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.
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End of Project Gutenberg's Colonization and Christianity, by William Howitt