borious, is certainly arduous to prevent depredations on that which they are appointed to protect would require more activity and vigour than many of these superannuated slaves possess. The different tribes or nations of the negroes are, like the different nations of Europe, of various characters and dispositions. Some are mild, docile, and timid-while others are fierce, irascible and easily roused to revenge. They are in general crafty, artful, and plausible, little ashamed of falsehood, and strangely addicted to theft: to pilfer from their masters they consider as no crime, though to rob a fellow-slave is accounted heinous : when a slave makes free with his master's property, he thus ingeniously argues," What I take from my master, being for my use, who am his slave, or property, he loses nothing by its transfer." The Eboc is crafty, artful, disputative in driving a bargain, and suspicious of being over-reached by those with whom he deals; but withal, patient, industrious, saving, and tracta ble. The Coromantee is, on the contrary, fierce, violent, and revengeful, under injury, and provocation; but hardy, laborious and manageable, under mild and just treatment. This tribe has generally been at the head of all insurrections, and was the original parent-stock of the Maroons. The Congo, Papaw, Chamba, Mandingo, &c. are of a more mild and peaceable disposition than the Coromantee, but less industrious and provident than the Eboc. The Mandingoes are a sort of Mahommedans, they are too ignorant to understand any thing of the Aicoran, or of the nature of their religion: some of them, however, can scrawl a few rude Arabic characters, but without understanding, or being able to explain much of their meaning. Probably they are scraps from the Alcoran which they have been taught by their imans, or priests. The creole negroes are the descendants of the Africans, and may be said to possess in common the mingled dispositions of their parents or ancestors. But they pretend to a great superiority in intellect and manners over the Africans 21 ATHENEUM VOL. 14. boast of their good fortune in being born creoles,—and the farther they are removed from the African blood the more they pride themselves thereon. The passions and affections of the negroes, not being under the control of reason or religion, sometimes break out with frightful violence; rage, revenge, grief, jealousy, have often been productive of terrible catastrophes ; but it is only in their intercourse with each other that this impetuosity prevails; they are so far subdued by an habitual awe of the whites as to have a mastery over their passions, and, if ill-treated, they brood in silence over their wrongs, watching for a favourable opportunity of revenge. Numerous instances of the gratitude and attachment of negro slaves towards their masters have come within the author's knowledge; though he has also had occasion to witness the most hardened ingratitude in individuals of this race, not only to their masters and to their fellow-slaves, but even to their parents, when age and decrepitude had rendered their kindness and assistance doubly necessary and welcome. Filial gratitude is not so powerful an affection as parental love, and among the negro race this is often strikingly exemplified. Very affecting scenes often occurred of negro sales during the existence of the slave-trade. Groups of slaves were seen with their arms entwined around each other's necks, waiting, with sad and anxious looks, the expected moment of separation. Perhaps they were sisters and friends-perhaps a mother and her children-perhaps a husband and wife. In vain was the endeavour to separate them-they clung closer together, they wept, they shrieked piteously, and, and if forcibly torn asunder, the buyer had generally cause to regret his inhumanity; despair often seized on the miserable creatures, and they either sunk into an utter despondency or put a period to their lives. The negroes, though so rude and ignorant in their savage state, have a natural shrewdness and genius which is doubtless susceptible of culture and improvement. Those who have been reared among the whites are greatly superior in intellect to the native Africans brought at a mature age to the country. Many are wonderfully ingenious in making a variety of articles for their own use, or to sell; and such as are properly brought up to any trade, show a skill and dexterity in it little inferior to the Europeans. In reckoning numbers they are somewhat puzzled, being obliged to mark the decimals as they proceed. Some author mentions a nation so extremely stupid that they could not reckon beyond the number five. The negro can go far beyond this-indeed, give him time, and he will, by a mode of combination of his own, make out a pretty round sum; but he is utterly perplexed by the minuter combination of figures according to the European system of arithmetic. The negroes are astonished at the ingenuity of the Europeans, and there are some articles of their manufacture which appear quite unaccountable to them, as watches, telescopes, lookingglasses, gunpowder, &c. The author once amused a party of negroes with the deceptions of a magic lantern. They gazed with the utmost wonder and astonishment at the hideous figures conjured up by this optical machine, and were of opinion that nothing short of witchcraft could have produced such an instrument. They are also astonished at the means by which the Europeans can find their way to Africa and other remote countries, and guide their vessels, through trackless oceans, with as much certainty as they can travel over a few miles of well-known country. This they can only attribute to some supernatural gift of knowledge. The creole slaves are in general more acute and quicker of apprehension than the Africans. A creole negro boy put to learn a trade acqnires a thorough knowledge of it in five or six years, and performs his work with as much neatness as a European workman, though with less despatch. Excǝllent negro masons, carpenters, coopers, blacksmiths, tailors, sailors, pilots, &c. abound bere; and there cannot be a doubt but that, by the culture of education, they are capable of the high er attainments of the mind. There have been examples of negroes, who, with but little assistance from education have displayed astonishing proofs of talent; among these the celebrated Toussaint L'Ouverture, who, though an uneducated slave, acquitted himself as a general and a statesman in a manner that astonished and confounded those who maintained that negroes were incapable of intellectual improvement. The houses of the slaves are in general comfortable. They are built of hardwood posts, either boarded or wattled and plastered, and the roof formed of shingles (wood split and dressed into the shapes of slates, and used as a substitute for them,) or thatched with the leaves of the sugar-cane, or the branches of the mountain cabbage: this latter is of so durable a nature that it will last for thirty or forty years. The size of the houses is generally from fifteen to twenty feet long, and from ten to fifteen wide. They contain a small hall, and one or two bed-rooms, according to the size of the family. furniture of this dwelling is a small table, two or three chairs or stools, a small cupboard, furnished with a few articles of crockery-ware, some wooden bowls and calibashes, a water-jar, a wooden mortar for pounding Indian corn, &c. and various other articles. The beds are seldom more than wooden frames spread with a mat and blanket. The Adjoining to the house is usually a small spot of ground, laid out into a sort of garden, and shaded by various fruit-trees. Here the family deposit their dead, to whose memory they invariably, if they can afford it, erect a rude tomb. Each slave has, besides this spot, a piece of ground (about half an acre) allotted to him as a provisionground. The common food of the slaves is salt-meat (commonly pork), or salted fish, boiled along with their yams, cocos, or plantains, mixed up with pulse or other vegetables, and highly seasoned with the native pepper (capsum Indicus). Pimento they never use in their food. They receive from their masters seven or eight herrings per week, a food which most of them, who can afford better, despise; and they accordingly sell them in the markets, and purchase salted pork, of which they are exceedingly fond. The common dress of the male slaves is an osnaburgh or check frock, and a pair of osnaburgh or sheeting trowsers, with a coarse hat. That of the women is an osnaburgh or coarse linen shift, a petticoat made of various stuff, according to their taste and circumstances, and a handkerchief tied round their heads. Both men and women are also provided with greatcoats (or croocas, as they call them) of blue woollen stuff. Neither sex wear shoes in common, these being reserved for particular occasions, such as dances, &c. when all who can afford it appear in very gay apparel-the men in broad-cloth coats, fancy waistcoats, and nankeen or jean trowsers, and the women in white or fancy muslin gowns, beaver or silk hats, and a variety of expensive jewelry. But it is only a small proportion who can afford to dress thus finely. The slaves have little time to devote to amusement, but such occasions as offer they eagerly embrace. Plays, as they call them, are their principal and favourite one. This is an assemblage of both sexes, dressed out for the occasion, who form a ring round a male and female dancer, who perform to the music of drums and the songs of the other females of the party, one alternately going over the song, while her companions repeat in chorus. Plays, or dances, very frequently take place on Saturday nights, when the slaves on the neighbouring plantations assemble together to enjoy this amusement. It is contrary to the law for the slaves to beat their drums after ten o'clock at night; but this law they pay little regard to. Their music is very rude; it consists of the goombay or drum, several rattles, and the voices of the female slaves, which, by the bye, is the best part of the music, though altogether it is very rude. The drums of the Africans vary in shape, size, &c. according to the different countries, as does also their vocal music. In a few years it is probable that the rude mu sic here described will be altogether exploded among the creole negroes, who show a decided preference for European music. Its instruments, its tunes, its dances, are now pretty generally adopted by the young creoles, who indeed sedulously copy their masters and mistresses in every thing. On new-year's day, it is customary for the creole negro girls of the towns, who conceive themselves superior to those on the plantations, to exhibit themselves in all the pride of gaudy finery, under the denomination of Blues and Reds-parties in rivalship and op. position to each other. They are generally dressed with much taste, sometimes at the expense of their white and brown mistresses, who take a pride in showing them off to the greatest advantage. At their funerals, the African negroes use various ceremonies, among which is the practice of pouring libations, and sacrificing a fowl, on the grave of the deceased-a tribute of respect they afterwards occasionally repeat. During the whole of the ceremony, many fantastic motions and wild gesticulations are practised, accompanied with a suitable beat of their drums and other rude instruments, while a melancholy dirge is sung by a female, the chorus of which is performed by the whole of the other females, with admirable precision, and full toned and not unmelodious voices. When the deceased is interred, the plaintive notes of sympathy are no longer heard, the drums resound with a livelier beat, the song grows more animated, dancing and apparent merriment commence, and the remainder of the night is usually spent in feasting and riotous debauchery. The most dangerous practice, arising from a superstitious credulity, prevailing among the negroes, is what is called obeah, a pretended sort of witchcraft. One negro, who desires to be revenged on another, and is afraid to make an open and manly attack on his adversary, has usually recourse to obeah. This is considered as a potent and irresistible spell, withering and palsying, by undescribable terrors and unwonted sensations, the unhappy vie tim. Like the witches' cauldron in Macbeth, it is a combination of many strange and ominous things--earth gathered from a grave, human blood, a piece of wood fashioned in the shape of a coffin, the feathers of the carrioncrow, a snake's or alligator's tooth, pieces of egg-shell, and other nameless ingredients, compose the fatal mixture. The African negroes of the West Indies, whatever superstitious notions they may bring with them from their native country, agree in believing the existence of an omnipotent Being, who will reward or punish us in a future life for our good or evil actions in this. But their ideas in other respects are peculiar and fanciful. They think that for some unexpiated guilt, or through some unaccountable folly of the primitive blacks, servitude was the unfortunate lot assigned to them, while dominion was given to the more favoured whites. Their superstitious reverence for certain animals, common in their own country, they retain in some degree. Some tribes are far more rational than others in their religious opinions. By intercourse with each other, and with the Europeans, the absurdity of many of their native superstitions is gradually laid aside -at least in practice. One opinion they all agree in, and that is the expectation that, after death, they shall first return to their native country, and enjoy again the society of kindred and friends, from whom they have been [Cervantes mentions that the Spaniards hold in detestation the memory of Florinda; nor is the tradition less inveterate among the Moors, since the same author speaks of a promontory on the coast of Barbary called "the Cape of the Caba Rumia," or Cape of the Wicked Christian Woman: and it is said among the Moors that Caba, or Cava, or Florinda, the daughter of Count Julian, lies buried there; and they think it ominous to be forced into that bay, for they never go in otherwise than by necessity.] THE CAPE OF THE CABA RUMIA. Away!-away!-tho' tempests sweep torn away in an evil hour. This idea used to prompt numbers, on their first arrival, to acts of suicide. After a term of years, the Africans, however, become more reconciled to their new situation, particularly if they have the good fortune to fall into the hands of a humane master, and are industrious and get families; in which case they retain, as has been said, but little of their primitive superstition, and experience no wish to return, had they it even in their power, to their original wild life and savage state of precarious liberty. Little heretofore has been done towards instructing the slaves in Christianity, and that little chiefly through the efforts of dissenting missionaries. Some of these were low ignorant men, who perhaps did more harm than good by their instructions, if they might be so called. Instead of inculcating the plain practical duties which Christianity enjoins, they expatiated altogether on topics incomprehensible by their ignorant auditors,-as the new birth, grace, election, and the utter inefficacy of mere good works to recommend them to the favour of the Almighty. These doctrines were too subtle for their understandings: they were told that they were in a perilous state, while the way by which alone they were instructed they could escape from it was so full of intricacy and mystery, that they became utterly perplexed, and gave up the pursuit in despair. The spirit of the fatal fair [air, Hovers dimly over her grave; 'Tis her voice that rings thro' the troubled "Tis her moan that awakes the wave. Oh! dearly the sons of Spain can tell The woes that her beauty cost, When Roderic, won by that witching spell, Fame, honour, and country lost. And ever her name is an evil sound, And her memory hated shall be ; Then hasten on for some happier shore, Sail on!-what power has our luckless bark |