to suspect that these dark old days were not a whit more -shocking than our own, or that our countrymen, protestant Englishmen of -1838, can be compared for a moment to the Red-Cross Knights of Mexican -and Peruvian butcheries. If they cannot be compared, I blush to say -that it is because our infamy and crimes are even more wholesale and -inhuman than theirs. Do the good people of England, who “sit at home -at ease,” who build so many churches and chapels, and flock to them -in such numbers,—who spend about 170,000_l._ annually on Bibles, -and more than half a million annually in missions and other modes of -civilizing and christianizing the heathen, and therefore naturally -flatter themselves that they are rapidly bringing all the world to the -true faith; do they or can they know that at this very moment, wherever -their Bibles go, and wherever their missionaries are labouring, their -own government and their own countrymen are as industriously labouring -also, to scatter the most awful corruption of morals and principles -amongst the simple natives of all, to us, new countries? that they are -introducing diseases more pestilent than the plague, more loathsome -than the charnel-house itself, and more deadly than the simoom of the -tropical deserts, that levels all before it? Do they know, that even -where their missionaries, like the prophets of old, have gone before -the armies of God, putting the terrors of heathenism to flight, making -a safe path through the heart of the most dreadful deserts; dividing -the very waters, and levelling the old mountains of separation and of -difficulty— - - By Faith supported and by Freedom led, - A fruitful field amid the desert making, - And dwell secure where kings and priests were quaking, - And taught the waste to yield them wine and bread.—_Pringle._ - -Do they know, that when these holy and victorious men have thus -conquered all the difficulties they calculated upon, and seen, by -God’s blessing, the savage reclaimed, the idolater convinced, the -wilderness turned into a garden, and arts, commerce, and refined -life rising around them, a more terrible enemy has appeared in the -shape of European, and chiefly English corruption? That out of -that England—whence they had carried such beneficent gifts, such -magnificent powers of good—have come pouring swarms of lawless -vagabonds worse than the Spaniards, and worse than the Buccaneers of -old, and have threatened all their works with destruction? Do they -know that in South Africa, where Smidt, Vanderkemp, Philip, Read, -Kay and others, have done such wonders, and raised the Hottentot, -once pronounced the lowest of the human species, and the Caffre, not -long since styled the most savage, into the most faithful Christians -and most respectable men; and in those beautiful islands that Ellis -and Williams have described in such paradisiacal colours, that -roving crews of white men are carrying everywhere the most horrible -demoralization, that every shape of European crime is by them exhibited -to the astonished people—murder, debauchery, the most lawless -violence in person and property; and that the liquid fire which, from -many a gin-shop in our own great towns, burns out the industry, the -providence, the moral sense, and the life of thousands of our own -people, is there poured abroad by these monsters with the same fatal -effect? Whoever does not know this, is ignorant of one of the most -fearful and gigantic evils which beset the course of human improvement, -and render abortive a vast amount of the funds so liberally supplied, -and the labours so nobly undergone, in the cause of Christianity. -Whoever does not know this, should moreover refer to the Parliamentary -Report of 1837, on the Aboriginal Tribes. - -The limits which I have devoted to a brief history of the treatment -of these tribes by the European nations have been heavily pressed -upon by the immense mass of our crimes and cruelties, and I must now -necessarily make a hasty march across the scenes here alluded to; but -enough will be seen to arouse astonishment, and indicate the necessity -of counter-agencies of the most impulsive kind. - -The Dutch have been applauded by various historians for the justice -and mildness which they manifested towards the natives of their Cape -colony. This may have been the case at their first entrance in 1652, -and until they had purchased a certain quantity of land for their new -settlement with a few bottles of brandy and some toys. It was their -commercial policy, in the language of the old school of traders, to -“first creep and then go.” It was in the same assumed mildness that -they insinuated themselves into the spice islands of India. Nothing, -however, is more certain than that in about a century they had -possessed themselves of all the Hottentot territories, and reduced the -Hottentots themselves to a state of the most abject servitude. The -Parliamentary Report just alluded to, describes the first governor, Van -Riebeck, in the very first year of the settlement, looking over the -mud-walls of his fortress on “the cattle of the natives, and wondering -at the ways of Providence that could bestow such very fine gifts on -heathens.” It also presents us with two very characteristic extracts -from his journal at this moment. - -“December 13th, 1652.—To-day the Hottentots came with thousands of -cattle and sheep close to our fort, so that their cattle nearly mixed -with ours. We feel vexed to see so many fine head of cattle, and not -to be able to buy to any considerable extent. If it had been indeed -allowed, we had opportunity to-day to deprive them of 10,000 head, -which, however, if we obtain orders to that effect, can be done at -any time, and even more conveniently, because they will have greater -confidence in us. With 150 men, 10,000 or 11,000 head of black cattle -might be obtained without danger of losing one man; and many savages -might be taken without resistance, in order to be sent as slaves to -India, as they still always come to us unarmed. - -“December 18.—To-day the Hottentots came again with thousands of -cattle close to the fort. If no further trade is to be expected with -them, what would it matter much to take at once 6,000 or 8,000 beasts -from them? There is opportunity enough for it, as they are not strong -in number, and very timid; and since not more than two or three men -often graze a thousand cattle close to our cannon, who might be easily -cut off, and as we perceive they place very great confidence in us, -we allure them still with show of friendship to make them the more -confident. It is vexatious to see so much cattle, so necessary for the -refreshment of the Honourable Company’s ships, of which it is not every -day that any can be obtained by friendly trade.” - -It is sufficiently clear that no nice scruples of conscience withheld -Governor Van Riebeck from laying hand on 10 or 11,000 cattle, or -blowing a few of the keepers away with his cannons. - -The system of oppression, adds the Report, thus began, never slackened -till the Hottentot nation were cut off, and the small remnant left -were reduced to abject bondage. From all the accounts we have seen -respecting the Hottentot population, it could not have been less than -200,000, but at present they are said to be only 32,000 in number. - -In 1702 the Governor and Council stated their inability to restrain -the plunderings and outrages of the colonists upon the natives, on the -plea that such an act would implicate and ruin half the colony; and in -1798, Barrow, in his Travels in Southern Africa, thus describes their -condition:—“Some of their villages might have been expected to remain -in this remote and not very populous part of the colony. Not one, -however, was to be found. There is not, in fact, in the whole district -of Graaff Reynet, a single horde of independent Hottentots, and perhaps -not a score of individuals who are not actually in the service of the -Dutch. These weak people—the most helpless, and, in their present -condition, perhaps the most wretched of the human race,—duped out of -their possessions, their country, and their liberty, have entailed -upon their miserable offspring a state of existence to which that of -slavery might bear the comparison of happiness. It is a condition, -however, not likely to continue to a very remote posterity. Their -numbers, of late years, have been rapidly on the decline. It has -generally been observed, that where Europeans have colonized, the less -civilized nations have always dwindled away, and at length totally -disappeared.... There is scarcely an instance of cruelty said to -have been committed against the slaves in the West Indian islands, -that could not find a parallel from the Dutch farmers towards the -Hottentots in their service. Beating and cutting with thongs of the -sea-cow (hippopotamus), or rhinoceros, are only gentle punishments; -though those sort of whips, which they call _sjambocs_, are most horrid -instruments, being tough, pliant, and heavy almost as lead. Firing -small shot into the legs and thighs of a Hottentot is a punishment -not unknown to some of the monsters who inhabit the neighbourhood of -Camtoos. By a resolution of the old government, a boor was allowed to -claim as his property, till the age of twenty-five, all the children -of the Hottentots to whom he had given in their infancy a morsel of -meat. At the expiration of this period, the odds are two to one that -the slave is not emancipated; but should he be fortunate enough to -escape at this period, the best part of his life has been spent in a -profitless servitude, and he is turned adrift without any thing he can -call his own, except the sheep-skin on his back.” - -These poor people were fed on the flesh of old ewes, or any animal that -the boor expected to die of age; or, in default of that, a few quaggas -or such game were killed for them. They were tied to a wagon-wheel and -flogged dreadfully for slight offences; and when a master wanted to -get rid of one, he was sometimes sent on an errand, followed on the -road, and shot.[64] The cruelties, in fact, practised on the Hottentots -by the Dutch boors were too shocking to be related. Maiming, murder, -pursuing them like wild beasts, and shooting at them in the most -wanton manner, were amongst them. Mr. Pringle stated that he had in -his possession a journal of such deeds, kept by a resident at so late -a period as from 1806 to 1811, which consisted of forty-four pages of -such crimes and cruelties, which were too horrible to describe. Such -as we found them when the Cape finally became our possession, such -they remained till 1828, when Dr. Philip published his “Researches in -South Africa,” which laying open this scene of barbarities, Mr. Fowell -Buxton gave notice of a motion on the subject in Parliament. Sir George -Murray, then Colonial Secretary, however, most honourably acceded to -Mr. Buxton’s proposition before such motion was submitted, and an Order -in Council was accordingly issued, directing that the Hottentots should -be admitted to all the rights, and placed on the same footing as the -rest of his Majesty’s free subjects in the colony. This transaction -is highly honourable to the English government, and the result has -been such as to shew the wisdom of such liberal measures. But before -proceeding to notice the effect of this change upon the Hottentots, -let us select as a specimen of the treatment they were subject to, -even under our rule, the destruction of the last independent Hottentot -kraal, as related by Pringle. - -“Among the principal leaders of the Hottentot insurgents in their wars -with the boors, were three brothers of the name of Stuurman. The manly -bearing of Klaas, one of these brothers, is commemorated by Mr. Barrow, -who was with the English General Vandeleur, near Algoa Bay, when this -Hottentot chief came, with a large body of his countrymen, to claim the -protection of the British.” “We had little doubt,” says Mr. Barrow, -“that the greater number of the Hottentot men who were assembled at -the bay, after receiving favourable accounts from their comrades of -the treatment they experienced in the British service, would enter -as volunteers into this corps; but what was to be done with the old -people, the women and children? Klaas Stuurman found no difficulty in -making provision for them. ‘Restore,’ said he, ‘the country of which -our fathers have been despoiled by the Dutch, and we have nothing -more to ask.’ I endeavoured to convince him,” continues Mr. Barrow, -“how little advantage they were likely to obtain from the possession -of a country, without any other property, or the means of deriving a -subsistence from it. But he had the better of the argument. ‘We lived -very contentedly,’ said he, ‘before these Dutch plunderers molested -us; and why should we not do so again if left to ourselves? Has not -the _Groot Baas_ (the Great Master) given plenty of grassroots, and -berries, and grasshoppers for our use? and, till the Dutch destroyed -them, abundance of wild animals to hunt? and will they not turn and -multiply when these destroyers are gone?’” - -How uniform is the language of the uncivilized man wherever he has been -driven from his ancient habits by the white invaders,—trust in the -goodness of Providence, and regret for the plenty which he knew before -they came. These words of Klaas Stuurman are almost the same as those -of the American Indian Canassateego to the English at Lancaster in 1744. - -But we are breaking our narrative. Klaas was killed in a buffalo hunt, -and his brother David became the chief of the kraal. “The existence of -this independent kraal gave great offence to the neighbouring boors. -The most malignant calumnies were propagated against David Stuurman. -The kraal was watched most jealously, and every possible occasion -embraced of preferring complaints against the people, with a view of -getting them rooted out, and reduced to the same state of servitude -as the rest of their nation. For seven years no opportunity presented -itself; but in 1810, when the colony was once more under the government -of England, David Stuurman became outlawed in the following manner:— - -“Two Hottentots belonging to this kraal, had engaged themselves for -a certain period in the service of a neighbouring boor; who, when -the term of their agreement expired, refused them permission to -depart—a practice at that time very common, and much connived at by -the local functionaries. The Hottentots, upon this, went off without -permission, and returned to their village. The boor followed them -thither, and demanded them back; but their chief, Stuurman, refused -to surrender them. Stuurman was, in consequence, summoned by the -landdrost Cuyler, to appear before him; but, apprehensive probably -for his personal safety, he refused or delayed compliance. His arrest -and the destruction of his kraal were determined upon. But as he was -known to be a resolute man, and much beloved by his countrymen, it was -considered hazardous to seize him by open force, and the following -stratagem was resorted to:— - -“A boor, named Cornelius Routenbach, a heemraad (one of the landdrost’s -council), had by some means gained Stuurman’s confidence, and this -man engaged to entrap him. On a certain day, accordingly, he sent an -express to his friend Stuurman, stating that the Caffres had carried -off a number of his cattle, and requested him to hasten with the most -trusty of his followers to aid him in pursuit of the robbers. The -Hottentot chief and his party instantly equipped themselves and set -out. When they reached Routenbach’s residence, Stuurman was welcomed -with every demonstration of cordiality, and, with four of his principal -followers, was invited into the house. On a signal given, the door -was shut, and at the same moment the landdrost (Major Cuyler), the -field-commandant Stoltz, and a crowd of boors, rushed upon them from an -inner apartment, and made them all prisoners. The rest of the Hottentot -party, who had remained outside, perceiving that their captain and -comrade had been betrayed, immediately dispersed themselves. The -majority, returning to their kraal, were, together with their families, -distributed by the landdrost into servitude to the neighbouring boors. -Some fled into Caffreland; and a few were, at the earnest request -of Dr. Vanderkemp, permitted to join the missionary institution at -Bethelsdorp. The chief and his brother Boschman, with two other leaders -of the kraal, were sent off prisoners to Cape Town, where, after -undergoing their trial before the court of justice, upon an accusation -of resistance to the civil authorities of the district, they were -condemned to work in irons for life, and sent to Robben Island to be -confined among other colonial convicts. - -“Stuurman’s kraal was eventually broken up, the landdrost Cuyler _asked -and obtained_, as a grant for himself—(Naboth’s vineyard again!)—the -lands the Hottentots had occupied. _Moreover this functionary kept in -his own service, without any legal agreement_, some of the children of -the Stuurmans, until after the arrival of the Commissioners of Inquiry -in 1823. - -“Stuurman and two of his comrades, after remaining some years prisoners -in Robben Island, contrived to escape, and effected their retreat -through the whole extent of the colony into Caffreland, a distance -of more than six hundred miles! Impatient, however, to return to -his family, Stuurman, in the year 1816, sent out a messenger to the -missionary, Mr. Read, from whom he had formerly experienced kindness, -entreating him to endeavour to procure permission for him to return in -peace. Mr. Read, as he himself informed me, made application on his -behalf to the landdrost Cuyler,—but without avail. That magistrate -recommended that he should remain where he was. Three years afterwards, -the unhappy exile ventured to return into the colony without -permission. But he was not long in being discovered and apprehended, -and once more sent a prisoner to Cape Town, where he was kept in close -confinement till the year 1823, when he was finally transported as a -convict to New South Wales. What became of Boschman, the third brother, -I never learned. Such was the fate of the last Hottentot chief who -attempted to stand up for the rights of his country.” - -Mr. Pringle adds, “that this statement, having been published -by him in England in 1826, the benevolent General Bourke, then -Lieutenant-Governor at the Cape, wrote to the Governor of New South -Wales, and obtained some alleviation of the hardships of his lot for -Stuurman; that, in 1829, the children of Stuurman, through the aid of -Mr. Bannister, presented a memorial to Sir Lowry Cole, then governor at -the Cape, for their father’s recall, but in vain; but that, in 1831, -General Bourke, being himself Governor of New South Wales, obtained an -order for his liberation; but, ere it arrived, ‘the last chief of the -Hottentots’ had been released by death.” - -Such was the treatment of the Hottentots under the Dutch and under the -English; such were the barbarities and ruthless oppressions exercised -on them till the passing of the 50th Ordinance by Acting-Governor -Bourke in 1828, and its confirmation by the Order in Council in -1829, for their liberation. This act, so honourable to the British -government, became equally honourable to the Hottentots, by their -conduct on their freedom, and presents another most important proof -that political justice is political wisdom. After the clamour of -the interested had subsided, and after a vain attempt to reverse -this ordinance, a grand experiment in legislation was made. A -tract of country was granted to the Hottentots; they were placed -on the frontiers with arms in their hands, to defend themselves, -if necessary, from the Caffres; and they were told that they must -now show whether they were capable of maintaining themselves as a -people, in peace, civil order, and independence. Most nobly did -they vindicate their national character from all the calumnies of -indolence and imbecility that had been cast upon them,—most amply -justify the confidence reposed in them! “The spot selected,” says -Pringle, “for the experiment, was a tract of wild country, from which -the Caffre chief, Makomo, had been expelled a short time before. It -is a sort of irregular basin, surrounded on all sides by lofty and -majestic mountains, from the numerous kloofs of which six or seven -fine streams are poured down the subsidiary dells into the central -valley. These rivulets, bearing the euphonic Caffre names of Camalu, -Zebenzi, Umtóka, Mankazána, Umtúava, and Quonci, unite to form the -Kat River, which finds its way through the mountain barrier by a -stupendous _poort_, or pass, a little above Fort Beaufort. Within this -mountain-basin, which from its great command of the means of irrigation -is peculiarly well adapted for a dense population, it was resolved to -fix the Hottentot settlement.” - -It was in the middle of the winter when the settlement was located. -Numbers flocked in from all quarters; some possessing a few cattle, -but far the greater numbers possessing nothing but their hands to -work with. They asked Captain Stockenstrom, their great friend, the -lieutenant-governor of the frontier, and at whose suggestion this -experiment was made, what they were to do, and how they were to -subsist. He told them, “if they were not able to cultivate the ground -with their fingers, they need not have come there.” Government, even -under such rigorous circumstances, gave them no aid whatever except -the gift of fire-arms, and some very small portion of seed-corn to the -most destitute, to keep them from thieving. Yet, even thus tried, the -Hottentots, who had been termed the fag-end of mankind, did not quail -or despair. In the words of Mr. Fairbairn, the friend of Pringle, “The -Hottentot, escaped from bonds, stood erect on his new territory; and -the feeling of being restored to the level of humanity and the simple -rights of nature, softened and enlarged his heart, and diffused vigour -through every limb!” They dug up roots and wild bulbs for food, and -persisted without a murmur, labouring surprisingly, with the most -wretched implements, and those who had cattle assisting those who had -nothing, to the utmost of their ability. All winter the Caffres, from -whom this location had been unjustly wrested by the English, attacked -them with a fury only exceeded by their hope of now regaining their -territory from mere Hottentots, thus newly armed, and in so wretched -a condition. But, though harassed night and day, and never, for a -moment, safe in their sleep, they not only repelled the assailants, -but continued to cultivate their grounds with prodigious energy. They -had to form dams across the river, as stated by Mr. Read, before the -Parliamentary committee, and water-courses, sometimes to the depth of -ten, twelve, and fourteen feet, and that sometimes through solid rocks, -and with very sorry pickaxes, iron crows, and spades; and few of them. -These works, says Mr. Read, have excited the admiration of visitors, as -well as the roads, which they had to cut to a considerable height on -the sides of the mountains. - -At first, from the doubts of colonists as to the propriety of -entrusting fire-arms, and so much self-government to these newly -liberated men, it was proposed that a certain portion of the Dutch and -English should be mixed with them. The Hottentots, who felt this want -of confidence keenly, begged and prayed that they might be trusted -for two years; and Captain Stockenstrom said to them, “Then show to -the world that you can work as well as others, and that without the -whip.” Such indeed was their diligence, that the very next summer they -had abundance of vegetables, and a plentiful harvest. In the second -year they not only supported themselves, but disposed of 30,000 lbs. -of barley for the troops, besides carrying other produce to market -at Graham’s Town. Their enemies the Caffres made peace with them, -and those of their own race flocked in so rapidly that they were -soon 4,000 in number, seven hundred of whom were armed with muskets. -The settlement was left without any magistrate, or officers, except -the native field-cornets, and heads of parties appointed by Captain -Stockenstrom, yet they continued perfectly orderly. Nay, they were not -satisfied without possessing the means of both religious and other -instruction. Within a few months after their establishment, they sent -for Mr. Read, the missionary, and Mr. Thompson was also appointed Dutch -minister amongst them. They established temperance societies, and -schools. Mr. Read says, that during the four years and a half that he -was there, they had established seven schools for the larger children, -and one school of industry, besides five infant schools. And Captain -Stockenstrom, writing to Mr. Pringle in 1833, says, “So eager are they -for instruction, that when better teachers cannot be obtained, if they -find any person that can merely spell, they get him to teach the rest -the little he knows. They travel considerable distances to attend -divine service regularly, and their spiritual guides speak with delight -of the fruits of their labours. Nowhere have temperance societies -been half so much encouraged as among this people, formerly so prone -to intemperance; and they have of their own account petitioned the -government that their grants of land may contain a prohibition against -the establishment of canteens, or brandy-houses. They have repulsed -the Caffres on every side on which they have been attacked, and are -now upon the best terms with that people. They pay every tax like the -rest of the inhabitants. They have cost the government nothing except -a little ammunition for their defence, about fifty bushels of maize, -and a similar quantity of oats for seed-corn, and the annual stipend -for their minister. _They have rendered the Kat river by far the -safest part of the frontier; and the same plan followed up on a more -extensive scale would soon enable government to withdraw the troops -altogether._” In 1834, Captain Bradford found that they had subscribed -499_l._ to build a new church, and had also proposed to lay the -foundation of another. In 1833 they paid in taxes 2,300 rix-dollars, -and their settlement was in a most flourishing condition. Dr. Philip, -before the Parliamentary Committee of 1837, stated that their schools -were in admirable order; their infant schools quite equal to anything -to be seen in England; and the Committee closed its evidence on this -remarkable settlement with this striking opinion: “_Had it, indeed, -depended on the Hottentots, we believe the frontier would have been -spared the outrages from which they as well as others have suffered_.” - -Of two things in this very interesting relation, we hardly know which -is the most surprising—the avidity with which a people long held in -the basest thraldom grasp at knowledge and civil life, or the blind -selfishness of Englishmen, who, in the face of such splendid scenes -as these, persist in oppression and violence. How easy does it seem -to do good! How beautiful are the results of justice and liberality! -How glorious and how profitable too, beyond all use of whips, and -chains, and muskets, are treating our fellow men with gentleness and -kindness—and yet after this came the Caffre commandoes and the Caffre -war! - -Of the same, or a kindred race with the Hottentots, are the Bosjesmen, -or Bushmen, and the Griquas; their treatment, except that they could -not be made slaves of, has been the same. The same injustice, the same -lawlessness, the same hostile irritation, have been practised towards -them by the Dutch and English as towards the Hottentots. The bushmen, -in fact, were Hottentots, who, disdaining slavery and resenting the -usurpations of the Europeans on their lands, took arms, endeavoured -to repel their aggressors, and finding that impracticable, fled to -the woods and the mountains; others, from time to time escaping from -intolerable thraldom, joined them. These bushmen carried on a predatory -warfare from their fastnesses with the oppressors of their race, and -were in return hunted as wild beasts. Commandoes, a sort of military -battu, were set on foot against them. Every one knows what a battu for -game is. The inhabitants of a district assemble at the command of an -officer, civil or military, to clear the country of wild beasts. They -take in a vast circle, beating up the bushes and thickets, while they -gradually contract the circle, till the whole multitude find themselves -inclosing a small area filled with the whole bestial population of the -neighbourhood, on which they make a simultaneous attack, and slaughter -them in one promiscuous mass. A commando is a very similar thing, -except that in it not only the bestial population of the country, but -the human too, are slaughtered by the inhuman. These commandoes, though -they have only acquired at the Cape a modern notoriety, have been used -from the first day of discovery. They were common in the Spanish and -Portuguese colonies, and under the same name, as may be seen in almost -any of the Spanish and Portuguese historians of the West Indies and -South America. - -The manner in which these commandoes were conducted at the Cape was -described, before the Parliamentary Committee of 1837,[65] to be a -joint assemblage of burghers and military force for the purpose of -enforcing restitution of cattle. Sir Lowry Cole authorized in 1833 any -field-cornet, or deputy field-cornet, to whom a boor may complain, to -send a party of soldiers on the track and recover the cattle. These -persons are often of the most indifferent class of society. It is the -interest of these men, as much as that of the boors, to make inroads -into the country of the Griquas, Bushmen, or Caffres, and sweep off -droves of cattle. These people can call on everybody to aid and -assist, and away goes the troop. The moment the Caffres perceive these -licensed marauders approaching their kraal, they collect their cattle -as fast as they can, and drive them off towards the woods. The English -pursue—they surround them if possible—they fall on them; the Caffres, -or whoever they are, defend their property—their only subsistence, -indeed; then ensues bloodshed and devastation. The cattle are driven -off; the calves left behind to perish; the women and children, the -whole tribe, are thrown into a state of absolute famine. Besides these -“joint assemblages of burghers and military force,” there are parties -entirely military sent on the same errand; and to such a pitch of -vengeance have the parties arrived that whole districts have been laid -in flames and reduced to utter deserts. Such has been our system—the -system of us humane and virtuous English, till 1837! To these dreadful -and wicked expeditions there was no end, and but little cessation, for -the boors were continually going over the boundaries into the countries -of Bushmen, Caffres, or Guiquas, just as they pleased. They went over -with vast herds and eat them up. “In 1834 there were said to be,” -says the Report, “about 1,500 boors on the other side of the Orange -River, and for the most part in the Griqua country. Of these there -were 700 boors for several months during that year in the district of -Philipolis alone, with at least 700,000 sheep, cattle, and horses. -Besides destroying the pastures of the people, in many instances their -corn-fields were destroyed by them, and in some instances they took -possession of their houses. It was contended that the evil could not be -remedied; that the state of the country was such that the boors could -not be stopped; and yet an enormous body of military was kept up on the -frontiers at a ruinous expense to this country. The last Caffre war, -brought on entirely by this system of aggression, by these commandoes, -and the reprisals generated by them, cost this country 500,000_l._, and -put a stop to trade and the sale of produce to the value of 300,000_l._ -more!” Yet the success of a different policy was before the colony, in -the case of the Kat River Hottentots, and that so splendid a one, that -the Report says, had it been attended to and followed out, all these -outrages might have been spared. - -Such are commandoes.—So far as they related to the Bushmen, the -following facts are sufficiently indicative. In 1774 an order was -issued for the extirpation of the Bushmen, and three commandoes were -sent to execute it. In 1795, the Earl of Macartney, by proclamation, -authorized the landdrosts and magistrates to take the field against the -Bushmen, in such expeditions; and Mr. Maynier gave in evidence, that -in consequence, when he was landdrost of Graaf Reynet, parties of from -200 to 300 boors were sent out, who killed many hundreds of Bushmen, -_chiefly women and children_, the men escaping; and the children too -young to carry off for slaves had their brains knocked out against the -rocks.[66] Col. Collins, in his tour to the north-eastern boundary in -1809, says one man told him that within a period of six years parties -under his orders had killed or taken 3,200 of these unfortunate -creatures; and another, that the actions in which he had been engaged -had destroyed 2,700. That the total extinction of the Bushmen race -was confidently hoped for, but sufficient force for the purpose could -not be raised. But Dr. Philips’ evidence, presented in a memorial to -government in 1834, may well conclude these horrible details of the -deeds of our countrymen and colonists. - -“A few years ago, we had 1,800 Boschmen belonging to two missionary -institutions, among that people in the country between the Snewbergen -and the Orange River, a country comprehending 42,000 square miles; -and had we been able to treble the number of our missionary stations -over that district, we might have had 5,000 of that people under -instruction. In 1832 I spent seventeen days in that country, travelling -over it in different directions. I then found the country occupied -by the boors, and the Boschmen population had disappeared, with the -exception of those that had been brought up from infancy in the -service of the boors. In the whole of my journey, during the seventeen -days I was in the country, I met with two men and one woman only of the -free inhabitants, who had escaped the effects of the commando system, -and they were travelling by night, and concealing themselves by day, to -escape being shot like wild beasts. Their tale was a lamentable one: -their children had been taken from them by the boors, and they were -wandering about in this manner from place to place, in the hope of -finding out where they were, and of getting a sight of them.” - -I have glanced at the treatment of the Griquas in the last page but -one. Those people were the offspring of colonists by Hottentot women, -who finding themselves treated as an inferior race by their kinsmen of -European blood, and prevented from acquiring property in land, or any -fixed property, fled from contumely and oppression to the native tribes. - -Amongst the vast mass of colonial crime, that of the treatment of the -half-breed race by their European fathers constitutes no small portion. -Everywhere this unfortunate race has been treated alike; in every -quarter of the globe, and by every European people. In Spanish America -it was the civil disqualification and social degradation of this race -that brought on the revolution, and the loss of those vast regions to -the mother country. In our East Indies, what thousands upon thousands -of coloured children their white fathers have coolly abandoned; and -while they have themselves returned to England with enormous fortunes, -and to establish new families to enjoy them, have left there their -coloured offspring to a situation the most painful and degrading—a -position of perpetual contempt and political degradation. In our -West Indies how many thousands of their own children have been sold -by their white fathers, in the slave-market, or been made to swelter -under the lash on their own plantations. Here, in South Africa, this -class of descendents were driven from civilization to the woods and -the savages, and a miserable and savage race they became. It was not -till 1800 that any attempts were made to reclaim them, and then it was -no parental or kindred feeling on the part of the colonists that urged -it; it was attempted by the missionaries, who, as in every distant -scene of our crimes, have stepped in between us and the just vengeance -of heaven, between us and the political punishment of our own absurd -and wicked policy, between us and the miserable natives. Mr. Anderson, -their first missionary, found them “a herd of wandering and naked -savages, subsisting by plunder and the chase. Their bodies were daubed -with red paint, their heads loaded with grease and shining powder, -with no covering but the filthy caross over their shoulders. Without -knowledge, without morals, or any traces of civilization, they were -wholly abandoned to witchcraft, drunkenness, licentiousness, and all -the consequences which arise from the unchecked growth of such vices. -With his fellow-labourer, Mr. Kramer, Mr. Anderson wandered about with -them five years and a half, exposed to all the dangers and privations -inseparable from such a state of society, before they could induce them -to locate where they are now settled.” - -With one exception, they had not one thread of European clothing -amongst them. They were in the habit of plundering one another, and -saw no manner of evil in this, or any of their actions. Violent deaths -were common. Their usual manner of living was truly disgusting, and -they were void of shame. They were at the most violent enmity with the -Bushmen, and treated them on all occasions where they could, with the -utmost barbarity. So might these people, wretched victims of European -vice and contempt of all laws, human or divine, have remained, had not -the missionaries, by incredible labours and patience, won their good -will. They have now reduced them to settled and agricultural life; -brought them to live in the most perfect harmony with the Bushmen; and -in 1819 such was their altered condition that a fair was established -at Beaufort for the mutual benefit of them and the colonists, at which -business was done to the amount of 27,000 rix dollars; and on the goods -sold to the Griquas, the colonists realized a profit of from 200 to 500 -per cent.! - -Let our profound statesmen, who go on from generation to generation -fighting and maintaining armies, and issuing commandoes, look at this, -and see how infinitely simple men, with but one principle of action -to guide them—Christianity—outdo them in their own profession. They -are your missionaries, after all the boast and pride of statesmanship, -who have ever yet hit upon the only true and sound policy even in a -worldly point of view;[67] who, when the profound statesmen have turned -men into miserable and exasperated savages, are obliged to go and -again turn them from savages to men,—who, when these wise statesmen -have spent their country’s money by millions and shed blood by oceans, -and find troubles and frontier wars, and frightful and fire-blackened -deserts only growing around—go, and by a smile and a shake of the -hand, restore peace, replace these deserts by gardens and green fields, -and hamlets of cheerful people; and instead of involving you in debt, -find you a market with 200 to 500 per cent. profit! - -“It was apparent,” says Captain Stockenstrom, “to every man, that if it -had not been for the influence which the missionaries had gained over -the Griquas we should have had the whole nation down upon us.” What a -humiliation to the pride of political science, to the pride of so many -_soi-disant_ statesmen, that with so many ages of experience to refer -to, and with such stupendous powers as European statesmen have now in -their hands, a few simple preachers should still have to shew them the -real philosophy of government, and to rescue them from the blundering -and ruinous positions in which they have continually placed themselves -with uneducated nations! “If these Griquas had come down upon us,” -continues Captain Stockenstrom, “we had no force to arrest them; and I -have been informed, that since I left the colony, the government has -been able to enter into a sort of treaty with the chief Waterboer, of a -most beneficial nature to the Corannas and Griquas themselves, as well -as to the safety of the northern frontier.” - -If noble statesmen wish to hear the true secret of good and prosperous -government, they have only to listen to this chief, “who boasts,” -to use the words of the Parliamentary Report, “no higher ancestry -than that of the Hottentot and the Bushman.”—“I feel that I am -bound to govern my people by Christian principles. The world knows -by experience, and I know in my small way, and I know also from my -Bible, that the government which is not founded on the principles of -the Bible must come to nothing. When governments lose sight of the -principles of the Bible, partiality, injustice, oppression and cruelty -prevail, and then suspicion, want of confidence, jealousy, hatred, -revolt, and destruction succeed. Therefore I hope it will ever be my -study, that the Bible should form the foundation of every principle -of my government; then I and my people will have a standard to which -we can appeal, which is clear, and comprehensive, and satisfactory, -and by which we shall all be tried, and have our condition determined -in the day of judgment. The relation in which I stand to my people as -their chief, as their leader, binds me, by all that is sacred and dear, -to seek their welfare and promote their happiness; and by what means -shall I be able to do this? This I shall best be able to do by alluding -to the principles of the Bible. Would governors and governments act -upon the simple principle by which we are bound to act as individuals, -that is, to do as we would be done by, all would be well. I hope, by -the principles of the gospel, the morals of my people will continue -to improve; and it shall be my endeavour, in humble dependence on the -Divine blessing, that those principles shall lose none of their force -by my example. Sound education I know will civilize them, make them -wise, useful, powerful, and secure amongst their neighbours; and the -better they are educated, the more clearly will they see that the -principles of the Bible are the best principles for the government of -individuals, of families, of tribes, and of nations.” - -Not only governors but philosophers may listen to this African chief -with advantage. Some splendid reputations have been made in Europe by -merely taking up some one great principle of the Christian code and -vaunting it as a wonderful discovery. A thousand such principles are -scattered through the Bible, and the greatest philosophers of all, as -well as the profoundest statesmen, are they who are contented to look -for them there, and in simple sincerity to adopt them. - - - - -CHAPTER XXVII. - -THE ENGLISH IN SOUTH AFRICA,—CONTINUED. - - -The details of our barbarisms toward the Hottentots, Bushmen, and -Griquas, in the last chapter, are surely enough at this late period of -the world to make the wise blush and the humane weep, yet what are they -compared to our atrocities towards the Caffres? These are, as described -by Pringle, a remarkably fine race of people. “They a are tall, -athletic, and handsome race of men, with features often approaching -to the European, or Asiatic model, and, excepting their woolly hair, -exhibiting few of the peculiarities of the negro race. Their colour is -a clear dark brown. Their address is frank, cheerful, and manly. Their -government is patriarchal, and the privileges of rank are carefully -maintained by the chieftains. Their principal wealth and means of -subsistence consist in their numerous herds of cattle. The females also -cultivate pretty extensively maize, millet, water-melons, and a few -other esculents; but they are decidedly a nation of _herdsmen_—war, -hunting, barter, and agriculture being only occasional occupations. - -“In their customs and traditions there seem to be indications of their -having sprung, at some remote period, from a people of much higher -civilization than is now exhibited by any of the tribes of Southern -Africa; whilst the rite of circumcision, universally practised among -them without any vestige of Islamism, and several other traditionary -customs greatly resembling the Levitical rules of purification, would -seem to indicate some former connexion with a people of Arabian, -Hebrew, or perhaps, Abyssinian lineage. Nothing like a regular system -of idolatry exists among them; but we find some traces of belief of a -Supreme Being, as well as of inferior spirits, and sundry superstitious -usages that look like the shattered wrecks of ancient religious -institutions.”[68] - -One of the first of this race, whom this amiable and excellent man -encountered in South Africa, was at Bethelsdorp, the missionary -settlement, and under the following circumstances:—“A Caffre woman, -accompanied by a little girl of eight or ten years of age, and having -an infant strapped on her back above her mantle of tanned bullock’s -hide. She was in the custody of a black constable, who stated that -she was one of a number of female Caffres who had been made prisoners -by order of the Commandant on the frontier for crossing the line of -demarcation without permission, and that they were now to be _given -out in servitude_ among the white inhabitants of this district. While -the constable was delivering his message, the Caffre woman looked at -him and us with keen and intelligent glances, and though she very -imperfectly understood his language, she appeared fully to comprehend -its import. When he had finished she stepped forward, drew her -figure up to its full height, extended her right arm, and commenced -a speech in her native language, the Amakosa dialect. Though I did -not understand a single word that she uttered, I have seldom been -more struck with surprise and admiration. The language, to which she -appeared to give full and forcible intonation, was highly musical and -sonorous; her gestures were natural, graceful, and impressive, and -her dark eyes and handsome bronze countenance were full of eloquent -expression. Sometimes she pointed back to her own country, and then -to her children. Sometimes she raised her tones aloud, and shook her -clenched hand, as if she denounced our injustice, and threatened us -with the vengeance of her tribe. Then, again, she would melt into -tears, as if imploring clemency, and mourning for her helpless little -ones. Some of the villagers who gathered round, being whole or half -Caffres, interpreted her speech to the missionary, but he could do -nothing to alter her destination, and could only return kind words to -console her. For my part, I was not a little struck by the scene, and -could not help beginning to suspect that my European countrymen, who -thus made captives of harmless women and children, were, in reality, -greater barbarians than the savage natives of Caffraria.” He had soon -only too ample proofs of the correctness of his surmise. This fine race -of people, who strikingly resemble the North American Indians in their -character, their eloquence, their peculiar customs and traditions of -Asiatic origin, have exactly resembled them in their fate. They have -been driven out of their lands by the Europeans, and massacred by -thousands when they have resented the invasion. - -The Hottentots were exterminated, or reduced to thraldom, and the -European colonists then came in contact with the Caffres, who were -numerous and warlike, resisted aggression with greater effect, but -still found themselves unable with their light assagais to contend with -fire-arms, and were perpetually driven backwards with shocking carnage, -and with circumstances of violent oppression which it is impossible -to read of without the strongest indignation. Up to 1778 the Camtoos -River had been considered the limit of the colony on that side; but at -that period the Dutch governor, Van Plattenburgh, says Pringle, “in the -course of an extensive tour into the interior, finding great numbers of -colonists occupying tracts beyond the frontier, instead of recalling -them within the legal limits, he extended the boundary (according to -the ordinary practice of Cape governors before and since), adding, -by a stroke of his pen, about 30,000 square miles to the colonial -territory.” The Great Fish River now became the boundary; which Lord -Macartney in 1798, claiming all that Van Plattenburgh had so summarily -claimed, confirmed. - -It is singular how uniform are the policy and the modes of seizing -upon native possessions by Europeans. In America we have seen how -continually, when the bulk of the people, or the legitimate chiefs, -would not cede territory, the whites made a mock purchase from somebody -who had no right whatever to sell, and on that title proceeded to drive -out the real owners. In this case, Plattenburgh, to give a colour of -justice to his claim, sent out Colonel Gordon in search of Caffres -as far as the Keiskamma, who conducted a _few_ to the governor, who -consented that the Great Fish River _should_ be the boundary. The real -chief, Jalumba, it appears, however, had not been consulted; but the -colonists the next year _reminded_ him of the recent treaty with his -tribe, and requested him to evacuate that territory. Jalumba refused—a -commando was assembled—the _intruders_, in colonial phrase, but -the real and actual owners, were expelled: Jalumba’s own son Dlodlo -was killed, and 5,200 head of cattle driven off. This was certainly -a wholesale beginning of plunder and bloodshed; but, says the same -author, “this was not the worst—Jalumba and his clan were destroyed by -a most infamous act of treachery and murder; the details of which may -be found in Thompson and Kay.” - -It was on such a title as this, that Lord Macartney claimed this tract -of country for the English in 1797, the Cape having been conquered by -us. It does not appear, however, that any very vigorous measures were -employed for expelling the natives from this region till 1811, when it -was resolved to drive them out of it, and a large military and burgher -force under Col. Graham was sent out for that purpose. The expulsion -was effected with the most savage rigour. This _clearing_ took up about -a year. In the course of it Landdrost Stokenstrom lost his life by -the Caffres, and T’Congo, the father of the chiefs Pato, Kamo, and -T’Congo, was butchered by a party of boors while he lay on his mat -dying of a mortal disease. The Caffres begged to be allowed to wait -to cut their crops of maize and millet, nearly ripe, arguing that the -loss of them would subject them to a whole year of famine;—not a day -was allowed them. They were driven out with sword and musket. Men and -women, wherever found, were promiscuously shot, though they offered -no resistance. “Women,” says Lieutenant Hart, whose journal of these -transactions is quoted by Pringle, “were killed _unintentionally_, -because the boors could not distinguish them from men among the bushes, -and so, to make sure work, they shot _all_ they could reach.” They -were very anxious to seize Islambi, a chief who had actively opposed -them, for they had been, like Plattenburgh, treating with _one_ chief, -Gaika, for cession of claims which he frankly told them belonged to -_several_ quite independent of him. On this subject, occurs this entry -in Mr. Hart’s journal:—“Sunday, Jan. 12, 1812. At noon, Commandant -Stollz went out with two companies to look for Slambi (Islambi), but -saw nothing of him. _They met only with a few Caffres, men and women, -most of whom they shot._ About sunset, five Caffres were seen at a -distance, one of whom came to the camp with a message from Slambi’s -son, requesting permission to wait till the harvest was over, and that -then he (if his father would not), would go over the Great Fish River -quietly. This messenger would not give any information respecting -Slambi, but said he did not know where he was. However, _after having -been put in irons, and fastened to a wheel with a riem_ (leathern -thong) _about his neck_, he said, that if the commando went with him, -before daylight he would bring them upon 200 Caffres, all asleep.” -Having thus treated a messenger from a free chief, and attempted -to compel him to betray his master, away went this commando on the -agreeable errand of surprising and murdering 200 innocent people in -their sleep. But the messenger was made of much better stuff than the -English. He led them about on a wild-goose chase for three days, when -finding nothing they returned, and brought him back too. - -Parties of troops were employed for several weeks in burning down the -huts and hamlets of the natives, and destroying their fields of maize, -by trampling them down with large herds of cattle, and at length the -Caffres were forced over the Great Fish River, to the number of 30,000 -souls, leaving behind them a large portion of their cattle, captured by -the troops; many of their comrades and females, shot in the thickets, -and not a few of the old and diseased, whom they were unable to carry -along with them, to perish of hunger, or become a prey to the hyenas. - -“The results of this war of 1811 were,” says the Parliamentary Report -of 1837, “first, a succession of new wars, not less expensive, and -more sanguinary than the former; second, the loss of thousands of -good labourers to the colonists (and this testimony as to the actual -service done by Caffre labourers, comprises the strong opinion of Major -Dundas, when landdrost in 1827, as to their good dispositions, and -that of Colonel Wade to the same effect); and thirdly, the checking of -civilization and trade with the interior for a period of twelve years.” - -The gain was some hundreds of thousands of acres of land, which might -have been bought from the natives for comparatively a trifle. - -In 1817, those negotiations which had been entered into with Gaika, -as if he were the sole and paramount king of Caffreland, were renewed -by the governor, Lord Charles Somerset. Other chiefs were present, -particularly Islambi, but no notice was taken of them; it was resolved, -that Gaika was the paramount chief, and that he should be selected as -the champion of the frontiers against his countrymen. Accordingly, -we hear, as was to be expected, that the very next year a formidable -confederacy was entered into amongst the native chiefs against this -Gaika. In the league against him, and for the protection of their -country, were his own uncles, Islambi and Jaluhsa, Habanna, Makanna, -young Kongo, chief of the Gunuquebi, and Hintza, the principal chief of -the Amakosa, to whom in rank Gaika was only secondary. To support their -adopted puppet, Col. Brereton was ordered to march into Caffreland. The -inhabitants were attacked in their hamlets, plundered of their cattle, -and slaughtered or driven into the woods; 23,000 cattle carried off, -9000 of which were given to Gaika to reimburse him for his losses. - -Retaliation was the consequence. The Caffres soon poured into the -colony in numerous bodies eager for revenge. The frontier districts -were overrun; several military posts were seized; parties of British -troops and patroles cut off; the boors were driven from the Zureveld, -and Enon plundered and burnt. - -This and the other efforts of the outraged Caffres, which were now -made to avenge their injuries and check the despoiling course of the -English, were organized under the influence and counsel of Makanna, -a prophet who assumed the sacred character to combine and rouse his -countrymen to overturn their oppressors: for not knowing the vast -resources of the English, he fondly deemed that if they could vanquish -those at the Cape they should be freed from their power; “and then,” -said he, “we will sit down and eat honey!” - -In this, as in so many other particulars, the Caffres resemble the -American Indians. Scarcely a confederacy amongst those which have -appeared for the purpose of resisting the aggressions on the Indians -but have been inspired and led on by prophets, as the brother of -Tecumseh, amongst the Shawanees; the son of Black-Hauk, Wabokieshiek, -amongst the Sacs; Monohoe, and others, amongst the Creeks who fell at -the bloody battle of Horse-shoe-bend. - -Makanna had by his talents and pretences raised himself from the common -herd to the rank of a chief, and soon gained complete ascendency -over all the chiefs except Gaika, to whom he was opposed as the -ally of the English. He went amongst the missionaries and acquired -so much knowledge of Christianity as served him to build a certain -motley creed upon, by which he mystified and awed the common people. -After Col. Brereton’s devastations he roused up his countrymen to a -simultaneous attack upon Graham’s Town. He and Dushani, the son of -Islambi, mustered their exasperated hosts to the number of nine or ten -thousand in the forests of the Great Fish River, and one morning at -the break of day these infuriated troops were seen rushing down from -the mountains near Graham’s Town to assault it. A bloody conflict -ensued: the Caffres, inflamed by their wrongs and the eloquence of -Makanna, fought desperately; but they were mown down by the European -artillery, fourteen hundred of their warriors were left on the field, -and the rest fled to the hills and woods. The whole burgher militia of -the colony were called out to pursue them, and to ravage their country -in all directions. It was resolved to take ample vengeance on them: -their lands were laid waste—their corn trampled down under the feet -of the cavalry, their villages burnt to the ground—and themselves -chased into the bush, where they were bombarded with grape-shot and -congreve-rockets. Men, women, and children, were massacred in one -indiscriminate slaughter. A high price was set upon the heads of the -chiefs, especially on that of Makanna, and menaces added, that if they -were not brought in, nothing should prevent the total destruction -of their country. Not a soul was found timid or traitorous enough -to betray their chiefs; but to the surprise of the English, Makanna -himself, to save the remainder of his nation, walked quietly into the -English camp and presented himself before the commander. “The war,” -said he, “British chiefs, is an unjust one; for you are striving to -extirpate a people whom you forced to take up arms. When our fathers, -and the fathers of the Boors first settled in the Zureveld, they -dwelt together in peace. Their flocks grazed on the same hills; their -herdsmen smoked together out of the same pipes; they were brothers, -until the herds of the Amakosa increased so as to make the hearts of -the boors sore. What these covetous men could not get from our fathers -for old buttons, they took by force. Our fathers were MEN; they loved -their cattle; their wives and children lived upon milk; they fought for -their property. They began to hate the colonists, who coveted their -all, and aimed at their destruction. - -“Now their kraals and our fathers’ kraals were separate. The boors made -commandoes on our fathers. Our fathers drove them out of the Zureveld. -We dwelt there because we had conquered it. There we married wives, and -there our children were born. The white men hated us, but they could -not drive us away. When there was war, we plundered you. When there was -peace, some of our bad people stole; but our chiefs forbade it. Your -treacherous friend, Gaika, always had peace with you, yet, when his -people stole he shared in the plunder. Have your patroles ever, in time -of peace, found cattle, runaway slaves, or deserters in the kraals of -_our_ chiefs? Have they ever gone into Gaika’s country without finding -such cattle, such slaves, such deserters in Gaika’s kraals? But he was -your friend; and you wished to possess the Zureveld. You came at last -like locusts.[69] We stood; we could do no more. You said, ‘Go over the -Fish River—that is all we want.’ We yielded, and came here. We lived -in peace. Some bad people stole, perhaps; but the nation was quiet—the -chiefs were quiet. Gaika stole—his chiefs stole—his people stole. You -sent him copper; you sent him beads; you sent him horses—on which he -rode to steal more. _To us you sent only commandoes!_ - -“We quarrelled with Gaika about grass—no business of yours. You sent -a commando.[70] You took our last cow. You left only a few calves, -which died for want, along with our children. You gave half the spoil -to Gaika—half you kept yourselves. Without milk—our corn destroyed, -we saw our wives and children perish—we saw that we must ourselves -perish. We fought for our lives—we failed—and you are here. Your -troops cover the plains and swarm in the thickets, where they cannot -distinguish the men from the women, and shoot all.[71] - -“You want us to submit to Gaika. That man’s face is fair to you, but -his heart is false; leave him to himself, and _we_ shall not call on -you for help. Set Makanna at liberty; and Islambi, Dushani, Kongo, and -the rest, will come to make peace with you at any time you fix. But if -you will make war, you may indeed kill the last man of us; but Gaika -shall not rule over the followers of those who think him a woman.”[72] - -It is said that this energetic address, containing so many awful -truths, affected some of those who heard it even to tears. But what -followed? The Caffres were still sternly commanded to deliver up their -other chiefs; treachery is said to have been used to compass it, but in -vain; so the English made a desert of the whole country, and carried -off 30,000 head of cattle.[73] Makanna was sent to Cape-Town, and -thence transported to Robben Island, a spot appropriated to felons and -malefactors doomed to work in irons. Here, in an attempt with some few -followers to effect his escape, he was drowned by the upsetting of the -boat, and died cheering his unfortunate companions till the billows -swept him from a rock to which he clung.[74] - -The English had hitherto gratified their avarice and bad passions -with their usual freedom in their colonies, on those who had no -further connexion with them than happening to possess goodly herds -under their eye; but now they turned their hand upon their _friend_ -and ally, Gaika. Having devoured, by his aid, his countrymen, they -were ready now to devour him. Gaika was called upon to give up a large -portion of Caffre land, that is, from the Fish River to the Keisi and -Chumi rivers—a tract which added about 2,000 square miles to our own -boundaries. This he yielded most reluctantly, and only on condition -that the basin of the Chumi, a beautiful piece of country, should not -be included, and that all his territory should be considered neutral -ground. Gaika himself narrowly escaped being seized by the English in -1822—for what cause does not appear,—but it does appear that he only -effected his escape in the mantle of his wife; and that in 1823 a large -force, according to the evidence of Capt. Aichison, in which he was -employed, surprised the kraals of his son Macomo, and took from them -7,000 beasts. Well might Gaika say—“When I look at the large tract of -fine country that has been taken from me, I am compelled to say that -_though protected, I am rather oppressed by my protectors_.”[75] - -This Macomo, the son of Gaika, seems to be a fine fellow. Desirous -of cultivating peace and the friendship of the English; desirous of -his people receiving, the benefits of civilization and the Christian -religion; yet, notwithstanding this, and notwithstanding the alliance -which had subsisted between the English and his father, his treatment -at the hands of the Cape government has always been of the most -harsh and arbitrary kind. He has been driven with his people from one -location to another, and the most serious devastation committed on -his property. Pringle’s words regarding him are—“He has uniformly -protected the missionaries and traders; has readily punished any of -his people who committed depredations on the colonists, and on many -occasions has given four or five-fold compensation for stolen cattle -driven through his territory by undiscovered thieves from other clans. -Notwithstanding all this, however, and much more stated on his behalf -in the Cape papers, colonial oppression continues to trample down this -chief with a steady, firm, relentless foot.” The same writer gives the -following instance of the sort of treatment which was received from the -authorities by this meritorious chief. - -“On the 7th of October last (1833), Macomo was invited by Mr. Read to -attend the anniversary meeting of an auxiliary missionary society at -Philipton, Kat River. The chief went to the military officer commanding -the nearest frontier post, and asked permission to attend, but was -peremptorily refused. He ventured, nevertheless, to come by another -way, with his ordinary retinue, but altogether unarmed, and delivered -in his native tongue a most eloquent speech at the meeting, in which he -seconded a motion, proposed by the Rev. Mr. Thompson, the established -clergyman, for promoting the conversion of the Caffres. Alluding to the -great number of traders residing in Caffreland, contrasted with the -rude prohibition given to his attending this Christian assembly, he -said, in the forcible idiom of his country—‘There are no Englishmen -at Kat River; there are no Englishmen at Graham’s Town; they are all -in my country, with their wives and children, in perfect safety, while -I stand before you as a rogue and a vagabond, having been obliged to -come by stealth.’[76] Then, addressing his own followers, he said—‘Ye -sons of Kahabi, I have brought you here to behold what the Word of God -hath wrought. These Hottentots were but yesterday as much despised and -oppressed as to-day are we—the Caffres: but see what the GREAT WORD -has done for them! They were dead—they are now alive; they are men -once more. Go and tell my people what you have seen and heard; for such -things as you have seen and heard, I hope ere long to witness in my own -land. God is great, who has said it, and will surely bring it to pass!’ -In the midst of this exhilarating scene—the African chief recommending -to his followers the adoption of that Great Word which brings with it -at once both spiritual and social regeneration—they were interrupted -by the sudden appearance of a troop of dragoons, despatched from the -military post to arrest Macomo for having crossed the frontier line -without permission. This was effected in the most brutal and insulting -manner possible, and not without considerable hazard to the chieftain’s -life, from the ruffian-like conduct of a drunken sergeant, although not -the slightest resistance was attempted.”[77] - -It should be borne in mind by the reader that this Kat River -settlement, where Macomo was attending the meeting, is the same from -which he had been expelled in 1829, and in which the Hottentots were -located, and, as I have already related, were making such remarkable -progress. Macomo had therefore not only repassed the boundary line -over which he had been driven, and the repassing of which the -government would naturally regard with great jealousy, knowing well -what injury they had done him, and which the sight of his old country -must forcibly revive in his mind, knowing also that they were at this -moment planning fresh outrages against him. This meeting took place in -October, 1833, and therefore, at that very time, an order was signed -by the governor for his removal from the lands he was then occupying; -for the Parliamentary Report informs us that Sir Lowry Cole, before -leaving the colony for Europe, on the 10th of August, 1833, signed an -order for removing the chief Tyalie from the Muncassana beyond the -boundaries; and in November of that year Captain Aichison was ordered -to remove Macomo, Botman, and Tyalie, beyond the boundary; that is, -beyond the Keiskamma, which he says he did. Capt. Aichison stated in -evidence before the Select Committee, that he could assign no cause -for this removal, and he never heard any cause assigned. But this was -not the worst. These poor people, thus driven out in November, when -all their corn was green, and that and the crops of their gardens and -their pumpkins thus lost, were suffered to return in February, 1834, -and again, in October of that year, driven out a second time! Colonel -Wade stated in evidence, that at the time of their second removal, 21st -of October, 1834, “they had rebuilt their huts, established their -cattle kraals, and commenced the cultivation of their gardens.” He -stated that, together with Colonel Somerset, he made a visit to Macomo -and Botman’s kraal, across the Keiskamma, and that Macomo rode back -with them, when they had recrossed the river and reached the Omkobina, -a tributary of the Chumie. “These valleys were swarming with Caffres, -as was the whole country in our front as far as the Gaga; the people -were all in motion, carrying off their effects, and driving away their -cattle towards the drifts of the river, and to my utter amazement the -whole country around and before us was in a blaze. Presently we came -up with a strong patrol of the mounted rifle corps, which had, it -appeared, come out from Fort Beaufort that morning; the soldiers were -busily employed in burning the huts and driving the Caffres towards the -frontier.” - -Another witness said, “the second time of my leaving Caffreland was -in October, last year, in company with a gentleman who was to return -towards Hantam. We passed through the country of the Gaga at ten -o’clock at night; the Caffres were enjoying themselves after their -custom, with their shouting, feasting, and midnight dances; they -allowed us to pass on unmolested. Some time after I received a letter -from the gentleman who was my travelling companion on that night, -written just before the breaking out of the Caffre war: in it he says, -‘you recollect how joyful the Caffres were, when we crossed the Gaga; -but on my return a dense smoke filled all the vales, and the Caffres -were seen lurking here and there behind the mimosa; a patrol, commanded -by an officer, was driving them beyond the colonial boundary.’ (This -piece of country has very lately been claimed by the colony.) I saw -one man near me, and I told my guide to call him to me: the poor fellow -said, ‘No, I cannot come nearer; that white man looks too much like a -soldier;’ and all our persuasions could not induce him to advance near -us. ‘Look,’ said he, pointing to the ascending columns of smoke, ‘what -the white men are doing.’ Their huts and folds were all burned.” - -Such was the treatment of the Caffres up to the end of 1834, -notwithstanding the most forcible and pathetic appeals to their -English tyrants. Dr. Philip stated that, speaking with these chiefs -at this time, he said to Macomo, that he had reason to believe that -the governor, when he came to the frontier, would listen to all -his grievances, and treat him with justice and generosity. “These -promises,” he replied, “we have had for the last fifteen years;” and -pointing to the huts then burning, he added, “things are becoming -worse: these huts were set on fire last night, and we were told that -to-morrow the patrol is to scour the whole district, and drive every -Caffre from the west side of the Chumie and Keiskamma at the point -of the bayonet.” And Dr. Philip having stated rather strongly the -necessity the chiefs would be under of preventing all stealing from the -colony as the condition of any peaceable relations the governor might -enter into with them, Botman made the following reply: “The governor -cannot be so unreasonable as to make our existence as a nation depend -upon a circumstance which is beyond the reach of human power. Is it -in the power of any governor to prevent his people stealing from each -other? Have you not within the colony magistrates, policemen, prisons, -whipping-posts, and gibbets? and do you not perceive that in spite of -all these means to make your people honest, that your prisons continue -full, and that you have constant employment for your magistrates, -policemen, and hangmen, without being able to keep down your colonial -thieves and cheats? A thief is a wolf; he belongs to no society, and -yet is the pest and bane of all societies. You have your thieves, -and we have thieves among us; but we cannot as chiefs, extirpate the -thieves of Caffreland, more than we can extirpate the wolves, or -you can extirpate the thieves of the colony. There is however this -difference between us: we discountenance thieves in Caffreland, and -prevent, as far as possible, our people stealing from the colony; but -you countenance the robbery of your people upon the Caffres, by the -sanction you give to the injustice of the patrol system. Our people -have stolen your cattle, but you have, by the manner by which you have -refunded your loss, punished the innocent; and after having taken our -country from us, without even a shadow of justice, and shut us up to -starvation, you threaten us with destruction for the thefts of those to -whom you left no choice but to steal or die by famine.” - -What force and justice of reasoning in these abused Caffres! what -force and injustice of action in the English! Who could have believed -that from the moment of our becoming masters of the Cape colony such -dreadful and wicked scenes as these could be going on, up to 1834, -by Englishmen. But the end was not yet come; other, and still more -abominable deeds were to be perpetrated. Another war broke out, and -the people of England asked, why? Dr. Philip, before the Parliamentary -Committee, said,— “The encroachments of the colonists upon the -Caffres, when they came in contact with them on the banks of the -Gamtoos river; their expulsion from the Rumfield, now Albany, in 1811; -the commandoes of Colonel Brereton, in 1818; our conduct to Gaika, our -ally, in 1819, in depriving him of the country between the Fish and -Keiskamma Rivers; the injury inflicted upon Macomo and Gaika, by the -ejectment of Macomo and his people, with many of the people of Gaika, -from the Kat River, in 1829; the manner in which the Caffres were -expelled from the west bank of the Chumie and Keiskamma, in 1833, and, -subsequently, again (after having been allowed to return) in 1834; -and the working of the commando system, down to December, 1834,—were -sufficient in themselves to account for the Caffre war, if the Caffres -are allowed to be human beings, and to possess passions like our own.” - -To all this series of insults and inflictions were soon added fresh -ones. - -“On the 2nd December, of this very year,” continued Dr. Philip, “Ensign -Sparkes went to one of the Chief Eno’s kraals, for the purpose of -getting some horses, supposed to have been stolen. Not finding them -there, he proceeded to take by force a large quantity of cattle as an -indemnity. This proceeding roused the dormant anger of the Caffres; -they surrounded his party, and manifested an intention of attacking -it. They did not, however, venture upon a general engagement, though -one of them, more daring, and perhaps a greater loser than the rest, -wounded Ensign Sparkes in the arm with an assagai, or spear, whilst -the soldiers under his command were busily employed in driving the -cattle out of the bush. Macomo no sooner heard of this affair, than he -gave up of his own property, to the colony, 400 head of cattle, and -went himself frequently to visit the young man who had been wounded, -expressing great sorrow at what had occurred. This conduct was highly -praiseworthy, as it was evidently for the sake of preventing any -misunderstanding, but more especially so, because the deed had been -committed, not by one of his people, but by a Caffre belonging to Eno’s -tribe. On the 18th of the same month, a patrol under Lieut. Sutton -seized a number of cattle at one of Tyalie’s kraals, for some horses -alleged to have been stolen, but not found there. On this occasion the -Caffres seem to have determined to resist to the last. An affray took -place, in which they were so far successful as to retake the cattle. -Two of them were, however, shot dead, and two dangerously wounded, one -of whom was Tyalie’s own brother (not, however, Macomo), who had two -slugs in his head. An individual residing in the neutral territory, -referring to this affair, thus expressed his opinion: ‘The system -carried on, and that to the last moment, is the cause the Caffres could -not bear it any longer. The very immediate cause was the wounding of -Gaika’s son, at which the blood of every Caffre boiled.’” - -According to the evidence of John Tzatzoe, “every Caffre who saw -Xo-Xo’s wound, went back to his hut, took his assagai and shield, and -set out to fight, and said, ‘It is better that we die than be treated -thus.’” - -The war being thus wantonly and disgracefully provoked by the English, -Sir Benjamin D’Urban, the governor, marched into the territory of -the Caffre king Hintza, and summoned him to his presence. The king, -alarmed, and naturally expecting some fresh act of mischief, fled, -driving off his cattle to a place of security. He was threatened with -immediate proclamation of war if he did not return; and to convince -him that there would be no dallying, Colonel Smith immediately marched -his troops into the mountain districts where Hintza had taken refuge, -was very near seizing him by surprise, and carried off 10,000 head -of cattle. Hintza, now, on sufficient security being given, came to -the camp, where the various charges were advanced against him, and -the following modest conditions of peace proposed,—that he should -surrender 50,000 head of cattle, 1,000 horses, and emancipate all -his Fingoe slaves. There was no alternative but agreeing to these -terms; but unfortunately for him, the Fingoe slaves, now considering -themselves put under the patronage of the governor, and knowing -how fond the English are of Caffre cattle, carried off 15,000 head -belonging to the people. The people flew to arms—and Hintza was made -responsible. The governor declared to him that if he did not put a stop -to the fighting in three hours, and order the delivery of the 50,000 -head of cattle, he would hang him, his son Creili, and his counsellor -and brother Bookoo, on the tree under which they were sitting.[78] -Poor Hintza issued his orders—the fighting ceased, but the cattle did -not arrive. He therefore proposed to go, under a sufficient guard, to -enforce the delivery himself. The proposal was accepted, and he set -out with Col. Smith and a body of cavalry. Col. Smith assured him -on commencing their march, that if he attempted to escape he should -certainly shoot him. We shall soon see how well he kept his word. They -found the people had driven the cattle to the mountains, and Hintza -sent one of his counsellors to command them to stop. On the same day -they came to a place where the cattle-track divided, and they followed -that path, at the advice of Hintza, which led up an abrupt and wooded -hill to the right, over the precipitous banks of the Kebaka river. What -followed we give in the language of Col. Smith:— - -“It had been observed that this day Hintza rode a remarkably fine -horse, and that he led him up every ascent; the path up this abrupt and -wooded hill above described is by a narrow cattle-track, occasionally -passing through a cleft of the rock. I was riding alone at the head -of the column, and having directed the cavalry to lead their horses, -I was some three or four horses’ length in front of every one, having -previously observed Hintza and his remaining two followers leading -their horses behind me, the corps of Guides close to them; when nearing -the top, I heard a cry of ‘Hintza,’ and in a moment he dashed past -me through the bushes, but was obliged, from the trees, to descend -again into the path. I cried out, ‘Hintza, stop!’ I drew a pistol, and -presenting it at him, cried out, ‘Hintza,’ and I also reprimanded his -guard, who instantly came up; he stopped and smiled, and I was ashamed -of my suspicion. Upon nearing the top of this steep ascent, the country -was perfectly open, and a considerable tongue of land running parallel -with the rugged bed of the Kebaka, upon a gradual descent of about two -miles, to a turn of the river, where were several Caffre huts. I was -looking back to observe the march of the troops, when I heard a cry of -‘Look, Colonel!’ I saw Hintza had set off at full speed, and was 30 -yards a-head of every one; I spurred my horse with violence; and coming -close up with him, called to him; he urged his horse the more, which -could beat mine; I drew a pistol, it snapped; I drew another, it also -snapped; I then was sometime galloping after him, when I spurred my -horse alongside of him, and struck him on the head with the butt-end of -a pistol; he redoubled his efforts to escape, and his horse was three -lengths a-head of mine. I had dropped one pistol, I threw the other -after him, and struck him again on the head. Having thus raced about a -mile, we were within half a mile of the Caffre huts; I found my horse -was closing with him; I had no means whatever of assailing him, while -he was provided with his assagais; I therefore resolved to attempt to -pull him off his horse, and I seized the athletic chief by the throat, -and twisting my hand in his karop, I dragged him from his seat, and -hurled him to the earth; he instantly sprang on his legs, and sent -an assagai at me, running off towards the rugged bed of the Kebaka. -My horse was most unruly, and I could not pull him up till I reached -the Caffre huts. This unhorsing the chief, and his waiting to throw -an assagai at me, brought Mr. George Southey of the corps of Guides -up; and, at about 200 yards’ distance, he twice called to Hintza, in -Caffre, to stop, or he would shoot him. He ran on; Mr. Southey fired, -and only slightly struck him in the leg, again calling to him to stop, -without effect; he fired, and shot him through the back; he fell -headlong forwards, but springing up and running forwards, closely -pursued by my aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Balfour, he precipitated himself -down a kloof into the Kebaka, and posting himself in a narrow niche -of the rock, defied any attempt to secure him; when, still refusing -to surrender, and raising an assagai, Mr. George Southey fired, and -shot him through the head. Thus terminated the career of the chief -Hintza, whose treachery, perfidy, and want of faith, made him worthy of -the nation of atrocious and indomitable savages over whom he was the -acknowledged chieftain. One of his followers escaped, the other was -shot from an eminence. About half a mile off I observed the villain -Mutini and Hintza’s servant looking on.” - -Such is the relation of the destroyer of Hintza, and surely a more -brutal and disgusting detail never came from the chief actor of such a -scene. England has already testified its opinion both of this act and -of this war; and “this nation of atrocious and indomitable savages,” -both before and since this transaction, have given such evidences -of sensibility to the law of kindness as leave no doubt where the -“treachery, perfidy, and want of faith,” really lay. At the very -time this affair was perpetrated, two British officers had gone with -proposals from the governor to the Caffre camp. While they remained -there they were treated most respectfully and honourably by these -“irreclaimable savages,” and dismissed unhurt when the intelligence -arrived of Hintza’s having been made prisoner. What a contrast does -this form to our own conduct! - -The war was continued after the event of the death of Hintza, until the -Caffres had received what the governor considered to be “sufficient” -punishment; this consisted in the slaughter of 4,000 of their -warriors, including many principal men. “There have been taken from -them also,” says a despatch, “besides the conquest and alienation -of their country, about 60,000 head of cattle, almost all their -goats; their habitations everywhere destroyed, and their gardens and -corn-fields laid waste.”[79] - -The cost of this war to the British nation, is estimated at 241,884_l._ -besides putting a stop to the trade with the colony amounting to -30,000_l._ per annum, though yet in its infancy. If any one wishes -to know how absurd it is to talk of the Caffres as “atrocious and -indomitable savages,” he has only to look into the Parliamentary -Report, so often referred to in this chapter, in order to blush for our -own barbarism, and to execrate the wickedness which could, by these -reckless commandoes and exterminating wars, crush or impede that rising -civilization, and that growing Christianity, which shew themselves -so beautifully in this much abused country. It is the wickedness of -Englishmen that has alone stood in the way of the rapid refinement of -the Caffre, as it has stood in the way of knowledge and prosperity in -all our colonies. - -“Whenever,” says John Tzatzoe, a Caffre chief, who had, before the war -at his own place, a missionary and a church attended by 300 people, -“the missionaries attempt to preach to the Caffres, or whenever I -myself preach or speak to my countrymen, they say, ‘Why do not the -missionaries first go and preach to the people on the other side; why -do not they preach to their own countrymen, and convert them first?’” - -But the very atrocity of this last war roused the spirit of the -British nation, awakened parliamentary investigation; the Caffre -territory is restored by order of government; a new and more rational -system of policy is adopted, and it is to be hoped will be steadily -persevered in. - - - - -CHAPTER XXVIII. - -THE ENGLISH IN NEW HOLLAND AND THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. - - -In this chapter we shall take a concluding view of our countrymen -amongst the aborigines of the countries they have visited or settled -in; and in doing this it will not be requisite to go back at all into -the past. To trace the manner in which they possessed themselves of -these regions, or in which they have from that period to the present -extended their power, and driven back the natives, would be only -treading over for the tenth time the scenes of arbitrary assumption -and recklessness of right, which must be, now, but too familiar to -my readers. We will, therefore, merely look at the present state of -English conduct in those remote regions; and, for this purpose, the -materials lie but too plentifully before us. With the exception of -the missionary labours, the presence of the Europeans in these far -regions is a fearful curse. The two great prominent features of their -character there, are violence and debauchery. If they had gone thither -only to seize the lands of the natives, as they have done everywhere -else, it might have excited no surprise; for who, after perusing this -volume, should wonder that the Europeans are selfish: if they had -totally exterminated the aborigines with the sword and the musket, -it might even then have passed in the ordinary estimate of their -crimes, and there might have been hope that they might raise some more -imposing, if not more virtuous, fabric of society than that which they -had destroyed; but here, the danger is that they will demolish a rising -civilization of a beautiful and peculiar character, by their pestilent -profligacy. That dreadful and unrighteous system, which Columbus -himself introduced in the very first moment of discovery, and which -I have more than once pointed to, in the course of this volume, as a -very favourite scheme of the Europeans, and especially the English, the -convict system—the penal colony system—the throwing off the putrid -matter of our corrupt social state on some simple and unsuspecting -country, to inoculate it with the rankness of our worst moral diseases, -without relieving ourselves at all sensibly by the unprincipled deed, -has here shewn itself in all its hideousness. New South Wales and Van -Dieman’s Land have been sufficient to curse and demoralize all this -portion of the world. They have not only exhibited the spectacle of -European depravity in the most frightful forms within themselves, but -the contagion of their evil and malignity has been blown across the -ocean, and sped from island to island with destructive power. - -In these colonies, no idea of any right of the natives to the soil, or -any consideration of their claims, comforts, or improvements, seem to -have been entertained. Colonies were settled, and lands appropriated, -just as they were needed; and if the natives did not like it, they were -shot at. The Parliamentary Inquiry of 1836, elicited by Sir William -Molesworth, drew forth such a picture of colonial infamy as must -have astonished even the most apathetic; and the Report of 1837 only -confirms the horrible truth of the statements then made. - -It says: “These people, unoffending as they were towards us, have, as -might have been expected, suffered in an aggravated degree from the -planting amongst them of our penal settlements. In the formation of -these settlements it does not appear that the territorial rights of the -natives were considered, and very little care has since been taken to -protect them from the violence or the contamination of the dregs of our -countrymen. - -“The effects have consequently been dreadful beyond example, both in -the diminution of their numbers and in their demoralization.” - -Mr. Bannister, late attorney-general for that colony, says in his -recent work, “British Colonization and the Coloured Tribes,”—“In -regard to New South Wales, some disclosures were made by the secretary -of the Church Missionary Society, Mr. Coates, and by others, that are -likely to do good in the pending inquiries concerning transportation; -and if that punishment is to be continued, it would be merciful to -destroy all the natives by military massacre, as a judge of the colony -once coolly proposed for a particular district, rather than let them -be exposed to the lingering death they now undergo. _But half the truth -was not told as to New South Wales._ Military massacres have been -probably more common there than elsewhere; in 1826, Governor Darling -ordered such massacres—and in consequence, one black native, at -least, was shot at a stake in cool blood. The attorney-general of the -colony[80] remonstrated against illegal orders of this kind, and was -told that the secretary of state’s instructions authorized them.” - -Lord Glenelg, however, adopted in his despatch to Sir James Stirling -in 1835 a very different language, in consequence of an affair on the -Murray River. “The natives on this river, in the summer of the year -1834, murdered a British soldier, having in the course of the previous -five years killed three other persons. In the month of October, 1834, -Sir James Stirling, the governor, proceeded with a party of horse to -the Murray River, in search of the tribe in question. On coming up with -them, it appears that the British horse charged this tribe without any -parley, and killed fifteen of them, not, as it seems, confining their -vengeance to the actual murderers.” After the rout, the women who had -been taken prisoners were dismissed, having been informed, “that the -punishment had been inflicted because of the misconduct of the tribe; -that the white men never forget to punish murder; that on this occasion -the women and children had been spared; but if any other persons should -be killed by them, not one would be allowed to remain on this side of -the mountains.” - -That is, these white men, “who never forget to punish murder,” would, -if another person was killed by the natives, commit a wholesale murder, -and drive the natives out of one other portion of their country. Lord -Glenelg, however, observed that it would be necessary that inquiry -should be made whether some act of harshness or injustice had not -originally provoked the enmity of the natives, before such massacres -could be justified. His language is not only just, but very descriptive -of the cause of these attacks from the natives. - -“It is impossible to regard such conflicts without regret and anxiety, -when we recollect how fatal, in too many instances, our colonial -settlements have proved to the natives of the places where they have -been formed; and this too by a series of conflicts in every one of -which it has been asserted, and apparently with justice, that the -immediate aggression has not been on our side. The real causes of these -hostilities are to be found in a course of petty encroachments and acts -of injustice committed by the new settlers, at first submitted to by -the natives, and not sufficiently checked in the outset by the leaders -of the colonists. Hence has been generated in the minds of the injured -party a deadly spirit of hatred and vengeance, which breaks out at -length into deeds of atrocity, which, in their turn, make retaliation a -necessary part of self-defence.”[81] - -It is some satisfaction that the recent inquiries have led to the -appointment of a protector of the Aborigines, but who shall protect -them from the multitudinous evils which beset them on all sides from -their intercourse with the whites—men expelled by the laws from their -own country for their profligacy, or men corrupted by contact with -the plague of their presence? Grand individual massacres, and cases of -lawless aggression, such as occasioned the abandonment of the colony -at Raffles’ Bay, on the northern coast of Australia, where for the -trifling offence of the theft of an axe, the sentinels were ordered -to fire on the natives whenever they approached, and who yet were -found by Captain Barker, the officer in command when the order for the -abandonment of the place arrived, to be “a mild and merciful race of -people;” such great cases of violence may be prevented, or reduced in -number, but what ubiquitous protector is to stand between the natives -and the stock-keepers (convicts in the employ of farmers in the -outskirts of the colony), of the cedar-cutters, the bush-rangers, and -free settlers in the remote and thinly cultivated districts?—a race -of the most demoralized and fearful wretches on the face of the earth, -and who will shoot a native with the same indifference as they shoot -a kangaroo. Who shall protect them from the diseases and the liquid -fire which these penal colonies have introduced amongst them? These are -the destroying agencies that have compelled our government to commit -one great and flagrant act of injustice to remedy another—actually to -pursue, run down, and capture, as you would so many deer in a park, or -as the Gauchos of the South American Pampas do wild cattle with their -lassos, the whole native population of Van Dieman’s land; and carry -them out of their own country, to Flinder’s Island? Yes, to save these -wretched people from the annihilation which our moral corruption and -destitution of all Christian principle were fast bringing upon them, -we have seized and expelled them all from their native land. What -a strange alternative, between destruction by our violence and our -vices, and the commission of an act which in any other part or age of -the world would be regarded as the most wicked and execrable. We have -actually turned out the inhabitants of Van Dieman’s Land, because we -saw that it was “a goodly heritage,” and have comfortably sate down in -it ourselves; and the best justification that we can set up is, that if -we did not pass one general sentence of transportation upon them, we -must burn them up with our liquid fire, poison them with the diseases -with which our vices and gluttony have covered us, thick as the quills -on a porcupine, or knock them down with our bullets, or the axes of our -wood-cutters! What an indescribable and monstrous crime must it be in -the eye of the English to possess a beautiful and fertile island,—that -the possessors shall be transported as convicts to make way for the -convicts from this kingdom who have been pronounced by our laws too -infamous to live here any longer! To such a pass are we come, that the -Jezebel spirit of our lawless cupidity does not merely tell us that it -will give us a vineyard, but whatever country or people we lust after. - -We have then, totally cleared Van Dieman’s Land of what Colonel Arthur -himself, an agent of this sweeping expulsion of a whole nation, calls -“a noble-minded race,”[82] and have reduced the natives of New Holland, -so far as we have come in contact with them, to misery. - -This is the evidence given by Bishop Broughton:—“They do not so much -retire as decay; wherever Europeans meet with them, they appear to -wear out, and gradually to decay: they diminish in numbers; they -appear actually to vanish from the face of the earth. I am led to -apprehend that within a very limited period, a few years,” adds the -Bishop, “those who are most in contact with Europeans will be utterly -extinct—I will not say exterminated—but they will be extinct.” - -As to their moral condition, the bishop says of the natives around -Sidney—“They are in a state which I consider one of extreme -degradation and ignorance; they are, in fact, in a situation much -inferior to what I suppose them to have been before they had any -communication with Europe.” And again, in his charge, “It is an awful, -it is even an appalling consideration, that, after an intercourse of -nearly half a century with a Christian people, these hapless human -beings continue to this day in their original benighted and degraded -state. I may even proceed farther, so far as to express my fears that -our settlement in their country has even deteriorated a condition of -existence, than which, before our interference, nothing more miserable -could easily be conceived. While, as the contagion of European -intercourse has extended itself among them, they gradually lose the -better properties of their own character, they appear in exchange to -acquire none but the most objectionable and degrading of ours.” - -The natives about Sidney and Paramatta are represented as in a state of -wretchedness still more deplorable than those resident in the interior. - -“Those in the vicinity of Sidney are so completely changed, they -scarcely have the same pursuits now; they go about the streets begging -their bread, and begging for clothing and rum. From the diseases -introduced among them, the tribes in immediate connexion with those -large towns almost became extinct; not more than two or three remained, -when I was last in New South Wales, of tribes which formerly consisted -of 200 or 300.” - -Dr. Lang, the minister of the Scotch church, writes, “From the -prevalence of infanticide, from intemperance, and from European -diseases, their number is evidently and rapidly diminishing in all the -older settlements of the colony, and in the neighbourhood of Sidney -especially, they present merely the shadow of what were once numerous -tribes.” Yet even now “he thinks their number within the limits of the -colony of New South Wales cannot be less than 10,000—an indication of -what must once have been the population, and what the destruction. It -is only,” Dr. Lang observes, “through the influence of Christianity, -brought to bear upon the natives by the zealous exertions of devoted -missionaries, that the progress of extinction can be checked.” - -Enormous as are these evils, it would be well if they stopped here; -but the moral corruption of our penal colonies overflows, and is -blown by the winds, like the miasma of the plague, to other shores, -and threatens with destruction one of the fairest scenes of human -regeneration and human happiness to which we can turn on this huge -globe of cruelty for hope and consolation. Where is the mind that has -not dwelt in its young enthusiasm on the summer beauty of the Islands -of the Pacific? That has not, from the day that Captain Cook first -fell in with them, wandered in imagination with our voyagers and -missionaries through their fairy scenes—been wafted in some magic -bark over those blue and bright seas—been hailed to the sunny shore by -hundreds of simple and rejoicing people—been led into the hut overhung -with glorious tropical flowers, or seated beneath the palm, and feasted -on the pine and the bread-fruit? These are the things which make part -of the poetry of our memory and our youth. There is not a man of the -slightest claims to the higher and better qualities of our nature to -whom the existence of these oceanic regions of beauty has not been a -subject of delightful thought, and a source of genial inspiration. Here -in fancy— - - The white man landed!—need the rest be told? - The New World stretched its dusk hand to the old; - Each was to each a marvel, and the tie - Of wonder warmed to better sympathy. - Kind was the welcome of the sun-born sires, - And kinder still their daughters’ gentler fires. - Their union grew: the children of the storm - Found beauty linked with many a dusky form; - While these in turn admired the paler glow, - Which seem’d so white in climes that knew no snow. - The chase, the race, the liberty to roam - The soil where every cottage shewed a home; - The sea-spread net, the lightly launched canoe, - Which stemmed the studded Archipelago, - O’er whose blue bosom rose the starry isles; - The healthy slumber caused by sportive toils; - The palm, the loftiest dryad of the woods, - Within whose bosom infant Bacchus broods, - While eagles scarce build higher than the crest - Which shadows o’er the vineyard in her breast; - The cava feast, the yam, the cocoa’s root, - Which bears at once the cup, and milk, and fruit; - The bread-tree, which, without the ploughshare, yields - The unreaped harvest of unfurrowed fields, - And bakes its unadulterated loaves - Without a furnace in unpurchased groves, - And flings off famine from its fertile breast, - A priceless market for the gathering guest:— - These, with the solitudes of seas and woods, - The airy joys of social solitudes:— - - _The Island—Lord Byron._ - -These were the dreams of many a young dreamer—and yet they were the -realities of the Indian seas. But even there, regeneration was needed -to make this ocean-paradise perfect. Superstition and evil passions -marred the enjoyment of the natives. Mr. William Ellis, the able -secretary of the London Missionary Society, and author of Polynesian -Researches, says—“They were accustomed to practise infanticide, -probably more extensively than any other nation; they offered human -sacrifices in greater numbers than I have read of their having been -offered by any other nation; they were accustomed to wars of the most -savage and exterminating kind. They were lazy too, for they found all -their wants supplied by nature. ‘The fruit ripens,’ said they, ‘and -the pigs get fat while we are asleep, and that is all we want; why, -therefore, should we work?’ The missionaries have presented them with -that which alone they needed to insure their happiness,—Christianity; -and the consequence has been, that within the last twenty years they -have conveyed a cargo of idols to the depôt of the Missionary Society -in London; they have become factors to furnish our vessels with -provisions, and merchants to deal with us in the agricultural growth of -their own country. Their language has been reduced to writing, and they -have gained the knowledge of letters. They have, many of them, emerged -from the tyranny of the will of their chiefs into the protection of a -written law, abounding with liberal and enlightened principles, and -200,000 of them are reported to have embraced Christianity.” - -The most beautiful thing is, that when they embraced Christianity, -they embraced it in its fulness and simplicity. They had no ancient -sophisms and political interests, like Europe, to induce them to -accept Christianity by halves, admitting just as much as suited their -selfishness, and explaining away, or shutting their eyes resolutely -to the rest; they, therefore, furnished a most striking practical -proof of the manner in which Christianity would be understood by the -simple-hearted and the honest, and in doing this they pronounced the -severest censures upon the barbarous and unchristian condition of -proud Europe. “When,” says Mr. Ellis, “Christianity was adopted by the -people, human sacrifices, infant murder, and _war, entirely ceased_.” -Mr. Ellis and Mr. Williams agree that _they also immediately gave -freedom to all their slaves. They never considered the two things -compatible._ - -According to the evidence of Mr. Williams, the Tahitian and Society -Islands are christianized; the Austral Island group, about 350 miles -south of Tahiti; the Harvey Islands, about 700 miles west of Tahiti; -the Vavou Islands, and the Hapai and the Sandwich Islands, where the -American missionaries are labouring, and are 3,000 miles north of -Tahiti, and the inhabitants also of the eastern Archipelago, about 500 -or 600 miles east of Tahiti. - -The population of these Islands, including the Sandwich Islands, are -about 200,000. The Navigators’ Islands, Tongatabu, and the Marquesas, -are partially under the influence of the gospel, where missionary -labours have just been commenced. They are supposed to contain from -100,000 to 150,000 people. - -Wherever Christianity has been embraced by them, the inhabitants have -become actively industrious, and, to use the words of Mr. Williams, are -“very apt indeed” at learning European trades. Mr. Ellis’s statement -is:—“There are now carpenters who hire themselves out to captains -of ships to work at repairs of vessels, etc., for which they receive -regular wages; and there are blacksmiths that hire themselves out to -captains of ships, for the purpose of preparing ironwork required in -building or repairing ships. The natives have been taught not only -to construct boats, but to build vessels, and there are, perhaps, -twenty (there have been as many as forty) small vessels, of from forty -to eighty or ninety tons burthen, built by the natives, navigated -sometimes by Europeans, and manned by natives, all the fruit of the -natives’ own skill and industry. They have been taught to build neat -and comfortable houses, and to cultivate the soil. _They have new -wants_; a number of articles of clothing and commerce are necessary -to their comfort, and they cultivate the soil to supply them. At -one island, where I was once fifteen months without seeing a single -European excepting our own families, there were, I think, twenty-eight -ships put in for provisions last year, and all obtained the supplies -they wanted. Besides cultivating potatoes and yams, and raising stock, -fowls and pigs, the cultivation, the spinning and the weaving of the -cotton has been introduced by missionary artizans; and there are some -of the chiefs, and a number of the people, especially in one of the -islands, who are now decently clothed in garments made after the -European fashion, produced from cotton grown in their own gardens, spun -by their own children, and woven in the islands. One of the chiefs of -the island of Rarotonga, as stated by the missionaries, never wears any -other dress than that woven in the island. They have been taught also -to cultivate the sugarcane, which is indigenous, and to make sugar, -and some of them have large plantations, employing at times forty men. -They supply the ships with this useful article, and, at some of the -islands, between fifty and sixty vessels touch in a single year. The -natives of the islands send a considerable quantity away; I understand -that one station sent as much as forty tons away last year. In November -last a vessel of ninety tons burthen, built in the islands, was sent -to the colony of New South Wales laden with Tahitian-grown sugar. -Besides the sugar they have been taught to cultivate, they prepare -arrow-root, and they sent to England in one year, as I was informed -by merchants in London, more than had been imported into this country -for nearly twenty previous years. Cattle also have been introduced and -preserved, chiefly by the missionaries; pigs, dogs, and rats were the -only animals they had before, but the missionaries have introduced -cattle among them. While they continued heathen, they disregarded, nay, -destroyed some of those first landed among them; but since that time -they have highly prized them, and by their attention to them they are -now so numerous as to enable the natives to supply ships with fresh -beef at the rate of threepence a pound. The islanders have also been -instructed by the missionaries in the manufacture of cocoa-nut oil, of -which large quantities are exported. They have been taught to cultivate -tobacco, and this would have been a valuable article of commerce had -not the duty in New South Wales been so high as to exclude that grown -in the islands from the market. The above are some of the proofs that -Christianity prepares the way for, and necessarily leads to, the -civilization of those by whom it is adopted. There are now in operation -among a people who, when the missionaries arrived, were destitute of a -written language, seventy-eight _schools, which contain between 12,000 -and 13,000 scholars_. The Tahitians have also a simple, explicit, -and wholesome _code of laws_, as the result of their imbibing the -principles of Christianity. This code of laws is printed and circulated -among them, understood by all, and acknowledged by all as the supreme -rule of action for all classes in their civil and social relations. The -laws have been productive of great benefits.” - -Here again they have far outstripped us in England. When shall we have -a code of laws, so simple and compact, that it may be “printed and -circulated amongst us, and understood by all?” The benefits resulting -from this intelligible and popular code, Mr. Ellis tells us, have been -great. No doubt of it. The benefits of such a code in England would be -incalculable; but when will the lawyers, or our enlightened Parliament -let us have it? The whole scene of the reformation, and the happiness -introduced by Christianity into the South-Sea Islands, is, however, -most delightful. Such a scene never was exhibited to the world since -its foundation. Mr. Williams’ recent work, descriptive of these islands -and the missionary labours there, is fascinating as Robinson Crusoe -himself, and infinitely more important in its relations. If ever the -idea of the age of gold was realized, it is here; or rather, - - Where none contest the fields, the woods, the streams;— - The goldless ages, where gold disturbs no dreams. - -Besides the benefits accruing from this improved state to the natives, -great are the benefits that accrue from it to the Europeans. The -benefit of commerce, from their use of European articles, is and must -be considerable. They furnish, too, articles of commerce in no small -quantities. Instead of European crews now, in case of wreck on their -coasts, being murdered and devoured, they are rescued from the waves at -the risk of the lives of the people themselves, and received, as the -evidence and works of Ellis and Williams testify, in most remarkable -instances, with the greatest hospitality. - -But all this springing civilization—this young Christianity,—this -scene of beauty and peace, are endangered. The founders of a new and -happier state, the pioneers and artificers of civilization, stand -aghast at the ruin that threatens their labours,—that threatens the -welfare,—nay, the very existence of the simple islanders amongst -whom they have wrought such miracles of love and order. And whence -arises this danger? whence comes this threatened ruin? Is some race -of merciless savages about to burst in upon these interesting people, -and destroy them? Yes, the same “irreclaimable and indomitable -savages,” that have ravaged and oppressed every nation which they have -conquered, “from China to Peru.” The same savages that laid waste the -West Indies; that massacred the South Americans; that have chased the -North Americans to the “far west;” that shot the Caffres for their -cattle; that have covered the coasts of Africa with the blood and -fires and rancorous malice of the slave-wars; that have exterminated -millions of Hindus by famine, and hold a hundred millions of them, at -this moment, in the most abject condition of poverty and oppression; -the same savages that are at this moment also carrying the Hill -Coolies from the East—as if they had not a scene of enormities there -wide enough for their capacity of cruelty—to sacrifice them in the -West, on the graves of millions of murdered negroes; the same savages -are come hither also. The savages of Europe, the most heartless and -merciless race that ever inhabited the earth—a race, for the range -and continuance of its atrocities, without a parallel in this world, -and, it may be safely believed, in any other, are busy in the South Sea -Islands. A roving clan of sailors and runaway convicts have revived -once more the crimes and character of the old buccaneers. They go from -island to island, diffusing gin, debauchery, loathsome diseases, and -murder, as freely as if they were the greatest blessings that Europe -had to bestow. They are the restless and triumphant apostles of misery -and destruction; and such are their achievements, that it is declared -that, unless our government interpose some check to their progress, -they will as completely annihilate the islanders, as the Charibs were -annihilated in the West Indies. When Captain Cook was at the Sandwich -Islands, he estimated the inhabitants at 400,000. In 1823, Mr. Williams -made a calculation, and found them about 150,000. Mr. Daniel Wheeler, -a member of the Society of Friends, who has just returned from those -regions, states that they now are reduced to 110,000; a diminution -of 40,000 in fifteen years. Captain Cook estimated the population of -Tahiti at 200,000: when the missionaries arrived there, there were not -above 8,000. - -What a shocking business is this, that when Christianity has been -professed in Europe for this 1800 years, it is from Europe that the -most dreadful corruption of morals, and the most dismal defiance of -every sound principle come. If Christianity, despised and counterfeited -by its ancient professors, flies to some remote corner of the globe, -and there unfolds to simple admiring eyes her blessings and her charms, -out, from Europe, rush hordes of lawless savages, to chase her thence, -and level to the dust the dwellings and the very being of her votaries. -Shall this be! Will no burning blush rise to European cheeks at this -reflection? But let us hear what was said on this subject before the -British Parliament. - -“It will be hard, we think, to find compensation, not only to -Australia, but to New Zealand, and to the innumerable islands of the -South Seas, for the murders, the misery, the contamination which we -have brought upon them. Our runaway convicts are the pests of savage -as well as of civilized society; so are our runaway sailors; and the -crews of our whaling vessels, and of the traders from New South Wales, -too frequently act in the most reckless and immoral manner when at a -distance from the restraints of justice: in proof of this we need only -refer to the evidence of the missionaries. - -“It is stated that there have been not less than 150 or 200 runaways -at once on the island of New Zealand, counteracting all that was done -for the moral improvement of the people, and teaching them every vice. - -“‘I beg leave to add,’ remarks Mr. Ellis, ‘the desirableness of -preventing, by every practicable means, the introduction of ardent -spirits among the inhabitants of the countries we may visit or -colonize. There is nothing more injurious to the South Sea islanders -than seamen who have absconded from ships, setting up huts for the -retail of ardent spirits, called grog-shops, which are the resort of -the indolent and vicious of the crews of the vessels, and in which, -under the influence of intoxication, scenes of immorality, and even -murder, have been exhibited, almost beyond what the natives witnessed -among themselves while they were heathen. The demoralization and -impediments to the civilization and prosperity of the people that have -resulted from the activity of foreign traders in ardent spirits, have -been painful in the extreme. In one year it is estimated that the -sum of 12,000 dollars was expended, in Taheité alone, chiefly by the -natives, for ardent spirits.’ - -“The lawless conduct of the crews of vessels must necessarily have -an injurious effect on our trade, and on that ground alone demands -investigation. In the month of April, 1834, Mr. Busby states there were -twenty-nine vessels at one time in the Bay of Islands; and that seldom -a day passed without some complaint being made to him of the most -outrageous conduct on the part of their crews, which he had not the -means of repressing, since these reckless seamen totally disregarded -the usages of their own country, and the unsupported authority of the -British resident. - -“The Rev. J. Williams, missionary in the Society Islands, states, -‘that it is the common sailors, and the lowest order of them, the very -vilest of the whole, who will leave their ship and go to live amongst -the savages, and take with them all their low habits and all their -vices.’ The captains of merchant vessels are apt to connive at the -absconding of such worthless sailors, and the atrocities perpetrated -by them are excessive; they do incalculable mischief by circulating -reports injurious to the interests of trade. On an island between the -Navigator’s and the Friendly group, he heard there were on one occasion -a hundred sailors who had run away from shipping. Mr. Williams gives -an account of a gang of convicts who stole a small vessel from New -South Wales, and came to Raiatia, one of the Sandwich Islands, where he -resided, representing themselves as shipwrecked mariners. Mr. Williams -suspected them, and told them he should inform the governor, Sir T. -Brisbane, of their arrival, on which they went away to an island twenty -miles off, and were received with every kindness in the house of the -chief. They took an opportunity of stealing a boat belonging to the -missionary of the station, and made off again. The natives immediately -pursued, and desired them to return their missionary’s boat. Instead of -replying, they discharged a blunderbus that was loaded with cooper’s -rivets, which blew the head of one man to pieces; they then killed two -more, and a fourth received the contents of a blunderbus in his hand, -fell from exhaustion amongst his mutilated companions, and was left as -dead. This man, and a boy who had saved himself by diving, returned to -their island. ‘The natives were very respectable persons; and had it -not been that we were established in the estimation of the people, our -lives would have been sacrificed. The convicts then went in the boat -down to the Navigator’s Islands, and there entered with savage ferocity -into the wars of the savages. One of these men was the most savage -monster that ever I heard of: he boasted of having killed 300 natives -with his own hands.’ - -“And in June 1833, Mr. Thomas, Wesleyan missionary at the Friendly -Islands, still speaks of the mischief done by ill-disposed captains -of whalers, who, he says, ‘send the refuse of their crews on shore to -annoy us;’ and proceeds to state, ‘the conduct of many of these masters -of South-Sea whalers is most abominable; they think no more of the life -of an heathen than of a dog. And their cruel and wanton behaviour at -the different islands in those seas has a powerful tendency to lead -the natives to hate the sight of a white man.’ Mr. Williams mentions -one of these captains, who with his people had shot twenty natives, at -one of the islands, for no offence; and ‘another master of a whaler, -from Sidney, made his boast, last Christmas, at Tonga, that he had -killed about twenty black fellows,—for so he called the natives of the -Samoa, or Navigator’s Islands—for some very trifling offence; and not -satisfied with that, he designed to disguise his vessel, and pay them -another visit, and get about a hundred more of them.’ ‘Our hearts,’ -continues Mr. Thomas, ‘almost bleed for the poor Samoa people; they are -a very mild, inoffensive race, very easy of access; and as they are -near to us, we have a great hope of their embracing the truth, viz. -that the whole group will do so; for you will learn from Mr. Williams’ -letter, that a part of them have already turned to God. But the conduct -of our English savages has a tone of barbarity and cruelty in it which -was never heard of or practised by them.’” - -But these are not all the exploits of these white savages. Those who -have seen in shop-windows in London, dried heads of New Zealanders, -may here learn how they come there, and to whom the phrenologists and -_curiosi_ are indebted. - -“Till lately the tattooed heads of New Zealanders were sold at Sidney -as objects of curiosity; and Mr. Yate says he has known people give -property to a chief for the purpose of getting them to kill their -slaves, that they might have some heads to take to New South Wales. - -“This degrading traffic was prohibited by General Darling, the -governor, upon the following occasion: In a representation made to -Governor Darling, the Rev. Mr. Marsden states, that the captain of an -English vessel being, as he conceived, insulted by some native women, -set one tribe upon another to avenge his quarrel, and supplied them -with arms and ammunition to fight. - -“In the prosecution of the war thus excited, a party of forty-one Bay -of Islanders made an expedition against some tribes of the South. Forty -of the former were cut off; and a few weeks after the slaughter, a -Captain Jack went and purchased thirteen chiefs’ heads, and, bringing -them back to the Bay of Islands, emptied them out of a sack in the -presence of their relations. The New Zealanders were, very properly, so -much enraged that they told this captain they should take possession of -the ship, and put the laws of their country into execution. When he -found that they were in earnest, he cut his cable and left the harbour, -and afterwards had a narrow escape from them at Taurunga. He afterwards -reached Sidney, and it came to the knowledge of the governor, that -he brought there ten of these heads for sale, on which discovery the -practice was declared unlawful. Mr. Yate mentions an instance of a -captain going 300 miles from the Bay of Islands to East Cape, enticing -twenty-five young men, sons of chiefs, on board his vessel, and -delivering them to the Bay of Islanders, with whom they were at war, -merely to gain the favour of the latter, and to obtain supplies for -his vessel. The youths were afterwards redeemed from slavery by the -missionaries, and restored to their friends. Mr. Yate once took from -the hand of a New-Zealand chief a packet of corrosive sublimate, which -a captain had given to the savage in order to enable him to poison his -enemies.” - -Such is the general system. The atrocious character of particular cases -would be beyond credence, after all that has now been shewn of the -nature of Europeans, were they not attested by the fullest and most -unexceptionable authority. The following case was communicated by the -Rev. S. Marsden, to Governor-general Darling, and was also afterwards -reported to the governor in person by two New Zealand chiefs. Governor -Darling forwarded the account of it to Lord Goderich, together with -the depositions of two seamen of the brig _Elizabeth_, and those of J. -B. Montefiore, Esq., and A. Kennis, Esq. merchants of Sidney, who had -embarked on board the _Elizabeth_ on its return to Entry Island, and -had there learned the particulars of the case, had seen the captive -chief sent ashore, and had been informed that he was sacrificed. - -“In December 1830, a Captain Stewart, of the brig _Elizabeth_, a -British vessel, on promise of ten tons of flax, took above 100 New -Zealanders concealed in his vessel, down from Kappetee Entry Island, -in Cook’s Strait, to Takou, or Bank’s Peninsula, on the Middle Island, -to a tribe with whom they were at war. He then invited and enticed -on board the chief of Takou, with his brother and two daughters: -‘When they came on board, the captain took hold of the chief’s hand -in a friendly manner, and conducted him and his two daughters into -the cabin; shewed him the muskets, how they were arranged round the -sides of the cabin. When all was prepared for securing the chief, the -cabin-door was locked, and the chief was laid hold on, and his hands -were tied fast; at the same time a hook, with a cord to it, was struck -through the skin of his throat under the side of his jaw, and the -line fastened to some part of the cabin: in this state of torture he -was kept for some days, until the vessel arrived at Kappetee. One of -his children clung fast to her father, and cried aloud. The sailors -dragged her from her father, and threw her from him; her head struck -against some hard substance, which killed her on the spot.’ The -brother, or nephew, Ahu (one of the narrators), ‘who had been ordered -to the forecastle, came as far as the capstan and peeped through into -the cabin, and saw the chief in the state above mentioned.’ They also -got the chief’s wife and two sisters on board, with 100 baskets of -flax. All the men and women who came in the chief’s canoe were killed. -‘Several more canoes came off also with flax, and the people were all -killed by the natives of Kappetee, who had been concealed on board for -the purpose, and the sailors who were on deck, who fired upon them with -their muskets.’ The natives of Kappetee were then sent on shore with -some sailors, with orders to kill all the inhabitants they could find; -and it was reported that those parties who went on shore murdered many -of the natives; none escaped but those who fled into the woods. The -chief, his wife and two sisters were killed when the vessel arrived at -Kappetee, and other circumstances yet more revolting are added.” - -We will now close this black recital of crimes by one more case, in -which the natives are represented as the aggressors, though alone upon -the evidence of the accused party, and particularly on that of Captain -Guard, of whom Mr. Marshall of the _Alligator_, stated that, “‘in the -estimation of the officers of the _Alligator_, the general sentiment -was one of dislike and disgust at his conduct on board, and his conduct -on shore.’ He has himself heard him say, that a musketball for every -New Zealander was the best mode of civilizing the country. - -“In April, 1834, the barque _Harriet_, J. Guard, master, was wrecked -at Cape Egmont, on the coast of New Zealand. The natives came down -to plunder, but refrained from other violence for about ten days, in -which interval two of Guard’s men deserted to the savages. They then -got into a fray with the sailors, and killed twelve of them: on the -part of the New Zealanders twenty or thirty were shot. The savages -got possession of Mrs. Guard and her two children. Mr. Guard and the -remainder were suffered to retreat, but surrendered themselves to -another tribe whom they met, and who finally allowed the captain to -depart, on his promising to return, and to bring back with him a ransom -in powder; and they retained nine seamen as hostages. Three native -chiefs accompanied Guard to Sidney. Captain Guard had been trading with -the New Zealanders from the year 1823, and it was reported that his -dealings with them had, in some instances, been marked with cruelty. On -Mr. Guard’s representation to the government at Sidney, the _Alligator_ -frigate, Captain Lambert, and the schooner _Isabella_, with a company -of the 50th regiment, were sent to New Zealand for the recovery of Mrs. -Guard and the other captives, with instructions, if practicable, to -obtain the restoration of the captives by amicable means. On arriving -at the coast near Cape Egmont, Captain Lambert steered for a fortified -village or pah, called the Nummo, where Mrs. Guard was known to be -detained. He sent two interpreters on shore, who made promises of -payment (though against Captain Lambert’s order) to the natives, and -held out also a prospect of trade in whalebone, on the condition that -the women and children should be restored. The interpreter could not, -from stress of weather, be received on board for some days. The vessel -proceeded to the tribe which held the men in captivity, and they were -at once given up on the landing of the chiefs whom Captain Lambert -had brought back from Sidney. Captain Lambert returned to the tribe -at the Nummo, with whom he had communicated through the interpreter, -and sent many messages to endeavour to persuade them to give up the -woman and one child (the other was held by a third tribe), but without -offering ransom. On the 28th September, the military were landed, -and two unarmed and unattended natives advanced along the sands. One -announced himself as the chief who retained the woman and child, and -rubbed noses with Guard in token of amity, expressing his readiness to -give them up on the receipt of the promised ‘payment.’ ‘In reply,’ as -Mr. Marshall, assistant-surgeon of the _Alligator_, who witnessed the -scene, states, ‘he was instantly seized upon as a prisoner of war’ (by -order of Captain Johnson, commanding the detachment), ‘dragged into -the whale-boat, and despatched on board the _Alligator_, in custody of -John Guard and his sailors. On his brief passage to the boat insult -followed insult; one fellow twisting his ear by means of a small swivel -which hung from it, and another pulling his long hair with spiteful -violence; a third pricking him with the point of a bayonet. Thrown to -the bottom of the boat, she was shoved off before he recovered himself, -which he had no sooner succeeded in doing than he jumped overboard, and -attempted to swim on shore, to prevent which he was repeatedly fired -upon from the boat; but not until he had been shot in the calf of the -leg was he again made a prisoner of. Having been a second time secured, -he was lashed to a thwart, and stabbed and struck so repeatedly, that, -on reaching the _Alligator_, he was only able to gain the deck by a -strong effort, and there, after staggering a few paces aft, fainted, -and fell down at the foot of the capstan in a gore of blood. When I -dressed his wounds, on a subsequent occasion, I found ten inflicted by -the point and edge of the bayonet over his head and face, one in his -left breast, which it was at first feared would prove, what it was -evidently intended to have proved, a mortal thrust, and another in the -leg.’ - -“Captain Lambert, who did not himself see the seizure, admits that -the chief was unarmed when he came down to the shore, and that he -‘certainly was severely wounded: he had a ball through the calf of his -leg, and he had been struck violently on the head.’ - -“Captain Johnson proceeded to the pah or fortified village, found it -deserted, and burnt it the next morning. On the 30th September, Mrs. -Guard and one child were given up, and the wounded chief thereupon -was very properly sent on shore, without waiting for the delivery -of the other child; but ‘in the evening of the same day,’ Captain -Lambert states, ‘I again sent Lieutenant Thomas to ask for the child, -whose patience and firmness during the whole of the negotiations, -notwithstanding the insults that were offered to him, merit the -greatest praise. He shortly after returned on board, having been fired -at from one of the pahs while waiting outside the surf. Such treachery -could not be borne, and I immediately commenced firing at them from -the ship; a reef of rocks, which extend some distance from the shore, -I regret, prevented my getting as near them as I could have wished. -Several shots fell into the pahs, and also destroyed their canoes.’[83] - -“October 8. After some fruitless negotiation, all the soldiers and -several seamen were landed, making a party of 112 men, and were -stationed on two terraces of the cliff, one above the other, with a -six-pounder carronade, while the interpreter and sailors were left -below to wait for the boy. The New Zealanders approached at first with -distrust; but at length a fine tall man came forward, and assured Mr. -Marshall that the child should be immediately forthcoming, and also -forbade our fighting, alleging that his ‘tribe had no wish to fight at -all.’ Soon afterwards the boy was brought down on the shoulders of a -chief, who expressed to Lieutenant McMurdo his desire to go on board -for the purpose of receiving a ransom:— - -“On being told that none would be given, he turned away, when one of -the sailors seized hold of the child, and discovered it was fastened -with a strap or cord; to use his own expression, he had recourse to -cutting away, and the child fell upon the beach. Another seaman, -thinking the chief would make his escape, levelled his firelock, -and shot him dead. The troops hearing the report of the musket, and -thinking it was fired by the natives, immediately opened a fire from -the top of the cliff upon them, who made a precipitate retreat to the -pahs. The child being now in our possession, I made a signal to the -ships for the boats, intending to reimbark the troops; but the weather -becoming thick, and a shift of wind obliging the vessels to stand out -to sea, and, at the same time, finding myself attacked by the natives, -who were concealed in the high flax, I found my only alternative was to -advance on the pahs. I therefore ordered Lieutenant Gunton with thirty -men to the front, in skirmishing order, for the purpose of driving the -natives from the high flax from which they were firing: this was done, -and, as I have reason to think, with considerable loss on the part of -the natives.’[84] - -“The body of the chief is said to have been mutilated, and the head -cut off by a soldier, and kicked about. It was identified by means of -a brooch, which Mrs. Guard said belonged to the chief, who had adopted -and protected her son. It is scarcely necessary to add, that this -wanton act met with the reprobation it deserved from Captain Lambert -and his officers. - -“Captain Lambert states, that he should think there were between twenty -and thirty of the natives wounded (and this, be it observed, after the -child was recovered), but it was not ascertained. ‘The English went -straight forward to attack the pahs, and they had no communication with -the natives after.’ The troops immediately took possession of the two -villages; and on quitting them, three days afterwards, burnt them to -the ground.’” - -The language of Lord Goderich, on reviewing some of these cases, must -be that of every honourable man. - -“‘It is impossible to read, without shame and indignation, the details -which these documents disclose. The unfortunate natives of New Zealand, -unless some decisive measures of prevention be adopted, will, I -fear, be shortly added to the number of those barbarous tribes who, -in different parts of the globe, have fallen a sacrifice to their -intercourse with civilized men, who bear and disgrace the name of -Christians.... I cannot contemplate the too probable results without -the deepest anxiety. There can be no more sacred duty than that of -using every possible method to rescue the natives of those extensive -islands from the further evils which impend over them, and to deliver -our own country from the disgrace and crime of having either occasioned -or tolerated such enormities.’” - - - - -CHAPTER XXIX. - -CONCLUSION. - - Two gods divide them all—pleasure and gain: - For these they live, they sacrifice to these, - And in their service wage perpetual war - With conscience and with thee. Lust in their hearts, - And mischief in their hands, they roam the earth - To prey upon each other; stubborn, fierce, - High-minded, pouring out their own disgrace. - Thy prophets speak of such; and, noting down - The features of the last degenerate times, - Exhibit every lineament of these. - Come then, and added to thy many crowns, - Receive one yet, as radiant as the rest, - Due to thy last and most effectual work, - Thy word fulfilled, the conquest of a world. - - _Cowper—The Task._ - - -We have now followed the Europeans to every region of the globe, and -seen them planting colonies, and peopling new lands, and everywhere -we have found them the same—a lawless and domineering race, seizing -on the earth as if they were the firstborn of creation, and having a -presumptive right to murder and dispossess all other people. For more -than three centuries we have glanced back at them in their course, -and everywhere they have had the word of God in their mouth, and the -deeds of darkness in their hands. In the first dawn of discovery, -forth they went singing the Te Deum, and declaring that they went to -plant the cross amongst the heathen. As we have already observed, -however, it turned out to be the cross of one of the two thieves, -and a bitter cross of crucifixion it has proved to the natives where -they have received it. It has stood the perpetual sign of plunder and -extermination. The Spaniards were reckless in their carnage of the -Indians, and all succeeding generations have expressed their horror of -the Spaniards. The Dutch were cruel, and everybody abominated their -cruelty. One would have thought that the world was grown merciful. -Behold North America at this moment, with its disinherited Indians! See -Hindustan, that great and swarming region of usurpations and exactions! -Look at the Cape, and ask the Caffres whether the English are -tender-hearted and just: ask the same question in New Holland: ask it -of the natives of Van Dieman’s Land,—men, transported from the island -of their fathers. Ask the New Zealanders whether the warriors whose -tattooed heads stare us in the face in our museums, were not delicately -treated by us. Go, indeed, into any one spot, of any quarter of the -world, and ask—no you need not ask, you shall hear of our aggressions -from every people that know us. The words of Red-Jacket will find an -echo in the hearts of tens of millions of sorrowful and expatriated and -enthralled beings, who will exclaim, “you want more land!—you want -our country!” It is needless to tell those who have read this history -that there is, and can be, nothing else like it in the whole record of -mortal crimes. Many are the evils that are done under the sun; but -there is and can be no evil like that monstrous and earth-encompassing -evil, which the Europeans have committed against the Aborigines of -every country in which they have settled. And in what country have they -not settled? It is often said as a very pretty speech—that the sun -never sets on the dominions of our youthful Queen; but who dares to -tell us the far more horrible truth, that it never sets on the scenes -of our injustice and oppressions! When we have taken a solemn review -of the astounding transactions recorded in this volume, and then add -to them the crimes against humanity committed in the slave-trade and -slavery, the account of our enormities is complete; and there is no sum -of wickedness and bloodshed—however vast, however monstrous, however -enduring it may be—which can be pointed out, from the first hour of -creation, to be compared for a moment with it. - -The slave-trade, which one of our best informed philanthropists asserts -is going on at this moment to the amount of 170,000 negroes a year, is -indeed the dreadful climax of our crimes against humanity. It was not -enough that the lands of all newly discovered regions were seized on by -fraud or violence; it was not enough that their rightful inhabitants -were murdered or enslaved; that the odious vices of people styling -themselves the followers of the purest of beings should be poured like -a pestilence into these new countries. It was not enough that millions -on millions of peaceful beings were exterminated by fire, by sword, by -heavy burdens, by base violence, by deleterious mines and unaccustomed -severities—by dogs, by man-hunters, and by grief and despair—there -yet wanted one crowning crime to place the deeds of Europeans beyond -all rivalry in the cause of evil,—and that unapproachable abomination -was found in the slave-trade. They had seized on almost all other -countries, but they could not seize on the torrid regions of Africa. -They could not seize the land, but they could seize the people. They -could not destroy them in their own sultry clime, fatal to the white -men, they therefore determined to immolate them on the graves of -the already perished Americans. To shed blood upon blood, to pile -bones upon bones, and curses upon curses. What an idea is that!—the -Europeans standing with the lash of slavery in their hands on the bones -of exterminated millions in one hemisphere, watching with remorseless -eyes their victims dragged from another hemisphere—tilling, not with -their sweat, but with their heart’s blood, the soil which is, in fact, -the dust of murdered generations of victims. To think that for three -centuries this work of despair and death has been going on—for three -centuries!—while Europe has been priding itself on the growth of -knowledge and the possession of the Christian faith; while mercy, -and goodness, and brotherly love, have been preached from pulpits, -and wafted towards heaven in prayers! That from Africa to America, -across the great Atlantic, the ships of outrage and agony have been -passing over, freighted with human beings denied all human rights. The -mysteries of God’s endurance, and of European audacity and hypocrisy -are equally marvellous. Why, the very track across the deep seems to me -blackened by this abominable traffic;—there must be the dye of blood -in the very ocean. One might surely trace these monsters by the smell -of death, from their kidnapping haunts to the very sugar-mills of the -west, where canes and human flesh are ground together. The ghosts of -murdered millions, were enough, one thinks, to lead the way without -chart or compass! The very bed of the ocean must be paved with bones! -and the accursed trade is still going on! We are still strutting about -in the borrowed plumes of Christianity, and daring to call God our -father, though we are become the tormentors of the human race from -China to Peru, and from one pole to the other![85] - -The whole history of European colonization is of a piece. It is with -grief and indignation, that passing before my own mind the successive -conquests and colonies of the Europeans amongst the native tribes of -newly-discovered countries, I look in vain for a single instance of a -nation styling itself Christian and civilized, acting towards a nation -which it is pleased to term barbarous with Christian honesty and common -feeling. The only opportunity which the aboriginal tribes have had of -seeing Christianity in its real form and nature, has been from William -Penn and the missionaries. But both Penn and the missionaries have in -every instance found their efforts neutralized, and their hopes of -permanent good to their fellow-creatures blasted, by the profligacy -and the unprincipled rapacity of the Europeans as a race. Never was -there a race at once so egotistical and so terrible! With the most -happy complacency regarding themselves as civilized and pious, while -acting the savage on the broadest scale, and spurning every principle -of natural or revealed religion. But where the missionaries have been -permitted to act for any length of time on the aboriginal tribes, -what happy results have followed. The savage has become mild; he has -conformed to the order and decorum of domestic life; he has shewn -that all the virtues and affections which God has implanted in the -human soul are not extinct in him; that they wanted but the warmth of -sympathy and knowledge to call them forth; he has become an effective -member of the community, and his productions have taken their value in -the general market. From the Jesuits in Paraguay to the missionaries -in the South Seas, this has been the case. The idiocy of the man who -killed his goose that he might get the golden eggs, was wisdom compared -to the folly of the European nations, in outraging and destroying the -Indian races, instead of civilizing them. Let any one look at the -immediate effect amongst the South Sea Islanders, the Hottentots, or -the Caffres, of civilization creating a demand for our manufactures, -and of bringing the productions of their respective countries into -the market, and then from these few and isolated instances reflect -what would have been now the consequence of the civilization of North -and South America, of a great portion of South Africa, of the Indian -Islands, of the good treatment and encouragement of the millions of -Hindustan. Let him imagine, if he can, the immense consumption of our -manufactured goods through all these vast and populous countries, and -the wonderful variety of their natural productions which they would -have sent us in exchange. - -There is no more doubt than of the diurnal motion of the earth, that -by the mere exercise of common honesty on the part of the whites, the -greater part of all these countries would now be civilized, and a -tide of wealth poured into Europe, such as the strongest imagination -can scarcely grasp; and that, too, purchased, not with the blood and -tears of the miserable, but by the moral elevation and happiness of -countless tribes. The waste of human life and human energies has -been immense, but not more immense than the waste of the thousand -natural productions of a thousand different shores and climates. The -arrow-root, the cocoa-nut oil, the medicinal oils and drugs of the -southern isles; the beautiful flax of New Zealand; sugar and coffee, -spices and tea, from millions of acres where they might have been -raised ill abundance—woods and gums, fruits and gems and ivories, have -been left unproduced or wasted in the deserts, because the wonderful -and energetic race of Europe chose to be as lawless as they were -enterprising, and to be the destroyers rather than the benefactors of -mankind. For more than three centuries, and down to the very last hour, -as this volume testifies, has this system, stupid as it was wicked, -been going on. Thank God, the dawn of a new era appears at last! - -The wrongs of the Hottentots and Caffres, brought to the public -attention by Dr. Philip and Pringle,[86] have led to Parliamentary -inquiry; that inquiry has led to others;—the condition of the natives -of the South Seas, and finally of all the aboriginal tribes in our -colonies, has been brought under review. The existence of a mass of -evils and injuries, so enormous as to fill any healthy mind with horror -and amazement, has been brought to light; and it is impossible that -such facts, once made familiar to the British public, can ever be lost -sight of again. Some expiation has already been made to a portion of -our victims. Part of the lands of the Caffres has been returned, a -milder and more rational system of treatment has been adopted towards -them. Protectors of the Aborigines have in one or two instances been -appointed. New and more just principles of colonization have been -proposed, and in a degree adopted. In the proposed Association for -colonizing New Zealand, and in the South Australian settlement[87] -already made, these better notions are conspicuous. But these symptoms -of a more honourable conduct toward the Aborigines, are, with respect -to the evils we have done, and the evils that exist, but as the -light of the single morning star before the sun has risen. Many -are the injuries and oppressions of our fellow-creatures which the -philanthropic have to contend against; but there is no evil, and no -oppression, that is a hundredth part so gigantic as this. There is no -case in which we owe such a mighty sum of expiation: all other wrongs -are but the wrongs of a small section of humanity compared with the -whole. The wrongs of the Negro are great, and demand all the sympathy -and active attention which they receive; but the numbers of the negroes -in slavery are but as a drop in the bucket compared to the numbers -of the aborigines who are perishing beneath our iron and unchristian -policy. The cause of the aborigines is the cause of three-fourths of -the population of the globe. The evil done to them is the great and -universal evil of the age, and is the deepest disgrace of Christendom. -It is, therefore, with pleasure that I have seen the “ABORIGINES’ -PROTECTION SOCIETY” raise its head amongst the many noble societies for -the redress of the wrongs and the elevation of humanity that adorn this -country. Such a society must become one of the most active and powerful -agents of universal justice: it must be that or nothing, for the evil -which it has to put down is tyrannous and strong beyond all others. -It cannot fail without the deepest disgrace to the nation—for the -honour of the nation, its Christian zeal, and its commercial interests, -are all bound up with it. Where are we to look for a guarantee for -the removal of the foulest stain on humanity and the Christian name? -Our government may be well disposed to adopt juster measures; but -governments are not yet formed on those principles, and with those -views, that will warrant us to depend upon them. - -There is no power but the spirit of Christianity living in the heart -of the British public, which can secure justice to the millions that -are crying for it from every region of the earth. It is that which must -stand as the perpetual watch and guardian of humanity; and never yet -has it failed. The noblest spectacle in the world is that constellation -of institutions which have sprung out of this spirit of Christianity in -the nation, and which are continually labouring to redress wrongs and -diffuse knowledge and happiness wherever the human family extends. The -ages of dreadful inflictions, and the present condition of the native -tribes in our vast possessions, once known, it were a libel on the -honour and faith of the nation to doubt for a moment that a new era of -colonization and intercourse with unlettered nations has commenced; and -I close this volume of the unexampled crimes and marvellous impolicy of -Europe, with the firm persuasion— - - That heavenward all things tend. For all were once - Perfect, and all must be at length restored. - So God has greatly purposed; who would else - In his dishonoured works himself endure - Dishonour, and be wronged without redress. - Haste, then, and wheel away a shattered world - Ye slow revolving seasons! We would see— - A sight to which our eyes are strangers yet— - A world that does not hate and dread His laws, - And suffer for its crime; would learn how fair - The creature is that God pronounces good, - How pleasant in itself what pleases Him.—_Cowper._ - - - - -FOOTNOTES: - - -[1] Mickle’s Camoens. - -[2] Mickle. - -[3] How affecting is Peter Martyr’s account of these poor Lucayans, -thus fraudulently decoyed from their native countries. “Many of them, -in the anguish of despair, obstinately refuse all manner of sustenance, -and retiring to desert caves and unfrequented woods, silently give up -the ghost. Others, repairing to the sea-coast on the northern side -of Hispaniola, cast many a longing look towards that part of the -ocean where they suppose their own islands to be situated; and as the -sea-breeze rises, they eagerly inhale it—fondly believing that it -has lately visited their own happy valleys, and comes fraught with -the breath of those they love, their wives and their children. With -this idea, they continue for hours on the coast, until nature becomes -utterly exhausted, when, stretching out their arms towards the ocean, -as if to take a last embrace of their distant country and relatives, -they sink down and expire without a groan.... One of them, who was more -desirous of life, or had greater courage than most of his countrymen, -took upon him a bold and difficult piece of work. Having been used to -build cottages in his native country, he procured instruments of stone, -and cut down a large spongy tree, called _jaruma_ (the _bombax_, or -wild cotton), the body of which he dexterously scooped into a canoe. -He then provided himself with oars, some Indian corn, and a few gourds -of water, and prevailed on another man and woman to embark with him on -a voyage to the Lucayos. Their navigation was prosperous for near two -hundred miles, and they were almost within sight of their long-lost -shores, when unfortunately they were met by a Spanish ship, which -brought them back to slavery and sorrow! The canoe is still preserved -in Hispaniola as a curiosity, considering the circumstances under which -it was made.”—_Decad._ vii. - -[4] In less than fifty years from the arrival of the Spaniards, not -more than two hundred Indians could be found in Hispaniola; and Sir -Francis Drake states that when he touched there in 1585, not one was -remaining; yet so little were the Spaniards benefited by their cruelty, -that they were actually obliged _to convert pieces of leather into -money_!—See Hakluyt’s Voyages, vol. iii. - -[5] Las Casas, in his zeal for the Indians, has been charged with -exaggerating the numbers destroyed, but no one has attempted to deny -the following fact asserted by him: “I once beheld four or five -principal Indians roasted alive at a slow fire; and as the miserable -victims poured forth dreadful screams, which disturbed the commanding -officer in his afternoon slumbers—he sent word that they should be -strangled; but the officer on guard (I KNOW HIS NAME—I KNOW HIS -RELATIVES IN SEVILLE) would not suffer it; but causing their mouths -to be gagged, that their cries might not be heard, he stirred up the -fire with his own hands, and roasted them deliberately till they all -expired. I SAW IT MYSELF!!!” - -[6] Clavigero gives a curious account of the mode in which Cortez took -possession of the province of Tabasco, on the plains of Coutla, where -he killed eight hundred of the natives, and founded a small city in -memory thereof, calling it _Madonna della Victoria_! Here he put on his -shield, unsheathed his sword, and gave three stabs with it to a large -tree which was in the principal village, declaring that if any person -durst oppose his possession, he would defend it with that sword. - -[7] Thus called by Herrera. Bernal Diaz also calls Teuhtlile, Teudili. -It is singular that scarcely two writers, ancient or modern, call the -same South American person by the same name. Our modern travellers not -only differ from the Spanish historians, but from one another. Even -the familiar name of Montezuma, is Moctezuma and Motezuma; that of -Guatimozin, Guatimotzin and Quauhtemotzin. The same confusion prevails -amongst our authors, in nearly all the proper names of America, Asia, -or Africa. - -[8] Engravings of these may be seen in Clavigero. - -[9] The Ithualco of other authors. - -[10] Clavigero says only six days. - -[11] Charlevoix gives another instance of that sort of Catholic -_piety_ which such ruffians as these find quite compatible with the -commission of the blackest crimes. During these expeditions these -man-hunters surprised the Reduction of St. Theresa, and carried off -all the inhabitants. This happened a few days before Christmas; yet on -Christmas day these banditti came to church, every man with a taper in -his hand, in order to hear mass. The minute the Jesuit had finished, -he mounted the pulpit, and reproached them in the bitterest terms for -their injustice and cruelty; to all which they listened with as much -calmness as if it did not at all concern them. - -[12] “I sincerely believe they are as fine a set of men as ever -existed, under the circumstances in which they are placed. In the mines -I have seen them using tools which our miners declared they had not -strength to work with, and carrying burdens which no man in England -could support; and I appeal to those travellers who have been carried -over the snow on their backs, whether they were able to have returned -the compliment; and if not, what can be more grotesque than the figure -of a civilized man riding upon the shoulders of a fellow-creature whose -physical strength he has ventured to despise?” - - _Head’s Rough Notes_, p. 112. - - -[13] Mills’s Hist. of British India, i. 74. Bruce, iii. 78. - -[14] According to Orme, 2,750,000_l._ - -[15] Tanjore Papers. Mills’ History. - -[16] Governor-general’s own Narrative. Second Report of Select -Committee, 1781. - -[17] Fifth Parliamentary Report.—Appendix, No. 21. - -[18] Mills, ii. 624. - -[19] Mills, ii. 480. - -[20] Sir Thomas Roe was sent in 1614, on an embassy to the Great -Mogul. In his letters to the Company, he strongly advised them against -the expensive ambition of acquiring territory. He tells them, “It -is greater than trade can bear; for to maintain a garrison will cut -out your profit: a war and traffic are incompatible. The Portuguese, -notwithstanding their many rich residences, are beggared by keeping -of soldiers: and yet their garrisons are but mean. They never made -advantage of the Indies since they defended them;—observe this well. -It has also been the error of the Dutch, who seek plantations here by -the sword. They turn a wonderful stock; they prowl in all places; they -possess some of the best: yet their dead pays consume all the gain. Let -this be received as a rule, that if you will profit, seek it at sea, -and in quiet trade: for without controversy, it is an error to affect -garrisons, and land-wars in India.” - -Had Sir Thomas been inspired, could he have been a truer prophet? The -East India Company, after fighting and conquering in India for two -centuries, have found themselves, at the dissolution of their charter, -nearly fifty millions in debt; while their trade with China, a country -in which they did not possess a foot of land, had become the richest -commerce in the world! The article of tea alone returning between three -and four millions annually, and was their sole preventive against -bankruptcy. Can, indeed, any colonial acquisition be pointed out that -is not a loss to the parent state? - -[21] Macpherson’s Annals, ii. 652, 662. - -[22] Mills, ii. 560-2. - -[23] It is said that infanticide, spite of the legal prohibition, is -still privately perpetrated to a great extent in Cutch and Guzerat. - -[24] Nominally, in 1829; but not actually till considerably later. - -[25] Even so recently as 1827 we find some tolerably regal instances -of regal gifts to our Indian representatives. Lord and Lady Amherst -on a tour in the provinces arrived at Agra. Lady Amherst received a -visit from the wife of Hindoo Row and her ladies. They proceeded to -invest Lady Amherst with the presents sent for her by the Byza Bhye. -They put on her a turban richly adorned with the most costly diamonds, -a superb diamond necklace, ear-rings, anklets, bracelets, and amulets -of the same, valued at 30,000_l._ sterling. A complete set of gold -ornaments, and another of silver, was then presented. Miss Amherst was -next presented with a pearl necklace, valued at 5,000_l._, and other -ornaments of equal beauty and costliness. Other ladies had splendid -presents—the whole value of the gifts amounting to 50,000_l._ sterling! - -In the evening came Lord Amherst’s turn. On visiting the Row, his hat -was carried out and brought back on a tray covered. The Row uncovered -it, and placed it on his lordship’s head, overlaid with the most -splendid diamonds. His lordship was then invested with other jewels to -the reputed amount of 20,000_l._ sterling. Presents followed to the -members of his suite. Lady Amherst took this opportunity of retiring to -the tents of the Hindu ladies, _where presents were again given_; and a -bag of 1000 rupees to her ladyship’s female servants, and 500 rupees to -her interpretess. - -_Oriental Herald_, vol. xiv. p. 444. - - -[26] How clearly these shrewd Indians saw through the designs of their -enemies, and how happily they could ridicule them, is shewn by the -speech of Garangula, one of their chiefs, when M. de la Barre, the -governor in 1684, was proposing one of these hollow alliances. All -the time that de la Barre spoke, Garangula kept his eyes fixed on the -end of his pipe. As soon as the governor had done, he rose up, and -said most significantly, “Yonondio!” (the name they always gave to the -governor of Canada), “you must have believed, when you left Quebec, -that the sun had burnt up all the forests which render our country -inaccessible to the French; or that the lakes had so far overflowed -their banks that they had surrounded our castles, and that we could not -get out of them. Yes, Yonondio, surely you must have dreamt so, and -the curiosity of seeing so great a wonder has brought you so far. Now -you are undeceived, since I and the warriors here present, are come to -assure you that the Senekas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Oneidas, and Mohawks, -are yet alive! I thank you, in their name, for bringing back into their -country the _Calumut_ which your predecessor received from their hands. -It was happy for you that you left under ground that murdering hatchet -that has been so often dyed in the blood of the French. Hear, Yonondio! -I do not sleep; I have my eyes open; and the sun which enlightens me, -shews me a great captain at the head of a company of soldiers, who -speaks as if he were dreaming. _He_ says that he came to the lake to -smoke on the great _Calumut_ with the Onondagas; but _Garangula_ says -that he sees to the contrary—it was to knock them on the head, if -sickness had not weakened the arms of the French.” - -_Colden’s Hist. of the Five Nations_, vol. i. p. 70. - - -[27] Raynal. - -[28] Colden, i. 81. - -[29] Colden, i. 441. - -[30] Colden’s Hist. of “The Five Nations,” i. 195. - -[31] The natives of this coast had some years before been carried -off in considerable numbers by a British kidnapper, one Captain -Hunt, who sold them in the Mediterranean to the Spaniards as Moors -of Barbary. The indignation of the Indians on the discovery of this -base transaction and their warlike character, put a stop to this -trade, which might otherwise have become as regular a department of -commerce as the African slave-trade; but it naturally threw the most -formidable obstacles in the way of settling colonies here, and brought -all the miseries of mutual outrage and revenge on both settlers and -natives.—_Douglass’s Summary of the First Planting of North America_, -vol. i. p. 364. - -[32] Purchases were, indeed, made by others; but it was seize first, -and bargain afterwards, when the soil was already defended by muskets, -and the only question with the natives was, “Shall we take a trifle for -our lands, or be knocked on the head for them?” - -[33] Douglass’ Summary, i. 556-65. - -[34] Ibid. i. 321. - -[35] Douglass’ Summary, i. 199. - -[36] Drake’s Book of the Indians. - -[37] Hutchinson—Gov. Winthrop’s Journal. - -[38] Hutchinson’s Massachusets Bay, p. 113. - -[39] Hutchinson, p. 138. - -[40] Hutchinson’s Hist. of Massachusets Bay. Also Douglass, Hubbard, -Gorge, and other historians of the time. - -[41] Missionaries, especially the Jesuits, and the English in the -South Sea Islands, form the only exceptions, and these partially. -The Jesuits, though they did not commonly bear arms, taught the use -of them, and led, in fact, the most effective troops to battle in -Paraguay. The South Sea missionaries form the strongest exceptions: -they are, indeed, but guests, and not the governors; but their conduct -is admirable, and we may believe will not alter with power. - -[42] Mr. Bannister, in an excellent little work (British Colonization -and the Coloured Tribes), just published, and which ought to be read by -every one for its right-mindedness and sound and most important views, -has regretted that William Penn did not take a guarantee from the -British crown, in his charter, for the protection of the Indians from -other states, and from his own successors. It is to be regretted; nor -is it meant here to assert that the provisions of his government were -as complete as they were pure in principle. Embarrassments of various -kinds prevented him from perfecting what he had so nobly begun; yet the -feeling with which his political system is regarded, must be that of -the following passage:— - -“Virtue had never perhaps inspired a legislation better calculated to -promote the felicity of mankind. The opinions, the sentiments, and -the morals, corrected whatever might be defective in it. Accordingly -the prosperity of Pennsylvania was very rapid. This republic, without -either wars, conquests, struggles, or any of those revolutions which -attract the eyes of the vulgar, soon excited the admiration of the -whole universe. Its neighbours, notwithstanding their savage state, -were softened by the sweetness of its manners; and distant nations, -notwithstanding their corruption, paid homage to its virtues. All -delighted to see those heroic days of antiquity realized, which -European manners and laws had long taught every one to consider as -entirely fabulous.”—_Raynal_, vol. vii. p. 292. - -[43] Adair’s History of the American Indians, p. 249. - -[44] Adair, p. 314-321. - -[45] Colden, i. 148. - -[46] Mr. Johnson, who was originally a trader amongst the Mohawks, -indulged them in all their whims. They were continually dreaming that -he had given them this, that, and the other thing; and no greater -insult can, according to their opinions, be offered to any man than to -call in question the spiritual authenticity of his dream. At length -the chief _dreamed_ that Mr. Johnson had given him his uniform of -scarlet and gold. Mr. Johnson immediately made him a present of it: -but the next time he met him, he told him that _he_ had now begun to -dream, and that he had dreamed that the Mohawks had given him certain -lands, describing one of the finest tracts in the country, and of great -extent. The Indians were struck with consternation. They said: “He -surely had not dreamed that, had he?” He replied that he certainly had. -They therefore held a council, and came to inform him that they had -confirmed his dream; but begged that he would not dream any more. He -had no further occasion. - -[47] Cotton Mather records that, amongst the early settlers, it was -considered a “religious act to kill Indians.” - -A similar sentiment prevailed amongst the Dutch boors in South Africa, -with regard to the natives of the country. Mr. Barrow writes, “A farmer -thinks he cannot proclaim a more meritorious action than the murder -of one of these people. A boor from Graaf Reinet, being asked in the -secretary’s office, a few days before we left town, if the savages were -numerous or troublesome on the road, replied, ‘he had only shot four,’ -with as much composure and indifference as if he had been speaking of -four partridges. I myself have heard one of the humane colonists boast -of having destroyed, with his own hands, near 300 of these unfortunate -wretches.” - -[48] See Evidence given by Capt. Buchan. - -[49] Papers, Abor. Tribes, 1834, p. 135. - -[50] Ibid. 147. - -[51] Ibid. 22. - -[52] Papers, Abor. Tribes, p. 24. - -[53] See Papers relating to Red River Settlement, 1815, 1819: -especially Mr. Coltman’s Report, pp. 115, 125. - -[54] Letter from Jas. Hackett, Esq., Civil Commissioner, to Sir B. -D’Urban. Papers, Abor. Tribes, 1834, pp. 194, 198. - -[55] Papers, Abor. Tribes, pp. 183, 193. - -[56] Papers, p. 182. - -[57] Papers, Abor. Tribes, pp. 181, 182. - -[58] Mr. Mayhew in his journal, writes, that the Indians told him, that -they could not observe the benefit of Christianity, because the English -cheated them of their lands and goods; and that the use of books made -them more cunning in cheating. In his Indian itineraries, he desired of -Ninicroft, sachem of the Narragansets, leave to preach to his people. -Ninicroft bid him go and make the English good first, and desired Mr. -Mayhew not to hinder him in his concerns. Some Indians at Albany being -asked to go into a meeting-house, declined, saying, “the English went -into those places to study how to cheat poor Indians in the price of -beaver, for they had often observed that when they came back from those -places they offered less money than before they went in.” - -[59] Spirituous liquors. - -[60] Winterbottom’s America. - -[61] Stuart’s Three Years in North America, ii. 177. - -[62] Stuart, ii. 173. - -[63] See Adair’s History of the American Indians. - -[64] Pringle’s African Sketches, p. 380. - -[65] See pp. 38-42 of Ball’s edit. - -[66] Report, 1837, p. 32, 33. - -[67] William Penn is the only exception, and he was a preacher and in -some degree a missionary. - -[68] African Sketches, p. 414. - -[69] Col. Graham’s Campaign in 1811-12. - -[70] Col. Brereton’s Expedition in 1818. - -[71] Thompson, ii. 347. - -[72] Ibid. and Kay, 266. - -[73] Captain Stockenstrom. - -[74] Pringle’s African Sketches. - -[75] Thompson, ii. 348. - -[76] There were about 200 traders from the colony residing in -Caffreland, many of them with their wives and children, at the moment -Macomo was thus treated! - -[77] African Sketches, 467. - -[78] Dr. Murray’s Letter in the South African Advertizer, Feb. 20, 1836. - -[79] Report on the Aboriginal Tribes, 1837. Ball’s edit. p. 115. - -[80] Mr. Bannister. - -[81] Despatch to Sir James Stirling, 23d July, 1835. - -[82] Despatch to Lord Goderich, 6th April, 1833. - -[83] Parl. Papers, 1835. No. 585. p. 7. - -[84] Captain Johnson’s report to the Governor of New South Wales. Parl. -Papers, 1835. No. 583, p. 10. - -[85] Everything connected with this trade is astonishing. Queen -Elizabeth eagerly embarked in it in 1563, and sent the notorious John -Hawkins, knighted by her for this and similar deeds, out to Sierra -Leone for a human cargo, with four vessels, three of which, as if it -were the most pious of expeditions, bore the names of Jesus! Solomon! -and John the Baptist!—See _Hakluyt’s Voyages_. - -[86] This excellent man was a martyr to his advocacy of the claims of -the Caffres. Powerful appeals on behalf of his widow, left in painful -circumstances, have been made by Mr. Leitch Ritchie, in his “Life of -Pringle,” and by Mr. Bannister, in his “Colonization and the Coloured -Tribes,” which, if they are not effective, will reflect but little -credit upon the government, or the philanthropic public. - -[87] See a Lecture on this settlement, with letters from the settlers, -by Henry Watson, of Chichester. - - -LONDON: - -PRINTED BY - -MANNING AND SMITHSON, - -IVY-LANE, PATERNOSTER-ROW. - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Colonization and Christianity, by William Howitt - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COLONIZATION AND CHRISTIANITY *** - -***** This file should be named 54800-0.txt or 54800-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/4/8/0/54800/ - -Produced by Turgut Dincer and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Colonization and Christianity - A popular history of the treatment of the natives by the - Europeans in all their colonies - -Author: William Howitt - -Release Date: May 27, 2017 [EBook #54800] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COLONIZATION AND CHRISTIANITY *** - - - - -Produced by Turgut Dincer and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="transnote"> -<p>Transcriber’s note:<br /><br/>The original spelling, hyphenation, and punctuation has been -retained, with the exception of apparent typographical errors -which have been corrected.</p></div> - -<p class="center">COLONIZATION AND CHRISTIANITY.</p> - -<hr /> - -<h1>COLONIZATION AND CHRISTIANITY:</h1> - -<p class="center"><small><small>A</small></small><br /><br /> - -POPULAR HISTORY<br /><br /> - -<small><small>OF THE</small></small><br /><br /> - -<big><big>TREATMENT OF THE NATIVES</big></big><br /><br /> - -<small>BY THE EUROPEANS<br /><br /> - -IN ALL THEIR COLONIES.</small><br /><br /> - -<small><small>BY</small></small><br /> - -WILLIAM HOWITT.<br /><br /></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">Have we not all one father?—hath not one God created us?</div> -<div class="line">Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother?</div> -<div class="line i20"><i>Malachi</i> ii. 10.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p class="center"><br /><br />LONDON:<br /> -LONGMAN, ORME, BROWN, GREEN, & LONGMANS.<br /> -1838. -</p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="center"><small>LONDON:<br /> -<small>PRINTED BY MANNING AND SMITHSON,<br /> -IVY-LANE, PATERNOSTER-ROW.</small></small></p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="smcap">The</span> object of this volume is to lay open to the public -the most extensive and extraordinary system of crime -which the world ever witnessed. It is a system which -has been in full operation for more than three hundred -years, and continues yet in unabating activity of evil. -The apathy which has hitherto existed in England upon -this subject has proceeded in a great measure from want -of knowledge. National injustice towards particular -tribes, or particular individuals, has excited the most -lively feeling, and the most energetic exertions for its -redress,—but the whole wide field of unchristian operations -in which this country, more than any other, is -engaged, has never yet been laid in a clear and comprehensive -view before the public mind. It is no part of -the present volume to suggest particular plans of remedy. -The first business is to make known the nature and the -extent of the evil,—that once perceived, in this great -country there will not want either heads to plan or hands -to accomplish all that is due to the rights of others, or -the honour and interest of England.</p> - -<p><i>West End Cottage, Esher,<br /> - June 8th, 1838.</i></p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">ix</a></span></p> - -<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> - -<table summary="CONTENTS"><tr> -<td class="tdc">CHAPTER I.</td><td class="tdr"><small>PAGE</small></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">Introduction</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="2">II.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">The Discovery of the New World</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="2">III.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">The Papal Gift of all the Heathen World to the Portuguese -and Spaniards</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="2">IV.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">The Spaniards in Hispaniola</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_28">28</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="2">V.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">The Spaniards in Hispaniola and Cuba</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_43">43</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="2">VI.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">The Spaniards in Jamaica and other West Indian Islands</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_56">56</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="2">VII.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">The Spaniards in Mexico</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_62">62</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="2">VIII.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">The Spaniards in Peru</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_92">92</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="2">IX.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">The Spaniards in Peru—(<i>continued</i>)</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_104">104</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="2">X.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">The Spaniards in Paraguay</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_119">119</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">x</a></span>XI.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">The Portuguese in Brazil</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_145">145</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="2">XII.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">The Portuguese in Brazil—(<i>continued</i>)</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_158">158</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="2">XIII.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">The Portuguese in India</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_173">173</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="2">XIV.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">The Dutch in India</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_185">185</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="2">XV.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">The English in India.—System of Territorial Acquisition</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_202">202</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="2">XVI.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">The English in India—(<i>continued</i>).—Treatment of the -Natives</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_252">252</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="2">XVII.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">The English in India.—Treatment of the Natives—(<i>continued</i>)</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_272">272</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="2">XVIII.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">The English in India—(<i>continued</i>)</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_285">285</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="2">XIX.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">The English in India—(<i>concluded</i>)</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_298">298</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="2">XX.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">The French in their Colonies</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_312">312</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="2">XXI.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">The English in America</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_330">330</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="2">XXII.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">The English in America—Settlement of Pennsylvania</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_356">356</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="2">XXIII.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">The English in America till the Revolt of the Colonies</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_367">367</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="2">XXIV.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">xi</a></span></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">Treatment of the Indians by the United States</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_386">386</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="2">XXV.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">Treatment of the Indians by the United States—(<i>continued</i>)</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_402">402</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="2">XXVI.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">The English in South Africa</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_417">417</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="2">XXVII.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">The English in South Africa—(<i>continued</i>)</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_443">443</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="2">XXVIII.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">The English in New Holland and the Islands of the Pacific</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_469">469</a></td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="2">XXIX.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">Conclusion</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_499">499</a></td> -</tr></table> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">1</a></span></p> - -<p class="center"><big><big>COLONIZATION AND CHRISTIANITY.</big></big></p> - -<hr /> -<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line i7">These are they, O Lord!</div> -<div class="line">Who in thy plain and simple gospel see</div> -<div class="line">All mysteries, but who find no peace enjoined,</div> -<div class="line">No brotherhood, no wrath denounced on them</div> -<div class="line">Who shed their brethren’s blood! Blind at noon-day</div> -<div class="line">As owls; lynx-eyed in darkness.—<i>Southey.</i><br /><br /></div> -</div></div></div> - -<p><span class="smcap">Christianity</span> has now been in the world upwards of -<span class="smcap">One Thousand Eight Hundred Years</span>. For -more than a thousand years the European nations -have arrogated to themselves the title of <span class="smcap">Christian</span>! -some of their monarchs, those of <span class="smcap">most Sacred</span> and -<span class="smcap">most Christian Kings</span>! We have long laid to our -souls the flattering unction that we are a civilized -and a Christian people. We talk of all other nations -in all other quarters of the world, as savages, barbarians, -uncivilized. We talk of the ravages of the -Huns, the irruptions of the Goths; of the terrible -desolations of Timour, or Zenghis Khan. We talk of -Alaric and Attila, the sweeping carnage of Mahomet, -or the cool cruelties of more modern Tippoos and -Alies. We shudder at the war-cries of naked Indians, -and the ghastly feasts of Cannibals; and bless our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">2</a></span> -souls that we are redeemed from all these things, and -made models of beneficence, and lights of God in the -earth!</p> - -<p>It is high time that we looked a little more rigidly -into our pretences. It is high time that we examined, -on the evidence of facts, whether we are quite so -refined, quite so civilized, quite so Christian as we -have assumed to be. It is high time that we look -boldly into the real state of the question, and learn -actually, whether the mighty distance between our -goodness and the moral depravity of other people -really exists. <span class="smcap">Whether, in fact, we are Christian -at all!</span></p> - -<p>Have bloodshed and cruelty then ceased in Europe? -After a thousand years of acquaintance with -the most merciful and the most heavenly of religions, -do the national characters of the Europeans reflect -the beauty and holiness of that religion? Are we -distinguished by our peace, as the followers of the -Prince of Peace? Are we renowned for our eagerness -to seek and save, as the followers of the universal -Saviour? Are our annals redolent of the delightful -love and fellowship which one would naturally think -must, after a thousand years, distinguish those who -pride themselves on being the peculiar and adopted -children of Him who said, “By this shall all men know -that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another?” -These are very natural, but nevertheless, very awkward -questions. If ever there was a quarter of the -globe distinguished by its quarrels, its jealousies, its -everlasting wars and bloodshed, it is Europe. Since -these <em>soi-disant</em> Christian nations have risen into any -degree of strength, what single evidence of Christian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">3</a></span>ity -have they, as nations, exhibited? Eternal warfare!—is -that Christianity? Yet that is the history of -<em>Christian</em> Europe. The most subtle or absurd pretences -to seize upon each other’s possessions,—the -contempt of all faith in treaties,—the basest policy,—the -most scandalous profligacy of public morals,—the -most abominable international laws!—are they Christianity? -And yet they are the history of Europe. -Nations of men selling themselves to do murder, that -ruthless kings might ravish each other’s crowns—nations -of men, standing with jealous eyes on the perpetual -watch against each other, with arms in their hands, -oaths in their mouths, and curses in their hearts;—are -those Christian? Yet there is not a man acquainted -with the history of Europe that will even attempt to -deny that <em>that</em> is the history of Europe. For what are -all our international boundaries; our lines of demarcation; -our frontier fortresses and sentinels; our martello -towers, and guard-ships; our walled and gated -cities; our bastions and batteries; and our jealous -passports? These are all barefaced and glaring testimonies -that our pretence of Christianity is a mere -assumption; that after upwards of a thousand years of -the boasted possession of Christianity, Europe has not -yet learned to govern itself by its plainest precepts; -and that her children have no claim to, or reliance in -that spirit of “love which casteth out all fear.” It is -very well to vaunt the title of Christian one to another—every -nation knows in its own soul, it is a hollow -pretence. While it boasts of the Christian name, -it dare not for a moment throw itself upon a Christian -faith in its neighbour. No! centuries of the most -unremitted hatred,—blood poured over every plain of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">4</a></span> -Europe, and sprinkled on its very mountain tops, cry -out too dreadfully, that it is a dismal cheat. Wars, -the most savage and unprovoked; oppressions, the -most desperate; tyrannies, the most ruthless; massacres, -the most horrible; death-fires, and tortures the -most exquisite, perpetuated one on another for the -faith, and in the very name of God; dungeons and -inquisitions; the blood of the Vaudois, and the flaming -homes of the Covenanters are all in their memories, -and give the lie to their professions. No! Poland rent -in sunder; the iron heel of Austria on the prostrate -neck of Italy; and invasions and aggressions without -end, make Christian nations laugh with a hollow -mockery in their hearts, in the very midst of their -solemn professions of the Christian virtue and faith.</p> - -<p>But I may be told that this character applies rather -to past Europe than to the present. What! are all -these things at an end? For what then are all these -standing armies? What all these marching armies? -What these men-of-war on the ocean? What these -atrocities going on from year to year in Spain? Has -any age or nation seen such battles waged as we have -witnessed in our time? How many <span class="smcap">Waterloos</span> -can the annals of the earth reckon? What Timour, -or Zenghis Khan, can be compared to the Napoleon -of modern Europe? the greatest scourge of nations -that ever arose on this planet; the most tremendous -meteor that ever burnt along its surface! Have the -multitude of those who deem themselves the philosophical -and refined, as well as the Christian of Europe, -ceased to admire this modern Moloch, and to forget -in <em>his</em> individual and retributory sufferings at St. -Helena, the countless agonies and the measureless<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">5</a></span> -ruin that he inflicted on innocent and even distant -nations? While we retain a blind admiration of -martial genius, wilfully shutting our senses and our -minds to the crimes and the pangs that constitute its -shadow, it is laughable to say that we have progressed -beyond our fathers in Christian knowledge. At this -moment all Europe stands armed to the teeth. The -peace of every individual nation is preserved, not by -the moral probity and the mutual faith which are the -natural growth of Christian knowledge, but by the -jealous watch of armed bands, and the coarse and -undisguised force of brute strength. To this moment -not the slightest advance is made towards a regular -system of settling national disputes by the head instead -of the hand. To this moment the stupid practice -of settling individual disputes between those who -pride themselves on their superior education and -knowledge, by putting bullets instead of sound reasons -into each other’s heads, is as common as ever. If we -really are a civilized people, why do we not abandon -barbarian practices? If we really are philosophical, -why do we not shew it? It is a poor compliment to -our learning, our moral and political philosophy, and -above all, to our religion, that at this time of day if -a dispute arise between us as nations or as men, we -fall to blows, instead of to rational inquiry and adjustment. -Is Christianity then so abstruse? No! “He -that runneth may read, and the way-faring man, -though a fool, cannot err therein.” Then why, in the -name of common sense, have we not learned it, seeing -that it so closely concerns our peace, our security, -and our happiness? Surely a thousand years is time -enough to teach that which is so plain, and of such<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">6</a></span> -immense importance! We call ourselves civilized, -yet we are daily perpetrating the grossest outrages; -we boast of our knowledge, yet we do not know how -to live one with another half so peaceably as wolves; -we term ourselves Christians, yet the plainest injunction -of Christ, “to love our neighbour as ourselves,” -we have yet, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight -years after his death, to adopt! But most -monstrous of all has been the moral blindness or the -savage recklessness of ourselves as Englishmen.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">Secure from actual warfare, we have loved</div> -<div class="line">To swell the war-whoop, passionate for war!</div> -<div class="line">Alas! for ages ignorant of all</div> -<div class="line">Its ghastlier workings (famine or blue plague,</div> -<div class="line">Battle, or siege, or flight through wintry snows,)</div> -<div class="line">We, this whole people, have been clamorous</div> -<div class="line">For war and bloodshed; animating sports,</div> -<div class="line">The which we pay for as a thing to talk of,</div> -<div class="line">Spectators and not combatants! Abroad</div> -<div class="line">Stuffed out with big preamble, holy names,</div> -<div class="line">And adjurations of the God in heaven,</div> -<div class="line">We send our mandates for the certain death</div> -<div class="line">Of thousands and ten thousands! Boys and girls,</div> -<div class="line">And women, <em>that would groan to see a child</em></div> -<div class="line"><em>Pull off an insect’s leg</em>, all read of war,</div> -<div class="line">The best amusement for our morning’s meal!</div> -<div class="line">The poor wretch who has learnt his only prayers</div> -<div class="line">From curses, who knows scarce words enough</div> -<div class="line">To ask a blessing from his heavenly Father,</div> -<div class="line">Becomes a fluent phraseman, absolute,</div> -<div class="line">Technical in victories, and deceit,</div> -<div class="line"><em>And all our dainty terms for fratricide</em>;</div> -<div class="line">Terms which we trundle smoothly o’er our tongues</div> -<div class="line">Like mere abstractions, empty sounds, to which</div> -<div class="line">We join no feeling, and attach no form!</div> -<div class="line">As if the soldier died without a wound;</div> -<div class="line">As if the fibres of this god-like frame</div> -<div class="line">Were gored without a pang; as if the wretch</div> -<div class="line">Who fell in battle, doing bloody deeds,</div> -<div class="line"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">7</a></span>Passed off to heaven, translated and not killed;</div> -<div class="line">As though he had no wife to pine for him,</div> -<div class="line">No God to judge him! Therefore evil days</div> -<div class="line">Are coming on us, O my countrymen!</div> -<div class="line">And what, if all-avenging Providence,</div> -<div class="line">Strong and retributive, should make us know</div> -<div class="line">The meaning of our words, force us to feel</div> -<div class="line">The desolation and the agony of our fierce doings?</div> -<div class="line i15"><em>Coleridge.</em></div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>This is the aspect of the Christian world in its most -polished and enlightened quarter:—there surely is -some need of serious inquiry; there must surely be -some monstrous practical delusion here, that wants -honestly encountering, and boldly dispersing.</p> - -<p>But if such is the internal condition of Christian -Europe, what is the phasis that it presents to the rest -of the world? With the exception of our own tribes, -now numerously scattered over almost every region -of the earth, all are in our estimation barbarians. -We pride ourselves on our superior knowledge, our -superior refinement, our higher virtues, our nobler -character. We talk of the heathen, the savage, and -the cruel, and the wily tribes, that fill the rest of the -earth; but how is it that these tribes know <em>us</em>? Chiefly -by the very features that we attribute exclusively to -them. They know us chiefly by our crimes and our -cruelty. It is we who are, and must appear to them -the savages. What, indeed, are civilization and -Christianity? The refinement and ennoblement of -our nature! The habitual feeling and the habitual -practice of an enlightened justice, of delicacy and -decorum, of generosity and affection to our fellow -men. There is not one of these qualities that we -have not violated for ever, and on almost all occasions,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">8</a></span> -towards every single tribe with which we have come -in contact. We have professed, indeed, to teach -Christianity to them; but we had it not to teach, and -we have carried them instead, all the curses and the -horrors of a demon race. If the reign of Satan, in -fact, were come,—if he were let loose with all his -legions, to plague the earth for a thousand years, -what would be the characteristics of his prevalence? -Terrors and crimes; one wide pestilence of vice and -obscenity; one fearful torrent of cruelty and wrath, -deceit and oppression, vengeance and malignity; the -passions of the strong would be inflamed—the weak -would cry and implore in vain!</p> - -<p>And is not that the very reign of spurious Christianity -which has lasted now for these thousand years, and -that during the last three hundred, has spread with -discovery round the whole earth, and made the name -of Christian synonymous with fiend? It is shocking -that the divine and beneficent religion of Christ -should thus have been libelled by base pretenders, -and made to stink in the nostrils of all people to whom -it ought, and would, have come as the opening of -heaven; but it is a fact no less awful than true, that -the European nations, while professing Christianity, -have made it odious to the heathen. They have -branded it by their actions as something breathed up, -full of curses and cruelties, from the infernal regions. -On them lies the guilt, the stupendous guilt of having -checked the gospel in its career, and brought it to a -full stop in its triumphant progress through the nations. -They have done this, <em>and then wondered at their deed</em>! -They have visited every coast in the shape of rapacious -and unprincipled monsters, and then cursed the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">9</a></span> -inhabitants as besotted with superstition, because they -did not look on them as angels! People have wondered -at the slow progress, and in many countries, -the almost hopeless labours of the missionaries;—why -should they wonder? The missionaries had Christianity -to teach—and their countrymen had been -there before them, and called themselves Christians! -That was enough: what recommendations could a -religion have, to men who had seen its professors for -generations in the sole characters of thieves, murderers, -and oppressors? The missionaries told them -that in Christianity lay their salvation;—they shook -their heads, they had already found it their destruction! -They told them they were come to comfort -and enlighten them;—they had already been comforted -by the seizure of their lands, the violation of their -ancient rights, the kidnapping of their persons; and -they had been enlightened by the midnight flames of -their own dwellings! Is there any mystery in the -difficulties of the missionaries? Is there any in the -apathy of simple nations towards Christianity?</p> - -<p>The barbarities and desperate outrages of the so-called -Christian race, throughout every region of the -world, and upon every people that they have been -able to subdue, are not to be paralleled by those of -any other race, however fierce, however untaught, -and however reckless of mercy and of shame, in any -age of the earth. Is it fit that this horrible blending -of the names of Christianity and outrage should continue? -Yet it does continue, and must continue, till -the genuine spirit of Christianity in this kingdom -shall arouse itself, and determine that these villanies -shall cease, or they who perpetrate them shall be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">10</a></span> -stripped of the honoured name of—Christian! If -foul deeds are to be done, let them be done in their -own foul name; and let robbery of lands, seizure of -cattle, violence committed on the liberties or the lives -of men, be branded as the deeds of devils and not of -Christians. The spirit of Christianity, in the shape of -missions, and in the teaching and beneficent acts of -the missionaries, is now sensibly, in many countries, -undoing the evil which wolves in the sheep’s clothing -of the Christian name had before done. And of late -another glorious symptom of the growth of this divine -spirit has shown itself, in the strong feeling exhibited -in this country towards the natives of our colonies. -To fan that genuine flame of love, is the object of this -work. To comprehend the full extent of atrocities done -in the Christian name, we must look the whole wide -evil sternly in the face. We must not suffer ourselves -to aim merely at the redress of this or that -grievance; but, gathering all the scattered rays of -aboriginal oppression into one burning focus, and -thus enabling ourselves to feel its entire force, we -shall be less than Englishmen and Christians if we do -not stamp the whole system of colonial usage towards -the natives, with that general and indignant odium -which must demolish it at once and for ever.</p> -<hr /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">11</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER II.<br /><br /> - -<small><small>THE DISCOVERY OF THE NEW WORLD.</small></small></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">The spoilers are come upon all high places through the wilderness.</div> -<div class="line i20"><i>Jeremiah</i> xii. 12.<br /><br /></div> -</div></div></div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">Forth rush the fiends as with the torrent’s sweep,</div> -<div class="line">And deeds are done that make the angels weep.—<i>Rogers.</i></div> -</div></div></div> - -<p><span class="smcap">We</span> have thus in our first chapter glanced at the scene -of crime and abomination which Europe through long -ages presented, still daring to clothe itself in the fair -majesty of the Christian name. It is a melancholy -field of speculation—but our business is not there just -now; we must hasten from it, to that other field of -sorrow and shame at which we also glanced. For -fifteen centuries, during which Christianity had been -promulgated, Europe had become little aware of its -genuine nature, though boastful of its profession; but -during the latter portion of that period its nations had -progressed rapidly in population, in strength, and in -the arts of social life. They had, amid all their -bickerings and butcherings, found sufficient leisure to -become commercial, speculative, and ambitious of still -greater wealth and power. Would to God, in their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">12</a></span> -improvements, they could have numbered that of -religious knowledge! Their absurd crusades, nevertheless, -by which they had attempted to wrest the -Holy City from the infidels to put it into the possession -of mere nominal Christians, whose very act of -seizing on the Holy Land proclaimed their ignorance -of the very first principles of the divine religion in -whose cause they assumed to go forth—these crusades, -immediately scandalous and disastrous as they were, -introduced them to the East; gave them knowledge of -more refined and immensely wealthy nations; and at -once raised their notions of domestic luxury and embellishment; -gave them means of extended knowledge; -and inspired them with a boundless thirst for -the riches of which they had got glimpses of astonishment. -The Venetians and Genoese alternately grew -great by commerce with that East of which Marco -Polo brought home such marvellous accounts; and at -length, Henry of Portugal appeared, one of the noblest -and most remarkable princes in earth’s annals! He -devoted all the energies of his mind and the resources -of his fortune to discovery! Fixing his abode by -the ocean, he sent across it not merely the eyes of -desire, but the far-glances of dawning science. Step by -step, year by year, spite of all natural difficulties, disasters -and discouragements, he threw back the cloud -that had for ages veiled the vast sea; his ships brought -home news of isle after isle—spots on the wide waste -of waters, fairer and more sunny than the fabled -Hesperides; and crept along the vast line of the African -coast to the very Cape of Hope. He died; but -his spirit was shed abroad in an inextinguishable -zeal, guided and made invincible by the Magnet,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">13</a></span> -“the spirit of the stone,” the adoption of which -he had suggested.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">1</a>—At once arose Gama and Columbus, -and as it were at once—for there were but five -years and a few months between one splendid event -and the other,—the East and the West Indies by the -sea-path, and America, till then undreamed of, were -discovered!</p> - -<p>What an era of amazement was that! Worlds of -vast extent and wonderful character, starting as it were -into sudden creation before the eyes of growing, inquisitive, -and ambitious Europe! Day after day, -some news, astounding in its very infinitude of goodness, -was breaking upon their excited minds; news -which overturned old theories of philosophy and geography, -and opened prospects for the future equally -confounding by their strange magnificence! No single -Paradise discovered; but countless Edens, scattered -through the glittering seas of summer climes, and -populous realms, stretching far and wide beneath new -heavens, from pole to pole—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">Another nature, and a new mankind.—<i>Rogers.</i></div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>Since the day of Creation, but two events of -superior influence on the destinies of the human race -had occurred—the Announcement of God’s Law on -Sinai, and the Advent of his Son! Providence had -drawn aside the veil of a mighty part of his world, -and submitted the lives and happiness of millions of -his creatures to the arbitrium of that European race, -which now boasted of superior civilization—and far -more, of being the regenerated followers of his Christ. -Never was so awful a test of sincerity presented to the -professors of a heavenly creed!—never was such -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">14</a></span> -opportunity allowed to mortal men to work in the -eternal scheme of Providence! It is past! Such -amplitude of the glory of goodness can never again be -put at one moment into the reach of the human will. -God’s providence is working out its undoubted design -in this magnificent revelation of</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">That maiden world, twin-sister to the old;—<i>Montgomery.</i></div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>But they who should have worked with it in the benignity -and benevolence of that Saviour whose name -they bore, have left to all futurity the awful spectacle -of their infamy!</p> - -<p>Had the Europeans really at this eventful crisis -been instructed in genuine Christianity, and imbued -with its spirit, what a signal career of improvement -and happiness must have commenced throughout the -vast American continent! What a source of pure, -guiltless, and enduring wealth must have been opened -up to Europe itself! Only let any one imagine the -natives of America meeting the Europeans as they -did, with the simple faith of children, and the reverence -inspired by an idea of something divine in their -visitors; let any one imagine them thus meeting them, -and finding them, instead of what they actually were, -spirits base and desperate as hell could have possibly -thrown up from her most malignant regions—finding -them men of peace instead of men of blood, -men of integrity instead of men of deceit, men of -love and generosity instead of men of cruelty and -avarice—wise, enlightened, and just! Let any one -imagine that, and he has before him such a series of -grand and delightful consequences as can only be -exhibited when Christianity shall <em>really</em> become the -actuating spirit of nations; and they shall as the direct<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">15</a></span> -consequence, “beat their swords into ploughshares, -and their spears into pruning-hooks.” Imagine the -Spaniards and the Portuguese to have been merely -what they pretended to be,—men who had been -taught in the divine law of the New Testament, that -“God made of one blood all the nations of the earth;” -men who, while they burned to “plant the Cross,” -actually meant by it to plant in every new land the -command, “thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself;” -and the doctrine, that the religion of the Christian -is, to “do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly -before God.” Imagine that these men came amongst -the simple people of the New World, clothed in all -the dignity of Christian wisdom, the purity of Christian -sentiment, and the sacred beauty of Christian -benevolence; and what a contrast to the crimes and -the horrors with which they devastated and depopulated -that hapless continent! The historian would not -then have had to say—“The bloodshed and attendant -miseries which the unparalleled rapine and cruelty of -the Spaniards spread over the New World, indeed -disgrace human nature. The great and flourishing -empires of Mexico and Peru, <em>steeped in the blood of</em> -<span class="smcap lowercase">FORTY MILLIONS</span> of their sons, present a melancholy -prospect, which must excite the indignation of every -good heart.”<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">2</a> If, instead of that lust of gold which -had hardened them into actual demons, they had worn -the benign graces of true Christians, the natives would -have found in them a higher image of divinity than -any which they had before conceived, and the whole -immense continent would have been laid open to -them as a field of unexampled and limitless glory and -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">16</a></span>felicity. They might have introduced their arts and -sciences—have taught the wonders and the charms of -household enjoyments and refinements—have shewn -the beauty and benefit of cultivated fields and gardens; -their faith would have created them confidence in the -hearts of the natives, and the advantages resulting -from their friendly tuition would have won their love. -What a triumphant progress for civilization and -Christianity! There was no wealth nor advantage of -that great continent which might not have become -legitimately and worthily theirs. They would have -walked amongst the swarming millions of the south as -the greatest of benefactors; and under their enlightened -guidance, every species of useful produce, and -every article of commercial wealth would have sprung -up. Spain need not have been blasted, as it were, by -the retributive hand of Divine punishment, into the -melancholy object which she is this day. That sudden -stream of gold which made her a second Tantalus, -reaching to her very lips yet never quenching her -thirst, and leaving her at length the poorest and most -distracted realm in Europe, might have been hers -from a thousand unpolluted sources, and bearing along -with it God’s blessing instead of his curse: and mighty -nations, rivalling Europe in social arts and political -power, might have been now, instead of many -centuries hence, objects of our admiration, and grateful -repayers of our benefits.</p> - -<p>But I seem to hear many voices exclaiming, “Yes! -these things <em>might</em> have been, had men been what -they are not, nor ever were!” Precisely so!—that -is the point I wish expressly to illustrate before I proceed -to my narrative. These things might have been,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">17</a></span> -and would have been, had men been merely what they -professed. They called themselves Christians, and I -merely state what Christians would and must, as a -matter of course, have done. The Spaniards professed -to be, and probably really believed that they -were, Christians. They professed zealously that one -of their most ardent desires was to bring the newly-discovered -hemisphere under the cross of Christ. -Columbus returned thanks to God for having made -him a sort of modern apostle to the vast tribes of the -West. Ferdinand and Isabella, when he returned and -related to them the wonderful story of his discovery, -fell on their knees before their throne, and thanked -God too! They expressed an earnest anxiety to establish -the empire of the Cross throughout their new -and splendid dominions. The very Spanish adventurers, -with their hands heavy with the plundered -gold, and clotted with the blood of the unhappy -Americans, were zealous for the spread of their faith. -They were not more barbarous than they were self-deluded; -and I shall presently shew whence had -sprung, and how had grown to such a blinding thickness, -that delusion upon them. But the truth which -I am now attempting to elucidate and establish, is of -far higher and wider concernment than as exemplified -in the early adventurers of Spain and Portugal. -This grand delusion has rested on Europe for a thousand -years; and from the days of the Spaniards to -the present moment, has gone on propagating crimes -and miseries without end. For the last three hundred -years, Europe has been boasting of its Christianity, -and perpetrating throughout the vast extent of -territories in every quarter of the globe subjected to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">18</a></span> -its power, every violence and abomination at which -Christianity revolts. There is no nation of Europe -that is free from the guilt of colonial blood and oppression. -God knows what an awful share rests upon -this country! It remains therefore for us simply to -consider whether we will abandon our national crimes -or our Christian name. Whether Europe shall continue -so to act towards what it pleases to term -“savage” nations, as that it must seem to be the very -ground and stronghold of some infernal superstition, -or so as to promote, what a large portion of the -British public at least, now sincerely desires,—the -Christianization, and with it the civilization, of the -heathen.</p> - -<p>I shall now pass in rapid review, the treatment -which the natives of the greater portion of the regions -discovered since the days of Columbus and Gama, -have received at the hands of the nations styling -themselves Christian, that every one may see what -has been, and still is, the actual system of these nations; -and I shall first follow Columbus and his -immediate successors to the Western world, because -it was first, though only by so brief a period, reached -by the ships of the adventurers.</p> -<hr /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">19</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER III.<br /><br /> - -<small><small>THE PAPAL GIFT OF ALL THE HEATHEN WORLD -TO THE PORTUGUESE AND SPANIARDS.</small></small></h2> - -<p><small>Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast born me a man of strife, -and a man of contention to the whole earth.—<i>Jeremiah</i> xv. 10.</small></p> - -<p><small>Also in their skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor -innocents.—<i>Jeremiah</i> v. 16.</small><br /><br /></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Columbus</span>, while seeking for a western track to the -East Indies, on Friday, Oct. 12th, 1492, stumbled on -a New World! The discoveries by Prince Henry -of Portugal, of Madeira, and of a considerable extent -of the African coast, had impressed him with a high -idea of the importance of what yet was to be discovered, -and of the possibility of reaching India by sea. -This had led him to obtain a Bull from Pope Eugene -IV. granting to the crown of Portugal all the countries -which the Portuguese should discover from Cape -Non to India. Columbus, having now discovered -America, although unknown to himself, supposing it -still to be some part of India, his monarchs, Ferdinand -and Isabella, lost no time in applying for a -similar grant. Alexander VI., a Spaniard, was -equally generous with his predecessor, and accord<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">20</a></span>ingly -divided the world between the Spaniards and -Portuguese! “The Pope,” says Robertson, “as the -vicar and representative of Jesus Christ, was supposed -to have a right of dominion over all the kingdoms -of the earth. Alexander VI., a pontiff infamous -for every crime which disgraces humanity, filled the -papal throne at that time. As he was born Ferdinand’s -subject, and very solicitous to procure the -protection of Spain, in order to facilitate the execution -of his ambitious schemes in favour of his own family, -he was extremely willing to gratify the Spanish -monarchs. By an act of liberality, which cost him -nothing, and that served to establish the jurisdiction -and fortunes of the papal see, he granted in full right -to Ferdinand and Isabella, all the countries inhabited -by infidels which they had discovered, or should discover; -and in virtue of that power which he derived -from Jesus Christ, he conferred on the crown of -Castile vast regions, to the possession of which he -himself was so far from having any title, that he was -unacquainted with their situation, and ignorant even -of their existence. As it was necessary to prevent -this grant from interfering with that formerly made -to the crown of Portugal, he appointed that a line, -supposed to be drawn from pole to pole, a hundred -leagues to the westward of the Azores, should serve -as a limit between them; and, in the plenitude of his -power, bestowed all to the east of this imaginary line -upon the Portuguese, and all to the west of it, upon -the Spaniards. Zeal for propagating the Christian -faith, was the consideration employed by Ferdinand -in soliciting this Bull, and is mentioned by Alexander -as his chief motive for issuing it.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">21</a></span></p> - -<p>It is necessary, for the right understanding of this -history, to pause upon this remarkable fact, and to -give it the consideration which it demands. In this -one passage lies the key to all the atrocities, which -from that hour to the present have been perpetrated -on the natives of every country making no profession -of Christianity, which those <em>making</em> such a profession -have been able to subdue. An Italian priest,—as the -unfortunate Inca, Atahualpa, afterwards observed with -indignant surprise, when told that the pope had given -his empire to the Spaniards,—here boldly presumes to -give away God’s earth as if he sate as God’s acknowledged -vicegerent. Splitting this mighty planet into -two imaginary halves, he hands one to the Spanish -and the other to the Portuguese monarch, as he -would hand the two halves of an orange to a couple -of boys. The presumption of the act is so outrageous, -that at this time of day, and forgetting for a moment -all the consequences which flowed from this deed, one -is ready to burst into a hearty fit of laughter, as at a -solemn farce, irresistibly ludicrous from its grave extravagance. -But it was a farce which cost, and still -costs the miserable natives of unproselyted countries -dear. It was considered no farce—there was seen no -burlesque in it at the time of its enactment. Not -only the kings of Spain and Portugal, but the kings -and people of all Europe bowed to this preposterous -decision, and never dreamed for a moment of calling -in question its validity.</p> - -<p>Edward IV. of England, on receiving a remonstrance -from John II. of Portugal on account of some -English merchants attempting to trade within the -limits assigned to the Portuguese by the pope’s bull,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">22</a></span> -so far from calling in question the right thus derived -by the Portuguese from the pope, instantly ordered -the merchants to withdraw from the interdicted scene.</p> - -<p>Here then, we have the root and ground of that -grand delusion which led the first discoverers of new -lands, to imagine themselves entitled to seize on them -as their own, and to violate every sacred right of -humanity without the slightest perception of wrong, -and even in many instances, in the fond belief that -they were extending the kingdom of Christ. We -have here the man of sin, the anti-Christ, so clearly -foretold by St. Paul,—“the son of perdition, who -opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called -God or that is worshipped; so that he as God, sitteth -in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is -God.... Even him, whose coming is after the -working of Satan with all power, and signs and lying -wonders; and <em>with all deceivableness of unrighteousness</em> -in them that perish; because they received not the -love of the truth that they might be saved. And for -this cause <cite>God shall send them a strong delusion, that -they should believe a lie</cite>.”—<cite>Second Epistle to the Thessalonians</cite>, -ii. 3, 4, 9, 10, 11.</p> - -<p>Strange and abounding in most singular transactions -as is the history of the Papal church, there is -not to be found in it one fact in which the son of perdition, -the proud anti-Christ, is more characteristically -shown than in this singular transaction. We have -him here enacting the God indeed! and giving away -a world in a breath. Vast and mighty nations, isles -scattered through unknown oceans, continents stretching -through all climates, and millions on millions of -human beings, who never heard of his country or his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">23</a></span> -religion, much less of his name, are disposed of with -all their fortunes; given up as so many cattle to the -sword or the yoke of the oppressor—the very ground -given from beneath their feet, and no place left them -on God’s earth—no portion in his heritage, in time -or in eternity, unless they acknowledged the mysterious -dogmas and more mysterious power of this hoary -and shaven priest! Never was “the son of perdition” -more glaringly revealed; for perdition is the -only word that can indicate that fulness of misery, -devastation, and destruction, which went forth with -this act, upon millions of innocent and unconscious -souls. Never was “the deceivableness of unrighteousness” -so signally exemplified; for here was all -Europe,—monarchs, ministers,—whatever it possessed -of wise, or learned, powerful, or compassionate, all -blinded with such “a strong delusion,” that they -could implicitly “believe a lie” of so monstrous and -flagrant a kind.</p> - -<p>It is difficult for us now to conceive how so gross a -delusion could have wrapped in darkness all the intellect -of the most active and aspiring portion of the -globe; but it is necessary that we should fix this -peculiar psychological phenomenon firmly and clearly -in our minds, for on it depends the explication of all -that was done against humanity during the reign of -Papacy, and much that still continues to be done to -this very day by ourselves, even while we are believing -ourselves enfranchised from this “strong delusion,” -and too much enlightened to “believe a lie.”</p> - -<p>We must bear in mind then, that this strange phenomenon -was the effect of nearly a thousand years’ -labour of the son of perdition. For ages upon ages,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">24</a></span> -every craft, priestly and political; every form of regal -authority, of arms, and of superstition; every delusion -of the senses, and every species of play upon the -affections, hopes and fears of men, had been resorted -to, and exerted, to rivet this “strong delusion” upon -the human soul, and to make it capable of “believing -a lie.”</p> - -<p>In the two preceding chapters, I have denied the -possession of Christianity to multitudes and nations -who had assumed the name, with a sternness and -abruptness, which no doubt have startled many who -have now read them; but I call earnestly upon every -reader, to attend to what I am now endeavouring -deeply to impress upon him; for, I must repeat, that -there is more of what concerns the progress of Christian -truth, and consequently, the happiness of the -human race, dependent on the thorough conception of -the fact which I am going to state, than probably any -of us have been sufficiently sensible of, and which we -cannot once become really sensible of, without joining -heart and hand in the endeavour to free our own -great country, and Christendom in general, from the -commission of cruelties and outrages that mock our -profession of Christ’s religion, and brand the national -name with disgrace.</p> - -<p>There is no fact then, more clearly developed and -established past all controversy, in the history of the -Papal church, than that from its very commencement -it set aside Christianity, and substituted in the words -of the apostle, “a strong delusion” and “the belief -of a lie.” The Bible—that treasury and depository of -God’s truth—that fountain of all pure and holy and -kindly sentiments—that charter of all human rights—<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">25</a></span> -that guardian of hope and herald of salvation, was -withdrawn from the public eye. It was denounced -as the most dangerous of two-edged instruments, and -feared as the worst enemy of the Papal system. -Christianity was no longer taught, the Bible being -once disposed of; but an artful and deadly piece of -machinery was put in action, which bore its name. -Instead of the pure and holy maxims of the New -Testament—its sublime truths full of temporal and -eternal freedom, its glorious knowledge, its animating -tidings, its triumphant faith—submission to popes, -cardinals, friars, monks and priests, was taught—a -Confessional and a Purgatory took their place. -Christianity was no longer existent; but the very religion -of Satan—the most cunning invention, by which -working on human cupidity and ambition, he was enabled -to achieve a temporary triumph over the Gospel. -Never was there a more subtle discovery than that of -the Confessional and the Purgatory. Once having -established a belief in confession and absolution, and -who would not be religious at a cheap rate?—in the -Confessional—the especial closet of Satan, every -crime and pollution might be practised, and the guilty -soul made to believe that its sin was that moment -again obliterated. Even if death surprised the sinner, -there was power of redemption from that convenient -purgatory. Paid prayers were substituted for -genuine repentance—money became the medium of -salvation, and Beelzebub and Mammon sate and -laughed together at the credulity of mankind!</p> - -<p>Thus, as I have stated, Christianity was no longer -taught; but a totally different system, usurping its -name. Instead of simple apostles, it produced showy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">26</a></span> -popes and cardinals; instead of humble preachers, -proud temporal princes, and dignitaries as proud; -instead of the Bible, the mass-book and the legends -of saints; instead of one God and one Saviour Jesus -Christ, the eyes of its votaries were turned for help on -virgins, saints, and anchorites—instead of the inward -life and purity of the gospel-faith, outward ceremonies, -genuflexions, and pageantry without end. Every man, -however desperate his nature or his deeds, knew that -for a certain amount of coin, he could have his soul -white-washed; and, instead of a healthy and availing -piety, that spurious and diabolical devotion was generated, -which is found at the present day amongst the -bandits of Italy and Spain—who one moment plunge -their stiletto or bury their bullet in the heart of the unsuspecting -traveller, and the next kneel at the shrine of -the Virgin, perform some slight penance, offer some -slight gift to the church, and are perfectly satisfied -that they are in the way of salvation. It is that -spurious devotion, indeed, which marks every superstition—Hindoo, -Mahometan, or Fetish—wherever, indeed, -mere outward penance, or the offering of money, -is substituted for genuine repentance and a new life.</p> - -<p>Let any one, therefore, imagine the effect of this -state of things on Europe through seven or eight centuries. -The light of the genuine gospel withdrawn—all -the purity of the moral law of Christ—all the clear -and convincing annunciations of the rights of man—all -the feelings of love and sympathy that glow alone -in the gospel;—and instead of these an empty show; -legends and masses, miracle-plays and holiday pageants; -such doctrines of right and wrong, such maxims -of worldly policy preached as suited ambitious digni<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">27</a></span>taries -or luxurious friars—and it will account for that -singular state of belief and of conscience which existed -at the time of the discovery of the new countries of -the East and West. It would have been impossible -that such ignorance, or such shocking perversion of -reason and faith, could have grown up and established -themselves as the characteristics of the public mind, -had every man had the Bible in his hand to refer to, -and imbue himself daily with its luminous sense of -justice, and its spirit of humanity.</p> - -<p>We shall presently see what effects it had produced -on even the best men of the 15th and 16th centuries; -but what perhaps is not quite so much suspected, we -shall have to learn in the course of this volume to -what an extent the influence of this system still continues -on the <em>Protestant</em> mind. So thoroughly had it -debauched the public morality, that it is to this source -that we alone can come to explain the laxity of opinion -and the apathy of feeling that have ever since characterized -Europe in its dealings with the natives of all -new countries. To this day, we no more regard the -clearest principles of the gospel in our transactions -with them, than if such principles did not exist. The -Right of Conquest, and such robber-phrases, have -been, and even still continue to be, “as smoothly -trundled from our tongues,” as if we could find them -enjoined on our especial approbation in the Bible. -But genuine Christianity is at length powerfully -awaking in the public mind of England; and I trust -that even the perusal of this volume will strengthen -our resolution to wash the still clinging stains of -popery out of our garments, and to determine to stand -by the morality of the Bible, and by that alone.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">28</a></span></p> - -<p>In closing this chapter, let me say that I should be -very sorry to hurt the feelings of any modern Catholic. -The foregoing strictures have no reference to them. -However much or little of the ancient faith of the -Papal church any of them may retain, I believe that, -as a body, they are as sincere in their devotion as any -other class of Christians; but the ancient system, -character, and practice of the Church of Rome, are -matters of all history, and too closely connected with -the objects of this work, and with the interests of millions, -to be passed without, what the author believes -to be, a faithful exposition.</p> - -<hr /> -<h2>CHAPTER IV.<br /><br /> - -<small><small>THE SPANIARDS IN HISPANIOLA.</small></small></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">The gathering signs of a long night of woe.—<i>Rogers.</i><br /><br /></div> -</div></div></div> - -<p><span class="smcap">The</span> terms of the treaty between the Spanish monarchs -and Columbus, on his being engaged as a discoverer, -signed by the parties on the 17th of April, 1492, are -sufficiently indicative of the firm possession which the -doctrines of popery had upon their minds. The -sovereigns constituted Columbus high-admiral of all -the seas, islands, and continents which should be discovered -by him, as a perpetual inheritance for him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">29</a></span> -and his heirs. He was to be <em>their viceroy</em> in those -countries, with a tenth of the free profits upon all the -productions and the commerce of those realms. This -was pretty well for monarchs professing to be Christians, -and who ought to have been taught—“thou -shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house; thou shalt not -covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his man-servant, nor -his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing -that is thy neighbour’s.” But they had been brought -up in another faith: the Pope had exclaimed—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">Creation’s heir! the world, the world is mine!</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>and they took him literally and really at his word. -And it will soon be seen that Columbus, though -naturally of an honorable nature, was not the less the -dupe of this fearful system. He proceeded on his -voyage, discovered a portion of the West Indies, and -speedily plunged into atrocities against the natives -that would have been pronounced shocking in Timour -or Attila. James Montgomery, in his beautiful -poem, the West Indies, has strongly contrasted the -character of Columbus and that of his successors.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">The winds were prosperous, and the billows bore</div> -<div class="line">The brave adventurer to the promised shore;</div> -<div class="line">Far in the west, arrayed in purple light,</div> -<div class="line">Dawned the New World on his enraptured sight.</div> -<div class="line">Not Adam, loosened from the encumbering earth,</div> -<div class="line">Waked by the breath of God to instant birth,</div> -<div class="line">With sweeter, wilder wonder gazed around,</div> -<div class="line">When life within, and light without he found;</div> -<div class="line">When all creation rushing o’er his soul,</div> -<div class="line">He seemed to live and breathe throughout the whole.</div> -<div class="line">So felt Columbus, when divinely fair</div> -<div class="line">At the last look of resolute despair,</div> -<div class="line">The Hesperian isles, from distance dimly blue,</div> -<div class="line">With gradual beauty opened on his view.</div> -<div class="line"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">30</a></span>In that proud moment, his transported mind</div> -<div class="line">The morning and the evening worlds combined;</div> -<div class="line">And made the sea, that sundered them before,</div> -<div class="line">A bond of peace, uniting shore to shore.</div> -<div class="line"> </div> -<div class="line">Vain, visionary hope! rapacious Spain</div> -<div class="line">Followed her hero’s triumph o’er the main;</div> -<div class="line">Her hardy sons in fields of battle tried,</div> -<div class="line">Where Moor and Christian desperately died;—</div> -<div class="line">A rabid race, fanatically bold,</div> -<div class="line">And steeled to cruelty by lust of gold,</div> -<div class="line">Traversed the waves, the unknown world explored;</div> -<div class="line"><em>The cross their standard, but their faith the sword;</em></div> -<div class="line"><em>Their steps were graves; o’er prostrate realms they trod;</em></div> -<div class="line"><em>They worshipped Mammon</em>, while they vowed to God.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>To estimate the effect of his theological education -on such a man as Columbus, we have only to pause a -moment, to witness the manner of his first landing in -the new world, and his reception there. On discovering -the island of Guanahani, one of the Bahamas, the -Spaniards raised the hymn of <em>Te Deum</em>. At sunrise -they rowed towards land with colours flying, and the -sound of martial music; and amid the crowds of wondering -natives assembled on the shores and hills -around, Columbus, like another Mahomet, set foot on -the beach, <em>sword in hand</em>, and <em>followed by a crucifix</em>, -which his followers planted in the earth, and then -prostrating themselves before it, <em>took possession of the -country</em> in the name of his sovereign. The inhabitants -gazed in silent wonder on ceremonies so pregnant -with calamity to them, but without any suspicion of -their real nature. Living in a delightful climate, hidden -through all the ages of their world from the other -world of labour and commerce, of art and artifice, of -avarice and cruelty, they appeared in the primitive<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">31</a></span> -and unclad simplicity of nature. The Spaniards, says -Peter Martyr,—“Dryades formossissimas, aut nativas -fontium nymphas de quibus fabulatur antiquitas, se -vidisse arbitrati sunt:”—they seemed to behold the -most beautiful dryads, or native nymphs of the fountains, -of whom antiquity fabled. Their forms were -light and graceful, though dusky with the warm hues -of the sun; their hair hung in long raven tresses on -their shoulders, unlike the frizzly wool of the Africans, -or was tastefully braided. Some were painted, and -armed with a light bow, or a fishing spear; but their -countenances were full of gentleness and kindness. -Columbus himself, in one of his letters to Ferdinand -and Isabella, describes the Americans and their country -thus:—“This country excels all others, as far as -the day surpasses the night in splendour: the natives -love their neighbour as themselves; their conversation is -the sweetest imaginable; their faces always smiling, and -so gentle, so affectionate are they, that I swear to your -highnesses there is not a better people in the world.” -The Spaniards indeed looked with as much amazement -on the simple people, and the paradise in which they -lived, as the natives did on the wonderful spectacle of -European forms, faces, dress, arts, arms, and ships.—Such -sweet and flowing streams; such sunny dales, scattered -with flowers as gorgeous and beautiful as they were -novel; trees covered with a profusion of glorious and -aromatic blossoms, and beneath their shade the huts of -the natives, of simple reeds or palm-leaves; the stately -palms themselves, rearing their lofty heads on the hill -sides; the canoes skimming over the blue waters, and -birds of most resplendent plumage flying from tree to -tree. They walked</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">32</a></span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">Through citron-groves and fields of yellow maize,</div> -<div class="line">Through plantain-walks where not a sunbeam plays.</div> -<div class="line">Here blue savannas fade into the sky;</div> -<div class="line">There forests frown in midnight majesty;</div> -<div class="line">Ceiba, and Indian fig, and plane sublime,</div> -<div class="line">Nature’s first-born, and reverenced by time!</div> -<div class="line">There sits the bird that speaks! there quivering rise</div> -<div class="line">Wings that reflect the glow of evening skies!</div> -<div class="line">Half bird, half fly, the fairy king of flowers,</div> -<div class="line">Reigns there, and revels through the fragrant bowers;</div> -<div class="line">Gem full of life, and joy, and song divine,</div> -<div class="line">Soon in the virgin’s graceful ear to shine.</div> -<div class="line">The poet sung, if ancient Fame speaks truth,</div> -<div class="line">“Come! follow, follow to the Fount of Youth!</div> -<div class="line">I quaff the ambrosial mists that round it rise,</div> -<div class="line">Dissolved and lost in dreams of Paradise!”</div> -<div class="line">And there called forth, to bless a happier hour,</div> -<div class="line">It met the sun in many a rainbow-shower!</div> -<div class="line">Murmuring delight, its living waters rolled</div> -<div class="line">’Mid branching palms, and amaranths of gold!</div> -<div class="line i15"><i>Rogers.</i></div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>It were an absurdity to say that they were <em>Christians</em> -who broke in upon this Elysian scene like malignant -spirits, and made that vast continent one wide theatre -of such havoc, insult, murder, and misery as never -were before witnessed on earth. But it was not exactly -in this island that this disgraceful career commenced. -Lured by the rumour of gold, which he -received from the natives, Columbus sailed southward -first to Cuba, and thence to Hispaniola. Here he was -visited by the cazique, Guacanahari, who was doomed -first to experience the villany of the Spaniards. This -excellent and kind man sent by the messengers which -Columbus had despatched to wait on him, a curious -mask of beaten gold, and when the vessel of Columbus -was immediately afterwards wrecked in standing in to -the coast, he appeared with all his people on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">33</a></span> -strand,—for the purpose of plundering and destroying -them, as we might expect from <em>savages</em>, and as the -Cazique would have been served had he been wrecked -himself on the Spanish, or on our own coast at that -time? No! but better Christian than most of those -who bore that name, he came eagerly to do the very -deed enjoined by Christ and his followers,—to succour -and to save. “The prince,” says Herrera, their own -historian, “appeared all zeal and activity at the head of -his people. He placed armed guards to keep off the -press of the natives, and to keep clear a space for the -depositing of the goods as they came to land: he sent -out as many as were needful in their canoes to put -themselves under the guidance of the Spaniards, and -to assist them all in their power in the saving of their -goods from the wreck. As they brought them to -land, he and his nobles received them, and set sentinels -over them, not suffering the people even to gratify -that curiosity which at such a crisis must have been -very great, to examine and inspect the curious articles -of a new people; and his subjects participating in all -his feelings, wept tears of sincere distress for the -sufferers, and condoled with them in their misfortune. -But as if this was not enough, the next morning, -when Columbus had removed to one of his other -vessels, the good Guacanahari appeared on board to -comfort him, and to offer all that he had to repair his -loss!”</p> - -<p>This beautiful circumstance is moreover still more -particularly related by Columbus himself, in his letter -to his sovereigns; and it was on this occasion that he -gave that character of the country and the people to -which I have just referred. Truly had he a great<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">34</a></span> -right to say that “they loved their neighbour as themselves.” -Let us see how the Spaniards and Columbus -himself followed up this sublime lesson.</p> - -<p>Columbus being now left on the coast of the new -world with but one crazy vessel,—for Pinzon the commander -of the other, had with true Spanish treachery, -set off on his way homewards to forestall the glory of -being the first bearer of the tidings of this great discovery -to Europe,—he resolved to leave the number -of men which were now inconvenient in one small -crowded vessel, on the island. To this Guacanahari -consented with his usual good nature and good faith. -Columbus erected a sort of fort for them; gave them -good advice for their conduct during his absence, and -sailed for Spain. In less than eleven months he -again appeared before this new settlement, and found -it levelled with the earth, and every man destroyed. -Scarcely had he left the island when these men had -broken out in all those acts of insult, rapacity, and -oppression on the natives which only too soon became -the uniform conduct of the <em>Christians</em>! They laid -violent hands on the women, the gold, the food of the -very people who had even kindly received them; -traversed the island in the commission of every species -of rapacity and villany, till the astonished and outraged -inhabitants now finding them fiends incarnate -instead of the superior beings which they had deemed -them, rose in wrath, and exterminated them.</p> - -<p>Columbus formed a fresh settlement for his newcomers, -and having defended it with mounds and -ramparts of earth, went on a short voyage of discovery -among the West Indian isles, and came back to find -that the same scene of lust and rapine had been acted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">35</a></span> -over again by his colony, and that the natives were -all in arms for their destruction. It is curious to read -the relation of the conduct of Columbus on this discovery, -as given by Robertson, a <em>Christian</em> and <em>Protestant</em> -historian. He tells us, on the authority of Herrera, -and of the son of Columbus himself, that the Spaniards -had outraged every human and sacred feeling of these -their kind and hospitable entertainers. That in the -voracity of their appetites, enormous as compared -with the simple temperance of the natives, they had -devoured up the maize and cassado-root, the chief -sustenance of these poor people; that their rapacity -threatened a famine; that the natives saw them building -forts and locating themselves as permanent settlers -where they had apparently come merely as guests; -and that from their lawless violence as well as their -voracity, they must soon suffer destruction in one -shape or another from their oppressors. Self preservation -prompted them to take arms for the expulsion -of such formidable foes. “<cite>It was now</cite>,” adds Robertson, -“<cite>necessary to have recourse to arms</cite>; the employing -of which against the Indians, Columbus had hitherto -avoided with the greatest solicitude.” Why necessary? -Necessary for what? is the inquiry which must -spring indignantly in every rightly-constituted mind. -Because the Spaniards had been received with unexampled -kindness, and returned it with the blackest -ingratitude; because they had by their debauched and -horrible outrages roused the people into defiance, -those innocent and abused people must be massacred? -That is a logic which might do for men who had been -educated in the law of anti-Christ instead of Christ, -and who went out with the Pope’s bull as a title to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">36</a></span> -seize on the property of other people, wherever the -abused and degraded cross had not been erected; but -it could never have been so coolly echoed by a <em>Protestant</em> -historian, if it had not been for the spurious morality -with which the Papal hierarchy had corrupted the world, -till it became as established as gospel truth. Hear -Robertson’s relation of the manner in which Columbus -repaid the <em>Christian</em> reception of these poor islanders.</p> - -<p>“The body which took the field consisted only of -two hundred foot, twenty horse, and twenty large -dogs; and how strange soever it may seem to mention -the last as composing part of a military force, -they were not perhaps the least formidable and destructive -on the whole, when employed against naked -and timid Indians. All the caziques in the island, -Guacanahari excepted, who retained an inviolable -attachment to the Spaniards, were in arms, with forces -amounting—if we may believe the Spanish historians—to -a hundred thousand men. Instead of attempting -to draw the Spaniards into the fastnesses of the woods -and mountains, they were so improvident as to take -their station in the Vega Real, the most open plain in -the country. Columbus did not allow them to perceive -their error, or to alter their position. He attacked -them during the night, when undisciplined troops are -least capable of acting with union and concert, and -obtained <em>an easy and bloodless victory</em>. The consternation -with which the Indians were filled by the noise -and havoc made by the fire-arms, by the impetuous -force of the cavalry, and the fierce onset of the dogs, -was so great, that they threw down their weapons, -and fled without attempting resistance. <em>Many were -slain; more were taken prisoners and reduced</em> to servi<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">37</a></span>tude; -and so thoroughly were the rest intimidated, -that, from that moment, they abandoned themselves -to despair, relinquishing all thoughts of contending -with aggressors whom they deemed invincible.</p> - -<p>“<em>Columbus employed several months</em> in marching -through the island, <em>and in subjecting it to the Spanish -government, without meeting with any opposition</em>. He -imposed a tribute upon all the inhabitants above the -age of fourteen. Every person who lived in those -districts where gold was found, was obliged to pay -quarterly as much gold-dust as filled a hawk’s bell; -from those in other parts of the country, twenty-five -pounds of cotton were demanded. This was the first -regular taxation of the Indians, and served as a precedent -for exactions still more intolerable.”</p> - -<p>This is a most extraordinary example of the Christian -mode of repaying benefits! These were the -very people thus treated, that a little time before had -received with tears, and every act of the most admirable -charity, Columbus and his people from the wreck. -And a Protestant historian says that this was necessary! -Again we ask, necessary for what? To shew -that Christianity was hitherto but a name, and an -excuse for the violation of every human right! There -was no necessity for Columbus to repay good with -evil; no necessity for him to add the crime of Jezebel, -“to kill and take possession.” If he really wanted to -erect the cross in the new world, and to draw every -legitimate benefit for his own country from it he had -seen that all that might be effected by legitimate -means. Kindness and faith were only wanted to lay -open the whole of the new world, and bring all its -treasures to the feet of his countrymen. The gold<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">38</a></span> -and gems might be purchased even with the toys of -European children; and commerce and civilization, if -permitted to go on hand in hand, presented prospects -of wealth and glory, such as never yet had been revealed -to the world. But Columbus, though he -believed himself to have been inspired by the Holy -Ghost to discover America,—thus commencing his -will, “In the name of the most Holy Trinity, who -inspired me with the idea, and who afterwards made -it clear to me, that by traversing the ocean westwardly, -etc.;” though Herrera calls him a man “ever -trusting in God;” and though his son, in his history of -his life, thus speaks of him:—“I believe that he was -chosen for this great service; and that because <em>he was -to be so truly an apostle</em>, as in effect he proved to be, -therefore was his origin obscure; that therein he might -the more resemble those who were called to make -known the name of the Lord from seas and rivers, -and from courts and palaces. And I believe also, -that <em>in most of his doings he was guarded by some</em> -special providence; his very name was not without -some mystery; for in it is expressed the wonder he -performed, inasmuch as <em>he conveyed to the new world</em> -the grace of the Holy Ghost.” Notwithstanding these -opinions—Columbus had been educated in the spurious -Christianity, which had blinded his naturally -honest mind to every truly Christian sentiment. It -must be allowed that he was an apostle of another -kind to those whom Christ sent out; and that this -was a novel way of conveying the Holy Ghost to the -new world. But he had got the Pope’s bull in his -pocket, and that not only gave him a right to half the -world, but made all means for its subjection, however<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">39</a></span> -diabolical, sacred in his eyes. We see him in this -transaction, notwithstanding the superiority of his -character to that of his followers, establishing himself -as the apostle and founder of that system of destruction -and enslavement of the Americans, which the -Spaniards followed up to so horrible an extent. We -see him here as the first to attack them, in their own -rightful possessions, with arms—the first to pursue -them with those ferocious dogs, which became so -infamously celebrated in the Spanish outrages on the -Americans, that some of them, as the dog Berezillo, -received the full pay of soldiers; the first to exact -gold from the natives; and to reduce them to slavery. -Thus, from the first moment of modern discovery, -and by the first discoverer himself, commenced that -apostleship of misery which has been so zealously -exercised towards the natives of all newly discovered -countries up to this hour!</p> - -<p>The immediate consequences of these acts of Columbus -were these: the natives were driven to despair -by the labours and exactions imposed upon them. -They had never till then known what labour, or the -curse of avarice was; and they formed a scheme to -drive out their oppressors by famine. They destroyed -the crops in the fields, and fled into the mountains. -But there, without food themselves, they soon perished, -and that so rapidly and miserably, that in a few months -one-third of the inhabitants of the whole island had -disappeared! Fresh succours arrived from Spain, -and soon after, as if to realize to the afflicted natives -all the horrors of the infernal regions, Spain, and at -the suggestions of Columbus too, emptied all her -gaols, and vomited all her malefactors on their devoted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">40</a></span> -shores! A piece of policy so much admired in Europe, -that it has been imitated by all other colonizing -nations, and by none so much as by England! The -consequences of this abominable system soon became -conspicuous in the distractions, contentions, and disorders -of the colony; and in order to soothe and -appease these, Columbus resorted to fresh injuries -on the natives, dividing their lands amongst his mutinous -followers, and giving away the inhabitants—the -real possessors—along with them as slaves! Thus -he was the originator of those <span class="smcap">Repartimentos</span>, or -distribution of the Indians that became the source of -such universal calamities to them, and of the extinction -of more than fifty millions of their race.</p> - -<p>Though Providence permitted these things, it did -not leave them unavenged. If ever there was a history -of the divine retribution written in characters of -light, it is that of Spain and the Spaniards in America. -On Spain itself the wrath of God seemed to fall with -a blasting and enduring curse. From being one of -the most powerful and distinguished nations of Europe, -it began from the moment that the gold of -America, gathered amidst the tears and groans, and -dyed with the blood of the miserable and perishing -natives, flowed in a full stream into it, to shrink and -dwindle, till at once poor and proud, indolent and -superstitious, it has fallen a prey to distractions that -make it the most melancholy spectacle in Europe. -On one occasion Columbus witnessed a circumstance -so singular that it struck not only him but every one -to whom the knowledge of it came. After he himself -had been disgraced and sent home in chains, being -then on another voyage of discovery,—and refused<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">41</a></span> -entrance into the port of St. Domingo by the governor—he -saw the approach of a tempest, and warned -the governor of it, as the royal fleet was on the point -of setting sail for Spain. His warning was disregarded; -the fleet set sail, having on board Bovadillo, -the ex-governor, Roldan, and other officers, men who -had been not only the fiercest enemies of Columbus, -but the most rapacious plunderers and oppressors of -the natives. The tempest came; and these men, with -sixteen vessels laden with an immense amount of -guilty wealth, were all swallowed up in the ocean—leaving -only two ships afloat, one of which contained -the property of Columbus!</p> - -<p>But the fortunes of Columbus were no less disastrous. -Much, and perhaps deservedly as he has been -pitied for the treatment which he received from an -ungrateful nation, it has always struck me that, from -the period that he departed from the noble integrity -of his character; butchered the naked Indians on their -own soil, instead of resenting and redressing their -injuries; from the hour that he set the fatal example -of hunting them with dogs, of exacting painful labours -and taxes, that he had no right to impose,—from the -moment that he annihilated their ancient peace and -liberty, the hand of God’s prosperity went from him. -His whole life was one continued scene of disasters, -vexations, and mortifications. Swarms of lawless and -rebellious spirits, as if to punish him for letting loose -on this fair continent the pestilent brood of the Spanish -prisons, ceased not to harass, and oppose him. -Maligned by these enemies, and sent to Europe in -chains; there seeking restoration in vain, he set out -on fresh discoveries. But wherever he went misfor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">42</a></span>tune -pursued him. Denied entrance into the very -countries he had discovered; defeated by the natives -that his men unrighteously attacked; shipwrecked -in Jamaica, before it possessed a single European -colony, he was there left for above twelve months, suffering -incredible hardships, and amongst his mutinous -Spaniards that threatened his life on the one hand, -and Indians weary of their presence on the other. -Having seen his authority usurped in the new world, -he returned to the old,—there the death of Isabella, -the only soul that retained a human feeling, extinguished -all hope of redress of his wrongs; and after -a weary waiting for justice on Ferdinand, he died, -worn out with grief and disappointment. He had -denied justice to the inhabitants of the world he had -found, and justice was denied him; he had condemned -them to slavery, and he was sent home in chains; he -had given over the Indians to that thraldom of despair -which broke the hearts of millions, and he himself -died broken-hearted.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">43</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER V.<br /><br /> - -<small>THE SPANIARDS IN HISPANIOLA AND CUBA.</small></h2> - -<p class="p2"><small>Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening for the -prey; to shed blood, and to destroy souls, and to get dishonest gain.</small></p> -<p class="p3"><small>Ezekiel xxii. 27.</small></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">But</span> whether Columbus or others were in power, the -miseries of the Indians went on. Bovadillo, the governor -who superseded Columbus, and loaded him with -irons, only bestowed allotments of Indians with a -more liberal hand, to ingratiate himself with the fierce -adventurers who filled the island. Raging with the -quenchless thirst of gold, these wretches drove the poor -Indians in crowds to the mountains, and compelled -them to labour so mercilessly in the mines, that they -melted away as rapidly as snow in the sun. It is true -that the atrocities thus committed reaching the ears -of Isabella, instructions were from time to time sent -out, declaring the Indians free subjects, and enjoining -mercy towards them; but like all instructions of the -sort sent so far from home, they were resisted and set -aside. The Indians, ever and anon, stung with despair, -rose against their oppressors, but it was only to -perish by the sword instead of the mine—they were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">44</a></span> -pursued as rebels, their dwellings razed from the -earth, and their caziques, when taken, hanged as malefactors.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line i11">In vain the simple race</div> -<div class="line">Kneeled to the iron sceptre of their grace,</div> -<div class="line">Or with weak arms their fiery vengeance braved;</div> -<div class="line">They came, they saw, they conquered, they enslaved,</div> -<div class="line">And they destroyed! The generous heart they broke;</div> -<div class="line">They crushed the timid neck beneath the yoke;</div> -<div class="line">Where’er to battle marched their fell array,</div> -<div class="line">The sword of conquest ploughed resistless way;</div> -<div class="line">Where’er from cruel toil they sought repose,</div> -<div class="line">Around the fires of devastation rose.</div> -<div class="line">The Indian as he turned his head in flight,</div> -<div class="line">Beheld his cottage flaming through the night,</div> -<div class="line">And, mid the shrieks of murder on the wind,</div> -<div class="line">Heard the mute bloodhound’s death-step close behind.</div> -<div class="line">The conquest o’er, the valiant in their graves,</div> -<div class="line">The wretched remnant dwindled into slaves;</div> -<div class="line">Condemned in pestilential cells to pine,</div> -<div class="line">Delving for gold amidst the gloomy mine.</div> -<div class="line">The sufferer, sick of life-protracting breath,</div> -<div class="line">Inhaled with joy the fire-damp blast of death,—</div> -<div class="line">Condemned to fell the mountain palm on high,</div> -<div class="line">That cast its shadow to the evening sky,</div> -<div class="line">Ere the tree trembled to his feeble stroke,</div> -<div class="line">The woodman languished, and his heart-strings broke;</div> -<div class="line">Condemned in torrid noon, with palsied hand,</div> -<div class="line">To urge the slow plough o’er the obdurate land,</div> -<div class="line">The labourer, smitten by the sun’s fierce ray,</div> -<div class="line">A corpse along the unfinished furrow lay.</div> -<div class="line">O’erwhelmed at length with ignominious toil,</div> -<div class="line">Mingling their barren ashes with the soil,</div> -<div class="line">Down to the dust the Charib people past,</div> -<div class="line">Like autumn foliage withering in the blast;</div> -<div class="line">The whole race sunk beneath the oppressor’s rod,</div> -<div class="line">And left a blank amongst the works of God.</div> -<div class="line i15"><i>Montgomery.</i></div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>In all the atrocities and indignities practised on -these poor islanders, there were none which excite a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">45</a></span> -stronger indignation than the treatment of the generous -female cazique, Anacoana. This is the narrative of -Robertson, drawn from Ovieda, Herrera, and Las -Casas. “The province anciently named Zaragua, -which extends from the fertile plain where Leogane -is now situated, to the western extremity of the island, -was subject to a female cazique, named Anacoana, -highly respected by the natives. She, from the partial -fondness with which the women of America were -attached to the Europeans, had always courted the -friendship of the Spaniards, and loaded them with -benefits. But some of the adherents of Roldan having -settled in her country, were so much exasperated at -her endeavouring to restrain their excesses, that they -accused her of having formed a plan to throw off the -yoke, and to exterminate the Spaniards. Ovando, -though he well knew what little credit was due to -such profligate men, marched without further inquiry -towards Zaragua, with three hundred foot, and seventy -horsemen. To prevent the Indians from taking alarm -at this hostile appearance, he gave out that his sole -intention was to visit Anacoana, to whom his countrymen -had been so much indebted, in the most respectful -manner, and to regulate with her the mode of -levying the tribute payable to the king of Spain.</p> - -<p>“Anacoana, in order to receive this illustrious guest -with due honour, assembled the principal men in -her dominions, to the number of three hundred, and -advancing at the head of these, accompanied by a -great crowd of persons of inferior rank, she welcomed -Ovando with songs and dances, according to the -mode of the country, and conducted him to the place -of her residence. There he was feasted for some days,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">46</a></span> -with all the kindness of simple hospitality, and amused -with the games and spectacles usual among the Americans -upon occasions of mirth and festivity. But -amid the security which this inspired, Ovando was -meditating the destruction of his unsuspicious entertainer -and her subjects; and the mean perfidy with -which he executed this scheme, equalled his barbarity -in forming it.</p> - -<p>“Under colour of exhibiting to the Indians the parade -of an European tournament, he advanced with his -troops in battle array towards the house in which -Anacoana and the chiefs who attended her were assembled. -The infantry took possession of all the avenues -which led to the village. The horsemen encompassed -the house. These movements were the objects of -admiration without any mixture of fear, until upon a -signal which had been concerted, the Spaniards suddenly -drew their swords and rushed upon the Indians, -defenceless, and astonished at an act of treachery -which exceeded the conception of undesigning men. -In a moment, Anacoana was secured; all her attendants -were seized and bound; fire was set to the -house; and without examination or conviction, all -these unhappy persons, the most illustrious in their -country, were consumed in the flames. Anacoana -was reserved for a more ignominious fate. She was -carried in chains to St. Domingo, and after the formality -of a trial before Spanish judges, was condemned -upon the evidence of those very men who had -betrayed her, <em>to be publicly hanged</em>!”</p> - -<p>It is impossible for human treachery, ingratitude, -and cruelty to go beyond that. All that we could relate -of the deeds of the Spaniards in Hispaniola, would be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">47</a></span> -but the continuance of this system of demon oppression. -The people, totally confounded with this instance -of unparalleled villany and butchery, sunk into the -inanition of despair, and were regularly ground away -by the unremitted action of excessive labour and -brutal abuse. In fifteen years they sunk from one -million to sixty thousand!—a consumption of <em>upwards -of sixty thousand souls a-year in one island</em>! Calamities, -instead of decreasing, only accumulated on their -heads. Isabella of Spain died; and the greedy adventurers -feeling that the only person at the head of the -government that had any real sympathy with the -sufferings of the natives was gone, gave themselves -now boundless license. Ferdinand conferred grants -of Indians on his courtiers, as the least expensive -mode of getting rid of their importunities. Ovando, -the governor, gave to his own friends and creatures -similar gifts of living men, to be worked or crushed to -death at their mercy—to perish of famine, or by the -suicidal hand of despair. The avarice and rapacity of -the adventurers became perfectly rabid. Nobles at -home, farmed out these Indians given by Ferdinand -to those who were going out to take part in the -nefarious deeds—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">They sate at home, and turned an easy wheel,</div> -<div class="line">That set sharp racks at work to pinch and peel.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>The small and almost nominal sum which had been -allowed to the natives for their labour was now denied -them; they were made absolute and unconditional -slaves, and groaned and wasted away in mines and -gold-dust streams, rapidly as those streams themselves -flowed. The quantity of wealth drawn from their -very vitals was enormous. Though Ovando had reduced<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">48</a></span> -the royal portion to one-fifth, yet it now -amounted to above a hundred thousand pounds sterling -annually—making the whole annual produce of -gold in that island, five hundred thousand pounds -sterling; and considering the embezzlement and waste -that must take place amongst a tribe of adventurers -on fire with the love of gold, and fearing neither God -nor man in their pursuit of it, probably nearer a -million. Enormous fortunes sprung up with mushroom -rapidity; luxury and splendour broke out with -proportionate violence at home, and legions of fresh -tormentors flocked like harpies to this strange scene -of misery and aggrandizement. To add to all this, -the sugar-cane—that source of a thousand crimes and -calamities—was introduced! It flourished; and like -another upas-tree, breathed fresh destruction upon -this doomed people. Plantations and sugar-works -were established, and became general; and the last -and faintest glimmer of hope for the islanders was -extinguished! Gold <em>might</em> possibly become exhausted, -worked as the mines were with such reckless voracity; -but the cane would spring afresh from year to year, -and the accursed juice would flow for ever.</p> - -<p>The destruction of human life now went on with -such velocity, that some means were necessarily -devised to obtain a fresh supply of victims, or the -Spaniards must quit the island, and seek to establish -their inferno somewhere else. But having perfected -themselves in that part of Satan’s business which -consisted in tormenting, they now very characteristically -assumed the other part of the fiend’s trade—that -of alluring and inveigling the unsuspicious into their -snares. Were this not a portion of unquestionable his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">49</a></span>tory, -related by the Spanish historians themselves, it -is so completely an assumption of the art of the -“father of lies,” and betrays such a consciousness of -the real nature of the business they were engaged in, -that it would be looked upon as a happy burlesque of -some waggish wit upon them. The fact however -stands on the authority of Gomera, Herrera, Oviedo, -and others. Ovando, the governor, seeing the rapidly -wasting numbers of the natives, and hearing the complaints -of the adventurers, began to cast about for a -remedy, and at length this most felicitous scheme, -worthy of Satan in the brightest moment of his existence, -burst upon him.—There were the inhabitants of -the Lucayo Isles, living in heathen idleness, and ignorant -alike of <em>Christian</em> mines and <em>Christian</em> sugar-works. -It was fitting that they should not be left in -such criminal and damnable neglect any longer. He -proposed, therefore, that these benighted creatures -should be brought to the elysium of Hispaniola, and -<em>civilized</em> in the gold mines, and <em>instructed in the Christian -religion</em> in the sugar-mills! The idea was too -happy, and too full of the milk of <em>Christian</em> kindness to -be lost. At once, all the amiable gold-hunters clapped -their hands with ecstasy at the prospect of so <em>many -new martyrs to the Christian faith</em>; and Ferdinand, the -benevolent and <em>most Catholic</em> Ferdinand, assented to -it with the zeal of a royal nursing father of the church! -A fleet was speedily fitted out for the benighted Lucayos; -and the poor inhabitants there, wasting their -existence in merely cultivating their maize, plucking -their oranges, or fishing in their streams, just as their -need or their inclination prompted them, were told by -the Spaniards that they came from the heaven of their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">50</a></span> -ancestors—isles of elysian beauty and fertility; where -all pain and death were unknown, and where their -friends and relations, living in heavenly felicity, -needed only their society to render that felicity perfect!—that -these beatified relatives had prayed them to -hasten and bring them to their own scene of enjoyment—now -waited impatiently for their arrival—and that -they were ready to convey them thither, to the -fields of heaven, in fact, without the black transit of -death! The simple creatures, hearing a story which -chimed in so exactly with their fondest belief, flocked -on board with a blind credulity, not even to be exceeded -by the Bubble-dupes of modern England, and -soon found themselves in the grasp of fiends, and -added to the remaining numbers of the Hispaniolan -wretches in the mines and plantations. Forty thousand -of these poor people were decoyed by this hellish -artifice; and Satan himself, on witnessing this Spanish -<em>chef d’œuvre</em>, must have felt ashamed of his inferiority -of tact in his own profession!<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">3</a></p> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">51</a></span></p> -<p>But the climax yet remained to be put to the inflictions -on these islanders:—and that was found in the -pearl fishery of Cubagua. Columbus had discovered -this little wretched island—Columbus had suggested -and commenced the slavery of the Indians,—and it -seemed as though a Columbus was to complete the -fabric of their misery. Don Diego, Columbus’s son, -had compelled an acknowledgment of his claims in -the vice-royalty of the New World. He had enrolled -himself by his marriage with the daughter of Don Ferdinand -de Toledo, brother of the Duke of Alva, and a -relative of the king, amongst the highest nobility of -the land. Coming over to assume his hereditary station, -he brought a new swarm of these proud and -avaricious hidalgoes with him. He seized upon and -distributed amongst them whatever portions of Indians -remained unconsumed; and casting his eyes on this -sand-bank of Cubagua, he established a colony of -pearl-fishers upon it—where the Indians, and especially -the wretched ones decoyed from the Lucayos, -were compelled to find in diving the last extremity -of their sufferings.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">52</a></span></p> -<p>And was there no voice raised against these dreadful -enormities? Yes—and with the success which -always attends the attempt to defend the weak against -the powerful and rapacious in distant colonies. The -Dominican monks, much to their honour, inveighed, -from time to time, against them; but the Franciscans, -on the other hand, sanctioned them, on the old -plea of policy and necessity. It was <em>necessary</em> that the -Spaniards should compel the Indians to labour, or they -must abandon their grand source of wealth. That -was conclusive. Where are the people that carry -their religion or their humanity beyond their interest? -The thing was not to be expected. One man, indeed, -roused by the oppressions of Diego Columbus, and -his notorious successor, Albuquerque, a needy man, -actually appointed by Ferdinand to the office of Distributor -of the Indians!—one man, Bartholomew de -Las Casas, dared to stand forward as their champion, -and through years of unremitting toil to endeavour to -arrest from the government some mitigation of their -condition. Once or twice he appeared on the eve of -success. At one time Ferdinand declared the Indians -free subjects, and to be treated as such; but the furious -opposition which arose in the colony on this decision, -soon drew from the king another declaration, -to wit, that the Pope’s bull gave a clear and satisfactory -right to the Indians—that no man must trouble -his conscience on account of their treatment, for the -king and council would take all that on their own -responsibility, and that the monks must cease to trouble -the colony with their scruples. Yet the persevering -Las Casas, by personal importunity at the -court of Spain, painting the miseries and destruction<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">53</a></span> -of the Indians, now reduced from a million—not to -sixty thousand as before,<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> but to <em>fourteen thousand</em>—again -succeeded in obtaining a deputation of three -monks of St. Jerome, as superintendents of all the -colonies, empowered to relieve the Indians from their -heavy yoke; and returned thither himself, in his official -character of Protector of the Indians. But all his -efforts ended in smoke. His coadjutors, on reaching -Hispaniola, were speedily convinced by the violence -and other persuasives of the colonies, that it was -<em>necessary</em> that the Indians should be slaves; and the -only resource of the benevolent Las Casas was to endeavour -to found a new colony where he might employ -the Indians as free men, and civilize and Christianize -them. But this was as vain a project as the other. -His countrymen were now prowling along every shore -of the New World that they were acquainted with, -kidnapping and carrying off the inhabitants as slaves, -to supply the loss of those they had worked to death. -The dreadful atrocities committed in these kidnapping -cruizes, had made the name of the Spaniards terrible -wherever they had been; and as the inhabitants could -no longer anywhere be <em>decoyed</em>, he found the Spanish -admiral on the point of laying waste with fire and -sword, so as to seize on all its people in their flight, -the very territory granted him in which to try his new -experiment of humanity. The villany was accomplished; -and amid the desolation of Cumana—the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">54</a></span>bulk of whose people were carried off as slaves to -Hispaniola, and the rest having fled from their burning -houses to the hills—the sanguine Las Casas still -attempted to found his colony. It need not be said -that it failed; the Protector of the Indians retired to -a monastery, and the work of Indian misery went on -unrestrained. To their oppression, a new and more -lasting one had been added; from their destruction, -indeed, had now sprung that sorest curse of both -blacks and whites—that foulest stain on the Christian -name—the Slave Trade. Charles V. of Spain, with -that perfect freedom to do as they pleased with all -heathen nations which the Papal church had given -to Spain and Portugal, had granted a patent to one of -his Flemish favourites, for the importation of negroes -into America. This patent he had sold to the Genoese, -and these worthy merchants were now busily employed -in that traffic in men which is so <em>congenial</em> to <em>Christian</em> -maxims, that it has from that time been the favourite -pursuit of the <em>Christian</em> nations; has been defended by -all the arguments of the most civilized assemblies in -the world, and by the authority of Holy Writ, and is -going on at this hour with undiminished horrors.</p> - -<p>It has been charged on Las Casas, that with singular -inconsistency he himself suggested this diabolical -trade; but of that, and of this trade, we shall say more -anon. We will now conclude this chapter with the -brief announcement, that Diego Columbus had now -conquered Cuba, by the agency of Diego Velasquez, -one of his father’s captains, and thus added another -grand field for the consumption of natives, and the -importation of slaves. We are informed that the -Cubaans were so unwarlike that no difficulty was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">55</a></span> -found in overrunning this fine island, except from a -chief called Hatuey, who had fled from Hispaniola, -and knew enough of the Spaniards not to desire their -further acquaintance. His obstinacy furnishes this -characteristic anecdote on the authority of Las Casas. -“He stood upon the defensive at their first landing, -and endeavoured to drive them back to their ships. -His feeble troops, however, were soon broken and -dispersed; and he himself being taken prison, Velasquez, -according to the barbarous maxim of the Spaniards, -considered him as a slave who had taken arms -against his master, and condemned him to the flames.”</p> - -<p>When Hatuey was fastened to the stake, a Franciscan -friar, <em>labouring to convert him</em>, promised him immediate -admission into the joys of heaven, if he could -embrace the Christian faith. “Are there any Spaniards,” -says he, after some pause, “in that region of -bliss which you describe?” “Yes,” replied the monk, -“but such only as are worthy and good.” “The best -of them,” returned the indignant Cazique, “have -neither worth nor goodness! I will not go to a place -where I may meet with that accursed race!”<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">5</a></p> - -<p>The torch was clapped to the pile—Hatuey perished—and -the Spaniards added Cuba to the crown without -the loss of a man on their own part.</p> -<hr /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">56</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER VI.<br /><br /> - -<small>THE SPANIARDS IN JAMAICA AND OTHER WEST INDIAN -ISLANDS.</small></h2> - -<p><span class="smcap">The</span> story of one West India Island, is the story of -all. Whether Spaniards, French, or English took -possession, the slaughter and oppression of the natives -followed. I shall, therefore, quit these fair islands -for the present, with a mere passing glance at a few -characteristic facts.</p> - -<p>Herrera says that Jamaica was settled prosperously, -because Juan de Esquival having brought the natives -to submission <em>without any effusion of blood</em>, they -laboured in planting cotton, and raising other commodities, -which yielded great profit. But Esquival in -a very few years died in his office, and was buried in -Sevilla Nueva, a town which he had built and destined -for the seat of government. There is a dark tradition -connected with the destruction of this town, which would -make us infer that the mildness of Esquival’s government -was not imitated by his successors. The Spanish -planters assert that the place was destroyed by a vast -army of ants, but the popular tradition still triumphs -over this tradition of the planters. It maintains, -that the injured and oppressed natives rose in their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">57</a></span> -despair and cut off every one of their tyrants, and laid -the place in such utter and awful ruin that it never -was rebuilt, but avoided as a spot of horror. The -city must have been planned with great magnificence, -and laid out in great extent, for Sloane, who visited -it in 1688, could discover the traces or remains of a -fort, a splendid cathedral and monastery, the one inhabited -by Peter Martyr, who was abbot and chief -missionary of the island. He found a pavement at -two miles distance from the church, an indication of -the extent of the place, and also many materials for -grand arches and noble buildings that had never been -erected. The ruins of this city were now overgrown -with wood, and turned black with age. Sloane saw -timber trees growing within the walls of the cathedral -upwards of sixty feet in height; and General Venables -in his dispatches to Cromwell, preserved in Thurlow’s -State Papers, vol. iii., speaks of Seville as a town -that had existed <em>in times past</em>.</p> - -<p>Both ancient tradition, and recent discoveries, says -Bryan Edwards, in his History of the West Indies, -give too much room to believe that the work of destruction -proceeded not less rapidly in this island, -after Esquival’s death, than in Hispaniola; for to this -day caves are frequently discovered in the mountains, -wherein the ground is covered almost entirely with -human bones; the miserable remains, without all -doubt, of some of the unfortunate aborigines, who, -immured in those recesses, were probably reduced to -the sad alternative of perishing with hunger or bleeding -under the swords of their merciless invaders. -That these are the skeletons of Indians is sufficiently -attested by the skulls, which are preternaturally com<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">58</a></span>pressed. -“When, therefore,” says Edwards, “we are -told of the fate of the Spanish inhabitants of Seville, it is -impossible to feel any other emotion than an indignant -wish that the story were better authenticated, and -that heaven, in mercy, had permitted the poor Indians -in the same moment to have extirpated their oppressors -altogether! But unhappily this faint glimmering -of returning light to the wretched natives, was soon -lost in everlasting darkness, since it pleased the Almighty, -for reasons inscrutable to finite wisdom, to -permit the total destruction of this devoted people; -who, to the number of 60,000, on the most moderate -estimate, were at length wholly cut off and exterminated -by the Spaniards—not a single descendant of -either sex being alive when the English took the -island in 1655, nor I believe for a century before.”</p> - -<p>The French historian, Du Tertre, informs us that -his countrymen made a <em>lawful purchase</em> of the island -of Grenada from the natives for <em>some glass beads, -knives and hatchets, and a couple of bottles of brandy for -the chief himself</em>. The nature of the bargain may be -pretty well understood by the introduction of the -brandy for the chief, and by the general massacre -which followed, when Du Tertre himself informs us -that Du Parquet, the very general who made this -bargain, gave orders for extirpating the natives -altogether, which was done with circumstances of the -most savage barbarity, even to the women and children. -The same historian assures us that St. Christopher’s, -the principal of the Caribbee Isles, was won -by the joint exertions of Thomas Warner, an Englishman, -and D’Esnambuc, the captain of a French -privateer, who both seem to have entered with hearty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">59</a></span> -good-will into the business of massacre and extermination; -by which means, and by excessive labour, the -total aboriginal population of the West Indian islands -were speedily reduced from six millions, at which Las -Casas estimated them, to nothing.</p> - -<p>Let any one read the following account from Herrera -and Peter Martyr, of the manner in which the -Spaniards were received in these islands:—“When -any of the Spaniards came near to a village, the most -ancient and venerable of the Indians, or the cazique -himself, if present, came out to meet them, and gently -conducting them into their habitations, seated them -on stools of ebony curiously ornamented. These -benches seemed to be seats of honour reserved for -their guests, for the Indians threw themselves on the -ground, and kissing the hands and feet of the Spaniards, -offered them fruits and the choicest of their -viands, entreating them to prolong their stay with such -solicitude and reverence as demonstrated that they -considered them as beings of a superior nature, whose -presence consecrated their dwellings, and brought a -blessing with it. One old man, a native of Cuba, -approaching Columbus with great reverence, and presenting -a basket of fruit, thus addressed him:—‘Whether -you are divinities or mortal men we know not. -You come into these countries with a force, against -which, were we inclined to resist it, resistance would -be a folly. We are all therefore at your mercy: but -if you are men subject to mortality like ourselves, you -cannot be unapprised that after this life there is -another, wherein a very different portion is allotted to -good and bad men. If, therefore, you expect to die, -and believe with us that every one is to be rewarded<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">60</a></span> -in a future state according to his conduct in the -present, you will do no hurt to those who do none to -you.’”</p> - -<p>Let the reader also, after listening to these exalted -sentiments addressed by a <em>savage</em>, as we are pleased to -term him, to a <em>Christian</em>, a term likewise used with as -little propriety, read this account of the reception of -Bartholomew Columbus by Behechio, a powerful -cazique of Hispaniola. “As they approached the king’s -dwelling, they were met by his wives to the number -of thirty, carrying branches of the palm-tree in their -hands, who first saluted the Spaniards with a solemn -dance, accompanied with a song. These matrons -were succeeded by a train of virgins, distinguished as -such by their appearance; the former wearing aprons -of cotton cloth, while the latter were arrayed only in -the innocence of pure nature. Their hair was tied -simply with a fillet over their foreheads, or suffered to -flow gracefully on their shoulders and bosoms. Their -limbs were finely proportioned, and their complexions -though brown, were smooth, shining and lovely. The -Spaniards were struck with admiration, believing that -they beheld the dryads of the woods, and the nymphs -of the fountains realizing ancient fable. The branches -which they bore in their hands, they now delivered -with lowly obeisance to the lieutenant, who, entering -the palace, found a plentiful, and according to the -Indian mode of living, a splendid repast already provided. -As night approached, the Spaniards were -conducted to separate cottages, wherein each was -accommodated with a cotton hammock, and the next -morning they were again entertained with dancing -and singing. This was followed by matches of wrest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">61</a></span>ling -and running for prizes; after which two great -bodies of armed Indians suddenly appeared, and a -mock engagement ensued, exhibiting their modes of -warfare with the Charaibes. For three days were the -Spaniards thus royally entertained, and on the fourth -the affectionate Indians regretted their departure.”</p> - -<p>What beautiful pictures of a primitive age! what a -more than realization of the age of gold! and what a -dismal fall to that actual <em>age of gold</em> which was coming -upon them! To turn from these delightful scenes to -the massacres and oppressions of millions of these -gentle and kind people, and then to the groans of -millions of wretched Africans, which through three -long centuries have succeeded them, is one of the -most melancholy and amazing things in the criminal -history of the earth; nor can we wonder at the feelings -with which Bryan Edwards reviews this awful subject:—“All -the murders and desolations of the most -pitiless tyrants that ever diverted themselves with the -pangs and convulsions of their fellow-creatures, fall -infinitely short of the bloody enormities committed by -the Spanish nation in the conquest of the New World—a -conquest, on a low estimate, effected by the -murder of ten millions of the species! After reading -these accounts, who can help forming an indignant -wish that the hand of Heaven, by some miraculous -interposition, had swept these European tyrants from -the face of the earth, who like so many beasts of prey, -roamed round the world only to desolate and destroy; -and more remorseless than the fiercest savage, thirsted -for human blood without having the impulse of natural -appetite to plead in their defence!”</p> -<hr /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">62</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER VII.<br /><br /> - -<small>THE SPANIARDS IN MEXICO.</small></h2> - -<div class="bbox"> -<p class="p2"><small>And he knew their desolate palaces, and he laid waste their cities.</small></p> - -<p class="p3"><small><i>Ezekiel</i> xix. 7.</small></p></div> - -<p class="center"><small>How Cortez conquered,—Montezuma fell.—<i>Montgomery.</i></small></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">Much of a Southern Sea they spake,</div> -<div class="line">And of that glorious city won,</div> -<div class="line">Near the setting of the sun,</div> -<div class="line">Throned in a silver lake:</div> -<div class="line">Of seven kings in chains of gold,</div> -<div class="line">And deeds of death by tongue untold,—</div> -<div class="line">Deeds such as breathed in secret there,</div> -<div class="line">Had shaken the confession-chair!—<i>Rogers.</i><br /><br /></div> -</div></div></div> - -<p><span class="smcap">Six</span> and twenty years had now elapsed since Columbus -arrived in the New World. During this period the -Spaniards had not merely committed the crimes we -have been detailing, but they had considerably extended -their discoveries. Columbus, who first discovered -the West Indian islands, was the first also to -discover the mainland of America. He reached the -mouth of the Orinoco; traversed the coasts of Paria -and Cumana; Yanez Pinzon, steering southward, -had crossed the line to the river Amazon; the Portu<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">63</a></span>guese -under Alvarez Cabral had by mere accident -made the coast of Brazil; Bastidas and De la Cosa -had discovered the coast of Tierra Firmè; in his -fourth voyage, Columbus had reached Porto Bello in -Panama; Pinzon and De Solis discovered Yucatan, -and in a second voyage extended their route southward -beyond the Rio de la Plata; Ponce de Leon -had discovered Florida; and Balboa in Darien had -discovered the South Sea. These were grand steps -in discovery towards those mighty kingdoms that were -soon to burst upon them. Cordova discovered the -mouth of the river Potonchan, beyond Campeachy; -and finally, Grijalva ranged along the whole coast of -Mexico from Tabasco to the river Panuco. Of their -transactions on these coasts during their progress in -discovery, nothing further need be said than that they -were characterized by their usual indifference to the -rights and feelings of the natives, and that, finding -them for the most part of a more warlike disposition, -several of these commanders had suffered severely -from them, and some of them lost their lives.</p> - -<p>But a strange and astounding epoch was now at -hand. The names of Cortez and Pizarro, Mexico -and Peru, are become sounds familiar to all ears—linked -together as in a spell of wild wonder, and -stand as the very embodiment of all that is marvellous, -dazzling, and romantic in history. Here were vast -empires, suddenly starting from the veil of ages into -the presence of the European world, with the glitter -of a golden opulence beyond the very extravagance -of Arabian fable; populous as they were affluent; -with a new and peculiar civilization; with arts and a -literature unborrowed of other realms, and unlike<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">64</a></span> -those of any other. Here were those fairy and most -interesting kingdoms as suddenly assaulted and subdued -by two daring adventurers with a mere handful -of followers; and as suddenly destroyed! Their -young civilization, their fair and growing fabric of -policy, ruthlessly dashed down and utterly annihilated; -their princes murdered in cold blood; their wealth -dissipated like a morning dream; and their swarming -people crushed into slaves, or swept from their cities -and their fair fields, as a harvest is swept away by the -sickle!</p> - -<p>It is difficult, amid the intoxication of the imagination -on contemplating such a spectacle,—for there is -nothing like it in the history of the whole world—it -is difficult, dazzled by military triumph, and seduced -by the old sophisms of glory and adventure, to bring -the mind steadily to contemplate the real nature and -consequences of these events. The names of Cortez -and Pizarro, indeed, through all the splendour of that -renown with which the acclamations of their interested -cotemporaries, and the false morality of their historians -have surrounded them, still retain the gloom -and terror of their cruelties. But this is derived -rather from particular acts of outrageous atrocity, -than from a just estimate of the total villany and -unrighteous nature of their entire undertakings. -Their entrance, assault, and subduction of the kingdoms -of Mexico and Peru, were from first to last, -<em>in limine et in termino</em>, the acts of daring robbers, on -flame with the thirst of gold, and of a spurious and -fanatical renown,—setting at defiance every sentiment -of justice, mercy and right, and bound by no -scruples of honour or conscience, in the pursuit of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">65</a></span> -their object. It is not to be denied that in the prosecution -of their schemes, they displayed the most -chivalrous courage, and Cortez the most consummate -address,—but these are the attributes of the arch-fiend -himself—boundless ambition, gigantic talent, the most -matchless and successful address without one feeling -of pity, or one sentiment of goodness! These surely -are not the qualities for which Christians ought to -applaud such men as Cortez and Pizarro! They are -these false and absurd notions, derived from the spirit -of gentile antiquity, that have so long mocked the -progress of Christianity, and held civilization in abeyance. -It is to these old sophisms that we owe all -the political evils under which we groan, and under -which we have made all nations that have felt our -power groan too. To every truly enlightened and -Christian philosopher can there be a more melancholy -subject of contemplation, than these romantic empires -thus barbarously destroyed by an irruption of worse -than Goths and Vandals? But that melancholy must -be tenfold augmented, when we reflect what <em>would</em> -have been the fate of these realms if Europe had been -not nominally, but <em>really</em> Christianized at the moment -of their discovery. If it had learned that the “peace on -earth and good-will towards men,” with which the children -of heaven heralded the gospel into the world, was -not a mere flourish of rhetoric,—not a mere phrase of -eastern poetry, “beautiful exceedingly;” but actually -the promulgation of the grandest and most pregnant -axiom in social philosophy, that had ever been, or -should be made known to mankind, or that it was -possible for heaven itself from the infinitude of its -blessedness to send down to it. That in it lay con<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">66</a></span>centrated -the perfection of civil policy, the beauty of -social life, the harmony of nations, and the prosperity -of every mercantile adventure. That it was the -triumphant basis, on which arts and sciences, literature -and poetry, should raise their proudest fabrics, -and society from its general adoption, date its genuine -civilization and a new era of glory and enjoyment. -Suppose that to have been the mind and feeling of -Europe at that time—and it is merely to suppose it to -be what it pretended to be—in possession of Christianity—what -would have been the simple consequence? -To the wonder that thrilled through Europe -at the tidings of such discovered states, an admiration -as lively would have succeeded. Vast kingdoms -in the heart of the new world, with cities and -cultivated fields; with temples and palaces; monarchs -of great state and splendour; vessels of silver and -gold in gorgeous abundance; municipal police; national -couriers; and hieroglyphic writing, and records -of their own invention! Why, what interesting -intelligence to every lover of philosophy, of literature, -and of the study of human nature! Genuine intelligence, -and enlightened curiosity would have flocked -thither to look and admire; genuine philanthropy, to -give fresh strength and guidance to this germinating -civilization,—and Christian spirits would have glowed -with delight at the thought of shewing, in the elevated -virtues, the justice, generosity and magnanimity derived -by them from their faith, the benefits which it -could confer on these growing states.</p> - -<p>But to have expected anything of this kind from -the Spaniards, would have been the height of folly. -They had no more notion of what Christianity is, than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">67</a></span> -the Great Mogul had. They knew no more than -what Rome chose to tell them. They were not distinguished -by one Christian virtue,—for they had -been instructed in none. They were not more barbarous -to the Americans, than they were faithless, -jealous, malignant, and quarrelsome amongst each -other. Disorderly and insubordinate as soldiers, -nothing but the terrors of their destructive arms, and -the fatal paralysis of mind which singular prophesies -had cast on the Americans, could have prevented -them from being speedily swept away in the midst of -their riot and contention. The idea which the Spaniards -had of Christianity, is best seen in the form of -proclamation which Ojeda made to the inhabitants of -Tierra Firmè, and which became the Spanish model -in all future usurpations of the kind. After stating -that the popes, as the successors of St. Peter, were -the possessors of the world, it thus went on: -“One of these pontiffs, as lord of the world, hath -made a grant of these islands, and of Tierra Firmè of -the ocean sea, to the Catholic kings of Castile, Don -Ferdinand and Donna Isabella of glorious memory, -and their successors, our sovereigns, with all they contain, -as is more fully expressed in certain deeds passed -upon that occasion, which you may see if you desire -it, (Indians, who neither knew Latin, Spanish, nor the -art of reading!). Thus his majesty is king and lord -of these islands, and of the continent, in virtue of -this donation; and as king and lord aforesaid, most of -the islands to which his title hath been notified, have -recognised his majesty, and now yield obedience and -subjection to him as their lord, <em>voluntarily and without -resistance</em>! and instantly, as soon as they received<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">68</a></span> -information (from the sword and musket!) they -obeyed the religious men sent by the king to preach -to them, and <em>to instruct them in our holy faith</em>!... -You are <em>bound and obliged</em> (true enough!) to act in the -same manner.... If you do this, you act well, -and perform that to which you are bound and obliged; -his majesty, and I in his name, <em>will receive you with -love and kindness</em>, and <em>will leave you and your children -free and exempt from servitude, and in the enjoyment of -all you possess, in the same manner as the inhabitants of -the islands</em>! (ay, love and kindness, <em>such</em> as they had -shewn to the islanders. Satan’s genuine glozing—“lies -like truth, and yet most truly lies.”) Besides -this, his majesty <em>will bestow upon you many privileges, -exemptions, and rewards</em>! (Ay, such as they had bestowed -on the islanders—but here begins the simple -truth.) But if you will not comply, or maliciously -delay to obey my injunctions, then, <em>with the help of -God</em>, I will enter your country by force; I will carry -on war against you with the utmost violence; I will -subject you to the yoke of the church and the king; -I will take your wives and children, and will make -slaves of them, and sell or dispose of them according -to his majesty’s pleasure; I will seize your goods, and -do all the mischief in my power to you as rebellious -subjects, who will not acknowledge or submit to their -lawful sovereign. And I protest that all the bloodshed -and calamities which shall follow are to be imputed -to you, and not to his majesty, or to me, or to -the gentlemen who serve under me, etc.”—<i>Herrera.</i></p> - -<p>Here then we have the romance stripped away from -such ruffians as Cortez and Pizarro. We have here -the very warrant under which they acted—a tissue of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">69</a></span> -such most impudent fictions, and vindictive truths, as -could only issue from that great office of delusion and -oppression which corrupted all Europe with its abominable -doctrine. The last sentence, however, betrays -the inward feeling and consciousness of those who -used it, that blood-guiltiness was not perfectly removed -to their satisfaction, and is a miserable attempt at -further self-delusion. These apostles of the sword, -before whose proclamation our sarcasms against Mahomet -and his sword-creed, fall to the ground, knew only -too well that all their talk of love and kindness to the -islanders was the grossest falsehood. The Pope’s bull -could not blind them to that; and though the misery -they inflicted is past, Europe still needs the warning -of their deeds, to open its eyes to the nature of much -of its own morality.</p> - -<p>Cortez commenced his career against Mexico with -breach of faith to his employer. It was villain using -villain, and with the ordinary results. Velasquez, the -governor of Cuba, who had sent out Grijalva, roused -by the description of the new and beautiful country -which he had coasted, now sought for a man, so humble -in his pretensions and so destitute of alliance, that -he might trust him with a fleet and force for the acquisition -of it. Such a man he believed he had found in -Hernando Cortez,—a man, like many other men in -Spain, of noble blood, but very ignoble fortune—poor, -proud, so hot and overbearing in his disposition -and so dissipated in his habits, that his father was glad -to send him out as an adventurer. Ovando, governor -of Hispaniola, the notorious betrayer of Anacoana, and -murderer of her chiefs, was his relation, and received -him with open arms as a fit instrument in such work<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">70</a></span> -as he had to do. Cortez attended Velasquez in that -expedition to Cuba in which the cazique Hatuey was -burnt at the stake for his resistance to their invasion, -and died bearing that memorable testimony to Spanish -Christianity. Velasquez, who had acted the traitor -towards Diego Columbus, whose deputy in the -government of Cuba he was, had however scarcely -sent out Cortez, when he conceived a suspicion that -he would show no better faith than he himself had -done. Scarcely had Cortez sailed for Trinidad, when -Velasquez sent instructions after him, to deprive him -of his commission. Cortez eluded this by hastening -to the Havanna, where an express also to arrest him -was forwarded. Cortez, fully justified the suspicions -of Velasquez; for, from the moment that he found -himself at the head of a fleet, he abandoned every -idea of acknowledging the authority which had put it -into his command. He boldly avowed his intentions -to his fellow adventurers, and as their views, like his -own, were plunder and dominion, he received their -applause and their vows of adherence. Thus supported -in his schemes of ambition, he set sail for the -Mexican coast, with eleven vessels of various burdens -and characters. His own, or admiral’s ship, was of a -hundred tons, three of seventy or eighty tons, and the -others were open boats. He carried with him six -hundred and seventeen men; amongst whom were to -be found only thirteen muskets, thirty-two cross-bows, -sixteen horses, ten small field-pieces, and four falconets. -Behold Cortez and his comrades thus on their -way to conquer the great kingdom of Mexico, bearing -on their great banner the figure of a large cross, and -this inscription,—<span class="smcap">Let us follow the Cross, for -under this sign we shall conquer!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">71</a></span></span></p> - -<p>“So powerfully,” says Robertson,—to whose -curious remarks I shall occasionally draw the attention -of my readers,—“were Cortez and his followers -animated with both these passions (religion and avarice) -that no less eager to plunder the opulent country -whither they were bound, than <em>zealous to propagate the -Christian faith (!)</em> among its inhabitants, they set out, -not with the solicitude natural to men going upon -dangerous services, but with that confidence which -arises from security of success, and certainty of the -divine protection.” No doubt they believed the cross -which they followed was the cross of Christ, but every -one now will be quite as well satisfied that it was the -cross of one of the two thieves, a most fitting ensign -for such an expedition. Cortez, indeed, was a fiery -zealot, and frequently endangered the success of his -enterprise by his assault on the gods and temples of -the natives, just as Mahomet or Omar would have -done; for there was not a pin to choose between the -faith in which he had been educated, and that of the -prophet of Mecca. One followed the cross, the other -the crescent, but their faith alike was—the sword.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">6</a></p> - -<p>After touching at different spots, to remind the -natives of the Christian faith by “routing them with -great slaughter,” and carrying off provisions, cotton -garments, gold, and twenty female slaves, one of -whom was the celebrated woman, called by the Spa<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">72</a></span>niards -Donna Marina, who rendered them such services -as interpreter, they entered, on the 2nd of -April 1519, the harbour of St. Juan de Ulua. Here -we are told by the Spanish historians, that the natives -came on board in the most friendly and unsuspicious -manner. Two of them were officers from the local -government, sent to inquire what was the object of -Cortez in coming thither, and offering any assistance -that might be necessary to enable him to proceed in -his voyage. Cortez assured them that <em>he came with -the most friendly intentions</em>, to seek an interview with -the king, of great importance to the welfare of their -country; and next morning, in proof of the sincerity -and friendliness of his views, landed his troops and -ammunition, and began a fortification. This brought -Teutile and Pilpatoe, as Robertson calls them, or -Teuhtlile and Cuitlalpita, according to Clavigero, himself -a Mexican, the local governors, into the camp with -a numerous attendance. Montezuma, the emperor, -had been alarmed, as well he might, by the former -appearance of the Spaniards on his coast, and these -officers urged Cortez to take his departure. He persisted, -however, that he must see Montezuma, being -come as an ambassador from the king of Spain to him, -and charged with communications that could be opened -to no one else—falsehoods worthy of a robber, for he -not only had no commission from the king of Spain, -but was in open rebellion to the Spanish government -at the moment. To induce him to depart, these -simple people resorted to the same unlucky policy as -our ancestors the Saxons did with the Danes, and presented -him with a present of ten loads of fine cotton -cloth, plumes of various colours, and articles in gold<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">73</a></span> -and silver of rich and curious workmanship, besides a -quantity of provisions. These not only inflamed his -cupidity to the utmost, but another circumstance -served to convince him that he had stumbled upon a -different country to what any of his countrymen had -yet found in America; and stimulated equally his ambition -to conquer it. He observed painters at work -in the train of Teuhtlile and Pitalpatoe,<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">7</a> sketching on -cotton cloth, himself, his men, his horses, ships and -artillery. To give more effect to these drawings, -he sounded his trumpets, threw his army into battle -array, put it through a variety of striking military -movements, and tore up the neighbouring woods with -the discharge of his cannon. The Mexicans, struck -with terror and admiration at these exhibitions, dispatched -speedy information of all these particulars by -the couriers, and in seven days received the answer of -the emperor, though his capital was one hundred and -eighty miles off, that Cortez must instantly depart the -country. But had he had the slightest intention of -the kind, the unlucky courtesy of the emperor would -have changed his resolve. To render his command -the more palatable, he sent an ambassador of rank, -with a hundred men of burden carrying presents, and -they again poured out before Cortez such a flood of -treasures, as astonished him and his greedy followers.</p> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">74</a></span></p> -<p>There were boxes full of pearls and precious stones; -gold in its native state, and gold wrought into the -richest trinkets; two wheels, the one of gold, the -other of silver. That of gold, representing the Mexican -century, had the image of the sun engraved in -the middle, round which were different figures in bass-relief. -Bernal Diaz says the circumference was thirty -palms of Toledo, and the value of it ten thousand -sequins. The one of silver, in which the Mexican -year was represented, was still larger, with a moon -in the middle, surrounded also with figures in bass-relief.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">8</a> -Thirty loads or bales of cotton cloths of the -most exquisite fineness, and pictures in feather-work -of surprising brilliancy and art. These were all -opened out on mats in the most tempting manner; -and besides these, was a vizor, which Cortez had desired -at the last interview might be filled with gold -dust, telling the officer most truly—that “the Spaniards -had a disease of the heart which could only be -cured by gold.”</p> - -<p>Cortez took the presents, and coolly assured the -ambassador that he should not quit the country till he -had seen the emperor. A third message, accompanied -by a third and more peremptory order for his departure, -producing no greater effect, the officers left the -camp in displeasure, and Cortez prepared to march -into the country.</p> - -<p>But before he commenced his expedition there -were a few measures to be taken. He was a traitor -to the governor of Cuba who had sent him out; and -the governor had still adherents in the army, who -objected to what appeared to them this rash enter<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">75</a></span>prise -against so powerful and populous an empire. -It was necessary to silence these people, and his mode -of doing this reminds one of the solemn artifices of -Oliver Cromwell. He held out to the soldiers such -prospects of booty as secured them to his interests, -and on the discontented remonstrating with him, he -appeared to fall in with their views, and gave instant -orders for the return home, at the same time sending -his emissaries amongst the soldiers to exasperate them -against the return. When the order for re-embarkation -the next day was therefore issued, the whole army -seemed in a fury against it, and Cortez feigning to -have believed the order for the return was their own -desire, now declared that he was ready to lead them -forwards. But this was not sufficient. Knowing that -he was a traitor to the trust reposed in him, he -resorted to one of those grave farces by which usurpers -often attempt to give an appearance of title to their -power, though they know well enough the emptiness -of it. He laid out the plan of a town,—named it -Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz, or the Rich Town of -the True Cross, established magistrates and a municipal -council, and then appeared before them and -resigned his command into their hands, having taken -good care that the magistrates were so much his -creatures as instantly to re-invest him with it. Assuming -now this command, not as flowing from the -governor of Cuba, but from the constituted authorities -under the crown, and therefore from the crown itself, -he immediately seized on the officers who had murmured -at his breach of faith, clapped them in chains, -and sent them aboard the fleet! So far so good; but -the reflection still came, how would all these deeds<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">76</a></span> -sound at home? and Cortez therefore took the only -means that could secure him in that quarter. He -collected all the gold that could be procured by any -means, and sent it by the hand of two of the mock -magistrates of Vera Cruz to the King of Spain, giving -a plausible colouring to their assumption of power independent -of Cuba, and soliciting a confirmation of it.</p> - -<p>These were the measures of an adventurer not more -daring than artful; yet a single circumstance shewed -him still his insecurity. At the moment that his -magistrates were about to sail for Spain, he discovered -that a conspiracy was in existence to seize one of the -vessels in the harbour, and to sail to Cuba, and give -the alarm to Velasquez. This startling fact determined -him to put the <em>coup de grace</em> to his measures,—to -destroy his fleet, and let his followers see that there -was no longer any resource but to follow him boldly -in his attack upon Mexico, or perish. He had the -address to bring his men to commit this act themselves: -they dragged the vessels ashore—stripped them of -sails, rigging, iron-work—whatever might be useful, -and then broke them up. A more daring and politic -action is not upon record. Cortez, in fact, had nothing -to hope from his fleet, and had cast his life and fortune -on the conquest of this great and wealthy realm.</p> - -<p>When we contemplate him at this juncture, we are -however not more struck with his daring and determined -policy, than as Christians we are indignant at -the real nature of the act that he meditated. This -was no other than to ravage this young and growing -empire, to plunder it of its gold, and consume its -millions of inhabitants in mines and plantations, by -the sword and by the lash, as his countrymen had con<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">77</a></span>sumed -the wealth and the people of the islands,—and -all this on pretence of planting the Cross! It was -the cool speculation of a daring robber, hardened by -a false faith, and by witnessing deeds of blood and -outrage, to a total insensibility to every feeling but -the diseased overgrowth of selfish ambition.</p> - -<p>The attempt to subdue a kingdom stretching from -the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean in a breadth of above -five hundred leagues from east to west, and of upwards -of two hundred from north to south—a kingdom -populous, fertile, and of a warlike reputation; and -that with a force of not seven hundred men, appears -at first view an act of madness: but Cortez was too -well acquainted with American warfare to know that -it was not impracticable. In the first place, he knew -that the weapons of the natives had very little effect -upon the quilted cotton dress which the Spaniards -adopted on these expeditions, and that by the terror -of their fire-arms and their union of movement, they -could in almost all cases and situations keep them at -that distance which took away even that little effect, -while it left them open to the full play of the European -missives. He knew the terror that the natives -had of the Spanish horses, dogs, and artillery; and -moreover he had speedily discovered, through the -means of one of the women slaves brought from Darien -who proved to be a Mexican by birth, that Mexico -was a kingdom newly cemented by the arms of Montezuma -and his immediate predecessors, and therefore -full of provinces still smarting under the sense of -their subjugation, and ready to seize on an occasion of -revenge. In fact, he had speedily practical evidence -of this, for the cazique of Chempoalla, a neighbouring<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">78</a></span> -town, sent an embassy to him soliciting his friendship, -and offering to join him in his designs against Montezuma, -whom he represented as a haughty and exacting -tyrant to the provinces. Cortez of course caught -gladly at this alliance, and removing his settlement, -planted it at Quiabislan, near Chempoalla. The hint -was given him of the real condition of the empire, -and he was too crafty to neglect it. He immediately -gave himself out as the champion of the aggrieved -and oppressed, come to redress all their wrongs, and -restore them to their liberties!</p> - -<p>But there was another and most singular cause which -gave Cortez a fair prospect of success. Throughout -the American kingdoms ancient prophecies prevailed,—that -a new race was to come in, and seize -upon the reins of power, and before it the American -tribes were to quail and give place. In the islands, -in Mexico, in Peru,—far and wide,—this mysterious -tradition prevailed. Everywhere these terrible people -were expected to come from towards the rising of the -sun: they were to be completely clad, and to lay -waste every country before them;—circumstances so -entirely verified in the Spaniards, that the spirit of -the American natives died within them at the rumour -of their approach, as the natives of Canaan did at that -of the Israelites coming with the irresistible power -and the awful miracles of God. For ages these prophecies -had weighed on the public mind, and had -been sung with loud lamentations at their solemn -festivals. Cazziva, a great cazique, declared that in -a supernatural interview with one of the Zemi, this -terrible event had been revealed to him. “The -demons which they worshipped,” says Acosta, “in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">79</a></span> -this instance, told them true.” Montezuma therefore, -though naturally haughty, warlike, and commanding, -on so appalling an event as the fulfilment of these -ancient prophecies, lost his courage, his decision, his -very power of mind, and exhibited nothing but the -most utter vacillation and weakness, while Cortez was -advancing towards his capital in defiance of his orders.</p> - -<p>Having strengthened himself by the alliance of the -Chempoallans, and others of the Totonacas, and chastised -the Tlascalans, a fierce people who gave no credit -to his pretences, he advanced to Cholula, a place of -great importance, consisting, according to Cortez’s -account, of forty thousand houses and many populous -suburban villages. Montezuma had now consented to -his reception, and he was received in this city by his -orders. It was a sacred city,—“the Rome of Anahuac -or Mexico,” says Clavigero, full of temples, and -visited by hosts of pilgrims. Here, suspecting treachery, -he determined to strike terror into both the -emperor and the people. “For this purpose,” says -Robertson, “the Spaniards and Zempoallans were -drawn up in a large court which had been allotted -for their quarters near the centre of the town. The -Tlascalans had orders to advance; the magistrates, -and several of the chief citizens, were sent for, under -various pretences, and seized. On a signal given, the -troops rushed out, and fell upon the multitude destitute -of leaders, and so much astonished, that the -weapons dropping from their hands, they stood -motionless and incapable of defence. While the -Spaniards pressed them in front, the Tlascalans attacked -them in the rear. The streets were filled with -bloodshed and death; the temples, which afforded a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">80</a></span> -retreat to the priests and some of the leading men, -were set on fire, and they perished in the flames. -This scene of horror continued two days, during -which the wretched inhabitants suffered all that the -destructive rage of the Spaniards, or the implacable -revenge of their Indian allies, could inflict. At -length the carnage ceased, after the slaughter of six -thousand Cholulans, without the loss of a single -Spaniard! Cortez then released the magistrates, and -reproaching them bitterly for their intended treachery, -declared that as justice was now appeased he forgave -the offence, but required them to recall the citizens -who had fled, and reestablish order in the town. Such -was the ascendant which the Spaniards had acquired -over this superstitious race of men, and so deeply were -they impressed with an opinion of their superior discernment, -as well as power, that in obedience to this -command, the city was in a few days again filled with -people, who amidst the ruins of their sacred buildings, -yielded respectful service to men whose hands were -stained with the blood of their relatives and fellow-citizens.</p> - -<p>“From Cholula,” adds Robertson, “Cortez marched -directly towards Mexico, which was only twenty -leagues distant:”—and that is all the remark that he -makes on this brutal butchery of an innocent people, -by a man on his march to plant the cross! A Christian -historian sees only in this most savage and infernal -action, a piece of necessary policy—so obtuse become -the perceptions of men through the ordinary principles -of historic judgment. But the Christian mind -asks what business Cortez had there at all? The -people were meditating his destruction? True;—and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">81</a></span> -it was natural and national that they should get rid -of so audacious and lawless an enemy, who entered -their country with the intentions of a robber, set at -defiance the commands of their king, and stirred up -rebellion at every step he took. The Mexicans would -have been less than men if they had not resolved to -cut him off. What right had he there? What right -to disturb the tranquillity of their country, and shed the -blood of its people? These are questions that cannot -be answered on any Christian principles, or on any -principles but those of the bandit and the murderer. -<em>Six thousand people butchered in cold blood—two days -employed in hewing down trembling wretches, too fearful -to even raise a single weapon against the murderers!</em> -Heavens! are these the deeds that we admire as heroic -and as breathing of romance? Yet, says Clavigero, -“He ordered the great temple to be cleaned from the -gore of his murdered victims; and raised there the -standard of the cross; <em>after giving the Cholulans, as he -did all the other people among whom he stopped</em>,” <span class="smcap">some -idea of the Christian religion</span>!!! What <em>idea</em> -had the Abbé Don Francesco Saverio Clavigero of -Christianity himself?</p> - -<p>But Cortez had plunged headlong into the enterprise—he -had set his life and that of his followers at -stake on the conquest of Mexico, and there was no -action, however desperate, that he was not prepared -to commit. And sure enough his hands became well -filled with treachery and blood. It is not my business -to dwell particularly upon these atrocities, but merely -to recall the memory of them; yet it may be as well -to give, in the words of Robertson, the manner in -which the Spaniards were received into the capital,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">82</a></span> -because it contrasts strongly with the manner in which -the Christians behaved in this same city, and to this -same monarch.</p> - -<p>“In descending from the mountains of Chalco,<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">9</a> -across which the road lay, the vast plain of Mexico -opened gradually to their view. When they first -beheld this prospect, one of the most striking and -beautiful on the face of the earth—when they observed -fertile and cultivated fields stretching further than the -eye could reach—when they saw a lake resembling the -sea in extent, encompassed with large towns; and discovered -the capital city, rising upon an island in the -middle, adorned with its temples and turrets—the -scene so far exceeded their imagination, that some -believed the fanciful dreams of romance were realized, -and that its enchanted palaces and gilded domes were -presented to their sight. Others could hardly persuade -themselves that this wonderful spectacle was -anything more than a dream. As they advanced, their -doubts were removed; but their amazement increased. -They were now fully satisfied that the country was -rich beyond any conception which they had formed -of it, and flattered themselves that at length they -should obtain an ample recompense for all their services -and sufferings.</p> - -<p>“When they drew near the city, about a thousand -persons, who appeared to be of distinction, came forth -to meet them, adorned with plumes, and clad in mantles -of fine cotton. Each of these, in his order, passed -by Cortez, and saluted him according to the mode -deemed most respectful and submissive in their country. -They announced the approach of Montezuma -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">83</a></span>himself, and soon after his harbingers came in sight. -There appeared first, two hundred persons in an uniform -dress, with large plumes of feathers alike in -fashion, marching two and two in deep silence, barefooted, -with their eyes fixed on the ground. These -were followed by a company of higher rank, in their -most showy apparel; in the midst of whom was Montezuma, -in a chair or litter, richly ornamented with gold -and feathers of various colours. Four of his principal -favourites carried him on their shoulders; others supported -a canopy of curious workmanship over his head. -Before him marched three officers with rods of gold in -their hands, which they lifted up on high at certain -intervals, and at that signal all the people bowed their -heads, and hid their faces, as unworthy to look on so -great a monarch. When he drew near, Cortez dismounted, -advancing towards him with officious haste, -and in a respectful posture. At the same time Montezuma -alighted from his chair, and leaning on the arms -of two of his near relatives, approached with a slow -and stately pace, his attendants covering the street -with cotton cloths that he might not touch the ground. -Cortez accosted him with profound reverence after the -European fashion. He returned the salutation according -to the mode of his country, by touching the earth -with his hand, and then kissing it. This ceremony, -the customary expression of veneration from inferiors -towards those who were above them in rank, appeared -such amazing condescension in a proud monarch, who -scarcely deigned to consider the rest of mankind as of -the same species with himself, that all his subjects -firmly believed those persons before whom he humbled -himself in this manner, to be something more than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">84</a></span> -human. Accordingly, as they marched through the -crowd, the Spaniards frequently, and with much satisfaction, -heard themselves denominated <em>Teules</em>, or divinities. -Montezuma conducted Cortez to the quarter -which he had prepared for his reception, and immediately -took leave of him, with a politeness not unworthy -of a court more refined. ‘You are now,’ says he, -‘with your brothers in your own house; refresh yourselves -after your fatigue; and be happy till I return.’”</p> - -<p>The Spanish historians give some picturesque particulars -of this interview, which Robertson has not -copied. The dress of Montezuma is thus described: -As he rode in his litter, a parasol of green feathers -embroidered with fancy-work of gold was held over -him. He wore hanging from his shoulders a mantle -adorned with the richest jewels of gold and precious -stones; on his head a thin crown of the same metal; -and upon his feet shoes of gold, tied with strings -of leather worked with gold and gems. The persons -on whom he leaned, were the king of Tezcuco and the -lord of Iztapalapan. Cortez put on Montezuma’s neck -a thin cord of gold strung with glass beads, and would -have embraced him, but was prevented by the two -lords on whom the king leaned. In return for this -paltry necklace, Montezuma gave Cortez two of -beautiful mother-of-pearl, from which hung some large -cray-fish of gold in imitation of nature.</p> - -<p>Here, then, to their own wonder and admiration, -were this handful of Spanish adventurers in the “glorious -city,”</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">Near the setting of the sun,</div> -<div class="line">Throned in a silver lake.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>Generous minds would have rejoiced in the glory<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">85</a></span> -of such a discovery, and have exulted in the mutual -benefits to be derived from an honourable intercourse -between their own country and this new and beautiful -one,—but Cortez and his men were merely gazing -on the novel splendour of this interesting city with -the greedy eyes of robbers, and thinking how they -might best seize upon its power, and clutch its wealth. -Who is not familiar with their rapid career of audacious -villany, in this fairy capital? Scarcely were -they received as guests,<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">10</a> when they seized on the -monarch, and that at the very moment that he gave -to Cortez his own daughter, and heaped on him other -favours—and compelled him, under menaces of instantly -stabbing him to the heart, to quit his palace, -and take up his residence in their own quarters. The -astonished and distressed king, now a puppet in their -hands, was made to command every thing which they -desired to be done; and they were by no means -scrupulous in their exercise of this power, knowing -that the people looked on the person of the monarch -as sacred, and would not for a moment refuse to obey -his least word, though in the hands of his enemies. -The very first thing which they required him to do, -was to order to be delivered up to them Qualpopoca, -one of his generals, who had been employed in quelling -one of the insurrections that the Spaniards had -raised near Villa Rica, and who being attacked by -the Spanish officer Escalante, left in command there, -had killed him, with seven of his men, and taken one -other alive. The order was obeyed, and the brave -general, his son, and five of his principal officers, were -burnt alive by these Christian heroes! To add to -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">86</a></span>the cruelty and indignity of the deed, Montezuma -himself was put into irons during the transaction, -accompanied by threats of a darker kind.</p> - -<p>The simplicity of Robertson’s remarks on this affair -are singular: “In these transactions, as represented -by the Spanish historians, we search in vain for the -qualities which distinguish other parts of Cortez’s -conduct.” What qualities? “To usurp a jurisdiction -which could not belong to a stranger, who assumed -no higher character than that of an ambassador -from a foreign prince, and under colour of it, to -inflict a capital punishment on men whose conduct -entitled them to esteem, appears an act of barbarous -cruelty.”</p> - -<p>Why, the whole of Cortez’s conduct, from the -moment that he entered with arms the kingdom of -Mexico, was a usurpation that “could not belong to -a stranger assuming merely the title of an ambassador.” -What ambassador comes with armed troops; -or when the monarch orders him to quit his realm, -marches further into it; or foments rebellion as he -goes along; or massacres the inhabitants by wholesale? -Was the butchery of six thousand people at -Cholula, no act of barbarous cruelty?</p> - -<p>Well, by what Robertson complacently terms “the -fortunate temerity in seizing Montezuma,” the Spaniards -had suddenly usurped the sovereign power, -and they did not pause here. They sent out some of -their number to survey the whole kingdom; to spy -out its wealth, and pitch on fitting stations for colonies. -They put down such native officers as were too honest -or able for them; they compelled Montezuma, though -with tears and groans, to acknowledge himself the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">87</a></span> -vassal of the Spanish crown. They divided the -Mexican treasures amongst them; and finally drove -the Mexicans to desperation.</p> - -<p>The arrival of the armament from Cuba under -Narvaez, sent by Velasquez to punish Cortez for his -treason, and his victory over Narvaez, and the union -of those troops with his own, belong to the general -historian—my task is to exhibit his treatment to the -natives; and his next exploit, is that of exposing -Montezuma to the view of his exasperated subjects -from the battlements of his house, in the hope that his -royal puppet might have authority enough to appease -them; a scheme which proved the death of the -emperor—for his own subjects, indignant at his tame -submission to the Spaniards, let fly their arrows at him. -The fury of the Mexicans on this catastrophe, the -terrible nocturnal retreat of Cortez from the city, still -called amongst the inhabitants of Mexico, <em>La Noche -Triste</em>, the sorrowful night,—the strange battle of -Otumba, where Cortez, felling the standard-bearer of -the army, dispersed in a moment tens of thousands -like a mist,—the flight to Tlascala, and the return -again to the siege,—the eight thousand <em>Tamenes</em>, or -servile Indians, bearing through the hostile country -to the lake the brigantines in parts, ready to put -together on their arrival,—Father Olmedo blessing -the brigantines as they were launched on the lake -in the presence of wondering multitudes,—and the -desperate siege and assault themselves, all are full of -the most stirring interest, and display a sort of satanic -grandeur in the man, amidst the horrors into which -his ambitious guilt had plunged him, that are only to -be compared to that of Napoleon in Russia, beset, in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">88</a></span> -his extremity, by the vengeful warriors of the north. -But the crowning disgrace of Cortez, is that of putting -to the torture the new emperor, Guatimotzin, the -nephew and son-in-law of Montezuma, whom the -Mexicans, in admiration of his virtues and talents, had -placed on the throne. The bravery with which Guatimotzin -had defended his city, the frankness with -which he yielded himself when taken, would have -made his person sacred in the eyes of a generous conqueror; -but Guatimotzin had committed the crime, -unpardonable in the eyes of a Spaniard, of casting the -treasures for which the Spaniards harassed his country -into the lake,—and Cortez had him put to the -severest torture to force from him the avowal of where -they lay. Even <em>he</em> is said at length to have been -ashamed of so base and horrid a business; yet he -afterwards put him to death, and the manner in which -this, and other barbarities are related by Robertson, -is worthy of observation.</p> - -<p>“It was not, however, without difficulty that the -Mexican empire could be entirely reduced to the -form of a Spanish province. Enraged and rendered -desperate by oppression, the natives forgot the superiority -of their enemies, and ran to arms in defence -of their liberties. In every contest, however, the -European valour and discipline prevailed. But fatally -for the honour of their country, the Spaniards sullied -the glory redounding from these repeated victories, -by their mode of treating the vanquished people. -After taking Guatimotzin, and becoming masters of -his capital, they supposed that the king of Castile -entered on possession of all the rights of the captive -monarch, and affected to consider every effort of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">89</a></span> -Mexicans to assert their own independence, as the -rebellion of vassals against their sovereign, or the -mutiny of slaves against their master. Under the -sanction of these ill-founded maxims, they violated -every right that should be held sacred between hostile -nations. After each insurrection, they reduced the -common people, in the provinces which they subdued, -to the most humiliating of all conditions, that of personal -servitude. Their chiefs, supposed to be more -criminal, were punished with greater severity, and -put to death in the most ignominious or the most -excruciating mode that the insolence or the cruelty of -their conquerors could devise. In almost every district -of the Mexican empire, the progress of the -Spanish arms is marked with blood, and with deeds -so atrocious, as disgrace the enterprising valour that -conducted them to success. In the country of Panuco, -sixty caziques, or leaders, and four hundred -nobles were burnt at one time. Nor was this shocking -barbarity perpetrated in any sudden sally of rage, -or by a commander of inferior note. It was the act -of Sandoval, an officer whose name is entitled to the -second rank in the annals of New Spain; and executed -after a solemn consultation with Cortez; and to complete -the horror of the scene, the children and relatives -of the wretched victims were assembled, and -compelled to be spectators of their dying agonies.</p> - -<p>“It seems hardly possible to exceed in horror this -dreadful example of severity; but it was followed by -another, which affected the Mexicans still more sensibly, -as it gave them a more feeling proof of their -own degradation, and of the small regard which their -haughty masters retained for the ancient dignity and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">90</a></span> -splendour of their state. On a slight suspicion, confirmed -by a very imperfect evidence, that Guatimotzin -had formed a scheme to shake off the yoke, and to -excite his former subjects to take arms, Cortez, without -the formality of a trial, ordered the unhappy -monarch, together with the caziques of Tezeuco and -Tacuba, the two persons of the greatest eminence in -the empire, to be hanged; and the Mexicans, with -astonishment and horror, beheld this disgraceful punishment -inflicted upon persons to whom they were -accustomed to look up with reverence hardly inferior -to that which they paid to the gods themselves. The -example of Cortez and his principal officers, encouraged -and justified persons of subordinate rank to -venture upon committing greater excesses.”</p> - -<p>It is not easy to see how Cortez and his men “sullied -the glory of their repeated victories,” by these -actions—for these very victories were gained over a -people who had no chance against European arms,—and -were infamous in themselves, being violations of -every sacred right of humanity. What, indeed, could -sully the reputation of the man after the butchery of -six thousand Cholulas in cold blood? The notions -of glory with which Robertson, in common with many -other historians, was infected, are mere remnants of -that corrupted morality which Popery disseminated, -and which created the Cortezes and Pizarros of those -days, and the Napoleons of our own. No truth can -be plainer to the sound sense of a real Christian, than -that true glory can only be the result of great deeds -done in a just cause. But Cortez’s whole career was -one perpetual union of perfidy and blood. His -words were not to be relied on for a moment. His<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">91</a></span> -promises of kindness and of restoration to both Montezuma -and Guatimotzin, were followed only by fetters, -tortures, and hanging.</p> - -<p>Such were the horrors of the siege of Mexico, that -Bernal Diaz says, they can be compared to nothing -but those of the destruction of Jerusalem. According -to Bernal Diaz, the slain exceeded one hundred thousand; -and those who died of famine, bad food and -water, and infection, Cortez himself asserts, were -more than fifty thousand. Cortez, on gaining possession -of the city, ordered all the Mexicans out of it; -and Bernal Diaz, an eye-witness, says, that “for -three days and three nights, all the three roads leading -from the city, were seen full of men, women, and -children; feeble, emaciated, and forlorn, seeking -refuge where they could find it. The fetid smell -which so many thousands of putrid bodies emitted was -intolerable, and occasioned some illness to the general -of the conquerors. The houses, streets, and canals, -were full of disfigured carcases; the ground of the -city was in some places dug up by the citizens in -search of roots to feed on; and many trees stripped -of bark for the same purpose. The general caused -the dead bodies to be buried, and large quantities of -wood to be burnt through all the city, as much in -order to purify the infected air, as to celebrate his -victory.”</p> - -<p>But Providence failed not to visit the deeds of Cortez -on himself, as he had done on Columbus. Bernal Diaz -says, that “after the death of Guatimotzin, he became -gloomy and restless; rising continually from his bed, -and wandering about in the dark.” That “nothing -prospered with him, and that it was ascribed to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">92</a></span> -curses he was loaded with.” His government was -acknowledged late by the crown, and soon divided -with other authorities. He returned, like Columbus, -to Europe to seek redress of wrongs heaped on <em>him</em>; -like him, not obtaining this redress, he sought to -amuse his mind by fresh discoveries, and added California -to the known regions; but the attempt to soothe -his uneasy spirit was vain. Neglected, and even insulted -by the crown, to which he had thus guiltily added vast -dominions, he ended his days in the same fruitless -and heart-wearing solicitation of the court which Columbus -had done before.</p> - -<hr /> -<h2>CHAPTER VIII.<br /><br /> - -<small>THE SPANIARDS IN PERU.</small></h2> - -<div class="bbox"> -<p class="p2"><small>Their quiver is an open sepulchre; they are all mighty men.</small></p> - -<p class="p3"><small> -<i>Jeremiah</i> v. 16.</small></p> - -<p class="p2"><small>They are cruel and have no mercy, their voice roareth like the sea; -and they ride upon horses set in array as men of war.</small></p> - -<p class="p3"><small> -<i>Jeremiah</i> vi. 23.</small></p></div> - -<p><span class="smcap">The</span> scene widened, and with it the rapacity and rage -for gold in the Spaniards. The possession and the -plunder of Mexico only served to whet their appetite -for carnage, and for one demon of avarice and cruelty -to raise up ten. They had seen enough to convince<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">93</a></span> -them that the continent which they had reached was -immense, and Mexico filled their imagination with -abundance of wealthy empires to seize upon and -devour. Into these very odd Christians, not the -slightest atom of Christian feeling or Christian principle -ever entered. They were troubled with no -remorse for the horrible excesses of crime and ravage -which they had committed. The cry of innocent -nations that they had plundered, enslaved, and depopulated, -and which rose to heaven fearfully against -them, never seemed to pierce the proud brutishness -of their souls. They had but one idea: that all these -swarming nations were revealed to them by Providence -for a prey. The Pope had given them up to -them; and they had but one feeling,—a fiery, quenchless, -rabid lust of gold. That they might enlighten -and benefit these nations—that they might establish -wise and beneficent relations with them; that they -might enrich themselves most innocently and legitimately -in the very course of dispensing equivalent advantages, -never came across their brains. It was the -spirit of the age, coolly says Robertson—but he does -not tell us how such came to be its spirit, after a thousand -years of the profession of Christianity. We -have seen how that came to pass; and we must go on -from that time to the present, tracing the dreadful -effects of the substitution of Popery for Christian -truth and mercy.</p> - -<p>Rumours of lands lying to the south came ever and -anon upon the eager ears of the Spaniards,—lands -still more abundant in gold, and vast in extent. On -all hands the locust-armies of Moloch and Mammon -were swarming, “seeking whom they might devour:”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">94</a></span> -and amongst these beautiful specimens of the teaching -of the infallible and holy Mother Church, were three -individuals settled in Panama, who were busily employed -in concocting a scheme of discovery and of crime, -of blood and rapine, southward; and who were destined -to succeed to a marvellous degree. These worthy personages, -who were occupied with so commendable and -truly Catholic a speculation as that of finding out -some peaceful or feeble people whom they might, as a -matter of business, fall upon, plunder, and if necessary, -assassinate, for their own aggrandizement—were no -other than Francis Pizarro, the bastard of a Spanish -gentleman, by a very low woman, who had been employed -by his father in keeping his hogs till he ran -away and enlisted for a soldier; Diego de Almagro, -a foundling; and Hernando de Luque, schoolmaster, -and priest! a man who, by means which are not related, -but may be imagined, had scraped together -sufficient money to inspire him with the desire of -getting more.</p> - -<p>Pizarro was totally uneducated, except in hog-keeping, -and the trade of a mercenary. He could not -even read; and was just one of the most hardened, -unprincipled, crafty, and base wretches which history -in its multitudinous pages of crime and villany, has -put on record. Almagro was equally daring, but had -more honesty of character; and as for Luque, he appears -to have been a careful, cunning attender to the -main chance. Having clubbed together their little -stock of money, and their large one of impudent hardihood, -they procured a small vessel and a hundred and -twelve men, and Pizarro taking the command, set out -in quest of whatever good land fortune and the Pope’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">95</a></span> -bull might put in their way. For some time their -fortune was no better than their object deserved; they -were tossed about by tempestuous weather, exposed -to great hardships, and discouraged by the prudential -policy of the governor of Panama; but at length, in -1526, about seven years after Cortez had entered -Mexico, they came in sight of the coast of Peru, and -landing at a place called Tumbez, where there was a -palace of the Incas, were delighted to find that they -were in a beautiful and cultivated country, where -the object of their desires—gold, was in wonderful -abundance.</p> - -<p>Having found the thing they were in quest of—a -country to be harried, and having the Pope’s authority -to seize on it, they were now in haste to get that -of the emperor. The three speculators agreed amongst -themselves on the manner in which they would share -the country they had in view. Pizarro was to be -governor; Almagro, lieutenant-governor; and Luque, -having the apostle’s warrant, that he who desires a -bishopric, desires a good thing, desired <em>that</em>—he was -to be bishop of this new country. These preliminaries -being agreed upon, Pizarro was sent off to Spain. -Here he soon shewed his associates what degree of -faith they were to put in him. He procured the -governorship for himself, and not being ambitious of -a bishopric, he got that for Luque; but poor Almagro -was dignified with the office of commandant of the -fortress of Tumbez—when such fortress should be -raised. Almagro was, as might be expected, no little -enraged at this piece of cool villany, especially when -he compared it with the titles and the powers which -Pizarro had secured to himself, viz.—a country of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">96</a></span> -two hundred leagues in extent, in which he was to -exercise the supreme authority, both civil and military, -with the title of Governor, Adelantado and Captain-general. -To appease this natural resentment, -the greedy adventurer agreed to surrender the office -of Adelantado to Almagro; and having thus parcelled -out the poor Peruvians and their country in imagination, -they proceeded to do it in reality. But before -we follow them to the scene of their operations, let us -for a moment pause, and note exactly what was the -actual affair which they were thus comfortably proposing -to themselves as a means of making their fortunes, -and for which they had thus the ready sanction of -Pope and Emperor.</p> - -<p>Peru,—a splendid country, stretching along the -coast of the Pacific from Chili to Quito, a space of -fifteen hundred miles. Inland, the mighty Andes -lifted their snowy ridges, and at once cooled and -diversified this fine country with every variety of -scene and temperature. Like Mexico, it had once -consisted of a number of petty and savage states, but -had been reduced into one compact and well-ordered -empire by the Incas, a race of mysterious origin, who -had ruled it about four hundred years. The first appearance -of this race in Peru is one of the most curious -and inexplicable mysteries of American history. Manco -Capac and Mama Ocollo, a man and woman of commanding -aspects, and clad in garments suitable to the -climate, appeared on the banks of the lake Titiaca, -declaring that they were the children of the Sun, sent -by him, who was the parent of the human race, to -comfort and instruct them. They were received by -the Peruvians with all the reverence which their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">97</a></span> -claims demanded. They taught the men agriculture, -and the women spinning and weaving, and other -domestic arts. Who these people might be, it is in -vain to imagine; but if we are to judge from the nature -of their institutions, they must have been of Asiatic -origin, and might by some circumstances of which we -now can know nothing, be driven across the Pacific to -these shores. The worship of the sun, which they -introduced; the perfect despotism of the government; -the inviolable sanctity of the reigning family, all -point to Asia for their origin. They soon, however, -raised the Peruvians above all the barbarous nations -by whom they were surrounded; and one by one they -added these nations to their own kingdom, till Peru -had grown into the wide and populous realm that the -Spaniards found it. That they had made great progress -in the arts of smelting, refining, and working in -the precious metals, the immense quantity of gold and -silver vessels found by the Spaniards testify. Their -agriculture was admirable: they had introduced canals -and reservoirs for irrigating the dry and sandy parts -of the country; and employed manures with the -greatest judgment and effect. They had separated -the royal family from the public, it is true, by the -very singular constitution of marrying only in the -family, but they had given to all the people a common -proportion of labour in the lands, and a common benefit -in their produce. They had established public -couriers, like the Mexicans, and constructed bridges -of ropes, formed of the cord-like running plants of the -country, and thrown them across the wildest torrents. -They had at the time the Spaniards entered the -country, two roads running the whole length of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">98</a></span> -kingdom; one along the mountains, which must have -cost incalculable labour, in hewing through rocks and -filling up the deepest chasms, the other along the -lower country. These roads had at that time no -equals in Europe, and are said by the Inca, Garcillasso -de la Vega, to have been constructed in the reign of -Huana Capac, the father of Atahualpa, the Inca whom -they found on the throne. In some of the finest -situations, he says that the Indians had cut steps up -to the summits of the Andes, and constructed platforms, -so that when the Inca was travelling, the -bearers of his litter could carry him up with ease, and -allow him to enjoy a survey of the splendid views -around and below. These were evidences of great -advances in civilization, but there were particulars in -which they were far more civilized than their invaders, -and far more Christian too. Their Incas conquered -only to civilize and improve the adjoining states. -They were advocates for peace, and the enjoyment of -its blessings. They even forbad the fishing for pearls, -because, says Garcillasso, they preferred the preservation -of their people, rather than the accumulation of -wealth, and would not consent to the sufferings which -the divers must necessarily undergo. When did the -Christians ever shew so much true philanthropy and -human feeling?</p> - -<p>And these are the people whom Robertson, falling -miserably in with the views, or rather, the pretensions -of the Spaniards, says, appeared so feeble in intellect -as to be incapable of receiving Christianity. The -idea is a gross absurdity. What! a people who, like -the Mexicans and Peruvians, had cities, temples, -palaces, a regular form of government; who cultivated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">99</a></span> -the ground, and refined metals, and wrought them -into trinkets and vessels, not capable of receiving the -simple truths of Christianity which “the wayfaring -man though a fool cannot err in?” The Mexicans -had introduced their hieroglyphic writing, the Peruvians -their quipos, or knotted and coloured cords, by -which they made calculations, and transmitted intelligence, -and handed down history of facts, yet they -could not understand so plain a thing as Christianity! -It is the base policy of those who violate the rights of -men, always to add to their other injuries that of -calumniating their victims as mere brutes in capacity -and in the scale of being. By turns, Negroes, -Hottentots, and the whole race of the Americans, have -been declared incapable of freedom, and of embracing -that simple religion which was sent for the good of -the whole human family. If such an absurdity needed -any refutation, it has had it amply in the reception of -this religion by great numbers of all these races: but -the fact is, that it would have been a disgrace to the -understanding of the American Indians to have embraced -the wretched stuff which was presented to them -by the Spaniards as Christianity. A wooden cross -was presented to the wondering natives, and they -were expected instantly to bow down to it, and to -acknowledge the pope, a person they had never heard -of till that moment, or they were to be instantly cut -to pieces, or burnt alive. No pains were taken to -explain the beautiful truths of the Christian revelation—those -truths, in fact, were lost in the rubbish of -papal mummeries, and violent dogmas; and what -could the astonished people see in all this but a species -of Moloch worship in perfect keeping with the despe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">100</a></span>rate -and rapacious character of the invaders? Garcillasso -de la Vega, the Inca, tells us that Huana Capac, a -prince whose life had more of the elements of true -Christianity in it than those of the Spaniards altogether, -being full of love and humanity, was accustomed -to say, that he was convinced that the sun was -not God, because he always went on one track through -the heavens,—that he had no liberty to stop, or to -turn out of his ordinary way, into the wide fields of -space around him; and that it was clear that he was -therefore only a servant, obeying a higher power. -The Peruvians had, like the Athenians, an unknown -god, to whom they had a temple, and whom they -called Pachacamac, but as he was invisible and -was everywhere, they could not conceive any shape -for him, and therefore worshipped him in the secret of -their hearts. How ridiculous to say that people who -had arrived at such a pitch of reasoning, and at such -practice of the beneficent principles of love and humanity -which Christianity inculcates, were incapable -of embracing doctrines so consonant to their own -views and habits.</p> - -<p>How lamentable, that a British historian should -suffer himself to follow the wretched calumnies of -Buffon and De Paw against the Americans, with the -examples of Mexico and Peru, and the effects of the -Jesuit missions staring him in the face. The Spaniards -and Portuguese, as we shall presently see, and as -Robertson must have known, soon found that the -Indians were delighted to embrace Christianity, even -in the imperfect form in which it was presented to -them, and by thousands upon thousands exhibited the -beauty of Christian habits as strikingly as these Europeans -did the most opposite qualities.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">101</a></span></p> - -<p>But the strangest remark of Robertson is, “that -the fatal defect of the Peruvians was their unwarlike -character.” Fatal, indeed, their inability to contend -with the Europeans proved to them; but what a burlesque -on the religion of the Europeans—that the -<em>peaceful</em> character of an innocent people should prove -fatal to them only from—<em>the followers of the Prince of -Peace</em>!</p> - -<p>But the fact is, that the Peruvians as well as the -Mexicans were not unwarlike. On the contrary, by -their army they had extended and consolidated their -empire to a surprising extent. They had vanquished -all the nations around them; and it was only the -bursting upon them of a new people, with arts so novel -and destructive as to confound and paralyse their -minds, that they were so readily overcome. A variety -of circumstances combined to prostrate the Americans -before the Europeans. Those prophecies to -which we have alluded, the fire-arms, the horses, the -military movements, and the very art of writing, all -united their influence to render them totally powerless. -The Inca, Garcillasso, says that at the period -of Pizarro’s appearance in Peru, many prodigies and -omens troubled the public mind, and prepared them -to expect some terrible calamity. There was a comet—the -tides rose and fell with unusual violence—the -moon appeared surrounded by three bands of different -colours, which the priests interpreted to portend -civil war, and total change of dynasty. He says that -the fire-arms, which vomited thunder and lightning, -and mysteriously killed at a distance—the neighing -and prancing of the war-horses, to people who had -never seen creatures larger than a llama, and the art<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">102</a></span> -of conveying their thoughts in a bit of paper above -all, gave them notions of the spiritual intercourse of -these invaders, that it was totally hopeless to contend -against. The very cocks, birds which were unknown -there before their introduction by the Spaniards, were -imagined to pronounce the name of Atahualpa, as they -crew in triumph over him, and became called Atahualpas, -or Qualpas, after him. He assures us that even -after the Spaniards had become entire masters of the -country, the Indians on meeting a horseman on the -highway, betrayed the utmost perturbation, running -backward and forward several times, and often falling -on their faces till he was gone past. And -he relates an anecdote, which amusing as it is, shews -at once what was the effect of the art of writing, -and that the humblest natives did not want natural -ingenuity even in their deepest simplicity. The -steward of Antonio Solar, a gentleman living at a -distance from his estate, sent one day by two Indians -ten melons to him. With the melons he gave them -a letter, and said at the same time—“now mind -you don’t eat any of these, for if you do this letter -will tell.” The Indians went on their way; but as it -was very hot, and the distance four leagues, they sate -down to rest, and becoming very thirsty, longed to -eat one of the melons. “How unhappy are we that -we cannot eat a melon that grows in our master’s -ground.”—“Let us do it,” says one—“Ah,” said the -other, “but then the letter.”—“Oh,” replied the -first speaker, “we can manage that—we will put -the letter under a stone, and what it does not see -it cannot tell.” The thing was done; the melon -eaten, and afterwards another, that they might take in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">103</a></span> -an equal number. Antonio Solar read the letter, -looked at the melons, and instantly exclaimed—“But -where are the other two?” The confounded Indians -declared, that those were all they had received. -“Liars,” replied Antonio Solar, “I tell you, the letter -says you had ten, and you have eaten two!” It was -no use persisting in the falsehood—the frightened -Indians ran out of the house, and concluded that the -Spaniards were more than mortal, while even their -letter watched the Indians, and told all that they did.</p> - -<p>Such were the Peruvians; children in simplicity, but -possessing abundant ingenuity, and principles of human -action far superior to their invaders, and capable -of being ripened into something peculiarly excellent -and beautiful. Twelve monarchs had reigned over -them, and all of them of the same beneficent character. -Let us now see how the planters of the Cross conducted -themselves amongst them.</p> -<hr /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">104</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER IX.<br /><br /> - -<small>THE SPANIARDS IN PERU—CONTINUED.</small></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">For gold the Spaniard cast his soul away:</div> -<div class="line">His gold and he were every nation’s prey.—<i>Montgomery.</i><br /><br /></div> -</div></div></div> - -<p><span class="smcap">The</span> three speculators of Panama had made up their -band of mercenaries, or what the Scotch very expressively -term “rank rievers,” to plunder the Peruvians. -These consisted of one hundred and eighty men, -thirty of whom were horsemen. These were all they -could raise; and these were sufficient, as experience -had now testified, to enable them to overrun a vast -empire of Americans. Almagro, however, remained -behind, to gather more spoilers together as soon as -circumstances would permit, and Pizarro took the -command of his troop, and landed in the Bay of -St. Matthew, in the north of the kingdom. He resolved -to conduct his march southward so near to the -coast as to keep up the communication with his vessels; -and falling upon the peaceable inhabitants, he went -on fighting, fording rivers, wading through hot sands, -and inflicting so many miseries upon his own followers -and the natives, as made him look more like an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">105</a></span> -avenging demon than a man. It is not necessary -that we should trace very minutely his route. In -the province of Coaque they plundered the people of -an immense quantity of gold and silver. From the -inhabitants of the island of Puna, he met with a -desperate resistance, which cost him six months to -subdue, and obliged him to halt at Tumbez, to restore -the health of his men. Here he received a reinforcement -of troops from Nicaragua, commanded by Sebastian -Benalcazor, and Hernando Soto. Having also his -brothers, Ferdinand, Juan, and Gonzalo, and his uncle -Francisco de Alcantara, with him in this expedition, -he pushed forwards towards Caxamalca, destroying and -laying waste before him. Fortunately for him, that -peace and unity which had continued for four hundred -years in Peru, was now broken by two contending -monarchs, and as unfortunately for the assertion of -Robertson, that the Peruvians were unwarlike, they -were at this moment in the very midst of all the fury -of a civil war. The late Inca, Huana Capac, had -added Quito to the realm, and at his death, had left -that province to Atahualpa, his son by the daughter -of the conquered king of Quito. His eldest son, who -ascended the throne of Peru, demanded homage of -Atahualpa or surrender of the throne of Quito; but -Atahualpa was too bold and ambitious a prince for -that, and the consequence was a civil contest. So -engrossed were the combatants in this warfare, that -they had no time to watch, much less to oppose, the -progress of the Spaniards. Pizarro had, therefore, -advanced into the very heart of the kingdom when Atahualpa -had vanquished his brother, put him in prison, -and taken possession of Peru. Having been solicited<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">106</a></span> -during the latter part of his march by both parties to -espouse their cause, and holding himself in readiness -to act as best might suit his interests, he no sooner -found Atahualpa in the ascendant, than he immediately -avowed himself as his partizan, and declared that he -was hastening to his aid. Atahualpa was in no condition -to repulse him. He was in the midst of the confusions -necessarily existing on the immediate termination -of a civil war. His brother, though his captive, -was still held by the Peruvians to be their rightful -monarch, and it might be of the utmost consequence -to his security to gain such extraordinary and -fearful allies. The poor Inca had speedy cause to -rue the alliance. Pizarro determined, on the very first -visit of Atahualpa to him in Caxamalca, to seize him -as Cortez had seized on Montezuma. He did not -wait to imitate the more artful policy of Cortez, but -trusted to the now too well known ascendency of the -Spanish arms, to take him without ceremony. He and -his followers now saw the amazing wealth of the -country, and were impatient to seize it. The capture -of the unsuspecting Inca is one of the most singular -incidents in the history of the world; a mixture of such -naked villany, and impudent mockery of religion, as -has scarcely a parallel even in the annals of these -Spanish missionaries of the sword—these red-cross -knights of plunder. He invited Atahualpa to an interview -in Caxamalca, and having drawn up his forces -round the square in which he resided, awaited the -approach of his victim. The following is Robertson’s -relation of the event:—</p> - -<p>“Early in the morning the Peruvian camp was all -in motion. But as Atahualpa was solicitous to appear<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">107</a></span> -with the greatest splendour and magnificence in his -first interview with the strangers, the preparations for -this were so tedious, that the day was far advanced -before he began his march. Even then, lest the -order of the procession should be deranged, he moved -so slowly, that the Spaniards became impatient, -and apprehensive that some suspicion of their intention -might be the cause of this delay. In order to -remove this, Pizarro dispatched one of his officers -with fresh assurances of his friendly disposition. At -length the Inca approached. First of all appeared -four hundred men, in an uniform dress, as harbingers -to clear the way before him. He himself, sitting on a -throne or couch, adorned with plumes of various -colours, and almost covered with plates of gold and -silver, enriched with precious stones, was carried on -the shoulders of his principal attendants. Behind him -came some chief officers of his court, carried in the -same manner. Several bands of singers and dancers -accompanied this cavalcade; and the whole plain was -covered with troops, amounting to more than thirty -thousand men.</p> - -<p>“As the Inca drew near to the Spanish quarters, -Father Vincent Valverde, chaplain to the expedition, -advanced with a crucifix in one hand and a breviary -in the other, and in a Jong discourse explained to him -the doctrine of the creation; the fall of Adam; the incarnation, -the sufferings, and resurrection of Jesus -Christ; the appointment of St. Peter as God’s vicegerent -on earth; the transmission of his apostolic -power by succession to the Popes; the donation made -to the king of Castile by Pope Alexander, of all the -regions in the New World. In consequence of all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">108</a></span> -this, he required Atahualpa to embrace the Christian -faith; to acknowledge the supreme jurisdiction of the -Pope, and to submit to the king of Castile as his lawful -sovereign; promising, if he complied instantly -with his requisition, that the Castilian monarch would -protect his dominions, and permit him to continue in -the exercise of his royal authority; but if he should -impiously refuse to obey this summons, he denounced -war against him in his master’s name, and threatened -him with the most dreadful effect of his vengeance.</p> - -<p>“This strange harangue, unfolding deep mysteries, -and alluding to unknown facts, of which no powers of -eloquence could have conveyed at once a distinct idea -to an American, was so lamely translated by an unskilful -interpreter, little acquainted with the idiom of -the Spanish tongue, and incapable of expressing himself -with propriety in the language of the Inca, that -its general tenor was altogether incomprehensible to -Atahualpa. Some parts of it, of more obvious meaning, -filled him with astonishment and indignation. -His reply, however, was temperate. He began with -observing, that he was lord of the dominions over -which he reigned by hereditary succession; and -added, that he could not conceive how a foreign -priest should pretend to dispose of territories which -did not belong to him; that if such a preposterous -grant had been made, he, who was the rightful possessor, -refused to confirm it. That he had no inclination -to renounce the religious institutions established -by his ancestors; nor would he forsake the service of -the Sun, the immortal divinity whom he and his -people revered, in order to worship the God of the -Spaniards who was subject to death. That, with re<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">109</a></span>spect -to other matters contained in this discourse, as he -had never heard of them before, and did not understand -their meaning, he desired to know where the priest -had learned things so extraordinary. “In this book,” -answered Valverde, reaching out to him his Breviary. -The Inca opened it eagerly, and turning over the -leaves, lifted it to his ear. “This,” said he, “is -silent; it tells me nothing;” and threw it with disdain -to the ground. The enraged monk, running towards -his countrymen, cried out, ‘To arms! Christians, to -arms! The word of God is insulted; avenge this -profanation on these impious dogs!’</p> - -<p>“Pizarro, who, during this long conference, had -with difficulty restrained his soldiers, eager to seize -the rich spoils of which they had now so near a view, -immediately gave the signal of assault. At once the -martial music struck up, the cannon and muskets began -to fire, the horses sallied out fiercely to the charge; -the infantry rushed on, sword in hand. The Peruvians, -astonished at the suddenness of an attack which -they did not expect, and dismayed with the destructive -effects of the fire-arms, and the irresistible impression of -the cavalry, fled with universal consternation on every -side, without attempting either to annoy the enemy -or to defend themselves. Pizarro, at the head of his -chosen band, advanced directly towards the Inca; and -though his nobles crowded round him with officious -zeal, and fell in numbers at his feet, while they vied -with one another in sacrificing their own lives that -they might cover the sacred person of their sovereign, -the Spaniards soon penetrated to the royal seat, and -Pizarro seizing the Inca by the arm, dragged him to -the ground, and carried him as a prisoner to his quar<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">110</a></span>ters. -The fate of the monarch increased the precipitate -flight of his followers. The Spaniards pursued -them towards every quarter, and, with deliberate and -unrelenting barbarity, continued to slaughter the -wretched fugitives, who never once offered to resist. -The carnage did not cease till the close of the day. -<em>Above four thousand Peruvians were killed. Not a -single Spaniard fell, nor was one wounded</em>, but Pizarro -himself, whose hand was slightly hurt by one of his -own soldiers, while struggling eagerly to lay hold on -the Inca.</p> - -<p>“The plunder of the field was rich beyond any idea -which the Spaniards had yet formed concerning the -wealth of Peru, and they were so transported with the -value of their acquisition, as well as the greatness of -their success, that they passed the night in the extravagant -exultation natural to indigent adventurers -on such an extraordinary change of fortune.”</p> - -<p>Daring, perfidious, and every way extraordinary as -this capture of the Inca was, his ransom was still more -extraordinary. Observing the insatiable passion of -the Spaniards for gold, he offered to fill the room in -which he was kept with vessels of gold as high as he -could reach. This room was twenty-two feet in -length, and sixteen in breadth; and the proposal being -immediately agreed to, though never for a moment -meant on the part of the Spaniards to be fulfilled, a -line was drawn along the walls all round the room to -mark the height to which the gold was to rise. Instantly -the Inca, in the simple joy of his heart at the -hope of a liberty which he was never to enjoy, issued -orders to his subjects to bring in the gold; and from -day to day the faithful Indians came in laden from all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">111</a></span> -quarters with the vessels of gold. The sight must -have been more like a fairy dream, than any earthly -reality. The splendid and amazing mass, such as no -mortal eyes on any other occasion probably ever witnessed, -soon rose to near the stipulated height, and -the avarice of the soldiers, and the joy of Atahualpa -rose rapidly with it. But the exultation of the Inca -received a speedy and cruel blow. He learned that -fresh troops of Spaniards had arrived, and that those in -whose hands he was, had been tampering with Huascar, -his brother, in his prison. Alarmed lest, after all, -they should, on proffer of a higher price, liberate his -brother, and detain himself, the wretched Inca was -driven in desperation to the crime of dooming his -brother to death. He issued his order, and it was done. -Scarcely was this effected, when the Spaniards, unable -to wait for the gold quite reaching the mark, determined -to part it; and orders were given to melt the -greater portion of it down. They chose the festival -of St. James, the patron saint of Spain, as the most -suitable to distinguish by this act of national plunder, -and proceeded to appropriate the following astonishing -sums.—Certain of the richest vessels were set aside -first for the crown. Then the fifth claimed by the -crown was set apart. Then a hundred thousand pesos, -equal to as many pounds sterling, were given to the -newly arrived army of Almagro. Then Pizarro and -his followers divided amongst them, one million five -hundred and twenty-eight thousands five hundred -pesos: every horseman obtained above eight thousand, -and every footman four!</p> - -<p>Imagine the privates of an army of foot soldiers -pocketing for prize-money, each four thousand pounds!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">112</a></span> -the troopers each eight thousand! But enormous as -this seems, there is no doubt that it would have been -vastly more had the natives been as confident in the -faith of the Spaniards as they had reason to be of the -reverse. The Inca, Garcillasso, and some of the Spanish -historians, tell us that on the Spaniards displaying -their greedy spirit of plunder, vast quantities of treasure -vanished from public view, and never could be -discovered again. Amongst these were the celebrated -emerald of Manta, which was worshipped as a divinity; -was as large as an ostrich egg, and had smaller -emeralds offered to it as its children; and the chain of -gold made by order of Huana Capac, to surround the -square at Cuzco on days of solemn dancing, and was -in length seven hundred feet, and of the thickness of a -man’s wrist.</p> - -<p>The Inca having fulfilled, as far as the impatience of -the Spaniards would permit him, his promises, now -demanded his freedom. Poor man! his tyrants never -intended to give him any other freedom than the freedom -of death. They held him merely as a lure, by -which to draw all the gold and the power of his kingdom -into their hands. But as, after this transaction, they -could not hope to play upon him much further, they -resolved to dispatch him. The new adventurers who -had arrived with Almagro were clamorous for his destruction, -because they looked upon him as a puppet -in the hands of Pizarro, by which he would draw away -gold that might otherwise fall into their hands. The -poor Inca too, by an unwitting act, drew this destruction -more suddenly on his own head. Struck with -admiration at the art of writing, he got a soldier to -write the word Dios (God) on his thumb-nail, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">113</a></span> -shewing it to everybody that came in, saw with surprise -that every man knew in a moment the meaning -of it. When Pizarro, however, came, he could not -read it, and blushed and shewed confusion. Atahualpa -saw, with a surprise and contempt which he could -not conceal, that Pizarro was more ignorant than his -own soldiers; and the base tyrant, stung to the quick -with the affront which he might suppose designed, resolved -to rid himself of the Inca without delay. For -this purpose, he resorted to the mockery of a trial; -appointed himself, and his companion in arms, Almagro, -the very man who had demanded his death, judges, -and employed as interpreter, an Indian named Philippillo, -who was notoriously desirous of the Inca’s death, -that he might obtain one of his wives. This precious -tribunal charged the unfortunate Inca with being illegitimate; -with having dethroned and put to death his -brother; with being an idolater—the faith of the country; -with having a number of concubines—the custom -of the country too; with having embezzled the royal -treasures, which he had done to satisfy these guests, -and for which he ought now to have been free, had -these wretches had but the slightest principle of right -left in them. On these and similar charges they condemned -him to be burnt alive! and sent him instantly -to execution, only commuting his sentence into strangling -instead of burning, on his agreeing, in his terror -and astonishment, to acknowledge the Christian faith! -What an idea he must have had of the Christian -faith!</p> - -<p>The whole career of Pizarro and his comrades, -and especially this last unparalleled action, exhibit -them as such thoroughly desperado characters—so har<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">114</a></span>dened -into every thing fiendly, so utterly destitute of -every thing human, that nothing but the most fearful -scene of misery and crime could follow whenever they -were on the scene; and Peru, indeed, soon was one -wide field of horror, confusion, and oppression. The -Spaniards had neither faith amongst themselves, nor -mercy towards the natives, and therefore an army of -wolves fiercely devouring one another, or Pandemonium -in its fury can only present an image of Peru -under the herds of its first invaders. It is not my -province to follow the quarrels of the conquerors -further than is necessary to shew their effect on the -natives; and therefore I shall now pass rapidly over -matters that would fill a volume.</p> - -<p>Pizarro set up a son of Atahualpa as Inca, and held -him as a puppet in his hands; but the Peruvians set -up Manco Capac, brother of Huana; and as if the -example of the perfidy of the Spaniards had already -communicated itself to the heretofore orderly Peruvians, -the general whom Atahualpa had left in Quito, -rose and slew the remaining family of his master, and -assumed that province to himself. The Spaniards -rejoiced in this confusion, in which they were sure to -be the gainers. The adventurers who had shared -amongst them the riches of the royal room, had now -reached Spain with Ferdinand Pizarro at their head, -bearing to the court the dazzling share which fell to -its lot. Honours were showered on Pizarro and his -fellow-marauders,—fresh hosts of harpies set out for -this unfortunate land, and Pizarro marching to Cuzco, -made tremendous slaughter amongst the Indians, and -took possession of that capital and a fresh heap of -wealth more enormous than the plunder of Atahu<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">115</a></span>alpa’s -room. To keep his fellow officers, thus flushed -with intoxicating deluges of affluence, in some degree -quiet, he encouraged them to undertake different expeditions -against the natives. Benalcazar fell on -Quito,—Almagro on Chili; but the Peruvians were -now driven to desperation, and taking the opportunity -of the absence of those forces, they rose, and -attacked their oppressors in various quarters. The -consequence was what may readily be supposed—after -keeping the Spaniards in terror for some time, -they were routed and slaughtered by thousands. -But no sooner was this over than the Spaniards turned -their arms against each other. “Civil discord,” says -Robertson, “never raged with a more fell spirit than -amongst the Spaniards in Peru. To all the passions -which usually envenom contests amongst countrymen, -avarice was added, and rendered their enmity more -ravenous. Eagerness to seize the valuable forfeitures -expected upon the death of every opponent, shut the -door against mercy. To be wealthy, was of itself -sufficient to expose a man to accusation, or to subject -him to punishment. On the slightest suspicions, -Pizarro condemned many of the most opulent inhabitants -in Peru to death. Carvajal, without seeking -for any pretext to justify his cruelty, cut off many -more. The number of those who suffered by the -hand of the executioner, was not much inferior to -what fell in the field; and the greater part was condemned -without the formality of any legal trial.”</p> - -<p>Providence exhibited a great moral lesson in the -fate of these discoverers of the new world. As they -shewed no regard to the feelings or the rights of their -fellow men, as they outraged and disgraced every<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">116</a></span> -principle of the sacred religion which they professed, -scarcely one of them but was visited with retributive -vengeance even in this life; and many of them fell -miserably in the presence of the wretched people they -had so ruthlessly abused, and not a few by each other’s -hands. We have already shewn the fortunes of -Columbus and Cortez; that of Pizarro and his lawless -accomplices is still more striking and awful. Almagro, -one of the three original speculators of Panama, was -the first to pay the debt of his crimes. A daring and -rapacious soldier, but far less artful than Pizarro, he -had, from the hour that Pizarro deceived him at the -Spanish court, and secured honours and commands to -himself at his expense, always looked with suspicious -eyes upon his proceedings, and sought advancement -rather from his own sword than from his old but perfidious -comrade. Chili being allotted to him, he -claimed the city of Cuzco as his capital;—a bloody -war with the Pizarros was the consequence; Almagro -was defeated, taken prisoner, and put to death, being -strangled in prison and afterwards publicly beheaded. -But Pizarro’s own fate was hastened by this of his old -comrade. The friends of Almagro rallied round -young Almagro his son. They suddenly attacked -Pizarro in his house at noon, and on a Sunday; slew -his maternal uncle Alcantara, and several of his other -friends, and stabbed him mortally in the throat. The -younger Almagro was taken in arms against the new -governor, Vaca de Castro, and publicly beheaded in -Cuzco; five hundred of these adventurers falling in -the battle itself, and forty others perishing with him -on the scaffold. Gonzalo Pizarro, after maintaining -a war against the viceroy Nugnez Vela, defeating and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">117</a></span> -killing him, was himself defeated by Gasca, and put -to death, with Carvajal and some other of the most -notorious offenders.</p> - -<p>Such were the crimes and the fate of the Spaniards -in Peru. Robertson, who relates the deeds of the -Spanish adventurers in general with a coolness that is -marvellous, thus describes the character of these men.</p> - -<p>“The ties of honour, which ought to be held sacred -amongst soldiers, and the principle of integrity, interwoven -as thoroughly in the Spanish character as in -that of any nation, seem to have been equally forgotten. -Even the regard for decency, and the sense -of shame were totally lost. During their dissensions, -there was hardly a Spaniard in Peru who did not -abandon the party which he had originally espoused, -betray the associates with whom he had united, and -violate the engagements under which he had come. -The viceroy Nugnez Vela was ruined by the treachery -of Cepeda and the other judges of the royal audience, -who were bound by the duties of their function to -have supported his authority. The chief advisers and -companions of Gonzalo Pizarro’s revolt were the first -to forsake him, and submit to his enemies. His fleet -was given up to Gasca by the man whom he had -singled out among his officers to entrust with that -important command. On the day that was to decide -his fate, an army of veterans, in sight of the enemy, -threw down their arms without striking a blow, and -deserted a leader who had often led them to victory.... -It is only where men are far removed from the seat -of government, where the restraints of law and order -are little felt; where the prospect of gain is unbounded, -and where immense wealth may cover the crimes by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">118</a></span> -which it is acquired, that we can find any parallel to -the cruelty, the rapaciousness, the perfidy and corruption -prevalent amongst the Spaniards in Peru.”</p> - -<p>While such was their conduct to each other, we -may very well imagine what it was to the unhappy -natives. These fine countries, indeed, were given up -to universal plunder and violence. The people were -everywhere pursued for their wealth, their dwellings -ransacked without mercy, and themselves seized on -as slaves. As in the West Indian Islands and in -Mexico, they were driven to the mines, and tasked -without regard to their strength,—and like them, they -perished with a rapidity that alarmed even the Court -of Spain, and induced them to send out officers to -inquire, and to stop this waste of human life. Las -Casas again filled Spain with his loud remonstrances, -but with no better success. When their viceroys, -visitors, and superintendents arrived, and published -their ordinances, requiring the Indians to be treated -as free subjects, violent outcries and furious remonstrances, -similar to what England has in modern times -received from the West Indies when she has wished -to lighten the chains of the negro, were the immediate -result. The oppressors cried out that they should all -be ruined,—that they were “robbed of their just -rights,” and there was no prospect but of general -insurrection, unless they might continue to devour -the blood and sinews of the unfortunate Indians. -One man, the President Gasca, a simple ecclesiastic, -exhibited a union of talents and integrity most remarkable -and illustrious amid such general corruption; -he went out poor and he returned so, from a country -where the temptations to wink at evil were boundless;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">119</a></span> -and he effected a great amount of good in the reduction -of civil disorder; but the protection of the Indians -was beyond even his power and sagacity, and he left -them to their fate.</p> - -<hr /> -<h2>CHAPTER X.<br /><br /> - -<small>THE SPANIARDS IN PARAGUAY.</small></h2> - -<p><span class="smcap">One</span> more march in the bloody track of the Spaniards, -and then, thank God! we have done with them—at -least, in this hemisphere. In this chapter we shall, -however, have a new feature presented. Hitherto we -have seen these human ogres ranging through country -after country, slaying, plundering, and laying waste, -without almost a single arm of power raised to check -their violence, or a voice of pity to plead successfully -for their victims. The solitary cry of Las Casas, indeed, -was heard in Hispaniola; but it was heard in -vain. The name of Christianity was made familiar to -the natives, but it was to them a terrible name, for it -came accompanied by deeds of blood, and lust and infamy. -It must have seemed indeed, to them, the -revelation of some monstrous Moloch, more horrible, -because more widely and indiscriminately destructive -than any war-god of their own. How dreadful must -have appeared the very rites of this religion of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">120</a></span> -white-men! They baptized thousands upon thousands, -and then sent them to the life-in-death of slavery—to -the consuming pestilence of the plantation and the -mine. We are assured by their own authors, that the -moment after they had baptized numbers of these unhappy -creatures, they cut their throats that they might -prevent all possibility of a relapse, and send them -straight to heaven! Against these profanations of the -most humane of religions, what adequate power had -arisen? What was there to prove that Christianity -was really the very opposite in nature to what those -wretches, by their deeds, had represented it? Nothing, -or next to nothing. The remonstrances and the enactments -of the Spanish crown were non-existent to the -Indians, for they fell dead before they reached those -distant regions where such a tremendous power of -avarice and despotism had raised itself in virtual opposition -to authority, human or divine. Some of the -ecclesiastics, indeed, denounced the violence and injustice -of their countrymen; but they were few, and -disconnected in their efforts, and abodes; and their -assurances that the religion of Christ was in reality -merciful and kind, were belied by the daily and hourly -deeds of their kindred; and were doubly belied by the -lives of the far greater portion of their own order, -who yielded to none in unholy license, avarice, and -cruelty. How could the Indians be persuaded of its -divine power?—for it exhibited no power over nine-tenths -of all that they saw professing it. But now -there came a new era. There came an order of men -who not only displayed the effects of Christian principle -in themselves, but who had the sagacity to combine -their efforts, till they became sufficiently powerful<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">121</a></span> -to make Christianity practicable, and capable of conferring -some of its genuine benefits on its neophytes. -These were the Jesuits—an order recent in its origin, -but famous above all others for the talent, the ambition -and the profound policy of its members. We need -not here enter further into its general history, or inquire -how far it merited that degree of odium which -has attached to it in every quarter of the globe—for in -every quarter of the globe it has signalised its spirit of -proselytism, and has been expelled with aversion. I -shall content myself with stating, that I have formerly -ranked its operations in Paraguay and Brazil amongst -those of its worst ambition; but more extended inquiry -has convinced me that, in this instance, I, in common -with others, did them grievous wrong. A patient -perusal of Charlevoix’s History of Paraguay, and of -the vast mass of evidence brought together by Mr. -Southey from the best Spanish authorities in his History -of Brazil, must be more than sufficient to exhibit -their conduct in these countries as one of the most -illustrious examples of Christian devotion—Christian -patience—Christian benevolence and disinterested virtue -upon record. It gives me the sincerest pleasure, -having elsewhere expressed my opinion of the general -character of the order, amid the bloody and revolting -scenes of Spanish violence in the New World, to -point to the Jesuits as the first to stand collectively in -the very face of public outrage and the dishonour of -the Christian religion, as the friends of that religion -and of humanity.</p> - -<p>I do not mean to say that they exhibited Christianity -in all the splendour of its unadulterated truth;—no, -they had enough of the empty forms and legends, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">122</a></span> -false pretences, and false miracles of Rome, about -them; but they exhibited one great feature of its -spirit—love to the poor and the oppressed, and it was -at once acknowledged by them to be divine. I do not -mean to say that they adopted the soundest system of -policy in their treatment of the Indians; for their -besetting sin, the love of power and the pride of intellectual -dominance, were but too apparent in it; and -this prevented their labours from acquiring that permanence -which they otherwise would: but they did -this, which was a glorious thing in that age, and in -those countries—they showed what Christianity, even -in an imperfect form, can accomplish in the civilization -of the wildest people. They showed to the outraged -Indians, that Christianity was really a blessing where -really embraced; and to the Spaniards, that their -favourite dogmas of the incapacity of the Indians for -the reception of divine truth, and for the patient endurance -of labour and civil restraint, were as baseless -as their own profession of the Christian faith. They -stood up against universal power and rapacity, in -defence of the weak, the innocent, and the calumniated; -and they had the usual fate of such men—they -were the martyrs of their virtue, and deserve the -thanks and honourable remembrance of all ages.</p> - -<p>In strictly chronological order we should have -noticed the Portuguese in Brazil, before following -the Spaniards to Paraguay; as Paraguay was not -taken possession of by the Spaniards till about twenty -years after the Portuguese had seized upon Brazil: -but it is of more consequence to us to take a consecutive -view of the conduct of the Spaniards in South -America, than to take the settlement of different coun<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">123</a></span>tries -in exact order of time. Having with this chapter -dismissed the Spaniards, we shall next turn our attention -to the Portuguese in the neighbouring regions of -Brazil, and then pursue our inquiries into their treatment -of the natives in their colonies in the opposite -regions of the world.</p> - -<p>The Spaniards entered this beautiful country with -the same spirit that they had done every other that -they had hitherto discovered;—but they found here a -different race. They had neither creatures gentle as -those of the Lucayo Islands, nor of Peru, nor men so -far civilized as these last, nor as the Mexicans to contend -with. They did not find the natives of these -regions appalled with their wonder, or paralysed with -prophecies and superstitious fears; but like the Charaib -natives, they were fierce and ferocious—tattooed and -disfigured with strange gashes and pouches for stones -in their faces; quick in resentment, and desperate -cannibals. When Juan Diaz de Solis discovered the -Plata in 1515, he landed with a party of his men in -order to seize some of the natives; but they killed, -roasted, and devoured, both him and his companions. -Cabot, who was sent out to form a settlement there -ten years afterwards, treated the natives with as little -ceremony, and found them as quick to return the -insult. Diego Garcia, who soon followed Cabot, came -with the intention of carrying off <em>eight hundred slaves -to Portugal</em>, which he actually accomplished, putting -them and his vessel into the charge of a Portuguese -of St. Vincente. Garcia made war on the great tribe -of the Guaranies for this purpose, and thus made them -hostile to the settlement of the Spaniards. In 1534, -the powerful armament of Don Pedro de Mendoza,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">124</a></span> -consisting of eleven ships and eight hundred men, -entered the Plata, and laid the foundation of Buenos -Ayres. One of his first acts was to murder his deputy-commandant, -Juan Osorio; and one of the next to -make war on the powerful and vindictive tribe of the -Quirandies, who possessed the country round his new -settlement: the consequences of which were, that they -reduced him to the most horrid state of famine, burnt -his town about his ears, and eventually obliged him to -set sail homeward, on which voyage he died.</p> - -<p>These were proceedings as impolitic as they were -wicked, in the attempt to colonize a new, a vast, and -a warlike country; but it was the mode which the -Spaniards had generally practised. They seemed to -despise the natives alike as enemies and as men; and -they went on fighting, and destroying, and enslaving, -as matters of course. As they were now in a great -country, abounding with martial tribes, we must -necessarily take a very rapid glance at their proceedings. -They advanced up the Paraguay, under the -command of Ayolas, whom Mendoza had left in command, -and seized on the town of Assumpcion, a place -which, from its situation, became afterwards of the -highest consequence. This noble country, stretching -through no less than twenty degrees of south latitude, -and surrounded by the vast mountains of Brazil to the -east, of Chili to the west, and of Moxos and Matto -Grosso to the north, is singularly watered with some -of the noblest rivers in the world, descending from the -mountains on all sides, and as they traverse it in all -its quarters, fall southward, one after another, into the -great central stream, till they finally <em>debouche</em> in the -great estuary of the Plata. Assumpcion, situated at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">125</a></span> -the junction of the Paraguay and the Pilcomayo, -besides the advantages of a direct navigation, was so -centrally placed as naturally to be pointed out as a -station of great importance in the discovery and settlement -of the country.</p> - -<p>Ayolas, whom Mendoza had left in command, having -subdued several tribes of the natives to the Spanish -yoke, set out up the river Paraguay in quest of the -great lure of the Spaniards, gold, where he and all his -men were cut off by the Indians of the Payagoa -tribe. His deputy, Yrala, after sharing his fate, -caught two of the Payagoas, tortured and burnt them -alive; and then, spite of the fate of their comrades, -and only fired by the same news of gold, resolved to -follow in the same track; fresh forces in the mean -time arriving from Spain, and committing fresh aggressions -on the natives along the course of the river. -Cabeza de Vaca being appointed Adelantado in the -place of Mendoza, arrived at Assumpcion in 1542, -and after subduing the two great tribes of the Guaranies -and Guaycurus, set off also in the great quest of -gold. He sent out expeditions, moreover, in various -directions; but Vaca, though he had no scruples in -conquering the Indians, was too good for the people -about him. He would not suffer them to use the men -as slaves, and to carry off the women. So they mutinied -against him, and shipped him off for Spain. -Yrala was thus again left in power, and to keep his -soldiers in exercise, actually marched across the -country three hundred and seventy-two leagues, and -reached the confines of Peru. Returning from this -stupendous march, he next attacked the Indians on -the borders of Brazil, and defined the limits of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">126</a></span> -provinces of Portugal and Spain. He then divided -the land into <em>Repartimientos</em>, as the Spaniards had -done every where else; thus giving the country to the -adventurers, and the people upon it as a part of the -property. “The settlers,” says Southey, “in the -mean time, went on in those habits of lasciviousness -and cruelty which characterize the Creoles of every -stock whatever. He made little or no attempt to -check them, perhaps because he knew that any attempt -would be ineffectual, ... perhaps because he -thought all was as it should be, ... that the Creator -had destined the people of colour to serve those of a -whiter complexion, and be at the mercy of their lust -and avarice.”</p> - -<p>By such men, Yrala, Veyaor who founded Ciudad -Real on the Parana, Chaves who founded the town of -Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Moxos, and the infamous -Zarate, were the name, power, and crimes of the Spaniards -spread in Paraguay, when the Jesuits were -invited thither from Brazil and Peru in 1586.</p> - -<p>This is one of the greatest events in the history of -the Spaniards in the New World. With these men -they introduced a power, which had it been permitted -to proceed, would have speedily put a stop to their -cruelties on the natives, and would eventually have -civilized all that mighty continent. But the Spaniards -were not long in perceiving this, and such a storm of -vengeance and abuse was raised, as ultimately broke -up one of the most singular institutions that ever existed, -and dispersed those holy fathers and their works -as a dream.</p> - -<p>They were, indeed, received at first with unbounded -joy. Those from Peru, says Southey, came from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">127</a></span> -Potosi; and were received at Salta with incredible -joy as though they had been angels from heaven. For -although the Spaniards were corrupted by plenty of -slaves and women whom they had at command, they, -nevertheless, regretted the want of that outward religion, -the observance of which was so easily made -compatible with every kind of vice. At Santiago de -Estero, which was then the capital and episcopal city, -triumphal arches were erected; the way was strewn -with flowers; the governor, with the soldiers and chief -inhabitants went out to meet them, and solemn thanksgiving -was celebrated, at which the bishop chanted -the Te Deum. At Corduba, they met with five brethren -of their order who had arrived from Brazil: Leonardo -Armenio, the superior, an Italian; Juan Salernio; -Thomas Filds, a Scotchman; Estevam de Grao, and -Manoel de Ortiga, both Portuguese. The Jesuits -found, wherever the Spaniards had penetrated, the Indians -groaning under their oppressions and licentiousness, -ready to burst out, and take summary vengeance -at the first opportunity; and they were on all sides surrounded -by tribes of others in a state of hostile irritation, -regarding the Spaniards as the most perfidious -as well as powerful enemies, from whom nothing was -to be hoped, and against whom every advantage was -to be seized. Yet amongst these fierce tribes, the -Jesuits boldly advanced, trusting to that principle -which ought always to have been acted upon by those -calling themselves Christians, that where no evil is intended -evil will seldom be received. It is wonderful -how successful this system was in their hands. With -his breviary in his hand, and a cross of six feet high, -which served him for a staff, the Jesuit missionary set<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">128</a></span> -out to penetrate into some new region. He was accompanied -by a few converted Indians who might act -as guides and interpreters. They took with them a -stock of maize as provision in the wilderness, where -the bows of the Indians did not supply them with -game; for they carefully avoided carrying fire-arms, -lest they should excite alarm or suspicion. They -thus encountered all the difficulties of a wild country; -climbing mountains, and cutting their way through -pathless woods with axes; and at night, if they reached -no human habitation, they made fires to keep off the -wild beasts, and reposed beneath the forest trees. -When they arrived amongst the tribes they sought, -they explained through their interpreters, that they -came thus and threw themselves into their power, to -prove to them that they were their friends; to teach -them the arts, and to endow them with the advantages -of the Europeans. In some cases they had to suffer for -the villanies of their countrymen—the natives being -too much exasperated by their wrongs to be able to -conceive that some fresh experiment of evil towards -them was not concealed under this peaceful shew. -But, in the far greater number of cases, their success -was marvellous. They speedily inspired the Indians -with confidence in their good intentions towards them; -for the natives of every country yet discovered, have -been found as quick in recognizing their friends as they -have been in resenting the injuries of their enemies. -The following anecdote given by Charlevoix, is peculiarly -indicative of their manner of proceeding.—Father -Monroy, with a lay-brother Jesuit, called Juan -de Toledo, had at length reached the Omaguacas, -whose cacique Piltipicon had once been baptized, but,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">129</a></span> -owing to the treatment of the Spaniards, had renounced -their religion, and pursued them with every -possible evil; massacred their priests; burnt their -churches; and ravaged their settlements. Father -Monroy was told that certain and instant death would -be the consequence of his appearing before Piltipicon; -but armed with all that confidence which Jesus Christ -has so much recommended to the preachers of his -gospel, he entered the house of the terrible cacique, -and thus addressed him: “The good which I desire -you, has made me despise the terrors of almost certain -death; but you cannot expect much honour in taking -away the life of a naked man. If, contrary to my expectation, -you will consent to listen to me, all the -advantage of our conversation will be yours; whereas, -if I die by your hands, an immortal crown in heaven -will be my reward.” Piltipicon was so amazed, or -rather softened by the missionary’s boldness, that he -immediately offered him some of the beer brewed from -maize, which the Omaguacas use; and not only granted -his request to proceed further up his country, but furnished -him with provisions for the journey. The end -of it was, that Piltipicon made peace with the Spaniards, -and ultimately embraced Christianity, with all -his people.</p> - -<p>The Jesuits, once admitted by the Indians, soon -convinced them that they could have no end in view -but their good; and the resistance which they made -to the attempts of the Spaniards to enslave them, gave -them such a fame amongst all the surrounding nations -as was most favourable to the progress of their plans. -When they had acquired an influence over a tribe, -they soon prevailed upon them to come into their set<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">130</a></span>tlements, -which they called <span class="smcap">Reductions</span>, and where -they gradually accustomed them to the order and -comforts of civilized life. These Reductions were -principally situated in Guayra, on the Parana, and -in the tract of country between the Parana and the -Uruguay, the great river which, descending from the -mountains of Rio Grande, runs southward parallel -with the Parana, and debouches in the Plata. In -process of time they had established thirty of these -Reductions in La Plata and Paraguay, thirteen of -them being in the diocese of the Assumpcion, besides -those amongst the Chiquitos and other nations. In the -centre of every mission was the Reduction, and in -the centre of the Reduction was a square, which the -church faced, and likewise the arsenal, in which all -the arms and ammunition were laid up. In this -square the Indians were exercised every week, for -there were in every town two companies of militia, -the officers of which had handsome uniforms laced -with gold and silver, which, however, they only wore -on those occasions, or when they took the field. At -each corner of the square was a cross, and in the -centre an image of the Virgin. They had a large -house on the right-hand of the church for the Jesuits, -and near it the public workshops. On the left-hand -of the church was the public burial-ground and the -widows’ house. Every necessary trade was taught, -and the boys were taken to the public workshops and -instructed in such trades as they chose. To every -family was given a house, and a piece of ground sufficient -to supply it with all necessaries. Oxen were -supplied from the common stock for cultivating it, -and while this family was capable of doing the neces<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">131</a></span>sary -work, this land never was taken away. Besides -this private property, there were two larger portions, -called Tupamba, or God’s Possession, to which all -the community contributed the necessary labour, and -raised provisions for the aged, sick, widows, and -orphans, and income for the public service, and the -payment of the national tribute. The boys were -employed in weeding, keeping the roads in order, -and various other offices. They went to work with -the music of flutes and in procession. The girls were -employed in gathering cotton, and driving birds from -the fields. Every one had his or her proper avocation, -and officers were appointed to superintend every -different department, and to see that all was going on -well in shops and in fields. They had, however, their -days and hours of relaxation. They were taught -singing, music, and dancing, under certain regulations. -On holidays, the men played at various games, shot -at marks, played with balls of elastic gum, or went -out hunting and fishing. Every kind of art that was -innocent or ornamental was practised. They cast -bells, and carved and gilded with great elegance. -The women, beside their other domestic duties, made -pottery, and spun and wove cotton for garments. The -Jesuits exported large quantities of the Caa, or Paraguay -tea, and introduced valuable improvements in -the mode of its preparation.</p> - -<p>Such were some of the regulations which the Jesuits -had established in these settlements; and notwithstanding -the regular system of employment kept up, -the natives flocked into them in such numbers, that it -required all the ingenuity of the fathers to accommodate -them all. The largest of their Reductions con<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">132</a></span>tained -as many as eight thousand inhabitants; the -smallest fifteen hundred; the average was about three -thousand. To preserve that purity of morals which -was inculcated, it was found necessary to obtain a -royal mandate, that no Spaniard should enter these -Reductions except when going to the bishop or superior. -“And one thing,” says Charlevoix, “greatly to -their honour, was universally allowed by all the Europeans -settled in South America: the converted Indians -inhabiting them, no longer exhibited traces of their -former proneness to vengeance, cruelty, and the -grosser vices. They were no longer, in any respect, -the same men they formerly were. The most cordial -love and affection for each other, and charity for all -men, delighted all who visited them, the infidels especially, -whom their behaviour served to inspire with -the most favourable opinion of the Christian religion.” -“It is,” he adds, “no ways surprising that God -should work such wonders in such pure souls; nor -that those very Indians, to whom some learned doctors -would not allow reason enough to be received into -the bosom of the church, should be at this day one of -its greatest ornaments, and perhaps the most precious -portion of the flock of Christ.”</p> - -<p>There is nothing more wonderful in all the inscrutable -dispensations of Providence, than that this beautiful -scene of innocence and happiness should have -been suffered to be broken in upon by the wolves of -avarice and violence, and all dispersed as a morning -dream. But the Jesuits, by their advocacy and civilization -of these poor people, had raised up against -them three hostile powers,—the Spaniards—the man-hunters -of Santo Paulo—and political demagogues.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">133</a></span> -The Spaniards soon hated them for standing between -them and their victims. They hated them for presuming -to tell them that they had no right to enslave, -to debauch, to exterminate them. They hated them -because they would not suffer them to be given up to -them as property—mere live stock—beasts of labour, -in their Encomiendas. They regarded them as robbing -them of just so much property, and as setting a -bad example to the other Indians who were already -enslaved, or were yet to be so. They hated them -because their refusing them entrance into their Reductions -was a standing and perpetual reproof of the -licentiousness of their lives. They foresaw that if -this system became universal, the very pillars of their -indolent and debased existence would be thrown down: -“for,” says Charlevoix, “the Spaniards here think it -beneath them to exercise any manual employment. -Those even who are but just landed from Spain, put -every stitch they have brought with them upon their -backs, and set up for gentlemen, above serving in any -menial capacity.”</p> - -<p>Whoever, therefore, sought to seize upon any unauthorized -power in the colony, began to flatter these -lazy people, by representing the Jesuits as their -greatest enemies, who were seeking to undermine -their fortunes, and deprive them of the services of -the Indians. Such men were, Cardenas the bishop of -Assumpcion, and Antequera;—Cardenas, entering -irregularly into his office in 1640, and Antequera who -was sent as judge to Assumpcion in 1721, more than -eighty years afterwards, and who seized on the government -itself. Both attacked the Jesuits as the surest -means of winning the popular favour. They knew<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">134</a></span> -the jealousy with which their civilization of the Indians -was regarded, and they had only to thunder accusations -in the public ears calculated to foment that jealousy, -in order to secure the favour of the people. -Accordingly, these ambitious, intriguing, and turbulent -persons, made not only South America, but -Europe itself ring with alarms of the Jesuits. They -contended that they were ruining the growing fortunes -of the Spanish states,—that they were aiming at -an independent power, and were training the Indians -for the purpose of effecting it. They talked loudly -of wealthy mines, which the Jesuits worked while -they kept their location strictly secret. These mines -could never be found. They represented that they -dwelt in wealthy cities, adorned with the most magnificent -churches and palaces, and lived in a condition -the most sensual with the Indians. These calumnies, -only too well relished by the lazy and rapacious Spaniards, -did not fail of their effect—the Jesuits were -attacked in their Reductions, harassed in a variety of -modes, and eventually driven out of the country; -where circumstances connected with the less worthy -members of their order in Europe, added their fatal -influence to the odium already existing here. But of -that anon.</p> - -<p>During their existence in this country, the -greatest curse and scourge of their Reductions -were the Paulistas, or Man-hunters, of Santo Paulo -in Brazil. These people were a colony of Mamelucoes, -or descendants of Portuguese and Indians; and -a more dreadful set of men are not upon record. -Their great business was to hunt for mines, and for -Indians. For this purpose they ranged through the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">135</a></span> -interior, sometimes in large troops, armed and capable -of reducing a strong town, at others, they were scattered -into smaller parties prowling through the woods, -and pouncing on all that fell into their clutches. They -were fierce, savage, and merciless. They seemed to -take a wild delight in the destruction of human settlements, -and in the blaze of human abodes. They -maintained themselves in the wilds by hunting, fishing, -the plunder of the natives; and when that failed, -they could subsist on the pine-nuts, and the flour prepared -from the carob, or locust-tree, termed by them -war-meal.</p> - -<p>Their abominable practices had been vehemently -denounced by the Jesuits of Santo Paulo, and in consequence -they became bitter enemies of the order. -One of their favourite stratagems, was to appear in -small parties, led by commanders in the habits of -Jesuits, in those places which they knew the Jesuits -frequented in the hopes of making proselytes. The -first thing they did there, was to erect crosses. They -next made little presents to the Indians they met; -distributed remedies amongst the sick; and as they -were masters of the Guarani language, exhorted them -to embrace the Christian religion, of which they explained -to them in a few words, the principal articles. -When they had, by these arts, assembled a great -number of them, they proposed to them to remove to -some more convenient spot, where they assured them -they should want for nothing. Most of these poor -creatures permitted themselves to be thus led by these -wolves in sheep’s clothing, till the traitors, dropping -the mask, began to tie them, cutting the throats of -those who endeavoured to escape, and carried the rest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">136</a></span> -into slavery. Some, however, escaped from time to -time, and alarmed the whole country. This scheme -served two purposes; it for a time procured them -great numbers of Indians, and it cast an odium on the -Jesuits, to whom it was attributed, which long operated -against them. But it was not long that these base -miscreants were contented with this mischief. It -struck them, that the Reductions of the Jesuits in -Guayra, a province adjoining their own, might be -made an easy prey; and would furnish them with a -rich booty of human flesh at a little cost of labour. -They accordingly soon fell upon them, and the relation -of the miseries and desolation inflicted on these -peaceful and flourishing settlements, as given by -Charlevoix, is heart-rending. Nine hundred Mamelucoes, -accompanied by two thousand Indians, under -one of their most famous commanders Anthony Rasposo, -broke into Guayra, and beset the reduction of -St. Anthony, which was under the care of Father -Mola. They put to the sword all the Indians that -attempted to resist; butchered, even at the foot of the -altar, such as fled there for refuge; loaded the principal -men with chains, and plundered the church. Some -of them having entered the missionary’s house, in -hopes of a rich booty, finding nothing but a threadbare -soutane and a few tattered shirts, told the Indians -they must be very foolish to take for masters, strangers -who came into their country because they had -not wherewith to live in their own; that they would -be much happier in Brazil, where they would want for -nothing, and would not be obliged to maintain their -pastors.</p> - -<p>These were, no doubt, fine speeches to be made to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">137</a></span> -people loaded with chains, and whose relatives and -countrymen had been but that instant butchered before -their eyes. Father Mola in vain threw himself -at the commander’s feet; represented to him the -innocence and simplicity of these poor Indians; conjured -him by all that was most sacred, to set bounds -to the fury of the soldiers; and at last, threatened -them with the indignation of heaven: but these -savages answered him, that it was enough to be baptized -again to be admitted into heaven, and that they -would make their way into it though God himself -should oppose their entrance.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">11</a> They carried away -into slavery two thousand five hundred Indians.</p> - -<p>Some of the prisoners escaped, and returned to join -Father Mola and such of their brethren as had fled -to the woods. The father, they found amid the ruins -of his Reduction sunk in the deepest sorrow. However, -he roused himself and persuaded them to retire -with him to the Reduction of the Incarnation. The -Reductions of St. Michael and of Jesus-Maria, were -speedily treated in the same manner; and they set -out for Santo Paulo, driving their victims before -them as so many cattle. Nine months the march -continued. The merciless wretches urged them for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">138</a></span>ward -till numbers fell by the way, worn out with -fatigue and famine. The first who gave way were -sick women and aged persons; who begged in vain -that their husbands, wives, or children, might remain -with them in their dying hours. All that could be -forced on by goading and blows, were, and when -they fell, they were left to perish by the wild beasts. -Two Jesuit fathers, Mansilla and Maceta, however, -followed their unhappy people, imploring more gentleness -towards the failing, and comforting the dying. -When Father Maceta first beheld his people chained -like galley slaves, he could not contain himself. He -ran up to embrace them, in spite of the cocked -muskets, with which he was threatened, and volleys -of blows poured upon him at every step. Seeing in -the throng the cazique Guiravara and his wife chained -together, he ran up to the cazique, who before his -conversion had used Father Maceta very cruelly, and -kissing his chain, told him that he was overjoyed to -be able to shew him that he entertained no resentment -of his ill usage, and would risk his life to procure his -liberty. He procured both their freedom, and that -of several other Indians, on promise of a ransom. -Thus these noble men followed their captive people -through the whole dreadful journey, administering -every comfort and hope of final liberation in their -power; and their services and sympathy, we may well -imagine, were sufficiently needed, for out of the whole -number of captives collected in Guayra, fifteen hundred -only arrived in life at Santo Paulo.</p> - -<p>But the journey of the fathers did not end here. -They could get no redress; and therefore hastened to -Rio Janeiro; and succeeding no better there, went<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">139</a></span> -on to the Bay of All-Saints, to Don Diego Lewis -Oliveyra, governor and captain-general of the kingdom. -The governor ordered an officer to repair with -them to Santo Paulo; but it was too late, the prisoners -were distributed far and wide, and the commissary -could not or dared not attempt to recall them. News -also of fresh enterprises meditated against the Paraguay -Reductions, by these hideous man-hunters, made -the fathers hasten away to put their brethren upon -their guard.</p> - -<p>The story of the successive devastation of the Reductions -is long. The Jesuits were compelled to retreat -southward from one place to another with their -wretched neophytes. The magistrates and governors -gave them no aid, for they entertained no good-will -towards them; and they were, even in the central -ground between the Parana and Uruguay, compelled -to train their people to arms, and defend themselves. -It is not only a long but sorrowful recital, both of the -injuries received from the Paulistas and from their -own countrymen—we must therefore pass it over, and -merely notice the manner of their final expulsion.</p> - -<p>The court of Spain ordered the banishment of the -Jesuits, and the authorities, only too happy to execute -the order, surrounded their colleges in the night with -soldiers, seized the persons of the missionaries,—their -libraries and manuscripts, which in time became destroyed, -an irreparable loss to historical literature. -Old men in their beds even were not suffered to remain -and die in peace, but were compelled to accompany -the rest, till they died on their mules in the immense -journey from some of the settlements, and across the -wildest mountains to the sea. The words of Mr.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">140</a></span> -Southey may well close this strange and melancholy -history.</p> - -<p>“Bucarelli shipped off the Jesuits of La Plata, Tucuman, -and Paraguay, one hundred and fifty-five in -number, before he attacked the Reductions. This -part of the business he chose to perform in person; -and the precautions which he took for arresting seventy-eight -defenceless missionaries, will be regarded with -contempt, or with indignation, as they may be supposed -to have proceeded from ignorance of the real -state of things, or from fear, basely affected for the -purpose of courting favour by countenancing successful -calumnies. He had previously sent for all the -Caciques and Corregidores to Buenos Ayres, and persuaded -them that the king was about to make a great -change for their advantage. Two hundred soldiers -from Paraguay were ordered to guard the pass of the -Tebiquary; two hundred Corrientines to take post in -the vicinity of St. Miguel; and he defended the Uruguay -with threescore dragoons, and three companies -of grenadiers. They landed at the Falls; one detachment -proceeded to join the Paraguay party, and seize -the Parana Jesuits; another incorporated itself with -the Corrientines, and marched against those on the -eastern side of the Uruguay; and the Viceroy himself -advanced upon Yapeyen, and those which lay between -the two rivers. The Reductions were peaceably delivered -up. The Jesuits, without a murmur, followed -their brethren into banishment; and Bucarelli was vile -enough to take credit in his dispatches for the address -with which he had so happily performed a dangerous -service; and to seek favour by loading the persecuted -Company with charges of the grossest and foulest -calumnies.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">141</a></span></p> - -<p>The American Jesuits were sent from Cadiz to Italy, -where Faenza and Ravenna were assigned for their -places of abode. Most of the Paraguay brethren settled -at Faenza. There they employed the melancholy -hours of age and exile in preserving, as far as they -could from memory alone (for they had been deprived -of all their papers), the knowledge which they had so -painfully acquired of strange countries, strange manners, -savage languages, and savage man. The Company -originated in extravagance and madness; in its -progress it was supported and aggrandized by fraud -and falsehood; and its history is stained by actions of -the darkest dye. But it fell with honour. No men -ever behaved with greater equanimity, under undeserved -disgrace, than the last of the Jesuits; and -the extinction of the order was a heavy loss to literature, -a great evil to the Catholic world, and an irreparable -injury to the tribes of South America.</p> - -<p>“Bucarelli replaced the exiled missionaries by -priests from the different Mendicant orders; but the -temporal authority was not vested in their hands—this -was vested in lay-administrators.... Here -ended the prosperity of these celebrated communities—here -ended the tranquillity and welfare of the -Guaranies. The administrators, hungry ruffians from -the Plata, or fresh from Spain, neither knew the language -nor had patience to acquire it. It sufficed for -them that they could make their commands intelligible -by the whip. The priests had no authority to -check the enormities of these wretches; nor were -they always irreproachable themselves. A year had -scarce elapsed before the Viceroy discovered that the -Guaranies, for the sake of escaping from this intoler<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">142</a></span>able -state of oppression, were beginning to emigrate -into the Portuguese territories, and actually soliciting -protection from their old enemies. Upon the first -alarm of so unexpected an occurrence, Bucarelli displaced -all the administrators; but the new administrators -were as brutal and rapacious as their predecessors; -the governor was presently involved in a violent -struggle with the priests, touching their respective -powers, and the confusion which ensued, evinced how -wisely the Jesuits had acted in combining the spiritual -and temporal authorities.... The Viceroy then -instituted a new form of administration. The Indians -were declared exempt from all personal service, not -subject to the Encomienda system, and entitled to -possess property—a right of which, Bucarelli said, -they had been deprived by the Jesuits; for this -governor affected to emancipate the Guaranies, and -talked of placing them under the safeguard of the law, -and purifying the Reductions from tyranny! They -were to labour for the community under the direction -of the administrators; and as an encouragement to -industry, the Reductions were opened to traders during -the months of February, March, and April. The end -of all this was, that compulsory and cruel labour left -the Indians neither time nor inclination—neither heart -nor strength—to labour for themselves. The arts -which the Jesuits had introduced, were neglected and -forgotten; their gardens lay waste; their looms fell to -pieces; and in these communities, where the inhabitants -for many generations had enjoyed a greater -exemption from physical and moral evil than any other -inhabitants of the globe, the people were now made -vicious and miserable. Their only alternative was to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">143</a></span> -remain, and to be treated like slaves, or fly to the -woods, and take their chance as savages.”</p> - -<p>Here we must close our review of the Spaniards in -the New World. Our narrative has been necessarily -brief and rapid, for the history of their crimes extends -over a vast continent, and through three centuries; -and would, related at length, fill a hundred volumes. -We have found them, however, everywhere the same—cruel, -treacherous, and regardless of the feelings of -humanity and the sense of justice. They have -wreaked alike their vengeance on the natives of every -country they have entered, and on those of their own -race who dared to espouse the cause of the sufferers. -This spirit continued to the last. In all their colonies, -the natives, whether of Indian blood, or the Creoles -descended of their own, were carefully excluded from -the direction of their own affairs, and the emoluments -of office. Spaniards from the mother country were -sent over in rapacious swarms, to fatten on the vitals -of these vast states, and return when they had sucked -their fill. The retribution has followed; and Spain -has not now left a single foot of all these countries -which she has drenched in the blood, and filled with -the groans of their native children.</p> - -<p>Mr. Ward, in his “Mexico in 1827,” says that -in 1803, the number of Indians remaining in Mexico -was two millions and a half; but that their history -is everywhere a blank. Some have become -habituated to civil life, and are excellent artizans, -but the greater portion are totally neglected. That, -during the Revolution, the sense of the injuries -which the race had received from the Spaniards, -and which seemed to have slumbered in their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">144</a></span> -bosoms for three centuries, blazed up and shewed -itself in the eager and burning enthusiasm with which -they flocked to the revolutionary standard to throw -off the yoke of their ancient oppressors. He adds, -“Whatever may be the advantages which they may derive -from the recent changes, and the nature of these -time alone can determine, the fruits of the introduction -of boasted civilization into the New World have -been hitherto bitter indeed. Throughout America the -Indian race has been sacrificed; nor can I discover -that in New Spain any one step has been taken for -their improvement. In the neighbourhood of the -capital nothing can be more wretched than their appearance; -and although under a republican form of -government, they must enjoy, in theory at least, an -equality of rights with every other class of citizens, -they seemed practically, at the period of my first visit, -to be under the orders of every one, whether officer, -soldier, churchman, or civilian, who chose to honour -them with a command.”—vol. ii. p. 215.</p> -<hr /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">145</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XI.<br /><br /> - -<small>THE PORTUGUESE IN BRAZIL.</small></h2> - -<p><span class="smcap">Though</span> we now make our first inquiry into the conduct -of the Portuguese towards the natives of their -colonies, and enter upon so immense a scene of action -as that of the vast empire of Brazil, our notice may -happily be condensed into a comparatively small -space, because the features of the settlement of Paraguay -by the Spaniards, and that of Brazil by the -Portuguese are wonderfully similar. The natives -were of a like character, bold and warlike, and were -treated in like fashion. They were destroyed, enslaved, -given away in Encomiendos, just as it suited -the purpose of the invaders; the Jesuits arrived, and -undertook their defence and civilization, and were -finally expelled, like their brethren of Paraguay, as -pestilential fellows, that would not let the colonists -“do as they pleased with their own.”</p> - -<p>Yanez Pinzon, the Spaniard, was the first who discovered -the coast of Brazil, in A.D. 1500, and coasting -northward from Cape Agostinho, he gave the -natives such a taste of the faith and intentions of the -whites as must have prepared them to resist them to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">146</a></span> -the utmost on their reappearance. Betwixt Cape -Agostinho and the river Maranham, seeing a party of -the natives on a hill near the shore, they landed, and -endeavoured to open some degree of intercourse; but -the natives not liking their appearance, attempted to -drive them away, killed eight of them, wounded more, -and pursued them with fury to their boat. The Spaniards, -of course, did not spare the natives, and soon -afterwards shewed that the natives were very much -in the right in repelling them, for on entering the -Maranham, where the natives <em>did</em> receive them cordially, -they seized about thirty of these innocent -people and carried them off for slaves.</p> - -<p>Scarcely had Pinzon departed, when Cabral, with -the Portuguese squadron, made his accidental visit to -the same coast. In the following year Amerigo Vespucci -was sent thither to make further discoveries, -and having advanced as far southward as 52°, returned -home. In 1503, he was sent out again, and effected -a settlement in 18° S. in what was afterwards called -the Captaincy of Porto Seguro. One of the very -first acts of Portugal was to ship thither as colonists -the refuse of her prisons, as Spain had done to her -colonies, and as Portugal also had done to Africa and -India; a horrible mode of inflicting the worst curses -of European society on new countries, and of presenting -to the natives under the name of Christians, men -rank and fuming with every species of brutal vice and -pestiferous corruption.</p> - -<p>Ten years after the discovery of Brazil, a young -noble, Diego Alvarez, who was going out on a voyage -of adventure, was wrecked on the coast of Bahia, and -was received with cordiality by the natives, and named<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">147</a></span> -Caramuru, or the Man of Fire, from the possession -of fire-arms. Here he married the daughter of the -chief, and finally became the great chief himself, with -a numerous progeny around him. Another man, -Joam Ramalho, who also had been shipwrecked, married -a daughter of the chief of Piratininga, and these -circumstances gave the Portuguese a favourable reception -in different places of this immense coast. In -about thirty years after its discovery the country was -divided into captaincies, the sugar-cane was introduced, -and the work of colonization went rapidly on. -The natives were attacked on all sides; they defended -themselves with great spirit, but were compelled to -yield before the power of fire-arms. But while the -natives suffered from the colonists, the colonists suffered -too from the despotism of the governors of the -captaincies; a Governor-general was therefore appointed -just half a century after the discovery, in the -person of Thome de Sousa, and some Jesuits were -sent out with him to civilize the natives.</p> - -<p>Amongst these was Father Manoel de Nobrega, chief -of the mission, who distinguished himself so nobly in -behalf of the Indians. The city of Salvador, in the -bay of All-Saints, was founded as the seat of government, -and the Jesuits immediately began the work of -civilization. There was great need of it both amongst -the Indians and their own countrymen. “Indeed, -the fathers,” says Southey, “had greater difficulties -to encounter in the conduct of their own countrymen -than in the customs and disposition of the natives. -During half a century, the colonization of Brazil had -been left to chance; the colonists were almost without -law and religion. Many settlers had never either<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">148</a></span> -confessed or communicated since they entered the -country; the ordinances of the church were neglected -for want of a clergy to celebrate them, and the moral -precepts had been forgotten with the ceremonies. -Crimes which might easily at first have been prevented, -had become habitual, and the habit was now -too strong to be overcome. There were indeed individuals -in whom the moral sense could be discovered, -but in the majority it had been utterly destroyed. -They were of that description of men over whom the -fear of the gallows may have some effect; the fear of -God has none. A system of concubinage was practised -among them, worse than the loose polygamy of -the savages. The savage had as many women as -consented to become his wives—the colonist as many -as he could enslave. There is an ineffaceable stigma -upon the Europeans in their intercourse with those -whom they treat as inferior races—there is a perpetual -contradiction between their lust and their avarice. -The planter will one day take a slave for his harlot, -and sell her the next as a being of some lower species—a -beast of labour. If she be indeed an inferior -animal, what shall be said of the one action? If she -be equally with himself an human being and an immortal -soul, what shall be said of the other? Either -way there is a crime committed against human nature. -Nobrega and his companions refused to administer -the sacraments of the church to those persons who -retained native women as concubines, or men as slaves. -Many were reclaimed by this resolute and Christian -conduct; some, because their consciences had not -been dead, but sleeping; others, for worldly fear, -because they believed the Jesuits were armed with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">149</a></span> -secular as well as spiritual authority. The good -effect which was produced on such persons was therefore -only for a season. Mighty as the Catholic religion -is, avarice is mightier; and in spite of all the -best and ablest men that ever the Jesuit order, so -fertile of great men, has had to glory in, the practice -of enslaving the natives continued.”</p> - -<p>Yet, according to the same authority, the country -had not been entirely without priests; but they had -become so brutal that Nobrega said, “No devil had -persecuted him and his brethren so greatly as they -did. These wretches encouraged the colonists in -their abominations, and openly maintained that it was -lawful to enslave the natives, because they were -beasts; and then lawful to use the women as concubines, -because they were slaves. This was their -public doctrine! Well might Nobrega say they did -the work of the devil. They opposed the Jesuits -with the utmost virulence. Their interest was at -stake. They could not bear the presence of men who -said mass and performed all the ceremonies of religion -gratuitously.” Much less, it may be believed, who -maintained the freedom of the natives.</p> - -<p>Such were the people amongst which the Jesuits had -to act, yet they set to work with their usual alacrity. -Fresh brethren came out to their aid; and Nobrega -was appointed Vice-provincial of Brazil. They soon -ingratiated themselves with the natives by their usual -affability and kindness. They zealously acquainted themselves -with the language; gave presents to the children; -visited the sick; but above all, stood firmly between -them and the atrocities of their countrymen. When -the Jesuits arrived, these atrocities had driven many<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">150</a></span> -tribes into the fiercest hostility, and so evident was it -that nothing but these atrocities had made, or kept -them hostile, that when they heard the joyful report that -the Jesuits were come as friends and protectors of the -Indians, and when they saw their conduct so consonant -to these tidings, <em>they brought their bows to the -governor, and solicited to be received as allies</em>! How -universally, on the slightest opportunity, have those -called savage nations shamed the Europeans styling -themselves civilized, by proofs of their greater faith and -disposition to peace! Amicable intercourse and civilization -are the natural order of things between the -powerful and enlightened, and the weak and simple, -if avarice and lust did not intervene.</p> - -<p>Nobrega and his brethren soon produced striking -changes on these poor people. They persuaded them -to live in peace, to abandon their old habits, to build -churches and schools. The avidity of the children to -learn to read was wonderful. One of the natives soon -was able to make a catechism in the Tupi tongue, -and to translate prayers into it. They taught them -not only reading, writing, and arithmetic, but to sing -in the church; an accomplishment which perfectly enchanted -them. “Nobrega usually took with him four -or five of these little choristers on his preaching expeditions. -When they approached an inhabited place, -one carried the crucifix before them, and they began -singing the Litany. The savages, like snakes, were -won by the voice of the charmer. They received him -joyfully; and when he departed with the same ceremony, -the children followed the music. He set the -catechism, creed, and ordinary prayers to <em>sol fa</em>; and -the pleasure of learning to sing was such a temptation,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">151</a></span> -that the little Tupis sometimes ran away from their -parents to put themselves under the care of the -Jesuits.”</p> - -<p>Fresh coadjutors arrived, and with them the celebrated -Joseph de Anchieta, who became more celebrated -than Nobrega himself. Nobrega now established -a college in the plains of Piratininga, and sent -thither thirteen of the brethren, with Anchieta as -schoolmaster. If our settlers, in the different new -nations where they have located themselves, had imitated -the conduct of this great man, what a world -would this be now! what a history of colonization -would have to be written! how different to the scene -I am doomed to lay open. “Day and night,” says the -historian, “did this indefatigable man labour in discharging -the duties of his office. There were no -books for the pupils; he wrote for every one his lesson -on a separate leaf, after the business of the day was -done, and it was sometimes day-light before his task -was completed. The profane songs that were in use, -he parodied into hymns in Portugueze, Castilian, Latin -and Tupinamban. The ballads of the natives underwent -the same travesty in their own tongue.” He -did not disdain to act as physician, barber, nor even -shoemaker, to win them and to benefit them.</p> - -<p>But it was not merely in such peaceful and blessed -acts that the Jesuits were obliged to employ themselves. -They were soon called upon to save the very -colonies from their enemies. The French entered the -country, and the native tribes smarting under the wrongs -which the Portuguese had heaped plentifully on them, -were only too glad to unite with them against their -merciless oppressors. The Jesuits defended their own<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">152</a></span> -settlements, and then proceeded to give one of the -most splendid examples in history of the power there -is in Christian principle to suspersede wars, and to -extort attention and protection even from men in the -fiercest irritation and resentment of injuries. While -the Portuguese were making war on the Tamoyos, -and other martial tribes, Nobrega denounced their proceedings -as heaping injustice upon injustice, for the -natives would, he said, trust in the Portuguese if they -saw any hope of fair treatment—any safety from the -man-hunters. But when the Indians were triumphant, -and had surrounded Espirito Santo, and threatened -the very existence of the place, Nobrega and Anchieta -set sail for that port, everybody looking upon them -as madmen rushing upon certain destruction. A more -fearful, and to all but that noble faith in truth and -justice which is capable of working wonders, a more -hopeless enterprise never was undertaken. As they -entered the port, a host of war-canoes came out to -meet them; but the moment they saw that they were -Jesuits, the Indians knew that they came with peaceful -intentions, and dropped their hostile attitude. Spite -of all the exasperation of their wrongs, and the natural -presumption of success, they carried the vessel without -injury or insult into port, and listened with attention -to the words of the fathers.</p> - -<p>For two months these excellent men lived in the -midst of those exasperated Indians, nay, one of them -remained there alone for a considerable time, labouring -to soothe their wrath, to convince them of better treatment, -and dispose them to peace. The fiercer natives -threatened them daily with death, and with being -devoured, but the better spirits and their own blame<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">153</a></span>less -lives protected them. They built a little church, -and thatched it with palm-leaves, where they preached -and celebrated mass daily, and at length effected a -peace, and the salvation of the colonies; for they found -that a wide-spread coalition was forming amongst the -Indian tribes to sweep their oppressors out of the land.</p> - -<p>One would have thought that such instances as -these of the wisdom and sound policy of virtue, would -have been enough to persuade the Portuguese to -adopt more righteous measures towards the natives; -but avarice and cruelty are not easily eradicated—a -famine broke out—they purchased the Indians for -slaves with provisions! Nothing can equal the blindness -of base minds. Whenever affairs went wrong with -them, the Portuguese had recourse to the Jesuits, and -the Jesuits by their influence with the Indians, achieved -the most signal service for them. They marched -against the French, and drove them out. They built -towns; they protected the state from hostile tribes. -A Jesuit, with his crucifix in his hand, was of more -avail at the head of armies than the most able general; -but these things once accomplished, all these services -were forgotten—the slave-hunters were at work again, -and the colonies fell again as rapidly into troubles and -consequent decline. By the end of the century, from -the discovery of Brazil, the Jesuits had collected all -the natives along the coast as far as the Portuguese -territories reached, into their aldeas, or villages, and -were busy in the work of civilization. Nothing indeed -would have been easier than for them to civilize -the whole country, had it been possible to civilize the -Portuguese first. But their conduct to the natives -was but one continued practice of treachery and out<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">154</a></span>rage. -When they needed their aid to defend them -from their enemies, out marched the natives under -their Jesuit leaders, and fought for them; and the -first act of the colonists, when the victory was won, -was to seize on their benefactors and portion them out -as slaves. The man-hunters broke into the villages -and carried off numbers, having, in fact, depopulated -the whole country besides. There is no species of -kidnapping, no burnings of huts, no fomenting of -wars between different tribes; no horror, in short, -which has made the names of Christians so infamous -for the last three hundred years in Africa that had not -its parallel then in Brazil.</p> - -<p>Besides, for more than a hundred years, Brazil was -the constant scene of war and contention between -the European powers terming themselves Christian. -French, English, and Dutch, were in turn endeavouring -to seize upon one part or other of it; and every -description of rapine, bloodshed, and treachery which -can disgrace nations pretending to any degree of -civilization was going on before the eyes of the astonished -natives. What notions of Christianity must -the Indians have had, when these people called themselves -Christians? They saw them assailing one -another, fighting like madmen for what in reality -belonged to none of them; burning towns, destroying -sugar plantations; massacring all, native or colonist, -that fell into their hands, or seizing them for -slaves. They saw bishops contending with governors, -priests contending with one another; they saw their -beautiful country desolated from end to end (down to -1664), and every thing which is sacred to heaven or -honourable or valuable to men, treated with contempt.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">155</a></span> -—What was it possible for them to believe of Christianity, -than that it was some devilish compact, which -at once invested men with a terrible power, and with -the will to wield it, for the accomplishment of the -widest ruin and the profoundest misery?</p> - -<p>Through all this, under all changes, whoever were -masters, or whoever were contending—the Indians -experienced but one lot, slavery and ruin. Laws -indeed were repeatedly enacted in Portugal on their -behalf—they were repeatedly declared free—but as -everywhere else, they were laughed at by the colonists, -or resisted with rebellious fury.</p> - -<p>Amid this long career of violence, the only thing -which the mind can repose on with any degree of -pleasure, is the conduct of the Jesuits, the steady -friends of justice and the Indians; and towards the -latter part of this period there arrived in Maranham -one of the most extraordinary men, which not only -that remarkable order, but which the world has produced. -This was Antonio Vieyra, a young Jesuit, -who had left the favour of the king and court, and the -most brilliant prospects, for the single purpose of devoting -himself to the cause of the Indians. His boldness, -his honesty of speech and purpose, his resolute -resistance to the system of base oppression, operating -through the whole mass of society around him—were -perhaps equalled by his fellows; but the greatness of -his talents, and the vehement splendour of his eloquence, -have few equals in any age. Mr. Southey has -given the substance of a sermon preached by him before -the governor at St. Lewis, which so startled and -moved the whole people, by the novel and fearful view -in which he exhibited to them their treatment of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">156</a></span> -Indians, that with one accord they resolved to set -them free.</p> - -<p>It is worth while here to give a slight specimen -or two of this extraordinary discourse. His text -was, the offer of Satan:—“All these things will I -give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.”—“Things,” -said he, “are estimated at what they -cost. What then did the world cost our Saviour, and -what did a soul cost him? The world cost him a -word—He spoke, and it was made. A soul cost Him -his life, and his blood. But if the world cost only a -word of God, and a soul cost the blood of God, a -soul is worth more than all the world. This Christ -thought, and this the devil confessed. Yet you know -how cheaply we value our souls? you know at what -rate we sell them? We wonder that Judas should -have sold his Master and his soul for thirty pieces of -silver; but how many are there who offer their own to -the devil for less than fifteen! Christians! I am -not now telling you that you ought not to sell your -souls, for I know that you must sell them;—I only -entreat that you will sell them by weight. Weigh -well what a soul is worth, and what it cost, and then -sell it and welcome! But in what scales is it to be -weighed? You think I shall say, In those of St. -Michael the archangel, in which souls are weighed. -I do not require so much. Weigh them in the devil’s -own balance, and I shall be satisfied! Take the -devil’s balance in one hand, put the whole world in -one scale and a soul in the other, and you will find that -your soul weighs more than the world.—‘All this -will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship -me.’... But at what a different price now does<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">157</a></span> -the devil purchase souls from that which he formerly -offered for them? I mean in this country. The -devil has not a fair in the world where they go -cheaper! In the Gospel he offers all the kingdoms -of the world to purchase a single soul;—he does not -require so large a price to purchase all that are in -Maranham. It is not necessary to offer worlds; it is -not necessary to offer kingdoms, nor cities, nor towns, -nor villages;—it is enough for the devil to point at a -plantation, and a couple of Tapuyas, and down goes -the man upon his knees to worship him! Oh what a -market! A negro for a soul, and the soul the blacker -of the two! The negro shall be your slave for the -few days you have to live, and your soul shall be my -slave through all eternity—as long as God is God! -This is the bargain which the devil makes with you.”</p> - -<p>Amazing as was the effect of this celebrated sermon, -of course it did not last long. But Vieyra did -not rest here. He hastened to Portugal, and stated -the treatment of the Indians to the king. He obtained -an order, that all the Indian settlements in the -state of Maranham should be under the direction of -the Jesuits; that Vieyra should direct all expeditions -into the interior, and settle the reduced Indians where -he pleased; and that all ransomed Indians should be -slaves for five years and no longer, their labour in that -time being an ample compensation for their original -cost. Here was a sort of apprenticeship system more -favourable than the modern British one, but destined -to be just as little observed.</p> -<hr /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">158</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XII.<br /><br /> - -<small>THE PORTUGUESE IN BRAZIL,—CONTINUED.</small></h2> - -<p>I regret that my limits will not permit me to follow -further the labours and enterprises of Vieyra and -his brethren in behalf of the Indians, whom they -sought far and wide in that immense region, and -brought in thousands upon thousands into settlements, -only to arouse afresh the furious opposition, -and bring down upon themselves the vengeance of -the colonists. But the history of this great strife between -Christianity and Injustice, in Brazil, fills three -massy quarto volumes, and runs through three centuries. -It is full of details of the deepest interest; -but there is no chapter, either in that history or any -other, more heart-rending, than that of the transfer of -the seven Reductions of the Jesuits lying east of the -Uruguay. These were ceded by Spain to Portugal -in 1750, in a treaty of demarcation.</p> - -<p>“They contained,” to use the words of Mr. -Southey, “thirty thousand Guaranies, not fresh from -the woods or half reclaimed, and therefore willing to -revert to a savage state, and capable of enduring its -exposure, hardships, and privations; but born as their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">159</a></span> -fathers and grandfathers had been, in easy servitude, -and bred up in the comforts of regular domestic life. -These persons, with their wives and their children, -their sick and their aged, their horses, and their sheep -and their oxen, were to turn out, like the children of -Israel from Egypt, into the wilderness; not to escape -from bondage, but in obedience to one of the most -tyranical commands that ever were issued in the recklessness -of unfeeling power.” Mr. Southey adds, -“Yet Ferdinand must be acquitted of intentional -injustice. His disposition was such, that he would -have rather suffered martyrdom than have issued so -wicked an edict, had he been sensible of its inhumanity -and wickedness.”</p> - -<p>This might more readily be credited, if, when the -abominable enormity of the measure was made manifest -to him, any disposition was shewn to stop the -proceedings, or make reparation for the misery inflicted. -But nothing of the kind took place. The -Jesuits made immediate and earnest representations; -the Indians cried out vehemently against their expatriation; -the colonists of both countries were averse to the -measure; the very governors and officers proceeded -tardily with it, in the hope that the moment the evil -was discovered it would be countermanded; but no -such countermand was ever issued. And what was -there to hinder it? The King of Spain and the -Queen of Portugal, were man and wife, dwelling in -one palace, and of the greatest accord in life and sentiment; -it had only to be willed by one of them, and -it might, and would have been, speedily done. If -ever there was a cold-blooded transaction, in which -the lives and happiness of thirty thousand innocent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">160</a></span> -people were reckoned of no account in the mere tracing -of a boundary line between two countries, this -appears to be one; and if ever the retribution of -heaven was displayed in this world, it would seem to -have been in the persons of the monarchs who issued -this brutal order, and suffered it to stand, spite of the -cries of the thousands of sufferers. Happy in each -other, while they thus remained insensible to the -happiness of these poor Indians, the queen was consumed -by a slow and miserable malady, and the king, -a weak man of a melancholy temperament, sunk heartbroken -for her loss.</p> - -<p>But meantime, commissioners and armies of both -Spanish and Portuguese were drawing towards the -confines of the doomed land, to carry into effect the -expulsion of its rightful inhabitants. The Jesuits -behaved with the utmost submission and propriety. -Finding that they could do nothing by remonstrance, -they offered to yield up the charge of the Reductions -to whatever parties might be appointed to receive it. -The natives appealed vehemently to the Spanish -governor. “Neither we nor our forefathers,” said -they, “have ever offended the king, or ever attacked -the Spanish settlements. How then, innocent as we -are, can we believe that the best of princes would -condemn us to banishment? Our fathers, our forefathers, -our brethren, have fought under the king’s -banner, often against the Portuguese, often against -the savages. Who can tell how many of them have -fallen in battle, or before the walls of Nova Colonia, -so often besieged? We ourselves can shew in our -scars, the proofs of our fidelity and our courage. We -have ever had it at heart to extend the limits of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">161</a></span> -Spanish empire, and to defend it against all enemies; -nor have we ever been sparing of our blood, or our -lives. Will then the Catholic king requite these -services by the bitter punishment of expelling us -from our native land, our churches, our homes, and -fields, and fair inheritance? This is beyond all belief! -By the royal letters of Philip V., which, according -to his own injunctions, were read to us from -the pulpits, we were exhorted never to suffer the -Portuguese to approach our borders, because they -were his enemies and ours. Now we are told that -the king will have us yield up, to these very Portuguese, -this wide and fertile territory, which for a -whole century we have tilled with the sweat of our -brows. Can any one be persuaded that Ferdinand -the son should enjoin us to do that which was so frequently -forbidden by his father Philip? But if time -and change have indeed brought about such friendship -between old enemies, that the Spaniards are -desirous to gratify the Portuguese, there are ample -tracts of country to spare, and let those be given -them. What! shall we resign our towns to the Portuguese? -The Portuguese!—by whose ancestors so -many hundred thousands of ours have been slaughtered, -or carried away into cruel slavery in Brazil? -This is as intolerable to us, as it is incredible that it -should be required. When, with the Holy Gospels -in our hands, we promised and vowed fidelity to God -and the king of Spain, his priests and governors promised -us on his part, friendship and perpetual protection,—and -now we are commanded to give up our -country! Is it to be believed that the promises, and -faith, and friendship of the Spaniards can be of so -little stability?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">162</a></span></p> - -<p>But the Spaniards and Portuguese advanced with -their troops into their country. The poor people, -driven frantic by their grief and indignation, determined -to resist. They brought out their cannon, -made of pieces of large cane, covered with wet hides -and bound with iron hoops, and determined with such -arms even, to oppose those more dreadful ones, of -which they had too often witnessed the effect. For -some time they repelled their enemies, and even -obliged them to retire from the territory; but in the -next campaign, the allied army made dreadful havoc -amongst them. Yet they still remained in arms; and -their sentiments may be well understood by the following -characteristic extract, sent from one of their -officers to an officer of the Spanish troops,—“Sir, -look well; it is a well-known thing, that since our -Lord God in his infinite wisdom created the heavens -and the earth, with all which beautifies it, which is to -endure till the day of judgment, we have not known -that God, who is the Lord of these lands, gave them -to the Spaniards before he came into the world. -Three parts of the earth are for them; namely, Europe, -Asia, and Africa, which are to the east; and this -remaining part in which we dwell, our Lord Jesus -Christ, as soon as he died, set apart for us. We poor -Indians have fairly possessed this country during all -these years, as children of God, according to his will, -not by the will of any other living being. Our Lord -God permitted all this that it might be so. We of -this country remember our unbelieving grandfathers, -and we are greatly amazed when we think that God -should have pardoned so many sins as we ourselves -have committed. Sir, consider that which you are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">163</a></span> -about is a thing which we poor Indians have never -seen done amongst Christians!”</p> - -<p>Poor people! how little did they know how feeble -are the strongest reasons drawn from the Christian -faith, when addressed to those who would resent as -a deadly insult the true charge that they are no Christians -at all. In this case the Indians were the only -Christians concerned in this melancholy affair. Well -might they say, “Your actions are so different from -your words, that we are more amazed than if we saw -two suns in the firmament.” Well might they ask, -“What will God say to you after your death on this -account? What answer will you make in the day of -judgment when we shall all be gathered together?” -Like all other Europeans when doing their will on -the natives of their colonies, they cared neither for -God, nor the day of judgment; they went on and -drove the genuine Christians, the poor simple-hearted -Indians, to the woods, or compelled them to submit. -Their lands were laid waste, their towns burnt; many -were slain, many were dispersed, many died heartbroken -in the homeless woods,—and scarcely was all -this misery and wickedness completed,—when the -news of the king’s death arrived, and soon after, the -annulment of this very treaty; so that these lands -were not to be yielded to the Portuguese, and all this -evil had been done, even politically, in vain. The -poor people were invited to return to their possessions, -and the Jesuits to their sorrowful labour of -repairing the ravages so foolishly and heartlessly committed.</p> - -<p>Mr. Southey thinks that the Portuguese in Brazil -were more lenient to the natives than the Spaniards<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">164</a></span> -in their South-American colonies. I must confess -that his own History of Brazil does not give me that -impression. It is true that they did not succeed in so -speedily depopulating the country; but that in part, -must be attributed to the more warlike and hardy -character of the people, and to the fact that Brazil did -not for a long time become a mining country. By -the time that it did, all the Indians that the horrible -man-hunters of San Paulo could seize in their wild -excursions, were wanted in the cultivated lands and -sugar plantations, and negroes were imported in -abundance—the English for a long time supplying -by contract four thousand annually. The final expulsion -of the Jesuits deprived the Indians of the only -body of real friends that they ever knew. Finer -materials than those poor people for civilization, no -race on the earth ever presented. Had the Jesuits -been permitted to continue their peaceful labours, the -whole continent would have become one wide scene of -peace, fertility, and happiness. What a contrast does -Brazil present, after the lapse of three centuries, and -even after the introduction of European royalty! -The people are described by modern travellers as living -in the utmost filth, idleness, licentiousness, and dishonesty. -“The Indians are driven into the interior, -where,” says Mr. Luccock, “they form a great bar to -civilization; their animosity to the whites being of the -bitterest sort, and their purposes of vengeance for -injuries received, so long bequeathed from father to -son, as to be rooted in their hearts as firmly as the -colour is attached to their skin. Under the influence -of this passion, they destroy every thing belonging to -the Europeans or their descendants, which falls in their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">165</a></span> -way; even the cow and the dog are not spared. For -such outrages they pay dearly; small forts, or military -stations, being placed around the colonized parts of the -district, from whence a war of plunder and extermination -is carried on against them. In this warfare not -only are fire-arms made use of, but the lasso, dogs, and -all the stratagems which are usually employed against -beasts of prey.” Mr. Luccock met with one man who -had been thus engaged against the Indians <em>forty years, -and was on his way to ask some honorary distinction -from the sovereign for his services</em>!</p> - -<p>Instead of a country swarming with labourers and -good citizens, as it would have been under a Christian -policy, Brazil now suffers for want of inhabitants, and -the barbarous slave-trade is made to supply the whole -country with servants. Ten thousand negroes are -annually brought into Rio alone, whence we may infer -how vast must be the demand for the whole empire; -and of the estimation in which they are held, and of -the sort of religion which still bears the abused name -of Christianity there, one anecdote will give us sufficient -idea. “Two negroes,” says Mr. Luccock, -“being extremely ill, a clergyman was sent for, who -on his arrival found one of them gone beyond the -reach of his art; and the other, having crawled off his -bed, was lying on the floor of his cabin. As we -entered, the priest was jesting and laughing in the -most volatile manner—then filled both his hands with -water, and dropped it on the poor creature’s head, -pronouncing the form of baptism. The dying man, -probably experiencing some little relief from the effusion, -exclaimed, ‘Good—very good.’ ‘Oh,’ said the -priest, ‘it is very good, is it?—then there is more for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">166</a></span> -you;’ dashing upon him what remained in the basin. -Without delay he resumed his jokes, and in the midst -of them the man expired.”</p> - -<p>We must now quit South America, to follow the -European <em>Christians</em> in their colonial career in another -quarter of the globe. And in thus taking leave of -this immense portion of the New World, where such -cruelties have been perpetrated, and so much innocent -blood shed by the avarice and ambition of Europe, -we may ask,—What has been done by way of -atonement; or what is the triumph of civilization? -We have already quoted Mr. Ward on the present -state of the aborigines of Mexico, and Mr. Luccock -on those of Rio Janeiro. Baron Humboldt can furnish -the reader with ample indications of a like kind in various -parts of South America. Maria Graham tells us, -so recently as 1824, that in Chili, Peru, and the provinces -of La Plata, the system of Spain, which had -driven those realms to revolt, had diffused “sloth and -ignorance” as their necessary consequences. That -in Brazil, “the natives had been either exterminated -or wholly subdued. The slave-hunting, which had -been systematic on the first occupation of the land, -and more especially after the discovery of the mines, -had so diminished the wretched Indians, that the introduction -of negroes was deemed necessary: <em>they</em> -now people the Brazilian fields; and if here and -there an Indian aldea is to be found, the people are -wretched, with less than negro comforts, and much less -than negro spirit or industry: <em>the Indians are nothing -in Brazil</em>.”</p> - -<p>That the system of exterminating the Indians has -been continued to the latest period where any re<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">167</a></span>mained, -we may learn from a horrible fact, which she -tells us she relates on good authority. “In the Captaincy -of Porto Seguro, <em>within these twenty years</em>, an -Indian tribe had been so troublesome that the Capitam -Môr resolved to get rid of it. It was attacked, but -defended itself so bravely, that the Portuguese resolved -to desist from open warfare; but with unnatural -ingenuity exposed ribbons and toys, infested with -small-pox matter, in the places where the poor savages -were likely to find them. The plan succeeded. The -Indians were so thinned that they were easily overcome!”—<cite>Voyage -to Brazil</cite>, p. 9.</p> - -<p>But if any one wishes to learn what are the wretched -fruits of all the bloodshed and crimes perpetrated by -the Spaniards in America, he has only to look into -Sir F. B. Head’s “Rough Notes on the Pampas,” -made in 1826. What a scene do these notes lay open! -Splendid countries, overrun with a most luxuriant -vegetation, and with countless troops of wild horses -and herds of wild cattle, but thinly peopled, partly -with Indians and partly with the Gauchos, or descendants -of the Spanish, existing in a state of the most -hideous hostility and hatred one towards another. -The Gauchos, inflamed with all the ancient demoniacal -cruelty and revenge of the Spaniards,—the Indians, -educated, raised, and moulded by ages of the most -inexpiable wrongs into an active and insatiable spirit -of vengeance, coming, like the whirlwind from the -deserts, as fleet and unescapable, to burn, destroy, -and exterminate—in a word, to inflict on the Gauchos -all the evils of injury and death that they and their -fathers have inflicted on them. As Captain Head -scoured across those immense plains, from Buenos<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">168</a></span> -Ayres, and across the Andes to Chili, he was ever -and anon coming to the ruins of huts where the -Indians had left the most terrible traces of their fury. -It may be well to state, in his own words, what every -family of the Gauchos is liable to:—</p> - -<p>“In invading the country, the Pampas Indians -generally ride all night, and hide themselves on the -ground during the day; or if they do travel, crouch -almost under the bellies of their horses, who, by this -means, appear to be dismounted and at liberty. They -usually approach the huts at night, at a full gallop, -with their usual shriek, striking their mouths with -their hands; and this cry, which is to intimidate their -enemies, is continued through the whole of the dreadful -operation.</p> - -<p>“Their first act is to set fire to the roof of the hut, -and it is almost too dreadful to fancy what the feelings -of a family must be, when, after having been alarmed -by the barking of the dogs, which the Gauchos always -keep in great numbers, they first hear the wild cry -which announces their doom, and in an instant afterwards -find the roof burning over their heads.</p> - -<p>“As soon as the families rush out, which they of -course are obliged to do, the men are wounded by -the Indians with their lances, which are eighteen feet -long; and as soon as they fall, they are stripped of -their clothes; for the Indians, who are very desirous -to get the clothes of the Christians, are careful not to -have them spotted with blood. While some torture -the men, others attack the children, and will literally -run the infants through the body with their lances, -and raise them to die in the air. The women are -also attacked; and it would form a true but dreadful<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">169</a></span> -picture to describe their fate, as it is decided by the -momentary gleam which the burning roof throws -upon their countenances.</p> - -<p>“The old women, and the ugly young ones, are -instantly butchered; but the young and beautiful are -idols by whom even the merciless hand of the savage -is arrested. Whether the poor girls can ride or not, -they are instantly placed upon horses, and when the -hasty plunder of the hut is concluded, they are driven -away from its smoking ruins, and from the horrid -scene which surrounds it. At a pace which in Europe -is unknown, they gallop over the trackless regions -before them, feed upon mare’s flesh, sleeping on the -ground, until they arrive in the Indian’s territory, -when they have instantly to adopt the wild life of -their captors.”</p> - -<p>Scenes of such horrors, where the mangled remains -of the victims were still lying around the black ruins -of their huts, which Captain Head passed, are too -dreadful to transcribe. But what are the feelings of -the Gaucho towards these terrible enemies? Captain -Head asked a Gaucho what they did with their Indian -prisoners when they took any.—“To people accustomed -to the cold passions of England, it would be -impossible to describe the savage, inveterate, furious -hatred which exists between the Gauchos and the -Indians. The latter invade the country for the ecstatic -pleasure of murdering the Christians, and in the -contests which take place between them, mercy is unknown. -Before I was quite aware of those feelings, -I was galloping with a very fine-looking Gaucho who -had been fighting with the Indians, and after listening -to his report of the killed and wounded, I happened,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">170</a></span> -very simply, to ask him how many prisoners they had -taken. The man replied with a look which I shall -never forget—he clenched his teeth, opened his lips, -and then sawing his fingers across his bare throat for a -quarter of a minute, bending towards me, with his spurs -sticking into his horse’s sides, he said, in a sort of low, -choking voice, ‘Se matan todas,’—we kill them all!”</p> - -<p>Here then we have a thinly populated country inhabited, -so far as it is inhabited at all, by men that -are inspired towards each other by the spirit of fiends. -It is impossible that civilization can ever come there -except by some fresh and powerful revolution. We -hear of the new republics of South America, and -naturally look for more evidences of good from the -spirit of liberty: but in the towns we find the people -indolent, ignorant, superstitious, and most filthy; and -in the country naked Indians on horseback, scouring -the wilds, and making use of the very animals by -which the Spaniards subjugated them, to scourge and -exterminate their descendants. In the opinion of -Captain Head, they only want fire-arms, which one -day they may get, to drive them out altogether! And -what are they whom they would drive out? Only -another kind of savages. People who, calling themselves -Christians, live in most filthy huts swarming -with vermin—sit on skeletons of horses’ heads instead -of chairs—lie during summer out of doors in -promiscuous groups—and live entirely on beef and -water; the beef, chiefly mare’s flesh, being roasted on -a long spit, and every one sitting round and cutting -off pieces with long knives. The cruelty and beastliness -of their nature exceeding even that of the -Indians themselves.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">171</a></span></p> - -<p>This then is the result of three centuries of bloodshed -and tyranny in those regions—one species of -barbarism merely substituted for another. What a -different scene to that which the same countries -would now have exhibited, had the Jesuits not been -violently expelled from their work of civilization by -the lust of gold and despotism. “When we compare,” -says Captain Head, “the relative size of America with -the rest of the world, it is singular to reflect on the -history of these fellow-creatures, who are the aborigines -of the land; and after viewing the wealth and -beauty of so interesting a country, it is painful to consider -what the sufferings of the Indians have been, and -still may be. Whatever may be their physical or natural -character<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">12</a> ... still they are the human beings -placed there by the Almighty; the country belonged -to them; and they are therefore entitled to the regard -of every man who has religion enough to believe that -God has made nothing in vain, or whose mind is just -enough to respect the persons and the rights of his -fellow-creatures.”</p> - -<p>The view I have been enabled in my space to take -of the treatment of the South Americans by their -invaders, is necessarily a mere glance,—for, unfor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">172</a></span>tunately -for the Christian name and the name of -humanity, the history of blood and oppression there is -not more dreadful than it is extensive. I have not -staid to describe the conduct of the French, Dutch, -and English, in their possessions on the southern continent, -simply because they are only too much like -those of the Spaniards and Portuguese—they form -no bright exception, and we shall only too soon meet -with these refined nations in other regions.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p><i>Note.</i>—The fate of Venezuela ought not to be -quite passed over. It is a striking instance of the -indifference with which the lives and fortunes of a -whole nation are often handed over by great kings to -destruction as a mere matter of business. Charles V. -of Spain being deeply indebted to a trading house of -Augsburgh, the Welsers, gave them this province. -They, in their turn, made it over to some German -military mercenaries, who overrun the whole country -in search of mines, and plundered and oppressed the -people with the most dreadful rapacity. In the course -of a few years their avarice and exactions had so completely -exhausted and ruined the province that the -Germans threw it up, and it fell again into the hands -of the Spaniards, but in such a miserable condition -that it continued to languish and drag on a miserable -existence, if it has even recovered from its fatal injuries -at the present time.</p> -<hr /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">173</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XIII.<br /><br /> - -<small><small>THE PORTUGUESE IN INDIA.</small></small></h2> - -<div class="bbox"> - -<p class="p2"><small>Son mui buenos Catolicos, pero mui malos Christianos;—They are -very good Catholics, but nevertheless very bad Christians indeed.</small></p> - -<p class="p3"><small><cite>Saying of an old Catholic priest. Ward’s Mexico.</cite></small> -<br /><br /></p> - -<p class="p2"><small>Most of the countries in India have been filled with tyrants who -prefer piracy to commerce—who acknowledge no right but that of -power; and think that whatever is practicable is just.</small></p> - -<p class="p3"><small><i>The Abbé Raynal.</i></small><br /><br /></p></div> - -<p><span class="smcap">Scarcely</span> had Columbus made known the New World -when the Portuguese, under Vasco de Gama, opened -the sea-path to the East Indies. Those affluent and -magnificent regions, which had so long excited the -wonder and cupidity of Europe, and whose gems, -spices, and curious fabrics, had been introduced overland -by the united exertions of the Arabs, the -Venetians, and Genoese, were now made accessible -by the great highway of the ocean; and the Pope -generously gave all of them to the Portuguese! The -language of the Pontiff was like the language of -another celebrated character to our Saviour, and -founded on about as much real right: “All these -kingdoms will I give unto thee, if thou wilt fall down<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">174</a></span> -and worship me.” The Portuguese were nothing -loath. They were, in the expressive language of a -great historian, “all on fire for plunder and the propagation -of their religion!” Away, therefore, they -hastened, following the sinuous guidance of those -African coasts which they had already traced out—on -which they had already commenced that spoliation and -traffic in men which for three centuries was to grow -only more and more extensive, dreadful, and detestable—“those -countries where,” says M. Malte Brun, -“tyranny and ignorance have not had the power to -destroy the inexhaustible fecundity of the soil, but -have made them, down to the present times, the -theatre of eternal robbery, and one vast market of -human blood.”</p> - -<p>They landed in Calicut, under Gama, in 1498, and -speedily gave sufficient indications of the object of -their visit, and the nature of their character. But in -India they had more formidable obstacles to their -spirit of dominance and extermination than they and -the Spaniards had found in the New World. They -beheld themselves on the limits of a vast region, -inhabited by a hundred millions of people—countries -of great antiquity, of a higher civilization, and under -the rule of active and military princes. Populous -cities, vast and ancient temples, palaces, and other -public works; a native literature, science handed -down from far-off times, and institutions of a fixed -and tenacious caste, marked them as a people not so -easily to be made a prey of as the Mexicans or Peruvians. -Peaceful as were the habits, and bloodless as -were the religion and the social principles of a vast -body of the Hindoos, their rulers, whether the de<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">175</a></span>scendants -of the great Persian and Tartar conquerors, -and Mahomedans in faith, or of their own race and -religion, were disposed enough to resist any foreign -aggression. At sea, indeed, swarmed the Moorish -fleets, which had long enjoyed the monopoly of the -trade of these rich and inexhaustible regions; but -these they soon subdued. Their conquests and cruelties -were therefore necessarily confined chiefly to the -coasts and to the paradisiacal islands which stud the -Indian seas, and, as Milton has beautifully expressed -it, cast their spicy odours abroad, till</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line i15">Many a league</div> -<div class="line">Cheered with the grateful smell, old Ocean smiles.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>We must take a rapid view of the Portuguese in -India,—for our object is not a history of European conquests, -but of European treatment of the natives of -the countries they have entered; and the atrocities of -the Portuguese in the East are too notorious to require -tracing minutely, and step by step in their progress. -Every reader is familiar with the transactions -between Gama and the Zamorin of Calicut, through -the splendid poem of Camoens. Alvarez Cabral, the -discoverer of Peru, who succeeded him, was by no -means particular in his policy. On the slightest suspicion -of evil intention, he fell upon the people and -made havoc amongst them. The inhabitants of Calicut, -between the intrigues of the Moorish merchants -and those of the Portuguese adventurers, were always -the dupes and the sufferers. They attempted to drive -out the Portuguese, and Cabral, in revenge, burnt all -the Arabian vessels in the harbour, cannonaded the -town, and then sailed, first to Cochin, and then to -Cananor. These and other places being tributary to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">176</a></span> -the Zamorin, received them as saviours, and enabled -them to build forts, to gain command of the seas, and -drive from them the ships of the Zamorin and the -Moors. But the celebrated Alphonso Albuquerque -made the most rapid strides, and extended the conquests -of the Portuguese there beyond any other commander. -He narrowly escaped with his life in endeavouring -to sack and plunder Calicut. He seized on -Goa, which thenceforward became the metropolis of -all the Portuguese settlements in India. He conquered -Molucca, and gave it up to the plunder of his -soldiers. The fifth part of the wealth thus thievishly -acquired, was reserved for the king, and was purchased -on the spot by the merchants for 200,000 pieces of -gold. Having established a garrison in the conquered -city, he made a traitor Indian, who had deserted from -the king of Molucca, and had been an instrument in -the winning of the place, supreme magistrate; but -again finding Utimut, the renegade, as faithless to -himself, he had him and his son put to death, even -though 100,000 pieces of gold, a bait that was not -easily resisted by these Christian marauders, was -offered for their lives. He then proceeded to Ormuz -in the Persian Gulph, which was a great harbour for -the Arabian merchants; reduced it, placed a garrison -in it, seized on fifteen princes of the blood, and carried -them off to Goa. Such were some of the deeds of this -celebrated general, whom the historians in the same -breath in which they record these unwarrantable acts -of violence, robbery and treachery, term an excellent -and truly glorious commander. He made a descent -on the isle of Ceylon, and detached a fleet to the Moluccas, -which established a settlement in those delight<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">177</a></span>ful -regions of the cocaa, the sago-tree, the nutmeg, -and the clove. The kings of Persia, of Siam, Pegu, -and others, alarmed at his triumphant progress, sought -his friendship; and he completed the conquest of the -Malabar coast. With less than forty thousand troops -the Portuguese struck terror, says the historian, “into -the empire of Morocco, the barbarous nations of -Africa, the Mamelucs, the Arabians, and all the -eastern countries from the island of Ormuz to China.” -How much better for their pretensions to Christianity, -and for their real interests, if they had struck them -with admiration of that faith and integrity, and of -those noble virtues which Christianity can inspire, and -which were never yet lost on the attention of nations -where they have been righteously displayed. But -the Portuguese unfortunately did not understand what -Christianity was. Their notions of religion made -avarice, lust, and cruelty, all capable of dwelling -together in one heart; and, in the language of their -own historians, the vessels bound for the east were -crowded with adventurers who wanted to enrich themselves, -secure their country, and make proselytes. -They were on the eve of opening a most auspicious -intercourse with China, when some of these adventurers, -under Simon Andrada, appeared on the coast. -This commander treated the Chinese in the same -manner as the Portuguese had been in the habit of -treating all the people of Asia. He built a fort without -permission, in the island of Taman, from whence -he took opportunities of pillaging, and extorting -money from all the ships bound from, or to, all the -ports of China. He carried off young girls from the -coast; he seized upon the men and made them slaves;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">178</a></span> -he gave himself up to the most licentious acts of -piracy, and the most shameful dissoluteness. His -soldiers and sailors followed his example with avidity; -and the Chinese, enraged at such outrages, fell upon -them, drove them from the coast, and for a long time -refused all overtures of trade from them.</p> - -<p>In Japan, they were for a time more fortunate. -They exported, in exchange for European goods or -commodities, from India, gold, silver, and copper to the -value of about 634,000<i>l.</i> annually. They married the -richest heiresses, and allied themselves to the most -powerful families.</p> - -<p>“With such advantages,” says the Abbé Raynal, -“the avarice as well as the ambition of the Portuguese -might have been satisfied. They were masters of the -coast of Guinea, Arabia, Persia, and the two peninsulas -of India. They were possessed of the Moluccas, -Ceylon, and the isles of Sunda, while their settlement -at Macao insured to them the commerce of China and -Japan. Throughout these immense regions, the will -of the Portuguese was the supreme law. Earth and -sea acknowledged their sovereignty. Their authority -was so absolute, that things and persons were dependent -upon them, and moved entirely by their directions. -No native, nor private person dared to make -voyages, or carry on trade, without obtaining their -permission and passport. Those who had this liberty -granted them, were prohibited trading in cinnamon, -ginger, pepper, timber, and many other articles, of -which the conquerors reserved to themselves the exclusive -benefit.</p> - -<p>“In the midst of so much glory, wealth, and conquest, -the Portuguese had not neglected that part of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">179</a></span> -Africa which lies between the Cape of Good Hope -and the Red Sea, and in all ages has been famed for -the richness of its productions. The Arabians had been -settled there for several ages; they had formed along -the coast of Zanguebar several small independent -states, abounding in mines of silver and gold. To -possess themselves of this treasure was deemed by the -Portuguese an indispensable duty. Agreeable to this -principle, these Arabian merchants were attacked and -subdued about the year 1508. Upon their ruin was -established an empire extending from Sofala as far -as Melinda, of which the island of Mozambique was -made the centre.</p> - -<p>“These successes properly improved, might have -formed a power so considerable that it could not have -been shaken; but the vices and follies of some of their -chiefs, the abuse of riches and power, the wantonness -of victory, the distance of their own country, changed -the character of the Portuguese. Religious zeal, -which had added so much force and activity to their -courage, now produced in them nothing but ferocity. -They made no scruple of pillaging, cheating, and -enslaving the idolaters. They supposed that the -pope, in bestowing the kingdoms of Asia on the -Portuguese monarchs, had not withholden the property -of individuals from their subjects. Being absolute -masters of the Eastern seas, they extorted a tribute -from the ships of every country; they ravaged the -coasts, insulted the princes, and became the terror and -scourge of all nations.</p> - -<p>“The king of Sidor was carried off from his own -palace, and murdered, with his children, whom he -had entrusted to the care of the Portuguese.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">180</a></span></p> - -<p>“At Ceylon, the people were not suffered to cultivate -the earth, except for their new masters, who -treated them with the greatest barbarity.</p> - -<p>“At Goa they established the inquisition, and whoever -was rich became a prey to the ministers of that -infamous tribunal.</p> - -<p>“Faria, who was sent out against the pirates from -Malacca, China, and other parts, made a descent on -the island of Calampui, and plundered the tombs of -the Chinese emperors.</p> - -<p>“Sousa caused all the pagodas on the Malabar -coast to be destroyed, and his people inhumanly massacred -the wretched Indians who went to weep over -the ruins of their temples.</p> - -<p>“Correa terminated an obstinate war with the king -of Pegu, and both parties were to swear on the books -of their several religions to observe the treaty. Correa -swore on a collection of songs, and thought by -this vile stratagem to elude his engagement.</p> - -<p>“Nuno d’ Acughna attacked the isle of Daman on -the coast of Cambaya. The inhabitants offered to -surrender to him if he would permit them to carry off -their treasures. This request was refused, and Nuno -put them all to the sword.</p> - -<p>“Diego de Silveira was cruizing in the Red Sea. -A vessel richly laden saluted him. The captain came -on board, and gave him a letter from a Portuguese -general, which was to be his passport. The letter -contained only these words: <em>I desire the</em> captains of -ships belonging to the king of Portugal, to seize upon -this Moorish vessel as lawful prize.</p> - -<p>“Henry Garcias, when governor of the Moluccas, -was requested by the king of Tidore, who was ill, to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">181</a></span> -send him a physician. Garcias accordingly sent one -who villanously poisoned him. He then made a descent -upon the island; besieged the capital, took it, -plundered it, and used the inhabitants very cruelly. -This event happening in time of peace, and without -the least provocation, caused an implacable hatred to -the Portuguese amongst all the people, not only of -that island, but of all the Moluccas.</p> - -<p>“In a short time the Portuguese preserved no -more humanity or good faith with each other than -with the natives. Almost all the states, where they -had the command, were divided into factions. There -prevailed everywhere in their manners, a mixture of -avarice, debauchery, cruelty, and devotion. They had -most of them seven or eight concubines, whom they -kept to work with the utmost rigour, and forced from -them the money they gained by their labour. Such -treatment of women was very repugnant to the spirit -of chivalry. The chiefs and principal officers admitted -to their tables a multitude of those singing and dancing -women, with which India abounds. Effeminacy -introduced itself into their houses and armies. The -officers marched to meet the enemy in palanquins. -That brilliant courage which had confounded so many -nations, existed no longer amongst them. They were -with difficulty brought to fight, except for plunder. -In a short time, the king no longer received the -tribute which was paid him by one hundred and fifty -eastern princes. It was lost on its way from them to -him. Such corruption prevailed in the finances, that -the tributes of sovereigns, the revenues of provinces, -which ought to have been immense, the taxes levied on -gold, silver, and spices, on the inhabitants of the con<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">182</a></span>tinent -and islands, were not sufficient to keep up a -few citadels, and to fit out the shipping necessary for -the protection of trade.”</p> - -<p>Some gleams of valour blazed up now and then; -Don Juan de Castro revived the spirit of the settlers -for awhile; Ataida, and fresh troops from Portugal -repelled the native powers, who, worn out with endurance -of outrages and indignities, and alive to the -growing effeminacy of their oppressors, rose against -them on all hands. But these were only temporary -displays. The island of Amboyna was the first to -avenge itself; and the words addressed to them by -one of its citizens are justly descriptive of their real -character. A Portuguese had, at a public festival, -seized upon a very beautiful woman, and regardless -of all decency, had proceeded to the grossest of outrages. -One of the islanders, named Genulio, armed -his fellow-citizens; after which he called together the -Portuguese, and addressed them in the following -manner:—“To revenge affronts so cruel as those we -have received from you, requires actions, not words; -yet we will speak to you. You preach to us a Deity, -who delights, you say, in generous actions; but theft, -murder, obscenity, and drunkenness are your common -practice: your hearts are inflamed with every vice. -Our manners can never agree with yours. Nature -foresaw this when she separated us by immense seas, -and you have overleaped her barriers. This audacity, -of which you are not ashamed to boast, is a proof of -the corruption of your hearts. Take my advice; -leave to their repose those nations that resemble you -so little; go, fix your habitations amongst those who -are as brutal as yourselves; an intercourse with you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">183</a></span> -would be more fatal to us than all the evils which it -is in the power of your God to inflict upon us. We -renounce your alliance for ever. Your arms are more -powerful than ours; but we are more just than you, -and we do not fear them. The Itons are from this -day your enemies;—fly from this country, and beware -how you approach it again.”</p> - -<p>Equally detested in every quarter, they saw a confederacy -forming to expel them from the east. All -the great powers of India entered into the league, -and for two or three years carried on their preparations -in secret. Their old enemy, the Zamorin, -attacked Manjalor, Cochin, and Cananor. The king -of Cambaya attacked Chaul, Daman, and Baichaim. -The king of Achen laid siege to Malacca. The king -of Ternate made war on them in the Moluccas. -Agalachem, a tributary to the Mogul, imprisoned the -Portuguese merchants at Surat; and the queen of -Gareopa endeavoured to drive them out of Onor. -The exertions of Ataida averted immediate destruction; -but a more formidable power was now preparing -to expel them from their ill-acquired and ill-governed -possessions,—the Dutch. In little more than a century -from the appearance of the Portuguese in India, -this nation drove them from Malacca and Ceylon; from -most of their possessions on the coast of Malabar; and -had, moreover, made settlements on the Coromandel -coast. It was high time that this reign of crime and -terror came to an end, had a better generation succeeded -them. After the death of Sebastian, and the -reduction of Portugal by Philip II., the last traces of -order or decency seemed to vanish from the Indian -settlements. Portugal itself exhibited, with the usual<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">184</a></span> -result of ill-gotten wealth, a scene of miserable extremes—profusion -and poverty. Those who had been -in India were at once indolent and wealthy; the -farmer and the artizan were reduced to the most abject -condition. “In the colonies the Portuguese gave -themselves,” says Raynal, “up to all those excesses -which make men hated, though they had not courage -enough left to make them feared. They were monsters. -Poison, fire, assassination, every sort of crime -was become familiar to them; nor were they private -persons only who were guilty of such practices,—men -in office set them the example! They massacred the -natives; they destroyed one another. The governor -just arrived, loaded his predecessor with irons, that he -might deprive him of his wealth. The distance of the -scene, false witnesses, and large bribes secured every -crime from punishment.”</p> -<hr /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">185</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XIV.<br /><br /> - -<small><small>THE DUTCH IN INDIA.</small></small></h2> - -<p class="p2"><small>A free nation, which is its own master, is born to command the -ocean. It cannot secure the dominion of the sea without seizing upon -the land, which belongs to the first possessor; that is, to him who is -able to drive out the ancient inhabitants. They are to be enslaved -by force or fraud, and exterminated in order to get their possessions.</small></p> - -<p class="p3 padr2"><small><i>Raynal.</i></small><br /><br /></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">We</span> come now to the conduct of a Protestant people -towards the natives of their colonies; and happy would -it be if we came with this change to a change in their -policy and behaviour. But the Dutch, though zealous -Protestants at home, were zealous Catholics -abroad in cruelty and injustice. Styling themselves -a reformed people, there was no reformation in their -treatment of Indians or Caffres. They, as well as -other Protestant nations, cast off the outward forms -and many of the inward superstitions of the Roman -church: but they were far, far indeed from comprehending -Christianity in its glorious greatness; in the -magnificence of its moral elevation; in the sublimity -of its objects; in the purity of its feeling, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">186</a></span> -beautiful humanity of its spirit. The temporal yoke -of Rome was cast off, but the mental yoke still lay -heavy on their souls, and it required ages of bitter -experience to restore sufficiently their intellectual -sensibility to permit them even to feel it. Popery -was dethroned in them, but not destroyed. They -recognized their rights as men, and the slavery under -which they had been held; but their vision was not -enough restored to allow them to recognize the rights -of others, and to see that to hold others in slavery, -was only to take themselves out of the condition of -the victim, to put themselves into the more odious, -criminal, and eventually disastrous one of the tyrant. -They were still infinitely distant from the condition -of freemen. They were free from the immediate -compulsion of their spiritual task-masters, but they -were not free from the iron which they had thrust -into their very souls,—from the corrupt morals, the -perverted principles, the debased tone of feeling and -perception, which the Papal church had inflicted on -them. The wretched substitution of ceremonies, -legends, and false maxims, for the grand and regenerating -doctrines of Christian truth, which had existed -for more than a thousand years, had generated a -spurious morality, which ages only could obliterate. -It is a fallacy to suppose that the renunciation of the -Romish faith, carried with it a renunciation of the -habits of mind which it had created,—or that those -who called themselves reformers were thoroughly -reformed, and rebaptized with the purity and fulness -of Christianity. Many and glorious examples were -given of zeal for the right, even unto death; of the -love of truth, which cast out all fear of flames and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">187</a></span> -scaffolds; of that devotion to the dictates of conscience -that shrunk from no sacrifice, however severe;—but -even in the instance of the noblest of those noble -martyrs, it would be self-delusion for us to suppose -that they had sprung from the depth of darkness to -perfect light at one leap; that they rose instantaneously -from gross ignorance of Christian truths, to the -perfection of knowledge; that they had miraculously -cast off at one effort all slavery of spirit, and the dimness -of intellectual vision, which were the work of -ages. They had regained the wish and the will to -explore the regions of truth; they had made some -splendid advances, and shewn that they descried some -of the most prominent features of the genuine faith: -but they were, the best of them, but babes in Christ. -To become full-grown men required the natural lapse -of time; and to expect them to start up into the full -standard of Christian stature, was to expect an impossibility. -And if the brightest and most intrepid, -and most honest intellects were thus circumstanced, -what was the condition of the mass? That may be -known by calling to mind how readily Protestants -fell into the spirit of persecution, and into all the -cruelties and outrages of their Popish predecessors. -Ages upon ages were required, to clear away the -dusty cobwebs of error, with which a spurious faith -had involved them; and to raise again the Christian -world to the height of Christian knowledge. We -are yet far and very far from having escaped from the -one, or risen to the other. There are yet Christian -truths, of the highest import to humanity, that are -treated as fables and fanatic dreams by the mass of -the Christian world; and we shall see as we proceed,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">188</a></span> -that to this hour the most sacred principles of Christianity -are outraged; and the worst atrocities of the -worst ages of Rome are still perpetrated on millions -of millions of human beings, over whom we vaunt our -civilization, and to whom we present our religion as -the spirit of heaven, and the blessing of the earth.</p> - -<p>When, therefore, we see the Dutch, ay, and the -English, and the Anglo-Americans, still professing -truth and practising error; still preaching mercy, and -perpetrating the basest of cruelties; still boasting of -their philosophy and refinement, and enacting the -savage; still vapouring about liberty, with a whip in -one hand and a chain in the other; still holding the -soundness of the law of conquest, and the equal -soundness of the commandment, Not to covet our -neighbour’s goods; the soundness of the belief that -Negroes, Indians, and Hottentots, are an inferior -species, and the equal soundness of the declaration -that “God made of one blood all the nations of the -earth;” still declaring that <span class="smcap">Love</span>, the love of our -neighbour as of ourselves, is the great distinction of -Christians;—and yet persisting in slavery, war, massacres, -extermination of one race, and driving out of -others from their ancient and hereditary lands—we -must bear in mind that we behold only the melancholy -result of ages of abandonment of genuine Christianity -for a base and accommodating forgery of its name,—and -the humiliating spectacle of an inconsistency in -educated nations unworthy of the wildest dwellers in -the bush, entailed on us by the active leaven of that -very faith which we pride ourselves in having renounced. -We have, indeed, renounced mass and the -confessional, and the purchase of indulgences; but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">189</a></span> -have tenaciously retained the mass of our tyrannous -propensities. We practise our crimes without confessing -them; we indulge our worst desires without even -having the honesty to pay for it; and the old, spurious -morality, and political barbarism of Rome, are as -stanchly maintained by us as ever—while we claim to -look back on Popery with horror, and on our present -condition as the celestial light of the nineteenth century.</p> - -<p>What a glorious thing it would have been, if when -the Dutch and English had appeared in America and -the Indies, they had come there too as Protestants and -Reformed Christians! If they had protested against the -cruelties and aggressions of the popish Spaniards and -Portuguese—if they had reformed all their rapacious -practices, and remedied their abuses—if they had, indeed, -shown that they were really gone back to the -genuine faith of Christ, and were come to seek honest -benefit by honest means; to exchange knowledge for -wealth, and to make the Pagans and the Mahomedans -<em>feel</em> that there was in Christianity a powder to refine, -to elevate, and to bless, as mighty as they professed. -But that day was not arrived, and has only partially -arrived yet, and that through the missions. -For anything that could be discovered by their practice, -the Dutch and English might be the papists, and -the Spaniards and Portuguese the reformed. From -their deeds the natives, wherever they came, could -only imagine their religion to be something especially -odious and mischievous.</p> - -<p>The Dutch having thrown off the Spanish yoke at -home, applied themselves diligently to commerce; and -they would have continued to purchase from the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">190</a></span> -Spaniards and Portuguese, the commodities of the -eastern and western worlds, to supply their customers -therewith;—but Philip II., smarting under the loss of -the Netherlands, and being master of both Spain and -Portugal, commanded his subjects to hold no dealings -with his hated enemies. Passion and resentment are -the worst of counsellors, and Philip soon found it so -in this instance. The Dutch, denied Indian goods in -Portugal, determined to seek them in India itself. -They had renounced papal as well as Spanish authority, -and had no scruples about interfering with the -pope’s grant of the east to the Portuguese. They soon, -therefore, made their appearance in the Indian seas, -and found the Portuguese so thoroughly detested -there, that nothing was easier for them than to avenge -past injuries and prohibitions, by supplanting them. -It was only in 1594 that Philip issued his impolitic -order that they should not be permitted to receive -goods from Portuguese ports,—and by 1602, under -their admirals, Houtman and Van Neck, they had -visited Madagascar, the Maldives, and the isles of -Sunda; they had entered into alliance with the principal -sovereigns of Java; established factories in several -of the Moluccas, and brought home abundance of pepper, -spices, and other articles. Numerous trading companies -were organized; and these all united by the -policy of the States-general into the one memorable -one of the East India Company, the model and original -of all the numerous ones that sprung up, and especially -of the far greater one under the same name, of England. -The natives of India had now a similar spectacle -exhibited to their eyes, which South America had -about the same period—the Christian nations, boasting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">191</a></span> -of their superior refinement and of their heavenly religion, -fighting like furies, and intriguing like fiends -one against another. But the Portuguese were now -become debauched and effeminate, and were unsupported -by fresh reinforcements from Europe; the -Dutch were spurred on by all the ardour of united -revenge, ambition, and the love of gain. The time -was now come when the Portuguese were to expiate -their perfidy, their robberies, and their cruelties; and -the prediction of one of the kings of Persia was fulfilled, -who, asking an ambassador just arrived at Goa, -how many governors his master had beheaded since -the establishment of his power in India, received for -answer—“none at all.” “So much the worse,” replied -the monarch, “his authority cannot be of long -duration in a country where so many acts of outrage -and barbarity are committed.”</p> - -<p>The Dutch commenced their career in India with -an air of moderation that formed a politic contrast with -the arrogance and pretension of the Portuguese. -They fought desperately with the Portuguese, but -they kept a shrewd eye all the time on mercantile opportunities. -They sought to win their way by duplicity, -rather than by decisive daring. By these means they -gradually rooted their rivals out of their most important -stations in Java, the Moluccas, in Ceylon, on the -Coromandel and Malabar coasts. Their most lucrative -posts were at Java, Bantam, and the Moluccas. No -sooner had they gained an ascendency than they assumed -a haughtiness of demeanor that even surpassed -that of the Portuguese; and in perfidy and cruelty, -they became more than rivals. All historians have remarked -with astonishment the fearful metamorphosis<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">192</a></span> -which the Dutch underwent in their colonies. At -home they were moderate, kindly, and liberal; abroad -their rapacity, perfidy, and infamous cruelty made -them resemble devils rather than men. Whether -contending with their European rivals, or domineering -over the natives, they showed no mercy and no remorse. -Their celebrated massacre of the English in Amboyna -has rung through all lands and languages, and is -become one of the familiar horrors of history. There -is, in fact, no narrative of tortures in the annals of -the Inquisition, that can surpass those which the Dutch -practised on their English rivals on this occasion. -The English had five factories in the island of Amboyna, -and the Dutch determined to crush them. For -this purpose they got up a charge of conspiracy against -the English—collected them from all their stations -into the town of Amboyna, and after forcing confessions -of guilt from them by the most unheard-of torture, -put them to death. The following specimen of the -agonies which Protestants could inflict on their fellow-protestants, -may give an idea of what sort of increase -of religion the Reformation had brought these men.</p> - -<p>“Then John Clark, who also came from Hitto, -was fetched in, and soon after was heard to roar out -amain. They tortured him with fire and water for -two hours. The manner of his torture, as also that of -Johnson’s and Thompson’s, was as followeth:—</p> - -<p>“They first hoisted him by the hands against a -large door, and there made him fast to two staples of -iron, fixed on both sides at the top of the door-posts, -extending his arms as wide as they could stretch them. -When thus fastened, his feet, being two feet from the -ground, were extended in the same manner, and made<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">193</a></span> -fast to the bottom of the door-trees on each side. -Then they tied a cloth about the lower part of his -face and neck, so close that scarce any water could -pass by. That done, they poured water gently upon -his head till the cloth was full up to his mouth and -nostrils, and somewhat higher, so that he could not -draw breath but he must swallow some, which being -continually poured in softly, forced all his inward -parts to come out at his nose, ears, and eyes, and -often, as it were choking him, at length took away -his breath, and caused him to faint away. Then they -took him down in a hurry to vomit up the water, and -when a little revived, tied him up again, using him -as before. In this manner they served him three or -four times, till his belly was as big as a tun, his -cheeks like bladders, his eyes strutting out beyond -his forehead; yet all this he bore without confessing -anything, insomuch that the fiscal and tormentors -reviled him, saying he was a devil, and no man; or -was enchanted, that he could bear so much. Hereupon -they cut off his hair very short, supposing he -had some witchcraft hidden therein. Now they -hoisted him up again, and burnt him with lighted -candles under his elbows and arm-pits, in the palms -of his hands, and at the bottoms of his feet, even till -the fat dropped out on the candles. Then they applied -fresh ones; and under his arms they burnt so -deep that his inwards might be seen.”—<cite>History of -Voyages to the East and West Indies.</cite></p> - -<p>And all this that they might rule sole kings over -the delicious islands of cloves and cinnamon, nutmegs -and mace, camphor and coffee, areca and betel, gold, -pearls and precious stones; every one of them more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">194</a></span> -precious in the eyes of the thorough trader, whether -he call himself Christian or Infidel, than the blood of -his brother, or the soul of himself.</p> - -<p>To secure the dominion of these, they compelled -the princes of Ternate and Tidore to consent to the -rooting up of all the clove and nutmeg trees in the -islands not entirely under the jealous safeguard of -Dutch keeping. For this they utterly exterminated -the inhabitants of Banda, because they would not -submit passively to their yoke. Their lands were -divided amongst the white people, who got slaves -from other islands to cultivate them. For this Malacca -was besieged, its territory ravaged, and its navigation -interrupted by pirates; Negapatan was twice -attacked; Cochin was engaged in resisting the kings -of Calicut and Travancore; and Ceylon and Java -have been made scenes of perpetual disturbances. -These notorious dissensions have been followed by as -odious oppressions, which have been practised at Japan, -China, Cambodia, Arracan, on the banks of the -Ganges, at Achen, Coromandel, Surat, in Persia, at -Bassora, Mocha, and other places. For this they -encouraged and established in Celebes a system of -kidnapping the inhabitants for slaves which converted -that island into a perfect hell.</p> - -<p>Sir Stamford Raffles has given us a most appalling -picture of this system, and the miseries it produced, in -an official document in his History of Java. In this -document it is stated that whole villages were made -slaves of; that there was scarcely a state or a family -that had not its assortment of these unhappy beings, -who had been reduced to this condition by the most -cruel and insidious means. There are few things in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">195</a></span> -history more darkly horrible than this kidnapping system -of the Celebes. The Vehme Gerichte, or secret -tribunals of Germany, were nothing to the secret -prisons of the Celebes. In Makásar, and other places, -these secret prisons existed; and such was the dreadful -combination of power, influence, and avarice, in this -trade,—for the magistrates and princes were amongst -the chief dealers in it,—that no possibility of exposing -or destroying these dens of thieves existed. Any man, -woman, or child might be suddenly pounced on, and -immured in one of these secret prisons till there were -sufficient victims to send to the slave-ships. They -were then marched out chained at midnight, and put -on board. Any one may imagine the terror and -insecurity which such a state of things occasioned. -Everybody knew that such invisible dungeons of -despair were in the midst of them, and that any moment -he might be dragged into one of them, beyond -the power or any hope of rescue.</p> - -<p>“A rich citizen,” says this singular official report, -“who has a sufficient number of emissaries called -bondsmen, carries on this trade of kidnapping much -more easily than a poor one does. The latter is -often obliged to go himself to the <em>Kámpong Búgis</em>, or -elsewhere, to take a view of the stolen victim, and to -carry him home; while the former quietly smokes his -pipe, sure that his thieves will in every corner find -out for him sufficient game without his exerting himself -at all. The thief, the interpreter, the seller, are -all active in his service, because they are paid by him. -In some cases the purchaser unites himself with the -seller to deceive the interpreter, while in others the -interpreter agrees with the thief and pretended seller<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">196</a></span> -to put the victim into the hands of the purchaser. -What precautions, what scrutiny can avail, when we -reflect, that the profound secrecy of the prisons is -equalled only by the strict precautions in carrying the -person on board?”</p> - -<p>The man-stealers were trained for the purpose. -They marked out their victims, watched for days, and -often weeks, endeavoured to associate themselves with -them, and beguile them into some place where they -might be easily secured. Or they pounced on them -in the fields or woods. They roved about in gangs -during the night, and in solitary places. None dare -cry for help, or they were stabbed instantly, even -though it were before the door of the purchaser.</p> - -<p>What hope indeed could there be for anybody, -when the authorities were in this diabolical league? -and this was the custom of legalizing a kidnapping: “A -person calling himself an interpreter, repairs, at the -desire of one who says that he has bought a slave, to -the secretary’s office, accompanied by any native who, -provided with a note from the purchaser, gives himself -out as the seller. For three rupees, a certificate of -sale in the usual form is immediately made out; three -rupees are paid to the notary; two rupees are put into -the hands of the interpreter; the whole transaction is -concluded, and the purchaser has thus become the -owner of a free-born man, who is very often stolen -without his (the purchaser’s) concurrence; but about this -he does not trouble himself, for the victim is already -concealed where nobody can find him; nor can the -transaction become public, because there never were -found more faithful receivers than the slave-traders. -It is a maxim with them, in their own phrase, “never<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">197</a></span> -to betray their prison.” Both purchaser and seller are -often fictitious—the public officers being in league -with the interpreters. By such means it is obvious a -stolen man is as easily procured as if he were already -pinioned at the door of his purchaser. You have only -to give a rupee to any one to say that he is the seller, -and plenty are ready to do that. Numbers maintain -themselves on such profits, and slaves are thus often -bribed against their own possessors. The victims are -never examined, nor do the Dutch concern themselves -about the matter, so that at any time any number of -orders for transport may, if necessary, be prepared -before-hand with the utmost security.</p> - -<p>“Let us,” continues the report, “represent to ourselves -this one town of Makásar, filled with prisons, -the one more dismal than the other, which are stuffed -with hundreds of wretches, the victims of avarice and -tyranny, who, chained in fetters, and taken away from -their wives, children, parents, friends, and comforts, -look to their future destiny with despair.”</p> - -<p>On the other hand, wives missing their husbands, -children their parents, parents their children, with -their hearts filled with rage and revenge, were running -through the streets, if possible, to discover where -their relatives were concealed. It was in vain. They -were sometimes stabbed, if too troublesome in their -inquiries; or led on by false hopes of ransom, till they -were themselves thrown into debt, and easily made -a prey of too. Such was the terror universally existing -in these islands when the English conquered -them, that the inhabitants did not dare to walk the -streets, work in the fields, or go on a journey, except -in companies of five or six together, and well armed.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">198</a></span></p> - -<p>Such were some of the practices of the Protestant -Dutch. But their sordid villany in gaining possession -of places was just as great as that in getting -hold of people. Desirous of becoming masters of -Malacca, they bribed the Portuguese governor to -betray it into their hands. The bargain was struck, -and he introduced the enemy into the city in 1641. -They hastened to his house, and massacred him, to -save the bribe of 500,000 livres—21,875<i>l.</i> of English -money! The Dutch commander then tauntingly -asked the commander of the Portuguese garrison, as -he marched out, when he would come back again to -the place. The Portuguese gravely replied—“<em>When -your crimes are greater than ours!</em>”</p> - -<p>Desirous of seizing on Cochin on the coast of Malabar, -they had no sooner invested it than the news -of peace between Holland and Portugal arrived; but -they kept this secret till the place was taken, and -when reproached by the Portuguese with their base -conduct, they coolly replied—“Who did the same on -the coast of Brazil?”</p> - -<p>Like all designing people, they were as suspicious of -evil as they knew themselves capable of it. On first -touching at the isle of Madura, the prince intimated -his wish to pay his respects to the commander on board -his vessel. It was assented to; but when the Dutch -saw the number of boats coming off, they became -alarmed, fired their cannon on the unsuspicious crowd, -and then fell upon the confounded throng with such fury -that they killed the prince, and the greater part of his -followers.</p> - -<p>Their manner of first gaining a footing in Batavia -is thus recorded by the Javan historians. “In the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">199</a></span> -first place they wished to ascertain the strength of -<em>Jákatra</em> (the native town on the ruins of which Batavia -was built). They therefore landed like máta-mátas -(peons or messengers); the captain of the ship disguising -himself with a turban, and accompanying -several <em>Khójas</em>, (natives of the Coromandel coast.) -When he had made his observations, he entered upon -trade; offering however much better terms than were -just, and making more presents than were necessary. -A friendship thus took place between him and the -prince: when this was established, the captain said that -his ship was in want of repairs, and the prince allowed -the vessel to come up the river. There the captain -knocked out the planks of the bottom, and sunk the -vessel, to obtain a pretence for further delay, and then -requested a very small piece of ground on which to -build a shed for the protection of the sails and other -property during the repair of the vessel. This being -granted, the captain raised a wall of mud, so that -nobody could know what he was doing, and continued -to court the favour of the prince. He soon requested -as much more land as could be covered by a buffalo’s -hide, on which to build a small <em>póndok</em>. This being -complied with, he cut the hide into strips, and claimed -all the land he could inclose with them. He went on -with his buildings, engaging to pay all the expenses -of raising them. When the fort was finished, he threw -down his mud wall, planted his cannon, and refused -to pay a <em>doit</em>!”</p> - -<p>But the whole history of the Dutch in Java is too -long for our purpose. It may be found in Sir Stamford -Raffles’s two great quartos, and it is one of -the most extraordinary relations of treachery, bribery,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">200</a></span> -massacre and meanness. The slaughter of the Chinese -traders there is a fearful transaction. On pretence of -conveying those who yielded out of the country, they -took them to sea, and threw them overboard. On -one occasion, they demanded the body of <em>Surapáti</em>—a -brave man, who rose from the rank of a slave to -that of a chief, and a very troublesome one to them—from -the very grave. They placed it upright in a -chair, the commandant approached it, made his obeisance, -treated it as a living person, with an expression -of ironical mockery, and the officers followed his example. -They then burnt the body, mixed it with -gun-powder, and fired a salute with it in honour of -the victory.</p> - -<p>Such was their treatment of the natives, that the -population of one province, <em>Banyuawngi</em>, which in -1750 amounted to upwards of 80,000 souls, in 1811 -was reduced to 8,000. It is no less remarkable, says -Sir Stamford Raffles, that while in all the capitals of -British India the population has increased, wherever -the Dutch influence has prevailed the work of depopulation -has followed. In the Moluccas the oppressions -and the consequent depopulation was monstrous. -Whenever the natives have had the opportunity they -have fled from the provinces under their power to the -native tracts. With the following extract from Sir -Stamford Raffles we will conclude this dismal notice -of the deeds of a European people, claiming to be -Christian, and what is more, Protestant and Reformed.</p> - -<p>“Great demands were at all times made on the -peasantry of Java for the Dutch army. Confined in unhealthy -garrisons, exposed to unnecessary hardships and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">201</a></span> -privations, extraordinary casualties took place amongst -them, and frequent new levies became necessary, -while the anticipation of danger and suffering produced -an aversion to the service, which was only -aggravated by the subsequent measures of cruelty and -oppression. The conscripts raised in the provinces -were usually sent to the metropolis by water; and -though the distance be short between any two points -of the island, a mortality similar to that of a slave-ship -in the middle passage took place on board these receptacles -of reluctant recruits. They were generally -confined in the stocks till their arrival at Batavia.... -Besides the supply of the army, one half of the male -population of the country was constantly held in readiness -for other public services, and thus a great portion -of the effective hands were taken from their families, -and detained at a distance from home in labours which -broke their spirit and exhausted their strength. During -the administration of Marshal Daendals, it has been -calculated that the construction of public roads alone -destroyed the lives of at least ten thousand workmen. -The transport of government stores, and the capricious -requisitions of government agents of all classes, -perpetually harassed, and frequently carried off numbers -of the people. If to these drains we add the -waste of life occasioned by insurrections which tyranny -and impolicy excited in Chéribon; the blighting -effects of the coffee monopoly, and forced services in -the Priáng’en Regencies, and the still more desolating -operations of the policy pursued, and the consequent -anarchy produced, in Bantam, we shall have -some idea of the depopulating causes which existed -under the Dutch administration.”</p> -<hr /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">202</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XV.<br /><br /> - -<small><small>THE ENGLISH IN INDIA.—SYSTEM OF TERRITORIAL -ACQUISITION.</small></small></h2> - -<p><small>“And Ahab came into his house, heavy and displeased, because of -the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him; for he had -said, I will not give thee the inheritance of my fathers. And he laid -him down upon his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no -bread. But Jezebel his wife came to him and said unto him, Why -is thy spirit so sad that thou eatest no bread? And he said unto her, -Because I spoke unto Naboth the Jezreelite, and said unto him, give -me thy vineyard for money; or else if it please thee, I will give thee -<em>another</em> vineyard for it; and he answered I will not give thee my -vineyard</small>.</p> - -<p><small>“And Jezebel, his wife, said unto him, Dost thou now govern the -kingdom of Israel? Arise, and eat bread, and let thine heart be merry; -I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.</small></p> - -<p class="center gesperrt">*******</p> - -<p><small>“And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, -Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, which is in Samaria; -behold he is in the vineyard of Naboth, whither he is gone down to -possess it. And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the -Lord, Hast thou killed, and also taken possession?” 1 <cite>Kings</cite> xxi. 4–19.</small><br /><br /></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">The</span> appearance of the Europeans in India, if the -inhabitants could have had the Bible put into their -hands, and been told that that was the law which these -strangers professed to follow, must have been a curious -spectacle. They who professed to believe the commands -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">203</a></span> -that they should not steal, covet their neighbour’s -goods, kill, or injure—must have been seen -with wonder to be the most covetous, murderous, and -tyrannical of men. But if the natives could have read -the declaration of Christ—“By this shall men know -that ye are my disciples, that ye love one another,”—the -wonder must have been tenfold; for never did men -exhibit such an intensity of hatred, jealousy, and -vengeance towards each other. Portuguese, Dutch, -French, English, and Danes, coming together, or one -after the other, fell on each other’s forts, factories, and -ships with the most vindictive fury. They attacked -each other at sea or at land; they propagated the most -infamous characters of each other wherever they came, -in order to supersede each other in the good graces of -the people who had valuable trading stations, or were -in possession of gold or pearls, nutmegs or cinnamon, -coffee, or cotton cloth. They loved one another to that -degree that they were ready to join the natives any -where in the most murderous attempts to massacre -and drive away each other. What must have seemed -most extraordinary of all, was the English expelling -with rigour those of their own countrymen who ventured -there without the sanction of the particular trading -company which claimed a monopoly of Indian -commerce. The rancour and pertinacity with which -Englishmen attacked and expelled Englishmen, was -even more violent than that which they shewed to -foreigners. The history of European intriguers, especially -of the Dutch, Portuguese, English, and French, -in the East, in which every species of cruelty and bad -faith have been exhibited, is one of the most melancholy -and humiliating nature. Those of the English<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">204</a></span> -and French did not cease till the very last peace. At -every outbreak of war between these nations in -Europe, the forts and factories and islands which -had been again and again seized upon, and again -and again restored by treaties of peace in India, -became immediately the scene of fresh aggressions, -bickerings, and enormities. The hate which burnt in -Europe was felt hotly, even to that distance; and men -of another climate, who had no real interest in the -question, and to whom Europe was but the name of a -distant region which had for generations sent out -swarms of powerful oppressors, were called upon to -spill their blood and waste their resources in these -strange deeds of their tyrants. It is to be hoped that -the bulk of this evil is now past. In the peninsula of -India, to which I am intending in the following chapters -to confine my attention, the French now retain only -the factories of Chandernagore, Caricall, Mahee, and -Pondicherry; the Portuguese Goa, Damaun, and Diu; -the Dutch, Serampore and Tranquebar; while the -English power had triumphed over the bulk of the -continent—over the vast regions of Bengal, Madras, -Bombay, the Deccan and the Carnatic—over a surface -of upwards of five hundred thousand square miles, and -a population of nearly a hundred millions of people! -These states are either directly and avowedly in -British possession, or are as entirely so under the -name of allies. We may well, therefore, leave the -history of the squabbles and contests of the European -Christians with each other for this enormous power, -disgraceful as that history is to the name of Christianity—to -inquire how we, whose ascendency has so -wonderfully prevailed there, have gained this dominion -and how we have used it.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">205</a></span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">When Europe sought your subject-realms to gain,</div> -<div class="line">And stretched her giant sceptre o’er the main,</div> -<div class="line">Taught her proud barks the winding way to shape,</div> -<div class="line">And braved the stormy spirit of the Cape;</div> -<div class="line">Children of Brama! then was Mercy nigh,</div> -<div class="line">To wash the stain of blood’s eternal dye?</div> -<div class="line">Did Peace descend to triumph and to save,</div> -<div class="line">When free-born Britons crossed the Indian wave?</div> -<div class="line">Ah no!—to more than Rome’s ambition true,</div> -<div class="line">The muse of Freedom gave it not to you!</div> -<div class="line">She the bold route of Europe’s guilt began,</div> -<div class="line">And, in the march of nations, led the van!</div> -<div class="line i15"><cite>Pleasures of Hope.</cite></div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>We are here to witness a new scene of conquest. -The Indian natives were too powerful and populous -to permit the Europeans to march at once into the -heart of their territories, as they had done into South -America, to massacre the people, or to subject them -to instant slavery and death. The old inhabitants of -the empire, the Hindoos, were indeed, in general, a -comparatively feeble and gentle race, but there were -numerous and striking exceptions; the mountaineers -were, as mountaineers in other countries, of a hardy, -active, and martial character. The Mahrattas, the -Rohillas, the Seiks, the Rajpoots, and others, were -fierce and formidable tribes. But besides this, the -ruling princes of the country, whether Moguls or -Hindoos, had for centuries maintained their sway by -the same power by which they had gained it, that of -arms. They could bring into the field immense bodies -of troops, which though found eventually unable to -compete with European power and discipline, were -too formidable to be rashly attacked, and have cost -oceans of blood and treasure finally to reduce them -to subjection. Moreover, the odium which the Spa<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">206</a></span>niards -and Portuguese had everywhere excited by -their unceremonious atrocities, may be supposed to -have had their effect on the English, who are a reflecting -people; and it is to be hoped also that the -progress of sound policy and of Christian knowledge, -however slow, may be taken into the account in some -degree. They went out too under different circumstances—not -as mere adventurers, but as sober traders, -aiming at establishing a permanent and enriching -commerce with these countries; and if Christianity, if -the laws of justice and of humanity were to be violated, -it must be under a guise of policy, and a form of law.</p> - -<p>We shall not enter into a minute notice of the -earliest proceedings of the English in India, because -for upwards of a century from the formation of their -first trading association, those proceedings are comparatively -insignificant. During that period Bombay had -been ceded as part of a marriage-portion by the Portuguese -to Charles II.; factories had been established -at Surat, Madras, Masulipatam, Visigapatam, Calcutta, -and other places; but it was not till the different -chartered companies were consolidated into one grand -company in 1708, styled “The United Company of -Merchants trading to the East Indies,” that the -English affairs in the east assumed an imposing -aspect. From that period the East India Company -commenced that career of steady grasping at dominion -over the Indian territories, which has never been -relaxed for a moment, but, while it has for ever worn -the grave air of moderation, and has assumed the language -of right, has gone on adding field to field and -house to house—swallowing up state after state, and -prince after prince, till it has finally found itself the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">207</a></span> -sovereign of this vast and splendid empire, as it would -fain persuade itself and the world, by the clearest -claims, and the most undoubted justice. By the laws -and principles of modern policy, it may be so; but -by the eternal principles of Christianity, there never -was a more thorough repetition of the hankering -after Naboth’s vineyards, of the “slaying and taking -possession” exhibited to the world. It is true that, as -the panegyrists of our Indian policy contend, it may -be the design of Providence that the swarming millions -of Indostan should be placed under our care, that -they may enjoy the blessings of English rule, and of -English knowledge: but Providence had no need that -we should violate all his most righteous injunctions to -enable him to bring about his designs. Providence, -the Scriptures tell us, intended that Jacob should -supersede Esau in the heritage of Israel: but Providence -had no need of the deception which Rebecca and -Jacob practised,—had no need of the mess of pottage -and the kid-skins, to enable Him to effect his object. -We are much too ready to run the wilful career of our -own lusts and passions, and lay the charge at the door -of Providence. It is true that English dominion is, -or will become, far better to the Hindoos than that -of the cruel and exacting Moguls; but who made us -the judge and the ruler over these people? If the -real object of our policy and exertions in India has -been the achievement of wealth and power, as it undoubtedly -has, it is pitiful and hypocritical to endeavour -to clothe it with the pretence of working the -will of Providence, and seeking the good of the -natives. We shall soon see which objects have been -most zealously and undeviatingly pursued, and by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">208</a></span> -what means. If our desires have been, not to enrich -and aggrandize ourselves, but to benefit the people and -rescue them from the tyranny of bad rulers, heaven -knows what wide realms are yet open to our benevolent -exertions; what despots there are to pull down; -what miserable millions to relieve from their oppressions;—and -when we behold Englishmen levelling their -vengeance against such tyrants, and visiting such unhappy -people with their protective power, where -neither gold nor precious merchandise are to be won -at the same time, we may safely give the amplest credence -and the profoundest admiration to their claims of -disinterested philanthropy. If they present themselves -as the champions of freedom, and the apostles of social -amelioration, we shall soon have opportunities of asking -how far they have maintained these characters.</p> - -<p>Mr. Auber, in his “History of the British Power in -India,” has quoted largely from letters of the Board of -Directors of the Company, passages to shew how sincerely -the representatives of the East India Company -at home have desired to arrest encroachment on the -rights of the natives; to avoid oppressive exactions; -to resist the spirit of military and political aggression. -They have from year to year proclaimed their wishes -for the comfort of the people; they have disclaimed all -lust of territorial acquisition; have declared that they -were a mercantile, rather than a political body; and -have rebuked the thirst of conquest in their agents, -and endeavoured to restrain the avidity of extortion in -them. Seen in Mr. Auber’s pages, the Directors -present themselves as a body of grave and honorable -merchants, full of the most admirable spirit of moderation, -integrity, and benevolence; and we may give<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">209</a></span> -them the utmost credit for sincerity in their professions -and desires. But unfortunately, we all know -what human nature is. Unfortunately the power, the -wealth, and the patronage brought home to them by -the very violation of their own wishes and maxims -were of such an overwhelming and seducing nature, -that it was in vain to resist them. Nay, in such -colours does the modern philosophy of conquest and -diplomacy disguise the worst transactions between one -state and another, that it is not for plain men very -readily to penetrate to the naked enormity beneath. -When all the world was applauding the success of -Indian affairs,—the extension of territory, the ability -of their governors, the valour of their troops; and -when they felt the flattering growth of their greatness, -it required qualities far higher than mere mercantile -probity and good intentions, to enable them to strip -away the false glitter of their official transactions, and -sternly assure themselves of the unholiness of their -nature. We may therefore concede to the Directors -of the East India Company, and to their governors -and officers in general, the very best intentions, knowing -as we do, the force of influences such as we have -already alluded to, and the force also of modern diplomatic -and military education, by which a policy and -practices of the most dismal character become gradually -to be regarded not merely unexceptionable, -but highly honorable. We may allow all this, and -yet pronounce the mode by which the East India -Company has possessed itself of Hindostan, as the -most revolting and unchristian that can possibly be -conceived. The most masterly policy, regarded independent -of its <em>morale</em>, and a valour more than Roman<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">210</a></span> -have been exhibited by our governors-generals and -armies on the plains of Hindostan: but if there ever -was one system more Machiavelian—more appropriative -of the shew of justice where the basest injustice -was attempted—more cold, cruel, haughty and -unrelenting than another,—it is the system by which -the government of the different states of India has -been wrested from the hands of their respective -princes and collected into the grasp of the British -power. Incalculable gainers as we have been by this -system, it is impossible to review it without feelings -of the most poignant shame and the highest indignation. -Whenever we talk to other nations of British -faith and integrity, they may well point to India in -derisive scorn. The system which, for more than a -century, was steadily at work to strip the native princes -of their dominions, and that too under the most sacred -pleas of right and expediency, is a system of torture -more exquisite than regal or spiritual tyranny ever -before discovered; such as the world has nothing -similar to shew.</p> - -<p>Spite of the repeated instructions sent out by the -Court of Directors to their servants in India, to avoid -territorial acquisitions, and to cultivate only honest -and honorable commerce; there is evidence that from -the earliest period the desire of conquest was entertained, -and was, spite of better desires, always too -welcome to be abandoned. In the instructions forwarded -in 1689, the Directors expounded themselves in -the following words: “The increase of our revenue -is the subject of our care, as much as our trade:—’tis -that must maintain our force when twenty accidents -may interrupt our trade;—’tis that must make us a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">211</a></span> -nation in India. Without that, we are but as a great -number of interlopers, united by his Majesty’s royal -charter, fit only to trade where nobody of power -thinks fit only to prevent us; and upon this account -it is that the wise Dutch, in all their general advices -which we have seen, write ten paragraphs concerning -their government, their civil and military policy, warfare, -and the increase of their revenue, for one paragraph -they write concerning trade.”<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">13</a></p> - -<p>Spite of all pretences to the contrary—spite of all -advices and exhortations from the government at -home of a more unambitious character, this was the -spirit that never ceased to actuate the Company, and -was so clearly felt to be it, that its highest servants, -in the face of more peaceful injunctions, and in the -face of the Act of Parliament strictly prohibiting -territorial extension, went on perpetually to add conquest -to conquest, under the shew of necessity or -civil treaty; and they who offended most against the -letter of the law, gratified most entirely the spirit of -the company and the nation. Who have been looked -upon as so eminently the benefactors and honourers -of the nation by Indian acquisition as Lord Clive, -Warren Hastings, and the Marquess Wellesley? It -is for the determined and successful opposition to the -ostensible principles and annually reiterated advices -of the Company, that that very Company has heaped -wealth and distinctions upon these and other persons, -and for which it has just recently voted an additional -pension to the latter nobleman.</p> - -<p>What then is this system of torture by which the -possessions of the Indian princes have been wrung -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">212</a></span>from them? It is this—the skilful application of the -process by which cunning men create debtors, and -then force them at once to submit to their most exorbitant -demands. From the moment that the English -felt that they had the power in India to “divide and -conquer,” they adopted the plan of doing it rather by -plausible manœuvres than by a bold avowal of their -designs, and a more honest plea of the right of conquest—the -ancient doctrine of the strong, which they -began to perceive was not quite so much in esteem as -formerly. Had they said at once, these Mahomedan -princes are arbitrary, cruel, and perfidious—we will -depose them, and assume the government ourselves—we -pretend to no other authority for our act than our -ability to do it, and no other excuse for our conduct -than our determination to redress the evils of the people: -that would have been a candid behaviour. It would -have been so far in accordance with the ancient doctrine -of nations that little would have been thought of it; -and though as Christians we could not have applauded -the “doing evil that good might come of it,” yet had -the promised benefit to more than eighty millions of -people followed, that glorious penance would have -gone far in the most scrupulous mind to have justified -the crime of usurpation. But the mischief has been, -that while the exactions and extortions on the people -have been continued, and in many cases exaggerated, -the means of usurpation have been those glozing and -hypocritical arts, which are more dangerous from their -subtlety than naked violence, and more detestable because -wearing the face, and using the language, of -friendship and justice. A fatal friendship, indeed, -has that of the English been to all those princes that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">213</a></span> -were allured by it. It has pulled them every one -from their thrones, or has left them there the contemptible -puppets of a power that works its arbitrary -will through them. But friendship or enmity, the -result has been eventually the same to them. If they -resisted alliance with the encroaching English, they -were soon charged with evil intentions, fallen upon, -and conquered; if they acquiesced in the proffered -alliance, they soon became ensnared in those webs of -diplomacy from which they never escaped, without the -loss of all honour and hereditary dominion—of every -thing, indeed, but the lot of prisoners where they had -been kings. The first step in the English friendship -with the native princes, has generally been to assist -them against their neighbours with troops, or to locate -troops with them to protect them from aggression. -For these services such enormous recompense was -stipulated for, that the unwary princes, entrapped by -their fears of their native foes rather than of their pretended -friends, soon found that they were utterly unable -to discharge them. Dreadful exactions were -made on their subjects, but in vain. Whole provinces, -or the revenues of them, were soon obliged to be -made over to their grasping <em>friends</em>; but they did not -suffice for their demands. In order to pay them their -debts or their interest, the princes were obliged to -borrow large sums at an extravagant rate. These -sums were eagerly advanced by the English in their -private and individual capacities, and securities -again taken on lands or revenues. At every step the -unhappy princes became more and more embarrassed, -and as the embarrassment increased, the claims of the -Company became proportionably pressing. In the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">214</a></span> -technical phraseology of money-lenders, “the screw -was then turned,” till there was no longer any enduring -it. The unfortunate princes felt themselves, -instead of being relieved by their artful friends, actually -introduced by them into</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace</div> -<div class="line">And rest can never dwell; hope never comes</div> -<div class="line">That comes to all; but torture without end</div> -<div class="line">Still urges.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>To escape it, there became no alternative but to -throw themselves entirely upon the mercy of their -inexorable creditors, or to break out into armed -resistance. In the one case they found themselves -speedily stripped of every vestige of their power—their -revenues and management of their territories -given over to these creditors, which still never were -enough to liquidate their monstrous and growing -demands; so that the next proposition was that they -should entirely cede their territories, and become -pensioners on their usurpers. In the other case, they -were at once declared perfidious and swindling,—no -faith was to be kept with them,—they were assaulted -by the irresistible arms of their oppressors, and inevitably -destroyed or deposed.</p> - -<p>If they sought aid from another state, that became -a fortunate plea to attack that state too; and the -English were not contented to chastise the state thus -aiding its ancient neighbour, it was deemed quite sufficient -ground to seize and subjugate it also. There -was no province that was for a moment safe from this -most convenient system of policy, which feared public -opinion sufficiently to seek arguments to make a case -before it, but resolved still to seize, by hook or by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">215</a></span> -crook, all that it coveted. It did not suffice that a -province merely refused an alliance, if the proper -time was deemed to be arrived for its seizure—some -plea of danger or suspicion was set up against it. It -was called good policy not to wait for attack, but to -charge it with hostile designs, though not a hostile indication -was given—it was assailed with all the forces -in the empire. Those princes that were once subjected -to the British power or the British <em>friendship</em>, -were set up or pulled down just as it suited their -pleasure. If necessary, the most odious stigmas -were fixed on them to get rid of them—they were -declared weak, dissolute, or illegitimate. If a prince -or princess was suspected of having wealth, some -villainous scheme was hatched to plunder him or her -of it. For more than a century this shocking system -was in operation, every day growing more daring in -its action, and more wide in its extent. Power both gave -security and augmented audacity—for every British -subject who was not belonging to the Company, and -therefore interested in its operations, was rigidly excluded -from the country, and none could therefore -complain of the evil deeds that were there done under -the sun. It is almost incredible that so abominable -an influence could be for a century exercised over a -great realm, by British subjects, many of whom were -in all other respects worthy and most honourable men; -and, what is more, that it could be sanctioned by the -British parliament, and admired by the British nation. -But we have yet the proofs to adduce, and unfortunately -they are only too abundant and conclusive. -Let us see them.</p> - -<p>We will for the present pass the operations of Clive<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">216</a></span> -in the Carnatic at once to destroy the French influence -there, and to set up Mahomet Ali, a creature -of the English. We shall anon see the result of that: -we will observe in the first place the manner of obtaining -Bengal, as it became the head of the English -empire in India, and the centre of all future transactions.</p> - -<p>In 1756, Suraja Dowla, the Subahdar of Bengal, -demanded an officer belonging to him who, according to -the custom amongst the colonists there, had taken refuge -at Calcutta. The English refused to give him -up. The Subahdar attacked and took the place. One -hundred and forty-six of the English fell into the conqueror’s -hands, and were shut up for the night in the -celebrated <em>Black-hole</em>, whence only twenty-three were -taken out alive in the morning. It may be said in -vindication of the Subahdar, that the act of immuring -these unfortunate people in this horrible den was -not his, but that of the guards to whom they were -entrusted for the night, and who put them there as -in a place of the greatest security; and it may be -added, not to the credit of the English, that this very -<em>black-hole</em> was the <em>English</em> prison, where they were in -the habit of confining <em>their</em> prisoners. As Mr. Mills -very justly asks—“What had they to do with a <em>black-hole</em>? -Had no <em>black-hole</em> existed, as none ought to -exist anywhere, least of all in the sultry and unwholesome -climate of Bengal, those who perished in the -<em>black-hole</em> of Calcutta would have experienced a different -fate.”</p> - -<p>On the news of the capture of Calcutta arriving at -Madras, a body of troops was dispatched under Admiral -Watson and Colonel Clive, for its recovery;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">217</a></span> -which was soon effected, and Hoogly, a considerable -city about twenty-three miles further up the river, -was also attacked and reduced. A treaty was now -entered into with Suraja Dowla, the Subahdar, which -was not of long continuance; for, lest the Subahdar, -who was not at bottom friendly to the English, as he -had in reality no cause, should form an alliance with -the French at Chandernagore, they resolved to depose -him! This bold and unwarrantable scheme of deposing -a prince in his own undoubted territories, and that -by mere strangers and traders on the coast, is the -beginning of that extraordinary and unexampled assumption -which has always marked the conduct of the -English in India. Scarcely had they entered into -the treaty with this Subahdar than they resolved to -depose him because he would protect the French, who -were also permitted to hold a factory in his territory -as well as they. This audacious scheme was Clive’s. -Admiral Watson, on the contrary, declared it an extraordinary -thing to depose a man they had so lately -made a solemn treaty with. But Clive, as he afterwards -avowed, when examined before the House of -Commons, declared that “they must now go further; -they could not stop there. <em>Having established themselves -by force and not by consent of the Nabob</em>, he would -endeavour to drive them out again.” This is the -robber’s doctrine;—having committed one outrage, a -second, or a series of outrages must be committed, to -prevent punishment, and secure the booty. But -having once entertained the idea of pulling the Subahdar -from his throne, they did not scruple to add -treason and rebellion to the crime of invading the -rights of the sovereign. They began by debauching<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">218</a></span> -his own officers. They found out one Meer Jaffier -Khan, a man of known traitorous mind, who had been -paymaster-general under the former Subahdar, and -yet retained great power in the army. This wretch, -on condition of being placed on the throne, agreed to -betray his master, and seduce as many of the influential -of his officers as possible. The terms of this -diabolical confederacy between this base traitor and -the baser <em>Christian English</em>, as they stand in the first -parliamentary report on Indian affairs, and as related -by Orme in his History of India (ii. 153), and by -Mills (ii. 110), are very instructive.</p> - -<p>The English had got an idea which wonderfully -sharpened their desire to depose Suraja Dowla, that -he had an enormous treasure. The committee (of -the council of Calcutta) really believed, says Mr. -Orme, the wealth of Suraja Dowla much greater than -it possibly could be, even if the whole life of the -late Nabob Aliverdi had not been spent in defending -his dominions against the invasions of ruinous enemies; -and even if Suraja Dowla had reigned many, -instead of one year. They resolved, accordingly, not -to be sparing in their commands; and the situation of -Meer Jaffier, and the manners and customs of the -country, made him ready to promise whatever they -desired. In the name of compensation for losses by -the capture of Calcutta, 10,000,000 rupees were promised -to the English Company; 5,000,000 rupees to -English inhabitants; 2,000,000 to the Indians, and -700,000 to the Armenian merchants. These sums -were specified in the formal treaty. Besides this, the -Committee resolved to ask 2,500,000 rupees for the -squadron, and the same amount for the army. “When<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">219</a></span> -this was settled,” says Lord Clive, “Mr. Becher (a -member) suggested to the committee, that he thought -that committee, who managed the great machine of -government, was entitled to some consideration, as -well as the army and navy.” Such a proposition in -such an assembly could not fail to appear eminently -reasonable. It met with a suitable approbation. Mr. -Becher informs us, that the sums received were -280,000 rupees by Mr. Drake the governor; 280,000 -by Col. Clive; and 240,000 each by himself, Mr. -Watts, and Major Kilpatrick, the inferior members -of the committee. The terms obtained by favour of -the Company were, that all the French factories and -effects should be given up; that the French should -be for ever excluded from Bengal; that the territory -surrounding Calcutta to the distance of 600 yards -beyond the Mahratta ditch, and all the land lying -south of Calcutta as far as Culpee, should be granted -them on Zemindary tenure, the Company paying the -rent in the same manner as the other Zemindars.</p> - -<p>Thus did these Englishmen bargain with a traitor -to betray his prince and country,—the traitor, for the -bribe of being himself made prince, not merely sell -his master, but give two millions three hundred and -ninety-eight thousand pounds sterling,<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">14</a> with valuable -privileges and property of the state,—while these -dealers in treason and rebellion pocketed each, from -two hundred and forty to two hundred and eighty -thousand pounds sterling! A more infamous transaction -is not on record.</p> - -<p>To carry this wicked conspiracy into effect, the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">220</a></span>English took the field against their victim Suraja -Dowla; and Meer Jaffier, the traitor, in the midst of -of the engagement moved off, and went over to the -English with his troops—thus determining the fate of -a great kingdom, and of thirty millions of people, with -the loss of twenty Europeans killed and wounded, of -sixteen Sepoys killed, and only thirty-six wounded. -The unfortunate prince was soon afterwards seized -and assassinated by the son of this traitor Meer Jaffier. -The vices and inefficiency of this bad man soon compelled -the English to pull him down from the throne -into which they had so criminally raised him. They -then set up in his stead his son-in-law, Meer Causim. -This man for a time served their purpose, by the -activity with which he raised money to pay their claims -upon him. He resorted to every species of cruelty -and injustice to extort the necessary funds from his -unfortunate subjects. But about three years, nearly the -same period as their former puppet-nabob had reigned, -sufficed to weary them of him. He was rigorous -enough to raise money to pay them, but he was not tool -enough, when that was done, to humour every scheme -of rapacity which they dictated to him. They complained -of his not allowing their goods to pass duty-free -through his territories; he therefore abolished all -duties, and thus laid open the trade to everybody. -This enraged them, and they determined to depose -him. Meer Causim, however, was not so readily dismissed -as Meer Jaffier had been. He resisted vigorously; -massacred such of their troops as fell into his -hands, and fleeing into Oude, brought them into war -with its nabob. What is most remarkable, they again -set up old Meer Jaffier, whom they had before deposed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">221</a></span> -for his crimes and his imbecility. But probably, from -their experience of Meer Causim, they now preferred -an easy tool to one with more self-will. In their -treaty with him they made a claim upon him for -ten lacs of rupees; which demand speedily grew to -twenty, thirty, forty, and finally to fifty-three lacs of -rupees. All delicacy was laid aside in soliciting the -payment, and one half of it was soon extorted from -him. The Subahdar, in fact, was now become the -merest puppet in their hands. They were the real -lords of Bengal, and in direct receipt of more than -half the revenues. Within less than ten years from -the disgraceful bargain with the traitor Meer Jaffier, -they had made Bengal their own, though they still -hesitated to avow themselves as its sovereigns; they -had got possession of Benares; they had acquired that -power over the Nabob of Oude, in consequence of the -successful war brought upon him by his alliance with -the deposed nabob Meer Causim, that would at any -time make them entirely his masters; the Mogul himself -was ready and anxious to obtain their friendship; -they were, in short, become the far greatest power in -India.</p> - -<p>Here then is an opening instance of the means by -which we acquired our territories in India; and the -language of Lord Clive, when he returned thither as -governor of Bengal in 1765, may shew what other -scenes were likely to ensue. “We have at last arrived -at that critical period which I have long foreseen; -I mean that period which renders it necessary -for us to determine whether we can or shall take the -whole to ourselves. Jaffier Ali Khan is dead. His -natural son is a minor; but I know not whether he is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">222</a></span> -yet declared successor. Sujah Dowla is beat from -his dominions. We are in possession of it; and it -is scarcely hyperbole to say—to-morrow the whole -Mogul empire is in our power. The inhabitants of the -country, we know by long experience, have no attachment -to any obligation. Their forces are neither -disciplined, commanded, nor paid like ours. Can it -then be doubtful that a large army of Europeans will -effectually preserve us sovereigns?”</p> - -<p>The scene of aggression and aggrandizement here -indicated, soon grew so wide and busy, that it would -far exceed the whole space of this volume to trace -even rapidly its great outlines. The Great Mogul, the -territories of Oude and Arcot, Mysore, Travancore, -Benares, Tanjore, the Mahrattas, the whole peninsula -in fact, speedily felt the effect of these views, in diplomatic -or military subjection. We can point out no -fortunate exception, and must therefore content ourselves -with briefly touching upon some of the more -prominent cases.</p> - -<p>The first thing that deserves attention, is the treatment -of the Mogul himself. This is the statement of -it by the French historian: “The Mogul having been -driven out of Delhi by the Pattans, by whom his son -had been set up in his room, was wandering from one -province to another in search of a place of refuge in -his own territories, and requesting succour from his -own vassals, but without success. Abandoned by his -subjects, betrayed by his allies, without support and -without an army, he was allured by the power of the -English, and implored their protection. They promised -to conduct him to Delhi, and re-establish him -on his throne; but they insisted that he should pre<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">223</a></span>viously -cede to them the absolute sovereignty over -Bengal. This cession was made by an authentic -act, attended by all the formalities usually practised -throughout the Mogul empire. The English, possessed -of this title, which was to give a kind of legitimacy -to their usurpation, at least in the eyes of the -vulgar, soon forgot the promises they had made. -They gave the Mogul to understand, that particular -circumstances would not suffer them to be concerned -in such an enterprise; but some better opportunity -was to be hoped for; and to make up for his losses, -they assigned him a pension of six millions of rupees, -(262,500<i>l.</i>), with the revenue of Allahabad, and Sha -Ichanabad, or Delhi, upon which that unfortunate -prince was reduced to subsist himself, in one of the -principal towns of Benares, where he had taken up his -residence.”—<cite>Raynal.</cite></p> - -<p>Hastings, in fact, made it a reason for depriving -him again even of this pension, that he had sought -the aid of the Mahrattas, to do that which he had -vainly hoped from the English—to restore him to his -throne. This is Mills’s relation of this fact, founded -on the fifth Parliamentary Report.—“Upon receiving -from him the grant of the duannee, or the receipt -and management of the revenues of Bengal, Bahar, -and Orissa, it was agreed that, as the royal share of -these revenues, twenty-six lacs of rupees should be -annually paid to him by the Company. His having -accepted of the assistance of the Mahrattas to place -him on the throne of his ancestors, was now made use -of as a reason for telling him, that the tribute of these -provinces should be paid to him no more. Of the -honour, or the discredit, however, of this transaction,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">224</a></span> -the principal share belongs not to the governor, but to -the Directors themselves; who, in their letter to Bengal, -of the 11th of November 1768, had said, ‘If the -emperor flings himself into the hands of the Mahrattas, -or any other power, we are disengaged from him, -<em>and it may open a fair opportunity of withholding</em> the -twenty-six lacs we now pay him.’” Upon the whole, -indeed, of the measure dealt out to this unhappy -sovereign,—depriving him of the territories of Corah -and Allahabad; depriving him of the tribute which -was due to him from these provinces of his which -they possessed—the Directors bestowed unqualified -approbation; and though they condemned the use -which had been made of their troops in subduing the -country of the Rohillas, they frankly declare, “We, -upon the maturest deliberation, confirm the treaty of -Benares.” “Thus,” adds Mills, “they had plundered -the unhappy emperor of twenty-six lacs per annum, -and the two provinces of Corah and Allahabad, which -they had sold to the Vizir for fifty lacs of rupees, on -the plea that he had forfeited them by his alliance -with the Mahrattas;” though he was not free, if -one party would not assist him to regain his rights, to -seek that assistance from another.</p> - -<p>Passing over the crooked policy of the English, in -seizing upon the isles of Salsette and Bassein, near -Bombay, and treating for them afterwards, and all the -perfidies of the war for the restoration of Ragabah, -the Peshwa of the Mahrattas, the fate of the Nabob -of Arcot, one of their earliest allies, is deserving of particular -notice, as strikingly exemplifying their policy. -They began by obtaining a grant of land in 1750, -surrounding Madras. They then were only too happy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">225</a></span> -to assist the Nabob against the French. For these -military aids, in which Clive distinguished himself, the -English took good care to stipulate for their usually -monstrous payments. Mahomed Ali, the nabob, -soon found that he was unable to satisfy the demands -of his allies. They urged upon him the maintenance -of large bodies of troops for the defence of his territories -against these French and other enemies. This -threw him still more inextricably into debt, and therefore -more inextricably into their power. He became -an unresisting tool in their hands. In his name the -most savage exactions were practised on his subjects. -The whole revenues of his kingdom, however, proved -totally inadequate to the perpetually accumulating demands -upon them. He borrowed money where he -could, and at whatever interest, of the English themselves. -When this interest could not be paid, he made -over to them, under the name of <em>tuncaus</em>, the revenues -of some portion of his domains. These assignments -directly decreasing his resources, only raised the demands -of his other creditors more violently, and the -fleecing of his subjects became more and more dreadful. -In this situation, he began to cast his eyes on -the neighbouring states, and to incite his allies, by the -assertion of various claims upon them, to join him in -falling upon them, and thus to give him an opportunity -of paying them. This exactly suited their views. -It gave them a prospect of money, and of conquest -too, under the plausible colour of assisting their ally -in urging his just claims. They first joined him in falling -on the Rajah of Tanjore, whom the Nabob claimed -as a tributary, and indebted to him in a large amount -of revenue. The Rajah was soon reduced to submis<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">226</a></span>sion, -and agreed to pay thirty lacs and fifty thousand -rupees, and to aid the Nabob in all his wars. Scarcely, -however, was this treaty signed, than they repented -of it; thought they had not got enough; hoped the -Rajah would not be exact to a day in his payment, in -which case they would fall on him again for breach of -treaty. It so happened;—they rushed out of their -camp, seized on part of Vellum, and the districts of -Coiladdy and Elangad, to the retention of which the -poor Rajah was obliged to submit.</p> - -<p>This affair being so fortunately adjusted, the Nabob -called on his willing allies to attack the Marawars. -They too, he said, owed him money; and money -was what the English were always in want of. They -readily assented, though they declared that they believed -the Nabob to have no real claim on the Marawars -whatever. But then, they said, the Nabob has -made them his enemies, and it is necessary for his -security that they should be reduced. They did not -pretend it was just—but then, it was politic. The -particulars of this war are barbarous and disgraceful to -the English. The Nabob thirsted for the destruction -of these states: he and his Christian-allies soon reduced -Ramnadaporam, the capital of the great Marawar, -seized the Polygar, a minor of twelve years old, -his mother, and the Duan; they came suddenly upon -the Polygar of the lesser Marawar while he was trusting -to a treaty just made, and killed him; and pursued -the inhabitants of the country with severities that can -only be represented by the language of one of the -English officers addressed to the Council. Speaking of -the animosity of the people against them, and their -attacking the baggage, he says, “I can only deter<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">227</a></span>mine -it by reprisals, which will oblige me to plunder -and burn the villages; kill every man in them; and -take prisoners the women and children. These are -actions which the nature of this war will require.”<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">15</a></p> - -<p>Such were the unholy deeds into which the Nabob -and the great scheme of acquisition of territory had -led our countrymen in 1773; but this was only the -beginning of these affairs. This bloody campaign -ended, and large sums of money levied, the Nabob -proposed <em>another</em> war on the Rajah of Tanjore! There -was not the remotest plea of injury from the Rajah, -or breach of treaty. He had paid the enormous sum -demanded of him before, by active levies on his subjects, -and by mortgaging lands and jewels; but the -Nabob had now made him a very dangerous enemy—he -<em>might</em> ally himself with Hyder Ali, or the French, -or some power or other—therefore it was better that -he should be utterly destroyed, and his country put -into the power of the Nabob! “Never,” exclaims -Mr. Mills, “I suppose, was the resolution taken to -make war upon a lawful sovereign, with the view of -reducing him entirely, that is, stripping him of his -dominions, and either putting him and his family to -death, or making them prisoners for life, upon a more -accommodating reason! We have done the Rajah -great injury—we have no intention of doing him -right—this is a sufficient reason for going on to his -destruction.” But it was not only thought, but done; -and this was the bargain: The Nabob was to advance -money and all due necessaries for the war, and to pay -10,000 instead of 7,000 sepoys. The unhappy Rajah -was speedily defeated, and taken prisoner with his -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">228</a></span>family; and his country put into the hands of his -mortal enemy. There were men of honour and virtue -enough amongst the Directors at home, however, to -feel a proper disgust, or at least, regard for public -opinion, at these unprincipled proceedings, and the -Rajah, through the means of Lord Paget was restored, -not however without having a certain quantity of -troops quartered upon him; a yearly payment of four -lacs of pagodas imposed; and being bound not to -make any treaty or assist any power without the consent -of the English. He was, in fact, put into the -first stage of that process of subjection which would, -in due time, remove from him even the shadow of -independence.</p> - -<p>Such were the measures by which the Nabob of -Arcot endeavoured to relieve himself from his embarrassments -with the English; but they would not all -avail. Their demands grew faster than he could find -means to satisfy them. Their system of action was -too well devised to fail them; their victims rarely -escaped from their toils: he might help them to ruin -his neighbours, but he could not escape them himself. -During his life he was surrounded by a host of cormorant -creditors; his country, harassed by perpetual -exactions, rapidly declined; and the death of his son -and successor, Omdut ul Omrah, in 1801, produced -one of the strangest scenes in this strange history. -The Marquis Wellesley was then Governor-general, -and, pursuing that sweeping course which stripped -away the hypocritical mask from British power in -India, threw down so many puppet princes, and displayed -the English dominion in Indostan in its gigantic -nakedness. The revenues of the Carnatic had been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">229</a></span> -before taken in the hands of the English, but Lord -Wellesley resolved to depose the prince; and the -manner in which this deposition was effected, was -singularly despotic and unfeeling. They had come to -the resolution to depose the Nabob, and only looked -about for some plausible pretence. This they professed -to have found in a correspondence which, by -the death of Tippoo Saib, had fallen into their hands—a -correspondence between Tippoo and some officers -of the Nabob. They alleged, that this correspondence -contained injurious and even treasonable language -towards the English. When, therefore, the -Nabob lay on his death-bed they surrounded his house -with troops, and immediately that the breath had departed -from him they demanded to see his will. This -rude and unfeeling behaviour, so repugnant to the -ideas of every people, however savage and brutal, at a -moment so solemn and sacred to domestic sorrow, was -respectfully protested against—but in vain. The will -they insisted upon seeing, and it accordingly was put -into their hands by the son of the Nabob, now about -to mount the throne himself. Finding that the son -was nominated as his heir and successor by the Nabob, -the Commissioners immediately announced to him the -charge of treason against his father, and that the -throne was thereby forfeited by the family. This -charge, of course, was a matter of surprise to the -family; especially when the papers said to contain the -treason were produced, and they could find in them -nothing but terms of fidelity and respect towards the -English government. But the English had resolved -that the charge should be a sufficient charge, and the -young prince manfully resisting it, they then declared<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">230</a></span> -him to be of illegitimate birth,—a very favourite and -convenient plea with them. On this they set him aside, -and made a treaty with another prince, in which for a -certain provision the Carnatic was made over to them -for ever. The young nabob, Ali Hussein, did not long -survive this scene of indignity and arbitrary deposition—his -death occurring in the spring of the following -year.</p> - -<p>Such was the English treatment of their friend the -Nabob of Arcot;—the Nabob of Arcot, whose name -was for years continually heard in England as the -powerful ally of the British, as their coadjutor against -the French, against the ambitious Hyder Ali, as their -zealous and accommodating friend on all occasions. -It was in vain that either the old Nabob, or the young -one, whom they so summarily deposed, pleaded the -faith of treaties, their own hereditary right, or ancient -friendship. Arcot had served its turn; it had been -the stalking-horse to all the aggressions on other -states that they needed from it,—they had exacted all -that could be exacted in the name of the Nabob from -his subjects—they had squeezed the sponge dry; and -moreover the time was now come that they could with -impunity throw off the stealthy crouching attitude of -the tiger, the smiling meek mask of alliance, and -boldly seize upon undisguised sovereign powers in -India. Arcot was but one state amongst many that -were now to be so treated. Benares, Oude, Tanjore, -Surat, and others found themselves in the like case.</p> - -<p>Benares had been a tributary of Oude; but in 1764, -when the English commenced war against the Nabob -of Oude, the Rajah of Benares joined the English, and -rendered them the most essential services. For these<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">231</a></span> -he was taken under the English protection. At first -with so much delicacy and consideration was he treated, -that a resident was not allowed, as in the case of other -tributaries, to reside in his capital, lest in the words -of the minute of the Governor-general in command -in 1775: “such resident might acquire an improper -influence over the Rajah and his country, which would -in effect render him master of both; lest it should end,” -as they knew that such things as a matter of course -did end, “in reducing him to the mean and depraved -state of a mere Zemindar.” The council expressed -its anxiety that the Rajah’s independence should be in -no way compromised than by the mere fact of the -payment of his tribute, which, says Mills, continued to -be paid with an exactness rarely exemplified in the -history of the tributary princes of Hindustan. But unfortunately, -the Rajah gave some offence to the powerful -Warren Hastings, and there was speedily a requisition -made upon him for the maintenance of three -battalions of Sepoys, estimated at five lacs of rupees. -The Rajah pleaded inability to pay it forthwith; but -five days only were given him. This was followed by -a third and fourth requisition of the same sort. Seeing -how the tide was running against him, the unhappy -Rajah sent a private gift of two lacs of rupees to Mr. -Hastings,—the pretty sum of 20,000<i>l.</i>, in the hope of -regaining his favour, and stopping this ruinous course -of exaction. That unprincipled man took the money, -but exacted the payment of the public demand with -unabated rigour, and even fined him 10,000<i>l.</i> for delay -in payment, and ordered troops, as he had done before, -to march into his country to enforce the iniquitous -exaction!</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">232</a></span></p> - -<p>The work of diplomatic robbery on the Rajah now -went on rapidly. “The screw was now turned” with -vigour,—to use a homely but expressive phrase, the -nose was held desperately to the grind-stone. No -bounds were set to the pitiless fury of spoliation, for -the Governor’s revenge had none; and besides, there -was a dreadful want of money to defray the expenses -of the wars with Hyder into which the government had -plunged. “I was resolved,” says Hastings, “to draw -from his guilt” (his having offended Mr. Hastings—the -guilt was all on the other side) “the means of relief to -the Company’s distresses. In a word, I had determined -to make him pay largely for his pardon, or to exact a -severe vengeance for his past delinquency.”<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">16</a> What -this delinquency could possibly be, unless it were not -having sent Mr. Hastings a <em>second</em> present of <em>two lacs</em>, -is not to be discovered; but the success of the first -placebo was not such as to elicit a second. The -Rajah, therefore, tried what effect he could produce -upon the council at large; he sent an offer of <span class="smcap lowercase">TWENTY -LACS</span> <em>for the public service</em>. It was scornfully rejected, -and a demand of <span class="smcap lowercase">FIFTY</span> <em>lacs</em> was made! The impossibility -of compliance with such extravagant demands -was what was anticipated; the Governor hastened to -Benares, arrested the Rajah in his own capital; set at -defiance the indignation of the people at this insult. -The astounded Rajah made his escape, but only to -find himself at war with his insatiable despoilers. In -vain did he propose every means of accommodation. -Nothing would now serve but his destruction. He -was attacked, and compelled to fly. Bidgegur, where, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">233</a></span>says Hastings himself, “he had left his wife, a woman -of amiable character, his mother, all the other women -of his family, and the survivors of the family of his -father, Bulwant Sing,” was obliged to capitulate; and -Hastings, in his fell and inextinguishable vengeance, -even, says Mills, “in his letters to the commanding -officer, employed expressions which implied that the -plunder of these women was the due reward of the -soldiers; and which suggested one of the most dreadful -outrages to which, in the conception of the country, -a human being could be exposed.”</p> - -<p>The fort was surrendered oh express stipulation for -the safety, and freedom from search, of the females; -but, adds Mills, “the idea suggested by Mr. Hastings -diffused itself but too perfectly amongst the soldiery; -and when the princesses, with their relatives and -attendants, to the number of three hundred women, -besides children, withdrew from the castle, the capitulation -was shamefully violated; they were plundered of -their effects, and their persons otherwise rudely and -disgracefully treated by the licentious people, and followers -of the camp.” He adds, “one is delighted for -the honour of distinguished gallantry, that in no part -of the opprobrious business the commanding officer -had any share. He leaned to generosity and the protection -of the princesses from the beginning. His utmost -endeavours were exerted to restrain the outrages -of the camp; and he represented them with feeling -to Mr. Hastings, who expressed his concurrence, etc.”</p> - -<p>The only other consolation in this detestable affair is, -that the soldiers, in spite of Hastings, got the plunder -of the Rajah, and that the Court of Directors at home -censured his conduct. But these are miserable drops<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">234</a></span> -of satisfaction in this huge and overflowing cup of bitterness,—of -misery to trusting, friendly, and innocent -people; and of consequent infamy on the British name.</p> - -<p>We must, out of the multitudes of such cases, confine -ourselves to one more. The atrocities just recited -had put Benares into the entire power of the -English, but it had only tended to increase the pecuniary -difficulties. The soldiery had got the plunder—the -expenses of the war were added to the expenses -of other wars;—some other kingdom must be plundered, -for booty must be had: so Mr. Hastings continued -his journey, and paid a visit to the Nabob of -Oude. It is not necessary to trace the complete progress -of this Nabob’s friendship with the English. It -was exactly like that of the other princes just spoken -of. A treaty was made with him; and then, from time -to time, the usual exactions of money and the maintenance -of troops for his own subjection were heaped -upon him. As with the Nabob of Arcot, so with him, -they were ready to sanction and assist him in his most -criminal views on his neighbours, to which his need of -money drove him. He proposed to Mr. Hastings, in -1773, to assist him in <em>exterminating the Rohillas</em>, a people -bordering on his kingdom; “a people,” says Mills, -“whose territory was, by far, the best governed part -of India: the people protected, their industry encouraged, -and the country flourishing beyond all parallel.” -It was by a careful neutrality, and by these acts, that -the Rohillas sought to maintain their independence; -and it was of such a people that Hastings, sitting at -table with his tool, the Nabob of Oude, coolly heard -him offer him a bribe of forty lacs of rupees (400,000<i>l.</i>) -and the payment of the troops furnished, to as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">235</a></span>sist -him to destroy them utterly! There does not -seem to have existed in the mind of Hastings one human -feeling: a proposition which would have covered -almost any other man with unspeakable horror, was -received by him as a matter of ordinary business. “Let -us see,” said Hastings, “we have a heavy bonded -debt, at one time 125 lacs of rupees. By this a saving -of near one third of our military expenses would be -effected during the period of such service; the forty -lacs would be an ample supply to our treasury; and -the Vizir (the Nabob of Oude) would be freed from -a troublesome neighbour.” These are the monster’s -own words; the bargain was struck, but it was agreed -to be kept secret from the council and court of Directors. -In one of Hastings’ letters still extant, he tells -the Nabob, “should the Rohillas be guilty of a breach -of their agreement (a demand of forty lacs suddenly -made upon them—for in this vile affair everything had -a ruffian character—they first demanded their money, -and then murdered them), <em>we will thoroughly exterminate -them</em>, and settle your excellency in the country.”<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">17</a> -The extermination was conducted to the letter, as -agreed, as far as was in their power. The Rohillas -defended themselves most gallantly; but were overpowered,—and -their chief, and upwards of a hundred -thousand people fled to the mountains. The whole -country lay at the mercy of the allies, and the British -officers themselves declared that perhaps never were -the rights of conquest more savagely abused. Colonel -Champion, one of them, says in a letter of June -1774, published in the Report alluded to below, “the -inhumanity and dishonour with which the late proprie<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">236</a></span>tors -of this country and their families have been used, -is known all over these parts. A relation of them -would swell this letter to an enormous size. I could -not help compassionating such unparalleled misery, and -my requests to the Vizir to shew lenity were frequent, -but as fruitless as even those advices which I almost -hourly gave him regarding the destruction of the villages; -with respect to which he always promised fair, -but did not observe one of his promises, nor cease to -overspread the country with flames, till three days -after the fate of Hafez Rhamet was decided.” The -Nabob had frankly and repeatedly assured Hastings -that his intention was to <em>exterminate</em> the Rohillas, and -every one who bore the name of Rohilla was either -butchered, or found his safety in flight and in exile. -Such were the diabolical deeds into which our government -drove the native princes by their enormous -exactions, or encouraged them in, only in the end to -enslave them the more.</p> - -<p>Before the connexion between the English and -Oude, its revenue had exceeded three millions sterling, -and was levied without being accused of deteriorating -the country. In the year 1779, it did not exceed -one half of that sum, and in the subsequent years -it fell far below it, while the rate of taxation was -increased, and the country exhibited every mark of -oppressive exaction.<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">18</a> In this year the Nabob represented -to the council the wretched condition to which he -was reduced by their exactions: that the children of -the deceased Nabob had subsisted in a very distressed -manner for two years past; that the attendants, writers, -and servants, had received no pay for that period; -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">237</a></span>that his father’s private creditors were daily pressing -him, and there was not a foot of country which could -be appropriated to their payment; that the revenue -was deficient fifteen lacs, (a million and a half sterling); -that the country and cultivation were abandoned; -the old chieftains and useful attendants of the court -were forced to leave it; that the Company’s troops -were not only useless, but caused great loss to the -revenue and confusion in the country; and that the -support of his household, on the meanest scale, was -beyond his power.</p> - -<p>This melancholy representation produced—what?—pity, -and an endeavour to relieve the Nabob?—no, -exasperation. Mr. Hastings declared that, both it -and the crisis in which it was made were equally -alarming. The only thing thought of was what was -to be done if the money did not come in? But Mr. -Hastings, on his visit to the Nabob at Lucknow, made -a most lucky discovery. He found that the mother -and widow of the late Nabob were living there, and -possessed of immense wealth. His rapacious mind, -bound by no human feeling or moral principle, and -fertile in schemes of acquisition, immediately conceived -the felicitous design of setting the Nabob to strip those -ladies, well known to English readers since the famous -trial of Mr. Hastings, as “the Begums.” It was -agreed between the Nabob and Mr. Hastings, that his -Highness should be relieved of the expense which he -was unable to bear, of the English troops and gentlemen; -and he, on his part, engaged to strip the -Begums of both their treasure and their jaghires -(revenues of certain lands), delivering to the Governor-general -the proceeds. As a plea for this most<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">238</a></span> -abominable transaction, in which a prince was compelled -by his cruel necessities and the grinding -exactions and threats of the English to pillage forcibly -his near relatives, a tale of treason was hatched against -these poor women. When they refused to give up their -money, the chief eunuchs were put to the torture till -the ladies in compassion gave way: 550,000<i>l.</i> sterling -were thus forced from them: the torture was still continued, -in hope of extracting more; the women of the -Zenana were deprived of food at various times till they -were on the point of perishing for want; and every -expedient was tried that the most devilish invention -could suggest, till it was found that they had really -drawn the last doit from them. But what more than -all moves one’s indignation against this base English -Inquisitor, was, that he received as his share -of these spoils the sum of ten lacs, or 100,000<i>l.</i>!—and -that notwithstanding the law of the Company -against the receipt of presents; its avowed distress for -want of money; and the poverty of the kingdom of -Oude, which was thus plundered and disgraced from -the very inability to pay its debts, if debts such -shameful exactions can be called. Hastings did not -hesitate to apprise the council of what he had received, -and requested their permission to retain it for himself.</p> - -<p>Of the numerous transactions of a most wicked -character connected with these affairs; of the repugnance -of the Nabob to do the dirty work of Hastings -on his relatives, the Begums; of the haughty insolence -by which his tyrant compelled him to the compact; -of the restoration of the jaghires, but not the moneys -to the Begums; of the misery and desolation which -forced itself even upon the horny eyes of Hastings as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">239</a></span> -he made his second progress through the territories of -Oude, the work of his own oppressions and exactions; -of the twelve and a half millions which he added by -his wars and political manœuvres to the Indian debt—we -have not here room to note more than the existence -of such facts, which are well known to all the readers -of Indian history, or of the trial of Warren Hastings, -where every artifice of the lawyers was employed to -prevent the evidence of these things being brought -forward; and where a House of Peers was found base -or weak enough to be guided by such artifices, to -refuse the most direct evidence against the most -atrocious transactions in history; and thus to give -sanction and security to the commission of the most -dreadful crimes and cruelties in our distant colonies. -Nothing could increase from this time the real power -of the English over Oude, though circumstances -might occasion a more open avowal of it. Even -during the government of Lord Cornwallis and Sir -John Shore, now Lord Teignmouth, two of the most -worthy and honourable rulers that British India ever -had, the miseries and exactions continued, and the -well-intentioned financial measures of Lord Cornwallis -even tended to increase them. In 1798, the governor, -Sir John Shore, proceeded to depose the ruling Nabob -as illegitimate (a plea on which the English set aside -a number of Indian princes), and elevated another in -his place, and that upon evidence, says the historian, -“upon which an English court of law would not -have decided against him a question of a few pounds.”</p> - -<p>It was not, however, till 1799, under the government -of the Marquis Wellesley, that the hand -of British power was stretched to the utmost<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">240</a></span> -over this devoted district. That honest and avowed -usurper, who disdained the petty acts of his predecessors, -but declared that the British dominion over -the peninsula of India must be frankly avowed and -fearlessly asserted—certainly a much better doctrine -than the cowardly and hypocritical one hitherto -acted upon;—that every Englishman who did not belong -to the Company must and should be expelled -from that country; and that the English power and -the Corporate monopoly should be so strenuously and -unflinchingly exerted, that foreign aggression or -domestic complaint should be alike dispersed;—this -straightforward Governor-general soon drove the -Nabob of Oude to such desperation, by the severity -of his measures and exactions, that he declared his -wish to abdicate. Nothing could equal the joy of the -Governor-general at the prospect of this easy acquisition -of this entire territory: but that joy was damped -by discovering that the Nabob only wished to resign -in favour of—his own son! The chagrin of the -Governor-general on this discovery is not to be expressed; -and the series of operations then commenced -to force the Nabob to abdicate in favour of the Company; -when that could not be effected, to compel him -to sacrifice one half of his territories to save the rest; -when that sacrifice was made, to inform him that he -was to have no independent power in his remaining -half—is one of the most instructive lessons in the art -of diplomatic fleecing, of forcing a man out of his own -by the forms of treaty but with the iron-hand of irresistible -power, which any despot who wishes to do a -desperate deed handsomely, and in the most approved -style, can desire. It was in vain that the Nabob de<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">241</a></span>clared -his payment of exactions; his hereditary right; -his readiness shewn on all occasions to aid and oblige; -the force of treaties in his favour. It was in vain that -he asked to what purpose should he give up one half -of his dominions if he were not to have power over the -other, when it was to secure this independent power -that he gave up that half? What are all the arguments -of right, justice, reason, or humanity, when -Ahab wants the vineyard of Naboth, and the Jezebel -of political and martial power tells him that she will -give it him? The fate of Oude was predetermined, -along with that of various other states, by the Governor-general, -and it was decided as he determined it -should be.</p> - -<p>Before we close this chapter, we will give one instance -of the manner in which the territories of those -who held aloof, and did not covet the fatal friendship -of the English were obtained, and the most striking of -these are the dominions of Hyder Ali—the kingdom -of Mysore.</p> - -<p>Hyder was a soldier of fortune. He had risen by -an active and enterprising disposition from the condition -of a common soldier to the head of the state. -The English considered him as an ambitious, able, -and therefore very dangerous person in India. There -can be no doubt that he considered them the same. -He was an adventurer; so were they. He had acquired -a great territory by means that would not bear -the strictest scrutiny; so had they;—but there was -this difference between them, Hyder acted according -to the customs and maxims in which he had been -educated, and which he saw universally practised by all -the princes around him. He neither had the advan<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">242</a></span>tage -of Christian knowledge and principle, nor pretended -to them. The English, on the contrary, came -there as merchants; they were continually instructed -by their masters at home not to commit military -aggressions. They were bound by the laws of their -country not to do it. They professed to be in possession -of a far higher system of religion and morals than -Hyder and his people had. They pretended to be the -disciples of the Prince of Peace. Their magnanimous -creed they declared to be, “To do to others as -they would wish to be done by.” But neither Hyder -nor any other Indian ever saw the least evidence of -any such superiority of morals, or of faith, in their -conduct. They were as ambitious, and far more -greedy of money than the heathen that they pretended -to despise for their heathenism. They ought -to have set a better example—but they did not. -There never was a people that grasped more convulsively -at dominion, or were less scrupulous in the -means of obtaining it. They declared Hyder cruel -and perfidious. He knew them to be both. This -was the ground on which they stood. There were -reasons why the English should avoid interfering with -Hyder. There were none why he should avoid encroaching -on them, for he did not profess any such -grand principles of action as they did. If they were -what they pretended to be, they ought to preach peace -and union amongst the Indian princes: but union was -of all things in the world the very one which they -most dreaded; for they <em>were not</em> what they pretended -to be; but sought on the divisions of the natives to -establish their own power. Had Hyder attacked -them in their own trading districts, there could have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">243</a></span> -been no reason why they should not chastise him for -it. But it does not appear that he ever did attack -them at all till they fell upon him, and that with the -avowed intention to annihilate his power as dangerous. -No, say they, but he attacked the territories of our -ally the Subahdar of Deccan, which we were bound -to defend. And here it is that we touch again upon that -subtle policy by which it became impossible, when -they had once got a footing in the country that, having -the will and the power, they should not eventually -have the dominion. While professing to avoid conquest, -we have seen that they went on continually -making conquests. But it was always on the plea of -aiding their allies. They entered knowingly into -alliances on condition of defending with arms their -allies, and then, when they committed aggressions, it -was <em>for</em> these allies. In the end the allies were themselves -swallowed up, with all the additional territories -thus gained. It was a system of fattening allies as -we fatten oxen, till they were more worthy of being -devoured. They cast their subtle threads of policy like -the radiating filaments of the spider’s web, till the remotest -extremity of India could not be touched without -startling them from their concealed centre into -open day, ready to run upon the unlucky offender. -It was utterly impossible, on such a system, but that -offences should come, and wo to them by whom they -did come.</p> - -<p>The English were unquestionably the aggressors in -the hostilities with Hyder. They entered into a -treaty with Nizam Ali, the Subahdar of Deccan, -offensive and defensive; and the very first deed which -they were to do, was to seize the fort of Bangalore,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">244</a></span> -which belonged to Hyder. They had actually marched -in 1767 into his territories, when Hyder found means -to draw the Nizam from his alliance, and in conjunction -with him fell upon them, and compelled them to -fly to Trincomalee. By this unprovoked and voluntary -act they found themselves involved at once in a -war with a fierce and active enemy, who pursued them -to the very walls of Madras; scoured their country -with his cavalry; and compelled them to a dishonourable -peace in 1769, by which they bound themselves -to assist <em>him</em> too in his defensive wars! To enter -voluntarily into such conditions with such a man, betrayed -no great delicacy of moral feeling as to what -wars they engaged in, or no great honesty in their -intentions as regarded the treaty itself. They must -soon either fight with some of Hyder’s numerous -enemies, or break faith with him. Accordingly the -very next year the Mahrattas invaded his territories; -he called earnestly on his English allies for aid, and -aid they did not give. Hyder had now the justest -reason to term them perfidious, and to hold them in -distrust. Yet, though deeply exasperated by this -treachery, he would in 1778 most willingly have renewed -his alliance with them; and the presidency of -Madras acknowledged their belief that, had not the -treaty of 1769 been evaded, Hyder would never have -sought other allies than themselves.<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">19</a> There were -the strongest reasons why they should have cultivated -an amicable union with him, both to withdraw him -from the French, and on account of his own great -power and revenues. But they totally neglected him, -or insulted him with words of mere cold courtesy; and -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">245</a></span>a new aggression upon the fortress of Mahé, a place -tributary to Hyder, which they attacked in order to -expel the French, and which Hyder resented on the -same principle as they would resent an attack upon -any tributary of their own, well warranted the declaration -of Hyder, that they “were the most faithless -and usurping of mankind.” They were these arbitrary -and impolitic deeds which brought down Hyder -speedily upon them, with an army 100,000 strong; -and soon showed them Madras menaced, the Carnatic -overrun, Arcot taken, and a war of such a desperate -and bloody character raging around them, as they -had never yet seen in India, and which might probably -have expelled them thence, had not death released -them in 1782 from so formidable a foe, who -had been so wantonly provoked.</p> - -<p>Tippoo Sultaun, with all his activity and cunning, -had not the masterly military genius of his father,—but -he possessed all the fire of his resentment, and it was not -to be expected that, after what had passed, there could -be much interval of irritation between him and the -English. They had roused Hyder as a lion is roused -from his den, and he had made them feel his power. -They would naturally look on his son with suspicion, -and Tippoo had been taught to regard them as “the -most faithless and usurping of mankind.” Whatever, -therefore, may be said for or against him, on the -breaking out of the second war with him, the original -growth of hostility between the British and the Mysorean -monarchs, must be charged to the former, and -in the case of the last war, there appears to have been -no real breach of treaty on the part of Tippoo. He -had been severely punished for any act of irritation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">246</a></span> -which he might have committed against any of the -British allies, by the reduction of his capital, the surrender -of his sons as hostages, and the stripping away -of one half of his territories to be divided amongst his -enemies, each of whom had enriched himself with half -a million sterling of annual revenue at his expense. -Tippoo must have been nothing less than a madman -in his shattered condition, and with his past experience, -to have lightly ventured on hostilities with the -English. But it was charged on him that he was -seeking an alliance with the French. What then? -He had the clearest right so to do. So long as he -maintained the terms of his treaty, the English had -no just right to violate theirs towards him. The -French were his ancient and hereditary friends. Tippoo -persisted to the last that he had done nothing to -warrant an attack upon him; but Lord Mornington -had adopted his notions about consolidating the British -power in India, and every possible circumstance, or -suspicion of a circumstance, was to be seized upon as -a plea for carrying his plans into effect. It was -enough that a fear <em>might</em> be entertained of Tippoo’s -designs. It became good policy to get the start; and -when once that forestalling system in hostilities, that -outstripping in the race of mischief, is adopted, there -is no possible violence nor enormity which may not -be undertaken, or defended upon it. Tippoo was assailed -by the British, and their ally the Nizam; and -though he again and again protested his innocence, -again and again asked for peace, he was pursued to -his capital, and killed bravely defending it. His -territories were divided amongst those who had divided -the former half of them in like manner, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">247</a></span> -English, the Nizam, and the Mahrattas, with a little -state appropriated to a puppet-rajah. Thus did the -English shew what they would do to those who dared -to decline their protection. Thus did they pursue, -beat down, and destroy with all their mighty resources -an independent prince, whose whole revenue, after -their first partition of his realm, did not much exceed -a million sterling. We have heard a vast deal in -Europe of the partition of Poland, but how much -better was the forcible dismemberment of Mysore? -The injury of this dismemberment of his kingdom is, -however, not the least heaped upon Tippoo. On his -name have been heaped all the odious crimes that -make us hate the worst of tyrants. Cruelty, perfidy, -low cunning, and all kinds of baseness, make up the -idea of Tippoo which we have derived from those who -profited by his destruction. But what say the most -candid historians? “That the accounts which we -have received from our countrymen, who dreaded and -feared him, are marked with exaggeration, is proved -by this circumstance, that his servants adhered to him -with a fidelity which those of few princes in any age -or country have displayed. Of his cruelty we have -heard the more, because our own countrymen were -amongst the victims of it. But it is to be observed, -that unless in certain instances, the proof of which -cannot be regarded as better than doubtful, their sufferings, -however intense, were only the sufferings of a -very rigorous imprisonment, of which, considering the -manner in which it is lavished upon them by their -own laws, Englishmen ought not to be very forward -to complain. At that very time, in the dungeons of -Madras or Calcutta, it is probable that unhappy suf<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">248</a></span>ferers -were enduring calamities for debts of 100<i>l.</i>, not -less atrocious than those which Tippoo, a prince born -and educated in a barbarous country, and ruling over -a barbarous people, inflicted upon imprisoned enemies, -part of a nation, who, by the evils they had brought -upon him, exasperated him almost to frenzy, and -whom he regarded as the enemies both of God and -man. Besides, there is among the papers relating to -the intercourse of Tippoo with the French, a remarkable -proof of his humanity, which, when these papers -are ransacked for matters to criminate him, ought not -to be suppressed. In a draught of conditions on -which he desired to form a treaty with them, these -are the words of a distinct article:—‘demand that -male and female prisoners, as well English as Portuguese, -who shall be taken by the republican troops, or -by mine, shall be treated with humanity; and, with -regard to their persons, that they shall (their property -becoming the right of the allies) be transported, at -our joint expense, out of India, to places far distant -from the territories of the allies.’</p> - -<p>“Another feature in the character of Tippoo was -his religion, with a sense of which his mind was most -deeply impressed. He spent a considerable part of -every day in prayer. He gave to his kingdom a particular -religious title, <em>Cudadad</em>, or God-given; and he -lived under a peculiarly strong and operative conviction -of the superintendence of a Divine Providence. -To one of his French advisers, who urged him zealously -to obtain the support of the Mahrattas, he -replied, ‘I rely solely on Providence, expecting that -I shall be alone and unsupported; but God and my -courage will accomplish everything.’... He had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">249</a></span> -the discernment to perceive, what is so generally hid -from the eyes of rulers in a more enlightened state of -society, that it is the prosperity of those who labour -with their hands which constitutes the principle and -cause of the prosperity of states. He therefore made -it his business to protect them against the intermediate -orders of the community, by whom it is so difficult to -prevent them from being oppressed. His country -was, accordingly, at least during the first and better -part of his reign, the best cultivated, and his population -the most flourishing, in India: while under the -English and their pageants, the population of Carnatic -and Oude, hastening to the state of deserts, was the -most wretched upon the face of the earth; and even -Bengal itself, under the operations of laws ill adapted -to their circumstances, was suffering almost all the -evils which the worst of governments could inflict.... -For an eastern prince he was full of knowledge. His -mind was active, acute, and ingenious. But in the -value which he set upon objects, whether as means, -or as an end, he was almost perpetually deceived. -Besides, a conviction appears to have been rooted in -his mind that the English had now formed a resolution -to deprive him of his kingdom, and that it was useless -to negotiate, because no submission to which he could -reconcile his mind, would restrain them in the gratification -of their ambitious designs.”—<cite>Mills.</cite></p> - -<p>Tippoo was right. The great design of the English, -from their first secure footing in India, was -to establish their control over the whole Peninsula. -The French created them the most serious alarm in -the progress of their career towards this object; and -any native state which shewed more than ordinary<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">250</a></span> -energy, excited a similar feeling. For this purpose -all the might of British power and policy was exerted -to expel these European rivals, and to crush such -more active states. The administration of the Marquis -Wellesley was the exhibition of this system full -blown. For this, all the campaigns against Holkar -and Scindia; the wars from north to south, and from -east to west of India, were undertaken; and blood was -made to flow, and debts to accumulate to a degree -most monstrous. Yet the admiration of this system -of policy in England has shewn how little human life -and human welfare, even to this day, weigh in the -scale against dominion and avarice. We hear nothing -of the horrors and violence we have perpetrated, from -the first invasion of Bengal, to those of Nepaul and -Burmah; we have only eulogies on the empire -achieved:—“See what a splendid empire we have -won!” True,—there is no objection to the empire, if -we could only forget the means by which it has been -created. But amid all this subtle and crooked policy—this -creeping into power under the colour of allies—this -extortion and plunder of princes, under the name -of protection—this forcible subjection and expatriation -of others, we look in vain for the generous policy of -the Christian merchant, and the Christian statesman.<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">20</a></p> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">251</a></span></p> -<p>The moderation of a Teignmouth, a Cornwallis, or a -Bentinck, is deemed mere pusillanimity. Those divine -maxims of peace and union which Christianity -would disseminate amongst the natives of the countries -that we visit, are condemned as the very obstacles to -the growth of our power. When we exclaim, “what -might not Englishmen have done in India had they -endeavoured to pacify and enlighten, instead of to -exact and destroy?” we are answered by a smile, which -informs us that these are but romantic notions,—that -the only wisdom is to get rich!</p> -<hr /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">252</a></span></p> -<h2>CHAPTER XVI.<br /><br /> - -<small><small>THE ENGLISH IN INDIA—CONTINUED.<br /> - -TREATMENT OF THE NATIVES.</small></small></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">Rich in the gems of India’s gaudy zone,</div> -<div class="line">And plunder, piled from kingdoms not their own,</div> -<div class="line">Degenerate trade! thy minions could despise,</div> -<div class="line">The heart-born anguish of a thousand cries;</div> -<div class="line">Could lock, with impious hands their teeming store,</div> -<div class="line">While famished nations died along the shore;</div> -<div class="line">Could mock the groans of fellow-men; and bear</div> -<div class="line">The curse of kingdoms peopled with despair;</div> -<div class="line">Could stamp disgrace on man’s polluted name,</div> -<div class="line">And barter, with their gold, eternal shame.</div> -<div class="line i15"><cite>Pleasures of Hope.</cite><br /><br /></div> -</div></div></div> - -<p><span class="smcap">We</span> have in some degree caught a glimpse of the -subject of this chapter in the course of the last. The -treatment of the native chiefs in our pursuit of territorial -possession is in part the treatment of the natives, -but it is unhappily a very small part. The scene of -exaction, rapacity, and plunder which India became in -our hands, and that upon the whole body of the population, -forms one of the most disgraceful portions of -human history; and while the temptations to it existed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">253</a></span> -in full force, defied all the powers of legislation, or the -moral influence of public opinion to check the evil. -In vain the East India Company itself, in vain the -British Parliament legislated on the subject; in vain -did the Court of Directors from year to year, send out -the most earnest remonstrances to their servants,—the -allurement was too splendid, the opportunities too seducing, -the example too general, the security too -great, to permit any one to attend to either law, remonstrance, -or the voice of humanity. The fame of -India, as a vast region of inexhaustible wealth, had -resounded through the world for ages; the most -astonishing notions of it floated through Europe, -before the sea-track to it was discovered; and when -that was done, the marvellous fortunes made there by -bold men, as it were in a single day, and by a single -stroke of policy, seemed more than to warrant any -previous belief. Men in power received their presents -of ten, twenty, or a hundred thousand pounds. Clive, -for the assistance of the British army, was presented -with the magnificent gift of a jaghire, or hereditary -revenue of 30,000<i>l.</i> a year! On another occasion he -received his 28,000<i>l.</i>, and his fellow-rulers each a -similar sum. Hastings received his twenty and his -hundred thousand pounds, as familiarly as a gold -snuff-box or a piece of plate would be given as a public -testimony of respect for popular services, in England. -Every man, according to his station and his influence, -found the like golden harvest. Who could avoid -being inflamed with the thirst for Indian service?—who -avoid the most exaggerated anticipations of fortune? -It was a land, and a vast land, hedged about -with laws of exclusion to all except such as went<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">254</a></span> -through the doors of the Company. There were there -no interlopers,—no curious, because obstructed observers. -There was but one object in going thither, -and one interest when there. It was a soil made -sacred, or rather, doomed, to the exclusive plunder of a -privileged number. The highest officers in the government -had the strongest motives to corruption, and -therefore could by no possibility attempt to check the -the same corruption in those below them. When the -power and influence of the Company became considerably -extended over Bengal, Bahar, Orissa, Oude, -the Carnatic, and Bombay, the harvest of presents -grew into a most affluent one. Nothing was to be -expected, no chance of justice, of attention, of alleviation -from the most abominable oppression, but through -the medium of presents, and those of such amounts as -fairly astonish European ears. Every man, in every -department, whether civil, military, or mercantile, was -in the certain receipt of splendid presents. When -the government had found it necessary to forbid the -receipt of presents by any individual in the service, -not only for themselves, but for the Company, the -highest officers set the laws at defiance, and the mischief -was made more secret, but not less existent.</p> - -<p>But besides presents and official incomes, there were -the farming of the revenues, and domestic trade, -which opened up boundless sources of profit. The -revenues were received in each district by zemindars -from the ryots or husbandmen, and handed, after a -fixed deduction, to the chief office of the revenue. -But between these zemindars and the ryots were -aumils, or other inferior officers, who farmed the -revenues in each lesser district or village; that is,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">255</a></span> -contracted with the zemindars for the revenues at a -certain sum, and took the trouble of exacting them -from the ryots, who paid a rate fixed by law or ancient -custom, and could not be turned out of their lands while -such rate was regularly paid. Wherever the English -obtained a claim over the revenues of a prince, which -we have seen they speedily did, they soon became -the zemindars, or their agents, the aumils, or other -middlemen between them and the ryots. Anciently, -the ryots paid one tenth of their produce, for all their -taxes were paid in kind, but in time the rate grew to -more than half. When the English power became -more fixed and open, and it was found that under the -native zemindars the exactions of the revenues did not -at all satisfy their demands, they took on themselves -the whole business of collecting these revenues. This, -as we shall see, on the evidence of the Company’s -own officers, became a dreadful system to the people. -The Mahomedan exactions had been generally regarded -more considerate than those of the native -Hindu chiefs; but the grinding pressure of the English -system brought on the unfortunate ryot the most -unexampled misery. Of this, however, anon. It only -requires here to be pointed out as one of the various -sources of enormous profits and jobbing which made -India so irresistibly attractive to Englishmen.</p> - -<p>The private trade was another grand source of -revenue. The public trade, that is, the transit of -goods to and from Europe, was the peculiar monopoly -of the Company; but all coasting trade—trade to and -between the isles, and in the interior of India, became a -monopoly of the higher servants of the Company, who -were at once engaged in the Company’s concerns and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">256</a></span> -their own. The monopoly of salt, opium, betel, and -other commodities became a mine of wealth. The -Company’s servants could fix the price at whatever -rate they pleased, and thus enhance it to the unfortunate -people so as to occasion them the most intense -distress. Fortunes were made in a day by this monopoly, -and without the advance of a single shilling. -The very Governor-general himself engaged in this -private trade; and contracts were given to favourites -on such terms, that two or three fortunes were made -out of them before they reached the merchant. In -one case that came out on the trial of Warren Hastings, -a contract for opium had been given to Mr. -Sullivan, though he was going into quite a different -part of India, and on public business; this, of course, -he sold again, to Mr. Benn, for 40,000<i>l.</i>; and Mr. -Benn immediately sold it again for 60,000<i>l.</i>, clearing -20,000<i>l.</i> by the mere passing of the contract from one -hand to the other; and the purchaser then declared -that he made a large sum by it.</p> - -<p>All these things put together, made India the -theatre of sure and splendid fortune to the adventurer, -and of sore and abject misery to the native. We -have only to look about us in any part of England, -but especially in the metropolis, and within fifty miles -round it, to see what streams of wealth have flowed -into this country from India. What thousands of -splendid mansions and estates are lying in view, -which, when the traveller inquires their history, have -been purchased by the gold of India. We are told -that those days of magical accumulation of wealth are -over; that this great fountain of affluence is drained -comparatively dry; that fortunes are not now readily<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">257</a></span> -made in India; yet the Company, though they have -lost their monopoly of trade, and their territories are -laid open to the free observation of their countrymen, -are in possession of the government with a revenue -of twenty millions. But all this time, what has been -doing with and for the natives. We shall see that -anon; yet it may here be asked, What <em>could</em> be doing? -For what did men go to India? For what did they -endure its oppressive and often fatal climate? Was -it from philanthropical or personal motives? Did -they seek the good of the Indians or their own? The -latter, assuredly: and it was not to be expected that -the majority of men should be so high-minded or disinterested -as to seek the good of others at the expense -of their own. The temptations to visit India were -powerful, but not the less powerful were the motives -to hasten away at the very earliest possible period. -It was not to be expected from human nature that the -natives could be much thought of. What <em>has</em> been -done for them by the devoted few, we shall recognise -with delight; at present we must revert to the evil -influences of nearly two hundred years.</p> - -<p>Amongst the first to claim our attention, are those -doings in high places which have excited so strongly -the cupidity of thousands, and especially those dazzling -presents which became the direct causes of the most -violent exactions on the people, for out of them had -all these things to be drawn. The Company could, -indeed, with a very bad grace, condemn bribery in its -officers, for it has always been accused of this evil -practice at home in order to obtain its exclusive privileges -from government; and so early as 1693, it -appeared from parliamentary inquiry, that its annual -expenditure under the head of gifts to men in power<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">258</a></span> -previous to the Revolution, seldom exceeded 1,200<i>l.</i>, -but from that period to that year it had grown to -nearly 90,000<i>l.</i> annually. The Duke of Leeds was -impeached for a bribe of 5,000<i>l.</i>, and 10,000<i>l.</i> were -even said to be traced to the king.<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">21</a> Besides this, -whenever any rival company appeared in the field, -government was tempted with the loans of enormous -sums, at the lowest interest. Like fruits were to be -expected in India, and were not long wanting. We -cannot trace this subject to its own vast extent—it -would require volumes—we can only offer a few -striking examples:—</p> - -<p>None can be more remarkable than the following -list, which, besides sums that we may suppose it to -have been in the power of the receivers to conceal, -and of the amount of which it is not easy to form a -conjecture, were detected and disclosed by the Committee -of the House of Commons in 1773.</p> - -<p>The rupees are valued according to the rate of exchange -of the Company’s bills at the different periods.</p> - -<p class="indent"><i>Account of such sums as have been proved or acknowledged -before the Committee to have been distributed by the -Princes and other natives of Bengal, from the year -1757 to the year 1766, both inclusive; distinguishing -the principal times of the said distributions, and -specifying the sums received by each person respectively</i>:—</p> - -<table summary="list" border="0"><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="4">Resolution in favour of Meer Jaffier—1757.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td> </td><td class="tdc">Rupees.</td><td class="tdc">Rupees.</td><td class="tdc">£.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">Mr. Drake (Governor)</td><td> </td><td class="tdr">280,000</td><td class="tdr">31,500</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">Col. Clive, as second in the Select Committee</td><td class="tdr">280,000</td><td> </td><td> </td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">Ditto, as Commander-in-Chief</td><td class="tdr">200,000</td><td> </td><td> </td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">Ditto, as a private donation</td><td class="tdr">1,600,000</td><td> </td><td> </td> -</tr><tr> -<td> </td><td class="tdr">————</td><td class="tdr">2,080,000</td><td class="tdr">234,000</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">Mr. Watts, as a Member of the Committee<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">259</a></span></td><td class="tdr">240,000</td><td> </td><td> </td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">Ditto, as a private donation</td><td class="tdr">800,000</td><td> </td><td> </td> -</tr><tr> -<td> </td><td class="tdr">————</td><td class="tdr">1,040,000</td><td class="tdr">117,000</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">Major Kilpatrick</td><td> </td><td class="tdr">240,000</td><td class="tdr">27,000</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">Ditto, as a private donation</td><td> </td><td class="tdr">300,000</td><td class="tdr">33,750</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">Mr. Maningham</td><td> </td><td class="tdr">240,000</td><td class="tdr">27,000</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">Mr. Becher</td><td> </td><td class="tdr">240,000</td><td class="tdr">27,000</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">Six Members of Council, one lac each</td><td> </td><td class="tdr">600,000</td><td class="tdr">68,000</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">Mr. Walsh</td><td> </td><td class="tdr">500,000</td><td class="tdr">56,250</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">Mr. Scrafton</td><td> </td><td class="tdr">200,000</td><td class="tdr">22,500</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">Mr. Lushington</td><td> </td><td class="tdr">50,000</td><td class="tdr">5,625</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">Captain Grant</td><td> </td><td class="tdr">100,000</td><td class="tdr">11,250</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">Stipulation to the Navy and Army</td><td> </td><td> </td><td class="tdr">600,000</td> -</tr><tr> -<td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td class="tdr">————</td> -</tr><tr> -<td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td class="tdr">1,261,075</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl"><p class="indent">Memorandum—the sum of two lacs to Lord -Clive, as Commander-in-Chief, must be deducted -from this account, it being included in -the donation to the army</p></td><td> </td><td> </td><td class="tdr vertb">22,500</td> -</tr><tr> -<td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td class="tdr">————</td> -</tr><tr> -<td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td class="tdr">1,238,575</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="4">Resolution in favour of Causim in 1760.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Mr. Sumner</td><td> </td><td class="tdr">28,000</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Mr. Holwell</td><td class="tdr">270,000</td><td class="tdr">30,937</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Mr. M’Guire</td><td class="tdr">180,000</td><td class="tdr">20,628</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Mr. Smyth</td><td class="tdr">130,300</td><td class="tdr">15,354</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Major Yorke</td><td class="tdr">134,000</td><td class="tdr">15,354</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">General Caillaud</td><td class="tdr">200,000</td><td class="tdr">22,916</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2"><p class="indent">Mr. Vansittart, 1762, received seven lacs, but -the two lacs to Gen. Caillaud are included; -so that only five lacs must be accounted for -here</p></td><td class="tdr vertb">500,000</td><td class="tdr vertb">58,333</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Mr. M’Guire 5,000 gold morhs</td><td class="tdr">75,000</td><td class="tdr">8,750</td> -</tr><tr> -<td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td class="tdr">————</td> -</tr><tr> -<td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td class="tdr">200,269</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="4">Resolution in favour of Jaffier in 1763.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Stipulation to the Army</td><td class="tdr">2,500,000</td><td class="tdr">291,666</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Ditto to the Navy</td><td class="tdr">1,250,000</td><td class="tdr">145,833</td> -</tr><tr> -<td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td class="tdr">————</td> -</tr><tr> -<td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td class="tdr">437,499</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">260</a></span>Major Munro, in 1764, received from Bulwant Sing</td><td> </td><td class="tdr">10,000</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Ditto, from the Nabob</td><td> </td><td class="tdr">3,000</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">The Officers belonging to Major Munro’s family from ditto</td><td> </td><td class="tdr">3,000</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">The Army, from the merchants at Benares</td><td class="tdr">400,000</td><td class="tdr">46,666</td> -</tr><tr> -<td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td class="tdr">————</td> -</tr><tr> -<td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td class="tdr">62,666</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="4">Nudjeem ul Dowla’s Accession, 1765.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Mr. Spencer</td><td class="tdr">200,000</td><td class="tdr">23,333</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Messrs. Pleydell, Burdett, and Grey, one lac each</td><td class="tdr">300,000</td><td class="tdr">35,000</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Mr. Johnstone</td><td class="tdr">237,000</td><td class="tdr">27,650</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Mr. Leycester</td><td class="tdr">112,500</td><td class="tdr">13,125</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Mr. Senior</td><td class="tdr">172,500</td><td class="tdr">20,125</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Mr. Middleton</td><td class="tdr">122,500</td><td class="tdr">14,291</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Mr. Gideon Johnstone</td><td class="tdr">50,000</td><td class="tdr">5,833</td> -</tr><tr> -<td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td class="tdr">————</td> -</tr><tr> -<td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td class="tdr">139,357</td> -</tr><tr> -<td colspan="4"> </td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">General Carnac received from Bulwant Sing, in 1765</td><td class="tdr">80,000</td><td class="tdr">9,333</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Ditto from the king</td><td class="tdr">200,000</td><td class="tdr">23,333</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Lord Clive received from the Begum, in 1766</td><td class="tdr">500,000</td><td class="tdr">58,333</td> -</tr><tr> -<td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td class="tdr">————</td> -</tr><tr> -<td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td class="tdr">90,999</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="4">Restitution.—Jaffier, 1757.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">East India Company</td><td> </td><td class="tdr">1,200,000</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Europeans</td><td> </td><td class="tdr">600,000</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Natives</td><td> </td><td class="tdr">250,000</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Armenians</td><td> </td><td class="tdr">100,000</td> -</tr><tr> -<td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td class="tdr">————</td> -</tr><tr> -<td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td class="tdr">2,150,000</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="4">Causim. 1760.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">East India Company</td><td> </td><td class="tdr">62,500</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="4">Jaffier. 1763.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">East India Company</td><td> </td><td class="tdr">375,000</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Europeans, Natives, etc.</td><td> </td><td class="tdr">600,000</td> -</tr><tr> -<td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td class="tdr">————</td> -</tr><tr> -<td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td class="tdr">975,000</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdc" colspan="4">Peace with Sujah Dowla.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="2">East India Company</td><td class="tdr">5,000,000</td><td class="tdr">583,333</td> -</tr><tr> -<td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td class="tdr">————</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="4">Total of Presents, £2,169,665. Restitution, etc., £3,770,833.</td> -</tr><tr> -<td class="tdl" colspan="4">Total amount, exclusive of Lord Clive’s Jaghire, £5,940,498.</td> -</tr></table> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">261</a></span></p> - -<p>These are pretty sums to have fallen into the -pockets of the English, chiefly <em>douceurs</em>, in ten years. -Let the account be carried on for all India at a similar -rate for a century, and what a sum! Lord Clive’s -jaghire alone was worth 30,000<i>l.</i> per annum. And, -besides this, it appears from the above documents -that he also pocketed in these transactions 292,333<i>l.</i> -No wonder at the enormous fortunes rapidly made; -at the enormous debts piled on the wretched nabobs, -and the dreadful exactions on the still more wretched -people. No man could more experimentally than -Clive thus address the Directors at home, as he did -in 1765: “Upon my arrival, I am sorry to say, I -found your affairs in a condition so nearly desperate -as would have alarmed any set of men whose sense of -honour and duty to their employers had not been -estranged by the too eager pursuit of their own -immediate advantages. The sudden, and among -many, the unwarrantable acquisition of riches (who -was so entitled to say this?) had introduced luxury -in every shape, and in its most pernicious excess. -These two enormous evils went hand in hand together -through the whole presidency, infecting almost -every member of every department. Every inferior -seemed to have grasped at wealth, that he might be -enabled to assume that spirit of profusion which was -now the only distinction between him and his superiors. -Thus all distinction ceased, and every rank -became, in a manner, upon an equality. Nor was -this the end of the mischief; for a contest of such a -nature amongst our servants necessarily destroyed all -proportion between their wants and the honest means -of satisfying them. In a country <em>where money is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">262</a></span> -plenty, where fear is the principle of government, and -where your arms are ever victorious, it is no wonder that -the lust of riches should readily embrace the proffered -means of its gratification, or that the instruments of your -power should avail themselves of their authority, and proceed -even to extortion in those cases where simple corruption -could not keep pace with their rapacity</em>. Examples -of this sort, set by superiors, could not fail being -followed, in a proportionate degree, by inferiors. -The evil was contagious, and spread among the civil -and military, down to the writer, the ensign, and the -free merchant.”—Clive’s Letter to the Directors, -Third Report of Parliamentary Committee, 1772.</p> - -<p>The Directors replied to this very letter, lamenting -their conviction of its literal truth.—“We have the -strongest sense of the deplorable state to which our -affairs were on the point of being reduced, from the -corruption and rapacity of our servants, and <em>the universal -depravity of manners throughout the settlement</em>. -The general relaxation of all discipline and obedience, -both military and civil, was hastily tending to a dissolution -of all government. Our letter to the Select -Committee expresses our sentiments of what has been -obtained by way of donations; and to that we must -add, that we think the vast fortunes acquired in the -inland trade <em>have been obtained by a scene of the most -tyrannic and oppressive conduct that was ever known in -any age or country</em>!”</p> - -<p>But however the Directors at home might lament, -they were too far off to put an end to this “scene of -the most tyrannic and oppressive conduct that was -ever known in any age or country.” This very same -grave and eloquent preacher on this oppression and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">263</a></span> -corruption, Clive, was the first to set the example of -contempt of the Directors’ orders, and commission of -those evil practices. The Directors had sent out fresh -covenants to be entered into by all their servants, -both civil and military, binding them not to receive -presents, nor to engage in inland trade; but it was -found that the governor had not so much as brought -the new covenants under the consideration of the -council. The receipt of presents, and the inland trade -by the Company’s servants went on with increased -activity. When at length these covenants were forwarded -to the different factories and garrisons, General -Carnac, and everybody else signed them. General -Carnac however delayed his signing of them till he -had time to obtain a present of two lacs of rupees -(upwards of 20,000<i>l.</i>) from the reduced and impoverished -Emperor. Clive appointed a committee to -inquire into these matters, which brought to light -strange scenes of rapacity, and of “threats to extort -gifts.” But what did Clive? He himself entered -largely into private trade and into a vast monopoly of -salt, an article of the most urgent necessity to the -people; and this on the avowed ground of wishing -some gentlemen whom he had brought out to make a -fortune. His committee sanctioned the private trade -in salt, betel-nut, and tobacco, out of which nearly all -the abuses and miseries he complained of had grown, -only confining it to the <em>superior servants</em> of the Company: -and he himself, when the orders of the Directors -were laid before him in council, carelessly turned -them aside, saying, the Directors, when they wrote -them, could not know what changes had taken place -in India. No! they did not know that he and his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">264</a></span> -council were now partners in the salt trade, and -realizing a profit, including interest, of upwards of -fifty per cent.! Perhaps Clive thought he had done -a great service when he had attempted to lessen the -number of harpies by cutting off the trading of the -juniors, and thus turning the tide of gain more completely -into his own pockets, and those of his fellows -of the council. It must have been a very provoking -sight to one with a development of acquisitiveness -so ample as his own, to witness what Verelst, in his -“View of Bengal,” describes as then existing. “At -this time many black merchants found it expedient to -purchase the name of any young writer in the Company’s -service by loans of money, and under this -sanction harassed and oppressed the natives. So -plentiful a supply was derived from this source, that -many young writers were enabled to spend 1500<i>l.</i> and -2000<i>l.</i> per annum, were clothed in fine linen, and -fared sumptuously every day.” What were the miseries -and insolent oppressions under which the millions -of Bengal were made to groan by such practices, and -by the lawless violence with which the revenues were -collected about that period by the English, may be -sufficiently indicated by the following passages. Mr. -Hastings, in a letter to the President Vansittart, dated -Bauglepore, April 25th, 1762, says—“I beg to lay -before you a grievance which loudly calls for redress, -and will, unless duly attended to, render ineffectual -any endeavour to create a firm and lasting harmony -between the Nabobs and the Company: I mean the -oppressions committed under the sanction of the -English name, and through the want of spirit to oppose -them. The evil, I am well assured, is not con<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">265</a></span>fined -to our dependents alone, <em>but is practised all over -the country, by people falsely assuming the habit of our -sepoys, or calling themselves our gomastahs</em>. On such -occasions, the great power of the English intimidates -the people from making any resistance; so, on -the other hand, the indolence of the Bengalees, or the -difficulty of gaining access to those who might do -them justice, prevents our having knowledge of the -oppressions. I have been surprised to meet with -several English flags flying in places which I have -passed; and on the river I do not believe I passed a -boat without one. By whatever title they have been -assumed, I am sure their frequency can boast no good -to the Nabob’s revenues, the quiet of the country, or -the honour of our nation. A party of sepoys, who -were on the march before us, afforded sufficient proofs -of the rapacious and insolent spirit of these people -when they are left to their own discretion. Many -complaints against them were made to us on the road; -<em>and most of the petty towns and serais were deserted at -our approach, and the shops shut up, from the apprehension -of the same treatment from us</em>.”</p> - -<p>Mr. Vansittart endeavoured zealously to put a stop -to such abominable practices; but what could he do? -The very members of the council were deriving vast -emoluments from this state of things, and audaciously -denied its existence. Under such sanction, every -inferior plunderer set at defiance the orders of the -president and the authority of the officers appointed -to prevent the commission of such oppressions on the -natives. The native collectors of the revenue, when -they attempted to levy, under the express sanction -of the governor, the usual duties on the English, were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">266</a></span> -not only repelled by them, but seized and punished -as enemies of the Company and violaters of its privileges. -The native judges and magistrates were resisted -in the discharge of their duties; and even their -functions usurped. Everything was in confusion, and -many of the zemindars and other collectors refused to -be answerable for the revenues. Even the nabob’s -own officers were refused the liberty to make purchases -on his account. One of them, of high connexions and -influence, was seized for having purchased from the -nabob some saltpetre; the trade in which they claimed -as belonging exclusively to them. He was put in -irons and sent to Calcutta, where some of the council -voted for having him publicly whipped, others desired -that his ears might be cut off, and it was all that the -president could effect to get him sent back to his own -master to be punished. In Mr. Vansittart’s own -narrative, is given a letter from one officer to the -nabob, complaining that though he was furnished with -instructions to send away Europeans who were found -committing disorders to Calcutta, notwithstanding any -pretence they shall make for so doing; he had used -persuasions, and conciliated, and found them of no -avail. That he had then striven by gentle means to -stop their violences; upon which he was threatened -that if he interfered with them or their servants, they -would treat him in such a manner as should cause him -to repent. That all their servants had boasted publicly, -that this was what would be done to him did he -presume to meddle. He adds, “Now sir, I am to -inform you what I have obstructed them in. <em>This -place (Backergunge) was of great trade formerly, but -now brought to nothing by the following practices.</em> A<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">267</a></span> -gentleman sends a gomastah here to buy or sell. He -immediately looks upon himself as sufficient to force -every inhabitant either to buy his goods, or to force -them to sell him theirs; and on refusal, or non-capacity, -a flogging or confinement immediately ensues. -This is not sufficient even when willing; but a second -force is made use of, which is, to engross the different -branches of trade to themselves, and not to suffer any -persons to buy or sell the articles they trade in. They -compel the people to buy or sell at just what rate -they please, and my interfering occasions an immediate -complaint. These, <em>and many other oppressions -which are daily practised</em>, are the reasons that this -place is growing destitute of inhabitants.... Before, -justice was given in the public cutcheree, but now -every gomastah is become a judge; they even pass -sentence on the zemindars themselves; and draw -money from them for pretended injuries.”</p> - -<p>Such was the state of the country in 1762, as witnessed -by Mr. Hastings, and such it continued till -Clive’s government,—Clive, who so forcibly described -it to the Directors; and what did Clive do? He -aggravated it, enriched himself enormously by the -very system, and so left it. Such it continued till -Mr. Hastings,—this Mr. Hastings, who so feelingly -had written his views and abhorrence of it to the President -Vansittart, came into supreme power, and what -did the wise and benevolent Mr. Hastings? He -became the Aaron’s-rod of gift-takers; the prince of -exactors, and the most unrelenting oppressor of the -natives that ever visited India, or perhaps any other -country. In the mean time this system of rapacity -and extortion had reduced the people to the most<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">268</a></span> -deplorable condition of poverty and wretchedness imaginable. -The monopoly of trade, and the violent -abduction of all their produce in the shape of taxes, -dispirited them to the most extreme degree, and -brought on the country those famines and diseases for -which that period is so celebrated. In 1770 occurred -that dreadful famine, which has throughout Europe -excited so much horror of the English. They have -been accused of having directly created it, by buying -up all the rice, and refusing to sell any of it except -at the most exorbitant price. The author of the -“Short History of the English Transactions in the -East Indies,” thus boldly states the fact. Speaking -of the monopoly just alluded to, of salt, betel-nut, and -tobacco, he says, “Money in this current came but by -drops. It could not quench the thirst of those who -waited in India to receive it. An expedient, such as -it was, remained to quicken it. The natives could -live with little salt, but could not want food. Some -of the agents saw themselves well situated for collecting -the rice into stores; they did so. They knew that -the Gentoos would rather die than violate the principles -of their religion by eating flesh. The alternative -would therefore be between <em>giving what they had</em>, or -<em>dying</em>! The inhabitants sunk. They that cultivated -the land, and saw the harvest at the disposal of others, -planted in doubt; scarcity ensued. Then the monopoly -was easier managed,—sickness ensued. In some -districts, the languid living left the bodies of their -numerous dead unburied.”—p. 145.</p> - -<p>Many and ingenious have been the attempts to -remove this awful opprobrium from our national character. -It has been contended that famines are, or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">269</a></span> -were of frequent occurrence in India;—that the -natives had no providence; and that to charge the -English with the miserable consequences of this -famine is unreasonable, because it was what they could -neither foresee nor prevent. Of the drought in the -previous autumn there is no doubt; but there is unhappily -as little, that the regular rapacity of the -English had reduced the natives to that condition of -poverty, apathy, and despair, in which the slightest -derangement of season must superinduce famine;—that -they were grown callous to the sufferings of -their victims, and were as alive to their gain by the -rising price through the scarcity, as they were in all -other cases. Their object was sudden wealth, and they -cared not, in fact, whether the natives lived or died, -so that that object was effected. This is the relation -of the Abbé Raynal, a foreign historian, and the light -in which this event was beheld by foreign nations.</p> - -<p>“It was by a drought in 1769, at the season when -the rains are expected, that there was a failure of the -great harvest of 1769, and the less harvest of 1770. -It is true that the rice on the higher grounds did not -suffer greatly by this disturbance of the seasons, but -there was far from a sufficient quantity for the nourishment -of all the inhabitants of the country; add to -which the English, who were engaged beforehand to -take proper care of their subsistence, as well as of the -Sepoys belonging to them, did not fail to keep locked -up in their magazines a part of the grain, though the -harvest was insufficient.... This scourge did not -fail to make itself felt throughout Bengal. Rice, -which is commonly sold for one sol (1/2d.) for three -pounds, was gradually raised so high as four or even<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">270</a></span> -six sols (3d.) for one pound; neither, indeed, was -there any to be found, except in such places where the -Europeans had taken care to collect it for their own -use.</p> - -<p>“The unhappy Indians were perishing every day -by thousands under this want of sustenance, without -any means of help and without any revenue. They -were to be seen in their villages; along the public -ways; in the midst of our European colonies,—pale, -meagre, emaciated, fainting, consumed by famine—some -stretched on the ground in expectation of dying; -others scarce able to drag themselves on to seek any -nourishment, and throwing themselves at the feet -of the Europeans, entreating them to take them in -as their slaves.</p> - -<p>“To this description, which makes humanity -shudder, let us add other objects, equally shocking. -Let imagination enlarge upon them, if possible. Let -us represent to ourselves, infants deserted, some expiring -on the breasts of their mothers; everywhere, the -dying and the dead mingled together; on all sides, -the groans of sorrow and the tears of despair; and we -shall then have some faint idea of the horrible spectacle -which Bengal presented for the space of six -weeks.</p> - -<p>“During this whole time, the Ganges was covered -with carcases; the fields and highways were choked -up with them; infectious vapours filled the air, and -diseases multiplied; and one evil succeeding another, -it appeared not improbable that the plague would -carry off the total population of that unfortunate kingdom. -It appears, by calculations pretty generally -acknowledged, that the famine carried off a fourth<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">271</a></span> -part, that is to say—<em>about three millions</em>! What is -still more remarkable, is, that such a multitude of -human creatures, amidst this terrible distress, remained -in absolute inactivity. All the Europeans, especially -the English, were possessed of magazines. These -were not touched. Private houses were so too. No -revolt, no massacre, not the least violence prevailed. -The unhappy Indians, resigned to despair, confined -themselves to the request of succours they did not -obtain; and peacefully awaited the relief of death.</p> - -<p>“Let us now represent to ourselves any part of -Europe afflicted with a similar calamity. What disorder! -what fury! what atrocious acts! what crimes -would ensue! How should we have seen amongst us -Europeans, some contending for their food, dagger in -hand, some pursuing, some flying, and without remorse -massacring one another! How should we have seen -men at last turn their rage on themselves; tearing -and devouring their own limbs; and, in the blindness -of despair, trampling under foot all authority, as well -as every sentiment of nature and reason!</p> - -<p>“Had it been the fate of the English to have had -the like events to dread on the part of the people of -Bengal, perhaps the famine would have been less -general and less destructive. For, setting aside, as -perhaps we ought, every charge of monopoly, no one -will undertake to defend them against the reproach -of negligence and insensibility. And in what a crisis -have they merited that reproach? In the very instant -of time in which the life or death of several millions -of their fellow-creatures was in their power. One -would think that in such alternative, the very love of -humankind, that sentiment innate in all hearts, might -have inspired them with resources.”—i. 460–4.</p> -<hr /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">272</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XVII.<br /><br /> - -<small><small>THE ENGLISH IN INDIA, CONTINUED.—TREATMENT -OF THE NATIVES, CONTINUED.</small></small></h2> - -<p>“<span class="smcap">If</span>,” says the same historian, in whose language we -concluded the last chapter, “to this picture of public -oppressions we were to add that of private extortions, -we should find the agents of the Company almost -everywhere exacting their tribute with extreme -rigour, and raising contributions with the utmost cruelty. -We should see them carrying a kind of inquisition -into every family, and sitting in judgment on -every fortune; robbing indiscriminately the artizan -and the labourer; imputing it often to a man, as a -crime, that he is not sufficiently rich, and punishing -him accordingly. We should view them selling their -favour and their credit, as well to oppress the innocent -as to oppress the guilty. We should find, in consequence -of these irregularities, despair seizing every -heart, and an universal dejection getting the better of -every mind, and uniting to put a stop to the progress -and activity of commerce, agriculture, and population.” -This, which is the language of a foreigner,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">273</a></span> -was also the language of the Directors at the same -period, addressed to their servants in India. They -complained that their “orders had been disregarded; -that oppression pervaded the whole country; that -youths had been suffered with impunity to exercise -sovereign jurisdiction over the natives, and to acquire -rapid fortunes by monopolizing commerce.” They -ask “whether there be a thing which had not been -made a monopoly of? whether the natives are not -more than ever oppressed and wretched?” They were -just then appointing Mr. Hastings their first Governor-general, -and expressed a hope that he would “set -an example of temperance, economy, and application.” -Unfortunately Mr. Hastings set an example of a very -different kind. It was almost immediately after his -appointment to his high station that he entered into -that infamous bargain with the Nabob of Oude for -the extermination of the Rohillas; and during his -government scarcely a year passed without the most -serious charges being preferred against him to the -supreme council, of which he himself was the head, -of his reception of presents and annuities contrary to -the express injunctions of the Company, and for the -purpose of corrupt appointments. In 1775 he was -charged with the receipt of 15,000 rupees, as a bribe -for the appointment of the Duan of Burdwan, or -manager of the revenues; in 1776, of receiving an -annual salary from the Phousdar of Hoogly of 36,000 -rupees for a similar cause. About the same time it -came out too, that in 1772, that is, immediately on -entering the governorship, he received from the Munny -Begum a present of one lac and a half of rupees, for -appointing her the guardian and superintendent of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">274</a></span> -affairs of the Nabob of Bengal, a minor; and the -same sum had been received by Mr. Middleton, his -agent. The council felt itself bound to receive evidence -on these charges. The Maha Rajah Nundcomar, -who had been appointed to various important -offices by Mr. Hastings himself, came forward and -accused the governor of acquitting Mahmud Reza -Khan, the Naib Duan of Bengal, and Rajah Shitabroy -the Naib Duan of Bahar, of vast embezzlements in -their accounts, and also offered proof of the bribe of -upwards of three and a half lacs from Munny Begum -and Rajah Gourdass. What answer did he make to -these charges? He refused to enter into them; but -immediately commenced a prosecution of Nundcomar, -on a charge of conspiracy; which failing, he had him -tried on a charge of forgery, said to be committed five -years before. On this he was convicted by a jury of -Englishmen, and hanged, though the crime was not -capital by the laws of his country. This was a circumstance -that cast the foulest suspicions upon him. It was -said that a man standing in the position and peculiar circumstances -of the governor, accused of the high crimes -of bribery and corruption, would, had he been innocent, -have used every exertion to have saved the life of an -accuser, had he been prosecuted by others, instead of -himself hastening him out of the way; which must -leave the irresistible conviction in the public mind, of -his own guilt. But on the celebrated trial of Mr. -Hastings, this was exactly the mode in which every -accusation was met. When the most celebrated men -of the time had united to reiterate these and other -charges; when he stood before the House of Peers, -impeached by the Commons, instead of standing for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">275</a></span>ward -as a man conscious of his innocence, and glad of -the opportunity to clear his name from such foul taint, -every technical obstruction which the ingenuity of his -council could devise was thrown in the way of evidence. -When the evidence of this Rajah Nundcomar, as taken -by the supreme council of Calcutta, was tended, it -was rejected because it was not given in the council -upon oath; though Mr. Hastings well knew that the -Hindoos never gave evidence upon oath, being contrary -to their religion; that it was never required,—that -this very evidence had been received by the council -as legal; and that he himself had always contended -during his own government, that such evidence was -legal. When a letter of Munny Begum was presented, -proving the reception of her bribe by Mr. Hastings, -that letter was not admitted because it was merely a -copy, though an attested one; the original letter itself -was however produced, and persons high in office in -India at the time of the transaction, came forward to -swear to the hand and seal as those of the Begum. -And what then? the original letter itself was rejected -because it made part of the evidence before the council, -which had been rejected before on other grounds!</p> - -<p>Such was the manner in which these and the other -great charges against this celebrated governor, which -we have noticed in a former chapter, were met. -Every piece of decisive evidence against him was resisted -by every possible means: so that had he been -the most innocent man alive, the only conviction that -could remain on the mind of the public must have -been that of his guilt. He had neither acted like an -innocent, high-minded man, to whom the imputation -of guilt is intolerable, himself in India, nor had his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">276</a></span> -advocates in England been instructed to do so. Evidence -on every charge, of the most conclusive nature, -was offered, and resolutely rejected; and spite of all -the endeavours to clear the memory of Warren Hastings -of cruelty and corruption, the very conduct of -himself and his counsel on the trial, must stamp the -accusing verdict indelibly on his name.</p> - -<p>But his individual conduct is here of no further -concern than to shew what must have been the contagion -of his example, and what the license given by -the House of Peers, by the rejection of evidence in -such a case, to all future adventurers in India. Well -might Burke exclaim, “That it held out to all future -governors of Bengal the most certain and unbounded -impunity. Peculation in India would be no longer -practised, as it used to be, with caution and with secresy. -It would in future stalk abroad at noon-day, -and act without disguise; because, after such a decision -as had just been made by their lordships, there -was no possibility of bringing into a court the proofs -of peculation.” And indeed every misery which the -combined evils of war, official plunder, and remorseless -exaction could heap upon the unhappy natives, -seems to have reigned triumphant through the British -provinces and dependencies of India at this period. -The destructive contests with Hyder Ali, the ravages -of the English and their ally, the Nabob of Arcot, in -Tanjore and the Marawars, were necessarily productive -of extreme ruin and misery. During Mr. Hastings’ -government the duannee, or management of the -revenues was assumed in Bengal by the English. -Reforms both in the mode of collecting the taxes and -in the administration of justice were attempted. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">277</a></span> -lands were offered on leases of five years, and those -leases put up to auction to the best bidders. The -British Parliament in 1773 appointed a Supreme -Court of Judicature, in which English judges administered -English law. But as the great end aimed at -was not the relief of the people, but the increase of -the amount of taxation, these changes were only disastrous -to the natives. Native officers were in many -cases removed, and the native ryots only the more -oppressed. Every change, in fact, seemed to be -tried except the simple and satisfactory one of reducing -the exactions and cultivating the blessings of -peace. Ten years after these changes had been introduced, -and had been all this time inflicting unspeakable -calamities on the people, Mr. Dundas moved -inquiry into Indian affairs, and pronounced the most -severe censures on both the Indian Presidencies and -the Court of Directors. He accused the Presidencies, -and that most justly, of plunging the nation into wars -for the sake of conquest, of contemning and violating -treaties, and plundering and oppressing the people of -India. The Directors he charged with blaming the -misconduct of their servants only when it was unattended -with profit, and exercising a very constant -forbearance as often as it was productive of gain or -territory.</p> - -<p>Of the effects of his own military and financial -changes Mr. Hastings had a good specimen in his -journey through the province of Benares in 1784. -This was only three years after he had committed the -atrocities in this province, related in a former chapter, -and driven the Rajah from his throne; and these are -his own words, in a letter to the Council, dated Luck<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">278</a></span>now, -April, 1784:—“From the confines of Buxar to -Benares, I was followed and fatigued by the clamours -of the discontented inhabitants. The distresses which -were produced by the long-continued drought unavoidably -tended to heighten the general discontent: -yet I have reason to fear that the cause principally -existed in a defective, if not a corrupt and oppressive -administration. From Buxar to the opposite -boundary I have seen nothing but traces of complete -devastation in every village.” And what had -occasioned those devastations? The wars and the -determined resolve introduced by Mr. Hastings himself, -to have the very uttermost amount that could be -wrung from the people.</p> - -<p>For the sort of persons to whom Mr. Hastings was -in the habit of farming out the revenues of the provinces, -and the motives for which they were appointed, -we must refer to particulars which came out on his -trial respecting such men as Kelleram, Govind Sing, -and Deby Sing; but nothing can give a more lively -idea of the horrid treatment which awaited the poor -natives under such monsters as these collectors, than -the statements then made of the practices of the last -mentioned person, Deby or Devi Sing. This man -was declared to have been placed on his post for corrupt -ends. He was a man of the most infamous character; -yet that did not prevent Mr. Hastings placing -him in such a responsible office, though he himself -declared on the trial that he “so well knew the character -and abilities of Rajah Deby Sing that he could -easily conceive it was in his power both to commit -great enormities and to conceal the real grounds of -them from the British collectors in the district.”—<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">279</a></span> -Well, notwithstanding this opinion, the Rajah offered -a very convenient sum of money, four lacs of rupees—upwards -of 40,000<i>l.</i>—and he was appointed renter of -the district of Dinagepore. Complaints of his cruelties -were not long in arriving at Calcutta. Mr. Patterson, -a gentleman in the Company’s service, was -sent as a commissioner to inquire into the charges -against him; and the account of them, as given by -Mr. Patterson, is thus quoted by Mills, from “The -History of the Trial of Warren Hastings, Esq.”</p> - -<p>“The poor ryots, or husbandmen, were treated in -a manner that would never gain belief if it was not -attested by the records of the Company: and Mr. -Burke thought it necessary to apologize to their lordships -for the horrid relation with which he would be -obliged to harrow their feelings. The worthy Commissioner -Patterson, who had authenticated the particulars -of this relation, had wished, that for the credit -of human nature, he might have drawn a veil over -them; but as he had been sent to inquire into them, -he must, in the discharge of his duty state those particulars, -however shocking they were to his feelings. -The cattle and corn of the husbandmen were sold for -a third of their value, and their huts reduced to ashes! -The unfortunate owners were obliged to borrow from -usurers, that they might discharge their bonds, which -had unjustly and illegally been extorted from them -while they were in confinement; and such was the -determination of the infernal fiend, Devi Sing, to have -these bonds discharged, that the wretched husbandmen -were obliged to borrow money, not at twenty, or -thirty, or forty, or fifty, but at <span class="smcap lowercase">SIX HUNDRED</span> per cent. -to satisfy him! Those who could not raise the money<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">280</a></span> -were most cruelly tortured. <em>Cords were drawn tight -round their fingers, till the flesh of the four on each hand -was actually incorporated, and became one solid mass. -The fingers were then separated again by wedges of iron -and wood driven in between them!</em> Others were tied, -two and two, by the feet, and thrown across a wooden -bar, upon which they hung with their feet uppermost. -They were then beat on the soles of the feet till the -toe-nails dropped off! They were afterwards beat -about the head till the blood gushed out at the mouth, -nose, and ears. They were also flogged upon the -naked body with bamboo canes, and prickly bushes, -and above all, with some poisonous weeds, which -were of a caustic nature, and burnt at every touch. -The cruelty of the monster who had ordered all this, -had contrived how to tear the mind as well as the -body. He frequently had a father and son tied naked -to one another by the feet and arms, and then flogged -till the skin was torn from the flesh; and he had the -devilish satisfaction to know, that every blow must -hurt; for if one escaped the son, his sensibility was -wounded by the knowledge he had, that the blow had -fallen upon his father. The same torture was felt by -the father, when he knew that every blow that missed -him had fallen upon his son.</p> - -<p>“The treatment of the females could not be described. -Dragged from the inmost recesses of their -houses, which the religion of the country had made so -many sanctuaries, they were exposed naked to public -view. The Virgins were carried to the Court of Justice, -where they might naturally have looked for protection, -but they now looked for it in vain; for in the -face of the ministers of justice, in the face of the spec<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">281</a></span>tators, -in the face of the sun, those tender and modest -virgins were brutally violated. The only difference -between their treatment and that of their mothers was, -that the former were dishonoured in the face of day, -the latter in the gloomy recesses of their dungeon. -Other females had the nipples of their breasts put in -a cleft bamboo, and torn off.” What follows is too -shocking and indecent to transcribe! It is almost -impossible, in reading of these frightful and savage -enormities, to believe that we are reading of a country -under the British government, and that these unmanly -deeds were perpetrated by British agents, and for the -purpose of extorting the British revenue. Thus were -these innocent and unhappy people treated, because -Warren Hastings wanted money, and sold them to a -wretch whom he knew to be a wretch, for a bribe; -thus were they treated, because Devi Sing had paid -his four lacs of rupees, and must wring them again -out of the miserable ryots, though it were with their -very life’s blood, and with fire and torture before -unheard of even in the long and black catalogue of -human crimes. And it should never be forgotten, -that though Mr. Burke pledged himself, if permitted, -under the most awful imprecations, to prove every -word of this barbarous recital, such permission was -stoutly refused; and that, moreover, the evidence of -the Commissioner Patterson stands in the Company’s -own records.</p> - -<p>But it was not merely the commission of these outrages -which the poor inhabitants had to endure. The -English courts of justice, which should have protected -them, became an additional means of torture and ruin. -The writs of the supreme court were issued at the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">282</a></span> -suit of individuals against the zemindars of the country -in ordinary actions of debt. They were dragged from -their families and affairs, with the frequent certainty -of leaving them to disorder and ruin, any distance, -even as great as 500 miles, to give bail at Calcutta; -a thing, which, if they were strangers, and the sum -more than trifling, it was next to impossible they -should have in their power. In default of this, they -were consigned to prison for all the many months -which the delays of English judicature might interpose -between this calamitous stage and the termination -of the suit. Upon the affidavit, into the truth of -which no inquiry was made, upon the unquestioned -affidavit of any person whatsoever—a person of credibility, -or directly the reverse, no difference—the -natives were seized, carried to Calcutta, and consigned -to prison, where, even when it was afterwards determined -that they were not within the jurisdiction of -the court, and, of course, that they had been unjustly -persecuted, they were liable to lie for several months, -and whence they were dismissed totally without compensation. -Instances occurred, in which defendants -were brought from a distance to the Presidency, and -when they declared their intention of pleading, that -is, objecting to the jurisdiction of the court, the prosecution -was dropped; but was again renewed; the -defendant brought down to Calcutta, and again upon -his offering to plead, the prosecution was dropped. -The very act of being seized, was in India, the deepest -disgrace, and so degraded a man of any rank that, -under the Mahomedan government, it never was -attempted but in cases of the utmost delinquency.<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">22</a></p> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">283</a></span></p> -<p>In merely reading these cases of</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">The proud man’s contumely, the oppressor’s wrong,</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>it is difficult to repress the burning indignation of -one’s spirit. What shame, what disgrace, that under -the laws of England, and in a country to which we -owe so much wealth and power, such a system of -reckless and desperate injustice should for a long -series of years have been practising! But if it be -difficult to read of it without curses and imprecations, -what must it have been to bear? How must the -wretched, hopeless, harassed, persecuted, and outraged -people have called on Brahma for that tenth -Avatar which should sweep their invincible, their -iron-handed and iron-hearted oppressors, as a swarm -of locusts from their fair land! Let any one imagine -what must be the state of confusion when the zemindars, -or higher collectors of the revenues were thus -plagued in the sphere of their arduous duties, and -called out of it, to the distant capital. When they -were degraded in the eyes, and removed from the -presence of the ryots, what must have been the -natural consequence, but neglect and license on the -part of the ryot, only too happy to obtain a little -temporary ease? But the ryots themselves did not -escape, as we have already seen. Such, however, -continued this dismal state of things to the very end -of the century. Lord Cornwallis complained in 1790, -“that excepting the class of shroffs and banyans, who -reside almost entirely in great towns, the inhabitants -of these provinces were hastily advancing to a general -state of poverty and wretchedness.” Lord Cornwallis -projected <em>his</em> plans, and in 1802, Sir Henry Strachey, -in answer to interrogatories sent to the Indian judges,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">284</a></span> -drew a gloomy picture of the result of all the schemes of -finance and judicature that had been adopted. He represented -that the zemindars, by the sale of their lands, -in default of the payment of their stipulated revenue, -were almost universally destroyed, or were reduced -to the condition of the lowest ryots. That, in one -year (1796) nearly one tenth of all the lands in Bengal, -Bahar, and Orissa, had been advertised for sale. -That in two years alone, of the trial of the English -courts, the accumulated causes threatened to arrest -the course of justice: in one single district of Burdwan -more than thirty thousand suits were before the judge; -and that no candidate for justice could expect it in -the course of an ordinary life. “The great men, -formerly,” said Sir Henry, “were the Mussulman -rulers, whose places we have taken, and the Hindoo -zemindars. These two classes are now ruined and -destroyed.” He adds, “exaction of revenue is now, -I presume, and, perhaps, always was, the most prevailing -crime throughout the country; and I know -not how it is that extortioners appear to us in any -other light than that of the worst and most pernicious -species of robbers.” He tells us that the lands of the -Mahrattas in the neighbourhood of his district, Midnapore, -were more prosperous than ours, though they -were without regular courts of justice, or police. -“Where,” says he, “no battles are fought, the ryots -remain unmolested by military exactions, and the -zemindars are seldom changed, the country was in -high cultivation, and the population frequently superior -to our own.”</p> - -<p>Such was the condition and treatment of the natives -of Indostan, at the commencement of the present cen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">285</a></span>tury. -In another chapter, on our policy and conduct -in this vast and important region—it remains only to -take a rapid glance at the effect of these two centuries -of despotism upon these subjected millions, and to -inquire what we have since been doing towards a -better state of things,—more auspicious to them, and -honourable to ourselves.</p> - -<hr /> - -<h2>CHAPTER XVIII.<br /><br /> - -<small><small>THE ENGLISH IN INDIA, CONTINUED.</small></small></h2> - -<p class="p2"><small>We are accustomed to govern India—a country which God never -gave us, by means which God will never justify.</small></p> -<p class="p3"><small><cite>Lord Erskine—Speech on Stockdale’s Trial.</cite></small><br /><br /></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">We</span> have traced something of the misery which a long -course of avarice and despotism has inflicted on the -natives of India, but we have not taken into the account -its moral effect upon them. Generation after -generation of Englishmen flocked over to Indostan, to -gather a harvest of wealth, and to return and enjoy it -at home. Generation after generation of Indians arose -to create this wealth for their temporary visitors, and -to sink deeper and deeper themselves into poverty. -Happy had it been for them, had poverty and physical -wretchedness come alone. But the inevitable con<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">286</a></span>comitant -of slavery and destitution appeared with -them, and to every succeeding generation in a more -appalling form—demoralization, vast as their multitude -and dreadful as their condition. They were not more -unhappy than they were degraded in spirit and debased -in feeling. Ages of virtual though not nominal -slavery, beneath Mahomedan and Christian masters, -had necessarily done their usual work on the Hindus. -They had long ceased to be the gentle, the pure-minded, -the merciful Hindus. They had become -cruel, thievish, murderous, licentious, as well as -blindly superstitious. They had seen no religious -purity, no moral integrity practised—how were they -to become pure and honest? They had felt only -cruelty and injustice—how were they to be anything -but cruel and unjust? They had seen from age to -age, from day to day, from hour to hour, every sacred -tie of blood or honour, every moral obligation, every -great and eternal principle of human action violated -around them—how were they to reverence such things? -How were they to regard them but as solemn and -unprofitable mockeries? They were accordingly corrupted -into a mean, lying, depraved, and perfidious -generation—could the abject tools of a money-scraping -race of conquerors be anything else?—was it probable? -was it possible? Philosophers and poetical minds, -when such, now and then, reached India, were astonished -to find, instead of those delicate and spiritual -children of Brahma, of whom they had read such -delightful accounts—a people so sordid, and in many -instances so savage and cruel. They had not calculated, -as they might have done, the certain consequences of -long years of slavery’s most fatal inflictions. What<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">287</a></span> -an eternal debt of generous and Christian retribution -do we owe India for all this! What, indeed, are the -pangs we have occasioned, the poverty we have -created, the evils of all kinds that we have perpetrated, -to the moral degradation we have induced, and the -gross darkness, gross superstition, the gross sensuality -we have thus, in fact, fostered and perpetuated? Had -we appeared in India as Christians instead of conquerors; -as just merchants instead of subtle plotters, -shunning the name of tyrants while we aimed at the -most absolute tyranny; had we been as conspicuous -for our diffusion of knowledge as for our keen, ceaseless, -and insatiable gathering of coin; long ago that -work would have been done which is but now beginning, -and our power would have acquired the most -profound stability in the affections and the knowledge -of the people.</p> - -<p>At the period of which I have been speaking—the -end of the last and the opening of the present century, -the character of the Hindus, as drawn by eye witnesses -of the highest authority, was most deplorable. Even -Sir William Jones, than whom there never lived a man -more enthusiastic in his admiration of the Hindu -literature and antiquities, and none more ready to see -all that concerned this people in sunny hues—even he, -when he had had time to observe their character, was -compelled to express his surprise and disappointment. -He speaks of their cruelties with abhorrence: in his -charge to the grand jury at Calcutta, June 10th, -1787, he observed, “Perjury seems to be committed -by the meanest, and encouraged by some of the better -sort of the Hindus and Mussulmans with as little -remorse as if it were a proof of ingenuity, or even of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">288</a></span> -merit”—that he had “no doubt that affidavits of any -imaginary fact might be purchased in the markets of -Calcutta as readily as any other article—and that, -could the most binding form of religious obligation be -hit upon, there would be found few consciences to -bind.”</p> - -<p>All the travellers and historians of the time, Orme, -Buchanan, Forster, Forbes, Scott Waring, etc., unite -in bearing testimony to their grossness, filth, and disregard -of their words; their treachery, cowardice, and -thievishness; their avarice, equal to that of the whites, -and their cunning and duplicity more than European; -their foul language and quarrelsome habits—all the -features of a people depraved by hereditary oppression -and moral neglect. Their horrid and barbarous superstitions, -by which thousands of victims are destroyed -every year, are now familiar to all Europe. Every -particular of these evil lineaments of character were -most strikingly attested by the Indian judges, in their -answers to the circular of interrogatories put to them -in 1801, already alluded to. They all coincided in -describing the general moral character of the inhabitants -as at the lowest pitch of infamy; that very few -exceptions to that character were to be found; that -there was no species of fraud or villany that the higher -classes would not be guilty of; and that, in the lower -classes, were to be added, murder, robbery, adultery, -perjury, etc., on the slightest occasion. One of -them, the magistrate of Juanpore, added, “I have -observed, among the inhabitants of this country, some -possessed of abilities qualified to rise to eminence in -other countries, <em>but a moral, virtuous man, I have never -met amongst them</em>.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">289</a></span></p> - -<p>Mr. Grant described the Bengalese as depraved and -dishonest to a degree to which Europe could furnish -no parallel; that they were “cunning, servile, intriguing, -false, and hypocritically obsequious; that -they, however, indemnified themselves for their passiveness -to their superiors by their tyranny, cruelty, -and violence to those in their power.” Amongst themselves -he says, “discord, hatred, abuse, slanders, injuries, -complaints, and litigations prevail to a surprising -degree. No stranger can sit down among them without -being struck with the temper of malevolent contention -and animosity as a prominent feature in the character -of the society. It is seen in every village: the inhabitants -live amongst each other in a sort of repulsive -state. Nay, it enters into almost every family: seldom -is there a household without its internal divisions and -lasting enmities, most commonly, too, on the score of -interest. The women, too, partake of this spirit of -discord. Held in slavish subjection by the men, they -rise in furious passions against each other, which vent -themselves in such loud, virulent, and indecent railings, -as are hardly to be heard in any other part of the -world.... Benevolence has been represented as -a leading principle in the minds of the Hindus; but -those who make this assertion know little of their -character. Though a Hindu would shrink with horror -from the idea of directly slaying a cow, which is a -sacred animal amongst them, yet he who drives one in -his cart, galled and excoriated as she is by the yoke, -beats her unmercifully from hour to hour, without any -care or consideration of the consequence.” Mr. Fraser -Tytler, Lord Teignmouth, Sir James Mackintosh, and -others, only expand the dark features of this melan<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">290</a></span>choly -picture; we need not therefore dwell largely -upon it. The French missionary, the Abbé Dubois, -and Mr. Ward, the English one, bear a like testimony. -The latter, on the subject of Hindu humanity, asks—“Are -these men and women, too, who drag their -dying relations to the banks of rivers, at all seasons, -day and night, and expose them to the heat and cold -in the last agonies of death, without remorse; who -assist men to commit self-murder, encouraging them -to swing with hooks in their backs, to pierce their -tongues and sides—to cast themselves on naked knives -or bury themselves alive—throw themselves in rivers, -from precipices, and under the cars of their idols;—who -murder their own children—burying them alive, -throwing them to the alligators, or hanging them up -alive in trees, for the ants and crows, before their own -doors, or by sacrificing them to the Ganges;—who -burn alive, amidst savage shouts, the heart-broken -widow, by the hands of her own son, and with the -corpse of a deceased father;—who every year butcher -thousands of animals, at the call of superstition, covering -themselves with blood, consigning their carcases -to the dogs, and carrying their heads in triumph -through the streets? are these the benignant Hindus.”</p> - -<p>It may be said that these cruelties are the natural -growth of their superstitions. True; but, up to the -period in question, who had endeavoured to correct, -or who cared for their superstitions so that they paid -their taxes? To this hour, or, at least, till but yesterday, -many of these bloody superstitions have had -the actual sanction of the British countenance! To -this hour the dreadful indications of their cruel and -treacherous character, apart from their superstitions,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">291</a></span> -from time to time affright Europe. We have latterly -heard much of the horrible deeds of the Thugs and -Phasingars. Where such dreadful associations and -habits are prevalent to the extent described, there -must be a most monstrous corruption of morals, shocking -neglect of the people, and consequent annihilation -of everything like social security and civilization. In -what, indeed, does the practice and temper of the -Thugs differ from those of the Decoits, who abounded -at the period in question? These were gangs of -robbers who associated for their purposes, and practised -by subtle subterfuge or open violence, as best -suited the occasion. They went in troops, and made -a common assault on houses and property, or dispersed -themselves under various disguises, to inveigle their -victims into their power. Mr. Dowdeswell, in a -report to government, in 1809, says, “robbery, rape, -and murder itself are not the worst figures in this -horrid and disgusting picture. An expedient of common -occurrence with the Decoits, merely to induce a -confession of property supposed to be concealed, is to -burn the proprietor with straws or torches until he -discloses the property or perishes in the flames.” He -mentions one man who was convicted of having committed -fifteen murders in nineteen days, and adds that, -“volumes might be filled with the atrocities of the -Decoits, every line of which would make the blood -run cold with horror.” He does, indeed, give some -details of them of the most amazing and harrowing -description.</p> - -<p>Sir Henry Strachey in his Report already quoted, -says, “the crime of decoity, in the district of Calcutta, -has, I believe, greatly increased since the British<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">292</a></span> -administration of justice. The number of convicts -confined at the six stations of this division (independent -of Zillah twenty-four pergunnahs) is about -4000. Of them <em>probably nine-tenths are decoits</em>. Besides -these, some hundreds of late years have been -transported. The number of persons convicted of -decoity, however great it may appear, is certainly -small in proportion to those who are guilty of the -crime. At Midnapore I find, by the reports of -the police darogars, that in the year 1802, a period -of peace and tranquillity, they sent intelligence of no -less than ninety-three robberies, most of them, as -usual, committed by large gangs. With respect to -fifty-one of these robberies, not a man was taken, and -for the remaining forty-two, very few, frequently only -one or two in each gang.” Other judges describe the -extent to which decoity existed, as being much vaster -than was generally known, and calculated to excite -the most general terror throughout the country.</p> - -<p>This is an awful picture of a people approaching to -one hundred millions, and of a great and splendid country, -which has been for the most part in our hands for -more than a century. It only remains now to inquire -what has been done since the opening of the nineteenth -century for the instruction and general amelioration -of the condition of this vast multitude of -human beings, and thereby for our own justification -as a Christian nation. Warren Hastings said most -truly, that throwing aside all pretences of any other -kind that many were disposed to set up, the simple -truth was that “by the sword India had been acquired, -and by the sword it must be maintained.” If the -forcible conquest of a country be, therefore, a crime<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">293</a></span> -against the rights of nations and the principles of -religion, what retribution can we make for our national -offences, except by employing our power to make the -subjected people happy and virtuous? But if we do -not even hold conquest to be a crime, or war to be -unchristian, where is the man that will not deem that -we have assumed an awful responsibility on the plainest -principles of the gospel, by taking into our hands the -fate of so many millions of human creatures, thus -degraded, thus ignorant and unhappy? It is impossible -either to “do justice, to love mercy, or to walk -humbly before God,” without as zealously seeking the -social and eternal benefit of so great a people, as we have -sought, and still seek, our own advantage, in the possession -of their wealth. Over this important subject I -am unfortunately bound to pass, by my circumscribed -limits, in a hasty manner. The subject would require -a volume. It is with pleasure, however, that we can -point to certain great features in the modern history -of improvement in India. It is with pleasure that we -can say that some of the most barbarous rites of the -Hindu superstitions have been removed. That infanticide, -and the burning of widows have been abolished -by the British influence; and that though the -horrible immolations of Juggernaut are not terminated, -they are no longer so unblushingly sanctioned, and -even encouraged by British interference. These are -great steps in the right path. To Colonel Walker, -and Mr. Duncan, the governor of Bombay, immortal -thanks and honour are due, for first leading the way -in this track of great reforms, by at once discouraging, -dissuading from, and finally abolishing infanticide in -Guzerat. One of the most beneficial acts of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">294</a></span> -Marquis Wellesley’s government, was to put this -horrible custom down in Saugur. How little anything, -however, but the extraction of revenue had -throughout all the course of our dominion in India -been regarded till the present century, the Christian -Researches of Mr. Buchanan made manifest. The -publication of that book, coming as it did from a gentleman -most friendly to our authorities there, was the -commencement of a new era in our Indian history. -It at once turned, by the strangeness of its details, the -eyes of all the religious world on our Indian territories, -and excited a feeling which more than any other -cause has led to the changes which have hitherto -been effected. At that period (1806), in making a -tour through the peninsula of Indostan, he discovered -that everything like attention to the moral or religious -condition of either natives or colonists was totally -neglected. That all the atrocious superstitions of the -Hindus were not merely tolerated, but even sanctioned, -and some of them patronized by our government. -That though there were above twenty English regiments -in India at that time, <em>not one of them had a chaplain</em>, -(p. 80). That in Ceylon, where the Dutch had -once thirty-two Protestant churches, we had then but -two English clergymen in the whole island! (p. 93). -That there were in it by computation 500,000 natives -professing Christianity; who, however, “had not one -complete copy of the Scriptures in the vernacular -tongue,” and consequently, they were fast receding -into paganism, (p. 95). That the very English were -more notorious for their infidelity than for anything -else, and by their presence did infinite evil to the -natives. That, in that very year, when the governor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">295</a></span> -of Bombay announced to the supreme government at -Calcutta, his determination to attempt to extirpate -infanticide from Guzerat—a practice, be it remembered, -which in that province alone <em>destroyed annually -3000 children</em>!<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">23</a>—this cool commercial body warned -him, not “even for the <em>speculative</em> success of that benevolent -project, to hazard the <em>essential interests</em> of -the state!” (p. 52). That all the horrors of burning -widows were perpetrated to the amount of from seven -hundred to <em>one thousand</em> of such diabolical scenes -annually. That the disgusting and gory worship of -Juggernaut was not merely practised, but was actually -licensed and patronized by the English government. -That very year it had imposed a tax on all pilgrims -going to the temples in Orissa and Bengal, had appointed -British officers, British gentlemen to superintend -the management of this hideous worship and the -receipt of its proceeds. That the internal rites of the -temple consisted in one loathsome scene of prostitution, -hired bands of women being kept for the purpose; -its outward rites the crushing of human victims -under the car of the idol.</p> - -<p>Thus the Indian government had, in fact, instead of -discouraging such practices in the natives, taken up -the trade of public murderers, and keepers of houses -of ill fame, and that under the sacred name of religious -tolerance! A more awful state of things it is impossible -to conceive; nor one which more forcibly demonstrates -what the whole of this history proclaims, that -there is no state of crime, corruption, or villany, which -by being familiarized to them, and coming to regard -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">296</a></span>them as customary, educated men, and men of originally -good hearts and pure consciences, will not -eventually practise with composure, and even defend -as right. What defences have we not heard in England -of these very practices? It was not till recently -that public opinion was able to put down the immolation -of widows,<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">24</a> nor till this very moment that the -Indian government has been shamed out of trading in -murder and prostitution in the temples of Juggernaut. -Thus, for more than thirty years has this infamous -trade at Juggernaut been persisted in, from the startling -exposure of it by Buchanan, and in the face of -all the abhorrence and remonstrances of England—for -more than a century and a half it has been tolerated. -The plea on which it has been defended is that of -delicacy towards the <em>opinions</em> of the natives. That -delicacy thus delicately extended where money was to -be made, has not in a single case been practised for a -single instant where our interest prompted a different -conduct. We have seized on the lands of the natives; -on their revenues; degraded their persons by the lash, -or put them to death without any scruple. But this -plea has been so strongly rebutted by one well acquainted -with India, in the Oriental Herald, that -before quitting this subject it will be well to quote it -here. “The assumption that our empire is an empire -of opinion in India, and that it would be endangered -by restraining the bloody and abominable rites of the -natives, is as false as the inference is unwarranted. -Our empire is <em>not</em> an empire of opinion, it is not even -an empire of law: it has been acquired; it is still -governed; and can only be retained, unless the whole -system of its government is altered, by the direct in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">297</a></span>fluence -of force. No portion of the country has been -voluntarily ceded, from the love borne to us by the -original possessors. We were first permitted to land -on the sea coast to sell our wares, as humble and solicitous -traders, till by degrees, sometimes by force and -sometimes by fraud, we have possessed ourselves of an -extent of territory containing nearly a hundred millions -of human beings. We have put down the -ancient sovereigns of the land, we have stripped the -nobles of all their power; and by continual drains on -the industry and resources of the people, we take from -them all their surplus and disposable wealth. There -is not a single province of that country that we have -ever acquired but by the direct influence which our -strength and commanding influence could enforce, or -by the direct agency of warlike operations and superior -skill in arms. There is not a spot throughout the -whole of this vast region whereon we rule by any -other medium than that by which we first gained our -footing there—simple force. There is not a district -in which the natives would not gladly see our places -as rulers supplied by men of their own nation, faith, -and manners, so that they might have a share in their -own affairs; nor is there an individual, out of all the -millions subject to our rule in Asia, whose opinion is -ever asked as to the policy or impolicy of any law or -regulation about to be made by our government, however -it may press on the interests of those subject by -its operation. It is a delusion which can never be too -frequently exposed, to believe that our empire in India -is an empire of opinion, or to imagine that we have -any security for our possession of that country, except -the superiority of our means for maintaining the dominion -of force.”—vol. ii. p. 174.</p> -<hr /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">298</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XIX.<br /><br /> - -<small><small>THE ENGLISH IN INDIA,—CONCLUDED.</small></small></h2> - -<p><span class="smcap">The</span> preceding chapter is an awful subject of contemplation -for a Christian nation. An empire over -one hundred millions acquired by force, and held by -force for the appropriation of their revenues! Even -this dominion of force is a fragile tenure. We even -now watch the approaches of the gigantic power of -Russia towards these regions with jealousy and alarm; -and it is evident that at once security to ourselves, -and atonement to the natives, are only to be found in -the amelioration of their condition: in educating and -Christianizing them, and in amalgamising them with -British interests and British blood as much as possible. -The throwing open of these vast regions, by the abolition -of the Company’s charter of trade, to the enterprise -and residence of our countrymen, now offers us -ample means of moral retribution; and it is with peculiar -interest that we now turn to every symptom of -a better state of things.</p> - -<p>A new impulse is given to both commerce and -agriculture. The march of improvement in the cultivation -and manufacture of various productions is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">299</a></span> -begun. The growth of wheat is encouraged, and -even large quantities of fine flour imported thence -into England. The indigo trade has become amazing -by the improvement in the manipulation of that -article. Sugar, coffee, opium, cotton, spices, rice, -every product of this rich and varied region, will all -find a greater demand, and consequently a greater -perfection from culture, under these circumstances. -There is, in fact, no species of vegetable production -which, in this glorious country, offering in one part or -another the temperature of every known climate, may -not be introduced. Such is the fertility of the land -under good management, that the natives often now -make 26<i>l.</i> per acre of their produce. The potato is -becoming as much esteemed there as it has long been -in Europe and America. Tea is likely to become one -of its most important articles of native growth. Our -missionaries of various denominations—episcopalians, -catholics, baptists, methodists, moravians, etc., are -zealously labouring to spread knowledge and Christianity; -and there is nothing, according to the Christian -brahmin, Rammohun Roy, which the Indian people -so much desire as an English education. Let that be -given, and the fetters of caste must be broken at once. -The press, since the great struggle in which Mr. -Buckingham was driven from India for attempting -its freedom, has acquired a great degree of freedom. -The natives are admitted to sit on petty juries; -slavery is abolished; and last, and best, education is -now extensively and zealously promoted. The Company -was bound by the terms of its charter in 1813 to -devote 10,000<i>l.</i> annually to educating natives in the -English language and English knowledge, which,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">300</a></span> -though but a trifling sum compared with the vast -population, aided by various private schools, must have -produced very beneficial effects. Bishop Heber states -that on his arrival in Bengal he found that there were -fifty thousand scholars, chiefly under the care of Protestant -missionaries. These are the means which must -eventually make British rule that blessing which it -ought to have been long ago. These are the means -by which we may atone, and more than atone, for all -our crimes and our selfishness in India. But let us -remember that we are—after the despotism of two centuries, -after oceans of blood shed by us, and oceans of -wealth drained by us from India, and after that blind -and callous system of exaction and European exclusion -which has perpetuated all the ignorance and all the -atrocities of Hindu superstition, and laid the burthen -of them on our own shoulders—but at this moment on -the mere threshold of this better career. Let us remember -that still, at this hour, Indostan is, in fact, -the <span class="smcap">Ireland of the East</span>! It is a country pouring -out wealth upon us, while it is swarming with a population -of one hundred millions in the lowest state of -poverty and wretchedness. It swarms with robbers -and assassins of the most dreadful description: and it -is impossible that it should be otherwise. It is said to -be happy and contented under our rule; but such a -happiness as its boldest advocates occasionally give us a -glimpse of, may God soon remove from that oppressed -country. Indeed, such are the features of it, even as -drawn by its eulogists, as make us wonder that such -wretchedness should exist under English sway. Our -travellers describe the mass of the labouring people -as stunted in stature, especially the women; as half<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">301</a></span> -famished, and with hardly a rag to their backs. Mr. -Tucker, himself a Director, and Deputy-Chairman of -the Court of Directors, asks, “Whether it be possible -for them to believe that a government, which -seems disposed to appropriate a vast territory as <em>universal -landlord</em>, and to collect, not <em>revenue</em>, but <em>rent</em>, can -have any other view than to extract from the people -the utmost portion which they can pay?” and adds, -that “if the deadly hand of the tax-gatherer perpetually -hover over the land, and threaten to grasp that -which is not yet called into existence, its benumbing -influence must be fatal, and the fruits of the earth -will be stifled in the very germ.”</p> - -<p>Yet this is the constant system; and the poor -ryots who cultivate farms of from six to twenty-four -acres, but generally of the smaller kind, requiring -only one plough, which, with other implements and a -team of oxen, costs about 6<i>l.</i>, are compelled to farm not -such as they chose, but such as are allotted to them; -to pay from one-half to two-thirds of their gross produce. -If they attempt to run away from it, they are -brought back and flogged, and forced to work. If -after all, they cannot pay their quota, Sir Thomas -Munro tells you, “<cite>it must be assessed upon the rest</cite>.” -That where a crop <cite>even is less than the seed</cite>, the peasantry -<cite>should always be made to pay the full</cite> rent where -they can. And that all complaints on the part of the -ryot, “should be listened to with very great caution.” -Is it any wonder that Indostan is, and always has -been full of robbers? Is this system not enough to -make men run off, and do anything but work thus -without hope? But it is not merely the work: look -at the task-masters set over them. “A very large<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">302</a></span> -proportion of the talliars,” says Sir Thomas Munro, -“are themselves thieves; all the kawilgars are themselves -robbers exempting them; and though they -are now afraid to act openly, there is no doubt that -many of them still secretly follow their former practices. -Many potails and curnums also harbour thieves; -so that no traveller can pass through the ceded districts -without being robbed, who does not employ his -own servants or those of the village to watch at night; -and even this precaution is often ineffectual. Many -offenders are taken, but great numbers also escape, for -connivance must also be expected among the kawilgars -and the talliars, who are themselves thieves; -and the inhabitants are often backward in giving information -from the fear of <em>assassination</em>.” Colonel -Stewart in 1825, asserted in his “Considerations on -the Policy of the Government of India,” that “if we -look for absolute and bodily injury produced by our -misgovernment, he did not believe that all the cruelties -practised <em>in the lifetime</em> of the worst tyrant that -ever sat upon a throne, even amounted to the quantity -of human suffering inflicted by the Decoits <em>in one year</em> -in Bengal.” The prevalence of Thugs and Phasingars -does not augur much improvement in this -respect yet; nor do recent travellers induce us to -believe that the picture of popular misery given us -about half a dozen years ago by the author of “Reflections -on the Present state of British India,” is yet -become untrue.</p> - -<p>“Hitherto the poverty of the cultivating classes, -men who have both property and employment, has -been alone considered; but the extreme misery to -which the immense mass of the unemployed popula<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">303</a></span>tion -are reduced, would defy the most able pen -adequately to describe, or the most fertile imagination -to conceive.... On many occasions of ceremony -in families of wealthy individuals, it is customary to -distribute alms to the poor; sometimes four annas, -about three-pence, and rarely more than eight annas -each. When such an occurrence is made known, the -poor assemble in astonishing numbers, and the roads -are covered with them from twenty to fifty miles in -every direction. On their approaching the place of -gift, no notice is taken of them, though half famished, -and almost unable to stand, till towards the evening, -when they are called into an inclosed space, and -huddled together for the night, in such crowds, that -notwithstanding their being in the open air, it is -surprising how they escape suffocation. When the -individual who makes the donation perceives that all -the applicants are in the inclosure, (by which process -he guards against the possibility of any poor wretch -receiving his bounty twice), he begins to dispense -his alms, either in the night, or on the following -morning, by taking the poor people, one by one, -from the place of their confinement, and driving them -off as soon as they have received their pittance. The -number of people thus accumulated, generally amounts -to from twenty to fifty thousand; and from the distance -they travel, and the hardships they endure for -so inconsiderable a bounty, some idea may be formed -of their destitute condition.</p> - -<p>“In the interior of Bengal there is a class of inhabitants -who live by catching fish in the ditches and -rivulets; the men employing themselves during the -whole day, and the women travelling to the nearest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">304</a></span> -city, often a distance of fifteen miles, to sell the produce. -The rate at which these poor creatures perform -their daily journey is almost incredible, and the -sum realized is so small as scarcely to afford them the -necessaries of life. In short, throughout the whole -of the provinces the crowds of poor wretches who are -destitute of the means of subsistence are beyond belief. -On passing through the country, they are seen to pick -the undigested grains of food from the dung of elephants, -horses, and camels; and if they can procure -a little salt, large parties of them sally into the fields -at night, and devour the green blades of corn or rice -the instant they are seen to shoot above the surface. -Such, indeed, is their wretchedness that they envy the -lot of the convicts working in chains upon the roads, -and have been known to incur the danger of criminal -prosecution, in order to secure themselves from starving -by the allowance made to those who are condemned -to hard labour.”</p> - -<p>Such is the condition of these native millions, from -whose country our countrymen, flocking over there, -according to the celebrated simile of Burke, “like -birds of prey and of passage, to collect wealth, have -returned with most splendid fortunes to England.” -What is the avowed slavery of some half million of -negroes in the West Indies, who have excited so much -interest amongst us, to the virtual slavery of these -<em>hundred millions</em> of Hindus in their own land? It is -declared that these poor creatures are happy under -our government,—but it should be recollected that so -it has been, and is, said of the negroes; and it should -be also recollected what Sir John Malcolm said, in -1824, in a debate at the India-house—himself a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">305</a></span> -governor and a laudator of our system, that “even -the instructed classes of natives have a hostile feeling -towards us, which was not likely to decrease from the -necessity they were under of concealing it. My attention,” -he said, “has been during the last five-and-twenty -years particularly directed to this dangerous -species of secret war carried on against our authority, -which is <em>always carried on</em> by numerous though unseen -hands. The spirit is kept up by letters, by -exaggerated reports, and by pretended prophecies. -When the time appears favourable from the occurrence -of misfortune to our arms, from rebellion in our provinces, -or from mutiny in our troops, circular letters -and proclamations are dispersed over the country with -a celerity that is incredible. <em>Such documents are read -with avidity.</em> Their contents are in most cases the -same. The English are depicted as <em>usurpers</em> of low -caste, and as tyrants, who have sought India only to -degrade them, to rob them of their wealth, and subvert -their usages and religion. The native soldiers are -always appealed to, and the advice to them is in all -instances I have met with, the same,—‘your European -tyrants are few in number—<em>murder them</em>!’”</p> - -<p>How far are these evils diminished since the last -great political change in India—since the abolition of -the Company’s charter, and they became, not the -commercial monopolists, but the governors of India? -Dr. Spry, of the Bengal Medical Staff, can answer -that in his “Modern India,” published in 1837. -The worthy doctor describes himself as a short time -ago (1833) being on an expedition to reduce some -insurrectionary Coles in the provinces of Benares and -Dinapore. “Next morning,” he says, “Feb. 9th,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">306</a></span> -we went out in three parties to burn and destroy -villages! Good fun, burning villages!” The mode -of expression would lead one to suppose that the -doctor extremely enjoyed “the good fun of burning -villages;” but the general spirit of his work being -sensible and humane, we are bound to suppose that -his expressions and his notes of admiration are ironical, -and meant to indicate the abhorrence such acts -deserves; for he immediately tells us that these Coles -seemed very inoffensive sort of people, and laid down -their arms in large numbers the moment they were -invited to do so.</p> - -<p>Dr. Spry tells us that the Anglo-Indian government, -in 1836, had come to the admirable resolution -to make the English language the vernacular tongue -throughout Indostan. That would be, in effect, to -make it entirely an English land—to leaven it rapidly, -and for ever, with the spirit, the laws, the literature, -and the religion of England. It is impossible to -make the English language the vernacular tongue, -without at the same time producing the most astonishing -moral revolution which ever yet was witnessed -on the earth. English ideas, English tastes, English -literature and religion, must follow as a matter of -course. It is curious, indeed, already to hear of the -instructed natives of Indostan holding literary and -philosophical meetings in English forms, debating -questions of morals and polite letters, and adducing -the opinions of Milton, Shakspeare, Newton, Locke, -etc. Dr. Spry states that the Committee of Public -Instruction are about to establish schools for educating -the natives in English, at Patnah, Dacca, Hazeeribagh, -Gohawati, and other places; and that the native<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">307</a></span> -princes in Nepaul, Manipúr, Rajpootanah, the Punjaub, -etc. were receiving instruction in English, and -desirous to promote it in their territories. This is -most encouraging; but Dr. Spry gives us other facts -of a less agreeable nature. From these we learn that -the ancient canker of India, excessive and unremitting -exaction, is at this moment eating into the very vitals -of the country as actively as ever. He says that “it -is in the territories of the independent native chiefs -and princes that great and useful works are found, -and maintained. In our territories, the canals, bridges, -reservoirs, wells, groves, temples, and caravansaries, -the works of our predecessors, from revenues expressly -appropriated to such undertakings, are going fast to -decay, together with the feelings which originated -them; and unless a new and more enlightened policy -shall be followed, of which the dawn may, perhaps, be -distinguished, will soon leave not a trace behind. A -persistence for a short time longer in our selfish administration -will level the face of the country, as it has -levelled the ranks of society, and leave a plain surface -for wiser statesmen to act on.</p> - -<p>“At present, the aspect of society presents no middle -class, and the aspect of the country is losing all those -great works of ornament and utility with which we -found it adorned. Great families are levelled, and -lost in the crowd; and great cities have dwindled into -farm villages. The work of destruction is still going -on; and unless we act on new principles will proceed -with desolating rapidity. How many thousand links -by which the affections of the people are united to -the soil, and to their government, are every year -broken and destroyed by our selfishness and ignorance;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">308</a></span> -and yet, if our views in the country extended beyond -the returns of a single harvest, beyond the march of a -single detachment, or the journey of a single day, we -could not be so blind to their utility and advantage.” -He adds: “By our revenue management we have -shaken the entire confidence of the rural population, -who now no longer lay out their little capital in village -improvement, lest our revenue officers, at the -expiration of their leases, should take advantage of -their labours, and impose an additional rent.... -With regard to Hindustan, those natives who are -unfriendly to us <em>might with justice declare our conduct -to be more allied to Vandalism than to civilization</em>.... -Burke’s severe rebuke still holds good,—that if the -English were driven from India, they would leave -behind them no memorial worthy of a great and enlightened -nation; no monument of art, science, or -beneficence; no vestige of their having occupied and -ruled over the country, except such traces as the -vulture and the tiger leave behind them.”—pp. 10–18. -He tells us that a municipal tax was imposed under -pretence of improving and beautifying the towns, but -that the improvements very soon stopped, while the -tax is still industriously collected. In the appendix -to his first volume, we find detailed all the miseries of -the ryots as we have just reviewed them; and he tells -us that of this outraged class are <em>eleven-twelfths of the -population</em>! and quotes the following sentence from -“The Friend of India.” “A proposal was some time -since made, or rather a wish expressed, to domesticate -the art of caricaturing in India. Here is a fine subject. -The artist should first draw the lean and emaciated -ryot, scratching the earth at the tail of a plough<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">309</a></span> -drawn by two half-starved, bare-ribbed bullocks. Upon -his back he would place the more robust Seeputneedar, -and upon his shoulders the Durputneedar; he, again, -should sustain the well-fed Putneedar; and, seated -upon his shoulders should be represented, to crown the -scene, the big zemindar, that compound of milk, sugar, -and clarified butter.... The poor ryot pays for all! -He is drained by these middle-men; he is cheated by -his banker out of twenty-four per cent. at least; and -his condition is beyond description or imagination.”</p> - -<p>Dr. Spry attests the present continuance of those -scenes of destitution and abject wretchedness which I -have but a few pages back alluded to. He has seen -the miserable creatures picking up the grains of corn -from the soil of the roads. “I have seen,” says he, -“hundreds of famishing poor, traversing the jungles -of Bundlecund, searching for wild berries to satisfy -the cravings of hunger. Many, worn down by exhaustion -or disease, die by the road-side, while mothers, -to preserve their offspring from starvation, sell or -give them to any rich man they can meet!” He -himself, in 1834, was offered by such a mother her -daughter of six years old for fourteen shillings!—vol. -i. 297.</p> - -<p>These are the scenes and transactions in our great -Indian empire—that splendid empire which has poured -out such floods of wealth into this country; in which -such princely presents of diamonds and gold have been -heaped on our adventurers; from the gleanings of -which so many happy families in England<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">25</a> “live at -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">310</a></span>home at ease,” and in the enjoyment of every earthly -luxury and refinement. For every palace built by -returned Indian nabobs in England; for every investment -by fortunate adventurers in India stock; for -every cup of wine and delicious viand tasted by the -families of Indian growth amongst us, how many of -these Indians themselves are now picking berries in -the wild jungles, sweltering at the thankless plough -only to suffer fresh extortions, or snatching with the -bony fingers of famine, the bloated grains from the -manure of the high-ways of their native country!</p> - -<p>I wonder whether the happy and fortunate—made -happy and fortunate by the wealth of India, ever think -of these things?—whether the idea ever comes across -them in the luxurious carriage, or at the table crowded -with the luxuries of all climates?—whether they -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">311</a></span>glance in a sudden imagination from the silken splendour -of their own abodes, to the hot highways and -the pestilential jungles of India, and see those naked, -squalid, famishing, and neglected creatures, thronging -from vast distances to the rich man’s dole, or feeding -on the more loathsome dole of the roads? It is impossible -that a more strange antithesis can be pointed -out in human affairs. We turn from it with even a -convulsive joy, to grasp at the prospects of education -in that singular country. Let the people be educated, -and they will soon cease to permit oppression. Let -the English engage themselves in educating them, and -they will soon feel all the sympathies of nature awaken -in their hearts towards these unhappy natives. In the -meantime these are all the features of a country suffering -under the evils of a long and grievous thraldom. -They are the growth of ages, and are not to be removed -but by a zealous and unwearying course of -atoning justice. Spite of all flattering representations -to the contrary, the British public should keep its eye -fixed steadily on India, assuring itself that a debt of -vast retribution is their due from us; and that we -have only to meet the desire now anxiously manifested -by the natives for education, to enable us to expiate -towards the children all the wrongs and degradations -heaped for centuries on the fathers; and to fix our -name, our laws, our language and religion, as widely -and beneficently there as in the New World!</p> -<hr /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">312</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XX.<br /><br /> - -<small><small>THE FRENCH IN THEIR COLONIES.</small></small></h2> - -<p><span class="smcap">We</span> may dismiss the French in a few pages, merely -because they are only so much like their neighbours. -It would have been a glorious circumstance to have -been able to present them as an exception; but while -they have shown as little regard to the rights or feelings -of the people whose lands they have invaded for -the purpose of colonization, they seem to have been -on the whole more commonplace in their cruelties. In -Guiana they drove back the Indians as the Dutch and -the Portuguese did in their adjoining settlements. In -the West Indies, they exterminated or enslaved the -natives very much as other Europeans did. They -were as assiduous as any people in massacring the -Charaibs, and they suffered perhaps more than any -other nation from the Charaibs in return. Their historian, -Du Tertre, describes them as returning from a -slaughtering expedition in St. Christopher’s “<cite>bien joyeux</cite>;” -so that it would appear as though they executed -the customary murders of the time, with their accustomed -gaiety. In the Mauritius they found nobody to -kill. In Madagascar, they alternately massacred and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">313</a></span> -were massacred themselves, and finally driven out of -of the country by the exasperated natives for their -cruelties. If they made themselves masters of countries -of equal importance with the Spaniards, Portuguese, -English, or even the Dutch, they had not the art -to make them so, for if we include Louisiana, Canada, -Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, Madagascar, -Mauritius, Guiana, various West Indian islands -and settlements on the Indian and African coasts, the -amount of territory is vast. The value of it to them, -however, at no time, was ever proportionate in the -least degree to the extent; and no European nation -has been so unfortunate in the loss of colonies. Their -attempt to possess themselves of Florida was abortive, -but it was attended by a circumstance which deserves -recording.</p> - -<p>The Spaniards hearing that some Frenchmen had -made a settlement in Florida about 1566, a fleet sailed -thither, and discovered them at Fort Carolina. They -attacked them, massacred the majority, and hanged the -rest upon a tree, with this inscription,—“<cite>Not as -Frenchmen, but as heretics</cite>.” They were Huguenots. -Dominic de Gourgues, a Gascon of the same faith, a -skilful and intrepid seaman, an enemy to the Spaniards, -from whom he had received personal injuries, passionately -fond of his country, of hazardous expeditions, -and of glory, sold his estate, built some ships, and -with a select band of his own stamp, embarked for -Florida. He found, attacked, and defeated the Spaniards. -All that he could catch he hung upon trees, -with this inscription,—“<cite>Not as Spaniards, but as assassins</cite>;”—a -sentence which, had it been executed with -equal justice on all who deserved it in that day, would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">314</a></span> -have half depopulated Europe; for almost every man -who went abroad was an assassin; and the rest who -stayed at home applauded, and therefore abetted. -Having thus satisfied his indignant sense of justice, -de Gourgues returned home, and the French abandoned -the country.</p> - -<p>The French seemed to take the firmest hold on -Canada; but their powerful neighbours, the English, -took even that from them, as they had done their -Acadia (Nova Scotia), Hudson’s Bay, Newfoundland, -Cape Breton, and the Island of St. John.</p> - -<p>In all these settlements, they treated the Indians -just as creatures that might be spared or destroyed,—driven -out or not, as it best suited themselves. Francis -I. invaded the papal charter to Spain and Portugal of -all the New World, with an expression very characteristic -of him. “<cite>What! shall the kings of Spain and -Portugal quietly divide all America between them, without -suffering me to take a share as their brother? I -would fain see the article of Adam’s will that bequeaths -that vast inheritance to them!</cite>” But he did not seem -to suspect for a moment, that if Adam’s will could -be found, the most conspicuous clause in it would -have been that the earth should be fairly divided -amongst his children; and that one family should not -covet the heritage of another, much less that Cain -should be always murdering Abel. Accordingly, -Samuel de Champlain, whose name has been given to -Lake Champlain, had scarcely laid the foundations of -Quebec, the future capital of Canada, than the subjects -of Francis began to violate every clause which -could possibly have been in Adam’s will. Champlain -found the Indians divided amongst themselves, and he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">315</a></span> -adopted the policy since employed by the English in -the East with so much greater success, not exactly that -recommended by the apostle, to live in peace with -all men, as far as in you lies, but to set your neighbours -by the ears, so that you may take the advantage -of their quarrels and disasters.</p> - -<p>One of the greatest curses which befel the North -American Indians on the invasion of the Europeans, -was, that several of these <em>refined</em> and <em>Christian</em> nations -came and took possession of neighbouring regions. -Being indeed so refined and Christian, one might -naturally have supposed that this would prove a happy -circumstance for the savages. One would have supposed -that thus surrounded on all sides, as it were, by -the light of civilization and the virtue of Christianity, -nothing could possibly prevent the savages from becoming -civilized and Christian too. One would have -supposed that such miserable, cruel, and dishonest -savages, seeing whichever way they turned, nothing -but images of peace, wisdom, integrity, self-denial, -generosity, and domestic happiness, would have become -speedily and heartily ashamed of themselves. -That they would have been fairly overwhelmed with -the flood of radiance covering those nations which had -been for so many ages in the possession of Christianity. -That they would have been penetrated through and -through with the benevolence and goodness, the sublime -graces, and winning sweetness of so favoured -and regenerated a race! Nothing of the sort, however, -took place. The savages looked about them, -and saw people more powerful, indeed, but in spirit -and practice ten times more savage than themselves. -What a precious crew of hypocrites must they have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">316</a></span> -regarded these white invaders when they heard them -begin to talk of their superior virtue, and to call them -barbarians! There were the French in Canada, -Nova Scotia, and other settlements; there were the -Dutch in their Nova Belgia, and the English in Massachusets, -all regarding each other with the most -deadly hatred, and all rampant to wrest, either from -the Indians, or from one another, the very ground -that each other stood upon.</p> - -<p>The people brought with them from Europe, -crimes and abominations that the Indians never knew. -The Indians never fought for conquest, but to defend -their hunting grounds—lands which their ancestors -had inhabited for generations, and which they firmly -believed were given to them by the Great Spirit; but -these white invaders had a boundless and quenchless -thirst for every region that they could set their eyes -upon. They claimed it by pretences, of which the -simple Indians could neither make head nor tail—they -talked of popes and kings on the other side of -the water as having given them the Indians’ countries, -and the Indians could not conceive what business -these kings and popes had with them. But the -whites had arguments which they <em>could not</em> withstand—<em>gunpowder -and rum</em>! They forced a footing in the -Indian countries, and then they gave them rum to -take away their brains, that they might take away -first their peltries, and then more land. There is -nothing in history more horrible than the conduct to -which the Dutch, French and English resorted in their -rivalries in the north-east of America. Each party -subdued the tribes of Indians in their own immediate -neighbourhood, by force and fraud, and then em<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">317</a></span>ployed -them against the Indians who were in alliance -with their rivals. Instead of mutually, as Christians -should, inculcating upon them the beauty and the -duty, and the advantages of peace, they instigated -them, by every possible means, and by the most -devilish arguments, to betray and exterminate one -another, and not only one another, but to betray and -exterminate, if possible, their white rivals. They -made them furious with rum, and put fire-arms into -their hands, and hounded them on one another with a -demoniac glee. They took credit to themselves for -inducing the Indians to <em>scalp</em> one another! They -gave them a premium upon these horrible outrages, -and we shall see that even the Puritans of New -England gave at length so much as 1000<i>l.</i> for every -Indian scalp that could be brought to them! They -excited these poor Indians by the most diabolical -means, and by taking advantage of their weak side, the -proneness to vengeance, to acts of the most atrocious -nature, and then they branded them, when it was -convenient, as most fearful and bloody savages, and -on that plea drove them out of their rightful possessions, -or butchered them upon them.</p> - -<p>I am not talking of imaginary horrors—I am speaking -with all the soberness which the contemplation of -such things will permit—of a deliberate system of -policy pursued by the French, Dutch, and English, in -these regions for a full century, and which eventually -terminated in the destruction of the greater part of -these Indian nations, and in the expulsion of the -remainder. We shall see that even the English -urged their allies—the Five Nations—continually to -attack and murder the French and their Indian allies;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">318</a></span> -and in all their wars with the French in Canada, -hired, or bribed, or compelled these savages to accompany -them, and commit the very devastations for -which they afterwards upbraided them, and which they -made a plea for their extirpation. But of that anon; -my present business is with the French; and though -the facts which I have now to relate regard their -conduct rather in our colonies than their own, yet -they cannot be properly introduced anywhere else; -and they could not have been introduced impartially -here without these few preliminary observations.</p> - -<p>The French were soon stripped of their other -settlements in this quarter by the English. It was -from Canada that they continued to annoy their rivals -of New York and New England, till finally driven -thence by the victory of Wolfe at Quebec; and it -was principally on the northern side of the St. Lawrence -that their territory lay. On that side, the great -tribe of the Adirondacks, or, as they termed them, -the Algonquins, lay, and became their allies; with -tribes of inferior note. On the south side lay the -great nation of the Iroquois, so termed by them; or -“The Five Nations of United Indians,” as they were -called by the English. These were very warlike -nations—the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, -and Senekas—whose territories extended along -the south-eastern side of the St. Lawrence, into the present -States of Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, -Massachusetts, Maine, and New Hampshire—a country -eighty leagues in length, and more than forty broad.</p> - -<p>To drive out these nations, so as to deprive them -of any share in the profitable fur trade which the -Algonquins carried on for them, and to get possession<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">319</a></span> -of so fine a country, Champlain readily accompanied -the Algonquins in an expedition of extermination -against them. The Algonquins knew all the intricacies -of the woods, and all the modes and stratagems -of Indian warfare; and, aided by the arms and ammunition -of the French, they would soon have accomplished -Champlain’s desire of exterminating the Iroquois, -had not the Dutch, then the possessors of New -York, furnished the Iroquois also with arms and ammunition, -for it was not to their interest that these five -nations, who brought their furs to them, should be -reduced.</p> - -<p>In 1664 the English dispossessed the Dutch of their -Nova Belgia, and turned it into New York; and -began to trade actively with the Indian nations for -their furs. The French, who had hoped to monopolise -this trade, which they had found very profitable, by -exterminating the Iroquois, and throwing the whole -hunting business into the hands of tribes in their -alliance, now saw the impolicy of having vainly -attacked so powerful a race as that of the Iroquois, -or Five Nations. They now used every means to -reconcile them, and win them over. They sent -Jesuit missionaries, who lived in the simplest manner -amongst them, and with their powers of insinuation -and persuasion laboured to give them -favourable ideas of their nation. But the English -were as zealous in their endeavours, and, as might -naturally be expected, succeeded in engrossing all the -fur trade with the Iroquois, who had received so many -injuries from the French.<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">26</a> Irritated by this circum<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">320</a></span>stance, -the French again determined on the ferocious -scheme of exterminating the Iroquois. Nursing this -horrible resolve, they waited their opportunity, and -put upon themselves a desperate restraint, till they -should have collected a force in the colony equal to -the entire annihilation of the Iroquois people. This -time seemed to have arrived in 1687, when, under -Denonville, they had a population of 11,249 persons, -one third of whom were capable of bearing arms. -Having a disposable force of near 4,000 people, they -were secure in their own mind of the accomplishment -of their object; but, to make assurance doubly sure, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">321</a></span>they hit upon one of those schemes that have been so -much applauded through all Christian Europe, under -the name of “happy devices,”—“profound strokes of -policy,”—“chefs d’œuvres of statesmanship,”—that -is, in plain terms, plans of the most wretched deceit, -generally for the compassing of some piece of diabolical -butchery or oppression. The “happy device,” -in this instance, was to profess a desire for peace and -alliance, in order to get the most able Indian chiefs into -their power before they struck the decisive blow. There -was a Jesuit missionary residing amongst the Iroquois—the -worthy Lamberville. This good man, like -his brethren in the South, whose glorious labours and -melancholy fate we have already traced, had won the -confidence of the Iroquois by his unaffected piety, -his constant kindness, and his skill in healing their -differences and their bodily ailments. They looked -upon him as a father and a friend. The French, on -their part, regarded this as a fortunate circumstance,—not -as one might have imagined, because it gave them -a powerful means of reconciliation and alliance with -this people, but because it gave them a means of -effecting their murderous scheme. They assured Lamberville -that they were anxious to effect a <em>lasting peace</em> -with the Iroquois, for which purpose they begged him -to prevail on them to send their principal chiefs to meet -them in conference. He found no difficulty in doing -this, such was their faith in him. The chiefs appeared, -and were immediately clapped in irons, embarked at -Quebec, and sent to the galleys!</p> - -<p>I suppose there are yet men calling themselves -Christians, and priding themselves on the depth of -their policy, that will exclaim—“Oh, capital!—what<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">322</a></span> -a happy device!” But who that has a head or a heart -worthy of a man will not mark with admiration the -conduct of the Iroquois on this occasion. As soon as -the news of this abominable treachery reached the -nation, it rose as one man, to revenge the insult and -to prevent the success of that scheme which now became -too apparent. In the first place they sent for -Lamberville, who had been the instrument of their -betrayal, and—put him to death! No, they did <em>not</em> -put him to death. That was what the <em>Christians</em> -would have done, without any inquiry or any listening -to his defence. The <em>savage</em> Iroquois thus addressed -him—“We are authorised by every motive -to treat you as an enemy; but we cannot resolve to -do it. Your heart has had no share in the insult that -has been put upon us; and it would be unjust to -punish you for a crime you detest still more than ourselves. -But you must leave us. Our rash young -men might consider you in the light of a traitor, who -delivered up the chiefs of our nation to shameful -slavery.” These savages, whom Europeans have -always termed Barbarians, gave the Missionary -guides, who conducted him to a place of safety, and -then flew to arms.<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">27</a></p> - -<p>The wretched Denonville and his politic people -soon found themselves in a situation which they richly -merited. They had a numerous and warlike nation -thus driven to the highest pitch of irritation, surrounding -them in the woods. On the borders of the lakes, -or in the open country, the French could and did -carry devastation amongst the Iroquois; but on the -other hand the Indians, continually sallying from the -forests, laid waste the French settlements, destroyed -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">323</a></span>the crops of the planters, and drove them from their -fields. The French became heartily sick of the war -they had thus wickedly raised, and were on the -point of putting an end to it when one of their own -Indian allies, a Huron, called by the English authors -Adario, but by the French Le Rat, one of the bravest -and most intelligent chiefs that ever ranged the -wilds of America, prevented it by a stratagem as -cunning, and more successful, than their own. He delivered -an Iroquois prisoner with some story of an -aggravated nature to the French commandant of the -fort of Machillimakinac, who, not aware of Denonville -being in treaty with the Iroquois, put him to death, -and thus roused again all the ancient flame.</p> - -<p>In this war, such were the barbarities of the French -and their Indian allies, that they roused a spirit of -revenge that soon brought the most cruel evils upon -themselves. They laid waste the villages of the Five -Nations with fire. Near Cadarakui Fort, they surprised -and put to death the inhabitants of two villages -who had settled there at their own invitation, and on -their faith, but whom they now feared might act as -spies against them. Many of these people were given -up to a body of the Canadian Indians, called <em>Praying</em> -or <em>Christian</em> Indians, to be tormented at the -stake. In another village finding only two old men, -they were cut to pieces, and put into the war kettle -for the <em>Praying Indians</em> to feast on.<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">28</a> To revenge -these unheard of abominations, the Five Nations -carried a war of retaliation into Canada. They came -suddenly in July of the next year, 1688, upon Montreal, -1200 strong, while Denonville and his lady were -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">324</a></span>there; burnt and laid waste all the plantations round -it, and made a terrible massacre of men, women, and -children. Above a thousand French are said to have -been killed on this occasion, and twenty-six taken, -most of whom were burnt alive. In the autumn they -returned, and carried fire and tomahawk through the -island; and had they known how to take fortified -places would have driven the French entirely out of -Canada. As it was, they reduced them to the most -frightful state of distress.</p> - -<p>To such a pitch of fury did the French rise against -the Five Nations through the sufferings which they -received at their hands, that they now seemed to have -lost the very natures of men. It is to the eternal -disgrace of both French and English that they instigated -and bribed the Indians to massacre and scalp -their enemies—but it seems to be the peculiar infamy -of the French to have imitated the Indians in their -most barbarous customs, and have even prided themselves -on displaying a higher refinement in cruelty -than the savages themselves. The New Englanders, -indeed, are distinctly stated by Douglass, to have -handed over their Indian prisoners to be tormented by -their Naraganset allies, but with the French this savage -practice seems to have been frequent. I have just -noticed a few instances of such inhuman conduct; but -the old governor, Frontenac, stands pre-eminent above -all his nation for such deeds. From 1691 to 1695, -nothing was more common than for his Indian prisoners -to be given up to his Indian allies to be tormented. -One of the most horrible of these scenes on -record was perpetrated under his own eye at Montreal -in 1691. The intendant’s lady, the Jesuits, and many<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">325</a></span> -influential people used all possible intreaties to save -the prisoner from such a death, but in vain. He was -given up to the <em>Christian</em> Indians of <em>Loretto</em>, and tormented -in such a manner as none but a fiend could -tolerate.<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">29</a> There was only one step beyond this, and -that was for the French to enact the torturers themselves. -That step was reached in 1695, at Machilimakinak -Fort; and whoever has not strong nerves had -better pass the following relation, which yet seems -requisite to be given if we are to understand the full -extent of the inflictions the American Indians have -received from Europeans.</p> - -<p>The successes of the Iroquois had driven the -French to madness—and the prisoner was an Iroquois. -“The prisoner being made fast to a stake, so as to -have room to move round it, a <em>Frenchman</em> began the -horrid tragedy by broiling the flesh of the prisoner’s -legs, from his toes to his knees, with the red-hot -barrel of a gun. His example was followed by an -<em>Utawawa</em>, and they relieved one another as they grew -tired. The prisoner all this while continued his -death-song, till they clapped a red-hot frying-pan on -his buttocks, when he cried out ‘Fire is strong, and -too powerful.’ Then all their Indians mocked him -as wanting courage and resolution. ‘You,’ they said, -‘a soldier and a captain, as you say, and afraid of fire:—you -are not a man.’”</p> - -<p>They continued their torments for two hours without -ceasing. An <em>Utawawa</em>, being desirous to outdo -the <em>French</em> in their refined cruelty, split a furrow from -the prisoner’s shoulder to his garter, and, filling it with -gunpowder, set fire to it. This gave him exquisite -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">326</a></span>pain, and raised excessive laughter in his tormentors. -When they found his throat so much parched that he -was no longer able to gratify their ears with his howling, -they gave him water to enable him to continue -their pleasure longer. But, at last, his strength -failing, an <em>Utawawa</em> flayed off his scalp, and threw -burning coals on his skull. Then they untied him, -and bid him run for his life. He began to run, -tumbling like a drunken man. They shut up the way -to the east; and made him run westward, the way, as -they think, to the country of miserable souls. He had -still force left to throw stones, till they put an end to -his misery by knocking him on the head with one. -After this, every one cut a slice from his body, to -conclude the tragedy with a feast.<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">30</a></p> - -<p>Such is the condition to which the practice of injustice -and cruelty can reduce men calling themselves -civilized. We need not pursue further the history of -the French in Canada, which consists only in bickerings -with the English and butchery of the Indians. -Having, therefore, given this specimen of their treatment -of the natives in their colonies, or in the vicinity -of them, we will dismiss them with an incident illustrative -of their policy, which occurred in Louisiana.</p> - -<p>When the French settled themselves in that country, -they found, amongst the neighbouring tribes, the Natchez -the most conspicuous. Their country extended -from the Mississippi to the Appalachian mountains. It -had a delightful climate, and was a beautiful region, -well watered, most agreeably enlivened with hills, -fine woods, and rich open prairies. Numbers of the -French flocked over into this delicious country, and it -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">327</a></span>was believed that it would form the centre of the great -colony they hoped to found in that part of America. -If the Natchez were such a people as Chateaubriand -has pictured them, they must have been a noble race -indeed. They were, like the Peruvians, worshippers -of the sun, and had vast temples erected to their god. -They received the French as the natives of most discovered -countries have received the Europeans, with -the utmost kindness. They even assisted them in -forming their new plantations amongst them, and the -most cordial and advantageous friendship appeared to -have grown between the two nations. Such friendship, -however, could not possibly exist between the -common run of Europeans and Indians. The Europeans -did not go so far from home for friendship; they -went for dominion. Accordingly, the French soon -threw off the mask of friendship, and treated their -hosts as slaves. They seized on whatever they -pleased, dictated their will to the Natchez, as their -masters, and drove them from their cultivated fields, -and inhabited them themselves. The deceived and -indignant people did all in their power to stop these -aggressions. They reasoned, implored, and entreated, -but in vain. Finding this utterly useless, they entered -into a scheme to rid themselves of their oppressors, -and engaged all the neighbouring nations to aid in the -design. A secret and universal league was established -amongst the Indian nations wherever the French had -any settlements. They were all to be massacred on -a certain day. To apprise all the different nations -of the exact day, the Natchez sent to every one of -them a little bundle of bits of wood, each containing -the same number, and that number being the number<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">328</a></span> -of the days that were to precede the day of general -doom. The Indians were instructed to burn in each -town one of these pieces of wood every day, and on -the day that they burnt the last they were simultaneously -to fall on the French, and leave not one -alive. As usual, the success of the conspiracy was -defeated by the compassion of an individual. The -wife, or mother, of the great chief of the Natchez had -a son by a Frenchman, and from this son she learned -the secret of the plot. She warned the French commandant -of the circumstance, but he treated her -warning with indifference. Finding, therefore, that -she could not succeed in putting the French on their -guard against a people they had now come to despise, -she resolved that, if she could not avert the fate of the -whole, she would at least afford a chance of safety to -a part. The bits of wood were deposited in the -temple of the sun, and her rank gave her access to the -temple. She abstracted a number of the bits of wood, -and thus precipitated the day of rising in that province. -The Natchez, on the burning of the last piece, fell on -the French, and, out of two hundred and twenty-two -French, massacred two hundred,—men, women, and -children. The remainder were women, whom they -retained as prisoners.</p> - -<p>The Natchez, having accomplished this destruction, -were astonished to find that not one of their allies had -stirred; and the allies were equally astonished at the -rising of the Natchez, whilst they had yet several -pieces of wood remaining. The French, however, in -the other parts of the country, were saved; fresh reinforcements -arrived from Europe, and the unfortunate -Natchez felt all the fury of their vengeance. Part<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">329</a></span> -were put to the sword; great numbers were caught -and sent to St. Domingo, as slaves; the rest fled for -safety into the country of the Chickasaws. The -Chickasaws were called upon to give them up; but -they had more sense of honour and humanity than -Europeans,—they indignantly refused; and, when the -French marched into their territories, to compel them -by force, bravely attacked and repelled them, with -repeated loss. As in Canada, Madagascar, India, and -other places, the French reaped no permanent advantage -from their treachery and cruelties, as the -other European nations did. Louisiana was eventually -ceded, in 1762, to the Spaniards, just as the French -families, from Nova Scotia, Canada, St. Vincent, -Granada, and other colonies won by the English, were -flocking into it as a place of refuge. They had all the -odium and the crime of aboriginal oppression, and left -the earth so basely obtained, to the enjoyment of -others no better than themselves.</p> -<hr /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">330</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XXI.<br /><br /> - -<small><small>THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA.</small></small></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">The man who finds an unknown country out,</div> -<div class="line">By giving it a name, acquires, no doubt,</div> -<div class="line">A gospel title, though the people there</div> -<div class="line">The pious Christian thinks not worth his care.</div> -<div class="line">Bar this pretence, and into air is hurled,</div> -<div class="line">The claim of Europe to the <em>Western World</em>.</div> -<div class="line i15"><cite>Churchill.</cite><br /><br /></div> -</div></div></div> - -<p><span class="smcap">We</span> shall now have to deal entirely with our own -nation, or with those principally derived from it. We -shall now have to observe the conduct entirely of -Protestants towards the aborigines of their settlements: -and the Catholic may ask with triumphant scorn, -“Where is the mighty difference between the ancient -professors of our faith, and the professors of that faith -which you proudly style the reformed! You accuse the -papal church of having corrupted and debased national -morality in this respect,—in what does the morality -of the Protestants differ?” I am sorry to say in -nothing. The Protestants have only too well imitated -the conduct and clung to the doctrine of the Catholics<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">331</a></span> -as it regards the rights of humanity. It is to the disgrace -of the papal church that it did not inculcate a -more Christian morality; it is to the far deeper disgrace -of Protestants, that, pretending to abandon the -corruptions and cruelties of the papists, they did not -abandon their wretched pretences for seizing upon the -possessions of the weak and the unsuspecting. So far, -however, from the behaviour of, the Protestants forming -a palliation for that of the Catholics, it becomes an -aggravation of it; for it is but the ripened fruit of -that tree of false and mischievous doctrine which they -had planted. They had set the example, and boldly -preached the right, and pleaded the divine sanction -for invasion, oppression, and extermination—such example -and exhortation are only too readily adopted—and -the Protestant conduct was but the continuation -of papal heresy. The</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">New Presbyter was but old Priest writ large.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>While we see, then, to the present hour the perpetuated -consequences of the long inculcation of papal -delusions, we must, however, confess that for the Protestants -there was, and is, less excuse than for the -Catholic laity. They had given up the Bible into -the hands of their priests, and as a matter of propriety -received the faith which they held from their dictation: -the Protestants professed that “the Bible and the -Bible alone, was the religion of the Protestants.” -The Catholics having once persuaded themselves that -the Pope was the infallible vicegerent of God on earth, -might, in their blind zeal, honestly take all that he -proclaimed to them as gospel truth; but the Protestants -disavowed and renounced his authority and infallibility. -They declared him to be the very anti<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">332</a></span>Christ, -and his church the great sorceress that made -drunk the nations with the cup of her enchantments. -What business then had they with the papal doctrine, -that the heathen were given to the believers as a possession? -The Pope declared that, as the representative -of the Deity on earth, he claimed the world, and -disposed of it as he pleased. But the Protestants -protested against any such assumption, and appealed -to the Bible; and where did they find any such doctrine -in the Bible? Yet Elizabeth of England, -granted charters to her subjects to take possession of -all countries not yet seized on by Christian nations, -with as much implicit authority as the Pope himself. -It is curious to hear her proclaiming her intimate -acquaintance with the Scripture, and yet so blindly -and unceremoniously setting at defiance all its most -sacred precepts. “I am supposed,” said she, in her -speech on proroguing parliament in 1585, “to have -many studies, but most philosophical. I must yield -this to be true, that I suppose few that are not professors, -have read more; and I need not tell you that -I am not so simple that I understand not, nor so forgetful -that I remember not; and yet, amidst my -many volumes, I hope God’s book hath not been my -seldomest lectures, in which we find that which by -reason all ought to believe.”</p> - -<p>It had been well if she had made good her boasting -by proving practically that she had understood, and -had not forgotten the real doctrines of the Christian -code. But Elizabeth, as well as her father, was, in -every respect, except that of admitting the Pope’s -supremacy, as thorough a Catholic as the best of -them; and we see her granting to Sir Humphrey<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">333</a></span> -Gilbert, of Compton in Devonshire, in 1578, a charter -as ample in its endowments as that which the king -of Spain himself gave to Columbus, on the authority -of the Pope’s bull, and securing to herself exactly the -same ratio of benefit: the Spanish commission was, in -fact, her model. She conferred on Sir Humphrey all -lands and countries that he might discover, that were -not already taken possession of by some Christian -prince. He was to hold them of England, with full -power of willing them to his heirs for ever, or disposing -of them in sale, on the simple condition of reserving -one-fifth of all the gold and silver found to the crown. -She afterwards gave a similar charter to Sir Walter -Raleigh: and her successor, James I., still further -imitated the Pope by dividing the continent of North -America, under the name of North and South Virginia, -between two trading companies, as the Pope had divided -the world between Spain and Portugal.</p> - -<p>It is really lamentable to see how utterly empty -was the pretence of reformation in the government of -England at that time. How utterly ignorant or regardless -Protestant England was of the most sacred and -unmistakeable truths of the New Testament, while it -professed to model itself upon them. The worst principles -of the papal church were clung to, because -they favoured the selfishness of despotism. The rights -of nations were as infamously and recklessly violated; -and from that time to this, Protestant England and -Protestant America continue to spurn every great principle -of Christian justice in their treatment of native -tribes: they have substituted power for conscience, -gunpowder and brandy for truth and mercy, and expulsion -from their lands and houses for charity, “that -suffereth long and is kind.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">334</a></span></p> - -<p>The shameless impudence and hypocrisy by which -nations calling themselves Christians have ever persisted, -and still persist, in this sweeping and wholesale -public robbery and violence, was happily ridiculed by -Churchill.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">Cast by a tempest on a savage coast,</div> -<div class="line">Some roving buccaneer set up a post;</div> -<div class="line">A beam, in proper form, transversely laid,</div> -<div class="line">Of his Redeemer’s cross the figure made,—</div> -<div class="line">Of that Redeemer, with whose laws his life,</div> -<div class="line">From first to last, had been one scene of strife;</div> -<div class="line">His royal master’s name thereon engraved,</div> -<div class="line"><em>Without more process the whole race enslaved;</em></div> -<div class="line"><em>Cut off that charter they from Nature drew,</em></div> -<div class="line"><em>And made them slaves to men they never knew</em>!</div> -<div class="line">Search ancient histories, consult records,</div> -<div class="line">Under this title the <em>most Christian Lords</em>,</div> -<div class="line">Hold,—thanks to conscience—more than half the ball;—</div> -<div class="line">O’erthrow this title, they have none at all.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>But the national cupidity that was proof to the -caustic ridicule of Churchill, has been proof to the still -more powerful assault of public execration, under the -growth of Christian knowledge. The Bible is now in -almost every man’s hand; its burning and shining -light blazes full on the grand precept, “Do as thou -would’st be done by;” and are the tribes of India, -or Africa, or America, or Oceanica, the better for it? -Are they not still our slaves and our Gibeonites, and -driven before our arms like the wild beasts of the -desert? We need not therefore stay to express our -abhorrence of Spanish cruelty, or describe at great -length the deeds of own countrymen in any quarter -of the globe,—it is enough to say that English and -American treatment of the aborigines of their colonies -is but Spanish cruelty repeated. With one or two<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">335</a></span> -beautiful exceptions, which we shall have the greatest -pleasure in pointing out, no more regard has been -paid to the rights or the feelings of the North American -Indians by the English and their descendants, -than was paid to the South Americans by the Spanish -and Portuguese.</p> - -<p>Every reader of history is aware of the melancholy -and disastrous commencement of most of our American -colonies. The great cause was that they were -founded in injustice. Adventurers, with charters from -the English monarch in their pockets, as the Spaniards -and Portuguese had the Pope’s bull in theirs, landed -on the coast of America and claimed it for their own, -reckoning the native inhabitants of no more account -than the bears and fallow-deer of the woods. They had -got a grant of the country from their own king; but -whence had he got <em>his</em> grant? That is not quite so -clear. The Pope’s claim is intelligible enough: he -was, in his own opinion, God’s viceroy and steward, -and disposed of his world in that character; but the -Bible was the English monarch’s law, and where did -the Bible appoint Elizabeth or James God’s steward? -Where did it appoint either of them “a judge and a -ruler over” the Indians? Truly Elizabeth, with all her -vaunting, had read her Bible to little purpose, as we -fear most monarchs and their ministers to the present -hour have done. We must say of the greater part of -North America, as Erskine said of India—“it is a -country which God never gave us, and acquired by -means that he will never justify.”</p> - -<p>The misery attending the first planting of our colonies -in America was equal to the badness of our principles. -The very first thing which the colonists in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">336</a></span> -majority of cases seem to have done, was to insult and -maltreat the natives, thus making them their mortal -enemies, and thus cutting off all chance of the succours -they needed from the land, and the security -essential to their very existence. For about a century, -nothing but wretchedness, failure, famine, massacres -by the Indians, were the news from the American -colonies. The more northern ones, as Nova Scotia, -Canada, and New York, we took from the French -and the Dutch; the more southern, as Florida and -Louisiana, were obtained at a later day from the Spaniards. -We shall here therefore confine our brief -notice chiefly to the manner of settling the central -eastern states, particularly Virginia, New England, -and Pennsylvania.</p> - -<p>For eighty-two years from the granting of the -charter by Elizabeth to Sir Humphrey Gilbert, to the -abandonment of the country by Sir Walter Raleigh -for his El Dorado visions, the colony of Virginia suffered -nothing but miseries, and was become, at that -period, a total failure. The first settlers were, like -the Spaniards, all on fire in quest of gold. They got -into squabbles with the Indians, and the remnant of -them was only saved by Sir Francis Drake happening -to touch there on his way home from a cruise in the -West Indies. A second set of adventurers were -massacred by the Indians, not without sufficient provocation; -and a third perished by the same means, -or by famine induced by their unprincipled and impolitic -treatment of the natives. The first successful -settlement which was formed was that of James-Town, -on James River, in Chesapeak Bay, in 1607. But -even here scarcely had they located themselves, when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">337</a></span> -their abuse of the Indians involved them in a savage -warfare with them. They took possession of their -hunting-grounds without ceremony; and they cheated -them in every possible way in their transactions with -them, especially in the purchases of their furs. That -they might on the easiest terms have lived amicably -with the Indians, the history of the celebrated Captain -John Smith of that time sufficiently testifies. He had -been put out of his rank, and treated with every contumely -by his fellow colonists, till they found themselves -on the verge of destruction from the enraged -natives. They then meanly implored him to save -them, and he soon effected their safety by that obvious -policy which, if men were not blinded by their own -wickedness, would universally best answer their purpose. -He began to conciliate the offended tribes; to -offer them presents and promises of kindness; and the -consequence was, they soon flocked into the settlement -again in the most friendly manner, and with plenty of -provisions. But even Smith was not sufficiently -aware of the power of friendship; he chose rather to -attack some of the Indians than to treat with them, -and the consequence was that he fell into their hands, -and was condemned to die the death of torture.</p> - -<p>But here again, the better nature of the Indians -saved him: and that incident occurred which is one -of the most romantic in American history. He was -saved from execution at the last moment, by the -Indian beauty Pocahontas, the daughter of the great -Sachem Powhatan. This young Indian woman, who -is celebrated by the colonists and writers of the time, -as of a remarkably fine person, afterwards married a -Mr. Rolfe, an English gentleman of the colony. She<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">338</a></span> -was brought over by him to see England, and presented -at court, where she was received in a distinguished -manner by James and his queen. This -marriage, which makes a great figure in the early -history of the colony, was a most auspicious event -for it. It warmly disposed the Indians towards the -English. They were anxious that the colonists should -make other alliances with them of the same nature, -and which might have been attended with the happiest -consequences to both nations; but though some of the -best families of Virginia now boast of their descent -from this connexion, the rest of the colonists of the -period held aloof from Indian marriages as beneath -them. They looked on the Indians rather as creatures -to be driven to the woods—for, unlike the negroes, they -could not be compelled to become slaves—than to be -raised and civilized; and therefore, spite of the better -principles which the short government of that excellent -man Lord Delaware had introduced, they were -soon again involved in hostilities with them. The -Indians felt deeply the insult of the refusal of alliance -through marriage with them; they felt the daily irritation -of attempts to overreach them in their bargains, -and they saw the measures they were taking to seize -on their whole country. They saw that there was -to be no common bond of interest or sympathy between -them; that there was to be a usurping and a -suffering party only; and they resolved to cut off the -grasping and haughty invaders at a blow. A wide -conspiracy was set on foot; and had it not been in -this case, as in many others, that the compassionate -feelings of one of the Indians partially revealed the -plot at the very moment of its execution, not an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">339</a></span> -Englishman would have been left alive. As it was, -a dreadful massacre ensued; and more than a fourth -of the colonists perished. The English, in their turn, -fell on the Indians, and a bloody war of extermination -followed. When the colonists could no longer reach -them in the depths of their woods, they offered them -a deceitful peace. The Indians, accustomed in their -own wars to enter sincerely into their treaties of -peace when inclined to bury the tomahawk—were -duped by the more artful Europeans. They came -forth from their woods, planted their corn, and resumed -their peaceful hunting. Just as the harvest -was ripe, the English rushed suddenly upon them, -trampled down their crops, set fire to their wigwams, -and chased them again to the woods with such -slaughter, that some of the tribes were totally exterminated!</p> - -<p>Such was the mode of settling Virginia. What -trust or cordiality could there afterwards be between -such parties? Accordingly we find, from time to -time, in the history of this colony, fresh plots of the -natives to rid themselves of the whites, and fresh expeditions -of the whites to clear the country of what -they termed the wily and perfidious Indians. These -dreadful transactions, which continued for the most -part while the English government continued in that -country, gave occasion to that memorable speech of -Logan, the chief of the Shawanees, to Lord Dunmore -the governor: a speech which will remain while the -English language shall remain, to perpetuate the -memory of English atrocity, and Indian pathos.—“I -now ask of every white man, whether he hath ever -entered the cottage of Logan when hungry, and been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">340</a></span> -refused food? Whether coming naked, and perishing -with cold, and Logan has not clothed him? During the -last war, so long and so bloody, Logan has remained -quietly upon his mat, wishing to be the advocate of -peace. Yes, such is my attachment to white men, that -even those of my nation, when they pass by me, pointed -at me, saying—‘<cite>Logan is the friend of white men!</cite>’ I -had even thought of living among you; but that was -before the injury I received from one of you. Last -summer, Colonel Cressup massacred in cold blood, and -without any provocation, all the relations of Logan. -He spared neither his wife nor his children. <cite>There is -not now one drop of my blood in the veins of any living -creature!</cite> This is what has excited my revenge. I have -sought it. I have killed several of your people, and my -hatred is appeased. For my country I rejoice at the -beams of peace; but imagine not that my joy is instigated -by my fear. Logan knows not what fear is. He -will never turn his back in order to save his life. <em>But -alas! no one remains to mourn for Logan when he shall -be no more!</em>”</p> - -<p>The conduct of the English towards the natives in -<span class="smcap">the Carolinas</span> may be summed up in a single passage -of the Abbé Raynal: “Two wars were carried -on against the natives of the most extravagant description. -All the wandering or fixed nations between -the ocean and Appalachian mountains, were attacked -and massacred without any interest or motive. Those -who escaped being put to the sword, either submitted -or were dispersed.” The remnant of the tribe of the -Tuscaroras fled into the state of New York.</p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Maryland</span>, in its early history, also exhibits its -quota of Indian bloodshed; but much of this is chargable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">341</a></span> -to the account of the colonists of Virginia. Lord Baltimore, -who first colonised this province in the reign of -Charles I., was a Catholic, who sought an asylum for -his persecuted brethren of the same faith. Since the -change of religion in England, the Catholics had experienced -the bitterness of that persecution of which -they, while in power, had been so liberal. This -seems to have had an excellent effect upon some of -them. Lord Baltimore and the colonists who went -out with him, being most of them of good Catholic -families, determined to allow liberty of conscience, -and admitted people of all sorts. This gave great -offence to their royalist neighbours in Virginia, who, -not permitting any liberty of religious sentiment, -found those whom they drove away by their severities -flocking into Maryland, and being there well received, -strengthening it at their expense. They therefore -circulated all kinds of calumnies amongst the Indians -against the Maryland Catholics, especially telling them -that they were Spaniards—a name of horror to Indian -ears. Alarmed by this representation, they fell on -the colonists whom they had at first received with -their usual kindness, laid waste their fields, massacred -without mercy all that they could meet; and were -not undeceived till after a long course of patient -endurance and friendly representation.</p> - -<p>The settlement of <span class="smcap">New England</span> presents some -new features. It was not merely a settlement of -English Protestants, but of the Protestants of Protestants—the -Puritans. A class of persons having thus -made two removes from Popery; having not only protested -against the errors of Rome, but against those of -the very church which had seceded from Rome, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">342</a></span> -professed to purify itself from its corruptions; having, -moreover, suffered severely for their religious faith, -might be supposed to have acquired far clearer views -of the rights of humanity from their better acquaintance -with the Bible, and might be expected to respect -the persons and the property of the natives in whose -lands they went to settle, more than any that went -before them. They went as men who had been driven -out of their own country, and from amongst their own -kindred, for the maintenance of the dearest privileges -and the most sacred claims of men; and they might -be supposed to address the natives as they reached -their coast in terms like these: “Ancient possessors -of a free country, give us a place of refuge amongst -you. You are termed savages, but you cannot be -more savage than the people of our own land, who -have inflicted dreadful cruelties and mutilations on us -and our friends for the faith we have in God. We -fly from savages who pretend to be civilized, but have -learned no one principle of civilization, to savages who -pretend to no civilization, but yet have, on a thousand -occasions, received white men to their shores with -benevolence and tears of joy. What the savages of -Europe are, a hundred regions drenched in the blood -of their native children can tell; that we deem you -less savage than them, the very act of our coming to -you testifies. Give us space amongst you, and let us -live as brethren.”</p> - -<p>For a time, indeed, they acted as men who might -be supposed thus to speak. The going out and landing -in this new country of this band of religious -adventurers, have been and continue to be celebrated -as the setting forth and landing of “The Pilgrim<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">343</a></span> -Fathers.” It is in itself an interesting event: the -pilgrimage of a little host of voluntary exiles, for the -sake of their religion, from their native country, to -establish a new country in the wilderness of the New -World. It is more interesting from the fact, that -their associates and descendants have grown into one -of the most intelligent and powerful portions of the -freest, and, perhaps, happiest nation on the globe. -Their landing on the coast of Massachusets was -effected under circumstances of peculiar hardship. It -took place at a spot to which they gave the name of -New Plymouth, on the 11th of November, 1620. -The weather was extremely severe; and they were -but badly prepared to contend with it. During the -winter one half of their number perished through -famine, and diseases brought on by their hardships. -The natives, too, came down to oppose their settlement,<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">31</a> -and it is difficult now to imagine how such -religious people could reconcile to their consciences -an entrance by force on the territories of a race on -whom they had no claim. They had, indeed, purchased -a tract of land of one of the chartered companies -in England; but one is at a loss to conceive -how any English company could sell a country in -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">344</a></span>another hemisphere already inhabited, and to which -they had not the slightest title to show, except “the -Bucanier’s Post.” As well might a company of Indians -sell some of their countrymen a slice of territory -on the coast of Kent; and just as good a title would -the Indians have to land, if they could, in spite of our -Kentish yeomen, and establish themselves on the spot. -Moreover, these Pilgrim Fathers had wandered from -their original destination, and had not purchased this -land at all of anybody at that time. No doubt the -Fathers <em>thought</em> that they had a right to settle in a -wild country; and simply fell in with the customs and -doctrines of the times. We might, however, have -expected clearer notions of natural right from their -acquaintance with the Bible; for we shall presently -see that there were men of their own country, and in -their own circumstances, that would not have been -easy to have taken such possession in such a manner. -We may safely believe that the Fathers did according -to their knowledge; but the precedent is dangerous, -and could not in these times be admitted: the Fathers -did not, in fact, obtain any grant from the English -till four years afterwards (1624). When they had once -got a firm footing, Massasoit, the father of the famous -Philip of Pokanoket, whom these same settlers pursued -to the death with all his tribe, except such as they -sold for slaves to Bermudas, granted them a certain extent -of lands. Subsequently purchases from the Indians -began to be considered more necessary to a good title.</p> - -<p>Eight years afterwards another company of the -same people, under John Endicott, formed a settlement -in Massachusets Bay, and founded the town of Salem. -In the following year a third company, of not less than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">345</a></span> -three hundred in number, joined them. These in the -course of time seeking fresh settlements, founded at -different periods, Boston, Charlestown, Dorchester, -Roxborough, and other towns; great numbers now, -allured by the flourishing state of the colony, flocked -over, and amongst them Harry Vane, the celebrated -Sir Harry Vane of the revolutionary parliament, and -Hugh Peters, the chaplain of Oliver Cromwell. Some -difference of opinion amongst them occasioned a considerable -body of them to settle in Providence and -Rhode Island. These were under the guidance of -their venerable pastor Roger Williams, a man who -deserves to be remembered while Christianity continues -to shed its blessings on mankind. Mr. Williams had -penetrated through the mists of his age, to the light -of divine truth, and had risen superior to the selfishness -of his countrymen. He maintained the freedom -of conscience, the right of private judgment, the freedom -of religious opinion from the touch of the magistrate. -The spirit of true Christianity had imbued his -own spirit with its love. Above all—for it was the most -novel doctrine, and as we have seen by the practice of -the whole Christian world, the hardest to adopt—he -maintained the sacred right of the natives to their own -soil; and refused to settle upon it without their consent. -<em>He and his followers purchased of the Indians the -whole territory which they took possession of!</em> This is a -fact which we cannot record without a feeling of intense -delight, for it is the first instance of such a triumph -of Christian knowledge and principle, over the -corrupt morality of Europe. We nowhere read till -now, through all this bloody and revolting history of -European aggressions, of any single man treating with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">346</a></span> -the savage natives as with men who had the same inalienable -rights as themselves.<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">32</a> It is the first bright -dawn of Christian day from the darkness of ages; the -first boundary mark put down between the possessions -of the unlettered savage, and the lawless desires of the -schooled but uncivilized European; the first recognition -of that law of property in the possessors of the -soil of every country of the earth, until the complete -establishment of which, blood must flow, the weak -must be trodden down by the strong, and civilization -and Christianity must pause in their course. Honour -to Roger Williams and his flock in Narraganset Bay! -The Puritan settlements still continued to spread. -Connecticut, and New Hampshire, and Maine were -planted by different bodies from Massachusets Bay; -and the Indians, who found that the whites diffused -themselves farther and farther over their territories, -and soon ceased to purchase as Roger Williams had -done, or even to ask permission; began to remonstrate. -Remonstrances however produced little effect. -The Indians saw that if they did not make a stand -against these encroachments they must soon be driven -out of their ancestral lands, and exterminated by those -tribes on which they must be forced. They resolved -therefore to exterminate the invaders that would hear -no reason. The Pequods, who lay near the colony of -Connecticut, called upon the Narragansets in 1637, -to join them in their scheme. The Narragansets revealed -it to the English, and both parties were speedily -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">347</a></span>in arms against each other. The different colonies of -New England had entered into an association for common -defence. The people of Connecticut called on -those of Massachusets Bay for help, which was accorded; -but before its arrival the soldiers of Connecticut, -who seemed on all occasions eager to shed Indian -blood, had attacked the Pequods where they had posted -themselves, in a sort of rude camp in a swamp, defended -with stakes and boughs of trees. The Pequods -were supposed to be a thousand strong, besides having -all their women and children with them; but their -simple fortification was soon forced, and set fire to; -and men, women, children perished in the flames, or -were cut down on rushing out, or seized and bound. -The Massachusets forces soon after joined them, and -then the Indians were hunted from place to place with -unrelenting fury. They determined to treat them, -not as brave men fighting for their invaded territories, -for their families and posterity, but as wild beasts. -They massacred some in cold blood, others they handed -over to the Narragansets to be tortured to death; and -great numbers were sold into Bermudas as slaves. In -less than three months, the great and ancient tribe of -the Pequods had ceased to exist. What did Roger -Williams say to this butchery by a Christian people? -But the spirit of resentment against the Indians grew -to such a pitch in those states that nothing but the -language of Cotton Mather, (the historian of New -England,) can express it. He calls them devils incarnate, -and declares that unless he had “a pen made of a -porcupine’s quill and dipped in aquafortis he could not -describe all their cruelties.” Could they be possibly -greater than those of the Puritan settlers, who were at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">348</a></span> -once the aggressors, and bore the name of Christian? -So deadly, indeed, became the vengeance of these -colonists, that they granted a public reward to any -one who should kill an Indian. The Assembly, says -Douglass, in 1703, voted 40<i>l.</i> premium for each Indian -scalp or captive. In the former war the premium was -12<i>l.</i> In 1706, he says, “about this time premiums -for Indian scalps and captives were advanced by act of -Assembly; viz.: per piece to impressed men 10<i>l.</i>, to -volunteers in pay 20<i>l.</i>, to volunteers serving without -pay 50<i>l.</i>, with the benefit of the captives and plunder. -Col. Hilton, with 220 men, ranges the eastern frontiers, -and kills many Indians. In 1722 the premium for -scalps was 100<i>l.</i> In 1744 it had risen to 400<i>l.</i> old -tenor; for the years 1745, 6, and 7, it stood at the -enormous sum of 1000<i>l.</i> per head to volunteers, scalp -or captive (!) and 400<i>l.</i> per head to impressed men, -wages and subsistence money to be deducted.<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">33</a> In -1744 the Cape-Sables, and St. John’s Indians being at -war with the colonies, Massachusets-Bay declared them -rebels; forbad the Pasamaquody, Penobscot, Noridgwoag, -Pigwocket, and all other Indians west of St. -John’s to hold any communication with them, and -offered for their scalps,—males 12 years old, and upwards, -100<i>l.</i> new tenor; for such, as captives, 105<i>l.</i> -For <em>women and children</em> 50<i>l.</i>, scalps!—55<i>l.</i>, captives! -The Assembly soon after, hearing that the Penobscot -and Noridgwoag Indians had joined the French, extended -premiums for scalps and captives to all places -west of Nova Scotia, and advanced them to 250<i>l.</i> new -tenor, to volunteers; and 100<i>l.</i> new tenor to troops in -pay.”<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">34</a></p> - -<p>In 1722, a Captain Harman, with 200 men, sur<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">349</a></span>prised -the Indians at Noridgwoag, and brought off -twenty-six scalps, <em>and that of Father Ralle</em>, a French -Jesuit.<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">35</a> The savage atrocities here committed by the -New Englanders were frightful. They massacred men, -women, and children; pillaged the village, robbed and -set fire to the church, and mangled the corpse of Father -Ralle most brutally.<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">36</a> For these twenty-six scalps, at -the then premium, the good people of Massachusets -paid 2600<i>l.</i> A Captain Lovel, also, seems to have -been an active scalper. “He collected,” says Raynal, -“a band of settlers as ferocious as himself, and set -out to hunt savages. One day he discovered ten of -them quietly sleeping round a large fire. He murdered -them, carried their scalps to Boston, and secured -the promised reward, of course 1000<i>l.</i>! Who could -suppose that the land of the Pilgrim Fathers, the -land of the noble Roger Williams, could have become -polluted with horrors like these!”</p> - -<p>And why were the Indians now so sharply pursued—why -such sums given as tempted these Harmans -and Lovels? Why the scalp of Father Ralle to be -stripped away from him?—Because Father Ralle had -proclaimed a very certain, but very disagreeable truth. -He preached to the Indians, “That their lands were -given to them and their children unalienably and for -ever, according to the Christian sacred oracles.” What -is so inconvenient as to preach Bible truth in countries -flagrant with injustice? The Indians began to -murmur; gave the English formal warning to leave -the lands within a set time, and as they did not -move, began to drive off their cattle. This was declared -rebellion, the soldiery were set on them, and -100<i>l.</i> a head proclaimed for their scalps.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">350</a></span></p> - -<p>This is called Governor Dummer’s war; but the -most celebrated war was that of Philip of Pokanoket, -which occurred between this war and that of the destruction -of the Pequods. The cause of Philip’s war, -which broke out in 1675, and lasted upwards of a -year, was exactly that of this subsequent one, and indeed -of every war of New England with the Indians—the -dissatisfaction of the Indians with the usurpation -of the whites. The New England people, religious -people though they were, seem to have been more -irritable, more jealous, more regardless of the rights -of the Indians, and more quick and deadly in their -vengeance on any shew of spirit in the natives, than -any other of the North American colonies. The -monstrous, and were it not for the testimony of unimpeachable -history, incredible sums offered for scalps -by these states, testify to the malignant spirit of -revenge which animated them. Even towards the -Narragansets, their firmest and most constant friends, -who lived amongst them, they shewed an irritability -and a savage relentlessness that are to us amazing. -On the faintest murmur of any dissatisfaction of this -tribe on account of their lands, or of any other tribe -making overtures of alliance to it, they were up in -arms, and ready to exterminate it. So early as 1642, -they charged Miantinomo, the great sachem of the -Narragansets, with conspiring to raise the Indians -against them. The people of Connecticut immediately -proposed, without further proof or examination, to fall -on the Indians and kill them. This bloody haste was, -however, withstood by Massachusets.<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">37</a> They summoned -Miantinomo before the court. He came, and -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">351</a></span>it is impossible not to admire his sedate and dignified -bearing there. He demanded that his accusers should -be brought face to face, and that if they could prove -him guilty of conspiracy against the colony, he was -ready to suffer death; but if they could not, they should -suffer the same punishment. “His behaviour,” says -Hutchinson, “was grave, and he gave his answers -with great deliberation and seeming ingenuity. <em>He -would never speak but in the presence</em> of two of <em>his counsellors</em>, -that they might be witnesses of everything -which passed. (No doubt he had seen enough of -‘that pen and ink work,’ of which the Indians so -often complained). Two days were spent in treaty. -He denied all that he was charged with, and pretended -that the reports to his disadvantage were raised by -Uncas, the sachem of the Mohegins, or some of his -people. He was willing to renew his former engagements; -that if any of the Indians, even the Niantics, -who, he said, were as his own flesh and blood, should -do any wrong to the English, so as neither he nor -they could satisfy without blood, he would deliver -them up, and leave them to mercy. <em>The people of -Connecticut put little confidence in him, and could hardly -be kept from falling upon him</em>, but were at last prevailed -upon by the Massachusets to desist for the present.”<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">38</a></p> - -<p>Poor Miantinomo did not long escape. Two years -afterwards, in a war with his enemy, Uncas, he was -taken prisoner, and the colonists were only too glad -to have an opportunity of getting rid of a man of -mind and influence, who felt their aggressions and -feared for his race—they outdid the savage captor in -their resentment against him. Instead of interceding -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">352</a></span>on his behalf and recommending mercy, by which -they might, at once, have set a Christian example, -and have made a fast friend, they procured his death. -Uncas, with a generosity worthy of the highest character, -instead of killing his captive, as he was entitled -by the rules of Indian war, delivered him into the -hands of the New-Englanders, and the New-Englanders -again returned him to Uncas, desiring him to -kill him, but without the usual tortures. It is wonderful -that they did not purchase his scalp, or that they -excused the torture; but a number of the English -inhabitants went out and gratified themselves with -witnessing his death.<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">39</a></p> - -<p>It was not to be marvelled at that such general -treatment, and such a crowning deed exasperated the -Narragansets to a dangerous degree. They nourished -a rooted revenge, which shewed itself on the breaking -out of Philip of Pokanoket’s war. They engaged to -bring to his aid 4000 Indians.</p> - -<p>Philip was one of the noblest specimens of the North -American Indian. He was of a fine and active person; -accomplished in all exercises of his nation, in -war and hunting. He had that quick sense of injuries, -and that sense of the honour and rights of his people -which characterise the patriot; qualities which, though -in the most cultivated and enlightened mind they may -hurry their possessor on occasionally to sharp and -vindictive acts, are the very essentials of that lofty -and noble disposition without which no great deed is -ever done. Had Philip contended for his country -against its invaders on anything like equal terms, he -would have been its saviour,—the naked Indians -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">353</a></span>against the powers and resources of the English! It -was hopeless,—he could only become the Caractacus, -or the Cassibelaunus of his nation.</p> - -<p>Philip has been painted by his enemies as a dreadful, -perfidious, and cruel wretch;—but had Philip been -the survivor how would he have painted them? With -their shameless encroachments, their destruction of -Indians, their blood-money, and their scalps, purchased -at 1000<i>l.</i> each! Philip had the deepest causes -of resentment. His father, Massasoit, had received -the strangers and sold them land. They speedily -compelled him to sign a deed, in which by “that pen -and ink work” which the Indians did not understand, -but which they soon learned to know worked them the -most cruel wrongs, they had made him to acknowledge -himself and his subjects the subjects of King James. -Philip denied that his father had any idea of the -meaning of such a treaty,—any idea of surrendering -to the English more than the land he sold them; or if -he had done so, that he had any right to give away -the liberties of his nation and posterity; the government -amongst the Indians not being hereditary, but -elective. Philip, however, was compelled to retract -and renounce such doctrines in another public document. -But the moment he became at liberty, he held -himself, and very justly, free from the stipulations of -a compulsory deed.</p> - -<p>But these were not all Philip’s grievances. His -only and elder brother, Wamsutta, or Alexander, for -the entertainment of similar patriotic sentiments, had -been seized in his own house by ten armed men sent -by Governor Winslow, and carried before him as a -caitiff, though he was at that time the powerful sachem<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">354</a></span> -of the Narragansets, his father being dead. The outrage -and insult had such an effect upon the high-spirited -youth, that they threw him into a fever, which -speedily proved fatal.<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">40</a></p> - -<p>They were these and the like injuries that drove -Philip to concert that union of the Indians which, in -1675, alarmed New England. We need not follow the -particulars of the war. It was hastened by a premature -disclosure; and Philip has been always taxed as -a murderer for putting to death John Sausaman, a -renegade Indian who betrayed the plot to the English. -The man was a confessed and undoubted traitor, and -his death was exactly what the English would have -inflicted, and was justified, not merely by the summary -proceeding in such cases of the Indians, but by the -laws of <em>civilized war</em>, if such an odd contradiction of -terms may pass. Philip, after a stout resistance, and -after performing prodigies of valour, was chased from -swamp to swamp, and at length shot by another -traitor Indian, who cut off his hand and head, and -brought them to the English. His head was exposed -on a gibbet at Plymouth for twenty years; his hand, -known by a particular scar, was exhibited in savage -triumph, and his mangled body refused burial. His -only son, a mere boy, was sold into slavery.</p> - -<p>It was during this war that the settlers lived in -such a state of continual alarm from the Indians, and -such adventures and passages of thrilling interest took -place, as will for ever furnish topics of conversation in -that country. It was then that the congregation was -alarmed while in church at Hadley, in Massachusets, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">355</a></span>on a fast-day by the Indians, and were compelled to -leave their devotions to defend themselves, when they -were surprised by seeing a grave and commanding personage, -whom they had not before noticed, assume the -command, lead them to victory, and as suddenly again -disappear. This person was afterwards found to be -Goffe, one of the English regicide judges, then hiding -in that neighbourhood. These facts Mr. Cooper has -made good use of in his story of “The Borderers.”</p> - -<p>But the facts of more importance to our history -are, that in this war 3000 Indians were said to be destroyed. -The Narragansets alone, were reduced from -2000 to about 100 men. After the peace was restored -400 Indians were ordered to assemble at Major -Walker’s, at Catchecho, 200 of whom were culled as -most notorious, some of them put to death, and the -rest sent abroad and sold as slaves. Yet all these -severities and disasters to the Indians did not extinguish -their desire to resist the aggressions of the -whites. On all sides, the Tarrateens, the Penobscots, -the Five Nations, and various other tribes, continued -to harass them; filling them with perpetual fears, and -inflicting awful cruelties and devastations on the -solitary borderers. These were the necessary fruits of -that rancorous spirit with which the harshness and injustice -of the settlers had inspired them. Randolph, -writing to William Penn from New England in 1688, -says—“This barbarous people, the Indians, were -now evilly treated by this government, who made -it their business to encroach upon their lands, and by -degrees to drive them out of all. That was the -grounds and the beginning of the last war.” And -that was the ground of all the wars waged in the -country against this unhappy people.</p> -<hr /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">356</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XXII.<br /><br /> - -<small><small>THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA—SETTLEMENT OF -PENNSYLVANIA.</small></small></h2> - -<p><span class="smcap">But</span> it may be said, it is one thing to sit at home in -our study and write of Christian principles, and another -to go out into new settlements amongst wild tribes, -and maintain them; that it is easy to condemn the -conduct of others, but might not be so easy to govern -our own temper, when assailed on all sides with -signal dangers, and irritated with cruelties; that the -Indians would not listen to persuasion; that they -were faithless, vindictive beyond measure, and fonder -of blood than of peace; that there was no possible -mode of dealing with them but driving them out, or -exterminating them.—Arise, William Penn, and give -answer! These are the very things that in his day he -heard on all hands. On all hands he was pointed to -arms, by which the colonies were defended: he was -told that nothing but force could secure the colonists -against the red men: he was told that there was no -faith in them, and therefore no faith could be kept -with them. He believed in the power of Christianity,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">357</a></span> -and therefore he did not believe these assertions. He -believed the Indians to be men, and that they were, -therefore, accessible to the language and motives of -humanity. He believed in the omnipotence of justice -and good faith, and disbelieved all the sophistry -by which wars and violence are maintained by an interested -generation. He resolved to try the experiment -of kindness and peace: it was a grand and a momentous -trial: it was no other than to put the truth of Christianity -to the test, and to learn whether the World’s -philosophy or that of the Bible were the best. It was -attempted to alarm him by all kinds of bloody bugbears: -he was ridiculed as an enthusiast, but he calmly -cast himself on his conviction of the literal truth of -the Gospel, and the result was the most splendid -triumph in history. He demonstrated, in the face of -the world, and all its arguments and all its practice, -that peace may be maintained when men will it; and -that there is no need, and therefore no excuse, for -the bloodshed and the violence that are perpetually -marking the expanding boundaries of what is oddly -enough termed civilization.</p> - -<p>William Penn received a grant of the province to -which he gave the name of Pennsylvania, as payment -for money owing to his father, Admiral Penn, from -the government. He accepted this grant, because it -secured him against any other claimant from Europe. -It gave him a title in the eyes of the Christian world; -but he did not believe that it gave him any other -title. He knew in his conscience that the country -was already in the occupation of tribes of Indians, who -inherited it from their ancestors by a term of possession, -which probably was unequalled by anything<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">358</a></span> -which the inhabitants of Europe had to shew for their -territories. I cannot better state Penn’s proceedings -on this occasion than in the words of the Edinburgh -Review, when noticing Clarkson’s Life of this Christian -statesman.</p> - -<p>“The country assigned to him by the royal charter -was yet full of its original inhabitants; and the principles -of William Penn did not allow him to look -upon that gift as a warrant to dispossess the first inhabitants -of the land. He had accordingly appointed his -commissioners the preceding year to treat with them -for the fair purchase of part of their lands, and for -their joint possession of the remainder; and the terms -of the settlement being now nearly agreed upon, he -proceeded very soon after his arrival to conclude the -settlement, and solemnly to pledge his faith, and to -ratify and confirm the treaty, in right both of the Indians -and the planters. For this purpose a grand -convocation of the tribes had been appointed near the -spot where Philadelphia now stands; and it was agreed -that he and the presiding Sachems should meet and -exchange faith under the spreading branches of a prodigious -elm-tree that grew on the banks of the river. -On the day appointed, accordingly, an innumerable -company of the Indians assembled in that neighbourhood, -and were seen, with their dark faces and brandished -arms, moving in vast swarms in the depth of -the woods that then overshaded that now cultivated -region. On the other hand, William Penn, with a -moderate attendance of friends, advanced to meet -them. He came, of course, unarmed—in his usual -plain dress—without banners, or mace, or guard, or -carriages, and only distinguished from his companions<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">359</a></span> -by wearing a blue sash of silk network (which, it -seems, is still preserved by Mr. Kett, of Seething Hall, -near Norwich), and by having in his hand a roll of -parchment, on which was engrossed the confirmation -of the treaty of purchase and amity. As soon as he -drew near the spot where the Sachems were assembled, -the whole multitude of the Indians threw down their -weapons, and seated themselves on the ground in -groups, each under his own chieftain, and the presiding -chief intimated to William Penn that the natives -were ready to hear him.</p> - -<p>“Having been thus called upon he began:—‘The -Great Spirit,’ he said, ‘who made him and them, who -ruled the heaven and the earth, and who knew the -innermost thoughts of man, knew that he and his -friends had a hearty desire to live in peace and friendship -with them, and to serve them to the uttermost of -their power. It was not their custom to use hostile -weapons against their fellow-creatures, for which -reason they had come unarmed. Their object was -not to do injury, and thus provoke the Great Spirit, -but to do good. They were then met on the broad -pathway of goodfaith and goodwill, so that no advantage -was to be taken on either side, but all was to be -openness, brotherhood, and love.’ After these and -other words, he unrolled the parchment, and, by means -of the same intrepreter, conveyed to them, article by -article, the conditions of the purchase, and the words -of the compact then made for their eternal union. -Among other things, they were not to be molested, -even in the territory they had alienated, for it was -to be common to them and the English. They were -to have the same liberty to do all things therein re<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">360</a></span>lating -to the improvement of their grounds and providing -sustenance for their families, which the English -had. If disputes should arise between the two, they -should be settled by twelve persons, half of whom -should be English, and half Indians. He then paid -them for the land, and made them many presents -besides from the merchandise which had been open -before them. Having done this, he laid the roll of -parchment on the ground, observing again that the -ground should be common to both people. He then -added that he would not do as the Marylanders did, -that is, call them children, or brothers only: for often -parents were apt to whip their children too severely, -and brothers sometimes would differ; neither would he -compare the friendship between him and them to a chain, -for the rain might sometimes rust it, or a tree might -fall and break it; but he should consider them as the -same flesh and blood as the Christians, and the same as -if one man’s body was to be divided into two parts. He -then took up the parchment, and presented it to the -Sachem who wore the horn in the chaplet, and desired -him and the other Sachems to preserve it carefully -for three generations, that their children might know -what had passed between them, just as if he himself -had remained with them to repeat it.</p> - -<p>“The Indians in return, made long and stately -harangues, of which, however, no more seems to have -been remembered, but that ‘they pledged themselves -to live in love with William Penn and his children as -long as the sun and moon shall endure.’ Thus ended -this famous treaty, of which Voltaire has remarked -with so much truth and severity, ‘That it was the only -one ever concluded which was not ratified by an oath, -and the only one that never was broken.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">361</a></span></p> - -<p>“Such indeed was the spirit in which the negotiation -was entered into, and the corresponding settlement -concluded, that for the space of more than -seventy years, and so long indeed as the Quakers retained -the chief power in the government, the peace -and amity were never violated; and a large and most -striking, though solitary, example afforded of the -facility with which they who are really sincere and -friendly in their own views, may live in harmony with -those who are supposed to be peculiarly fierce and -faithless. We cannot bring ourselves to wish that -there were nothing but Quakers in the world, because -we fear it would be insupportably dull; but when we -consider what tremendous evils daily arise from the -petulance and profligacy, and ambition and irritability -of sovereigns and ministers, we cannot help thinking -it would be the most efficacious of all reforms to choose -all those ruling personages out of that plain, pacific, -and sober-minded sect.”</p> - -<p>There is no doubt that Penn may be declared the -most perfect Christian statesman that ever lived. He -had the sagacity to see that men, to be made trustworthy, -need only to be treated as men;—that the -doctrines of the New Testament were to be taken -literally and fully; and he had the courage and -honesty, in the face of all the world’s practice and -maxims, to confide in Christian truth. It fully justified -him. What are the cunning and the so-called -profound policy of the most subtle statesmen to this? -This confidence, at which the statesmen of our own -day would laugh as folly and simplicity, proved to be -a reach of wisdom far beyond their narrow vision. -But it is to be feared that the selfishness of govern<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">362</a></span>ments -is as much concerned as their short-sightedness -in the clumsy and ruinous manner in which affairs between -nations are managed; for what would become -of armies and navies, places and pensions, if honest -treatment should take place of the blow first and the -word after, and of all that false logic by which aggression -is made to appear necessary?</p> - -<p>The results of this treaty were most extraordinary. -While the Friends retained the government of Pennsylvania -it was governed without an army, and was -never assailed by a single enemy. The Indians retained -their firm attachment to them; and, more than -a century afterwards, and after the government of the -state had long been resumed by England, and its old -martial system introduced there, when civil war broke -out between the colonies and the mother country, and -the Indians were instigated by the mother to use the -tomahawk and the scalping-knife against the children, -using,—according to her own language, which so -roused the indignation of Lord Chatham,—“every -means which God and Nature had put into her -power,” to destroy or subdue them,—these Indians, -who laid waste the settlements of the colonists with -fire, and drenched them in blood, remembered the -treaty with the <em>sons of Onas</em>, <span class="smcap lowercase">AND KEPT IT INVIOLATE</span>! -They had no scruple to make war on the other -colonists, for they had not been scrupulous in their -treatment of them, and they had many an old score to -clear off; but they had always found the Friends the -same,—their friends and the friends of peace,—and -they reverenced in them the sacred principles of faith -and amity. Month after month the Friends saw the -destruction of their neighbours’ houses and lands; yet<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">363</a></span> -they lived in peace in the midst of this desolation. -They heard at night the shrieks of the victims of the -red men’s wrath, and they saw in the morning where -slaughter had reached neighbouring hearths, and -where the bloody scalp had been torn away; but -their houses remained untouched. Every evening the -Indians came from their hidden lairs in the woods, and -lifted the latches of their doors, to see if they remained -in full reliance on their faith, and then they -passed on. Where a house was secured with lock -or bolt, they knew that suspicion had entered, and -they grew suspicious too. But, through all that -bloody and disgraceful war, only two Friends were -killed by the Indians; and it was under these circumstances:—A -young man, a tanner, had gone from the -village where he lived to his tan-yard, at some distance, -through all this period of outrage. He went -and came daily, without any arms, with his usual air -of confidence, and therefore in full security. The -Indians from the thickets beheld him, but they never -molested him. Unfortunately, one day he went as -usual to his business, but carried a gun on his arm. -He had not proceeded far into the country when a -shot from the bush laid him dead. When the Indians -afterwards learned that he was merely carrying the -gun to kill birds that were injuring his corn, “Foolish -young man,” they said; “we saw him carrying arms, -and we inferred that he had changed his principles.”</p> - -<p>The other case was that of a woman. She had -lived in a village which had been laid waste, and most -of the inhabitants killed, by the Indians. The soldiers, -from a fort not far off, came, and repeatedly entreated -her to go into the fort, before she experienced the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">364</a></span> -same fate as her neighbours. For a long time she -refused, but at length fear entered her mind, and she -went with them. In the fort, however, she became -wretched. She considered that she had abandoned -the principles of peace by putting herself under the -protection of arms. She felt that she had cast a -slander on the hitherto inviolate faith of the Indians, -which might bring most disastrous consequences on -other Friends who yet lived in the open country -on the faith of the Indian integrity. She therefore -determined to go out again, and return to her own -house. She went forth, but had scarcely reached the -first thicket when she was shot by the Indians, who -now looked upon her as an enemy, or at least as a -spy.</p> - -<p>These are the only exceptions to the perfect security -of Friends through all the Indian devastations in -America; for wherever there were Friends, any tribe -of Indians felt bound to recognize the sons of Father -Onas: they would have been ashamed to injure an -unarmed man, who was unarmed because he preserved -peace as the command of the Great Spirit. It was -during this war that the very treaty made with Penn -was shewn by the Indians to some British officers, -being preserved by them with the most sacred care, as -a monument of a transaction without a parallel, and -equally honourable to themselves as to the Friends.</p> - -<p>What a noble testimony is this to the divine nature -and perfect adaptation of Christianity to all human -purposes; and yet when has it been imitated? and -how little is heard of it! From that day to the present -both Americans and English have gone on outraging -and expelling the natives from their lands;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">365</a></span> -and it was but the other day that the English officers -at the Cape were astonished that a similar conduct -towards the Caffres produced a similar result. How -lost are the most splendid deeds of the Christian philosopher -on the ordinary statesman! But the Friends -are a peaceable people, and “doing good they blush to -find it fame.” If they would make more noise in the -world, and din their good deeds in its ears, they -would be never the worse citizens. The landing of -the Pilgrim Fathers in America is annually celebrated -in New England with great ceremony and eclat. It -has been everywhere extolled by those holding similar -religious views, and has been eulogised in poetry -and prose. The landing of the Friends in Pennsylvania -was a landing of the Pilgrim Fathers not less -important: they went there under similar circumstances: -they fled from persecution at home—a bitterer -and more savage persecution even than befel -the Puritans—to seek a home in the wilderness. -They equalled the good Roger Williams in their justice -to the Indians—they bought their lands of them—and -they far exceeded him and his followers in their -conception of the power of Christianity, and their -practical demonstration of it. They are the only -people in the history of the world that have gone into -the midst of a fierce and armed race, and a race irritated -with rigour too, without arms;<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">41</a> established a -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">366</a></span>state on the simple basis of justice, and to the last -hour of their government maintained it triumphantly -on the same. Their conduct to the Indians never -altered for the worse; Pennsylvania, while under their -administration, never became, as New England, a -slaughter-house of the Indians. The world cannot -charge them with the extinction of a single tribe—no, -nor with that of a single man!</p> - -<p>It is delightful to close this chapter of American -settlements with so glorious a spectacle of Christian -virtue;—would to God that it were but more imitated!<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">42</a></p> -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">367</a></span></p> -<h2>CHAPTER XXIII.<br /><br /> - -<small><small>THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA TILL THE REVOLT OF -THE COLONIES.</small></small></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">In Carolina’s palmy bowers,</div> -<div class="line">Amid Kentucky’s wastes of flowers,</div> -<div class="line">Where even the way-side hedge displays</div> -<div class="line">Its jasmines and magnolias;</div> -<div class="line">O’er the monarda’s vast expanse</div> -<div class="line">Of scarlet, where the bee-birds glance</div> -<div class="line">Their flickering wings, and breasts that gleam</div> -<div class="line">Like living fires;—that dart and scream—</div> -<div class="line">A million little knights that run</div> -<div class="line">Warring for wild-flowers in the sun;—</div> -<div class="line">His eye might rove through earth and sky,</div> -<div class="line">His soul was in the days gone by.<br /><br /></div> -</div></div></div> - -<p><span class="smcap">We</span> may pass rapidly over this space. The colonial -principles of action were established regarding the -Indians, and they went on destroying and demoralizing -them till the reduction of Canada by the English. -That removed one great source of Indian destruction; -for while there was such an enemy to repulse, the -Indians were perpetually called upon and urged forward -in the business of slaughter and scalping. It -was the same, indeed, on every frontier where there -was an enemy, French or Spanish. We have the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">368</a></span> -history of Adair, who was a resident in the south-western -states for above forty years. This gentleman, -who has given us a very minute account of the manners, -customs, and opinions of the Choctaws, Cherokees, -and Chickasaws, amongst whom he chiefly -resided in the Carolinas, and who is firmly convinced -that they are descended from the Ten Tribes of Israel, -and, moreover, gives us many proofs of the excellence -of their nature—yet, most inconsistently, is loud -in praise of the French policy of setting the different -Indian nations by the ears; and condemnation of anything -like conciliation and forbearance. Speaking of -some such attempts in 1736, he says—“Our rivals, -the French, never neglect so favourable an opportunity -of securing and promoting their interests. We -have known more than one instance wherein <em>their -wisdom</em> has not only found out proper means to disconcert -the most dangerous plans of disaffected savages, -<em>but likewise to foment, and artfully to encourage, great -animosities between the heads of ambitious rival families, -till they fixed them in an implacable hatred against each -other, and all of their respective tribes</em>.”<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">43</a></p> - -<p>That he was in earnest in his admiration of such a -policy, he goes on to relate to us, with the greatest -<em>naiveté</em> and in the most circumstantial manner, how he -recommended to the Governor of South Carolina to -employ the Choctaws to scalp and extirpate the French -traders in Louisiana, who, no doubt, interfered with -his own gains. He lets us know that he got such -a commission; and informs us particularly of the -presents and flatteries with which he plied a great -Choctaw chief, called Red Shoes, to set him on this -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">369</a></span>work; in which he was successful. “I supplied each -of them with arms, ammunition, and presents in -plenty; gave them a French scalping-knife, which -had been used against us, and even vermilion, to be -used in the flourishing way, with the dangerous -French snakes, when they killed and scalped them.... -They soon went to work—they killed the -strolling French pedlars—turned out against the -Mississippi Indians and Mobillians, and the flame -raged very high. A Choctaw woman gave a French -pedlar warning: he mounted his horse, but Red Shoes -ran him down in about fifteen minutes, and had scalped -him before the rest came up.... Soon after a great -number of Red Shoes’ women came to me with the -French scalps and other trophies of war.”... “In the -next spring, 1747,” he tells us “a large body of Muskohges -and Chickasaws embarked on the Mississippi, -and went down it to attack the French settlements. -Here they burned a large village, and their leader -being wounded, they in revenge killed all their prisoners; -and overspread the French settlements in their -fury like a dreadful whirlwind, destroying all before -them, to the astonishment and terror even of those -that were far remote from the skirts of the direful -storm.” This candid writer tells us that the French -Louisianians were now in a lamentable state—but, -says he, “they had no reason to complain; we were -only retaliating innocent blood which <em>they</em> had caused -to be shed by <em>their</em> red mercenaries!” He laments -that some treacherous traders put a stop to his scheme, -or they would soon have driven all the French out of -Alabama.<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">44</a></p> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">370</a></span></p> -<p>Who were the savages? and how did the English -expect the Indians, under such a course of tuition, to -become civilized? This was the state of things in the -south. In the north, not a war broke out between -England and France, but the same scenes were -acting between the English American settlements -and Canada. In 1692 we find Captain Ingoldsby -haranguing the chiefs of the Five Nations at Albany, -and exhorting them to “keep the enemy in perpetual -alarm by the incursions of parties into their country.” -And the Indian orator shrewdly replying—“Brother -Corlear (their name for the governor of New York) is -it not to secure your frontiers? Why, then, not one -word of your people that are to join us? We will -carry the war into the heart of the enemy’s country—but, -brother Corlear, how comes it that none of our -brethren, fastened in the same chain with us, offer -their hand in this general war? Pray, Corlear, how -come Maryland, Delaware River, and New England -to be disengaged? Do they draw their arms out of -the chain? or has the great king commanded that the -few subjects he has in this place should make war -against the French alone?”<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">45</a></p> - -<p>It was not always, however, that the Indians had to -complain that the English urged them into slaughter -of the French and did not accompany them. The -object of England in America now became that of -wresting Canada entirely from France. For this purpose, -knowing how essential it was to the success of -this enterprise that they should not only have the -Indians well affected, so as to prevent any incursions -of the French Indians into their own states while the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">371</a></span> -British forces were all concentrated on Canada, and -still more how absolutely necessary to have a large -body of Indians to pioneer the way for them through -the woods, without which their army would be sure to -be cut off by the French Indians—great endeavours -were now made to conclude treaties of peace and mutual -aid with all the great tribes in the British American -colonies. Such treaties had long existed with the Five -Nations, now called the Six Nations, by the addition -of the remainder of the Tuscarora Indians who had -escaped from our exterminating arms in North Carolina, -and fled to the Five Nations; and also with the -Delaware and Susquehanna Indians. Conferences -were held with the chiefs of these tribes and British -Commissioners from Pennsylvania, Maryland, New -York and Virginia, and, ostensibly, a better spirit -was manifested towards the Indian people. The most -celebrated of these conferences were held at Philadelphia -in 1742; at Lancaster in Pennsylvania in 1744; -and at Albany, in the state of New York, in 1746. -The details of the conferences developed many curious -characteristics both of the white and the red men. -Canassateego, an Onondaga chief, was the principal -speaker for the Indians on all these occasions, and it -would be difficult to point to the man in any country, -however civilized and learned, who has conducted -national negotiations with more ability, eloquence, -and sounder perception of actual existing circumstances, -amid all the sophistry employed on such -occasions by European diplomatists—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">That lead to bewilder, and dazzle to blind.—<cite>Beattie.</cite></div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>It had been originally agreed that a certain sum -should be given to the Indians, or rather its value in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">372</a></span> -goods, to compensate them for their trouble and time in -coming to these conferences; that their expenses should -be paid during their stay; and that all their kettles, -guns, and hatchets should be mended for them; and -the speakers took good care to remind the colonists -of these claims, and to have them duly discharged. -As it may be interesting to many to see what sort of -goods were given on these occasions, we may take the -following as a specimen, which were delivered to them -at the conference of 1742, in part payment for the -cession of some territory.</p> - -<table summary="part payment"><tr> -<td class="tdr">500</td><td class="tdl">pounds of powder.</td><td class="tdr">60</td><td class="tdl">kettles.</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">600</td><td class="tdl">pounds of lead.</td><td class="tdr">100</td><td class="tdl">tobacco tongs.</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">45</td><td class="tdl">guns.</td><td class="tdr">100</td><td class="tdl">scissors.</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">60</td><td class="tdl">Stroud matchcoats.</td><td class="tdr">500</td><td class="tdl">awl blades.</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">100</td><td class="tdl">blankets.</td><td class="tdr">120</td><td class="tdl">combs.</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">100</td><td class="tdl">Duffil matchcoats.</td><td class="tdr">2000</td><td class="tdl">needles.</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">200</td><td class="tdl">yards half-thick.</td><td class="tdr">1000</td><td class="tdl">flints.</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">100</td><td class="tdl">shirts.</td><td class="tdr">24</td><td class="tdl">looking-glasses.</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">40</td><td class="tdl">hats.</td><td class="tdr">2</td><td class="tdl">pounds of vermilion.</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">40</td><td class="tdl">pairs shoes and buckles.</td><td class="tdr">100</td><td class="tdl">tin pots.</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">40</td><td class="tdl">pairs stockings.</td><td class="tdr">1000</td><td class="tdl">tobacco pipes.</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">100</td><td class="tdl">hatchets.</td><td class="tdr">200</td><td class="tdl">pounds of tobacco.</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">500</td><td class="tdl">knives.</td><td class="tdr">24</td><td class="tdl">dozen of gartering.</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdr">100</td><td class="tdl">hoes.</td><td class="tdr">25</td><td class="tdl">gallons of rum.</td> -</tr></table> -<p>In another list we find no less than <em>four dozens of -jew’s harps</em>. Canassateego, on the delivery of the above -goods, made a speech which lets us into the real notions -and feelings of the Indians on what was going on -in that day. “We received from the proprietor,” said -he, “yesterday, some goods in consideration of our -release of the lands on the west side of Susquehanna. -It is true, we have the full quantity according to -agreement; but, if the proprietor had been here in -person, we think, in regard to our numbers and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">373</a></span> -poverty, he would have made an addition to them. If -the goods were only to be divided amongst the Indians -present, a single person would have but a small portion; -but if you consider what numbers are left behind -equally entitled with us to a share, there will be -extremely little. We therefore desire, if you have -the keys of the proprietor’s chest, you will open it and -take out a little more for us.</p> - -<p>“We know our lands are now become more valuable. -<em>The white people think we don’t know their value; -but we are sensible that the land is everlasting, and the -few goods we receive for it, are soon worn out and gone.</em> -For the future we will sell no lands but when Brother -Onas is in the country; and we will know beforehand -the quantity of goods we are to receive. Besides, -we are not well used with respect to the lands -still unsold by us. Your people daily settle on our -lands, and spoil our hunting. We must insist on your -removing them, as you know they have no right to -settle to the north of the Kittochtinny Hills.”</p> - -<p>As it was necessary to conciliate them, more goods -were given and justice promised. On the other hand, -the English complaining of the Delawares having sold -some land without authority from the Six Nations, -on whom they were dependent, Canassateego pronounced -a very severe reprimand to the Delawares, -and ordered them to do so no more.</p> - -<p>At the conference of 1744, the Indians gave one -of those shrewd turns for their own advantage to the -boastings of the whites, which shew the peculiar -humour that existed in the midst of their educational -gravity. The governor of Maryland vaunting of a -great sea-fight in which the English had beaten the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">374</a></span> -French; Canassateego immediately observed: “In -that great fight you must have taken a great quantity -of rum, the Indians will therefore thank you for a -glass. It was handed round to them in <em>very small</em> -glasses, called by the governor <em>French glasses</em>. The -Indians drank it, and at the breaking up of the council -that day, Canassateego said, “Having had the pleasure -of drinking a <em>French glass</em> of the great quantity -of rum taken, the Indians would now, before separating -be glad to drink an English glass, to make us -rejoice with you in the victory.” It was impossible to -waive so ingenious a demand, and a <em>large glass</em>, to indicate -the superiority of English liberality, was now -handed round.</p> - -<p>In this conference, the Indians again complained of -the daily encroachments upon them, and of the inadequate -price given for the lands they sold. The -Governor of Maryland boldly told them that the land -was in fact acquired by the English by conquest, and -that they had besides a claim of possession of 100 -years. To this injudicious speech the Indians replied -with indignation, “What is one hundred years in -comparison of the time since <em>our claim</em> began?—since -we came out of this ground? For we must tell you -that long before one hundred years <em>our ancestors came -out of this very ground</em>, and their children have remained -here ever since. <em>You</em> came out of the ground -in a country that lies beyond the seas; <em>there</em> you may -have a just claim; but <em>here</em> you must allow us to be -your elder brethren, and the lands to belong to us long -before you knew anything of them.” They then reminded -them of the manner in which they had received -them into the country. In figurative language they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">375</a></span> -observed, “When the Dutch came here, above a hundred -years ago, we were so well pleased with them -that we tied their ship to the bushes on the shore; and -afterwards liking them better the longer they stayed -with us, and thinking the bushes too slender, we removed -the rope and tied it to the trees; and as the -trees were liable to be blown down, or to decay of -themselves, we, from the affection that we bore them, -again removed the rope, and tied it to a strong and -high rock (here the interpreter said they mean the -Oneido country); and not content with this, for its -further security, we removed the rope to the big -mountain (here the interpreter said, they mean the -Onondaga country), and there we tied it very fast, and -rolled wampum about it, and to make it still more -secure, we stood upon the wampum, and sat down -upon it to defend it, and to prevent any hurt coming -to it, and did our best endeavours that it might remain -for ever. During all this time the Dutch acknowledged -our right to the lands, and solicited us from time to -time, to grant them parts of our country. When the -English governor came to Albany, and we were told -the Dutch and English were become one people, the -governor looked at the rope which tied the ship to the -big mountain, and seeing that it was only of wampum -and liable to rot, break, and perish in a course of years, -he gave us a silver chain, which he told us would be -much stronger, and would last for ever.</p> - -<p>“We had then,” said they pathetically, “room -enough and plenty of deer, which was easily caught; -and though we had not knives, hatchets, or guns, we -had knives of stone, and hatchets of stone, and bows -and arrows, which answered our purpose as well as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">376</a></span> -the English ones do now, for we are now straitened; -we are often in want of deer; we have to go far to -seek it, and are besides liable to many other inconveniences, -and particularly from that <em>pen-and-ink work -that is going on at the table</em>!” pointing to the secretary. -“You know,” they continued, “when the white -people came here they were poor—they have got our -lands, and now <em>they</em> are become rich, and <em>we</em> are poor. -<em>What little we get for the land soon goes away, but the -land lasts for ever!</em>”</p> - -<p>It was necessary to soothe them—the governor had -raised a spirit which told him startling truths. It -shewed that the Indians were not blind to the miserable -fee for which they were compelled to sell their country. -“Your great king,” said they, “might send you -over to conquer the Indians; but it looks to us that -God did not send you—if he had, he would not have -placed the sea where he has, to keep you and us -asunder.” The governor addressed them in flattering -terms, and added, “We have a chest of new goods, -and the key is in our pockets. You are our brethren: -the Great King is our common Father, and we will -live with you as children ought to do—in peace and -love.”</p> - -<p>The Indians were strenuously exhorted to use all -means to bring the western natives into the league. -At the Conference of 1746, held at Albany, it became -sufficiently evident for what object all this conciliation -and these endeavours to extend their alliance amongst -the Indians were used. A great and decisive attack -upon Canada was planning: and it is really awful to -read the language addressed to the assembled Indians, -to inflame them with the spirit of the most malignant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">377</a></span> -hatred and revenge against the French. Mr. Cadwallader -Colden, one of His Majesty’s Council and -Surveyor-general of New York, and the historian of -the Five Nations, on whose own authority these -facts are stated, addressed the Indians, owing to the -Governor’s illness, in the speech prepared for the -occasion. He called upon them to remember all the -French had done to them; what they did at Onondaga; -how they invaded the Senekas; what mischiefs they -did to the Mohawks; how many of their countrymen -suffered at the fire at Montreal; how they had sent -priests amongst them to lull them to sleep, when they -intended to knock them on the head. “I hear,” then -added he, “they are attempting to do the same now. -I need not remind you what revenge your fathers -took for these injuries, when they put all the isle of -Montreal, and a great part of Canada, to fire and -sword. Can you think the French forget this? No! -they are watching secretly to destroy you. But if -your fathers could now rise out of their graves, how -would their hearts leap with joy to see this day, when -so glorious an opportunity is put into your hands to -revenge all the injuries of your country, etc. etc.” He -called on them to accompany the English, to win -glory, and promised them great reward.</p> - -<p>But these horrible fire-brands of speech,—these -truly “burning words” were not all the means used. -English gentlemen were sent amongst the tribes to -arouse them by every conceivable means. The celebrated -Mr. William Johnson of Mohawk, who had -dreamed himself into a vast estate in that country,<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">46</a> -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">378</a></span>and who afterwards, as Sir William Johnson, was so -distinguished as the leader of the Indians at the fall -of Quebec, and the conquest of Canada, now went -amongst the Mohawks, dressed like a Mohawk chief. -He feasted them at his castle on the Mohawk river; -he gave them dances in their own country style, and -danced with them; and led the Mohawk band to this -very conference.</p> - -<p>This enterprise came to nothing; but for the successful -one of 1759 the same stimulants were applied, -and the natives, to the very Twightwees and Chickasaws, -brought into the league, either to march against -the French, or to secure quiet in the states during the -time of the invasion of Canada. And what was their -reward? Scarcely was Canada reduced, and the -services of the Indians no longer needed, when they -found themselves as much encroached upon and insulted -as ever. Some of the bloodiest and most desolating -wars which they ever waged against the English -settlements, took place between our conquest of Canada -and our war against the American colonies themselves. -It was the long course of injuries and insults -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">379</a></span>which the Indians had suffered from the settlers that -made them so ready to take up the tomahawk and -scalping-knife at the call, and induced by the blood-money, -of the mother-country against her American -children. The employment and instigation of the -Indians to tomahawk the settlers brings down British -treatment of the Indians to the very last moment of -our power in that country. What were our notions -of such enormities may be inferred from their being -called in the British Parliament “<em>means which God -and nature have put into our hands</em>,”—and from Lord -Cornwallis, our general then employed against the -Americans, expressing, in 1780, his “<em>satisfaction</em> that -the Indians had pursued and <em>scalped</em> many of the -enemy!”</p> - -<p>This was our conduct towards the Indians to the -last hour of our dominion in their country. We -drove them out of their lands, or cheated them out of -them by making them drunk. We robbed them of -their furs in the same manner; and on all occasions -we inflamed their passions against their own enemies -and ours. We made them ten times more cruel, perfidious, -and depravedly savage than we found them, -and then upbraided them as irreclaimable and merciless, -and thereon founded our convenient plea that -they must be destroyed, or driven onward as perishing -shadows before the sun of civilization.</p> - -<p>Before quitting the English in America, we need -only, to complete our view of their treatment of the -natives, to include in it a glance at that treatment in -those colonies which we yet retain there; and that is -furnished by the following Parliamentary Report, -(1837.)</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">380</a></span></p> - -<h3>NEWFOUNDLAND.</h3> -<div class="blockquot"> -<p>To take a review of our colonies, beginning with Newfoundland. -There, as in other parts of North America, it seems to have been, for -a length of time, accounted a “meritorious act” to kill an Indian.<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">47</a></p> - -<p>On our first visit to that country, the natives were seen in every part -of the coast. We occupied the stations where they used to hunt and -fish, thus reducing them to want, while we took no trouble to indemnify -them, so that, doubtless, many of them perished by famine; -we also treated them with hostility and cruelty, and “many were slain -by our own people, as well as by the Micmac Indians,” who were -allowed to harass them. They must, however, have been recently -very numerous, since, in one place, Captain Buchan found they had -“run up fences to the extent of 30 miles,” with a variety of ramifications, -for the purpose of conducting the deer down to the water, a -work which would have required the labour of a multitude of hands.</p> - -<p>It does not appear that any measures were taken to open a communication -with them before the year 1810, when, by order of Sir. J. -Duckworth, an attempt was made by Captain Buchan, which proved -ineffectual. At that time he conceived that their numbers around -their chief place of resort, the Great Lake, were reduced to 400 or 500. -Under our treatment they continued rapidly to diminish; and it -appears probable that the last of the tribe left at large, a man and a -woman, were shot by two Englishmen in 1823. Three women had -been taken prisoners shortly before, and they died in captivity. In -the colony of Newfoundland, it may therefore be stated that we have -exterminated the natives.<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">48</a></p> -</div> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">381</a></span></p> - -<h3>CANADIAN INDIANS.</h3> -<div class="blockquot"> -<p>The general account of our intercourse with the North American -Indians, as distinct from missionary efforts, may be given in the words -of a converted Chippeway chief, in a letter to Lord Goderich: “We -were once very numerous, and owned all Upper Canada, and lived by -hunting and fishing; but the white men who came to trade with us -taught our fathers to drink the fire-waters, which has made our people -poor and sick, and has killed many tribes, till we have become very -small.”<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">49</a></p> - -<p>It is a curious fact, noticed in the evidence, that, some years ago, the -Indians practised agriculture, and were able to bring corn to our -settlements, then suffering from famine; but we, by driving them -back and introducing the fur trade, have rendered them so completely -a wandering people, that they have very much lost any disposition -which they might once have felt to settle. All writers on the Indian -race have spoken of them, in their native barbarism, as a noble people; -but those who live among civilised men, upon reservations in our own -territory, are now represented as “reduced to a state which resembles -that of gipsies in this country.” Those who live in villages among -the whites “are a very degraded race, and look more like dram-drinkers -than people it would be possible to get to do any work.”</p> - -<p>To enter, however, into a few more particulars.—The Indians of -New Brunswick are described by Sir H. Douglass, in 1825, as -“dwindled in numbers,” and in a “wretched condition.”</p> - -<p>Those of Nova Scotia, the Micmacs (by Sir J. Kempt), as disinclined -to settle, and in the habit of bartering their furs, “unhappily, -for rum.”<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">50</a></p> - -<p>General Darling’s statement as to the Indians of the Canadas, -drawn up in 1828, speaks of the interposition of the government -being urgently called for in behalf of the helpless individuals whose -landed possessions, where they have any assigned to them, are daily -plundered by their designing and more enlightened white brethren.<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">51</a></p> - -<p>Of the Algonquins and Nipissings, General Darling writes, “Their -situation is becoming alarming, by the rapid settlement and improvement -of the lands on the banks of the Ottawa, on which they were -placed by the government in the year 1763, and which tract they have -naturally considered as their own. The result of the present state of -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">382</a></span>things is obvious, and such as can scarcely fail in time to be attended -with bloodshed and murder; for, driven from their own resources, -they will naturally trespass on those of other tribes, who are equally -jealous of the intrusion of their red brethren as of white men. Complaints -on this head are increasing daily, while the threats and admonitions -of the officers of the department have been insufficient to control -the unruly spirit of the savage, who, driven by the calls of hunger -and the feelings of nature towards his offspring, will not be scrupulous -in invading the rights of his brethren, as a means of alleviating his -misery, when he finds the example in the conduct of his white father’s -children practised, as he conceives, towards himself.”<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">52</a></p> - -<p>The general also speaks of the “degeneracy” of the Iroquois, and -of the degraded condition of most of the other tribes, with the exception -of those only who had received Christian instruction. Later testimony -is to the same effect. The Rev. J. Beecham, secretary to the -Wesleyan Missionary Society, says he has conversed with the Chippeway -chief above referred to, on the condition of the Indians on the -boundary of Upper Canada. That he stated most unequivocally that -previously to the introduction of Christianity they were rapidly -wasting away; and he believed that if it had not been for the introduction -of Christianity they would speedily have become extinct. As -the causes of this waste of Indian life, he mentions the decrease of the -game, the habit of intoxication, and the European diseases. The -small-pox had made great ravages. He adds, “The information -which I have derived from this chief has been confirmed by our missionaries -stationed in Upper Canada, and who are now employed -among the Indian tribes on the borders of that province. My inquiries -have led me to believe, that where Christianity has not been -introduced among the aboriginal inhabitants of Upper Canada, they -are melting away before the advance of the white population. This remark -applies to the Six Nations, as they are called, on the Great River; -the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Senacas, Cayugas, and Tuscaroras, -as well as to all the other tribes on the borders of the province.” -Of the ulterior tribes, the account given by Mr. King, who accompanied -Captain Back in his late Arctic expedition, is deplorable: -he gives it as his opinion, that “the Northern Indians have decreased -greatly, and decidedly from contact with the Europeans.”</p> - -<p>Thus, the Cree Indians, once a powerful tribe, “have now degenerated -into a few families, congregated about the European establish<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">383</a></span>ments, -while some few still retain their ancient rights, and have -become partly allies of a tribe of Indians that were once their slaves.” -He supposes their numbers to have been reduced within thirty or -forty years from 8,000 or 10,000, to 200, or at most 300, and has no -doubt of the remnant being extirpated in a short time, if no measures -are taken to improve their morals and to cultivate habits of civilization. -It should be observed that this tribe had access to posts not -comprehended within the Hudson’s Bay Company’s prohibition, as to -the introduction of spirituous liquors, and that they miserably show -the effects of the privilege.</p> - -<p>The Copper Indians also, through ill-management, intemperance, -and vice, are said to have decreased within the last five years to one-half -the number of what they were.</p> - -<p>The early quarrels between the Hudson’s Bay and the North West -Companies, in which the Indians were induced to take a bloody part, -furnished them with a ruinous example of the savageness of Christians.<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">53</a></p> -</div> - -<h3>SOUTH AMERICA.</h3> -<div class="blockquot"> -<p>In South America, British Guiana occupies a large extent of country -between the rivers Orinoco and Amazons, giving access to numbers -of tribes of aborigines who wander over the vast regions of the -interior. The Indian population within the colony of Demerara and -Essequibo, is derived from four nations, the Caribs, Arawacks, Warrows, -and Accaways.</p> - -<p>It is acknowledged that they have been diminishing ever since the -British came into possession of the colony. In 1831 they were computed -at 5096; and it is stated “it is the opinion of old inhabitants of -the colony, and those most competent to judge, that a considerable -diminution has taken place in the aggregate number of the Indians of -late years, and that the dimunition, although gradual, has become -more sensibly apparent within the last eight or ten years.” The -diminution is attributed, in some degree, to the increased use of rum -amongst them.<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">54</a></p> - -<p>There are in the colony six gentlemen bearing the title of “Protectors -of Indians,” whose office it is to superintend the tribes; and -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">384</a></span>under them are placed post-holders, a principal part of whose business -it is to keep the negroes from resorting to the Indians, and also to -attend the distribution of the presents which are given to the latter by -the British government; of which, as was noticed with reprehension -by Lord Goderich, rum formed a part.</p> - -<p>It does not appear<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">55</a> that anything has been done by government for -their moral or religious improvement, excepting the grant in 1831, -by Sir B. D’Urban, of a piece of land at Point Bartica, where a small -establishment was then founded by the Church Missionary Society. -The Moravian Mission on the Courantin was given up in 1817; and -it does not appear that any other Protestant Society has attended to -these Indians.</p> - -<p>In 1831, Lord Goderich writes,<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">56</a> “I have not heard of any effort -to convert the Indians of British Guiana to Christianity, or to impart -to them the arts of social life.”</p> - -<p>It should be observed that no injunctions to communicate either -are given in the instructions for the “Protectors of Indians,” or in -those for the post-holders; and two of the articles of the latter, (Art. -14 and Art. 15,) tend directly to sanction and encourage immorality. -All reports agree in stating that these tribes have been almost wholly -neglected, are retrograding, and are without provision for their moral -or civil advancement; and with due allowance for the extenuating -remarks on the poor account to which they turned their lands, when -they had them, and the gifts (baneful gifts some of them) which have -been distributed, and on the advantage of living under British laws, -we must still concur in the sentiment of Lord Goderich, as expressed -in the same letter, upon a reference as to sentence of death passed -upon a native Indian for the murder of another. “It is a serious consideration -that we have subjected these tribes to the penalties of a code -of which they unavoidably live in profound ignorance; they have not -even that conjectural knowledge of its provisions which would be suggested -by the precepts of religion, if they had even received the most -elementary instruction in the Christian faith. They are brought -into acquaintance with civilised life not to partake its blessings, but -only to feel the severity of its penal sanctions.”</p> - -<p>“A debt is due to the aboriginal inhabitants of British Guiana -of a very different kind from that which the inhabitants of Christendom -may, in a certain sense, be said to owe in general to other barbarous -tribes. The whole territory which has been occupied by -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">385</a></span>Europeans, on the northern shores of the South American Continent, -has been acquired by no other right than that of superior power; and -I fear that the natives whom we have dispossessed, have to this day -received no compensation for the loss of the lands on which they formerly -subsisted. However urgent is the duty of economy in every -branch of the public service, it is impossible to withhold from the -natives of the country the inestimable benefit which they would derive -from appropriating to their religious and moral instruction some -moderate part of that income which results from the culture of the -soil to which they or their fathers had an indisputable title.”<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">57</a></p> -</div> - -<h3>CARIBS.</h3> -<div class="blockquot"> -<p>Of the Caribs, the native inhabitants of the West Indies, we need -not speak, as of them little more remains than the tradition that they -once existed.</p></div> -<hr /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">386</a></span></p> -<h2>CHAPTER XXIV.<br /><br /> - -<small><small>TREATMENT OF THE INDIANS BY THE UNITED STATES.</small></small></h2> - -<p><small>“We were born on this spot; our fathers lie buried in it. Shall -we say to the bones of our fathers—‘Arise and come with us into a -foreign land?’”—<cite>Speech of a Canadian Indian to the French invaders.</cite></small><br /><br /></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">It</span> was to be hoped that that great republic, the -United States of North America, having given so -splendid an example of resistance to the injustice of -despotism, and of the achievement of freedom in a -struggle against a mighty nation, calculated to call -forth all the generous enthusiasm of brave men, -would have given a practical demonstration of true -liberty to the whole world: that they would have -shewn that it was possible for a republic to exist, -which was wise and noble enough to be entirely free: -that the sarcasm of Milton should not at least be -thrown at them—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">License they mean when they cry liberty!</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">387</a></span></p> - -<p>The world, however, was doomed to suffer another -disappointment in this instance, and the enemies of -freedom to enjoy another triumph. The Americans -left that highest place in human legislation, the adoption -of the divine precept of doing as they would be -done by, as the basis of their constitution, still unoccupied. -We had the mortification of seeing the old -selfishness which had disgraced every ancient republic, -and had furnished such destructive arguments to the -foes of mankind, again unblushingly displayed. The -Americans proclaimed themselves not noble, not -generous, not high-minded enough to give that freedom -to others which they had declared, by word and -by deed, of the same price as life to themselves. They -once more mixed up the old crumbling composition of -iron and clay, slavery and freedom, and moulded them -into an image of civil polity, which must inevitably -fall asunder. They published a new libel on man—in -the very moment of his most heroic and magnanimous -enthusiasm—shewing him as mean and sordid. -While he raised his hand to protest to admiring and -huzzaing millions, that there was no value in life -without liberty, the manacles prepared for the negroes -protruded themselves from his pocket, his impassioned -action at once took the air of theatrical rant, and the -multitudes who were about to admire, laughed out, -or groaned, as they were more or less virtuous. The -pompous phrases of “Divine liberty! Glorious liberty! -Liberty the birthright of every man that breathes!” -became the most bitter and humbling mockery, and -gave way to the merry sneer of Matthews—“What! -d’ye call it liberty when a man may not larrup his -own nigger?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">388</a></span></p> - -<p>A more natural tone was assumed as regarded the -Indians. They were declared to be free and independent -nations; not citizens of the United States, -but the original proprietors of the soil, and therefore -as purely irresponsible to the laws of the United -States as any neighbouring nations. They were -treated with, as such, on every occasion; their territories -and right of self-government were acknowledged -by such treaties. “There is an abundance of -authorities,” says Mr. Stuart, in his ‘Three Years in -North America,’ “in opposition to the pretext, that -the Indians are not now entitled to live under their -own laws and constitutions; but it would be sufficient -to refer to the treaties entered into, year after year, -between the United States and them as separate -nations.”</p> - -<p>“There are two or three authorities, independent -of state papers, which most unambiguously prove -that it was never supposed that the state governments -should have a right to impose their constitution or -code of laws upon any of the Indian nations. Thus -Mr. Jefferson, in an address to the Cherokees, says—“I -wish sincerely you may succeed in your laudable -endeavours to save the remnant of your nation by -adopting industrious occupations. In this you may -always rely on the counsel and assistance of the -United States.” In the same way the American negotiators -at Ghent, among whom were the most eminent -American statesmen, Mr. John Quincy Adams -and Mr. Henry Clay, in their note addressed to the -British Commissioners, dated September 9, 1814, use -the following language:—“The Indians residing -within the United States are so far independent that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">389</a></span> -they live under their own customs, and not under the -laws of the United States.” Chancellor Kent, of -New York state (the Lord Coke or Lord Stair of -the United States), has expressly laid it down, that -“it would seem idle to contend that the Indians -were citizens or subjects of the United States, and -not alien and sovereign tribes;” and the Supreme -Court of the United States have expressly declared, -that “the person who purchases land from the Indians -within their territory incorporates himself with them; -and, so far as respects the property purchased, holds -his title under their protection, <em>subject to their laws</em>: -if they annul the grant, we know of no tribunal which -can revise and set aside the proceeding.” Mr. Clay’s -language is quite decided:—“The Indians residing -within the United States are so far independent that -they live under their own customs, and not under the -laws of the United States; that their rights, where -they inhabit or hunt, are secured to them by boundaries -defined in amicable treaties between the United -States and themselves.” Mr. Wirt, the late Attorney-General -of the United States, a man of great legal -authority, has stated it to be his opinion, “that the -territory of the Cherokees is not within the jurisdiction -of the State of Georgia, but within the sole -and exclusive jurisdiction of the Cherokee nation; -and that, consequently, the State of Georgia has no -right to extend her laws over that territory.” General -Washington in 1790, in a speech to one of the -tribes of Indians, not only recognizes the same national -independence, but adds many solemn assurances on -behalf of the United States. “The general government -only has the power to treat with the Indian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">390</a></span> -nations, and any treaty formed and held without its -authority will not be binding.</p> - -<p>“Here, then, is the security for the remainder of -your lands. No state nor person can purchase your -lands, unless by some public treaty held under the -authority of the United States. <em>The general government -will never consent to your being defrauded, but it -will protect you in all your just rights.</em></p> - -<p>“But your great object seems to be the security of -your remaining lands, and I have, therefore, upon this -point, meant to be sufficiently strong and clear.... -That, in future, you cannot be defrauded of your lands. -That you possess the right to sell, and the right of -refusing to sell your lands.... That, therefore, the -sale of your lands in future will depend entirely upon -yourselves. But that, when you find it for your -interest to sell any part of your lands, the United -States must be present, by their agent, and will be -your security that you shall not be defrauded in the -bargain you make.... The United States will be -true and faithful to their engagements.”</p> - -<p>These are plain and just declarations; and, had they -been faithfully maintained, would have conferred great -honour on the United States. How they have been -maintained, all the world knows. The American -republicans have followed faithfully, not their own -declarations, but the maxims and the practices of their -English progenitors. The Indians have been declared -savage and irreclaimable. They have been described -as inveterately attached to hunting and a roving life, -as a stumbling-block in the path of civilization. As -perfectly incapable of settling down to the pursuits of -agriculture, social arts, and domestic habits. It has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">391</a></span> -been declared necessary, on these grounds, to push -them out of the settled territories, and every means -has been used to compel them to abandon the lands of -their ancestors, and to seek a fresh country in the -wilds beyond the Mississippi. Even so respectable an -author as Malte Brun has, in Europe, advanced a -doctrine in defence of this sweeping system of Indian -expatriation. “Even admitting that the use of ardent -spirits has deteriorated their habits and thinned their -numbers, we cannot suppose that the Indian population -was ever more than twice as dense as at present, -or that it exceeded one person for each square mile -of surface. Now, in highly civilized countries, like -France and England, the population is at the rate of -150 or 200 persons to the square mile. It may safely -be affirmed, therefore, that the same extent of land -from which one Indian family derives a precarious and -wretched subsistence, would support 150 families of -civilized men, in plenty and comfort. But most of the -Indian tribes raise melons, beans, and maize; and were -we to take the case of a people who lived entirely by -hunting, the disproportion would be still greater. <em>If -God created the earth for the sustenance of mankind, this -single consideration decides the question</em> as to the sacredness -of the Indians’ title to the lands which they roam -over, but do not, in any reasonable sense, occupy.”—v. -224.</p> - -<p>A more abominable doctrine surely never was -broached. It breathes the genuine spirit of the old -Spaniard; and, if acted upon, would produce an everlasting -confusion. Every nation which is more densely -populated than another, may, on this principle, say to -that less densely peopled state, you are not as thickly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">392</a></span> -planted as God intended you to be; you amount only -to 150 persons to the square mile, we are 200 to the -same space; therefore, please to walk out, and give -place to us, who are your superiors, and who more -justly fulfil God’s intentions by the law of density. -The Chinese might fairly lay claim to Europe on that -ground; and our own swarming poor to every large -park and thinly peopled district that they happened -to see.</p> - -<p>“This single consideration,” indeed, is a very good -reason why the Indians should be advised to leave off -a desultory life, and take to agriculture and the arts; -or it is a very sufficient reason why the Europeans -should ask leave to live amongst them, and thus more -fully occupy the country, in what the French geographer -calls a reasonable sense. And it remained -for M. Malte Brun to show that they have ever refused -to do either the one or the other. They have, on all -occasions when the Europeans have gone amongst -them, “in a reasonable sense,” received them with -kindness, and even joy. They have been willing to -listen to their instructions, and ready to sell them their -lands to live upon. But it has been the “unreasonableness” -of the whites that has everywhere soon -turned the hearts, and made deaf the ears, of the -natives. We have seen the lawless violence with -which the early settlers seized on the Indians’ territories, -the lawless violence and cruelty with which -they rewarded them evil for good, and pursued them -to death, or instigated them to the commission of all -bloody and desperate deeds. These are the causes -why the Indians have remained uncivilized wanderers; -why they have refused to listen to the precepts of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">393</a></span> -Christianity; and why they roam over, rather than -occupy, those lands on which they have been suffered -to remain. From the days of Elliot, Mayhew, -Brainard, and their zealous compeers, there have -never wanted missionaries to endeavour to civilize -and christianize; but they have found, for the most -part, their efforts utterly defeated by the wicked and -unprincipled acts, the wicked and unprincipled character -of the Europeans. When the missionaries -have preached to the shrewd Indians the genuine -doctrines of Christianity, they have immediately been -struck with the total discrepancy between these doctrines -and the lives and practices of their European -professors. “If these are the principles of your religion,” -they have continually said, “go and preach them -to your countrymen. If they have any efficacy in -them, let us see it shewn upon them. Make them -good, just, and full of this love you speak of. Let -them regard the rights and property of Indians. -You have also a people amongst you that you have -torn from their own country, and hold in slavery. Go -home and give them freedom; do as your book says,—as -you would be done by. When you have done -that, come again, and we will listen to you.”</p> - -<p>This is the language which the missionaries have -had everywhere in the American forests to contend -with.<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">58</a> When they have made by their truly kind and -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">394</a></span>christian spirit and lives some impression, the spirit -and lives of their countrymen have again destroyed -their labours. The fire-waters, gin, rum, and brandy, -have been introduced to intoxicate, and in intoxication -to swindle the Indians out of their furs and lands. -Numbers of claims to lands have been grounded on -drunken bargains, which in their soberness the Indians -would not recognize; and the consequences have been -bloodshed and forcible expulsion. Before these causes -the Indians have steadily melted away, or retired -westwards before the advancing tide of white emigration. -Malte Brun would have us believe that in the -United States there never were many more than -twice the present number. Let any one look at the -list of the different tribes, and their numbers in 1822, -quoted by himself from Dr. Morse, and then look at -the numbers of all the tribes which inhabited the old -States at the period of their settlement.</p> - -<table summary="numbers of all the tribes"><tr> -<td class="tdl">In New England</td><td class="tdr">2,247</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">New York</td><td class="tdr">5,184</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">Ohio</td><td class="tdr">2,407</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">Michigan and N. W. territories</td><td class="tdr">28,380</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">Illinois and Indiana</td><td class="tdr">17,006</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">Southern States east of Mississippi</td><td class="tdr">65,122</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">West of Mississippi and north of Missouri</td><td class="tdr">33,150</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">Between Missouri and Red River</td><td class="tdr">101,070</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">Between Red River and Rio del Norte</td><td class="tdr">45,370</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdl">West of Rocky Mountains</td><td class="tdr">171,200</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdl"> </td><td class="tdr">———</td></tr><tr> -<td class="tdl"> </td><td class="tdr">471,136</td> -</tr></table> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">395</a></span></p> - -<p>The slightest glance at this table shews instantly -the fact, that where the white settlers have been the -longest there the Indians have wofully decreased. -The farther you go into the Western wilderness the -greater the Indian population. Where are the populous -tribes that once camped in the woods of New -York, New England, and Pennsylvania? In those -states there were twenty years ago about 8000 Indians; -since then, a rapid diminution has taken place. In -the middle of the seventeenth century, and after several -of the tribes were exterminated, and after all had -suffered severely, there could not be less, according -to the historians of the times, than forty or fifty thousand -Indians within the same limits. The traveller -occasionally meets with a feeble remnant of these -once numerous and powerful tribes, lingering amid -the now usurped lands of their country, in the old -settled states; but they have lost their ancient spirit -and dignity, and more resemble troops of gypsies than -the noble savages their ancestors were. A few of -the Tuscaroras live near Lewistown, and are agriculturists: -and the last of the Narragansets, the tribe of -Miantinomo, are to be found at Charlestown, in -Rhode Island, under the notice of the Boston missionaries. -Fragments of the Six Nations yet linger -in the State of New York. A few Oneidas live -near the lake of that name, now christianized and -habituated to the manners of the country. Some of -the Senecas and Cornplanters remain about Buffalo, -on the Niagara, and at the head-waters of the Alleghany -river. Amongst these Senecas, lived till 1830, -the famous orator Red-Jacket; one of the most extraordinary -men which this singular race has produced.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">396</a></span> -The effect of his eloquence may be imagined from -the following passage, to be found in “Buckingham’s -Miscellanies selected from the Public Journals.”</p> - -<p>“More than thirty years (this was written about -1822) have rolled away since a treaty was held on -the beautiful acclivity that overlooks the Canandaigua -Lake. Two days had passed away in negotiation -with the Indians for the cession of their lands. The -contract was supposed to be nearly completed, when -Red-Jacket arose. With the grace and dignity of a -Roman senator he drew his blanket around him, and -with a piercing eye surveyed the multitude. All was -hushed. Nothing interposed to break the silence, -save the gentle rustling of the tree-tops under whose -shade they were gathered. After a long and solemn, -but not unmeaning pause, he commenced his speech -in a low voice and sententious style. Rising gradually -with the subject, he depicted the primitive simplicity -and happiness of his nation, and the wrongs they had -sustained from the usurpations of white men, with -such a bold but faithful pencil, that every auditor was -soon roused to vengeance, or melted into tears. The -effect was inexpressible. But ere the emotions of -admiration and sympathy had subsided, the white -men became alarmed. They were in the heart of an -Indian country, surrounded by ten times their number, -who were inflamed by the remembrance of their injuries, -and excited to indignation by the eloquence of -a favourite chief. Appalled and terrified, the white -men cast a cheerless gaze upon the hordes around -them. A nod from one of the chiefs might be the -onset of destruction, but at this portentous moment -<em>Farmers-brother</em> interposed.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">397</a></span></p> - -<p>In the year 1805 a council was held at Buffalo, by -the chiefs and warriors of the Senecas, at the request -of Mr. Cram from Massachusets. The missionary -first made a speech, in which he told the Indians that -he was sent by the Missionary Society of Boston, to -instruct them “how to worship the Great Spirit,” and -not to get away their lands and money; that there was -but one true religion, and they were living in darkness, -etc. After consultation, Red-Jacket returned, -on behalf of the Indians, the following speech, which -is deservedly famous, and not only displays the strong -intellect of the race, but how vain it was to expect to -christianize them, without clear and patient reasoning, -and in the face of the crimes and corruptions of -the whites.</p> - -<p>“<em>Friend and brother</em>, it was the will of the Great -Spirit that we should meet together this day. He -orders all things, and he has given us a fine day for -our council. He has taken his garment from before -the sun, and caused it to shine with brightness upon -us. Our eyes are opened that we see clearly; our -ears are unstopped that we have been able to hear distinctly -the words that you have spoken. For all these -favours we thank the Great Spirit and him only.</p> - -<p>“<em>Brother</em>, this council-fire was kindled by you. It -was at your request that we came together at this -time. We have listened with great attention to what -you have said; you requested us to speak our minds -freely: this gives us great joy, for we now consider -that we stand upright before you, and can speak whatever -we think. All have heard your voice, and all -speak to you as one man; our minds are agreed.</p> - -<p>“<em>Brother</em>, you say you want an answer to your<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">398</a></span> -talk before you leave this place. It is right you -should have one, as you are at a great distance from -home, and we do not wish to detain you; but we will -first look back a little, and tell you what our fathers -have told us, and what we have heard from the white -people.</p> - -<p>“<em>Brother, listen to what we say.</em> There was a time -when our forefathers owned this great island. Their -seats extended from the rising to the setting sun. -The Great Spirit had made it for the use of Indians. -He had created the buffalo, the deer, and other animals -for food. He made the beaver and the bear, and -their skins served us for clothing. He had scattered -them over the country, and taught us how to take them. -He had caused the earth to produce corn for bread. -All this he had done for his red children, because he -loved them. If we had any disputes about hunting-grounds, -they were generally settled without the shedding -of much blood; but an evil day came upon us: -your forefathers crossed the great waters, and landed -on this island. Their numbers were small; they found -friends, and not enemies; they told us they had fled -from their own country for fear of wicked men, and -came here to enjoy their religion. They asked for -a small seat. We took pity on them, granted their -request, and they sate down among us. We gave -them corn and meat, they gave us poison<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">59</a> in return. -The white people had now found out our country, -tidings were carried back, and more came amongst us; -yet we did not fear them, we took them to be friends: -they called us brothers, we believed them, and gave -them a larger seat. At length their numbers had -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">399</a></span>greatly increased, they wanted more land,—they -wanted our country! Our eyes were opened, and our -minds became uneasy. Wars took place; <em>Indians -were hired to fight against Indians</em>, and many of our -people were destroyed. They also brought strong -liquors among us; it was strong and powerful, and has -slain thousands.</p> - -<p>“<em>Brother</em>, our seats were once large, and yours -were very small. You have now become a great -people, and we have scarcely a place left to spread -our blankets. You have got our country, but are not -satisfied;—<em>you want to force your religion upon us</em>.</p> - -<p>“<em>Brother, continue to listen.</em> You say that you are -sent to instruct us how to worship the Great Spirit -agreeably to his mind, and if we do not take hold of -the religion which you white people teach, we shall -be unhappy hereafter. You say that you are right, -and we are lost; how do you know this? We understand -that your religion is written in a book; if it -was intended for us as well as you, why has not the -Great Spirit given it to us, and not only to us, why -did he not give to our forefathers the knowledge of -that book, with the means of understanding it rightly? -We only know what you tell us about it; how shall -we know when to believe, being so often deceived by -the white people?</p> - -<p>“<em>Brother</em>, you say there is but one way to worship -and serve the Great Spirit. If there is but one religion, -why do you white people differ so much about -it? why not all agree, as you can all read the book?</p> - -<p>“<em>Brother</em>, we do not understand these things. We -are told that your religion was given to your forefathers, -and has been handed down from father to son.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">400</a></span> -We also have a religion which was given to our forefathers, -and has been handed down to us their children. -We worship that way. <em>It teaches us to be thankful for -all the favours we receive; to love each other, and to be -united;—we never quarrel about religion.</em></p> - -<p>“<em>Brother</em>, the Great Spirit has made us all; but -he has made a great difference between his white and -red children. He has given us a different complexion, -and different customs. To you he has given the arts; -to these he has not opened our eyes. We know these -things to be true. Since he has made so great a difference -between us in other things, why may we not -conclude that he has given us a different religion -according to our understanding? The Great Spirit -does right: he knows what is best for his children: -we are satisfied.</p> - -<p>“<em>Brother</em>, we do not wish to destroy your religion, -or take it from you; we only want to enjoy our own.</p> - -<p>“<em>Brother</em>, you say you have not come to get our -land or our money, but to enlighten our minds. I will -now tell you that I have been at your meetings, and -saw you collecting money from the meeting. I -cannot tell what this money was intended for, but -suppose it was your minister; and, if we should conform -to your way of thinking, perhaps you may want -some from us.</p> - -<p>“<em>Brother</em>, we are told that you have been preaching -to the white people in this place. These people are -our neighbours; we are acquainted with them: we -will wait a little while, and see what effect your -preaching has upon them. If we find it does them -good, makes them honest and less disposed to cheat -Indians, we will then consider again what you have -said.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">401</a></span></p> - -<p>“<em>Brother</em>, you have now heard our answer to your -talk; and this is all we have to say at present. As -we are going to part, we will come and take you -by the hand, and hope the Great Spirit will protect -you on your journey, and return you safe to your -friends.”</p> - -<p>The Missionary, hastily rising from his seat, refused -to shake hands with them, saying “there was no fellowship -between the religion of God and the works of the -devil.” The Indians smiled and retired in a peaceable -manner.<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">60</a> Which of these parties best knew the real -nature of religion? At all events the missionary was -awfully deficient in the spirit of his own, and in the -art of winning men to embrace it.</p> - -<hr /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">402</a></span></p> -<h2>CHAPTER XXV.<br /><br /> - -<small><small>TREATMENT OF THE INDIANS BY THE UNITED -STATES,—CONTINUED.</small></small></h2> - -<p><span class="smcap">The</span> Friends have for many years had schools for -the education of the children in different States, and -persons employed to engage the Indians in agriculture -and manual arts, but they, as well as the missionaries, -complain that their efforts have been rendered abortive -by the continual removals of the red people by -the government.</p> - -<p>Scarcely was the war over, and American independence -proclaimed, when a great strife began betwixt -the Republicans and the Indians, for the Indian lands—a -strife which extended from the Canadian lakes to -the gulph of Florida, and has continued more or less -to this moment. Under the British government, the -boundaries of the American states had never been well -defined. The Americans appointed commissioners to -determine them, and appear to have resolved that -all Indian claims within the boundaries of the St. -Lawrence, the great chain of lakes, and the Mississippi, -should be extinguished. They certainly em<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">403</a></span>braced -a compact and most magnificent expanse of -territory. It was true that the Indians, the ancient -and rightful possessors of the soil, had yet large tracts -within these lines of demarcation; but, then, what -was the power of the Indians to that of the United -States? They <em>could</em> be compelled to evacuate their -lands, and it was resolved that they <em>should</em>. It is -totally beyond the limits of my work to follow out -the progress of this most unequal and iniquitous strife; -whoever wishes to see it fully and very fairly portrayed -may do so in a work by an American—“Drake’s -Book of the North American Indians.” I can here -only simply state, that a more painful and interesting -struggle never went on between the overwhelming -numbers of the white men, armed with all the powers -of science, but unrestrained by the genuine sentiments -of religion, and the sons of the forest in their native -simplicity. The Americans tell us that this apparently -hard and arbitrary measure will eventually -prove the most merciful. That the Indians cannot -live by the side of white men; they are always quarrelling -with and murdering them; and that is but too -true; and the Indians in strains of the most indignant -and pathetic eloquence, tell us the reason why. It is -because the white invaders are eternally encroaching -on their bounds, destroying their deer and their fish, -and murdering the Indians too without ceremony. It -is this recklessness of law and conscience, and the -ever-rolling tide of white population westward, which -raised up Tecumseh, and his companions, to combine -the northern tribes in resistance. Brant assured the -American commissioners, that unless they made the -Ohio and the Muskingum their boundaries, there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">404</a></span> -could be no peace with the Indians. These are the -causes that called forth Black-Hauk from the Ouisconsin, -with the Winnebagoes, the Sacs, and Foxes; -that roused the Little-Turtle, with his Miamies, and -many other chiefs and tribes, to inflict bloody retribution -on their oppressors, but finally to be compelled -themselves only the sooner to yield up their native -lands. These are the causes that, operating to the -most southern point of the United States, armed the -great nations of the Seninoles, the Creeks, the Choctaws, -Chickasaws, and Cherokees; and have made -famous the exterminating campaigns of General Jackson, -the bloody spots of Fort Mimms, Autossee, Tippecanoe, -Talladega, Horse-shoe-bend, and other places -of wholesale carnage. At Horse-shoe-bend, General -Jackson says—“determined to exterminate them, I -detached General Coffee with the mounted and nearly -the whole of the Indian force, early in the morning -(March 27, 1814), to cross the river about two miles -below their encampment, and to surround the Bend, -so that none of them should escape by crossing the -river.”</p> - -<p>“At this place,” says Drake, “the disconsolate -tribes of the South had made a last great stand; and -had a tolerably fortified camp. It was said they were -1000 strong.” They were attacked on all sides; the -fighting was kept up five hours; <em>five hundred and fifty-seven</em> -were left dead on the peninsula, and a great -number killed by the horsemen, in crossing the river. -<em>It is believed that not more than twenty escaped!</em> “We -continued,” says the <em>brave General Jackson</em>, “to destroy -many of them who had concealed themselves under the -banks of the river, until we were prevented by the -night!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">405</a></span></p> - -<p>And what had these unfortunate tribes done, that -they should be exterminated? Simply this:—When -the United States remodelled the southern states, -reducing the Carolinas and Georgia, and creating the -new states of Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi, -they stipulated, in behalf of Georgia, to extinguish all -the Indian titles to lands in that State, “as soon as it -could be done on peaceable terms.” Georgia, impatient -to seize on these lands, immediately employed -all means to effect this object. When the Indians, in -national council, would not sell their lands, they -prevailed on a half-breed chief, M’Intosh, and a few -others, of no character, to sell them; and, on this -mock title, proceeded to expel the Indians. The -Indians resisted; an alarm of rebellion was sounded -through the States, and General Jackson sent to put -it down. The Indians, as in all other quarters, were -compelled to give way before the irresistible American -power. We cannot go at length into this bloody -history of oppression; but the character of the whole -may be seen in that of a part.</p> - -<p>But the most singular feature of the treatment of -the Indians by the Americans is, that while they -assign their irreclaimable nature as the necessary -cause of their expelling or desiring to expel them -from all the states east of the Mississippi, their most -strenuous and most recent efforts have been directed -against those numerous tribes, that were not only -extensive but rapidly advancing in civilization. So -far from refusing to adopt settled, orderly habits, the -Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, and Cherokees, were -fast conforming both to the religion and the habits -of the Americans. The Creeks were numbered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">406</a></span> -in 1814 at 20,000. The Choctaws had some years -ago 4041 warriors, and could not therefore be estimated -at less than four times that number in total -population, or 16,000. In 1810, the Cherokees consisted -of 12,400 persons; in 1824 they had increased -to 15,000. The Chickasaws reckoned some years -ago 1000 warriors, making the tribe probably 4000.</p> - -<p>The Creeks had twenty years ago cultivated lands, -flocks, cattle, gardens, and different kinds of domestic -manufactures. They were betaking themselves to -manual trades and farming. “The Choctaws,” Mr. -Stuart says, “have both schools and churches. A -few books have been published in the Choctaw language. -In one part of their territory, where the -population amounted to 5627 persons, there were above -11,000 cattle, about 4000 horses, 22,000 hogs, 530 -spinning-wheels, 360 ploughs, etc.” The missionaries -speak in the highest terms of their steadiness and -sobriety; and one of their chiefs had actually offered -himself as a candidate for Congress. All these tribes -are described as rapidly progressing in education and -civilization, but the Cherokees present a character which -cannot be contemplated without the liveliest admiration. -These were the tribes amongst whom Adair -spent so many years, about the middle of the last -century, and whose customs and ideas as delineated -by him, exhibited them as such fine material for cultivation. -Since then the missionaries, and especially -the Moravians, have been labouring with the most -signal success. A school was opened in this tribe by -them in 1804, in which vast numbers of Cherokee -children have been educated. Such, indeed, have -been the effects of cultivation on this fine people, that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">407</a></span> -they have assumed all the habits and pursuits of -civilized life. Their progress may be noted by observing -the amount of their possessions in 1810, and -again, fourteen years afterwards, in 1824. In the -former year they had 3 schools, in the latter 18; in the -former year 13 grist-mills, in the latter 36; in the -former year 3 saw-mills, in the latter 13; in the former -year 467 looms, in the latter 762; in the former -year 1,600 spinning-wheels, in the latter 2,486; in -the former year 30 wagons, in the latter 172; in the -former year 500 ploughs, in the latter 2,923; in the -former year 6,100 horses, in the latter 7,683; in -the former year 19,500 head of cattle, in the latter -22,531; in the former year 19,600 swine, in the -latter 46,732; in the former year 1,037 sheep, in the -latter 2,546, and 430 goats; in the former year -49 smiths, in the latter 62 smiths’ shops. Here is a -steady and prosperous increase; testifying to no ordinary -existence of industry, prudence, and good management -amongst them, and bearing every promise -of their becoming a most valuable portion of the community. -They have, Mr. Stuart tells us, several public -roads, fences, and turnpikes. The soil produces maize, -cotton, tobacco, wheat, oats, indigo, sweet and Irish -potatoes. The natives carry on a considerable trade -with the adjoining states, and some of them export -cotton to New Orleans. Apple and peach orchards -are common, and gardens well cultivated. Butter -and cheese are the produce of their dairies. There -are many houses of public entertainment kept by the -natives. Numerous and flourishing villages are seen -in every section of the country. Cotton and woollen -cloths and blankets are everywhere. Almost every<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">408</a></span> -family in the nation produces cotton for its own consumption. -Nearly all the nation are native Cherokees.</p> - -<p>A printing-press has been established for several -years; and a newspaper, written partly in English, -and partly in Cherokee, has been successfully carried -on. This paper, called the Cherokee Phœnix, is -written entirely by a Cherokee, a young man under -thirty. It had been surmised that he was assisted by -a white man, on which he put the following notice in -the paper:—“No white has anything to do with the -management of our paper. No other person, whether -white or red, besides the ostensible editor, has written, -from the commencement of the Phœnix, half a -column of matter which has appeared under the editorial -head.”<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">61</a></p> - -<p>The starting of this Indian newspaper by an Indian, -is one of the most interesting facts in the history of -civilization. In this language nothing had been written -or printed. It had no written alphabet. This -young Indian, already instructed by the missionaries -in English literature, is inspired with a desire to open -the world of knowledge to his countrymen in their -vernacular tongue. There is no written character, no -types. Those words familiar to all native ears, have -no corresponding representation to the eye. These -are gigantic difficulties to the young Indian, and as -the Christian would call him, <em>savage</em> aspirant and -patriot. But he determines to conquer them all. He -travels into the eastern states. He invents letters -which shall best express the sounds of his native -tongue; he has types cut, and commences a newspaper. -There is nothing like it in the history of -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">409</a></span> -nations in their first awakening from the long fixedness -of wild life. This mighty engine, the press, -once put in motion by native genius in the western -wilderness, books are printed suitable to the nascent intelligence -of the country. The Gospel of St. Matthew -is translated into Cherokee, and printed at the native -press. Hymns are also translated and printed. Christianity -makes rapid strides. The pupils in the schools -advance with admirable rapidity. There is a new and -wonderful spirit abroad. Not only do the Indians -throng to the churches to listen to the truths of life -and immortality, but Indians themselves become diligent -ministers, and open places of worship in the -more remote and wild parts of the country. Even -temperance societies are formed. Political principles -develop themselves far in philosophical advance of -our proud and learned England. The constitution of -the native state contains admirable stamina; trial by -jury prevails; and universal suffrage—a right, to -this moment distrustfully withheld from the English -people, is there freely granted, and judiciously exercised; -every male citizen of eighteen years old having -a vote in all public elections.</p> - -<p>The whole growth and being, however, of this -young Indian civilization is one of the most delightful -and animating subjects of contemplation that ever -came before the eye of the lover of his race. Here -were these Indian savages, who had been two hundred -years termed irreclaimable; whom it had been the -custom only to use as the demons of carnage, as creatures -fit only to carry the tomahawk and the bloody -scalping-knife through Cherry-Valley, Gnadenhuetten, -or Wyoming; and whom, that work done, it was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">410</a></span> -declared, must be cast out from the face of civilized -man, as the reproach of the past and the incubus of -the future,—here were they gloriously vindicating -themselves from those calumnies and wrongs, and -assuming in the social system a most beautiful and -novel position. It was a spectacle on which one -would have thought the United States would hang -with a proud delight, and point to as one of the -most noble features of their vast and noble country. -What did they do? They chose rather to -give the lie to all their assertions, that they drove out -the Indians because they were irreclaimable and unamalgamable, -and to shew to the world that they expelled -them solely and simply because they scorned -that one spot of the copper hue of the aborigines -should mar the whiteness of their population. They -compel us to exclaim with the indignant Abbé Raynal, -“And are these the men whom both French and -English have been conspiring to extirpate for a century -past?” and suggest to us his identical answer,—“But -perhaps they would be ashamed to live amongst -such models of heroism and magnanimity!”</p> - -<p>However, everything which irritation, contempt, -political chicanery, and political power can effect, -have been long zealously at work to drive these fine -Nations out of their delightful country, and beyond -the Mississippi; the boundary which American cupidity -at present sets between itself and Indian extirpation. -Spite of all those solemn declarations, by -the venerable Washington and other great statesmen -already quoted; spite of the most grave treaties, and -especially one of July 2d, 1791, which says, “The -United States solemnly guarantee to the Cherokee<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">411</a></span> -nation all their lands not hereby ceded,” by a juggle -betwixt the State of Georgia and Congress, the Cherokees -have been virtually dispossessed of their country. -From the period of the American independence -to 1802, there had been a continual pressure on the -Cherokees for their lands, and they had been induced -by one means or another to cede to the States more -than <em>two hundred millions</em> of acres. How reluctantly -may be imagined, by the decided stand made by them -in 1819, when they peremptorily protested that they -would not sell another foot. That they needed all -they had, for that they were becoming more and more -agricultural, and progressing in civilization. One -would have thought this not only a sufficient but a -most satisfactory plea to a great nation by its people; -but no, Georgia ceded to Congress territories for the -formation of two new states, Alabama and Mississippi, -and Georgia in part of payment receives the much -desired lands of the Cherokees. Georgia, therefore, -assumes the avowed language of despotism, and decrees -by its senate, in the very face of the clear -recognitions of Indian independence already quoted, -<em>that the right of discovery and conquest was the title of -the Europeans; that every foot of land in the United -States was held by that title; that the right of the Indians -was merely temporary; that they were tenants at will, -removable at any moment, either by negotiation or force</em>. -“It may be contended,” says the Report of 1827, -“with much plausibility, that there is in these claims -more of force than of justice; <em>but they are claims which -have been recognized and admitted by the whole civilized -world</em>, <span class="smcap lowercase">AND IT IS UNQUESTIONABLY TRUE, THAT, -UNDER SUCH CIRCUMSTANCES, FORCE</span> <em>becomes</em> <span class="smcap lowercase">RIGHT</span>!”<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">62</a></p> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">412</a></span></p> -<p>This language once adopted there needed no further -argument about right or justice. Georgia took its -stand upon Rob Roy’s law,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">That he shall take who has the power,</div> -<div class="line i1">And he shall keep who can;</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>and it forthwith proceeded to act upon it. It decreed -in 1828, that the territories of the Cherokees should -be divided amongst the different counties of Georgia; -that after June 1st, 1830, the Cherokees should become -the subjects of Georgia; that all Cherokee laws -should be abolished, and all Cherokees should be cut -off from any benefit of the laws of the State—that is, -that no Indian, or <em>descendent of one</em>, should be capable -to act as a witness, or to be a party in any suit against -a white man. The Cherokees refusing to abandon -their hereditary soil without violence, an act was -passed prohibiting any white man from residing in the -Cherokee country without a permit from the governor, -and on the authority of this, soldiers were marched -into it, and <em>the missionaries carried off</em> on a Sunday. -An attempt was made to crush that interesting newspaper -press, by forcing away every white man assisting -in the office. Forcible possession was taken of the -Indian gold mines by Georgian laws, and the penal -statutes exercised against the Indians who did not -recognize their authority. The Cherokees, on these -outrages, vehemently appealed to Congress. They -said—“how far we have contributed to keep bright -the chain of friendship which binds us to these United -States, is within the reach of your knowledge; it is -ours to maintain it, until, perhaps, the plaintive voice -of an Indian from the south shall no more be heard -within your walls of legislation. Our nation and our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">413</a></span> -people may cease to exist, before another revolving -year reassembles this august assembly of great men. -We implore that our people may not be denounced -as savages, unfit for the good neighbourhood guaranteed -to them by treaty. We cannot better express -the rights of our nation, than they are developed -on the face of the document we herewith submit; and -the desires of our nation, than to pray a faithful fulfilment -of the promises made by its illustrious author -through his secretary. Between the compulsive -measures of Georgia and our destruction, we ask the -interposition of your authority, and remembrance of -the bond of perpetual peace pledged for our safety—the -safety of the last fragments of some mighty nations, -that have grazed for a while upon your civilization and -prosperity, but which are now tottering on the brink -of angry billows, whose waters have covered in oblivion -other nations that were once happy, but are -now no more.</p> - -<p>“The schools where our children learn to read the -Word of God; the churches where our people now -sing to his praise, and where they are taught ‘that of -one blood he created all the nations of the earth;’ the -fields they have cleared, and the orchards they have -planted; the houses they have built,—are dear to the -Cherokees; and there they expect to live and to die, -on the lands inherited from their fathers, as the firm -friends of the people of these United States.”</p> - -<p>This is the very language which the simple people -of all the new regions whither Europeans have penetrated, -have been passionately and imploringly addressing -for three hundred years, but in vain. We seem -again to hear the supplicating voice of the people of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">414</a></span> -the Seven Reductions of Paraguay, addressed to the -expelling Spaniards and Portuguese. In each case it -was alike unavailing. The Congress returned them -a cool answer, advising the Cherokees to go over the -Mississippi, where “the soil should be theirs while -the trees grow, or the streams run.” But they had -heard that language before, and they knew its value. -The State of Georgia had avowed the doctrine of -conquest, which silences all contracts and annuls all -promises. It is to the honour of the Supreme Court -of the United States that, on appeal to it, <em>it</em> annulled -the proceedings of Georgia, and recognised the rightful -possession of the country by the Cherokees. But -what power shall restrain all those engines of irritation -and oppression, which white men know how to employ -against coloured ones, when they want their persons -or their lands. Nothing will be able to prevent the -final expatriation of these southern tribes: they must -pass the Mississippi till the white population is swelled -sufficiently to require them to cross the Missouri; -there will then remain but two barriers between them -and annihilation—the rocky mountains and the Pacific -Ocean. Whenever we hear now of those tribes, it is -of some fresh act of aggression against them—some -fresh expulsion of a portion of them—and of melancholy -Indians moving off towards the western wilds.</p> - -<p>Such is the condition to which the British and their -descendants have reduced the aboriginal inhabitants -of the vast regions of North America,—the finest race -of men that we have ever designated by the name -of savage.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">What term we savage? The untutored heart</div> -<div class="line i1">Of Nature’s child is but a slumbering fire;</div> -<div class="line">Prompt at a breath, or passing touch to start</div> -<div class="line i1">Into quick flame, as quickly to retire;</div> -<div class="line"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">415</a></span></div> -<div class="line">Ready alike its pleasance to impart,</div> -<div class="line i1">Or scorch the hand which rudely wakes its ire:</div> -<div class="line">Demon or child, as impulse may impel,</div> -<div class="line">Warm in its love, but in its vengeance fell.</div> -<div class="line"> </div> -<div class="line">And these Columbian warriors to their strand</div> -<div class="line i1">Had welcomed Europe’s sons, and rued it sore:—</div> -<div class="line">Men with smooth tongues, but rudely armed hand;</div> -<div class="line i1">Fabling of peace, when meditating gore;</div> -<div class="line">Who their foul deeds to veil, ceased not to brand</div> -<div class="line i1">The Indian name on every Christian shore.</div> -<div class="line">What wonder, on such heads, their fury’s flame</div> -<div class="line">Burst, till its terrors gloomed their fairer fame?</div> -<div class="line"> </div> -<div class="line">For they were not a brutish race, unknowing</div> -<div class="line i1">Evil from good; their fervid souls embraced</div> -<div class="line">With virtue’s proudest homage, to o’erflowing,</div> -<div class="line i1">The mind’s inviolate majesty. The past</div> -<div class="line">To them was not a darkness; but was glowing</div> -<div class="line i1">With splendour which all time had not o’ercast;</div> -<div class="line">Streaming unbroken from creation’s birth,</div> -<div class="line">When God communed and walked with men on earth.</div> -<div class="line"> </div> -<div class="line">Stupid idolatry had never dimmed</div> -<div class="line i1">The Almighty image in their lucid thought.</div> -<div class="line">To Him alone their zealous praise was hymned;</div> -<div class="line i1">And hoar Tradition from her treasury brought</div> -<div class="line">Glimpses of far-off times, in which were limned,</div> -<div class="line i1">His awful glory;—and their prophets taught</div> -<div class="line">Precepts sublime,—a solemn ritual given,</div> -<div class="line">In clouds and thunder, to their sires from heaven.<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">63</a></div> -<div class="line"> </div> -<div class="line">And in the boundless solitude which fills,</div> -<div class="line i1">Even as a mighty heart, their wild domains;</div> -<div class="line">In caves and glens of the unpeopled hills;</div> -<div class="line i1">And the deep shadow that for ever reigns</div> -<div class="line">Spirit-like, in their woods; where, roaring, spills</div> -<div class="line i1">The giant cataract to the astounded plains,—</div> -<div class="line">Nature, in her sublimest moods, had given</div> -<div class="line">Not man’s weak lore,—but a quick flash from heaven.</div> -<div class="line"> <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">416</a></span></div> -<div class="line">Roaming in their free lives, by lake and stream;</div> -<div class="line i1">Beneath the splendour of their gorgeous sky;</div> -<div class="line">Encamping, while shot down night’s starry gleam,</div> -<div class="line i1">In piny glades, where their forefathers lie;</div> -<div class="line">Voices would come, and breathing whispers seem</div> -<div class="line i1">To rouse within, the life which may not die;</div> -<div class="line">Begetting valorous deeds, and thoughts intense,</div> -<div class="line">And a wild gush of burning eloquence.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>Such appeared to me ten years ago, when writing -these stanzas, the character of the North American -Indians; such it appears to me now. What an eternal -disgrace to both British and Americans if this race -of “mighty hunters before the Lord” shall, at the -very moment when they shew themselves ready to lay -down the bow and throw all the energies of their high -temperament into civilized life, still be repelled and -driven into the waste, or to annihilation. Their names -and deeds and peculiar character are already become -part of the literature of America; they will hereafter -present to the imagination of posterity, one of the -most singular and interesting features of history. -Their government, the only known government of -pure intellect; their grave councils; their singular -eloquence; their stern fortitude; their wild figures in -the war-dance; their “fleet foot” in the ancient forest; -and all those customs, and quick keen thoughts which -belong to them, and them alone, will for ever come -before the poetic mind of every civilized people. -Shall they remain, to look back to the days in which -the very strength of their intellects and feelings made -them repel the form of civilization, while they triumph -in the universal diffusion of knowledge and Christian -hope? or shall it continue to be said,</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">417</a></span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">The vast, the ebbless, the engulphing tide</div> -<div class="line i1">Of the white population still rolls on!</div> -<div class="line">And quailed has their romantic heart of pride,—</div> -<div class="line i1">The kingly spirit of the woods is gone.</div> -<div class="line">Farther and farther do they wend to hide</div> -<div class="line i1">Their wasting strength; to mourn their glory flown;</div> -<div class="line">And sigh to think how soon shall crowds pursue</div> -<div class="line">Down the lone stream where glides the still canoe.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<hr /> - -<h2>CHAPTER XXVI.<br /><br /> - -<small><small>THE ENGLISH IN SOUTH AFRICA.</small></small></h2> - -<p><span class="smcap">Having</span> now quitted North America, let us sail southward. -There we may direct our course east or west, -we may pass Cape Horn, or the Cape of Good Hope, -and enter the Pacific or the Indian Ocean, secure that -on whatever shore we may touch, whether on continent -or island, we shall find the Europeans oppressing the -natives on their own soil, or having exterminated -them, occupying their place. We shall find our -own countrymen more than all others widely diffused -and actively employed in the work of expulsion, moral -corruption, and destruction of the aboriginal tribes. -We talk of the atrocities of the Spaniards, of the -deeds of Cortez and Pizarro, as though they were -things of an ancient date, things gone by, things of -the dark old days; and seem never for a moment to -suspect that these dark old days were not a whit more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">418</a></span> -shocking than our own, or that our countrymen, protestant -Englishmen of 1838, can be compared for a -moment to the Red-Cross Knights of Mexican and -Peruvian butcheries. If they cannot be compared, I -blush to say that it is because our infamy and crimes -are even more wholesale and inhuman than theirs. -Do the good people of England, who “sit at home at -ease,” who build so many churches and chapels, and -flock to them in such numbers,—who spend about -170,000<i>l.</i> annually on Bibles, and more than half a -million annually in missions and other modes of civilizing -and christianizing the heathen, and therefore -naturally flatter themselves that they are rapidly -bringing all the world to the true faith; do they or -can they know that at this very moment, wherever -their Bibles go, and wherever their missionaries are -labouring, their own government and their own countrymen -are as industriously labouring also, to scatter -the most awful corruption of morals and principles -amongst the simple natives of all, to us, new countries? -that they are introducing diseases more pestilent than -the plague, more loathsome than the charnel-house -itself, and more deadly than the simoom of the tropical -deserts, that levels all before it? Do they know, -that even where their missionaries, like the prophets -of old, have gone before the armies of God, putting -the terrors of heathenism to flight, making a safe path -through the heart of the most dreadful deserts; dividing -the very waters, and levelling the old mountains -of separation and of difficulty—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">By Faith supported and by Freedom led,</div> -<div class="line">A fruitful field amid the desert making,</div> -<div class="line">And dwell secure where kings and priests were quaking,</div> -<div class="line">And taught the waste to yield them wine and bread.—<cite>Pringle.</cite></div> -</div></div></div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">419</a></span></p> - -<p>Do they know, that when these holy and victorious -men have thus conquered all the difficulties they calculated -upon, and seen, by God’s blessing, the savage -reclaimed, the idolater convinced, the wilderness -turned into a garden, and arts, commerce, and refined -life rising around them, a more terrible enemy has -appeared in the shape of European, and chiefly English -corruption? That out of that England—whence -they had carried such beneficent gifts, such magnificent -powers of good—have come pouring swarms of lawless -vagabonds worse than the Spaniards, and worse than -the Buccaneers of old, and have threatened all their -works with destruction? Do they know that in -South Africa, where Smidt, Vanderkemp, Philip, Read, -Kay and others, have done such wonders, and raised -the Hottentot, once pronounced the lowest of the -human species, and the Caffre, not long since styled -the most savage, into the most faithful Christians and -most respectable men; and in those beautiful islands -that Ellis and Williams have described in such paradisiacal -colours, that roving crews of white men are -carrying everywhere the most horrible demoralization, -that every shape of European crime is by them exhibited -to the astonished people—murder, debauchery, -the most lawless violence in person and property; and -that the liquid fire which, from many a gin-shop in -our own great towns, burns out the industry, the providence, -the moral sense, and the life of thousands of -our own people, is there poured abroad by these monsters -with the same fatal effect? Whoever does not -know this, is ignorant of one of the most fearful and -gigantic evils which beset the course of human improvement, -and render abortive a vast amount of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">420</a></span> -funds so liberally supplied, and the labours so nobly -undergone, in the cause of Christianity. Whoever -does not know this, should moreover refer to the Parliamentary -Report of 1837, on the Aboriginal Tribes.</p> - -<p>The limits which I have devoted to a brief history -of the treatment of these tribes by the European -nations have been heavily pressed upon by the immense -mass of our crimes and cruelties, and I must -now necessarily make a hasty march across the scenes -here alluded to; but enough will be seen to arouse -astonishment, and indicate the necessity of counter-agencies -of the most impulsive kind.</p> - -<p>The Dutch have been applauded by various historians -for the justice and mildness which they manifested -towards the natives of their Cape colony. This may -have been the case at their first entrance in 1652, and -until they had purchased a certain quantity of land -for their new settlement with a few bottles of brandy -and some toys. It was their commercial policy, in -the language of the old school of traders, to “first -creep and then go.” It was in the same assumed -mildness that they insinuated themselves into the -spice islands of India. Nothing, however, is more -certain than that in about a century they had possessed -themselves of all the Hottentot territories, and -reduced the Hottentots themselves to a state of the -most abject servitude. The Parliamentary Report -just alluded to, describes the first governor, Van -Riebeck, in the very first year of the settlement, -looking over the mud-walls of his fortress on “the -cattle of the natives, and wondering at the ways of -Providence that could bestow such very fine gifts on -heathens.” It also presents us with two very characteristic -extracts from his journal at this moment.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">421</a></span></p> - -<p>“December 13th, 1652.—To-day the Hottentots -came with thousands of cattle and sheep close to our -fort, so that their cattle nearly mixed with ours. We -feel vexed to see so many fine head of cattle, and not -to be able to buy to any considerable extent. If it -had been indeed allowed, we had opportunity to-day -to deprive them of 10,000 head, which, however, if we -obtain orders to that effect, can be done at any time, -and even more conveniently, because they will have -greater confidence in us. With 150 men, 10,000 or -11,000 head of black cattle might be obtained without -danger of losing one man; and many savages might -be taken without resistance, in order to be sent as -slaves to India, as they still always come to us unarmed.</p> - -<p>“December 18.—To-day the Hottentots came again -with thousands of cattle close to the fort. If no further -trade is to be expected with them, what would it -matter much to take at once 6,000 or 8,000 beasts -from them? There is opportunity enough for it, as -they are not strong in number, and very timid; and -since not more than two or three men often graze a -thousand cattle close to our cannon, who might be -easily cut off, and as we perceive they place very -great confidence in us, we allure them still with show -of friendship to make them the more confident. It is -vexatious to see so much cattle, so necessary for the -refreshment of the Honourable Company’s ships, of -which it is not every day that any can be obtained by -friendly trade.”</p> - -<p>It is sufficiently clear that no nice scruples of conscience -withheld Governor Van Riebeck from laying -hand on 10 or 11,000 cattle, or blowing a few of the -keepers away with his cannons.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">422</a></span></p> - -<p>The system of oppression, adds the Report, thus -began, never slackened till the Hottentot nation were -cut off, and the small remnant left were reduced to -abject bondage. From all the accounts we have seen -respecting the Hottentot population, it could not have -been less than 200,000, but at present they are said -to be only 32,000 in number.</p> - -<p>In 1702 the Governor and Council stated their -inability to restrain the plunderings and outrages of -the colonists upon the natives, on the plea that such -an act would implicate and ruin half the colony; and -in 1798, Barrow, in his Travels in Southern Africa, -thus describes their condition:—“Some of their villages -might have been expected to remain in this -remote and not very populous part of the colony. -Not one, however, was to be found. There is not, -in fact, in the whole district of Graaff Reynet, a single -horde of independent Hottentots, and perhaps not a -score of individuals who are not actually in the service -of the Dutch. These weak people—the most helpless, -and, in their present condition, perhaps the most -wretched of the human race,—duped out of their -possessions, their country, and their liberty, have entailed -upon their miserable offspring a state of existence -to which that of slavery might bear the comparison -of happiness. It is a condition, however, not likely -to continue to a very remote posterity. Their numbers, -of late years, have been rapidly on the decline. -It has generally been observed, that where Europeans -have colonized, the less civilized nations have always -dwindled away, and at length totally disappeared.... -There is scarcely an instance of cruelty said to have -been committed against the slaves in the West Indian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">423</a></span> -islands, that could not find a parallel from the Dutch -farmers towards the Hottentots in their service. Beating -and cutting with thongs of the sea-cow (hippopotamus), -or rhinoceros, are only gentle punishments; -though those sort of whips, which they call -<em>sjambocs</em>, are most horrid instruments, being tough, -pliant, and heavy almost as lead. Firing small shot -into the legs and thighs of a Hottentot is a punishment -not unknown to some of the monsters who -inhabit the neighbourhood of Camtoos. By a resolution -of the old government, a boor was allowed to -claim as his property, till the age of twenty-five, all -the children of the Hottentots to whom he had given -in their infancy a morsel of meat. At the expiration -of this period, the odds are two to one that the slave -is not emancipated; but should he be fortunate enough -to escape at this period, the best part of his life has -been spent in a profitless servitude, and he is turned -adrift without any thing he can call his own, except -the sheep-skin on his back.”</p> - -<p>These poor people were fed on the flesh of old -ewes, or any animal that the boor expected to die of -age; or, in default of that, a few quaggas or such game -were killed for them. They were tied to a wagon-wheel -and flogged dreadfully for slight offences; and -when a master wanted to get rid of one, he was sometimes -sent on an errand, followed on the road, and -shot.<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">64</a> The cruelties, in fact, practised on the Hottentots -by the Dutch boors were too shocking to be related. -Maiming, murder, pursuing them like wild -beasts, and shooting at them in the most wanton -manner, were amongst them. Mr. Pringle stated -that he had in his possession a journal of such -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">424</a></span>deeds, kept by a resident at so late a period as from -1806 to 1811, which consisted of forty-four pages -of such crimes and cruelties, which were too horrible -to describe. Such as we found them when the Cape -finally became our possession, such they remained till -1828, when Dr. Philip published his “Researches in -South Africa,” which laying open this scene of barbarities, -Mr. Fowell Buxton gave notice of a motion on -the subject in Parliament. Sir George Murray, then -Colonial Secretary, however, most honourably acceded -to Mr. Buxton’s proposition before such motion was -submitted, and an Order in Council was accordingly -issued, directing that the Hottentots should be admitted -to all the rights, and placed on the same footing -as the rest of his Majesty’s free subjects in the colony. -This transaction is highly honourable to the English -government, and the result has been such as to shew -the wisdom of such liberal measures. But before -proceeding to notice the effect of this change upon the -Hottentots, let us select as a specimen of the treatment -they were subject to, even under our rule, the -destruction of the last independent Hottentot kraal, -as related by Pringle.</p> - -<p>“Among the principal leaders of the Hottentot -insurgents in their wars with the boors, were three -brothers of the name of Stuurman. The manly -bearing of Klaas, one of these brothers, is commemorated -by Mr. Barrow, who was with the English -General Vandeleur, near Algoa Bay, when this Hottentot -chief came, with a large body of his countrymen, -to claim the protection of the British.” “We -had little doubt,” says Mr. Barrow, “that the greater -number of the Hottentot men who were assembled at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">425</a></span> -the bay, after receiving favourable accounts from their -comrades of the treatment they experienced in the -British service, would enter as volunteers into this -corps; but what was to be done with the old people, -the women and children? Klaas Stuurman found no -difficulty in making provision for them. ‘Restore,’ -said he, ‘the country of which our fathers have been -despoiled by the Dutch, and we have nothing more to -ask.’ I endeavoured to convince him,” continues Mr. -Barrow, “how little advantage they were likely to -obtain from the possession of a country, without any -other property, or the means of deriving a subsistence -from it. But he had the better of the argument. -‘We lived very contentedly,’ said he, ‘before these -Dutch plunderers molested us; and why should we -not do so again if left to ourselves? Has not the -<em>Groot Baas</em> (the Great Master) given plenty of grassroots, -and berries, and grasshoppers for our use? and, -till the Dutch destroyed them, abundance of wild animals -to hunt? and will they not turn and multiply -when these destroyers are gone?’”</p> - -<p>How uniform is the language of the uncivilized man -wherever he has been driven from his ancient habits -by the white invaders,—trust in the goodness of Providence, -and regret for the plenty which he knew before -they came. These words of Klaas Stuurman are -almost the same as those of the American Indian -Canassateego to the English at Lancaster in 1744.</p> - -<p>But we are breaking our narrative. Klaas was -killed in a buffalo hunt, and his brother David became -the chief of the kraal. “The existence of this independent -kraal gave great offence to the neighbouring -boors. The most malignant calumnies were propagated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">426</a></span> -against David Stuurman. The kraal was watched -most jealously, and every possible occasion embraced -of preferring complaints against the people, with a -view of getting them rooted out, and reduced to the -same state of servitude as the rest of their nation. -For seven years no opportunity presented itself; but -in 1810, when the colony was once more under the -government of England, David Stuurman became -outlawed in the following manner:—</p> - -<p>“Two Hottentots belonging to this kraal, had engaged -themselves for a certain period in the service of -a neighbouring boor; who, when the term of their -agreement expired, refused them permission to depart—a -practice at that time very common, and much connived -at by the local functionaries. The Hottentots, -upon this, went off without permission, and returned -to their village. The boor followed them thither, and -demanded them back; but their chief, Stuurman, refused -to surrender them. Stuurman was, in consequence, -summoned by the landdrost Cuyler, to appear -before him; but, apprehensive probably for his -personal safety, he refused or delayed compliance. -His arrest and the destruction of his kraal were determined -upon. But as he was known to be a resolute -man, and much beloved by his countrymen, it was considered -hazardous to seize him by open force, and the -following stratagem was resorted to:—</p> - -<p>“A boor, named Cornelius Routenbach, a heemraad -(one of the landdrost’s council), had by some -means gained Stuurman’s confidence, and this man -engaged to entrap him. On a certain day, accordingly, -he sent an express to his friend Stuurman, -stating that the Caffres had carried off a number of his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">427</a></span> -cattle, and requested him to hasten with the most -trusty of his followers to aid him in pursuit of the -robbers. The Hottentot chief and his party instantly -equipped themselves and set out. When they reached -Routenbach’s residence, Stuurman was welcomed with -every demonstration of cordiality, and, with four of -his principal followers, was invited into the house. On -a signal given, the door was shut, and at the same -moment the landdrost (Major Cuyler), the field-commandant -Stoltz, and a crowd of boors, rushed upon -them from an inner apartment, and made them all -prisoners. The rest of the Hottentot party, who had -remained outside, perceiving that their captain and -comrade had been betrayed, immediately dispersed -themselves. The majority, returning to their kraal, -were, together with their families, distributed by the -landdrost into servitude to the neighbouring boors. -Some fled into Caffreland; and a few were, at the -earnest request of Dr. Vanderkemp, permitted to join -the missionary institution at Bethelsdorp. The chief -and his brother Boschman, with two other leaders of -the kraal, were sent off prisoners to Cape Town, -where, after undergoing their trial before the court of -justice, upon an accusation of resistance to the civil -authorities of the district, they were condemned to -work in irons for life, and sent to Robben Island to -be confined among other colonial convicts.</p> - -<p>“Stuurman’s kraal was eventually broken up, the -landdrost Cuyler <em>asked and obtained</em>, as a grant for -himself—(Naboth’s vineyard again!)—the lands the -Hottentots had occupied. <em>Moreover this functionary -kept in his own service, without any legal agreement</em>, some -of the children of the Stuurmans, until after the arrival -of the Commissioners of Inquiry in 1823.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">428</a></span></p> - -<p>“Stuurman and two of his comrades, after remaining -some years prisoners in Robben Island, contrived -to escape, and effected their retreat through the whole -extent of the colony into Caffreland, a distance of -more than six hundred miles! Impatient, however, -to return to his family, Stuurman, in the year 1816, -sent out a messenger to the missionary, Mr. Read, -from whom he had formerly experienced kindness, -entreating him to endeavour to procure permission for -him to return in peace. Mr. Read, as he himself informed -me, made application on his behalf to the landdrost -Cuyler,—but without avail. That magistrate -recommended that he should remain where he was. -Three years afterwards, the unhappy exile ventured -to return into the colony without permission. But he -was not long in being discovered and apprehended, -and once more sent a prisoner to Cape Town, where -he was kept in close confinement till the year 1823, -when he was finally transported as a convict to New -South Wales. What became of Boschman, the third -brother, I never learned. Such was the fate of the -last Hottentot chief who attempted to stand up for the -rights of his country.”</p> - -<p>Mr. Pringle adds, “that this statement, having been -published by him in England in 1826, the benevolent -General Bourke, then Lieutenant-Governor at the -Cape, wrote to the Governor of New South Wales, -and obtained some alleviation of the hardships of his -lot for Stuurman; that, in 1829, the children of -Stuurman, through the aid of Mr. Bannister, presented -a memorial to Sir Lowry Cole, then governor at the -Cape, for their father’s recall, but in vain; but that, in -1831, General Bourke, being himself Governor of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">429</a></span> -New South Wales, obtained an order for his liberation; -but, ere it arrived, ‘the last chief of the Hottentots’ -had been released by death.”</p> - -<p>Such was the treatment of the Hottentots under the -Dutch and under the English; such were the barbarities -and ruthless oppressions exercised on them till -the passing of the 50th Ordinance by Acting-Governor -Bourke in 1828, and its confirmation by the Order in -Council in 1829, for their liberation. This act, so -honourable to the British government, became equally -honourable to the Hottentots, by their conduct on their -freedom, and presents another most important proof -that political justice is political wisdom. After the -clamour of the interested had subsided, and after a vain -attempt to reverse this ordinance, a grand experiment -in legislation was made. A tract of country was -granted to the Hottentots; they were placed on the -frontiers with arms in their hands, to defend themselves, -if necessary, from the Caffres; and they were -told that they must now show whether they were -capable of maintaining themselves as a people, in -peace, civil order, and independence. Most nobly -did they vindicate their national character from all the -calumnies of indolence and imbecility that had been -cast upon them,—most amply justify the confidence -reposed in them! “The spot selected,” says Pringle, -“for the experiment, was a tract of wild country, from -which the Caffre chief, Makomo, had been expelled a -short time before. It is a sort of irregular basin, -surrounded on all sides by lofty and majestic mountains, -from the numerous kloofs of which six or seven -fine streams are poured down the subsidiary dells -into the central valley. These rivulets, bearing the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">430</a></span> -euphonic Caffre names of Camalu, Zebenzi, Umtóka, -Mankazána, Umtúava, and Quonci, unite to form the -Kat River, which finds its way through the mountain -barrier by a stupendous <em>poort</em>, or pass, a little above -Fort Beaufort. Within this mountain-basin, which -from its great command of the means of irrigation is -peculiarly well adapted for a dense population, it was -resolved to fix the Hottentot settlement.”</p> - -<p>It was in the middle of the winter when the settlement -was located. Numbers flocked in from all -quarters; some possessing a few cattle, but far the -greater numbers possessing nothing but their hands to -work with. They asked Captain Stockenstrom, their -great friend, the lieutenant-governor of the frontier, -and at whose suggestion this experiment was made, -what they were to do, and how they were to subsist. -He told them, “if they were not able to cultivate the -ground with their fingers, they need not have come -there.” Government, even under such rigorous circumstances, -gave them no aid whatever except the gift -of fire-arms, and some very small portion of seed-corn -to the most destitute, to keep them from thieving. -Yet, even thus tried, the Hottentots, who had been -termed the fag-end of mankind, did not quail or -despair. In the words of Mr. Fairbairn, the friend of -Pringle, “The Hottentot, escaped from bonds, stood -erect on his new territory; and the feeling of being -restored to the level of humanity and the simple rights -of nature, softened and enlarged his heart, and diffused -vigour through every limb!” They dug up roots and -wild bulbs for food, and persisted without a murmur, -labouring surprisingly, with the most wretched implements, -and those who had cattle assisting those who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">431</a></span> -had nothing, to the utmost of their ability. All -winter the Caffres, from whom this location had been -unjustly wrested by the English, attacked them with -a fury only exceeded by their hope of now regaining -their territory from mere Hottentots, thus newly -armed, and in so wretched a condition. But, though -harassed night and day, and never, for a moment, -safe in their sleep, they not only repelled the assailants, -but continued to cultivate their grounds with -prodigious energy. They had to form dams across -the river, as stated by Mr. Read, before the Parliamentary -committee, and water-courses, sometimes to -the depth of ten, twelve, and fourteen feet, and that -sometimes through solid rocks, and with very sorry -pickaxes, iron crows, and spades; and few of them. -These works, says Mr. Read, have excited the admiration -of visitors, as well as the roads, which they had -to cut to a considerable height on the sides of the -mountains.</p> - -<p>At first, from the doubts of colonists as to the propriety -of entrusting fire-arms, and so much self-government -to these newly liberated men, it was proposed -that a certain portion of the Dutch and English should -be mixed with them. The Hottentots, who felt this -want of confidence keenly, begged and prayed that -they might be trusted for two years; and Captain -Stockenstrom said to them, “Then show to the world -that you can work as well as others, and that without -the whip.” Such indeed was their diligence, that the -very next summer they had abundance of vegetables, -and a plentiful harvest. In the second year they not -only supported themselves, but disposed of 30,000 lbs. -of barley for the troops, besides carrying other pro<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">432</a></span>duce -to market at Graham’s Town. Their enemies -the Caffres made peace with them, and those of their -own race flocked in so rapidly that they were soon -4,000 in number, seven hundred of whom were armed -with muskets. The settlement was left without any -magistrate, or officers, except the native field-cornets, -and heads of parties appointed by Captain Stockenstrom, -yet they continued perfectly orderly. Nay, they -were not satisfied without possessing the means of both -religious and other instruction. Within a few months -after their establishment, they sent for Mr. Read, the -missionary, and Mr. Thompson was also appointed -Dutch minister amongst them. They established temperance -societies, and schools. Mr. Read says, that -during the four years and a half that he was there, they -had established seven schools for the larger children, -and one school of industry, besides five infant schools. -And Captain Stockenstrom, writing to Mr. Pringle -in 1833, says, “So eager are they for instruction, -that when better teachers cannot be obtained, if they -find any person that can merely spell, they get him to -teach the rest the little he knows. They travel considerable -distances to attend divine service regularly, -and their spiritual guides speak with delight of the -fruits of their labours. Nowhere have temperance -societies been half so much encouraged as among this -people, formerly so prone to intemperance; and they -have of their own account petitioned the government -that their grants of land may contain a prohibition -against the establishment of canteens, or brandy-houses. -They have repulsed the Caffres on every side -on which they have been attacked, and are now upon -the best terms with that people. They pay every tax<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">433</a></span> -like the rest of the inhabitants. They have cost the -government nothing except a little ammunition for their -defence, about fifty bushels of maize, and a similar -quantity of oats for seed-corn, and the annual stipend -for their minister. <em>They have rendered the Kat river by -far the safest part of the frontier; and the same plan -followed up on a more extensive scale would soon enable -government to withdraw the troops altogether.</em>” In 1834, -Captain Bradford found that they had subscribed -499<i>l.</i> to build a new church, and had also proposed to -lay the foundation of another. In 1833 they paid in -taxes 2,300 rix-dollars, and their settlement was in a -most flourishing condition. Dr. Philip, before the -Parliamentary Committee of 1837, stated that their -schools were in admirable order; their infant schools -quite equal to anything to be seen in England; and -the Committee closed its evidence on this remarkable -settlement with this striking opinion: “<cite>Had it, indeed, -depended on the Hottentots, we believe the frontier would -have been spared the outrages from which they as well as -others have suffered</cite>.”</p> - -<p>Of two things in this very interesting relation, we -hardly know which is the most surprising—the avidity -with which a people long held in the basest thraldom -grasp at knowledge and civil life, or the blind selfishness -of Englishmen, who, in the face of such splendid -scenes as these, persist in oppression and violence. -How easy does it seem to do good! How beautiful -are the results of justice and liberality! How glorious -and how profitable too, beyond all use of whips, and -chains, and muskets, are treating our fellow men with -gentleness and kindness—and yet after this came the -Caffre commandoes and the Caffre war!</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">434</a></span></p> - -<p>Of the same, or a kindred race with the Hottentots, -are the Bosjesmen, or Bushmen, and the Griquas; -their treatment, except that they could not be made -slaves of, has been the same. The same injustice, the -same lawlessness, the same hostile irritation, have been -practised towards them by the Dutch and English as -towards the Hottentots. The bushmen, in fact, were -Hottentots, who, disdaining slavery and resenting the -usurpations of the Europeans on their lands, took arms, -endeavoured to repel their aggressors, and finding that -impracticable, fled to the woods and the mountains; -others, from time to time escaping from intolerable -thraldom, joined them. These bushmen carried on a -predatory warfare from their fastnesses with the oppressors -of their race, and were in return hunted as -wild beasts. Commandoes, a sort of military battu, -were set on foot against them. Every one knows -what a battu for game is. The inhabitants of a district -assemble at the command of an officer, civil or -military, to clear the country of wild beasts. They -take in a vast circle, beating up the bushes and thickets, -while they gradually contract the circle, till the -whole multitude find themselves inclosing a small area -filled with the whole bestial population of the neighbourhood, -on which they make a simultaneous attack, -and slaughter them in one promiscuous mass. A commando -is a very similar thing, except that in it not only -the bestial population of the country, but the human -too, are slaughtered by the inhuman. These commandoes, -though they have only acquired at the Cape -a modern notoriety, have been used from the first day -of discovery. They were common in the Spanish -and Portuguese colonies, and under the same name,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">435</a></span> -as may be seen in almost any of the Spanish and -Portuguese historians of the West Indies and South -America.</p> - -<p>The manner in which these commandoes were conducted -at the Cape was described, before the Parliamentary -Committee of 1837,<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">65</a> to be a joint assemblage -of burghers and military force for the purpose -of enforcing restitution of cattle. Sir Lowry Cole -authorized in 1833 any field-cornet, or deputy field-cornet, -to whom a boor may complain, to send a party -of soldiers on the track and recover the cattle. These -persons are often of the most indifferent class of -society. It is the interest of these men, as much as -that of the boors, to make inroads into the country of -the Griquas, Bushmen, or Caffres, and sweep off -droves of cattle. These people can call on everybody -to aid and assist, and away goes the troop. The moment -the Caffres perceive these licensed marauders -approaching their kraal, they collect their cattle as fast -as they can, and drive them off towards the woods. -The English pursue—they surround them if possible—they -fall on them; the Caffres, or whoever they are, -defend their property—their only subsistence, indeed; -then ensues bloodshed and devastation. The cattle -are driven off; the calves left behind to perish; the -women and children, the whole tribe, are thrown into -a state of absolute famine. Besides these “joint assemblages -of burghers and military force,” there are -parties entirely military sent on the same errand; and -to such a pitch of vengeance have the parties arrived -that whole districts have been laid in flames and reduced -to utter deserts. Such has been our system—<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">436</a></span>the -system of us humane and virtuous English, till -1837! To these dreadful and wicked expeditions -there was no end, and but little cessation, for the -boors were continually going over the boundaries into -the countries of Bushmen, Caffres, or Guiquas, just -as they pleased. They went over with vast herds and -eat them up. “In 1834 there were said to be,” says -the Report, “about 1,500 boors on the other side of -the Orange River, and for the most part in the Griqua -country. Of these there were 700 boors for several -months during that year in the district of Philipolis -alone, with at least 700,000 sheep, cattle, and horses. -Besides destroying the pastures of the people, in -many instances their corn-fields were destroyed by -them, and in some instances they took possession of -their houses. It was contended that the evil could -not be remedied; that the state of the country was -such that the boors could not be stopped; and yet an -enormous body of military was kept up on the frontiers -at a ruinous expense to this country. The last -Caffre war, brought on entirely by this system of -aggression, by these commandoes, and the reprisals -generated by them, cost this country 500,000<i>l.</i>, and -put a stop to trade and the sale of produce to the -value of 300,000<i>l.</i> more!” Yet the success of a different -policy was before the colony, in the case of the -Kat River Hottentots, and that so splendid a one, -that the Report says, had it been attended to and followed -out, all these outrages might have been spared.</p> - -<p>Such are commandoes.—So far as they related to -the Bushmen, the following facts are sufficiently indicative. -In 1774 an order was issued for the extirpation -of the Bushmen, and three commandoes were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">437</a></span> -sent to execute it. In 1795, the Earl of Macartney, -by proclamation, authorized the landdrosts and magistrates -to take the field against the Bushmen, in such -expeditions; and Mr. Maynier gave in evidence, that -in consequence, when he was landdrost of Graaf Reynet, -parties of from 200 to 300 boors were sent out, -who killed many hundreds of Bushmen, <em>chiefly women -and children</em>, the men escaping; and the children too -young to carry off for slaves had their brains knocked -out against the rocks.<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">66</a> Col. Collins, in his tour to -the north-eastern boundary in 1809, says one man -told him that within a period of six years parties under -his orders had killed or taken 3,200 of these unfortunate -creatures; and another, that the actions in which -he had been engaged had destroyed 2,700. That the -total extinction of the Bushmen race was confidently -hoped for, but sufficient force for the purpose could -not be raised. But Dr. Philips’ evidence, presented in -a memorial to government in 1834, may well conclude -these horrible details of the deeds of our countrymen -and colonists.</p> - -<p>“A few years ago, we had 1,800 Boschmen belonging -to two missionary institutions, among that people -in the country between the Snewbergen and the -Orange River, a country comprehending 42,000 square -miles; and had we been able to treble the number of -our missionary stations over that district, we might -have had 5,000 of that people under instruction. In -1832 I spent seventeen days in that country, travelling -over it in different directions. I then found the -country occupied by the boors, and the Boschmen -population had disappeared, with the exception of -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">438</a></span>those that had been brought up from infancy in the -service of the boors. In the whole of my journey, -during the seventeen days I was in the country, I met -with two men and one woman only of the free inhabitants, -who had escaped the effects of the commando -system, and they were travelling by night, and concealing -themselves by day, to escape being shot like -wild beasts. Their tale was a lamentable one: their -children had been taken from them by the boors, and -they were wandering about in this manner from place -to place, in the hope of finding out where they were, -and of getting a sight of them.”</p> - -<p>I have glanced at the treatment of the Griquas in -the last page but one. Those people were the offspring -of colonists by Hottentot women, who finding -themselves treated as an inferior race by their kinsmen -of European blood, and prevented from acquiring property -in land, or any fixed property, fled from contumely -and oppression to the native tribes.</p> - -<p>Amongst the vast mass of colonial crime, that of the -treatment of the half-breed race by their European -fathers constitutes no small portion. Everywhere this -unfortunate race has been treated alike; in every -quarter of the globe, and by every European people. -In Spanish America it was the civil disqualification -and social degradation of this race that brought on the -revolution, and the loss of those vast regions to the -mother country. In our East Indies, what thousands -upon thousands of coloured children their white fathers -have coolly abandoned; and while they have themselves -returned to England with enormous fortunes, -and to establish new families to enjoy them, have left -there their coloured offspring to a situation the most<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">439</a></span> -painful and degrading—a position of perpetual contempt -and political degradation. In our West Indies -how many thousands of their own children have been -sold by their white fathers, in the slave-market, or -been made to swelter under the lash on their own -plantations. Here, in South Africa, this class of descendents -were driven from civilization to the woods -and the savages, and a miserable and savage race they -became. It was not till 1800 that any attempts were -made to reclaim them, and then it was no parental or -kindred feeling on the part of the colonists that urged -it; it was attempted by the missionaries, who, as in -every distant scene of our crimes, have stepped in between -us and the just vengeance of heaven, between -us and the political punishment of our own absurd and -wicked policy, between us and the miserable natives. -Mr. Anderson, their first missionary, found them “a -herd of wandering and naked savages, subsisting by -plunder and the chase. Their bodies were daubed -with red paint, their heads loaded with grease and -shining powder, with no covering but the filthy caross -over their shoulders. Without knowledge, without -morals, or any traces of civilization, they were wholly -abandoned to witchcraft, drunkenness, licentiousness, -and all the consequences which arise from the unchecked -growth of such vices. With his fellow-labourer, -Mr. Kramer, Mr. Anderson wandered about -with them five years and a half, exposed to all the -dangers and privations inseparable from such a state of -society, before they could induce them to locate where -they are now settled.”</p> - -<p>With one exception, they had not one thread of -European clothing amongst them. They were in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">440</a></span> -habit of plundering one another, and saw no manner -of evil in this, or any of their actions. Violent deaths -were common. Their usual manner of living was -truly disgusting, and they were void of shame. They -were at the most violent enmity with the Bushmen, -and treated them on all occasions where they could, -with the utmost barbarity. So might these people, -wretched victims of European vice and contempt of -all laws, human or divine, have remained, had not the -missionaries, by incredible labours and patience, won -their good will. They have now reduced them to -settled and agricultural life; brought them to live in -the most perfect harmony with the Bushmen; and in -1819 such was their altered condition that a fair was -established at Beaufort for the mutual benefit of them -and the colonists, at which business was done to the -amount of 27,000 rix dollars; and on the goods sold -to the Griquas, the colonists realized a profit of from -200 to 500 per cent.!</p> - -<p>Let our profound statesmen, who go on from generation -to generation fighting and maintaining armies, -and issuing commandoes, look at this, and see how -infinitely simple men, with but one principle of action -to guide them—Christianity—outdo them in their -own profession. They are your missionaries, after all -the boast and pride of statesmanship, who have ever -yet hit upon the only true and sound policy even in -a worldly point of view;<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">67</a> who, when the profound -statesmen have turned men into miserable and exasperated -savages, are obliged to go and again turn -them from savages to men,—who, when these wise -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">441</a></span>statesmen have spent their country’s money by millions -and shed blood by oceans, and find troubles and -frontier wars, and frightful and fire-blackened deserts -only growing around—go, and by a smile and a shake -of the hand, restore peace, replace these deserts by -gardens and green fields, and hamlets of cheerful people; -and instead of involving you in debt, find you -a market with 200 to 500 per cent. profit!</p> - -<p>“It was apparent,” says Captain Stockenstrom, -“to every man, that if it had not been for the influence -which the missionaries had gained over the -Griquas we should have had the whole nation down -upon us.” What a humiliation to the pride of political -science, to the pride of so many <em>soi-disant</em> statesmen, -that with so many ages of experience to refer to, -and with such stupendous powers as European statesmen -have now in their hands, a few simple preachers -should still have to shew them the real philosophy of -government, and to rescue them from the blundering -and ruinous positions in which they have continually -placed themselves with uneducated nations! “If -these Griquas had come down upon us,” continues -Captain Stockenstrom, “we had no force to arrest -them; and I have been informed, that since I left the -colony, the government has been able to enter into a -sort of treaty with the chief Waterboer, of a most -beneficial nature to the Corannas and Griquas themselves, -as well as to the safety of the northern frontier.”</p> - -<p>If noble statesmen wish to hear the true secret of -good and prosperous government, they have only to -listen to this chief, “who boasts,” to use the words of -the Parliamentary Report, “no higher ancestry than -that of the Hottentot and the Bushman.”—“I feel that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">442</a></span> -I am bound to govern my people by Christian principles. -The world knows by experience, and I know -in my small way, and I know also from my Bible, -that the government which is not founded on the -principles of the Bible must come to nothing. When -governments lose sight of the principles of the Bible, -partiality, injustice, oppression and cruelty prevail, -and then suspicion, want of confidence, jealousy, -hatred, revolt, and destruction succeed. Therefore I -hope it will ever be my study, that the Bible should -form the foundation of every principle of my government; -then I and my people will have a standard to -which we can appeal, which is clear, and comprehensive, -and satisfactory, and by which we shall all be -tried, and have our condition determined in the day of -judgment. The relation in which I stand to my people -as their chief, as their leader, binds me, by all -that is sacred and dear, to seek their welfare and promote -their happiness; and by what means shall I be -able to do this? This I shall best be able to do by -alluding to the principles of the Bible. Would governors -and governments act upon the simple principle -by which we are bound to act as individuals, that is, -to do as we would be done by, all would be well. I -hope, by the principles of the gospel, the morals of -my people will continue to improve; and it shall be -my endeavour, in humble dependence on the Divine -blessing, that those principles shall lose none of their -force by my example. Sound education I know will -civilize them, make them wise, useful, powerful, and -secure amongst their neighbours; and the better they -are educated, the more clearly will they see that the -principles of the Bible are the best principles for the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">443</a></span> -government of individuals, of families, of tribes, and -of nations.”</p> - -<p>Not only governors but philosophers may listen to -this African chief with advantage. Some splendid -reputations have been made in Europe by merely -taking up some one great principle of the Christian -code and vaunting it as a wonderful discovery. A -thousand such principles are scattered through the -Bible, and the greatest philosophers of all, as well as -the profoundest statesmen, are they who are contented -to look for them there, and in simple sincerity to adopt -them.</p> - -<hr /> -<h2>CHAPTER XXVII.<br /><br /> - -<small><small>THE ENGLISH IN SOUTH AFRICA,—CONTINUED.</small></small></h2> - -<p><span class="smcap">The</span> details of our barbarisms toward the Hottentots, -Bushmen, and Griquas, in the last chapter, are surely -enough at this late period of the world to make the -wise blush and the humane weep, yet what are they -compared to our atrocities towards the Caffres? These -are, as described by Pringle, a remarkably fine race of -people. “They a are tall, athletic, and handsome race -of men, with features often approaching to the European, -or Asiatic model, and, excepting their woolly -hair, exhibiting few of the peculiarities of the negro -race. Their colour is a clear dark brown. Their -address is frank, cheerful, and manly. Their govern<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444">444</a></span>ment -is patriarchal, and the privileges of rank are -carefully maintained by the chieftains. Their principal -wealth and means of subsistence consist in their -numerous herds of cattle. The females also cultivate -pretty extensively maize, millet, water-melons, and a -few other esculents; but they are decidedly a nation -of <em>herdsmen</em>—war, hunting, barter, and agriculture -being only occasional occupations.</p> - -<p>“In their customs and traditions there seem to be -indications of their having sprung, at some remote -period, from a people of much higher civilization than -is now exhibited by any of the tribes of Southern -Africa; whilst the rite of circumcision, universally -practised among them without any vestige of Islamism, -and several other traditionary customs greatly resembling -the Levitical rules of purification, would seem -to indicate some former connexion with a people of -Arabian, Hebrew, or perhaps, Abyssinian lineage. -Nothing like a regular system of idolatry exists among -them; but we find some traces of belief of a Supreme -Being, as well as of inferior spirits, and sundry superstitious -usages that look like the shattered wrecks of -ancient religious institutions.”<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">68</a></p> - -<p>One of the first of this race, whom this amiable and -excellent man encountered in South Africa, was at -Bethelsdorp, the missionary settlement, and under the -following circumstances:—“A Caffre woman, accompanied -by a little girl of eight or ten years of age, and -having an infant strapped on her back above her mantle -of tanned bullock’s hide. She was in the custody -of a black constable, who stated that she was one of a -number of female Caffres who had been made prisoners -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445">445</a></span>by order of the Commandant on the frontier for crossing -the line of demarcation without permission, and -that they were now to be <em>given out in servitude</em> among -the white inhabitants of this district. While the constable -was delivering his message, the Caffre woman -looked at him and us with keen and intelligent glances, -and though she very imperfectly understood his language, -she appeared fully to comprehend its import. -When he had finished she stepped forward, drew her -figure up to its full height, extended her right arm, -and commenced a speech in her native language, the -Amakosa dialect. Though I did not understand a -single word that she uttered, I have seldom been more -struck with surprise and admiration. The language, -to which she appeared to give full and forcible intonation, -was highly musical and sonorous; her gestures -were natural, graceful, and impressive, and her dark -eyes and handsome bronze countenance were full of -eloquent expression. Sometimes she pointed back to -her own country, and then to her children. Sometimes -she raised her tones aloud, and shook her -clenched hand, as if she denounced our injustice, and -threatened us with the vengeance of her tribe. Then, -again, she would melt into tears, as if imploring clemency, -and mourning for her helpless little ones. -Some of the villagers who gathered round, being -whole or half Caffres, interpreted her speech to the -missionary, but he could do nothing to alter her destination, -and could only return kind words to console -her. For my part, I was not a little struck by the -scene, and could not help beginning to suspect that -my European countrymen, who thus made captives of -harmless women and children, were, in reality, greater<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_446" id="Page_446">446</a></span> -barbarians than the savage natives of Caffraria.” He -had soon only too ample proofs of the correctness of -his surmise. This fine race of people, who strikingly -resemble the North American Indians in their character, -their eloquence, their peculiar customs and traditions -of Asiatic origin, have exactly resembled them -in their fate. They have been driven out of their -lands by the Europeans, and massacred by thousands -when they have resented the invasion.</p> - -<p>The Hottentots were exterminated, or reduced to -thraldom, and the European colonists then came in -contact with the Caffres, who were numerous and -warlike, resisted aggression with greater effect, but -still found themselves unable with their light assagais -to contend with fire-arms, and were perpetually driven -backwards with shocking carnage, and with circumstances -of violent oppression which it is impossible to -read of without the strongest indignation. Up to 1778 -the Camtoos River had been considered the limit of -the colony on that side; but at that period the Dutch -governor, Van Plattenburgh, says Pringle, “in the -course of an extensive tour into the interior, finding -great numbers of colonists occupying tracts beyond -the frontier, instead of recalling them within the legal -limits, he extended the boundary (according to the -ordinary practice of Cape governors before and since), -adding, by a stroke of his pen, about 30,000 square -miles to the colonial territory.” The Great Fish River -now became the boundary; which Lord Macartney in -1798, claiming all that Van Plattenburgh had so summarily -claimed, confirmed.</p> - -<p>It is singular how uniform are the policy and the -modes of seizing upon native possessions by Euro<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_447" id="Page_447">447</a></span>peans. -In America we have seen how continually, -when the bulk of the people, or the legitimate chiefs, -would not cede territory, the whites made a mock -purchase from somebody who had no right whatever -to sell, and on that title proceeded to drive out the -real owners. In this case, Plattenburgh, to give a -colour of justice to his claim, sent out Colonel Gordon -in search of Caffres as far as the Keiskamma, who -conducted a <em>few</em> to the governor, who consented that -the Great Fish River <em>should</em> be the boundary. The -real chief, Jalumba, it appears, however, had not been -consulted; but the colonists the next year <em>reminded</em> -him of the recent treaty with his tribe, and requested -him to evacuate that territory. Jalumba refused—a -commando was assembled—the <em>intruders</em>, in colonial -phrase, but the real and actual owners, were expelled: -Jalumba’s own son Dlodlo was killed, and 5,200 head -of cattle driven off. This was certainly a wholesale -beginning of plunder and bloodshed; but, says the -same author, “this was not the worst—Jalumba and -his clan were destroyed by a most infamous act of -treachery and murder; the details of which may be -found in Thompson and Kay.”</p> - -<p>It was on such a title as this, that Lord Macartney -claimed this tract of country for the English in 1797, -the Cape having been conquered by us. It does not -appear, however, that any very vigorous measures -were employed for expelling the natives from this -region till 1811, when it was resolved to drive them -out of it, and a large military and burgher force under -Col. Graham was sent out for that purpose. The -expulsion was effected with the most savage rigour. -This <em>clearing</em> took up about a year. In the course<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448">448</a></span> -of it Landdrost Stokenstrom lost his life by the -Caffres, and T’Congo, the father of the chiefs Pato, -Kamo, and T’Congo, was butchered by a party of -boors while he lay on his mat dying of a mortal disease. -The Caffres begged to be allowed to wait to cut their -crops of maize and millet, nearly ripe, arguing that -the loss of them would subject them to a whole year -of famine;—not a day was allowed them. They were -driven out with sword and musket. Men and women, -wherever found, were promiscuously shot, though -they offered no resistance. “Women,” says Lieutenant -Hart, whose journal of these transactions is -quoted by Pringle, “were killed <em>unintentionally</em>, because -the boors could not distinguish them from men -among the bushes, and so, to make sure work, they -shot <em>all</em> they could reach.” They were very anxious -to seize Islambi, a chief who had actively opposed -them, for they had been, like Plattenburgh, treating -with <em>one</em> chief, Gaika, for cession of claims which he -frankly told them belonged to <em>several</em> quite independent -of him. On this subject, occurs this entry in -Mr. Hart’s journal:—“Sunday, Jan. 12, 1812. At -noon, Commandant Stollz went out with two companies -to look for Slambi (Islambi), but saw nothing of -him. <em>They met only with a few Caffres, men and -women, most of whom they shot.</em> About sunset, five -Caffres were seen at a distance, one of whom came -to the camp with a message from Slambi’s son, requesting -permission to wait till the harvest was over, -and that then he (if his father would not), would go -over the Great Fish River quietly. This messenger -would not give any information respecting Slambi, -but said he did not know where he was. However,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_449" id="Page_449">449</a></span> -<em>after having been put in irons, and fastened to a wheel -with a riem</em> (leathern thong) <em>about his neck</em>, he said, -that if the commando went with him, before daylight -he would bring them upon 200 Caffres, all asleep.” -Having thus treated a messenger from a free chief, -and attempted to compel him to betray his master, -away went this commando on the agreeable errand of -surprising and murdering 200 innocent people in their -sleep. But the messenger was made of much better -stuff than the English. He led them about on a wild-goose -chase for three days, when finding nothing they -returned, and brought him back too.</p> - -<p>Parties of troops were employed for several weeks -in burning down the huts and hamlets of the natives, -and destroying their fields of maize, by trampling -them down with large herds of cattle, and at length -the Caffres were forced over the Great Fish River, to -the number of 30,000 souls, leaving behind them a -large portion of their cattle, captured by the troops; -many of their comrades and females, shot in the -thickets, and not a few of the old and diseased, whom -they were unable to carry along with them, to perish -of hunger, or become a prey to the hyenas.</p> - -<p>“The results of this war of 1811 were,” says the -Parliamentary Report of 1837, “first, a succession of -new wars, not less expensive, and more sanguinary -than the former; second, the loss of thousands of good -labourers to the colonists (and this testimony as to -the actual service done by Caffre labourers, comprises -the strong opinion of Major Dundas, when landdrost -in 1827, as to their good dispositions, and that of -Colonel Wade to the same effect); and thirdly, the -checking of civilization and trade with the interior for -a period of twelve years.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_450" id="Page_450">450</a></span></p> - -<p>The gain was some hundreds of thousands of acres -of land, which might have been bought from the -natives for comparatively a trifle.</p> - -<p>In 1817, those negotiations which had been entered -into with Gaika, as if he were the sole and paramount -king of Caffreland, were renewed by the governor, -Lord Charles Somerset. Other chiefs were present, -particularly Islambi, but no notice was taken of them; -it was resolved, that Gaika was the paramount chief, -and that he should be selected as the champion of the -frontiers against his countrymen. Accordingly, we -hear, as was to be expected, that the very next year -a formidable confederacy was entered into amongst -the native chiefs against this Gaika. In the league -against him, and for the protection of their country, -were his own uncles, Islambi and Jaluhsa, Habanna, -Makanna, young Kongo, chief of the Gunuquebi, and -Hintza, the principal chief of the Amakosa, to whom -in rank Gaika was only secondary. To support their -adopted puppet, Col. Brereton was ordered to march -into Caffreland. The inhabitants were attacked in -their hamlets, plundered of their cattle, and slaughtered -or driven into the woods; 23,000 cattle carried off, -9000 of which were given to Gaika to reimburse him -for his losses.</p> - -<p>Retaliation was the consequence. The Caffres -soon poured into the colony in numerous bodies eager -for revenge. The frontier districts were overrun; -several military posts were seized; parties of British -troops and patroles cut off; the boors were driven from -the Zureveld, and Enon plundered and burnt.</p> - -<p>This and the other efforts of the outraged Caffres, -which were now made to avenge their injuries and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_451" id="Page_451">451</a></span> -check the despoiling course of the English, were organized -under the influence and counsel of Makanna, a -prophet who assumed the sacred character to combine -and rouse his countrymen to overturn their oppressors: -for not knowing the vast resources of the English, he -fondly deemed that if they could vanquish those at -the Cape they should be freed from their power; “and -then,” said he, “we will sit down and eat honey!”</p> - -<p>In this, as in so many other particulars, the Caffres -resemble the American Indians. Scarcely a confederacy -amongst those which have appeared for the -purpose of resisting the aggressions on the Indians -but have been inspired and led on by prophets, as the -brother of Tecumseh, amongst the Shawanees; the -son of Black-Hauk, Wabokieshiek, amongst the Sacs; -Monohoe, and others, amongst the Creeks who fell at -the bloody battle of Horse-shoe-bend.</p> - -<p>Makanna had by his talents and pretences raised -himself from the common herd to the rank of a chief, -and soon gained complete ascendency over all the -chiefs except Gaika, to whom he was opposed as the -ally of the English. He went amongst the missionaries -and acquired so much knowledge of Christianity -as served him to build a certain motley creed -upon, by which he mystified and awed the common -people. After Col. Brereton’s devastations he roused -up his countrymen to a simultaneous attack upon Graham’s -Town. He and Dushani, the son of Islambi, -mustered their exasperated hosts to the number of nine -or ten thousand in the forests of the Great Fish River, -and one morning at the break of day these infuriated -troops were seen rushing down from the mountains -near Graham’s Town to assault it. A bloody conflict<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_452" id="Page_452">452</a></span> -ensued: the Caffres, inflamed by their wrongs and the -eloquence of Makanna, fought desperately; but they -were mown down by the European artillery, fourteen -hundred of their warriors were left on the field, and -the rest fled to the hills and woods. The whole -burgher militia of the colony were called out to pursue -them, and to ravage their country in all directions. -It was resolved to take ample vengeance on them: -their lands were laid waste—their corn trampled down -under the feet of the cavalry, their villages burnt to the -ground—and themselves chased into the bush, where -they were bombarded with grape-shot and congreve-rockets. -Men, women, and children, were massacred -in one indiscriminate slaughter. A high price was -set upon the heads of the chiefs, especially on that of -Makanna, and menaces added, that if they were -not brought in, nothing should prevent the total -destruction of their country. Not a soul was found -timid or traitorous enough to betray their chiefs; but -to the surprise of the English, Makanna himself, to -save the remainder of his nation, walked quietly into -the English camp and presented himself before the -commander. “The war,” said he, “British chiefs, is -an unjust one; for you are striving to extirpate a -people whom you forced to take up arms. When our -fathers, and the fathers of the Boors first settled in -the Zureveld, they dwelt together in peace. Their -flocks grazed on the same hills; their herdsmen -smoked together out of the same pipes; they were -brothers, until the herds of the Amakosa increased -so as to make the hearts of the boors sore. What -these covetous men could not get from our fathers for -old buttons, they took by force. Our fathers were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_453" id="Page_453">453</a></span> -<span class="smcap lowercase">MEN</span>; they loved their cattle; their wives and children -lived upon milk; they fought for their property. They -began to hate the colonists, who coveted their all, and -aimed at their destruction.</p> - -<p>“Now their kraals and our fathers’ kraals were -separate. The boors made commandoes on our fathers. -Our fathers drove them out of the Zureveld. We -dwelt there because we had conquered it. There we -married wives, and there our children were born. The -white men hated us, but they could not drive us away. -When there was war, we plundered you. When there -was peace, some of our bad people stole; but our -chiefs forbade it. Your treacherous friend, Gaika, -always had peace with you, yet, when his people stole -he shared in the plunder. Have your patroles ever, -in time of peace, found cattle, runaway slaves, or -deserters in the kraals of <em>our</em> chiefs? Have they ever -gone into Gaika’s country without finding such cattle, -such slaves, such deserters in Gaika’s kraals? But he -was your friend; and you wished to possess the Zureveld. -You came at last like locusts.<a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">69</a> We stood; we -could do no more. You said, ‘Go over the Fish -River—that is all we want.’ We yielded, and came -here. We lived in peace. Some bad people stole, -perhaps; but the nation was quiet—the chiefs were -quiet. Gaika stole—his chiefs stole—his people stole. -You sent him copper; you sent him beads; you sent -him horses—on which he rode to steal more. <em>To us -you sent only commandoes!</em></p> - -<p>“We quarrelled with Gaika about grass—no business -of yours. You sent a commando.<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">70</a> You took our -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_454" id="Page_454">454</a></span>last cow. You left only a few calves, which died for -want, along with our children. You gave half the spoil -to Gaika—half you kept yourselves. Without milk—our -corn destroyed, we saw our wives and children -perish—we saw that we must ourselves perish. -We fought for our lives—we failed—and you are -here. Your troops cover the plains and swarm in the -thickets, where they cannot distinguish the men from -the women, and shoot all.<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">71</a></p> - -<p>“You want us to submit to Gaika. That man’s -face is fair to you, but his heart is false; leave him to -himself, and <em>we</em> shall not call on you for help. Set -Makanna at liberty; and Islambi, Dushani, Kongo, -and the rest, will come to make peace with you at any -time you fix. But if you will make war, you may -indeed kill the last man of us; but Gaika shall not -rule over the followers of those who think him a -woman.”<a name="FNanchor_72_72" id="FNanchor_72_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_72_72" class="fnanchor">72</a></p> - -<p>It is said that this energetic address, containing so -many awful truths, affected some of those who heard -it even to tears. But what followed? The Caffres -were still sternly commanded to deliver up their other -chiefs; treachery is said to have been used to compass -it, but in vain; so the English made a desert of the -whole country, and carried off 30,000 head of cattle.<a name="FNanchor_73_73" id="FNanchor_73_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73_73" class="fnanchor">73</a> -Makanna was sent to Cape-Town, and thence transported -to Robben Island, a spot appropriated to felons -and malefactors doomed to work in irons. Here, in an -attempt with some few followers to effect his escape, -he was drowned by the upsetting of the boat, and -died cheering his unfortunate companions till the -billows swept him from a rock to which he clung.<a name="FNanchor_74_74" id="FNanchor_74_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74_74" class="fnanchor">74</a></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_455" id="Page_455">455</a></span></p> - -<p>The English had hitherto gratified their avarice -and bad passions with their usual freedom in their -colonies, on those who had no further connexion with -them than happening to possess goodly herds under -their eye; but now they turned their hand upon their -<em>friend</em> and ally, Gaika. Having devoured, by his aid, -his countrymen, they were ready now to devour him. -Gaika was called upon to give up a large portion of -Caffre land, that is, from the Fish River to the Keisi -and Chumi rivers—a tract which added about 2,000 -square miles to our own boundaries. This he yielded -most reluctantly, and only on condition that the basin of -the Chumi, a beautiful piece of country, should not be -included, and that all his territory should be considered -neutral ground. Gaika himself narrowly escaped -being seized by the English in 1822—for what cause -does not appear,—but it does appear that he only -effected his escape in the mantle of his wife; and that -in 1823 a large force, according to the evidence of -Capt. Aichison, in which he was employed, surprised -the kraals of his son Macomo, and took from them -7,000 beasts. Well might Gaika say—“When I -look at the large tract of fine country that has been -taken from me, I am compelled to say that <em>though -protected, I am rather oppressed by my protectors</em>.”<a name="FNanchor_75_75" id="FNanchor_75_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_75" class="fnanchor">75</a></p> - -<p>This Macomo, the son of Gaika, seems to be a fine -fellow. Desirous of cultivating peace and the friendship -of the English; desirous of his people receiving, -the benefits of civilization and the Christian religion; -yet, notwithstanding this, and notwithstanding the -alliance which had subsisted between the English and -his father, his treatment at the hands of the Cape -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_456" id="Page_456">456</a></span>government has always been of the most harsh and -arbitrary kind. He has been driven with his people -from one location to another, and the most serious -devastation committed on his property. Pringle’s -words regarding him are—“He has uniformly protected -the missionaries and traders; has readily -punished any of his people who committed depredations -on the colonists, and on many occasions has -given four or five-fold compensation for stolen cattle -driven through his territory by undiscovered thieves -from other clans. Notwithstanding all this, however, -and much more stated on his behalf in the Cape -papers, colonial oppression continues to trample down -this chief with a steady, firm, relentless foot.” The -same writer gives the following instance of the sort of -treatment which was received from the authorities by -this meritorious chief.</p> - -<p>“On the 7th of October last (1833), Macomo was -invited by Mr. Read to attend the anniversary meeting -of an auxiliary missionary society at Philipton, -Kat River. The chief went to the military officer -commanding the nearest frontier post, and asked permission -to attend, but was peremptorily refused. He -ventured, nevertheless, to come by another way, with -his ordinary retinue, but altogether unarmed, and -delivered in his native tongue a most eloquent speech -at the meeting, in which he seconded a motion, proposed -by the Rev. Mr. Thompson, the established -clergyman, for promoting the conversion of the Caffres. -Alluding to the great number of traders residing -in Caffreland, contrasted with the rude prohibition -given to his attending this Christian assembly, he -said, in the forcible idiom of his country—‘There are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_457" id="Page_457">457</a></span> -no Englishmen at Kat River; there are no Englishmen -at Graham’s Town; they are all in my country, -with their wives and children, in perfect safety, while -I stand before you as a rogue and a vagabond, having -been obliged to come by stealth.’<a name="FNanchor_76_76" id="FNanchor_76_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76_76" class="fnanchor">76</a> Then, addressing -his own followers, he said—‘Ye sons of Kahabi, I -have brought you here to behold what the Word of -God hath wrought. These Hottentots were but yesterday -as much despised and oppressed as to-day are -we—the Caffres: but see what the <span class="smcap">Great Word</span> has -done for them! They were dead—they are now alive; -they are men once more. Go and tell my people what -you have seen and heard; for such things as you have -seen and heard, I hope ere long to witness in my own -land. God is great, who has said it, and will surely -bring it to pass!’ In the midst of this exhilarating -scene—the African chief recommending to his followers -the adoption of that Great Word which brings -with it at once both spiritual and social regeneration—they -were interrupted by the sudden appearance of a -troop of dragoons, despatched from the military post -to arrest Macomo for having crossed the frontier line -without permission. This was effected in the most -brutal and insulting manner possible, and not without -considerable hazard to the chieftain’s life, from the -ruffian-like conduct of a drunken sergeant, although -not the slightest resistance was attempted.”<a name="FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77_77" class="fnanchor">77</a></p> - -<p>It should be borne in mind by the reader that this -Kat River settlement, where Macomo was attending -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_458" id="Page_458">458</a></span>the meeting, is the same from which he had been expelled -in 1829, and in which the Hottentots were -located, and, as I have already related, were making -such remarkable progress. Macomo had therefore -not only repassed the boundary line over which he -had been driven, and the repassing of which the -government would naturally regard with great jealousy, -knowing well what injury they had done him, -and which the sight of his old country must forcibly -revive in his mind, knowing also that they were -at this moment planning fresh outrages against him. -This meeting took place in October, 1833, and therefore, -at that very time, an order was signed by the -governor for his removal from the lands he was then -occupying; for the Parliamentary Report informs us -that Sir Lowry Cole, before leaving the colony for -Europe, on the 10th of August, 1833, signed an order -for removing the chief Tyalie from the Muncassana -beyond the boundaries; and in November of that year -Captain Aichison was ordered to remove Macomo, -Botman, and Tyalie, beyond the boundary; that is, -beyond the Keiskamma, which he says he did. Capt. -Aichison stated in evidence before the Select Committee, -that he could assign no cause for this removal, -and he never heard any cause assigned. But this was -not the worst. These poor people, thus driven out -in November, when all their corn was green, and that -and the crops of their gardens and their pumpkins -thus lost, were suffered to return in February, 1834, -and again, in October of that year, driven out a -second time! Colonel Wade stated in evidence, that -at the time of their second removal, 21st of October, -1834, “they had rebuilt their huts, established their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_459" id="Page_459">459</a></span> -cattle kraals, and commenced the cultivation of their -gardens.” He stated that, together with Colonel -Somerset, he made a visit to Macomo and Botman’s -kraal, across the Keiskamma, and that Macomo rode -back with them, when they had recrossed the river -and reached the Omkobina, a tributary of the Chumie. -“These valleys were swarming with Caffres, as was -the whole country in our front as far as the Gaga; the -people were all in motion, carrying off their effects, -and driving away their cattle towards the drifts of the -river, and to my utter amazement the whole country -around and before us was in a blaze. Presently we -came up with a strong patrol of the mounted rifle -corps, which had, it appeared, come out from Fort -Beaufort that morning; the soldiers were busily employed -in burning the huts and driving the Caffres -towards the frontier.”</p> - -<p>Another witness said, “the second time of my leaving -Caffreland was in October, last year, in company -with a gentleman who was to return towards Hantam. -We passed through the country of the Gaga at ten -o’clock at night; the Caffres were enjoying themselves -after their custom, with their shouting, feasting, and -midnight dances; they allowed us to pass on unmolested. -Some time after I received a letter from the -gentleman who was my travelling companion on that -night, written just before the breaking out of the -Caffre war: in it he says, ‘you recollect how joyful -the Caffres were, when we crossed the Gaga; but on -my return a dense smoke filled all the vales, and the -Caffres were seen lurking here and there behind the -mimosa; a patrol, commanded by an officer, was driving -them beyond the colonial boundary.’ (This piece<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_460" id="Page_460">460</a></span> -of country has very lately been claimed by the colony.) -I saw one man near me, and I told my guide to call -him to me: the poor fellow said, ‘No, I cannot come -nearer; that white man looks too much like a soldier;’ -and all our persuasions could not induce him to advance -near us. ‘Look,’ said he, pointing to the ascending -columns of smoke, ‘what the white men are -doing.’ Their huts and folds were all burned.”</p> - -<p>Such was the treatment of the Caffres up to the end -of 1834, notwithstanding the most forcible and pathetic -appeals to their English tyrants. Dr. Philip stated -that, speaking with these chiefs at this time, he said to -Macomo, that he had reason to believe that the governor, -when he came to the frontier, would listen to -all his grievances, and treat him with justice and generosity. -“These promises,” he replied, “we have had -for the last fifteen years;” and pointing to the huts -then burning, he added, “things are becoming worse: -these huts were set on fire last night, and we were told -that to-morrow the patrol is to scour the whole district, -and drive every Caffre from the west side of the -Chumie and Keiskamma at the point of the bayonet.” -And Dr. Philip having stated rather strongly the necessity -the chiefs would be under of preventing all -stealing from the colony as the condition of any peaceable -relations the governor might enter into with them, -Botman made the following reply: “The governor -cannot be so unreasonable as to make our existence as -a nation depend upon a circumstance which is beyond -the reach of human power. Is it in the power of any -governor to prevent his people stealing from each -other? Have you not within the colony magistrates, -policemen, prisons, whipping-posts, and gibbets? and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_461" id="Page_461">461</a></span> -do you not perceive that in spite of all these means to -make your people honest, that your prisons continue -full, and that you have constant employment for your -magistrates, policemen, and hangmen, without being -able to keep down your colonial thieves and cheats? -A thief is a wolf; he belongs to no society, and yet -is the pest and bane of all societies. You have your -thieves, and we have thieves among us; but we cannot -as chiefs, extirpate the thieves of Caffreland, more -than we can extirpate the wolves, or you can extirpate -the thieves of the colony. There is however this difference -between us: we discountenance thieves in -Caffreland, and prevent, as far as possible, our people -stealing from the colony; but you countenance the -robbery of your people upon the Caffres, by the sanction -you give to the injustice of the patrol system. -Our people have stolen your cattle, but you have, by -the manner by which you have refunded your loss, -punished the innocent; and after having taken our -country from us, without even a shadow of justice, and -shut us up to starvation, you threaten us with destruction -for the thefts of those to whom you left no choice -but to steal or die by famine.”</p> - -<p>What force and justice of reasoning in these -abused Caffres! what force and injustice of action in -the English! Who could have believed that from the -moment of our becoming masters of the Cape colony -such dreadful and wicked scenes as these could be -going on, up to 1834, by Englishmen. But the end -was not yet come; other, and still more abominable -deeds were to be perpetrated. Another war broke -out, and the people of England asked, why? Dr. -Philip, before the Parliamentary Committee, said,—<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_462" id="Page_462">462</a></span> -“The encroachments of the colonists upon the Caffres, -when they came in contact with them on the -banks of the Gamtoos river; their expulsion from the -Rumfield, now Albany, in 1811; the commandoes of -Colonel Brereton, in 1818; our conduct to Gaika, -our ally, in 1819, in depriving him of the country -between the Fish and Keiskamma Rivers; the injury -inflicted upon Macomo and Gaika, by the ejectment -of Macomo and his people, with many of the people -of Gaika, from the Kat River, in 1829; the manner -in which the Caffres were expelled from the west bank -of the Chumie and Keiskamma, in 1833, and, subsequently, -again (after having been allowed to return) -in 1834; and the working of the commando system, -down to December, 1834,—were sufficient in themselves -to account for the Caffre war, if the Caffres are -allowed to be human beings, and to possess passions -like our own.”</p> - -<p>To all this series of insults and inflictions were soon -added fresh ones.</p> - -<p>“On the 2nd December, of this very year,” continued -Dr. Philip, “Ensign Sparkes went to one of -the Chief Eno’s kraals, for the purpose of getting -some horses, supposed to have been stolen. Not -finding them there, he proceeded to take by force a -large quantity of cattle as an indemnity. This proceeding -roused the dormant anger of the Caffres; -they surrounded his party, and manifested an intention -of attacking it. They did not, however, venture -upon a general engagement, though one of them, -more daring, and perhaps a greater loser than the -rest, wounded Ensign Sparkes in the arm with an -assagai, or spear, whilst the soldiers under his com<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_463" id="Page_463">463</a></span>mand -were busily employed in driving the cattle out -of the bush. Macomo no sooner heard of this affair, -than he gave up of his own property, to the colony, -400 head of cattle, and went himself frequently to -visit the young man who had been wounded, expressing -great sorrow at what had occurred. This conduct -was highly praiseworthy, as it was evidently for the -sake of preventing any misunderstanding, but more -especially so, because the deed had been committed, -not by one of his people, but by a Caffre belonging -to Eno’s tribe. On the 18th of the same month, a -patrol under Lieut. Sutton seized a number of cattle -at one of Tyalie’s kraals, for some horses alleged to -have been stolen, but not found there. On this -occasion the Caffres seem to have determined to resist -to the last. An affray took place, in which they were -so far successful as to retake the cattle. Two of -them were, however, shot dead, and two dangerously -wounded, one of whom was Tyalie’s own brother (not, -however, Macomo), who had two slugs in his head. -An individual residing in the neutral territory, referring -to this affair, thus expressed his opinion: ‘The -system carried on, and that to the last moment, is the -cause the Caffres could not bear it any longer. The -very immediate cause was the wounding of Gaika’s -son, at which the blood of every Caffre boiled.’”</p> - -<p>According to the evidence of John Tzatzoe, “every -Caffre who saw Xo-Xo’s wound, went back to his hut, -took his assagai and shield, and set out to fight, and -said, ‘It is better that we die than be treated thus.’”</p> - -<p>The war being thus wantonly and disgracefully -provoked by the English, Sir Benjamin D’Urban, -the governor, marched into the territory of the Caffre<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_464" id="Page_464">464</a></span> -king Hintza, and summoned him to his presence. -The king, alarmed, and naturally expecting some fresh -act of mischief, fled, driving off his cattle to a place of -security. He was threatened with immediate proclamation -of war if he did not return; and to convince -him that there would be no dallying, Colonel Smith -immediately marched his troops into the mountain -districts where Hintza had taken refuge, was very -near seizing him by surprise, and carried off 10,000 -head of cattle. Hintza, now, on sufficient security -being given, came to the camp, where the various -charges were advanced against him, and the following -modest conditions of peace proposed,—that he should -surrender 50,000 head of cattle, 1,000 horses, and -emancipate all his Fingoe slaves. There was no alternative -but agreeing to these terms; but unfortunately -for him, the Fingoe slaves, now considering themselves -put under the patronage of the governor, and knowing -how fond the English are of Caffre cattle, carried off -15,000 head belonging to the people. The people -flew to arms—and Hintza was made responsible. The -governor declared to him that if he did not put a -stop to the fighting in three hours, and order the delivery -of the 50,000 head of cattle, he would hang -him, his son Creili, and his counsellor and brother -Bookoo, on the tree under which they were sitting.<a name="FNanchor_78_78" id="FNanchor_78_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_78_78" class="fnanchor">78</a> -Poor Hintza issued his orders—the fighting ceased, -but the cattle did not arrive. He therefore proposed -to go, under a sufficient guard, to enforce the delivery -himself. The proposal was accepted, and he set out -with Col. Smith and a body of cavalry. Col. Smith -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_465" id="Page_465">465</a></span>assured him on commencing their march, that if he -attempted to escape he should certainly shoot him. -We shall soon see how well he kept his word. They -found the people had driven the cattle to the mountains, -and Hintza sent one of his counsellors to command -them to stop. On the same day they came to a -place where the cattle-track divided, and they followed -that path, at the advice of Hintza, which led up an -abrupt and wooded hill to the right, over the precipitous -banks of the Kebaka river. What followed we -give in the language of Col. Smith:—</p> - -<p>“It had been observed that this day Hintza rode a -remarkably fine horse, and that he led him up every -ascent; the path up this abrupt and wooded hill above -described is by a narrow cattle-track, occasionally -passing through a cleft of the rock. I was riding -alone at the head of the column, and having directed -the cavalry to lead their horses, I was some three or -four horses’ length in front of every one, having previously -observed Hintza and his remaining two followers -leading their horses behind me, the corps of -Guides close to them; when nearing the top, I heard -a cry of ‘Hintza,’ and in a moment he dashed past -me through the bushes, but was obliged, from the trees, -to descend again into the path. I cried out, ‘Hintza, -stop!’ I drew a pistol, and presenting it at him, -cried out, ‘Hintza,’ and I also reprimanded his guard, -who instantly came up; he stopped and smiled, and I -was ashamed of my suspicion. Upon nearing the top -of this steep ascent, the country was perfectly open, -and a considerable tongue of land running parallel -with the rugged bed of the Kebaka, upon a gradual -descent of about two miles, to a turn of the river,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_466" id="Page_466">466</a></span> -where were several Caffre huts. I was looking back -to observe the march of the troops, when I heard a -cry of ‘Look, Colonel!’ I saw Hintza had set off -at full speed, and was 30 yards a-head of every one; -I spurred my horse with violence; and coming close -up with him, called to him; he urged his horse the -more, which could beat mine; I drew a pistol, it -snapped; I drew another, it also snapped; I then was -sometime galloping after him, when I spurred my -horse alongside of him, and struck him on the head -with the butt-end of a pistol; he redoubled his efforts -to escape, and his horse was three lengths a-head of -mine. I had dropped one pistol, I threw the other -after him, and struck him again on the head. Having -thus raced about a mile, we were within half a mile of -the Caffre huts; I found my horse was closing with -him; I had no means whatever of assailing him, while -he was provided with his assagais; I therefore resolved -to attempt to pull him off his horse, and I seized -the athletic chief by the throat, and twisting my -hand in his karop, I dragged him from his seat, and -hurled him to the earth; he instantly sprang on his -legs, and sent an assagai at me, running off towards -the rugged bed of the Kebaka. My horse was most -unruly, and I could not pull him up till I reached the -Caffre huts. This unhorsing the chief, and his waiting -to throw an assagai at me, brought Mr. George -Southey of the corps of Guides up; and, at about 200 -yards’ distance, he twice called to Hintza, in Caffre, -to stop, or he would shoot him. He ran on; Mr. -Southey fired, and only slightly struck him in the leg, -again calling to him to stop, without effect; he fired, -and shot him through the back; he fell headlong<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_467" id="Page_467">467</a></span> -forwards, but springing up and running forwards, -closely pursued by my aide-de-camp, Lieutenant -Balfour, he precipitated himself down a kloof into -the Kebaka, and posting himself in a narrow niche of -the rock, defied any attempt to secure him; when, -still refusing to surrender, and raising an assagai, Mr. -George Southey fired, and shot him through the head. -Thus terminated the career of the chief Hintza, whose -treachery, perfidy, and want of faith, made him worthy -of the nation of atrocious and indomitable savages over -whom he was the acknowledged chieftain. One of -his followers escaped, the other was shot from an -eminence. About half a mile off I observed the villain -Mutini and Hintza’s servant looking on.”</p> - -<p>Such is the relation of the destroyer of Hintza, and -surely a more brutal and disgusting detail never came -from the chief actor of such a scene. England has -already testified its opinion both of this act and of this -war; and “this nation of atrocious and indomitable -savages,” both before and since this transaction, have -given such evidences of sensibility to the law of kindness -as leave no doubt where the “treachery, perfidy, -and want of faith,” really lay. At the very time this -affair was perpetrated, two British officers had gone -with proposals from the governor to the Caffre camp. -While they remained there they were treated most -respectfully and honourably by these “irreclaimable -savages,” and dismissed unhurt when the intelligence -arrived of Hintza’s having been made prisoner. What -a contrast does this form to our own conduct!</p> - -<p>The war was continued after the event of the death -of Hintza, until the Caffres had received what the -governor considered to be “sufficient” punishment;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_468" id="Page_468">468</a></span> -this consisted in the slaughter of 4,000 of their warriors, -including many principal men. “There have -been taken from them also,” says a despatch, “besides -the conquest and alienation of their country, -about 60,000 head of cattle, almost all their goats; -their habitations everywhere destroyed, and their -gardens and corn-fields laid waste.”<a name="FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_79_79" class="fnanchor">79</a></p> - -<p>The cost of this war to the British nation, is estimated -at 241,884<i>l.</i> besides putting a stop to the trade -with the colony amounting to 30,000<i>l.</i> per annum, -though yet in its infancy. If any one wishes to know -how absurd it is to talk of the Caffres as “atrocious -and indomitable savages,” he has only to look into -the Parliamentary Report, so often referred to in this -chapter, in order to blush for our own barbarism, and to -execrate the wickedness which could, by these reckless -commandoes and exterminating wars, crush or impede -that rising civilization, and that growing Christianity, -which shew themselves so beautifully in this much -abused country. It is the wickedness of Englishmen -that has alone stood in the way of the rapid refinement -of the Caffre, as it has stood in the way of -knowledge and prosperity in all our colonies.</p> - -<p>“Whenever,” says John Tzatzoe, a Caffre chief, -who had, before the war at his own place, a missionary -and a church attended by 300 people, “the missionaries -attempt to preach to the Caffres, or whenever I -myself preach or speak to my countrymen, they say, -‘Why do not the missionaries first go and preach to -the people on the other side; why do not they preach -to their own countrymen, and convert them first?’”</p> - -<p>But the very atrocity of this last war roused the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_469" id="Page_469">469</a></span>spirit of the British nation, awakened parliamentary -investigation; the Caffre territory is restored by order -of government; a new and more rational system of -policy is adopted, and it is to be hoped will be steadily -persevered in.</p> - -<hr /> -<h2>CHAPTER XXVIII.<br /><br /> - -<small><small>THE ENGLISH IN NEW HOLLAND AND THE -ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC.</small></small></h2> - -<p><span class="smcap">In</span> this chapter we shall take a concluding view of our -countrymen amongst the aborigines of the countries -they have visited or settled in; and in doing this it -will not be requisite to go back at all into the past. -To trace the manner in which they possessed themselves -of these regions, or in which they have from -that period to the present extended their power, and -driven back the natives, would be only treading over -for the tenth time the scenes of arbitrary assumption -and recklessness of right, which must be, now, but too -familiar to my readers. We will, therefore, merely -look at the present state of English conduct in those -remote regions; and, for this purpose, the materials -lie but too plentifully before us. With the exception -of the missionary labours, the presence of the Europeans -in these far regions is a fearful curse. The two<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_470" id="Page_470">470</a></span> -great prominent features of their character there, are -violence and debauchery. If they had gone thither -only to seize the lands of the natives, as they have -done everywhere else, it might have excited no -surprise; for who, after perusing this volume, should -wonder that the Europeans are selfish: if they had -totally exterminated the aborigines with the sword and -the musket, it might even then have passed in the -ordinary estimate of their crimes, and there might -have been hope that they might raise some more -imposing, if not more virtuous, fabric of society than -that which they had destroyed; but here, the danger -is that they will demolish a rising civilization of a -beautiful and peculiar character, by their pestilent -profligacy. That dreadful and unrighteous system, -which Columbus himself introduced in the very first -moment of discovery, and which I have more than -once pointed to, in the course of this volume, as a very -favourite scheme of the Europeans, and especially the -English, the convict system—the penal colony system—the -throwing off the putrid matter of our corrupt -social state on some simple and unsuspecting country, -to inoculate it with the rankness of our worst moral -diseases, without relieving ourselves at all sensibly by -the unprincipled deed, has here shewn itself in all its -hideousness. New South Wales and Van Dieman’s -Land have been sufficient to curse and demoralize all -this portion of the world. They have not only exhibited -the spectacle of European depravity in the -most frightful forms within themselves, but the contagion -of their evil and malignity has been blown -across the ocean, and sped from island to island with -destructive power.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_471" id="Page_471">471</a></span></p> - -<p>In these colonies, no idea of any right of the natives -to the soil, or any consideration of their claims, comforts, -or improvements, seem to have been entertained. -Colonies were settled, and lands appropriated, just as -they were needed; and if the natives did not like it, -they were shot at. The Parliamentary Inquiry of -1836, elicited by Sir William Molesworth, drew -forth such a picture of colonial infamy as must have -astonished even the most apathetic; and the Report -of 1837 only confirms the horrible truth of the statements -then made.</p> - -<p>It says: “These people, unoffending as they were -towards us, have, as might have been expected, suffered -in an aggravated degree from the planting -amongst them of our penal settlements. In the formation -of these settlements it does not appear that the -territorial rights of the natives were considered, and -very little care has since been taken to protect them -from the violence or the contamination of the dregs of -our countrymen.</p> - -<p>“The effects have consequently been dreadful beyond -example, both in the diminution of their numbers -and in their demoralization.”</p> - -<p>Mr. Bannister, late attorney-general for that colony, -says in his recent work, “British Colonization and -the Coloured Tribes,”—“In regard to New South -Wales, some disclosures were made by the secretary -of the Church Missionary Society, Mr. Coates, and -by others, that are likely to do good in the pending -inquiries concerning transportation; and if that punishment -is to be continued, it would be merciful to -destroy all the natives by military massacre, as a judge -of the colony once coolly proposed for a particular<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_472" id="Page_472">472</a></span> -district, rather than let them be exposed to the lingering -death they now undergo. <em>But half the truth -was not told as to New South Wales.</em> Military massacres -have been probably more common there than -elsewhere; in 1826, Governor Darling ordered such -massacres—and in consequence, one black native, at -least, was shot at a stake in cool blood. The attorney-general -of the colony<a name="FNanchor_80_80" id="FNanchor_80_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_80_80" class="fnanchor">80</a> remonstrated against illegal -orders of this kind, and was told that the secretary of -state’s instructions authorized them.”</p> - -<p>Lord Glenelg, however, adopted in his despatch to -Sir James Stirling in 1835 a very different language, -in consequence of an affair on the Murray River. -“The natives on this river, in the summer of the year -1834, murdered a British soldier, having in the course -of the previous five years killed three other persons. -In the month of October, 1834, Sir James Stirling, -the governor, proceeded with a party of horse to the -Murray River, in search of the tribe in question. -On coming up with them, it appears that the British -horse charged this tribe without any parley, and killed -fifteen of them, not, as it seems, confining their vengeance -to the actual murderers.” After the rout, the -women who had been taken prisoners were dismissed, -having been informed, “that the punishment had -been inflicted because of the misconduct of the tribe; -that the white men never forget to punish murder; -that on this occasion the women and children had been -spared; but if any other persons should be killed by -them, not one would be allowed to remain on this side -of the mountains.”</p> - -<p>That is, these white men, “who never forget to -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_473" id="Page_473">473</a></span>punish murder,” would, if another person was killed by -the natives, commit a wholesale murder, and drive the -natives out of one other portion of their country. Lord -Glenelg, however, observed that it would be necessary -that inquiry should be made whether some act of -harshness or injustice had not originally provoked the -enmity of the natives, before such massacres could be -justified. His language is not only just, but very descriptive -of the cause of these attacks from the natives.</p> - -<p>“It is impossible to regard such conflicts without -regret and anxiety, when we recollect how fatal, in -too many instances, our colonial settlements have -proved to the natives of the places where they have -been formed; and this too by a series of conflicts in -every one of which it has been asserted, and apparently -with justice, that the immediate aggression -has not been on our side. The real causes of these -hostilities are to be found in a course of petty encroachments -and acts of injustice committed by the -new settlers, at first submitted to by the natives, and -not sufficiently checked in the outset by the leaders of -the colonists. Hence has been generated in the minds -of the injured party a deadly spirit of hatred and vengeance, -which breaks out at length into deeds of atrocity, -which, in their turn, make retaliation a necessary -part of self-defence.”<a name="FNanchor_81_81" id="FNanchor_81_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_81_81" class="fnanchor">81</a></p> - -<p>It is some satisfaction that the recent inquiries have -led to the appointment of a protector of the Aborigines, -but who shall protect them from the multitudinous -evils which beset them on all sides from their intercourse -with the whites—men expelled by the laws from -their own country for their profligacy, or men corrupted -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_474" id="Page_474">474</a></span>by contact with the plague of their presence? Grand -individual massacres, and cases of lawless aggression, -such as occasioned the abandonment of the colony at -Raffles’ Bay, on the northern coast of Australia, where -for the trifling offence of the theft of an axe, the sentinels -were ordered to fire on the natives whenever -they approached, and who yet were found by Captain -Barker, the officer in command when the order for the -abandonment of the place arrived, to be “a mild and -merciful race of people;” such great cases of violence -may be prevented, or reduced in number, but what -ubiquitous protector is to stand between the natives -and the stock-keepers (convicts in the employ of -farmers in the outskirts of the colony), of the cedar-cutters, -the bush-rangers, and free settlers in the remote -and thinly cultivated districts?—a race of the most -demoralized and fearful wretches on the face of the -earth, and who will shoot a native with the same indifference -as they shoot a kangaroo. Who shall protect -them from the diseases and the liquid fire which -these penal colonies have introduced amongst them? -These are the destroying agencies that have compelled -our government to commit one great and flagrant act -of injustice to remedy another—actually to pursue, run -down, and capture, as you would so many deer in a -park, or as the Gauchos of the South American Pampas -do wild cattle with their lassos, the whole native -population of Van Dieman’s land; and carry them -out of their own country, to Flinder’s Island? Yes, to -save these wretched people from the annihilation which -our moral corruption and destitution of all Christian -principle were fast bringing upon them, we have seized -and expelled them all from their native land. What<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_475" id="Page_475">475</a></span> -a strange alternative, between destruction by our violence -and our vices, and the commission of an act which -in any other part or age of the world would be regarded -as the most wicked and execrable. We have actually -turned out the inhabitants of Van Dieman’s Land, -because we saw that it was “a goodly heritage,” and -have comfortably sate down in it ourselves; and the -best justification that we can set up is, that if we did -not pass one general sentence of transportation upon -them, we must burn them up with our liquid fire, poison -them with the diseases with which our vices and -gluttony have covered us, thick as the quills on a porcupine, -or knock them down with our bullets, or the -axes of our wood-cutters! What an indescribable -and monstrous crime must it be in the eye of the -English to possess a beautiful and fertile island,—that -the possessors shall be transported as convicts to make -way for the convicts from this kingdom who have been -pronounced by our laws too infamous to live here any -longer! To such a pass are we come, that the Jezebel -spirit of our lawless cupidity does not merely tell us -that it will give us a vineyard, but whatever country -or people we lust after.</p> - -<p>We have then, totally cleared Van Dieman’s Land -of what Colonel Arthur himself, an agent of this -sweeping expulsion of a whole nation, calls “a noble-minded -race,”<a name="FNanchor_82_82" id="FNanchor_82_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_82_82" class="fnanchor">82</a> and have reduced the natives of New -Holland, so far as we have come in contact with them, -to misery.</p> - -<p>This is the evidence given by Bishop Broughton:—“They -do not so much retire as decay; wherever -Europeans meet with them, they appear to -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_476" id="Page_476">476</a></span>wear out, and gradually to decay: they diminish in -numbers; they appear actually to vanish from the face -of the earth. I am led to apprehend that within a -very limited period, a few years,” adds the Bishop, -“those who are most in contact with Europeans will -be utterly extinct—I will not say exterminated—but -they will be extinct.”</p> - -<p>As to their moral condition, the bishop says of the -natives around Sidney—“They are in a state which -I consider one of extreme degradation and ignorance; -they are, in fact, in a situation much inferior to what -I suppose them to have been before they had any -communication with Europe.” And again, in his -charge, “It is an awful, it is even an appalling consideration, -that, after an intercourse of nearly half a -century with a Christian people, these hapless human -beings continue to this day in their original benighted -and degraded state. I may even proceed farther, so -far as to express my fears that our settlement in their -country has even deteriorated a condition of existence, -than which, before our interference, nothing more -miserable could easily be conceived. While, as the -contagion of European intercourse has extended itself -among them, they gradually lose the better properties -of their own character, they appear in exchange to -acquire none but the most objectionable and degrading -of ours.”</p> - -<p>The natives about Sidney and Paramatta are represented -as in a state of wretchedness still more deplorable -than those resident in the interior.</p> - -<p>“Those in the vicinity of Sidney are so completely -changed, they scarcely have the same pursuits now; -they go about the streets begging their bread, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_477" id="Page_477">477</a></span> -begging for clothing and rum. From the diseases -introduced among them, the tribes in immediate connexion -with those large towns almost became extinct; -not more than two or three remained, when I was last -in New South Wales, of tribes which formerly consisted -of 200 or 300.”</p> - -<p>Dr. Lang, the minister of the Scotch church, writes, -“From the prevalence of infanticide, from intemperance, -and from European diseases, their number is -evidently and rapidly diminishing in all the older settlements -of the colony, and in the neighbourhood of -Sidney especially, they present merely the shadow -of what were once numerous tribes.” Yet even now -“he thinks their number within the limits of the -colony of New South Wales cannot be less than -10,000—an indication of what must once have been -the population, and what the destruction. It is only,” -Dr. Lang observes, “through the influence of Christianity, -brought to bear upon the natives by the -zealous exertions of devoted missionaries, that the -progress of extinction can be checked.”</p> - -<p>Enormous as are these evils, it would be well if -they stopped here; but the moral corruption of our -penal colonies overflows, and is blown by the winds, -like the miasma of the plague, to other shores, and -threatens with destruction one of the fairest scenes of -human regeneration and human happiness to which -we can turn on this huge globe of cruelty for hope -and consolation. Where is the mind that has not -dwelt in its young enthusiasm on the summer beauty -of the Islands of the Pacific? That has not, from the -day that Captain Cook first fell in with them, wandered -in imagination with our voyagers and mission<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_478" id="Page_478">478</a></span>aries -through their fairy scenes—been wafted in some -magic bark over those blue and bright seas—been -hailed to the sunny shore by hundreds of simple and -rejoicing people—been led into the hut overhung with -glorious tropical flowers, or seated beneath the palm, -and feasted on the pine and the bread-fruit? These -are the things which make part of the poetry of our -memory and our youth. There is not a man of the -slightest claims to the higher and better qualities of -our nature to whom the existence of these oceanic -regions of beauty has not been a subject of delightful -thought, and a source of genial inspiration. Here in -fancy—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">The white man landed!—need the rest be told?</div> -<div class="line">The New World stretched its dusk hand to the old;</div> -<div class="line">Each was to each a marvel, and the tie</div> -<div class="line">Of wonder warmed to better sympathy.</div> -<div class="line">Kind was the welcome of the sun-born sires,</div> -<div class="line">And kinder still their daughters’ gentler fires.</div> -<div class="line">Their union grew: the children of the storm</div> -<div class="line">Found beauty linked with many a dusky form;</div> -<div class="line">While these in turn admired the paler glow,</div> -<div class="line">Which seem’d so white in climes that knew no snow.</div> -<div class="line">The chase, the race, the liberty to roam</div> -<div class="line">The soil where every cottage shewed a home;</div> -<div class="line">The sea-spread net, the lightly launched canoe,</div> -<div class="line">Which stemmed the studded Archipelago,</div> -<div class="line">O’er whose blue bosom rose the starry isles;</div> -<div class="line">The healthy slumber caused by sportive toils;</div> -<div class="line">The palm, the loftiest dryad of the woods,</div> -<div class="line">Within whose bosom infant Bacchus broods,</div> -<div class="line">While eagles scarce build higher than the crest</div> -<div class="line">Which shadows o’er the vineyard in her breast;</div> -<div class="line">The cava feast, the yam, the cocoa’s root,</div> -<div class="line">Which bears at once the cup, and milk, and fruit;</div> -<div class="line">The bread-tree, which, without the ploughshare, yields</div> -<div class="line">The unreaped harvest of unfurrowed fields,</div> -<div class="line"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_479" id="Page_479">479</a></span></div> -<div class="line">And bakes its unadulterated loaves</div> -<div class="line">Without a furnace in unpurchased groves,</div> -<div class="line">And flings off famine from its fertile breast,</div> -<div class="line">A priceless market for the gathering guest:—</div> -<div class="line">These, with the solitudes of seas and woods,</div> -<div class="line">The airy joys of social solitudes:—</div> -<div class="line i15"><cite>The Island—Lord Byron.</cite></div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>These were the dreams of many a young dreamer—and -yet they were the realities of the Indian seas. -But even there, regeneration was needed to make this -ocean-paradise perfect. Superstition and evil passions -marred the enjoyment of the natives. Mr. William -Ellis, the able secretary of the London Missionary -Society, and author of Polynesian Researches, says—“They -were accustomed to practise infanticide, probably -more extensively than any other nation; they -offered human sacrifices in greater numbers than I -have read of their having been offered by any other -nation; they were accustomed to wars of the most -savage and exterminating kind. They were lazy too, -for they found all their wants supplied by nature. -‘The fruit ripens,’ said they, ‘and the pigs get fat -while we are asleep, and that is all we want; why, -therefore, should we work?’ The missionaries have -presented them with that which alone they needed to -insure their happiness,—Christianity; and the consequence -has been, that within the last twenty years -they have conveyed a cargo of idols to the depôt -of the Missionary Society in London; they have -become factors to furnish our vessels with provisions, -and merchants to deal with us in the agricultural -growth of their own country. Their language has -been reduced to writing, and they have gained the -knowledge of letters. They have, many of them,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_480" id="Page_480">480</a></span> -emerged from the tyranny of the will of their chiefs -into the protection of a written law, abounding with -liberal and enlightened principles, and 200,000 of -them are reported to have embraced Christianity.”</p> - -<p>The most beautiful thing is, that when they embraced -Christianity, they embraced it in its fulness -and simplicity. They had no ancient sophisms and -political interests, like Europe, to induce them to accept -Christianity by halves, admitting just as much as -suited their selfishness, and explaining away, or shutting -their eyes resolutely to the rest; they, therefore, -furnished a most striking practical proof of the manner -in which Christianity would be understood by the -simple-hearted and the honest, and in doing this they -pronounced the severest censures upon the barbarous -and unchristian condition of proud Europe. “When,” -says Mr. Ellis, “Christianity was adopted by the -people, human sacrifices, infant murder, and <em>war, entirely -ceased</em>.” Mr. Ellis and Mr. Williams agree that -<em>they also immediately gave freedom to all their slaves. -They never considered the two things compatible.</em></p> - -<p>According to the evidence of Mr. Williams, the -Tahitian and Society Islands are christianized; the -Austral Island group, about 350 miles south of Tahiti; -the Harvey Islands, about 700 miles west of Tahiti; -the Vavou Islands, and the Hapai and the Sandwich -Islands, where the American missionaries are labouring, -and are 3,000 miles north of Tahiti, and the -inhabitants also of the eastern Archipelago, about 500 -or 600 miles east of Tahiti.</p> - -<p>The population of these Islands, including the Sandwich -Islands, are about 200,000. The Navigators’ -Islands, Tongatabu, and the Marquesas, are partially<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_481" id="Page_481">481</a></span> -under the influence of the gospel, where missionary -labours have just been commenced. They are supposed -to contain from 100,000 to 150,000 people.</p> - -<p>Wherever Christianity has been embraced by them, -the inhabitants have become actively industrious, and, -to use the words of Mr. Williams, are “very apt -indeed” at learning European trades. Mr. Ellis’s -statement is:—“There are now carpenters who hire -themselves out to captains of ships to work at repairs of -vessels, etc., for which they receive regular wages; -and there are blacksmiths that hire themselves out to -captains of ships, for the purpose of preparing ironwork -required in building or repairing ships. The -natives have been taught not only to construct boats, -but to build vessels, and there are, perhaps, twenty -(there have been as many as forty) small vessels, of -from forty to eighty or ninety tons burthen, built by -the natives, navigated sometimes by Europeans, and -manned by natives, all the fruit of the natives’ own -skill and industry. They have been taught to build -neat and comfortable houses, and to cultivate the soil. -<em>They have new wants</em>; a number of articles of clothing -and commerce are necessary to their comfort, and they -cultivate the soil to supply them. At one island, -where I was once fifteen months without seeing a -single European excepting our own families, there -were, I think, twenty-eight ships put in for provisions -last year, and all obtained the supplies they wanted. -Besides cultivating potatoes and yams, and raising -stock, fowls and pigs, the cultivation, the spinning and -the weaving of the cotton has been introduced by missionary -artizans; and there are some of the chiefs, and -a number of the people, especially in one of the islands,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_482" id="Page_482">482</a></span> -who are now decently clothed in garments made after -the European fashion, produced from cotton grown in -their own gardens, spun by their own children, and -woven in the islands. One of the chiefs of the island -of Rarotonga, as stated by the missionaries, never -wears any other dress than that woven in the island. -They have been taught also to cultivate the sugarcane, -which is indigenous, and to make sugar, and -some of them have large plantations, employing at -times forty men. They supply the ships with this -useful article, and, at some of the islands, between -fifty and sixty vessels touch in a single year. The -natives of the islands send a considerable quantity -away; I understand that one station sent as much as -forty tons away last year. In November last a vessel -of ninety tons burthen, built in the islands, was sent -to the colony of New South Wales laden with Tahitian-grown -sugar. Besides the sugar they have been taught -to cultivate, they prepare arrow-root, and they sent -to England in one year, as I was informed by merchants -in London, more than had been imported into -this country for nearly twenty previous years. Cattle -also have been introduced and preserved, chiefly by -the missionaries; pigs, dogs, and rats were the only -animals they had before, but the missionaries have -introduced cattle among them. While they continued -heathen, they disregarded, nay, destroyed some of -those first landed among them; but since that time -they have highly prized them, and by their attention -to them they are now so numerous as to enable the -natives to supply ships with fresh beef at the rate of -threepence a pound. The islanders have also been -instructed by the missionaries in the manufacture of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_483" id="Page_483">483</a></span> -cocoa-nut oil, of which large quantities are exported. -They have been taught to cultivate tobacco, and this -would have been a valuable article of commerce had -not the duty in New South Wales been so high as to -exclude that grown in the islands from the market. -The above are some of the proofs that Christianity -prepares the way for, and necessarily leads to, the -civilization of those by whom it is adopted. There -are now in operation among a people who, when the -missionaries arrived, were destitute of a written language, -seventy-eight <em>schools, which contain between -12,000 and 13,000 scholars</em>. The Tahitians have also -a simple, explicit, and wholesome <em>code of laws</em>, as the -result of their imbibing the principles of Christianity. -This code of laws is printed and circulated among -them, understood by all, and acknowledged by all as -the supreme rule of action for all classes in their civil -and social relations. The laws have been productive -of great benefits.”</p> - -<p>Here again they have far outstripped us in England. -When shall we have a code of laws, so simple -and compact, that it may be “printed and circulated -amongst us, and understood by all?” The benefits -resulting from this intelligible and popular code, Mr. -Ellis tells us, have been great. No doubt of it. The -benefits of such a code in England would be incalculable; -but when will the lawyers, or our enlightened -Parliament let us have it? The whole scene of the -reformation, and the happiness introduced by Christianity -into the South-Sea Islands, is, however, most -delightful. Such a scene never was exhibited to the -world since its foundation. Mr. Williams’ recent -work, descriptive of these islands and the missionary<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_484" id="Page_484">484</a></span> -labours there, is fascinating as Robinson Crusoe himself, -and infinitely more important in its relations. -If ever the idea of the age of gold was realized, it is -here; or rather,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">Where none contest the fields, the woods, the streams;—</div> -<div class="line">The goldless ages, where gold disturbs no dreams.</div> -</div></div></div> - -<p>Besides the benefits accruing from this improved state -to the natives, great are the benefits that accrue from -it to the Europeans. The benefit of commerce, from -their use of European articles, is and must be considerable. -They furnish, too, articles of commerce -in no small quantities. Instead of European crews -now, in case of wreck on their coasts, being murdered -and devoured, they are rescued from the waves at the -risk of the lives of the people themselves, and received, -as the evidence and works of Ellis and Williams -testify, in most remarkable instances, with the -greatest hospitality.</p> - -<p>But all this springing civilization—this young -Christianity,—this scene of beauty and peace, are -endangered. The founders of a new and happier -state, the pioneers and artificers of civilization, stand -aghast at the ruin that threatens their labours,—that -threatens the welfare,—nay, the very existence of the -simple islanders amongst whom they have wrought -such miracles of love and order. And whence arises -this danger? whence comes this threatened ruin? Is -some race of merciless savages about to burst in upon -these interesting people, and destroy them? Yes, the -same “irreclaimable and indomitable savages,” that -have ravaged and oppressed every nation which they -have conquered, “from China to Peru.” The same -savages that laid waste the West Indies; that mas<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_485" id="Page_485">485</a></span>sacred -the South Americans; that have chased the -North Americans to the “far west;” that shot the -Caffres for their cattle; that have covered the coasts -of Africa with the blood and fires and rancorous -malice of the slave-wars; that have exterminated -millions of Hindus by famine, and hold a hundred -millions of them, at this moment, in the most abject -condition of poverty and oppression; the same savages -that are at this moment also carrying the Hill Coolies -from the East—as if they had not a scene of enormities -there wide enough for their capacity of cruelty—to -sacrifice them in the West, on the graves of millions -of murdered negroes; the same savages are come -hither also. The savages of Europe, the most heartless -and merciless race that ever inhabited the earth—a -race, for the range and continuance of its atrocities, -without a parallel in this world, and, it may -be safely believed, in any other, are busy in the South -Sea Islands. A roving clan of sailors and runaway -convicts have revived once more the crimes and character -of the old buccaneers. They go from island to -island, diffusing gin, debauchery, loathsome diseases, -and murder, as freely as if they were the greatest -blessings that Europe had to bestow. They are the -restless and triumphant apostles of misery and destruction; -and such are their achievements, that it is -declared that, unless our government interpose some -check to their progress, they will as completely annihilate -the islanders, as the Charibs were annihilated in -the West Indies. When Captain Cook was at the -Sandwich Islands, he estimated the inhabitants at -400,000. In 1823, Mr. Williams made a calculation, -and found them about 150,000. Mr. Daniel Wheeler,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_486" id="Page_486">486</a></span> -a member of the Society of Friends, who has just returned -from those regions, states that they now are -reduced to 110,000; a diminution of 40,000 in fifteen -years. Captain Cook estimated the population of -Tahiti at 200,000: when the missionaries arrived -there, there were not above 8,000.</p> - -<p>What a shocking business is this, that when Christianity -has been professed in Europe for this 1800 -years, it is from Europe that the most dreadful corruption -of morals, and the most dismal defiance of -every sound principle come. If Christianity, despised -and counterfeited by its ancient professors, flies -to some remote corner of the globe, and there unfolds -to simple admiring eyes her blessings and her charms, -out, from Europe, rush hordes of lawless savages, to -chase her thence, and level to the dust the dwellings -and the very being of her votaries. Shall this be! -Will no burning blush rise to European cheeks at this -reflection? But let us hear what was said on this -subject before the British Parliament.</p> - -<p>“It will be hard, we think, to find compensation, not -only to Australia, but to New Zealand, and to the innumerable -islands of the South Seas, for the murders, -the misery, the contamination which we have brought -upon them. Our runaway convicts are the pests -of savage as well as of civilized society; so are our -runaway sailors; and the crews of our whaling vessels, -and of the traders from New South Wales, too frequently -act in the most reckless and immoral manner -when at a distance from the restraints of justice: in -proof of this we need only refer to the evidence of -the missionaries.</p> - -<p>“It is stated that there have been not less than 150<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_487" id="Page_487">487</a></span> -or 200 runaways at once on the island of New Zealand, -counteracting all that was done for the moral -improvement of the people, and teaching them every -vice.</p> - -<p>“‘I beg leave to add,’ remarks Mr. Ellis, ‘the -desirableness of preventing, by every practicable -means, the introduction of ardent spirits among the -inhabitants of the countries we may visit or colonize. -There is nothing more injurious to the South Sea -islanders than seamen who have absconded from -ships, setting up huts for the retail of ardent spirits, -called grog-shops, which are the resort of the indolent -and vicious of the crews of the vessels, and in which, -under the influence of intoxication, scenes of immorality, -and even murder, have been exhibited, almost -beyond what the natives witnessed among themselves -while they were heathen. The demoralization and -impediments to the civilization and prosperity of the -people that have resulted from the activity of foreign -traders in ardent spirits, have been painful in the extreme. -In one year it is estimated that the sum of -12,000 dollars was expended, in Taheité alone, chiefly -by the natives, for ardent spirits.’</p> - -<p>“The lawless conduct of the crews of vessels must -necessarily have an injurious effect on our trade, and -on that ground alone demands investigation. In the -month of April, 1834, Mr. Busby states there were -twenty-nine vessels at one time in the Bay of Islands; -and that seldom a day passed without some complaint -being made to him of the most outrageous conduct on -the part of their crews, which he had not the means of -repressing, since these reckless seamen totally disregarded -the usages of their own country, and the unsupported -authority of the British resident.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_488" id="Page_488">488</a></span></p> - -<p>“The Rev. J. Williams, missionary in the Society -Islands, states, ‘that it is the common sailors, and the -lowest order of them, the very vilest of the whole, -who will leave their ship and go to live amongst the -savages, and take with them all their low habits and -all their vices.’ The captains of merchant vessels are -apt to connive at the absconding of such worthless -sailors, and the atrocities perpetrated by them are excessive; -they do incalculable mischief by circulating -reports injurious to the interests of trade. On an -island between the Navigator’s and the Friendly -group, he heard there were on one occasion a hundred -sailors who had run away from shipping. Mr. Williams -gives an account of a gang of convicts who stole -a small vessel from New South Wales, and came to -Raiatia, one of the Sandwich Islands, where he resided, -representing themselves as shipwrecked mariners. -Mr. Williams suspected them, and told them -he should inform the governor, Sir T. Brisbane, of -their arrival, on which they went away to an island -twenty miles off, and were received with every kindness -in the house of the chief. They took an opportunity -of stealing a boat belonging to the missionary -of the station, and made off again. The natives immediately -pursued, and desired them to return their -missionary’s boat. Instead of replying, they discharged -a blunderbus that was loaded with cooper’s rivets, -which blew the head of one man to pieces; they -then killed two more, and a fourth received the contents -of a blunderbus in his hand, fell from exhaustion -amongst his mutilated companions, and was left as dead. -This man, and a boy who had saved himself by diving, -returned to their island. ‘The natives were very<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_489" id="Page_489">489</a></span> -respectable persons; and had it not been that we were -established in the estimation of the people, our lives -would have been sacrificed. The convicts then went -in the boat down to the Navigator’s Islands, and there -entered with savage ferocity into the wars of the -savages. One of these men was the most savage -monster that ever I heard of: he boasted of having -killed 300 natives with his own hands.’</p> - -<p>“And in June 1833, Mr. Thomas, Wesleyan missionary -at the Friendly Islands, still speaks of the mischief -done by ill-disposed captains of whalers, who, he says, -‘send the refuse of their crews on shore to annoy us;’ -and proceeds to state, ‘the conduct of many of these -masters of South-Sea whalers is most abominable; they -think no more of the life of an heathen than of a dog. -And their cruel and wanton behaviour at the different -islands in those seas has a powerful tendency to lead -the natives to hate the sight of a white man.’ Mr. Williams -mentions one of these captains, who with his -people had shot twenty natives, at one of the islands, -for no offence; and ‘another master of a whaler, -from Sidney, made his boast, last Christmas, at -Tonga, that he had killed about twenty black fellows,—for -so he called the natives of the Samoa, or Navigator’s -Islands—for some very trifling offence; and -not satisfied with that, he designed to disguise his -vessel, and pay them another visit, and get about a -hundred more of them.’ ‘Our hearts,’ continues -Mr. Thomas, ‘almost bleed for the poor Samoa -people; they are a very mild, inoffensive race, very -easy of access; and as they are near to us, we have a -great hope of their embracing the truth, viz. that the -whole group will do so; for you will learn from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_490" id="Page_490">490</a></span> -Mr. Williams’ letter, that a part of them have already -turned to God. But the conduct of our English -savages has a tone of barbarity and cruelty in it which -was never heard of or practised by them.’”</p> - -<p>But these are not all the exploits of these white -savages. Those who have seen in shop-windows in -London, dried heads of New Zealanders, may here -learn how they come there, and to whom the phrenologists -and <em>curiosi</em> are indebted.</p> - -<p>“Till lately the tattooed heads of New Zealanders -were sold at Sidney as objects of curiosity; and Mr. -Yate says he has known people give property to a -chief for the purpose of getting them to kill their -slaves, that they might have some heads to take to -New South Wales.</p> - -<p>“This degrading traffic was prohibited by General -Darling, the governor, upon the following occasion: -In a representation made to Governor Darling, the -Rev. Mr. Marsden states, that the captain of an -English vessel being, as he conceived, insulted by -some native women, set one tribe upon another to -avenge his quarrel, and supplied them with arms and -ammunition to fight.</p> - -<p>“In the prosecution of the war thus excited, a -party of forty-one Bay of Islanders made an expedition -against some tribes of the South. Forty of the former -were cut off; and a few weeks after the slaughter, a -Captain Jack went and purchased thirteen chiefs’ -heads, and, bringing them back to the Bay of Islands, -emptied them out of a sack in the presence of their -relations. The New Zealanders were, very properly, -so much enraged that they told this captain they -should take possession of the ship, and put the laws of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_491" id="Page_491">491</a></span> -their country into execution. When he found that -they were in earnest, he cut his cable and left the -harbour, and afterwards had a narrow escape from them -at Taurunga. He afterwards reached Sidney, and it -came to the knowledge of the governor, that he -brought there ten of these heads for sale, on which discovery -the practice was declared unlawful. Mr. Yate -mentions an instance of a captain going 300 miles -from the Bay of Islands to East Cape, enticing twenty-five -young men, sons of chiefs, on board his vessel, and -delivering them to the Bay of Islanders, with whom -they were at war, merely to gain the favour of the -latter, and to obtain supplies for his vessel. The -youths were afterwards redeemed from slavery by the -missionaries, and restored to their friends. Mr. Yate -once took from the hand of a New-Zealand chief a -packet of corrosive sublimate, which a captain had -given to the savage in order to enable him to poison -his enemies.”</p> - -<p>Such is the general system. The atrocious character -of particular cases would be beyond credence, -after all that has now been shewn of the nature of -Europeans, were they not attested by the fullest and -most unexceptionable authority. The following case -was communicated by the Rev. S. Marsden, to Governor-general -Darling, and was also afterwards reported -to the governor in person by two New Zealand -chiefs. Governor Darling forwarded the account -of it to Lord Goderich, together with the depositions -of two seamen of the brig <em>Elizabeth</em>, and those of J. B. -Montefiore, Esq., and A. Kennis, Esq. merchants of -Sidney, who had embarked on board the <em>Elizabeth</em> on -its return to Entry Island, and had there learned the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_492" id="Page_492">492</a></span> -particulars of the case, had seen the captive chief sent -ashore, and had been informed that he was sacrificed.</p> - -<p>“In December 1830, a Captain Stewart, of the brig -<em>Elizabeth</em>, a British vessel, on promise of ten tons of -flax, took above 100 New Zealanders concealed in his -vessel, down from Kappetee Entry Island, in Cook’s -Strait, to Takou, or Bank’s Peninsula, on the Middle -Island, to a tribe with whom they were at war. He -then invited and enticed on board the chief of Takou, -with his brother and two daughters: ‘When they -came on board, the captain took hold of the chief’s -hand in a friendly manner, and conducted him and -his two daughters into the cabin; shewed him the -muskets, how they were arranged round the sides of -the cabin. When all was prepared for securing the -chief, the cabin-door was locked, and the chief was -laid hold on, and his hands were tied fast; at the same -time a hook, with a cord to it, was struck through the -skin of his throat under the side of his jaw, and the -line fastened to some part of the cabin: in this state -of torture he was kept for some days, until the vessel -arrived at Kappetee. One of his children clung fast -to her father, and cried aloud. The sailors dragged -her from her father, and threw her from him; her -head struck against some hard substance, which killed -her on the spot.’ The brother, or nephew, Ahu (one -of the narrators), ‘who had been ordered to the forecastle, -came as far as the capstan and peeped through -into the cabin, and saw the chief in the state above -mentioned.’ They also got the chief’s wife and two -sisters on board, with 100 baskets of flax. All the -men and women who came in the chief’s canoe were -killed. ‘Several more canoes came off also with flax,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_493" id="Page_493">493</a></span> -and the people were all killed by the natives of Kappetee, -who had been concealed on board for the purpose, -and the sailors who were on deck, who fired upon -them with their muskets.’ The natives of Kappetee -were then sent on shore with some sailors, with orders -to kill all the inhabitants they could find; and it was -reported that those parties who went on shore murdered -many of the natives; none escaped but those -who fled into the woods. The chief, his wife and two -sisters were killed when the vessel arrived at Kappetee, -and other circumstances yet more revolting are added.”</p> - -<p>We will now close this black recital of crimes by -one more case, in which the natives are represented -as the aggressors, though alone upon the evidence of -the accused party, and particularly on that of Captain -Guard, of whom Mr. Marshall of the <em>Alligator</em>, stated -that, “‘in the estimation of the officers of the <em>Alligator</em>, -the general sentiment was one of dislike and disgust -at his conduct on board, and his conduct on -shore.’ He has himself heard him say, that a musketball -for every New Zealander was the best mode of -civilizing the country.</p> - -<p>“In April, 1834, the barque <em>Harriet</em>, J. Guard, -master, was wrecked at Cape Egmont, on the coast -of New Zealand. The natives came down to plunder, -but refrained from other violence for about ten days, -in which interval two of Guard’s men deserted to the -savages. They then got into a fray with the sailors, -and killed twelve of them: on the part of the New -Zealanders twenty or thirty were shot. The savages -got possession of Mrs. Guard and her two children. -Mr. Guard and the remainder were suffered to retreat, -but surrendered themselves to another tribe whom<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_494" id="Page_494">494</a></span> -they met, and who finally allowed the captain to -depart, on his promising to return, and to bring back -with him a ransom in powder; and they retained -nine seamen as hostages. Three native chiefs accompanied -Guard to Sidney. Captain Guard had been -trading with the New Zealanders from the year 1823, -and it was reported that his dealings with them had, -in some instances, been marked with cruelty. On -Mr. Guard’s representation to the government at -Sidney, the <em>Alligator</em> frigate, Captain Lambert, and -the schooner <em>Isabella</em>, with a company of the 50th -regiment, were sent to New Zealand for the recovery -of Mrs. Guard and the other captives, with instructions, -if practicable, to obtain the restoration of the -captives by amicable means. On arriving at the -coast near Cape Egmont, Captain Lambert steered -for a fortified village or pah, called the Nummo, where -Mrs. Guard was known to be detained. He sent -two interpreters on shore, who made promises of payment -(though against Captain Lambert’s order) to -the natives, and held out also a prospect of trade in -whalebone, on the condition that the women and -children should be restored. The interpreter could -not, from stress of weather, be received on board for -some days. The vessel proceeded to the tribe which -held the men in captivity, and they were at once -given up on the landing of the chiefs whom Captain -Lambert had brought back from Sidney. Captain -Lambert returned to the tribe at the Nummo, with -whom he had communicated through the interpreter, -and sent many messages to endeavour to persuade -them to give up the woman and one child (the other -was held by a third tribe), but without offering<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_495" id="Page_495">495</a></span> -ransom. On the 28th September, the military were -landed, and two unarmed and unattended natives -advanced along the sands. One announced himself -as the chief who retained the woman and child, and -rubbed noses with Guard in token of amity, expressing -his readiness to give them up on the receipt of -the promised ‘payment.’ ‘In reply,’ as Mr. Marshall, -assistant-surgeon of the <em>Alligator</em>, who witnessed -the scene, states, ‘he was instantly seized upon as a -prisoner of war’ (by order of Captain Johnson, commanding -the detachment), ‘dragged into the whale-boat, -and despatched on board the <em>Alligator</em>, in custody -of John Guard and his sailors. On his brief passage -to the boat insult followed insult; one fellow twisting -his ear by means of a small swivel which hung from -it, and another pulling his long hair with spiteful violence; -a third pricking him with the point of a bayonet. -Thrown to the bottom of the boat, she was -shoved off before he recovered himself, which he had -no sooner succeeded in doing than he jumped overboard, -and attempted to swim on shore, to prevent -which he was repeatedly fired upon from the boat; -but not until he had been shot in the calf of the leg -was he again made a prisoner of. Having been a -second time secured, he was lashed to a thwart, and -stabbed and struck so repeatedly, that, on reaching -the <em>Alligator</em>, he was only able to gain the deck by a -strong effort, and there, after staggering a few paces -aft, fainted, and fell down at the foot of the capstan -in a gore of blood. When I dressed his wounds, on -a subsequent occasion, I found ten inflicted by the -point and edge of the bayonet over his head and face, -one in his left breast, which it was at first feared<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_496" id="Page_496">496</a></span> -would prove, what it was evidently intended to have -proved, a mortal thrust, and another in the leg.’</p> - -<p>“Captain Lambert, who did not himself see the -seizure, admits that the chief was unarmed when he -came down to the shore, and that he ‘certainly was -severely wounded: he had a ball through the calf of -his leg, and he had been struck violently on the head.’</p> - -<p>“Captain Johnson proceeded to the pah or fortified -village, found it deserted, and burnt it the next morning. -On the 30th September, Mrs. Guard and one -child were given up, and the wounded chief thereupon -was very properly sent on shore, without waiting for -the delivery of the other child; but ‘in the evening -of the same day,’ Captain Lambert states, ‘I again -sent Lieutenant Thomas to ask for the child, whose -patience and firmness during the whole of the negotiations, -notwithstanding the insults that were offered -to him, merit the greatest praise. He shortly after -returned on board, having been fired at from one of -the pahs while waiting outside the surf. Such treachery -could not be borne, and I immediately commenced -firing at them from the ship; a reef of rocks, which -extend some distance from the shore, I regret, prevented -my getting as near them as I could have -wished. Several shots fell into the pahs, and also -destroyed their canoes.’<a name="FNanchor_83_83" id="FNanchor_83_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_83_83" class="fnanchor">83</a></p> - -<p>“October 8. After some fruitless negotiation, all -the soldiers and several seamen were landed, making -a party of 112 men, and were stationed on two terraces -of the cliff, one above the other, with a six-pounder -carronade, while the interpreter and sailors -were left below to wait for the boy. The New Zea<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_497" id="Page_497">497</a></span>landers -approached at first with distrust; but at length -a fine tall man came forward, and assured Mr. Marshall -that the child should be immediately forthcoming, and -also forbade our fighting, alleging that his ‘tribe had -no wish to fight at all.’ Soon afterwards the boy was -brought down on the shoulders of a chief, who -expressed to Lieutenant McMurdo his desire to go -on board for the purpose of receiving a ransom:—</p> - -<p>“On being told that none would be given, he turned -away, when one of the sailors seized hold of the child, -and discovered it was fastened with a strap or cord; -to use his own expression, he had recourse to cutting -away, and the child fell upon the beach. Another -seaman, thinking the chief would make his escape, -levelled his firelock, and shot him dead. The troops -hearing the report of the musket, and thinking it was -fired by the natives, immediately opened a fire from -the top of the cliff upon them, who made a precipitate -retreat to the pahs. The child being now in our possession, -I made a signal to the ships for the boats, intending -to reimbark the troops; but the weather becoming -thick, and a shift of wind obliging the vessels to stand -out to sea, and, at the same time, finding myself attacked -by the natives, who were concealed in the high -flax, I found my only alternative was to advance on -the pahs. I therefore ordered Lieutenant Gunton with -thirty men to the front, in skirmishing order, for the -purpose of driving the natives from the high flax from -which they were firing: this was done, and, as I have -reason to think, with considerable loss on the part of -the natives.’<a name="FNanchor_84_84" id="FNanchor_84_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_84_84" class="fnanchor">84</a></p> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_498" id="Page_498">498</a></span></p> -<p>“The body of the chief is said to have been mutilated, -and the head cut off by a soldier, and kicked about. -It was identified by means of a brooch, which Mrs. -Guard said belonged to the chief, who had adopted -and protected her son. It is scarcely necessary to -add, that this wanton act met with the reprobation it -deserved from Captain Lambert and his officers.</p> - -<p>“Captain Lambert states, that he should think there -were between twenty and thirty of the natives wounded -(and this, be it observed, after the child was recovered), -but it was not ascertained. ‘The English -went straight forward to attack the pahs, and they -had no communication with the natives after.’ The -troops immediately took possession of the two villages; -and on quitting them, three days afterwards, burnt -them to the ground.’”</p> - -<p>The language of Lord Goderich, on reviewing some -of these cases, must be that of every honourable man.</p> - -<p>“‘It is impossible to read, without shame and indignation, -the details which these documents disclose. -The unfortunate natives of New Zealand, unless some -decisive measures of prevention be adopted, will, I -fear, be shortly added to the number of those barbarous -tribes who, in different parts of the globe, have fallen -a sacrifice to their intercourse with civilized men, who -bear and disgrace the name of Christians.... I cannot -contemplate the too probable results without the -deepest anxiety. There can be no more sacred duty -than that of using every possible method to rescue the -natives of those extensive islands from the further -evils which impend over them, and to deliver our own -country from the disgrace and crime of having either -occasioned or tolerated such enormities.’”</p> -<hr /> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_499" id="Page_499">499</a></span></p> - -<h2>CHAPTER XXIX.<br /><br /> - -<small><small>CONCLUSION.</small></small></h2> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">Two gods divide them all—pleasure and gain:</div> -<div class="line">For these they live, they sacrifice to these,</div> -<div class="line">And in their service wage perpetual war</div> -<div class="line">With conscience and with thee. Lust in their hearts,</div> -<div class="line">And mischief in their hands, they roam the earth</div> -<div class="line">To prey upon each other; stubborn, fierce,</div> -<div class="line">High-minded, pouring out their own disgrace.</div> -<div class="line">Thy prophets speak of such; and, noting down</div> -<div class="line">The features of the last degenerate times,</div> -<div class="line">Exhibit every lineament of these.</div> -<div class="line">Come then, and added to thy many crowns,</div> -<div class="line">Receive one yet, as radiant as the rest,</div> -<div class="line">Due to thy last and most effectual work,</div> -<div class="line">Thy word fulfilled, the conquest of a world.</div> -<div class="line i15"><cite>Cowper—The Task.</cite><br /><br /></div> -</div></div></div> - -<p><span class="smcap">We</span> have now followed the Europeans to every -region of the globe, and seen them planting colonies, -and peopling new lands, and everywhere we have -found them the same—a lawless and domineering -race, seizing on the earth as if they were the firstborn -of creation, and having a presumptive right to -murder and dispossess all other people. For more -than three centuries we have glanced back at them in -their course, and everywhere they have had the word -of God in their mouth, and the deeds of darkness in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_500" id="Page_500">500</a></span> -their hands. In the first dawn of discovery, forth -they went singing the Te Deum, and declaring that -they went to plant the cross amongst the heathen. -As we have already observed, however, it turned out -to be the cross of one of the two thieves, and a bitter -cross of crucifixion it has proved to the natives where -they have received it. It has stood the perpetual -sign of plunder and extermination. The Spaniards -were reckless in their carnage of the Indians, and all -succeeding generations have expressed their horror of -the Spaniards. The Dutch were cruel, and everybody -abominated their cruelty. One would have -thought that the world was grown merciful. Behold -North America at this moment, with its disinherited -Indians! See Hindustan, that great and swarming -region of usurpations and exactions! Look at the -Cape, and ask the Caffres whether the English are -tender-hearted and just: ask the same question in -New Holland: ask it of the natives of Van Dieman’s -Land,—men, transported from the island of their -fathers. Ask the New Zealanders whether the warriors -whose tattooed heads stare us in the face in our -museums, were not delicately treated by us. Go, -indeed, into any one spot, of any quarter of the -world, and ask—no you need not ask, you shall hear -of our aggressions from every people that know us. -The words of Red-Jacket will find an echo in the -hearts of tens of millions of sorrowful and expatriated -and enthralled beings, who will exclaim, “you want -more land!—you want our country!” It is needless -to tell those who have read this history that there is, -and can be, nothing else like it in the whole record of -mortal crimes. Many are the evils that are done<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_501" id="Page_501">501</a></span> -under the sun; but there is and can be no evil like -that monstrous and earth-encompassing evil, which the -Europeans have committed against the Aborigines of -every country in which they have settled. And in -what country have they not settled? It is often said -as a very pretty speech—that the sun never sets on -the dominions of our youthful Queen; but who dares -to tell us the far more horrible truth, that it never sets -on the scenes of our injustice and oppressions! When -we have taken a solemn review of the astounding -transactions recorded in this volume, and then add to -them the crimes against humanity committed in the -slave-trade and slavery, the account of our enormities -is complete; and there is no sum of wickedness and -bloodshed—however vast, however monstrous, however -enduring it may be—which can be pointed out, -from the first hour of creation, to be compared for a -moment with it.</p> - -<p>The slave-trade, which one of our best informed -philanthropists asserts is going on at this moment to -the amount of 170,000 negroes a year, is indeed the -dreadful climax of our crimes against humanity. It -was not enough that the lands of all newly discovered -regions were seized on by fraud or violence; it was -not enough that their rightful inhabitants were murdered -or enslaved; that the odious vices of people -styling themselves the followers of the purest of beings -should be poured like a pestilence into these new -countries. It was not enough that millions on millions -of peaceful beings were exterminated by fire, by -sword, by heavy burdens, by base violence, by deleterious -mines and unaccustomed severities—by dogs, -by man-hunters, and by grief and despair—there yet<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_502" id="Page_502">502</a></span> -wanted one crowning crime to place the deeds of -Europeans beyond all rivalry in the cause of evil,—and -that unapproachable abomination was found in the -slave-trade. They had seized on almost all other -countries, but they could not seize on the torrid regions -of Africa. They could not seize the land, but they -could seize the people. They could not destroy them -in their own sultry clime, fatal to the white men, they -therefore determined to immolate them on the graves -of the already perished Americans. To shed blood upon -blood, to pile bones upon bones, and curses upon curses. -What an idea is that!—the Europeans standing with -the lash of slavery in their hands on the bones of exterminated -millions in one hemisphere, watching with -remorseless eyes their victims dragged from another -hemisphere—tilling, not with their sweat, but with -their heart’s blood, the soil which is, in fact, the dust -of murdered generations of victims. To think that -for three centuries this work of despair and death has -been going on—for three centuries!—while Europe -has been priding itself on the growth of knowledge -and the possession of the Christian faith; while -mercy, and goodness, and brotherly love, have been -preached from pulpits, and wafted towards heaven in -prayers! That from Africa to America, across the -great Atlantic, the ships of outrage and agony have -been passing over, freighted with human beings denied -all human rights. The mysteries of God’s endurance, -and of European audacity and hypocrisy are equally -marvellous. Why, the very track across the deep -seems to me blackened by this abominable traffic;—there -must be the dye of blood in the very ocean. -One might surely trace these monsters by the smell of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_503" id="Page_503">503</a></span> -death, from their kidnapping haunts to the very sugar-mills -of the west, where canes and human flesh are -ground together. The ghosts of murdered millions, -were enough, one thinks, to lead the way without chart -or compass! The very bed of the ocean must be paved -with bones! and the accursed trade is still going on! -We are still strutting about in the borrowed plumes -of Christianity, and daring to call God our father, though -we are become the tormentors of the human race from -China to Peru, and from one pole to the other!<a name="FNanchor_85_85" id="FNanchor_85_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_85_85" class="fnanchor">85</a></p> - -<p>The whole history of European colonization is of a -piece. It is with grief and indignation, that passing -before my own mind the successive conquests and -colonies of the Europeans amongst the native tribes -of newly-discovered countries, I look in vain for a -single instance of a nation styling itself Christian and -civilized, acting towards a nation which it is pleased -to term barbarous with Christian honesty and common -feeling. The only opportunity which the aboriginal -tribes have had of seeing Christianity in its real form -and nature, has been from William Penn and the -missionaries. But both Penn and the missionaries -have in every instance found their efforts neutralized, -and their hopes of permanent good to their fellow-creatures -blasted, by the profligacy and the unprincipled -rapacity of the Europeans as a race. Never -was there a race at once so egotistical and so terrible! -With the most happy complacency regarding them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_504" id="Page_504">504</a></span>selves -as civilized and pious, while acting the savage -on the broadest scale, and spurning every principle of -natural or revealed religion. But where the missionaries -have been permitted to act for any length of -time on the aboriginal tribes, what happy results have -followed. The savage has become mild; he has conformed -to the order and decorum of domestic life; he -has shewn that all the virtues and affections which -God has implanted in the human soul are not extinct -in him; that they wanted but the warmth of sympathy -and knowledge to call them forth; he has become an -effective member of the community, and his productions -have taken their value in the general market. -From the Jesuits in Paraguay to the missionaries in -the South Seas, this has been the case. The idiocy -of the man who killed his goose that he might get the -golden eggs, was wisdom compared to the folly of -the European nations, in outraging and destroying -the Indian races, instead of civilizing them. Let any -one look at the immediate effect amongst the South -Sea Islanders, the Hottentots, or the Caffres, of civilization -creating a demand for our manufactures, and -of bringing the productions of their respective countries -into the market, and then from these few and -isolated instances reflect what would have been now -the consequence of the civilization of North and South -America, of a great portion of South Africa, of the -Indian Islands, of the good treatment and encouragement -of the millions of Hindustan. Let him imagine, -if he can, the immense consumption of our manufactured -goods through all these vast and populous countries, -and the wonderful variety of their natural productions -which they would have sent us in exchange.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_505" id="Page_505">505</a></span></p> - -<p>There is no more doubt than of the diurnal motion -of the earth, that by the mere exercise of common -honesty on the part of the whites, the greater part of -all these countries would now be civilized, and a tide -of wealth poured into Europe, such as the strongest -imagination can scarcely grasp; and that, too, purchased, -not with the blood and tears of the miserable, -but by the moral elevation and happiness of countless -tribes. The waste of human life and human energies -has been immense, but not more immense than the -waste of the thousand natural productions of a thousand -different shores and climates. The arrow-root, -the cocoa-nut oil, the medicinal oils and drugs of the -southern isles; the beautiful flax of New Zealand; -sugar and coffee, spices and tea, from millions of acres -where they might have been raised ill abundance—woods -and gums, fruits and gems and ivories, have -been left unproduced or wasted in the deserts, because -the wonderful and energetic race of Europe chose to -be as lawless as they were enterprising, and to be the -destroyers rather than the benefactors of mankind. -For more than three centuries, and down to the very -last hour, as this volume testifies, has this system, -stupid as it was wicked, been going on. Thank God, -the dawn of a new era appears at last!</p> - -<p>The wrongs of the Hottentots and Caffres, brought -to the public attention by Dr. Philip and Pringle,<a name="FNanchor_86_86" id="FNanchor_86_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_86_86" class="fnanchor">86</a> -have led to Parliamentary inquiry; that inquiry has -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_506" id="Page_506">506</a></span>led to others;—the condition of the natives of the -South Seas, and finally of all the aboriginal tribes in -our colonies, has been brought under review. The -existence of a mass of evils and injuries, so enormous -as to fill any healthy mind with horror and amazement, -has been brought to light; and it is impossible that -such facts, once made familiar to the British public, -can ever be lost sight of again. Some expiation has -already been made to a portion of our victims. Part -of the lands of the Caffres has been returned, a -milder and more rational system of treatment has been -adopted towards them. Protectors of the Aborigines -have in one or two instances been appointed. New -and more just principles of colonization have been -proposed, and in a degree adopted. In the proposed -Association for colonizing New Zealand, and in the -South Australian settlement<a name="FNanchor_87_87" id="FNanchor_87_87"></a><a href="#Footnote_87_87" class="fnanchor">87</a> already made, these -better notions are conspicuous. But these symptoms -of a more honourable conduct toward the Aborigines, -are, with respect to the evils we have done, and the -evils that exist, but as the light of the single morning -star before the sun has risen. Many are the injuries -and oppressions of our fellow-creatures which the -philanthropic have to contend against; but there is no -evil, and no oppression, that is a hundredth part so -gigantic as this. There is no case in which we owe -such a mighty sum of expiation: all other wrongs are -but the wrongs of a small section of humanity compared -with the whole. The wrongs of the Negro are -great, and demand all the sympathy and active attention -which they receive; but the numbers of the negroes -<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_507" id="Page_507">507</a></span>in slavery are but as a drop in the bucket compared to -the numbers of the aborigines who are perishing beneath -our iron and unchristian policy. The cause of -the aborigines is the cause of three-fourths of the population -of the globe. The evil done to them is the -great and universal evil of the age, and is the deepest -disgrace of Christendom. It is, therefore, with pleasure -that I have seen the “<span class="smcap">Aborigines’ Protection -Society</span>” raise its head amongst the many noble -societies for the redress of the wrongs and the elevation -of humanity that adorn this country. Such a -society must become one of the most active and powerful -agents of universal justice: it must be that or -nothing, for the evil which it has to put down is -tyrannous and strong beyond all others. It cannot -fail without the deepest disgrace to the nation—for -the honour of the nation, its Christian zeal, and its -commercial interests, are all bound up with it. Where -are we to look for a guarantee for the removal of the -foulest stain on humanity and the Christian name? -Our government may be well disposed to adopt juster -measures; but governments are not yet formed on -those principles, and with those views, that will warrant -us to depend upon them.</p> - -<p>There is no power but the spirit of Christianity -living in the heart of the British public, which can -secure justice to the millions that are crying for it -from every region of the earth. It is that which must -stand as the perpetual watch and guardian of humanity; -and never yet has it failed. The noblest spectacle in -the world is that constellation of institutions which -have sprung out of this spirit of Christianity in the -nation, and which are continually labouring to redress<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_508" id="Page_508">508</a></span> -wrongs and diffuse knowledge and happiness wherever -the human family extends. The ages of dreadful inflictions, -and the present condition of the native tribes -in our vast possessions, once known, it were a libel on -the honour and faith of the nation to doubt for a moment -that a new era of colonization and intercourse -with unlettered nations has commenced; and I close -this volume of the unexampled crimes and marvellous -impolicy of Europe, with the firm persuasion—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="line">That heavenward all things tend. For all were once</div> -<div class="line">Perfect, and all must be at length restored.</div> -<div class="line">So God has greatly purposed; who would else</div> -<div class="line">In his dishonoured works himself endure</div> -<div class="line">Dishonour, and be wronged without redress.</div> -<div class="line">Haste, then, and wheel away a shattered world</div> -<div class="line">Ye slow revolving seasons! We would see—</div> -<div class="line">A sight to which our eyes are strangers yet—</div> -<div class="line">A world that does not hate and dread His laws,</div> -<div class="line">And suffer for its crime; would learn how fair</div> -<div class="line">The creature is that God pronounces good,</div> -<div class="line">How pleasant in itself what pleases Him.—<cite>Cowper.</cite></div> -</div></div></div> - -<hr /> - -<h2>FOOTNOTES:</h2> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">1</span></a> Mickle’s Camoens.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">2</span></a> Mickle.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">3</span></a> How affecting is Peter Martyr’s account of these poor Lucayans, -thus fraudulently decoyed from their native countries. “Many of -them, in the anguish of despair, obstinately refuse all manner of sustenance, -and retiring to desert caves and unfrequented woods, silently -give up the ghost. Others, repairing to the sea-coast on the northern -side of Hispaniola, cast many a longing look towards that part of the -ocean where they suppose their own islands to be situated; and as -the sea-breeze rises, they eagerly inhale it—fondly believing that it -has lately visited their own happy valleys, and comes fraught with the -breath of those they love, their wives and their children. With this -idea, they continue for hours on the coast, until nature becomes -utterly exhausted, when, stretching out their arms towards the ocean, -as if to take a last embrace of their distant country and relatives, they -sink down and expire without a groan.... One of them, who -was more desirous of life, or had greater courage than most of his -countrymen, took upon him a bold and difficult piece of work. -Having been used to build cottages in his native country, he procured -instruments of stone, and cut down a large spongy tree, called -<em>jaruma</em> (the <em>bombax</em>, or wild cotton), the body of which he dexterously -scooped into a canoe. He then provided himself with oars, -some Indian corn, and a few gourds of water, and prevailed on -another man and woman to embark with him on a voyage to the -Lucayos. Their navigation was prosperous for near two hundred -miles, and they were almost within sight of their long-lost shores, -when unfortunately they were met by a Spanish ship, which brought -them back to slavery and sorrow! The canoe is still preserved in -Hispaniola as a curiosity, considering the circumstances under which -it was made.”—<cite>Decad.</cite> vii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">4</span></a> In less than fifty years from the arrival of the Spaniards, not -more than two hundred Indians could be found in Hispaniola; and -Sir Francis Drake states that when he touched there in 1585, not -one was remaining; yet so little were the Spaniards benefited by their -cruelty, that they were actually obliged <em>to convert pieces of leather into -money</em>!—See Hakluyt’s Voyages, vol. iii.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">5</span></a> Las Casas, in his zeal for the Indians, has been charged with exaggerating -the numbers destroyed, but no one has attempted to deny -the following fact asserted by him: “I once beheld four or five principal -Indians roasted alive at a slow fire; and as the miserable victims -poured forth dreadful screams, which disturbed the commanding -officer in his afternoon slumbers—he sent word that they should be -strangled; but the officer on guard (<span class="smcap">I know his name—I know his -relatives in Seville</span>) would not suffer it; but causing their mouths -to be gagged, that their cries might not be heard, he stirred up the -fire with his own hands, and roasted them deliberately till they all -expired. <span class="smcap">I saw it myself!!!</span>”</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">6</span></a> Clavigero gives a curious account of the mode in which Cortez -took possession of the province of Tabasco, on the plains of Coutla, -where he killed eight hundred of the natives, and founded a small -city in memory thereof, calling it <cite>Madonna della Victoria</cite>! Here he -put on his shield, unsheathed his sword, and gave three stabs with it -to a large tree which was in the principal village, declaring that if -any person durst oppose his possession, he would defend it with that -sword.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">7</span></a> Thus called by Herrera. Bernal Diaz also calls Teuhtlile, Teudili. -It is singular that scarcely two writers, ancient or modern, call -the same South American person by the same name. Our modern -travellers not only differ from the Spanish historians, but from one -another. Even the familiar name of Montezuma, is Moctezuma and -Motezuma; that of Guatimozin, Guatimotzin and Quauhtemotzin. -The same confusion prevails amongst our authors, in nearly all the -proper names of America, Asia, or Africa.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">8</span></a> Engravings of these may be seen in Clavigero.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">9</span></a> The Ithualco of other authors.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">10</span></a> Clavigero says only six days.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">11</span></a> Charlevoix gives another instance of that sort of Catholic <em>piety</em> -which such ruffians as these find quite compatible with the commission -of the blackest crimes. During these expeditions these man-hunters -surprised the Reduction of St. Theresa, and carried off all the -inhabitants. This happened a few days before Christmas; yet on -Christmas day these banditti came to church, every man with a taper -in his hand, in order to hear mass. The minute the Jesuit had -finished, he mounted the pulpit, and reproached them in the bitterest -terms for their injustice and cruelty; to all which they listened with -as much calmness as if it did not at all concern them.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">12</span></a> “I sincerely believe they are as fine a set of men as ever existed, -under the circumstances in which they are placed. In the mines I -have seen them using tools which our miners declared they had not -strength to work with, and carrying burdens which no man in -England could support; and I appeal to those travellers who have -been carried over the snow on their backs, whether they were able to -have returned the compliment; and if not, what can be more grotesque -than the figure of a civilized man riding upon the shoulders of a -fellow-creature whose physical strength he has ventured to despise?”</p> -<p class="right"><cite>Head’s Rough Notes</cite>, p. 112.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">13</span></a> Mills’s Hist. of British India, i. 74. Bruce, iii. 78.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">14</span></a> According to Orme, 2,750,000<i>l.</i></p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">15</span></a> Tanjore Papers. Mills’ History.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">16</span></a> Governor-general’s own Narrative. Second Report of Select -Committee, 1781.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">17</span></a> Fifth Parliamentary Report.—Appendix, No. 21.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">18</span></a> Mills, ii. 624.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">19</span></a> Mills, ii. 480.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">20</span></a> Sir Thomas Roe was sent in 1614, on an embassy to the Great -Mogul. In his letters to the Company, he strongly advised them -against the expensive ambition of acquiring territory. He tells them, -“It is greater than trade can bear; for to maintain a garrison will cut -out your profit: a war and traffic are incompatible. The Portuguese, -notwithstanding their many rich residences, are beggared by keeping -of soldiers: and yet their garrisons are but mean. They never made -advantage of the Indies since they defended them;—observe this well. -It has also been the error of the Dutch, who seek plantations here by -the sword. They turn a wonderful stock; they prowl in all places; -they possess some of the best: yet their dead pays consume all the -gain. Let this be received as a rule, that if you will profit, seek it at -sea, and in quiet trade: for without controversy, it is an error to affect -garrisons, and land-wars in India.” -</p> -<p> -Had Sir Thomas been inspired, could he have been a truer prophet? -The East India Company, after fighting and conquering in India for -two centuries, have found themselves, at the dissolution of their charter, -nearly fifty millions in debt; while their trade with China, a -country in which they did not possess a foot of land, had become the -richest commerce in the world! The article of tea alone returning -between three and four millions annually, and was their sole preventive -against bankruptcy. Can, indeed, any colonial acquisition be -pointed out that is not a loss to the parent state?</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">21</span></a> Macpherson’s Annals, ii. 652, 662.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">22</span></a> Mills, ii. 560–2.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">23</span></a> It is said that infanticide, spite of the legal prohibition, is still -privately perpetrated to a great extent in Cutch and Guzerat.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">24</span></a> Nominally, in 1829; but not actually till considerably later.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">25</span></a> Even so recently as 1827 we find some tolerably regal instances -of regal gifts to our Indian representatives. Lord and -Lady Amherst on a tour in the provinces arrived at Agra. Lady -Amherst received a visit from the wife of Hindoo Row and her ladies. -They proceeded to invest Lady Amherst with the presents sent for -her by the Byza Bhye. They put on her a turban richly adorned -with the most costly diamonds, a superb diamond necklace, ear-rings, -anklets, bracelets, and amulets of the same, valued at 30,000<i>l.</i> sterling. -A complete set of gold ornaments, and another of silver, was then -presented. Miss Amherst was next presented with a pearl necklace, -valued at 5,000<i>l.</i>, and other ornaments of equal beauty and costliness. -Other ladies had splendid presents—the whole value of the gifts -amounting to 50,000<i>l.</i> sterling! -</p> -<p> -In the evening came Lord Amherst’s turn. On visiting the Row, -his hat was carried out and brought back on a tray covered. The -Row uncovered it, and placed it on his lordship’s head, overlaid with -the most splendid diamonds. His lordship was then invested with -other jewels to the reputed amount of 20,000<i>l.</i> sterling. Presents -followed to the members of his suite. Lady Amherst took this opportunity -of retiring to the tents of the Hindu ladies, <em>where presents were -again given</em>; and a bag of 1000 rupees to her ladyship’s female -servants, and 500 rupees to her interpretess. -</p> -<p class="right"><cite>Oriental Herald</cite>, vol. xiv. p. 444.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">26</span></a> How clearly these shrewd Indians saw through the designs of -their enemies, and how happily they could ridicule them, is shewn by -the speech of Garangula, one of their chiefs, when M. de la Barre, -the governor in 1684, was proposing one of these hollow alliances. -All the time that de la Barre spoke, Garangula kept his eyes fixed -on the end of his pipe. As soon as the governor had done, he rose -up, and said most significantly, “Yonondio!” (the name they always -gave to the governor of Canada), “you must have believed, when you -left Quebec, that the sun had burnt up all the forests which render -our country inaccessible to the French; or that the lakes had so far -overflowed their banks that they had surrounded our castles, and that -we could not get out of them. Yes, Yonondio, surely you must have -dreamt so, and the curiosity of seeing so great a wonder has brought -you so far. Now you are undeceived, since I and the warriors here -present, are come to assure you that the Senekas, Cayugas, Onondagas, -Oneidas, and Mohawks, are yet alive! I thank you, in their -name, for bringing back into their country the <em>Calumut</em> which your -predecessor received from their hands. It was happy for you that -you left under ground that murdering hatchet that has been so often -dyed in the blood of the French. Hear, Yonondio! I do not sleep; -I have my eyes open; and the sun which enlightens me, shews me a -great captain at the head of a company of soldiers, who speaks as if -he were dreaming. <em>He</em> says that he came to the lake to smoke on -the great <em>Calumut</em> with the Onondagas; but <em>Garangula</em> says that he -sees to the contrary—it was to knock them on the head, if sickness -had not weakened the arms of the French.” -</p> -<p class="right"><cite>Colden’s Hist. of the Five Nations</cite>, vol. i. p. 70.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">27</span></a> Raynal.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">28</span></a> Colden, i. 81.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">29</span></a> Colden, i. 441.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">30</span></a> Colden’s Hist. of “The Five Nations,” i. 195.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">31</span></a> The natives of this coast had some years before been carried off -in considerable numbers by a British kidnapper, one Captain Hunt, -who sold them in the Mediterranean to the Spaniards as Moors of -Barbary. The indignation of the Indians on the discovery of this -base transaction and their warlike character, put a stop to this trade, -which might otherwise have become as regular a department of commerce -as the African slave-trade; but it naturally threw the most -formidable obstacles in the way of settling colonies here, and brought -all the miseries of mutual outrage and revenge on both settlers and -natives.—<cite>Douglass’s Summary of the First Planting of North America</cite>, -vol. i. p. 364.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">32</span></a> Purchases were, indeed, made by others; but it was seize first, and -bargain afterwards, when the soil was already defended by muskets, -and the only question with the natives was, “Shall we take a trifle for -our lands, or be knocked on the head for them?”</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">33</span></a> Douglass’ Summary, i. 556–65.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">34</span></a> Ibid. i. 321.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">35</span></a> Douglass’ Summary, i. 199.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">36</span></a> Drake’s Book of the Indians.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">37</span></a> Hutchinson—Gov. Winthrop’s Journal.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">38</span></a> Hutchinson’s Massachusets Bay, p. 113.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">39</span></a> Hutchinson, p. 138.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">40</span></a> Hutchinson’s Hist. of Massachusets Bay. Also Douglass, Hubbard, -Gorge, and other historians of the time.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">41</span></a> Missionaries, especially the Jesuits, and the English in the South -Sea Islands, form the only exceptions, and these partially. The Jesuits, -though they did not commonly bear arms, taught the use of -them, and led, in fact, the most effective troops to battle in Paraguay. -The South Sea missionaries form the strongest exceptions: they are, -indeed, but guests, and not the governors; but their conduct is admirable, -and we may believe will not alter with power.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">42</span></a> Mr. Bannister, in an excellent little work (British Colonization -and the Coloured Tribes), just published, and which ought to be -read by every one for its right-mindedness and sound and most important -views, has regretted that William Penn did not take a guarantee -from the British crown, in his charter, for the protection of the Indians -from other states, and from his own successors. It is to be -regretted; nor is it meant here to assert that the provisions of his -government were as complete as they were pure in principle. Embarrassments -of various kinds prevented him from perfecting what he -had so nobly begun; yet the feeling with which his political system is -regarded, must be that of the following passage:— -</p> -<p> -“Virtue had never perhaps inspired a legislation better calculated -to promote the felicity of mankind. The opinions, the sentiments, -and the morals, corrected whatever might be defective in it. Accordingly -the prosperity of Pennsylvania was very rapid. This republic, -without either wars, conquests, struggles, or any of those revolutions -which attract the eyes of the vulgar, soon excited the admiration of -the whole universe. Its neighbours, notwithstanding their savage -state, were softened by the sweetness of its manners; and distant nations, -notwithstanding their corruption, paid homage to its virtues. -All delighted to see those heroic days of antiquity realized, which -European manners and laws had long taught every one to consider as -entirely fabulous.”—<cite>Raynal</cite>, vol. vii. p. 292.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">43</span></a> Adair’s History of the American Indians, p. 249.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">44</span></a> Adair, p. 314–321.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">45</span></a> Colden, i. 148.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">46</span></a> Mr. Johnson, who was originally a trader amongst the Mohawks, -indulged them in all their whims. They were continually dreaming -that he had given them this, that, and the other thing; and no greater -insult can, according to their opinions, be offered to any man -than to call in question the spiritual authenticity of his dream. At -length the chief <em>dreamed</em> that Mr. Johnson had given him his uniform -of scarlet and gold. Mr. Johnson immediately made him a present -of it: but the next time he met him, he told him that <em>he</em> had now -begun to dream, and that he had dreamed that the Mohawks had -given him certain lands, describing one of the finest tracts in the -country, and of great extent. The Indians were struck with consternation. -They said: “He surely had not dreamed that, had he?” -He replied that he certainly had. They therefore held a council, and -came to inform him that they had confirmed his dream; but begged -that he would not dream any more. He had no further occasion.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">47</span></a> Cotton Mather records that, amongst the early settlers, it was -considered a “religious act to kill Indians.” -</p> -<p> -A similar sentiment prevailed amongst the Dutch boors in South -Africa, with regard to the natives of the country. Mr. Barrow -writes, “A farmer thinks he cannot proclaim a more meritorious -action than the murder of one of these people. A boor from Graaf -Reinet, being asked in the secretary’s office, a few days before we left -town, if the savages were numerous or troublesome on the road, -replied, ‘he had only shot four,’ with as much composure and indifference -as if he had been speaking of four partridges. I myself -have heard one of the humane colonists boast of having destroyed, -with his own hands, near 300 of these unfortunate wretches.”</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">48</span></a> See Evidence given by Capt. Buchan.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">49</span></a> Papers, Abor. Tribes, 1834, p. 135.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">50</span></a> Ibid. 147.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">51</span></a> Ibid. 22.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">52</span></a> Papers, Abor. Tribes, p. 24.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">53</span></a> See Papers relating to Red River Settlement, 1815, 1819: especially -Mr. Coltman’s Report, pp. 115, 125.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">54</span></a> Letter from Jas. Hackett, Esq., Civil Commissioner, to Sir B. -D’Urban. Papers, Abor. Tribes, 1834, pp. 194, 198.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">55</span></a> Papers, Abor. Tribes, pp. 183, 193.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">56</span></a> Papers, p. 182.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">57</span></a> Papers, Abor. Tribes, pp. 181, 182.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">58</span></a> Mr. Mayhew in his journal, writes, that the Indians told him, -that they could not observe the benefit of Christianity, because the -English cheated them of their lands and goods; and that the use of -books made them more cunning in cheating. In his Indian itineraries, -he desired of Ninicroft, sachem of the Narragansets, leave to preach -to his people. Ninicroft bid him go and make the English good first, -and desired Mr. Mayhew not to hinder him in his concerns. Some -Indians at Albany being asked to go into a meeting-house, declined, -saying, “the English went into those places to study how to cheat -poor Indians in the price of beaver, for they had often observed that -when they came back from those places they offered less money than -before they went in.”</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">59</span></a> Spirituous liquors.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">60</span></a> Winterbottom’s America.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">61</span></a> Stuart’s Three Years in North America, ii. 177.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">62</span></a> Stuart, ii. 173.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">63</span></a> See Adair’s History of the American Indians.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">64</span></a> Pringle’s African Sketches, p. 380.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">65</span></a> See pp. 38–42 of Ball’s edit.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">66</span></a> Report, 1837, p. 32, 33.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">67</span></a> William Penn is the only exception, and he was a preacher and -in some degree a missionary.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">68</span></a> African Sketches, p. 414.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">69</span></a> Col. Graham’s Campaign in 1811–12.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">70</span></a> Col. Brereton’s Expedition in 1818.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71_71"><span class="label">71</span></a> Thompson, ii. 347.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_72_72" id="Footnote_72_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72_72"><span class="label">72</span></a> Ibid. and Kay, 266.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_73_73" id="Footnote_73_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73_73"><span class="label">73</span></a> Captain Stockenstrom.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_74_74" id="Footnote_74_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74_74"><span class="label">74</span></a> Pringle’s African Sketches.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_75_75" id="Footnote_75_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75_75"><span class="label">75</span></a> Thompson, ii. 348.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_76_76" id="Footnote_76_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76_76"><span class="label">76</span></a> There were about 200 traders from the colony residing in Caffreland, -many of them with their wives and children, at the moment -Macomo was thus treated!</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_77_77" id="Footnote_77_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77_77"><span class="label">77</span></a> African Sketches, 467.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_78_78" id="Footnote_78_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78_78"><span class="label">78</span></a> Dr. Murray’s Letter in the South African Advertizer, Feb. 20, -1836.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_79_79" id="Footnote_79_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79_79"><span class="label">79</span></a> Report on the Aboriginal Tribes, 1837. Ball’s edit. p. 115.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_80_80" id="Footnote_80_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80_80"><span class="label">80</span></a> Mr. Bannister.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_81_81" id="Footnote_81_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81_81"><span class="label">81</span></a> Despatch to Sir James Stirling, 23d July, 1835.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_82_82" id="Footnote_82_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82_82"><span class="label">82</span></a> Despatch to Lord Goderich, 6th April, 1833.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_83_83" id="Footnote_83_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83_83"><span class="label">83</span></a> Parl. Papers, 1835. No. 585. p. 7.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_84_84" id="Footnote_84_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84_84"><span class="label">84</span></a> Captain Johnson’s report to the Governor of New South Wales. -Parl. Papers, 1835. No. 583, p. 10.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_85_85" id="Footnote_85_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_85_85"><span class="label">85</span></a> Everything connected with this trade is astonishing. Queen -Elizabeth eagerly embarked in it in 1563, and sent the notorious -John Hawkins, knighted by her for this and similar deeds, out to -Sierra Leone for a human cargo, with four vessels, three of which, as -if it were the most pious of expeditions, bore the names of Jesus! -Solomon! and John the Baptist!—See <cite>Hakluyt’s Voyages</cite>.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_86_86" id="Footnote_86_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor_86_86"><span class="label">86</span></a> This excellent man was a martyr to his advocacy of the claims of -the Caffres. Powerful appeals on behalf of his widow, left in painful -circumstances, have been made by Mr. Leitch Ritchie, in his “Life -of Pringle,” and by Mr. Bannister, in his “Colonization and the -Coloured Tribes,” which, if they are not effective, will reflect but -little credit upon the government, or the philanthropic public.</p></div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_87_87" id="Footnote_87_87"></a><a href="#FNanchor_87_87"><span class="label">87</span></a> See a Lecture on this settlement, with letters from the settlers, -by Henry Watson, of Chichester.</p></div> - -<hr /> -<p class="center"><small>LONDON:<br /> -<small>PRINTED BY MANNING AND SMITHSON,<br /> -IVY-LANE, PATERNOSTER-ROW.</small></small></p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Colonization and Christianity, by William Howitt - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COLONIZATION AND CHRISTIANITY *** - -***** This file should be named 54800-h.htm or 54800-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/4/8/0/54800/ - -Produced by Turgut Dincer and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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