Demarara, May 25.
The hospital at La Bourgade being now established, and placed under
proper regulations for the accommodation of the sick, I shall proceed,
without delay, to the settlement of Berbische in order to make the
necessary hospital arrangements for that colony.
With grief I find that we are likely to have an ample opportunity of
prosecuting our inquiries respecting the state of the viscera after
yellow fever: but, that we may not be deceived by appearances, we
purpose, likewise, to examine the bodies of those who may be destroyed
by other maladies, whereby we shall be enabled to judge more accurately
what are the real changes induced by that disease.
Among the late sufferers we have had the misfortune to lose our
superintending cook, at the hospital. He was a man of peculiar strength,
voice, and appetite. The sick on board ship used to complain that he ate
up almost the whole of their food: when he spake, his voice was as the
roaring of thunder; and in point of muscular strength, he was quite
Herculean. The attack was severe, and he quickly fell a sacrifice,
experiencing all the inveterate symptoms of the fever, with the
exception only, of the yellowness of the skin,—that uncertain mark from
which the name of the disease has been, erroneously, taken. The disorder
was early marked with uncommon restlessness and anxiety, an
indescribable sensation at the region of the stomach, and an almost
incessant vomiting of a black fluid resembling the grounds of coffee.
Among the distressful scenes it has lately been my lot to witness, I
chanced to be at Stabroek a few mornings ago, at the time of the
execution of the captain of the Bush-negroes whom I mentioned to you in
a former letter. He died faithful to his cause, and no information could
be obtained from him regarding the encampment said to be still remaining
in the woods. He was sentenced to be suspended by the neck for a short
time, and then taken down, while yet alive, to have his head severed
from his body. The executioner was a negro, who, without any feelings of
compunction, or of sorrow for his countryman, exulted in the adroitness
with which he took off the head at a single blow.
After the execution I sat a short time with the officers, at the barrack
of the 99th regiment; when another painful scene was exhibited to our
observation, in the flogging of a party of negroes, before the fiscal’s
door, upon the public street.
On one of them being released from the stakes, to which he had been tied
down, with his face to the earth, during his punishment, I thought that
I recognised his features, and upon going out to ascertain the fact,
discovered him to be one of the carpenters, who had been set apart to
work, under my direction, at the hospital. It happened, too, that he had
distinguished himself by his industry, and was the man with whom I had
most conversed, on account of his speaking English, and being able to
explain my instructions to his fellow-workmen.
You will believe that I felt an interest regarding him, and that I was
anxious to learn by what offence he had brought upon himself the severe
punishment which we had witnessed. To this end, in company with Major
Say and other officers, I followed the bleeding slave to his home, where
we learned that the alleged crime, for which he had been punished,
was—striking a white man; although, in fact, it appeared to have been a
refusal to get up from his bed, at 9 o’clock at night, to work for an
European inhabitant of the town, after labouring at the hospital during
the whole of the day. It was further hinted by those about him, that
something of pique or prejudice, on account of the poor man expressing
himself pleased with his employment at the British hospital, might
possibly have operated in deafening the ear of justice against him.
A Dutchman who chanced to be present at the time we were making
inquiries, in the carpenter’s shop to which the negro belonged, told us,
with an air of confidence, that he had been punished for striking _him_,
and cutting his elbow with a _large chisel_; showing us the very
instrument with which the wound had been made, and the precise spot
whereon the offence had been committed, at the same time exhibiting his
arm supported in a sling. All this being so circumstantially stated,
four of us, Major Say, the surgeon of the 99th, another officer and
myself, begged to see this frightful wound which had been cut in the
elbow: some objections were offered, on the ground of disturbing the
dressings, unsewing the bandages and the like: but as Mr. Blackader
promised to replace all these in fit order, we persisted in the request;
and the Dutchman finding that we were urgent, and rather inclined to be
peremptory, at length submitted: but the coat was said to fit
inconveniently tight; the shirt sleeve to be tied in a hard knot; and
other little difficulties and delays were thrown in the way. Still we
determined to subdue them all; and when, at last, we succeeded, lo!
instead of the many bandages, and complex dressings which we had been
taught to expect, we could neither find a plaster, nor the wound.
Instead of a deep cut from a chisel, a slight bruise only appeared upon
the elbow, the skin being neither cut, nor broken. This strengthened our
suspicions that the slave had been unfairly treated; and by prosecuting
the inquiry we learned the following history.
The Dutchman had gone to the carpenter’s shop in the evening in search
of a carpenter to do some work at a house in the town; and finding this
negro sleeping in the room over the workshop, ordered him to get up and
accompany him. The poor fellow pleaded that it was night, that he had
toiled through the whole of the day, and further that he was directed,
by the commandant, to work only at the hospital, until that was
completed. The Dutchman, nevertheless, insisted upon his going. The
slave unhappily refused. Words ensued; and the white man, seizing the
black by the hair of his head, dragged him down into the workshop;
where, in the scuffle, the Dutchman happened to receive a bruise of the
elbow.
The following morning a complaint was made to a public officer, high in
power, stating that the negro had struck the Dutchman, and wounded him;
and it being an offence utterly unpardonable for a black man, under any
circumstances, to lift his hand against a white one, the miserable slave
was sentenced, without further inquiry, to receive the punishment we had
witnessed.
We could not feel satisfied that the proceedings had been conducted with
a due regard to justice, we therefore waited upon the person who had
decreed the punishment, to inquire more into the merits of the case; and
were told by him, that the negro had been punished “for striking a white
man, with a _heavy stick_, and a _large nail_ in it, and therewith
cutting a deep wound in his elbow.” As this account differed from that
of the Dutchman himself, we asked this man of power, if the sentence had
been pronounced barely upon the man’s own report. Certainly not, he
replied; the deposition was also sanctioned by the testimony of _four
respectable_ witnesses who appeared in evidence, having seen the negro
strike the white man with the _great stick_ with a _great nail_ in it.
We then used the freedom of asking if he had taken the trouble to look
at this wounded elbow _himself_. He had, he said, “and a sad cut it
was.” If we had not been stricken dumb with the reply, we might have
exclaimed, “Alas! unhappy blacks! what hope have ye of justice, if not
only private, but also public punishments be thus awarded?”
As soon as our surprise and indignation would permit, we informed this
_man of equity_ that four of us had minutely examined this frightful cut
of the elbow, and that, with all our eight eyes strained as wide as they
could stare, we had not even been able to discover the wound; adding,
for his further information, that the Dutchman had, himself, assured us
that it was cut with a large chisel: but that, in fact, it had neither
been cut with a chisel, nor with a nail in a stick, nor cut at all;
being only a slight bruise which had probably happened in the struggle,
when the Dutchman was pulling about the negro by the hair of his head.
We also ventured to add that the whole tale of this mighty wound was a
scandalous imposition; and the punishment which had been inflicted upon
the negro a gross injustice. We then appealed to this arbitrary guardian
of the laws, very earnestly demanding whether, in justice to the injured
negro, to the public, and to himself, who had been thus imposed upon, he
would not feel it incumbent upon him to institute an inquiry regarding
the fact, and to have the cruel wretch, and his four perjured witnesses,
severely punished! Of course we made no remark upon his having seen the
sad cut in the elbow _with his own eyes_! Whether from feeling himself
implicated, or from a reluctance arising out of any other cause, this
great officer of _justice_ did not seem to be of accord with our
sentiments upon the subject; but endeavoured to divert us from the
question by expatiating upon the paramount necessity of holding slaves
in subjection, and the great danger and impolicy of overlooking, in any
instance, the crime of their lifting the hand against a white man. We
readily conceded to him that, upon the present system, it was absolutely
necessary to be tenacious of the privileges assumed, but we could never
agree that it was either just or wise, to punish an unprotected man upon
the false accusation of a set of perjured wretches, merely because
Nature had covered him with a dark skin, and them with fair ones; nor
that it was fit not to expose such wanton malice to public shame,
whenever the falsehood and injustice of the testimony should be
detected; therefore, pledging ourselves to appear in evidence, whenever
called upon, we left the office obtaining a promise from this man of
power, to institute an inquiry, and to have justice done to the poor
injured slave!
Whether our endeavours in his behalf may be crowned with success, is
extremely doubtful, but the unhappy history of our carpenter’s
punishment will convey to you some idea of the kind of justice to be
expected by slaves. The alleged offender is not heard in mitigation, nor
are any of his colour admitted in evidence, although they might be able
wholly to disprove the charge; hence, whenever a white man is base
enough to perjure himself in accusation, the negro can have no hope of
escaping from punishment.