BY THE WATERS OF BABYLON.
Thus delivered from the slavery of the fields, I began to work, an
unprofitable servant, among those who made and mended the garments
of the servants and negroes. On an estate so large as this there is
always plenty to be done by the sempstresses and needlewomen. Thus,
to every woman is given by the year four smocks, two petticoats, and
four coifs, besides shoes, which are brought from England by the
ships. Those who wait in the house have, in addition, six smocks and
three waistcoats. To the men are given six shirts; and to every man
and woman a rug or gown of thick stuff to cast about them when they
come home hot, so that they may not catch cold--a thing which throws
many into a fever. All these things have to be made and mended on
the estate.
As for the children, the little blacks, they run about without
clothing, their black skin sufficing. The women who are engaged
upon the work of sewing are commonly those of the white servants,
who are not strong enough for the weeding and hoeing in the fields,
or are old and past hard work. Yet the stuff of which the smocks
and shirts are made is so coarse that it tore the skin from my
fingers, which, when Madam saw, she brought me fine work--namely,
for herself. She was also so good as to provide me with a change of
clothes, of which I stood sadly in need, and excused my wearing the
dress of the other women. I hope that I am not fond of fine apparel,
more than becomes a modest woman, but I confess that the thought
of wearing this livery of servitude, this coarse and common dress
of smock, petticoat, and coif, all of rough and thick stuff, like
canvas, with a pair of shoes and no stockings, filled my very soul
with dismay. None of the many acts of kindness shown me by Madam was
more gratefully received than her present of clothes--not coarse
and rough to the skin, nor ugly and common, befitting prisoners and
criminals, but soft and pleasant to wear, and fit for the heat of
the climate. 'Twas no great hardship, certainly, to rise early and
to sit all day with needle and thread in a great room well-aired.
The company, to be sure, was not what one would have chosen; nor
was the language of the poor creatures who sat with me--prison and
Bridewell birds, or negro slaves--such as my poor mother would have
desired her daughter to hear. The food was coarse; but I was often
at the house (when the master was away), and there Madam would
constantly give me something from her own table, a dish of chocolata
(rightly called the Indian nectar) made so thick and strong that
a spoon stands upright in it, or a glass of Madeira, if my cheeks
looked paler than ordinary. In this country, the great heat of the
air seems to suck out and devour the heat of the body, so that those
of European birth, if they are not nourished on generous diet,
presently fall into a decline or wasting away, as is continually
seen in the case of white servants, both men and women, who die
early, and seldom last more than five or six years.
Briefly, Madam seemed to take great pleasure in my conversation,
and would either seek me in the work-room, or would have me to
the house, asking questions as to my former life. For herself, I
learned that she was born in Cuba, and had been brought up by nuns
in a convent; but how or why she came to this place, I knew not,
nor did I ask. Other gentlewomen of the island I never saw, and I
think there were none who visited her. Nor did she show kindness to
the women servants (except to myself), treating them all, as is the
fashion in that country, as if they were so many black negroes, not
condescending to more than a word or a command; and if this were
disobeyed, they knew very well what to expect from her. But to me
she continued throughout to be kind and gracious, thinking always
how she could lighten my lot.
In this employment, therefore, I continued with such contentment as
may be imagined, which was rather a forced resignation to the will
of the Lord than a cheerful heart. But I confess that I looked upon
the lot of the other women with horror, and was thankful indeed
that I was spared the miseries of those who go forth to the fields.
They begin at six in the morning, and work until eleven, when they
come home to dinner: at one o'clock they go out again and return at
sunset, which, in this country, is nearly always about half-past
six. But let no one think that work in the fields at Barbadoes may
be compared with work in the fields at home; for in England there
are cloudy skies and cold wintry days in plenty, but in Barbadoes,
save when the rain falls in prodigious quantities, the skies have
no clouds, but are clear blue all the year round: the sun burns
with a heat intolerable, so that the eyes are well-nigh blinded,
the head aches, the limbs fail, and, but for fear of the lash, the
wretched toiler would lie down in the nearest shade. And a terrible
thirst (all this was told me by the girl Deb) seizes the throat,
all day long, which nothing can assuage but rest. For the least
skulking the whip is laid on; and if there be a word of impatience
or murmuring, it is called stark mutiny, for which the miserable
convict, man or woman, is tied up and flogged with a barbarity which
would be incredible to any were it not for the memory of certain
floggings in our own country. Besides the lash, they have also the
pillory and the stocks, and the overseers carry in addition to their
whip a heavy cane, with which they constantly belabour the slaves,
both white and black. I say 'slaves' because the white servants are
nothing less, save that the negroes are far better off, and receive
infinitely better treatment than the poor white creatures. Indeed,
the negro being the absolute property of his master, both he and his
children, to ill-treat him is like the wanton destruction of cattle
on a farm; whereas there is no reason in making the convicts last
out more than the ten years of their servitude, or even so long,
because many of them are such poor creatures when they arrive, and
so reduced by the miseries of the voyage, and so exhausted by the
hard labour to which they are put, that they bring no profit to the
master, but quickly fall ill and die like rotten sheep. Like rotten
sheep, I say, they die, without a word of Christian exhortation; and
like brute creatures, who have no world to come, are they buried in
the ground! Again, the food served out to these poor people is not
such as should be given to white people in a hot climate. There is
nothing but water to drink, and that drawn from ponds, because in
Barbadoes there are few springs or rivers. It is true that the old
hands, who have learned how to manage, contrive to make plantain
wine, and get, by hook or by crook, mobbie (which is a strong
drink made from potatoes), or kill-devil, which is the new spirit
distilled from sugar. Then for solid food, the servants are allowed
five pounds of salt beef for each person every week, and this so
hard and stringy that no boiling will make it soft enough for the
teeth. Sometimes, instead of the beef, they have as much salt fish,
for the most part stinking; with this a portion of ground Indian
corn, which is made into a kind of porridge, and called loblollie.
This is the staple of the food, and there are no rustics at home who
do not live better and have more nourishing food.
I do not deny that the convicts are for the most part a horrid crew,
who deserve to suffer if any men ever did; but it was sad to see how
the faces of the people were pinched with hunger and wasted with
the daily fatigues, and how their hollow eyes were full of despair.
Whatever their sins may have been, they were at least made in God's
own image: no criminal, however wicked, should have been used with
such barbarity as was wreaked upon the people of this estate. The
overseers were chosen (being themselves also convicts) for their
hardness of heart. Nay, did they show the least kindness towards the
poor creatures whom they drove, they would themselves be forced
to lay down the whip of office and to join the gang of those who
toiled. And over them was the master, jealous to exact the last
ounce of strength from the creatures whom he had bought. Did the
good people of Bristol who buy the sugar and molasses and tobacco of
the Indies know or understand the tears of despair and the sweat of
agony which are forced with every pound of sugar, they would abhor
the trade which makes them rich.
The companion of my sleeping-hut, the girl Deb, was a great,
strapping wench, who bid fair to outlast her ten years of servitude,
even under the treatment to which, with the rest, she was daily
subjected. And partly because she was strong and active, partly
because she had a certain kind of beauty (the kind which belongs to
the rustic, and is accompanied by good-humour and laughter), she
would perhaps have done well, as some of the women do, and ended by
marrying an overseer, but for events which presently happened. Yet,
strong as she was, there was no evening when she did not return worn
out with fatigue, her cheeks burning, her limbs weary, yet happy
because she had one more day escaped the lash, and had the night
before her in which to rest. If it is worth noting, the women were
from the outset the most willing workers, and the most eager to
satisfy their taskmasters; the men, on the other hand, went sullen
and downcast, thinking only how to escape the overseer's whip, and
going through the work with angry and revengeful eyes. I think that
some great mutiny might have happened upon this estate--some wild
revenge--so desperate were these poor creatures and so horrible were
the scourgings they endured, and the shrieks and curses which they
uttered. Let me not speak of these things.
There are other things which make residence in Barbadoes, even to
the wealthy, full of annoyances and irritations. The place is filled
with cockroaches, great spiders, horrid scorpions, centipedes, and
lizards. There are ants which swarm everywhere, and there are clouds
of flies, and at night there are moskeetos and merrywings, which by
their bites have been known to drive new-comers into fever, or else
into a kind of madness.
In the evenings after supper there reigned a melancholy silence in
the village, the people for the most part taking rest with weary
limbs. Sometimes there would be a quarrel, with horrid oaths and
curses and perhaps some fighting; but these occasions were rare.
From the house there came often the noise of singing, drinking, and
loud talking when other planters would ride over for a drinking
bout. There was also sometimes to be heard the music of the theorbo,
upon which Madam played very sweetly, singing Spanish songs; so
that it seemed a pity for music so sweet to be thrown away upon
this selfish crew. It made me think of Humphrey, and of the sweet
and holy thoughts which he would put into rhymes, and then fit the
rhymes with music which seemed to breathe those very thoughts. Alas!
In the village of Bradford Orcas there would be now silence and
desolation! The good old Squire dead, my father dead, the young
men sent to the Plantations, no one left at all but the Rector and
Madam his sister-in-law, and I, alas! a slave. Perchance at that
moment the Rector might be slowly drawing his bow across the strings
of his violoncello thinking of those who formerly played with him;
or perhaps he would be sorrowfully taking out his cases and gazing
for a little consolation upon the figures of his goddesses and his
nymphs. Only to think of the place, and of those who once lived
there, tore my poor heart to pieces.
One evening, when there was a great noise and talking at the house,
while we were sitting upon our beds with no other light than that of
the moon, Madam herself came to the cottage.
'Child,' she said, 'nothing will do but that the gentlemen must see
thy beauty. Nay, no harm shall happen while I am there: so much
they know. But he hath so bragged about thy beauty and the great
price he will demand for ransom that the rest are mad to see thee.
I swear that not the least rudeness shall be offered thee. They are
drinking, it is true; but they are not yet drunk. Come!'
So I arose and followed her. First, she took me to her own room,
where she took off my hood and threw over me a long white lace
mantilla, which covered my head and fell over my shoulders and below
the waist.
She sighed as she looked at me.
'Poor innocent!' she said. 'If money could buy that face, there is
not a man in the room but would give all he hath and count it gain.
Canst thou play or sing?'
I told her that I had some knowledge of the theorbo. Therefore she
brought me hers, and bade me sing to the gentlemen and then retire
quickly. So I followed her into the living or keeping room, where a
dozen gentlemen were sitting round the table. A bowl of punch was
on the table, and every man had his glass before him, and a pipe of
tobacco in his hand. Some of their faces were flushed with wine.
'Gentlemen,' said Madam, 'our prisoner hath consented to sing
one song to you, after which she will ask permission to bid you
good-night.'
So they all clapped their hands and rapped the table, and I, being
indeed terrified, but knowing very well that to show fear would be
the worst thing I could do, touched the strings and began my song. I
sang the song which Humphrey made, and which he sang to the officers
at Taunton when the Duke was there.
When I finished, I gave back the theorbo to Madam, curtsied to the
gentlemen, and quickly stepped back to Madam's room, while they all
bellowed and applauded and roared for me to come back again. But
I put on my hood and slipped out to the cottage, where I lay down
beside Deb, and quickly fell asleep. (It is a great happiness, in
these hot latitudes, that, when a new-comer hath once got over the
trouble of the merrywings, he falleth asleep the moment he lies
down, and so sleeps through the whole night.)
But in the morning Madam came to see me while I was sewing.
'Well, Child,' she said, laughing, 'thou hast gotten a lover who
swears that he will soon have thee out of this hell.'
'A lover!' I cried. 'Nay!--that may God forbid!'
''Tis true. Young Mr. Anstiss it is. While thou wast singing
he gazed on thy pretty face and listened as one enchanted. I
wonder--but no!--thou hast no eyes for such things. And when
thou wast gone he offered the master four times the sum he paid
for thee--yea, four times--or six times--saying that he meant
honourably, and that if any man dared to whisper anything to the
contrary he would cut his throat.'
'Alas! Madam. I must never marry--either this Mr. Anstiss or any
other.'
'Tut--tut. This is foolish maid's nonsense. Granted you have lost
your old lover, there are plenty more. Suppose he hath lost his old
sweetheart, there are plenty more--as I doubt not he hath already
proved. Mr. Anstiss is a very pretty young gentleman; but the master
would not listen, saying that he waited for the lady's friends.'
And so passed six weeks, or thereabouts, for the only count of
time I kept was from Sunday to Sunday. On that day we rested; the
negroes, who are no better than heathens, danced. The white servants
lay about in the shade, and drank what they could; in one cottage
only on that godless estate were prayers offered.
And then happened that great event which, in the end, proved to be
a change in my whole life, and brought happiness out of misery, and
joy out of suffering, though at first it seemed only a dreadful
addition to my trouble. Thus is the course of things ordered for us,
and thus the greatest blessings follow upon the most threatening
juncture. What this was I will tell in a few words.
It was about the third week in September when I embarked, and about
the third week in November when the ship made her port. Therefore,
I take it that it was one day about the beginning of the year 1686,
when Madam came to the work-room and told me that a ship had arrived
carrying a cargo of two hundred rebels and more, sent out to work
upon the Plantations, like myself, for the term of ten years. She
also told me that the master was gone to the Bridge in order to
buy some of them. Not, she said, that he wanted more hands; but he
expected that there would be among them persons of quality, who
would be glad to buy their freedom. He still, she told me, looked
to make a great profit out of myself, and was thinking to sell me,
unless my friends in England speedily sent proposals for my ransom,
to the young planter who was in love with me. This did not displease
me. I have not thought it necessary to tell how Mr. Anstiss came
often to the estate, and continually devised schemes for looking
at me, going to the Ingenio, whence he could see those who sat in
the work-room, and even sending me letters, vowing the greatest
extravagance of passion--I say I was not displeased, because there
was in this young gentleman's face a certain goodness of disposition
clearly marked; so that even if I became his property I thought I
might persuade him to relinquish thoughts of love, even if I had to
trust myself entirely to his honour and tell him all. But, as you
shall hear, this project of the master's was brought to naught.
As for the rebels, I was curious to see them. Some I might
recognise; to some I might perhaps be of a little use at the outset
in guarding them against dangers. I did not fear, or think it
likely, that there would be any among them whom I might know or who
might know me. Yet the thing which I least suspected, and the least
feared--a thing which one would have thought so unlikely as to make
the event a miracle--nay, call it rather the merciful ordering of
all--that thing, I say, actually happened.
The newly-bought servants arrived at about five in the evening.
I looked out of the work-room to see them. Why, I seemed to know
their faces--all their faces! They were our brave West Country lads,
whom I had last seen marching gallantly out of Taunton town to
victory and glory (as they believed). Now--pale with the miseries
of the voyage, thin with bad food and disease, hollow-cheeked and
hollow-eyed, in rags and dirt, barefooted, covered with dust, grimy
for want of washing, their beards grown all over their faces--with
hanging heads, stood these poor fellows. There were thirty of
them; some had thrown themselves on the ground, as if in the last
extremity of fatigue; some stood with the patience that one sees in
brute beasts who are waiting to be killed; and in a group together
stood three--oh! merciful Heaven! was this misery also added to my
cup!--they were Robin, Barnaby, and Humphrey! Robin's face, heavy
and pale, betrayed the sorrow of his soul. He stood as one who
neither careth for nor regardeth anything. My heart fell like lead
to witness the despair which was visible in his attitude, in his
eyes, in his brow. But Barnaby showed still a cheerful countenance
and looked about him, as if he was arriving a welcome guest instead
of a slave.
'Do you know any of them, Child?' Madam asked.
'Oh! Madam,' I cried; 'they are my friends--they are my friends. Oh!
help them--help them!'
'How can I help them?' she replied coldly. 'They are rebels, and
they are justly punished. Let them write home for money if they have
friends, and so they can be ransomed. To make them write the more
movingly, the master hath resolved to send them all to work in the
fields. "The harder they work," he says, "the more they will desire
to be free again."'
In the fields! Oh! Robin--my poor Robin!