LETTER XLI.
General Whyte and part of the detachment which accompanied him, are returned to Demarara, leaving the 93d regiment, in garrison, at Berbische; that colony having capitulated upon the same terms as Demarara and Essequibo. The commerce is to be directed to the ports of England; in return for which she offers protection and defence. All that concerns the military proceedings is to rest with the English; but, in whatever regards the civil administration, the settlements are to preserve the established laws and form of government, until the end of the war; and the present Dutch governors are not to be removed.
Under these conditions most of the Dutch soldiers, who were in the garrison, have consented to enlist into our service, and to act conjointly with our troops in defence of this coast. We thus acquire the aid of a corps well seasoned to the country, and ready, at all moments, to act in concert for the general benefit of the settlements.
It is likewise intended to strengthen the garrison by forming a corps of negroes to be called “The South American Rangers.” This will be a valuable addition to our force, as these men are not subject to the debilitating effects of climate, but are active in the greatest heat; and are capable of supporting the most fatiguing duties under the direct rays of a vertical sun.
Surinam, belonging to the Dutch, borders Berbische, on our right, and a little further up the coast is the French colony of Cayenne. With such restless neighbours about us, we shall require to be watchful and alert. On our left we approach the river Oronoko, and what is termed the Spanish main: and not far from the coast of Essequibo is the Spanish island of Trinidad. From this quarter we hope to procure beef: from the other we expect only blows.
A communication is to be opened directly with the Spaniards, in order to negotiate for the purchase of cattle from the woods; which, we are told, they will be glad to sell at six or seven dollars per head.
We are now very much in want of fresh animal provisions; for, since the time of our arrival, I have only been able to procure two or three small sheep, for the use of the hospital. But, as the guardian of the sick, I owe much gratitude to the gentlemen of the colony, for some liberal presents of beef and mutton, which their humanity has induced them to send to the hospital for the comfort of the suffering soldiers. Two neighbouring gentlemen, in particular, Mr. T. Cuming, and Mr. Waterton, have the prayers of the sick, and the best acknowledgments of their attendants. Occasionally they have sent us an ox, or a sheep; or have shared, with the sick, the best provisions of their table.
Fruits are given to us from various estates, not only by gallons and bushels, but by cartloads and boat-loads, at a time; and, by these generous aids, we have been able to improve the comforts of the sick, beyond all that money could have effected.
A few days ago I had the opportunity of being present at a more regular sale, or market of slaves than I had seen before, and here I witnessed all the heart-rending distress attendant upon such a scene. I saw numbers of our fellow-beings regularly bartered for gold, and transferred, like cattle, or any common merchandise, from one possessor to another. It was a sight which European curiosity had rendered me desirous to behold, although I had anticipated from it only a painful gratification, I may now say——I have seen it! and while nature animates my breast with even the feeblest spark of humanity, I can never forget it!
The poor Africans, who were to be sold, were exposed, naked, in a large empty building, like an open barn. Those, who came with intention to purchase, minutely inspected them; handled them; made them jump, and stamp with their feet, and throw out their arms and their legs; turned them about; looked into their mouths; and, according to the usual rules of traffic with respect to cattle, examined them, and made them show themselves in a variety of ways, to try if they were sound and healthy. All this was distressful as humiliating, and tended to excite strong aversion and disgust: but a wound, still more severe, was inflicted on the feelings, by some of the purchasers selecting only such as their judgment led them to prefer, regardless of the bonds of nature! The urgent appeals of friendship and attachment were unheeded; sighs and tears made no impression; and all the imploring looks, and penetrating expressions of grief were unavailing. Hungry commerce corroded even the golden chains of affection; and sordid interest burst every tie of the heart asunder. The husband was taken from the wife, children were separated from their parents, and the lover was torn from his mistress: the companion was bought away from his friend, and the brother not suffered to accompany the sister.
In one part of the building was seen a wife clinging to her husband, and beseeching, in the strongest eloquence of nature, not to be left behind him. Here was a sister hanging upon the neck of her brother, and, with tears, intreating to be led to the same home of captivity. There stood two brothers, enfolded in each other’s arms, mutually bewailing their threatened separation. In other parts were friends, relatives, and companions, praying to be sold to the same master; using signs to signify that they would be content with slavery, might they but toil together.
Silent tears, deep sighs, and heavy lamentations proved the bitter suffering of these poor blacks, and told that nature was ever true to her feelings. Never was a scene more distressful. Among these unhappy, degraded Africans scarcely an unclouded countenance could be seen. Every feature was veiled in the gloom of woe; and their grief was poured forth in all the sadness of affliction.
A host of painful ideas rushed into my mind at the moment; and all the distorted images of this abhorrent traffic presented themselves to my recollection. The many horrors and cruelties, which I had so often heard of, appeared in their worst shapes before me; and my imagination was acutely alive to the unmerited punishment sometimes inflicted, the incessant labour exacted, the want of freedom, and all the catalogue of hardships endured by slaves. I endeavoured to combat the effect of these impressions by directing my mind to opposite images. The kind treatment of negroes under humane masters occurred to me; I recollected the comfort and harmony of the slaves I had lately seen at “Profit.” I contemplated their exemption from care, and the many anxieties of the world; and I remembered the happiness and contentment expressed in their songs and merry dances: but all in vain! The repugnant influence would not thus be cheated. With such distress before my eyes, all palliatives were unavailing. The whole was wrong, and not to be justified. I felt that I execrated every principle of the traffic. Nature revolted at it; and I condemned the whole system of slavery under all its forms and modifications.
When purchased, the slaves were marked by placing a bit of string, or of red or white tape round their arms or necks. One gentleman, who bought a considerable number of them, was proceeding to distinguish those he had selected, by tying a piece of red tape round the neck; when I observed two negroes, who were standing together entwined in each other’s arms, watch him with great anxiety. Presently he approached them, and, after making his examination, affixed the mark only to one of them. The other, with a look of unerring expression, and with an impulse of marked disappointment, cast his eyes up to the purchaser, seeming to say——“And will you not have me, too?” then jumped, and danced, and stamped with his feet, and made other signs to denote that he, also, was sound and strong, and worthy his choice. He was, nevertheless, passed by unregarded; upon which he turned to his companion, his friend, brother, whichever he was, took him to his bosom, hung upon him, and, in sorrowful countenance, expressed the strongest marks of affliction. The feeling was mutual: it arose from reciprocal affection: his friend participated in his grief, and they both wept bitterly. Soon afterwards, on looking round to complete his purchase, the planter, again, passed that way, and not finding any one that better suited his purpose, he hung the token of choice round the neck of the negro whom he had before disregarded. All the powers of art could not have effected the change that followed. More genuine joy was never expressed. His eye became enlivened: grief and sadness vanished, and flying into the arms of his friend, he caressed him with rapture, then skipped, and jumped, and danced about, exhibiting all the purest signs of mirth and gratification. His companion was not less delighted, and a more pure and native sympathy was never exhibited. Happy in being reassociated, they now retired apart from the crowd, and sat down, in quiet contentment, hugging and kissing the red signal of bondage, like two attached and affectionate brothers—satisfied to toil out their days, for an unknown master, so they might but travel their journey of slavery together.
In the afternoon of the same day I chanced to be present when another gentleman came to purchase some of the slaves, who were not sold in the morning. After looking through the lot, he remarked that he did not see any who were of pleasant aspect; and going on to make further objections, respecting their appearance, he was interrupted by the vendor, who observed that, at that moment, they were seen to great disadvantage, as they looked worse, “from having lost their friends and associates in the morning.” Ay, truly, I could have replied—a very powerful reason why they are unfit for sale this afternoon! If to be of smiling visage were necessary to their being sold, it were politic not to expose them for long to come. Still, some were selected, and the mark of purchase being made, the distressful scene of the morning was, in a degree, repeated.
Only a few of the most ill-looking now remained, who were meager, and of rough skin; not thoroughly black, but of a yellowish, or dirty brown colour; of hungry, unhealthy aspect, feeble, of hideous countenance, and, in general appearance, scarcely human. These remained to a future day, and would, probably, be sold, not to the planters, but to the boat-women, tailors, hucksters, or some of the inferior mechanics, or shopkeepers of the town, at a price somewhat lower than that demanded for the more robust, and well-looking; and, alas! though least able to bear fatigue, these feeble beings would be subjected to a far more heavy slavery than those of stronger frame; for it is, commonly, seen that the labour exacted by the poorer orders of people, from their few and weakly slaves, is more severe than that required by the opulent planter from his regular, and better-appointed gang.
We find it extremely difficult to procure a sufficient number of workmen and labourers, in this colony, for the services required. Although the wages are extravagantly high, an extraordinary number of hands, for any emergency, cannot be obtained, without having recourse to a system of coercion.
A few days since a soldier was admitted into the hospital with the direful malady of the country, called “yellow fever.” The disease had made great progress before he was brought to us, and he died on the sixth day after his admission. The body was examined, with a view to ascertain the changes produced by the disease, but the appearances were not precisely such, as from conversing with the colonial practitioners, and reading a variety of authors, we had been led to expect. The stomach was found to be the organ which exhibited the strongest marks of derangement. The inner coat was surcharged with blood, appearing very red, and at one spot near the upper orifice it was of a livid hue, and its texture so weakened, that the finger was passed through it, by only a slight degree of pressure.
The name commonly given to this disorder seems to be highly inaccurate. Our patient, although several days ill, had no yellowness of the skin, until a few hours before he died. If, therefore, his dissolution had occurred only a short time sooner; or if he had recovered previous to the period when this change of colour took place, we could not, with any correctness, have called the fever he had suffered a yellow fever, although he had undergone all the characteristic symptoms of the disease so termed, except the casual one from which it has been improperly named. Moreover, affixing to a disease a name derived from a symptom, and particularly a symptom which is not always present, is calculated to deceive, and may be of dangerous tendency, by rendering the practitioner unsuspicious of the real nature of the disorder, until it be too late to arrest its destructive progress.