E U R 0 PEA NCO LON I E S, 
IN VARIOUS PARTS OF THE WORLD, 
VIEWED IN THEIR 
SOCIAL, MORAL, AND PHYSICAL CONDITION. 
BY JOHN HOjVISON, 
nt Til'. 1I""O,l ltA !l 1 E ~Al\l' \'1II1A (,O ~ lr AS' .. nO\lll\\ ~ £It\· I r.l ~ 
ANI' "WTHOR OF 
"SK£TCiH';S OF tIPPER CANADA," 
•• 
" rntn: lGN SCENEti AND "RA\ ELLING RECREATION S, ":TC. 
IN TWO VOLUMES. 
VOL. II. 
LONDON: 
RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW HUHLINGTON STREET. 
flllbli~~r .. in (/]lrbin ...v  to J!i~ fl!Rjut!" • 
11134. 
• 
, 
• 
OF 
THE SECOND VOLUME. 
• 
INDIA. 
ABORIGINES OF INDIA. 
Difficulty of describing the aborigines of India, page 1.-
First impressions of a foreigner on arriving in that country, 2. 
-Sir W. Jones's researches, 5.-Hindoa character depreciated 
by Europeans, 6. - Prejudiced notions, 8. - Antiquity of the 
Hindoos as a civilized nation, 10. - Their unparalleled na-
tional permanence, 12.-Their institutions, 13.- Empire of 
Hindostan, 14.-\\ronderful and unexampled spectacle, 15.-
Principal causes which appear to have operated in keeping 
united the various parts of so vast a social structure, 15.-
Institution of castes, 16. - Aversion of the Hiodoos to fo-
reigners, 24. - Unlimited toleration of religious sectarianism, 
27.- Religion of the Hindoos, 29.-Brahmanical corruptions of 
it, 31.-Pagan fables, 32.-Penitential austerities, 34.-Religi. 
OU8 code of the Hindoos, 37.-Indifference to religion in the ci· 
vilized states of Europe, 38. - Theocratic system, 41.-Its 
results, 42.-Personal appearance of the people of Hindostan, 45. 
-Little known of their private life and opinions, 47.-Hin. 
doo literature and science, 49.-Fondness of the inhabitants for 
music, 49.-Art of painting not in esteem in India, 50.-Meta-
physical disputations, 52.-Doctrine of metempsychosis, 55.-
Monotonous character of domestic life amongst the Hindoos, 
56.-Festivals and holydays, 56.-Popular prejudice respecting 
b 
• 
VI CONTENTS. 
the wealth of the inhabitants, !is.-TIleir indifference to riches, 
59.-Causes of this, 60.-Their prodigal expenditure in mar-
riage ceremonies, 6 1.- \Vorks of public charity, 62.-H8nn~ 
nious life of the Hindoas, 64.-Curse of polygamy, 65_ _F iJial 
affection, 66.-Pious act of penance, 61.-IndiffercDce to pain, 
67.-Unconqueruble attachment to their national manners and 
religion, GB.- Unprincipled avarice of Europeans, 69.-Conver-
sat ion between an Englishman and a Brahman, 70.-Dislike of 
innovation by the Hindoos, 71. - Their distrust of our institu-
tions, 72.- Ulisuccessful attempts to convert the natives of 
India to Christianity, 73.-Cureer of a missionary in India, 75. 
- lmpolicy of forcing the Hindoas to conform to our institu-
tions, 77. 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY IN I~DIA. 
Europeans not naturalized in India, 79. - first Europeans 
who visited Indi~ 81.- Marco Polo's norrati\'c. ~.-Vasco de 
Gama's o.1ppearance on the Malabar coast, 84.- Purtuguese ex-
pedition under the command of Cabral, 8';.- R8\·ages of Euro-
penn conqucrors, 85.- Exploits of the Portl1e,"Ucse in the East 
Indies, 87.-Capture of the city ofGM, 89.- Dissoluteness pre-
vttiling in the I)ortuguese settlements in India, 90.- Refonna-
tion effected by the celebrated Francis X.n·ier, 92.-System of 
concubinage, 93.- Heroism of Isabella df' Vega, 94.-Settle-
ment of Goa, 94.-Character of its Portuguese inhabitants, 96. 
- ] nflux of the priesthood, 97. - Decline of the wealth and 
power of the Portuguese in the East, 99.- Their conduct in 
the Indian settlements, 101. - Their jealousy of their wives, 
101. - Condition of these, 102. - Tavernier at Goa. 102. -
Descendants of the Portuguese on the Malabar coast, 104. 
- Site of the once celebrated city of Goa, 105. - Poverty 
of its inhabitants, 105. - Extent of the British dominion in 
Indin, 106. - The East India Company's officers, 109.-English 
residents, llO.-Europcan population at Calcutta, Madras, and 
Bombay, 113. -Dnngcr of permitting the colonization of India, 
114. 
CONTENTS. •• VB 
ARCTIC REGIONS. 
THE ARCTIC OCEAN. 
The Arctic seas earlier explored than any other part of the 
ocean, 119.-Periis of navigating these seas, 120.-Probability 
that ere long they will be entirely deserted by European ves. 
sels, 121. -Grandeur of Nature in the solitude of the Polar 
seas, ] 23.- Icebergs, 124.-Peculiar state of the atmosphere 
in the Arctic seas, 125.-Unequal refraction of the air, 126.-
Fogs and gales of wind, 127.-Dangers of whale.fishing, 128.-
Ice a great preserver of animal substances, 129.-Impossibility 
of reaching the North Pole, 130.-Riches of the Arctic ocean, 
132.-Whale fishery, 133.-Herring fishery, 134.-Immense 
fecundity of this fish, 135.-Annual migration of the species, 
135.-Gloomy superstitio~ of the Scandinavians, 136. 
GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 
The Land of Desolation, 139.-Its sublime serenity, 140.-
Interior of Greenland aDd Spitzbergen, 141.-Scanty vegetation 
of the Arctic regions, 142.-0rigin of the Arctic drift_wood, or 
Boating timber, 142.-Theory of Maltebrun on this subject, 
143.-Mines of precious metals, 146.- Universal diffusion of 
gold-dust, 147.-Polar burning mountains, 149.--Sudden and 
startling changes in the Polar regions, 149. - Disruption of 
immense icebergs, 150.-Subterranean treasures, 152. - \Vhen 
elephants first began to inhabit the Polar regions, 152.- Bones 
of mammoths, 154.- Revolutions of our globe, 156.-Climate of 
the Arctic regions, 158. 
ABORIGINES OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 
Inferiority of the race of men inhabiting the Arctic regions, 
160.-Causes of this, IGI.- Our first acquaintance with the 
·. . 
Vllt CONTEliTS. 
aborigines, 163. - Thc Laplander., J64.-The GreenlaDden, 
167.-Singular cu. tom amongst tbose people, 168. -The Sa-
moyeds, 170.-Discovcry of Kamtachatka, 172. - The Kamta· 
c hatkans, 173.-lntoxicating quality of the moucho--more, 174. 
Peculiar custom, 175.- Love of country entertained by the 
Arctic nations, 176.-No monuments of art in the Polar regiona, 
179.-SpecuJation as to the origin of the Arctic nations, 181. 
EUHOPEAN SOCIETY IN THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 
General view of the subject, 182.-Zeno's discovery, 184.-
Vnst accumulation of iceberg', 186.-Early history of Euro-
pean settlements in the Arctic regions, 186.- Imprisoned co· 
lOllY, 187.-Dutch and Russian settlers, 200.- Precautions for 
wintering in the Polar regions, 201.-Arctic habitations, 202.-
Domestic arrangements, 203.-Furious gales of wind, 204.-
Perils of the hunters, 205.-Probable condition of a colony in 
the Polar regions, 208.-Settlemcnt of Moravian missionariea, 
210.-Mo ral inRuence of frigid climates, 217.- Hospitality of 
tIle natives, 221.-Love of intoxicating liquors, 223.-Moral 
constitution of the Arctic nations, 228.-Scandinavian allegory, 
232.- lts application to ourselves, 233. 
WEST INDIES. 
THE WEST INDIAN OCEAN. 
Houtc of Columbus 0 11 his first "'oyage, 234. - Delicious 
change or climate, 237.- Delights of a voyage in the West 
lndian seas bctween November and May, 237.-Sudden transi. 
tion from decp water to shallow, 239.-0pinion of Columbus 
aJ to the shape of the earth, 240.- Supposed submersion of the 
eMtern part of America, 242.-Spcculations as to the possibi. 
lity or otherwise of joining the AtlaJitic nnd Pacific oceans, 242. 
• 
CONTENTS. • IX 
-Belief in the existence of a race of Amazons, 246.-Expe-
dieots of the natives of the West Indian islands to rid them-
selves of their invaders, 251.-Imaginary wonders of the New 
World, 252. - Productions of the West Indian seas, 253.-
Poisono"" fish, 257. 
GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 
Unsuitableness of names given to newly-discovered Janus, 
259.-Geoeral resemblance to each other of the West Indian 
island., 261.-Loftiness of the mountains in the West Indian 
archipelago, 262. - Average temperature of the West Indian 
islands, 263.-Hurricanes, 264.-Loss of a Spanish Beet with 
great treasure, 265.-Signs of the approach of a hurricane, 266. 
--Jamaica often desolated by hurricanes, 269.-Luxuriance of 
thc soil in the islands, 270.-Fruits of the West lodies, 271.-
Animals, 273.-The musquitoe, 275.- Migrations of insects" 
279.-Fire-Bies, 281. 
ABORIGINES OF THE WEST INDIES. 
Utter extinction of the aborigines of the whole West Indian 
archipelago, 282.-Innocent lives of the Antilians, 2SS.-Cru-
elty of Columbus towards the inhabitants of the New World, 
287.-His punishment, 287.-His exculpation, 287.- Uncer-
tainty as to the amount of the population of the West Indian 
archipelago when Columbus discovered it, 291.- General view 
of the Antilians, 294.-Their religion, 296.-The Caribs, 298. 
-Addicted to cannibalism, 298. 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY IN THE WEST INDIES. 
Theatre of war, 300.- Fate of the first Europeans who set-
tled in the West Indies, 301.- Re-establishment of the colony, 
302. - Settlement at Isabella, 304. - Spanish society in the 
West Indies, 30~.-City of Sevilla Nueva, 306.- Its desertion, 
307.- Idleness of the Spaniards in the West Indies, 310.- l-Ia-
• • 
, 
x CONTENTS, 
vana, Sll.- Habits of the Havanese, 313.-Humbolcl&'. recep-
tion at Trinidad, 314. - Adherence at' Cuba t.o Spain, 316..-
Origin of the British settlements in the Welt Indiea, aIS.-At-
tack by Cromwell's troops on the Spanish poooeooiono, 318.-
Buccaneers, 319.-Capture of Jamaica, 321:-Iodolence of the 
British troops, 321.- \Vise administration inJamaicaofGovemor 
D'Oylcy, 323.-Improvement in the character of the emigrants, 
324.-Prosperity of the West Indian planters, 325.-Enfeebling 
effects of a hot climate, 326.-Happincss of the \Vest Indian 
settlers, 327.- Their superior activity of dispositioD, 328.-Po-
Ii tical history of Jamaica, 329.-Mulattoes, 331.- Vast prepon-
derance of the Negro popu1ation over the Europeal1 in the 
\Vest Indies, 332.- Deteriorating effect of an admixture of 
European blood with other races, 333.-Slayer,,337.-Eman. 
cipation of the slaves, 338. 
BRITISH AMERICA. 
NOHTH AMERICAN OCE.\~. 
Greater variety of nautical adventures in the North Atlantic 
ocean than in all the other seas in the world, 342.- Timidity of 
ancient navigators, 343. - Contrast be{1"l"E'n the ancient and 
modern state of the Atlantic, 343. - Deatitute of features of 
physical interest and of natural beauty, 345.-Strcngth of the 
gaJes, 34G.-\Vhite gale, 347.- Few animal forms on the sur· 
face of the North Atlantic, 348.- 0pinions of theorists. 3.9.-
Danks of Newfoundland, 351.- Newfoundland cod·fishery, SS3. 
• 
- Curious subject of speculation, 354. - Boisterousness of the 
North Atlantic ocean, 356.-Seamanship of early navigators, 
3,.7. - Remarkable voyag<s or Ootello, or Maurello, and or 
llIigh, 359, 
• • 
• 
• 
CONTENTS. X I 
GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 
Approach to British America, 364.-Extent of British Arne· 
rica, 366.- lts physical peculiarities, 367.-Opinion of philos o-
pllical speculators, 368.-Decreasing fertility of the earth, 371. 
-Doctrine of cycles, 372.- Rivers, Jakes, and forests of Drit ish 
America, 373.-Productions of the country, 382. 
ABORIGINES OF BRITISH AMERICA. 
How was America peopled? 384.- Diminution of the abori-
ginal population of that country since the settlement of Eu-
ropeans, 387.-Taste fo~ spirituous liquors, 390.- Natural tem-
perament of the North American Indian, 391.-Introduction of 
the small-pox, 393. - Extinction of the great Indian nations, 
394.- The fur trade, 395.-Consequences of the intercourse 
of natives with Europcm}s, 397. - Aggression and treachery 
of Europeans, 398.- Paci6c demeanour of the first colonists, 
401.-Native confederation for the expulsion of the European 
settlers, 403. - lts failure owing to party spirit, 403.~Cha­
racter, manners, and mode of life of the aborigines, 404.-
- Indian hunters, 408.-Lovc of '1 nomade life,410.-Rcvolting 
neglect of the aged, 415.-Domcstic life of the Indian, 417.-
Religion of the British American Indians, 419.- Attempts to 
reclaim the Indians from their wandering habits of life, 425. 
-Their unconquerable attachment to their own customs, 428. 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY IN BItlTlSH AMERICA. 
History of the early settlement of the different countries of 
America, 430.- The British settlers, 431.- The Puritans, 432. 
-Emigration to the Canadas, 434.-The French Canadians, 435. 
Prolific power of Great Britain in affording inhabitants to so 
many regions, 436.-Artificial state of society produced by the 
colonies in the parent country, 439.- Peculiar and distinctive 
• 
• • 
XII CONTENTS. 
. . 
character of the British settlements; 444.- Colonie. Suest for . 
the peasantry of Great Britain, 441_Character ofu.e British 
!!ettlers of British America, 449.-M'ddle t8:"ks of society in 
the colonies, 456. - Comparison between the cODditiOD of men 
in a barbarous state and in one of civil~tion, 459•  
• 
• 
• • 
• 
.. 
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THEe 0 LON I E S.  
• 
• 
INDIA. 
ABORIGINES 0]<' INDIA. 
IN attempting to d~scribe the aborigines . of In-
dia, I feel myself in the situation of a painter who 
proposes to take a drawing of some vast and partly-
ruined edifice. He experiences little difficulty in 
-- sketching the general outlines of the structure, 
and delineating its bolder features; but w hen he 
seeks to trace its minuter parts, and to give the 
exact proportions of the whole, he is overwhelmed 
by the difficult.ies of the task, and throws down 
his pencil in despair. In one place a range of pillars 
is overthrown; in another an archway has fallen 
in; here a portico is in ruins; there the sculptures 
are defaced by time; and scattered rubbish, weeds, 
and parasitical plants, throw an air of confusion 
over the whole edifice, and also conceal the more 
VOL. II. II 
• 
• 
2 INDIA. 
delicate points of its architecture. Such is the 
aspect of dilapidation and decay which we observe 
at present in that grand social structure which was 
erected many thousand years ago by the founders 
of the empire of Hindostan, and which would 
doubtless have continued in repair thousands of 
years longer, had it not been undermined and 
defaced by foreign invaders. Its bolder features 
indeed sti11 exist uninjured, but many of the sub-
ordinate parts are destroyed; and of some others 
that remain, we are unable to explain ti,e original 
lise, or to trace their consistency with the general 
plan of the composite work in which they are com-
prised. 
vVhile speaking of the physical character of 
I ndia, I had occasion to remark, that its scenery 
was apt to lose its interest in the eyes of an 
European after it had become familiar to his view 
for a certain length of time, and that those fea-
tures which had at first appeared alike splendid 
and surprising, seemed gradually. to assume a 
languid and monotonous aspect, and eventually 
excited unpleasing sensations in the beholder. 
Dut with respect to human society in Hindas-
• tan, the case is precisely the reverse. The fo-
reigner on first arriving in the country, (at least 
if he has not previously studied the history and 
institutions of its inhabitants,) wi11look in vain 
ABORIGINES OF INDIA. 3 
for something in their character to awaken his 
interest and call forth his sympathies. Observ-
ing around him the prevalence of habits and cus-
toms which are irreconcilable with his prejudices, 
and the origin and appropriateness of which he 
neither can explain nor comprehend, he flatters 
• 
his ignorance and want of perception by com-
ing to a sweeping conclusion, that the Asiatics are 
a frivolous and insensate race, and that their social 
and political system rests upon a basis of folly. 
Such a mode of reasoning, repugnant as it is to 
common sense, finds favour with an indolent and 
superficial mind, and is too commonly adopted 
by Europeans on their arrival in Hindostan ; and 
if, as frequently happens, they afterwards perceive 
its fallacy, they nevertheless seldom feel disposed 
to take the trouble of studying the character and 
peculiarities of a people amongst whom they may 
have resided for a series of years without either 
social intercourse or community of interest. How-
ever, it is only by a knowledge of the Hindoos . 
acquired from personal observation, or obtained 
from books, that a foreigner is led to feel much 
curiosity respecting them, peculiar as they are in 
their habits and ideas, and morally separated as 
they appear to be from every other nation upon 
the face of the globe. 
Though the Hindoos are numerically the largest 
B2 
4 INDIA. 
nation in the world, it is only of late that they 
have become an object of interest to Europeans, 
or that their history, religion. and institutions, 
have been fully developed by the former. Nearly 
all the American tribes, inconsiderable and barba-
roIlS as some of them were, had been accurately 
described within a century after the discovery of 
that continent; while the Hindoos, with whom 
the principal nations of Europe have had more or 
less commercial intercourse for two thousand years 
past, are only now beginning to be known and 
justly appreciated. This retardation of the spirit 
of inquiry has arisen from various causes. The 
chief of these lay in the habitual and studied re-
serve of the Hindoos themselves, in reference to 
their own customs and usages, when questioned 
upon sllch Sll bjects by foreigners; and in the bar-
riers to familiar intercourse with the latter, which 
are imposed by their system ,'f castes, and their 
ideas of purity and contamination. Nor was it 
till some time after the establishment of the British 
in India, that Europeans had begun to qualify 
themselves for obtaining an accurate knowledge of 
the Hindoos, by studying their different langua-
ges, and by seducing the Brahmans into a disclo-
sure of the religious principles and tenets of their 
country. And it ought to be recollected that the 
false and distorted accounts of these, which were 
• 
AB01UGINES OF INDIA. 5 
p~lished by the early travellers in India, were 
• 
alone sufficient to cre,ate a prejudice against the 
Hindoos, and to repel foreigners from seeking to 
obtain a more intimate acquaintance with their na-
tional character and insti tu tions. Up to the period 
at which Sir William Jones devoted his attention 
to Asiatic history and literature, we possessed 
nothing but a mass of fantastic and revolting 
fables in reference to both, from which it was im-
possible to deduce one rational or accurate fact 
or conclusion. His profound knowledge of the 
languages of the East was not a more important 
qualification than his liberality of mind anu ex-
tensive general knO\vl~dge; for the two latter en-
abled him to speak of the Hindoos without preju-
dice, and to describe Asiatic manners and opiniqns 
without vilifying and d~preciating them simply 
, 
because they happened to be different from his 
own. He soon perceived that he could not make 
any satisfactory progress in his researches until 
he had become acquainted with the contents of 
the sacred books of the Hindoos, which form the 
basis of their theological and metaphysical sys-
tems, and he at length procured a copy of the 
Vedas, and thus rendered himself a depository of 
the secrets and mysteries of' the BrahllJans. A 
talented foreigner remarks that the latter, in sur-
rendering the exclusive possession of the Vedas, 
6 INDIA. 
sealed their own degradation, and increased in 
an incalculable degree the political power of the 
British, by placing in their hands the key to the 
manners, prejudice~, and religious belief of the 
people of Hindostan. 
The Hindoos have been represented in a variety 
of lights by the various writers who have respec-
tively described them. But the tone which Euro-
peans have most generally assumed in speaking of 
them, is that of depreciation; and for tbis there 
are two satisfactory reasons; first, our devoted at-
tachment to our own manners and modes of life, 
and the intolerance with which we are accustom-
ed to treat all nations that stand lower in the scale 
of civilization than ourselves; and secondly. the 
difficulty which we find in entering into the spirit 
of the social system of the Hindoos, which, as has 
already been remarked. presents a repulsive a'pect 
to foreigners, and never seems entitled to their in-
dulgence, until they have become familiar with • 
the people amongst whom it prevail~, or have 
studied its general plan without reference to their 
own personal prejudices. To prove tbe truth of 
this, it is only necessary to examine tbe works of 
most of those authors who have described the 
Hindoos without having visited their country, or 
at least had any continued intercourse with its 
illhabitants. W' e shall gt'llt'rally find that their 
AROIUGINES OF INDIA. 7 
writing" instead of offering a just picture of Hin-
doo manners and character, are full of the grossest 
misrepresentations on both points; and that the 
main oqject of the author has been to make out a 
case against the Hindoos, and to fiatter his own 
prejudices and those of his readers, by vilifying 
the entire nation. To accomplish this, he selects 
fantastic stories from their mythology; describes 
some of their most glaring superstitions; dwells 
upon their ignorance of the scienct's; gives a 
few instances of the immolation of widows, and 
points out the defectiveness of their moral and le-
gislative code; and then triumphantly demands 
if a people amongst ~vhom such things exist are 
entitled to respect or worthy of our contempla-
tion. It is an easy part of a judge's duty to pro-
nounce sentence of condemnation; and an author 
often finds it less trouble to depreciate the subject 
upon which he is writing, than to examine it in a 
philosophical manner, and to analyze and balance 
the good and evil which are embodied in it. 
Any history or description of the Hindoos, the 
materials of which are collected exclusi\'ely from 
books, must fail in conveying an accurate notion of 
that people; because nothing but personal obser-
vation can enable a foreigner to contemplate them 
impartially, and to estimate the real and practical 
influence of their laws and institutions. 
8 INDIA. 
1n accusing foreigners of entertaining preju-
diced notions of the Hindoo character, I ought to 
mention one of the most prolific sources of their 
misconception upon that subject. They are accus-
tomed to believe that the Hindoo codes, both reli-
gious and legislative, are constantly in actual and 
literal operation; and that the frivolous and fan-
tastic ceremonies enjoined by the former, and the 
revolting enactments which occur in the latter, are 
things of daily practice. But the mass of society 
in Hindostan is like that of every other country. 
The people composing it must labour more or less 
for their subsistence, and they cannot afford to 
devote their lives to the performance of idola-
trous ceremonies, and to the study of their compli-
cated system of religion, and consequently the in-
fluence of either is scarcely perceptible amongst 
them. The Hindoo mechanic. artisan, or mer-
chant knows as little of the history of his 
deities as the commonalty of the Greeks•  and • 
Romans knew about theirs, and he peaceably oc-
cupies himself with his business, and cultivates 
the pleasures suitable to his rank in society, 
without ex hibiting that perversion of mind and 
monstrosity of charader which are often attribut-
ed to the entire nation to which he belongs. With 
respect to those instances of self-immolation, 
drowning, infanticide, &c., which sOllle authors re-
present as being of' daily and habitual occurrenL'e 
• 
ABORIGINES OF INDIA. 9 
in every .town and village in Hindostan, it is 
merely necessary to remark, that the prevalence of 
such acts, besides being utterly inconsistent with 
human nature, would go far to depopulate the 
region in which they took place, and would set 
its inhabitants in arms against each other; but 
neither of these evils is discoverable in India, 
where the social system wears an aspect of mild-
ness and harmony which is perhaps not to be 
found in any other country. The ceremonies and 
practices enjoined by the Vedas and Pooranas are 
as much disregarded by the generality of Hindoos, 
as the Jewish ritual of the Old Testament is by 
modern Christians; and the traveller in India, in-
stead of daily hearing the shrieks of the burning 
widow, and witnessing the self-inllicted tortures 
of penitents, the despotism and extortions of 
-- Brahmans, and the reputed obscenities of the 
Linga worship, will see a mild and contented peo-
ple, ,ranquilly employing themselves in the com-
mon husiness of life, and for the most part un-
acquainted, except by hearsay, with any of the 
revolting and unnatural practices to which I have 
alluded. 
When an European has surmounted those pre-
judices against the Hindoos which are at first en-
gendered in his mind, not more by the unattrac-
tive singularity of their manners and modes of 
thinking, than by the erroneous impressions de-
10 INDIA. 
rived from the writings of many of those authors 
who have undertaken to describe them, he will 
come to the conclusion that, under certain points of 
view, no people upon the earth more deserve the at-
tention of the historian and the philosopher. Their 
first and most striking claim to notice rests upon 
their vast and indisputable antiquity as a civilized 
• 
nation. The Hindoos divide the period which, • 
according to their system, has elapsed since the 
creation of the world, into four cycles or yuga1ll8, 
differing considerably in duration. The last of 
the four, which is the one now in course, is calcu-
lated by them to have had its commencement on 
the eighteenth of Febm ary, 3102 years before the 
Christian era, or 4934 years anterior to the present 
time; and their astronomical tables record that its 
beginning was marked by a conjunction of the . 
planets. The occurrence of this at the time in-
dicated has been proved by the calculations of 
modern astronomers; while other and later ce-
lestial observations made by the Hindoos tave 
equally stood the test of examination, and been 
shown to be real, and not imaginary and supposed, 
as was at first very generally believed in Europe. 
These facts, illustrative of the genuine antiquity of 
the Hindoo nation, are $trongly corroborated by 
their legislative and religious code called the Insti-
tutes of Menu; which Sir 'Villiam Jones, judging 
ABORIGINES OF INDIA. 11 
chiefly from the obsolete language in which it 
is written, pronounces to have been composed 
thirteen hundred years before the Christian era. 
This wotk, tbough abounding in fantastic opin-
ions and prejudices, bears internal evidence that it 
was written for the use of a people far advanced 
in civilization; for it describes the duties of various 
officers of government, lays down rules as to tax-
ation and commerce, and speaks of money, wheel-
ed carriages, tolls and public roads, and defines 
the rights of succession and inheritance. If then 
the Hindoos had made such progress in the arts of 
social life three thousand years ago, we cannot 
but admit that they tllust have assembled them-
selves into a nation at least a thousand -vears be-
fore. They could not within a less space of time 
have become a polished and instructed people, and 
acquired the use ofletters, and a familiar acquaint-
ance with trade and manufactures, and a consider-
able Jmowledge of architecture anrl of several of 
the sciences. Indeed the progress of civilization 
must have been particularly slow amongst them, 
for they could not have derived either instruction 
or assistance from their neighbours, supposing they 
had any; for it would appear that at the earli-
est periods, their institutions were calculated to 
restrain them from quitting their country, or cul-
tivating an intercourse with foreigners. ' A third 
12 INDIA. 
proof of the antiquity of the Hindoos may be de-
duced from the circumstance of their general cha-
racter, manners, and institution~, being tbe same 
in the present day as they were at the time of the 
invasion of Alexander the Great, 2165 years ago. 
Those principles of national stability, which have 
maintained their political existence for so long a 
period, are equally calculated to have had that 
effect for many centuries previous; for a people 
that has preserved its religion and institutions 
unchanged during two thousand years, may be 
considered as able and likely to do the same, 
or to have done it, for an indefinite length of 
time, 
But setting aside any discussion respecting the 
greater or less antiquity of the Hindoo people, we 
may feel certain that tlley have existed in nearly 
their present state for three thousand years past; 
and we are strongly led to inquire what have been 
the causes of such unparalleled lIation~11 perma-
lIence and stability. How comes it that the em-
pire of Hindostan, though assailed and ravaged 
by a su(!cession of invaders and conq uerorE, has 
alone escaped that decay and ruin which have 
been the fate of so many other powerful nations? 
The kingdom of Assyria, the greatest of ancient 
times, was dismembered and perished after an ex-
istem'e of seven hundred years. Persia, renowned 
ulltlcr Xerxes and Call1hyses, had n similar history. 
ABORIGINES OF INDIA. 13 
Egypt, preeminent in arts, in riches, and in popu-
lation, fell a sacrifice in its turn. The Romans, at 
one time possessors of half the known world, no 
longer exist as a people. The eastern empire of 
Constantine, once so great and flourishing, expir-
ed under the dominion of the Turks; and the 
Caliph dynasty, founded by Mahommed, and 
long thp. terror of Asia and Europe, has latterly 
sunk into insignificance. In some of the above 
instances the entire nations referred to have be-
come extinct, and their manners and institutions 
are to be traced, and that but faintly, in the pages 
of history alone; while in others the original race 
has gradually lost its identity by intermixture 
with foreigners, and ceased to maintain the pecu-
liar opinions and customs which were adopte~ by 
its progenitors and founders. But the empire of 
-- Hindostan, though denuded of much of its former 
grandeur, and disunited in many of its parts, is 
still fresh and vigorous in so far as concerns the 
general manners and institutions of its people, on 
whom we can look in the present day with the 
firm belief that we see them the same as they were 
three thousand years ago. 
After this, is it reasonable for anyone to con-
demn indiscriminately the institutions of the Hin-
doos? Can that be bad in theory, which has 
worked so well in practice ? Would it not have 
been happy for the nations of Europe, had they 
• 
14 INDIA. 
learned to preserve their identity and their existence 
as the Hindoos have done? The empire of Hin-
dostan forms a magnificent subject of contempla-
tion, whether we regard its prodigious magnitude, 
or its vast period of uninterrupted stability, or 
the infinite concourse of human beings which it 
has moulded into a particular social form, and 
maintained in a state of unity for a long series of 
ages. ''Vhat a contrasting picture does Europe 
present within even a few centuries I There we 
observe civil and religious wars and massacres-
bloody persecu tions for matten of opinion-
Guelphs and Ghibellines destroying each other 
they know not why-holy crusades undertaken 
by tri bes of bandi tti - irruptions of barbarians into 
half-civilized countries, and of civilized men into 
barharous ones, in both cases with the same san-
guinary results - national aggression and retalia-
tion, and the morbid excitement of political party 
spirit disturbing all classes, and turning to the 
advantage of none. The history of Hindostan 
resembles the course of a mighty, placid, and 
unruffled stream, while that of Europe is like 
the agitated current of a turbid mountain rivulet. 
I t appears that the empire of Hindostan, at the 
period of its highest grandeur and prosperity, was 
governed by one sovereign, called Maha raja, or 
great king. Inferior princes ruled its different 
ABORl GIl>ES OF INDIA. 15 
subdivisions, and, -though nominally dependent 
upon the Maha raja, their power was absolute 
within their respective kingdoms. As may be 
supposed, they sometimes made war upon each 
other; but local disturbances of this kind caused 
little disorder or inconvenience even in the re-
hrions where they took place; for the military be-
longed exclusively to a particular caste, whose 
sole business was war, and who made it a rule 
never to injure or disturb any person that was not 
professionally a soldier, whether he happened to 
be a fellow-countryman or not. 
That war was an uncommon occurrence in 
Hindostan at that time, may be inferred from 
the slow progress which the natives were found to 
have made in the military art when Alexander 
invaded India. The empire under the Maha raja 
presented the wonderful and unexampled spec-
tacle of one hundred and fifty millions of people 
professing the same religion, following the same 
customs, and harmoniously adopting the same po-
litical institutions; and it seems requisite here 
to mention shortly the principal causes which ap-
pear to have operated in producing this una~imity 
of opinions, and in keeping united the various 
parts of a social structure of such vast dimensions. 
The first in importance amongst these is the sys-
tem of castes; the second, the aversion of the 
16 INDIA. 
Hindoos to foreigners, and the obstacles which 
their religion presents to their q u~tting their na-
tive country; and the third, the toleration which 
they have always exercised, towards sectarians of 
their own race, as well as to persons professing a 
different faith from themselves. 
The institution of castes, revolting as it may at 
first appear to our notions of reason and equity, 
is doubtless the most effective engine that ever 
was devised for preserving the requisite union and 
tranquillity of civil society. Many of the disor-
ders to which the latter is subject, arise from the 
irregular and arbitrary proceedings of men who, 
finding themselves without any assigned station 
in the world, are led to commit excesses, and to 
• 
disturb their fellow-beings, either with a view to 
personal advantage, or to gratify their own rest-
less propensities. Another class of people, not 
less hostile to social peace, consists of those who 
are di.contented with their condition, and de-
sirous of exchanging it for a different one, or who 
indulge ambitious views, and aspire to offices and 
dignities lying beyond their proper sphere of life. 
A third set of troublesome individuals, compre-
hends those persons to whom vanity and idleness, 
and similar causes, give a disposition to become 
poli tical or religious reformers, and whose wild 
theories and unsettled principles, being diffused 
o 
• 
• 
ABORIGINES . OF INDIA. 
amongst people who are incapable of forming a 
just estimate of either, occasion useless and irri-
tating controversies, or acts of turbulence and in-
subordination. 
The system of castes is not only unfavourable 
to the machinations of these three classes of social 
disturbers-it actually prevents their having ex-
istence at all. Where it prevails, every individual 
having an assigned station, in which he knows 
that he is unalterably fixed, he never allows his 
thoughts to wander beyond it; and his ambition, 
should he feel any, necessarily directs itself to-
wards the improvement and perfectioning of the 
art or business which , he professes; and is thus 
beneficial to his fellow-creatures, instead of causing 
them agitation and annoyance. The mechanic 
must not leave his trade and become a soldier; nor 
~ 
- may the soldier throw aside his arms and em-
brace the life of an artisan. The merchant is in-
terdicted from seeking any political employment; • 
nor is it lawful for the manufacturer to promul-
• 
gate any new doctrines in religion. The agricul-
turist never can intermeddle with the affairs of 
government, or aspire to power; and whoever is 
disposed to be a reformer, must confine his pro-
jects to the things which lie immediately and ex-
clusively within his own department, and which 
he is, of course, more or less capable of compre-
VOL. II. c 
18 INDIA. 
hending. Nor, where the system of castes is in 
operation, do we perceive parents struggling to 
elevate their children to a station superior to that 
in which they were born, and, influenced by a 
vain emulation, denying themselves the comforts 
of life, in order that they may fit their sons and 
daughters for the higher sphere in which tbey 
wish them to move, but which, in all probability, 
they fail in attaining, or at least not till after they 
have experienced many troubles, affiictions, and 
disappointments, without any compensating re-
snIt of happiness. On the contrary, the mem-
bers of the different castes, whether young or old, 
naturally seek enjoyment and pl'06perity in the 
sphere to which they belong, be it humble or 
exalted; and are never involved in that fierce 
struggle for preferment, which is the animating 
spirit of a highly civilized state of society, and 
which has so much effect in rendering men art-
ful, selfish, and ungenerous. 
The only people in the world who bear any re-
semblance to the Hindoos in the stability of their 
government and institutions are the ancient 
Egyptians, who were divided into castes from the 
earliest times. Herodotus says that these were 
seven in number; viz. priests, soldiers, herdsmen, 
swineherds, tradesmen, interpreters, and pilots; 
but the generality of modem writers suppo6e that 
ABORIGINES OF INDIA. 19 
there were in reality only four castes in ancient 
Egypt, which included all professions whatever, 
as is at present the case in India. The empire of 
the Pharaohs, and even the descendants of the 
race who composed it, have indeed been long ex-
tinct; but it must be observed that the political 
fabric crumbled away, not in consequence of in-
ternal weakness and disunion, but was destroyed 
by the ravages and innovations of foreign con-
querors. At the same moment that the bull Apis 
fell heneath the sword of Cambyses, the keystone 
of the arch on which rested the foundations of the 
kingdom dropped from its place, and ruin and 
confusion speedily followed. 
But of all the advantages which belong to a 
system of castes, the most obvious and important 
one is the obstacle which it presents to the occur-
-- renee of political revolutions and disturbances. 
The people composing each particular caste, being 
disunited from those of every other by the differ-
ence in their employments and prejudices, are 
natnrally indisposed to enter into an alliance with 
them, and cannot count upon their co-operation 
in any case except when the common safety is at 
stake. Any caste animated by a popular move-
ment, and inclined for insurrection, must trust 
entirely to its own unassisted strength; for the 
others, instead of joining it, will at least remain 
c 2 
• 
20 INDIA. 
neutral, or will more probably assume an attitude 
of hostility, and oppose the pretensions of the 
malcontents. Supposing, then, that there are four 
great castes, it will almost always happen that 
three of these will continue inactive in the event 
of a spirit of insubordination being manifested 
by anyone of the number. It is upon this prin-
ciple that the East India Company's native re-
giments are always if possible made to consist 
of men of different castes, whose respective pre-
judices prevent their forming combinations, or 
mutually supporting each other in acts of dis-
obedience. 
Various evils and inconveniences have been de-
scribed as attending upon a system of castes, and 
correctly too; for were it destitute of some of these 
it would ' resemble no other human institution. 
All that I contend for is, that it appears upon the 
whole to be the best plall that ever was invent-
ed for maintaining social order and tranquillity 
amongst a vast body of people; and that it ac-
tually accomplishes this object becomes evident 
on a reference to the empires of Hindostan and 
ancient Egypt. The popular contests which some-
times occurred in the latter conntry, between the 
inhabitants of different villages and towns, arose 
from the dissimilarity of the objects which were 
worshipped in each. In one place the wolf was 
ABORIGINES OF INDIA. 21 
esteemed divine, in another the cat, and in a third 
I the crocodile or the serpent; and the devotees 
I were occasionally led to contend about the qua-
lities and virtues of their respective sacred ani-
mals; but these disputes had no reference what-
ever to the distinction of castes; and it is difficult 
to imagine what the ancient Egyptian priests and 
legislators could have had in view in inst.ituting 
such diversities of religious worship, calculated as 
they were to form sources of perpetual dissension 
amongst those who separately adopted them. 
One of the most plausible objections against 
the institution of castes is, that it is calculated to 
excite jealousy and natred between the different 
classes of society, and is unfavourable to the ex-
ercise of charity and benevolence, by confining 
- men's sympathies within a limited and particular sphere. Observation does not at all justify these 
conclusions. In India, people of different castes 
feel no hostility towards each other on that ac-
count, even though they may be defended from 
eating together, or living in the same house. 
Their intercourse is distinguished by mutual cour-
tesy, however wide apart their grades in society 
may be; for tbey consider that a system of castes is 
a divine and unalterable institution, and that a man 
is placed in a higher or lower one by the decrees 
of Providence, which of course he can neither 
• 
• 
22 INDIA. 
evade nor oppose. On the other hand, when our 
charity is limited to particular objects, it becomes 
more efficient and imperative. In Europe, the 
indigent and miserable have an equal claim upon 
everyone of their countrymen, and therefore they 
are in many instances neglected by all. In India, 
natural compassion, and a regard for tbe honour of 
the caste, form such strong inducements to cha-
rity, that the individual who solicits assistance 
from his class-mates scarcely ever fails to obtain 
it, and it is more generally bestowed without be-
ing asked at all. It is both pleasant and amusing 
to find the detractors of the Hindoos stating as a 
proof of the inhumanity of the latter, that not a • 
public hospital, or almshouse, or charitable insti-
tution of any kind is to be met with in India. 
How, then, I ask, are the multitudes of poor that 
must exist in so vast a country provided for? • • 
They certainly neither die of want, nor do they 
infest the roads and streets like European beg-
gars, nor are they supported by parochial contri-
butions. The simple truth is, that the indigent 
are universally relieved by their respective cast8;, 
who willingly take that burden upon themselves, 
and consider it rather as an act of duty than of 
merit. 
It has been farther urged, that where a system 
of castes is in operation, men are often rOiCal to 
I ABORIGINES OF INDIA. 28 , 
engage in employments and adopt modes of life 
unsuitable to their genius and character. But 
this objection will lose all its importance, if we con-
iider that the great mass of our species prove as . 
fit for one occupation as for another, provided they 
are trained to it from early youth; and that the 
grand and essential business of society is of a me-
chanical nature, and such as requires industry 
rather than talent for its performance; and though 
the flights of genius may occasionally be checked, 
or altogether prevented by the restrictions of caste, 
still the loss (at best an equivocal one), which man-
kind may suffer in that way, is compensated by 
the obstacles which 'lire opposed by the same 
causes to the effervescence and excesses of those 
restless and ambitious spirits who are ever ready 
to disturb and embroil the community in which 
-- they happen to be produced. 
Had not the empire of Hindostan been from 
the earliest times cemented by the institution of 
castes, it would long since have crumbled to 
pieces under the shocks of foreign invaders, and 
the introduction of foreign manners and different 
religions. The Chinese, after being conquered by 
the Tartars, quickly amalgamated with them, and 
adopted many of their habits; and now the two 
races are hardly to be distinguished from each 
other. But the Hindoos, though they submitted 
24 INDIA. 
to the Mahomedans, and were often plundered. 
persecuted, and massacred by them, refused to 
sacrifice to their prejudices one religious cere-
mony, one point of doctrine, or one customary act, 
however insignificant; and this steadfastness has 
continued unabated up to the present time. The 
British, in endeavouring to make the Hindoos con· 
form to their opinions, have employed the gentler 
means of persuasion, flattery, and motives of self. 
interest, but with equally little effect; and they 
still remain as far separated from us in sympathies, 
in social habits, and in modes of thinking, as they 
were at the period at which we first began to form 
establishments in their country. 
The unparalleled stability of the Hindoo em· 
pire is, secondly, to be ascribed to the aversion 
of its people to foreigners, and to the obstacles 
which their religion presents to their quitting their 
native country. Though the Hindoos have at all 
timcs allowed strangers to visit their ports, and 
have maintained a commercial intercourse with 
them, they have never encouraged them to reside 
in their country, or shown any disposition to copy 
their manners, or to participate in their knowledge 
and acquirements. Indeed, all foreign trade on 
the part of the Hindoos is carried on by a class 
of men ('al1en Banyans, who act either as principals 
, 
ABORIGINES OF INDIA. 25 
or agents, and alone have the opportunity of asso-
I ciating with merchants and seamen coming from 
,,I   abroad; and hence a knowledge of the opinions 
and habits of life of the latter is confined to them, 
and cannot extend farther or insinuate itself into 
• 
the mass of society. The sources of innovation 
being thus destroyed, and religion and ancient 
usage discountenancing everything of the kind, it 
is not wonderful that the Hindoos should so long 
have retained the sanw system of manners, and 
preserved themselves fwm the insidious and dis-
turbing influence of foreign novelties. And, 
while their commercial system prevents the intro-
duction of new ideas by foreigners, their religious 
code renders a similar thing impossible on the 
part of themselves; for, as no Hindoo (at least of 
the three higher castes,) can go out of India with-
out infringing his rules oflife, and rendering him-
self for ever impure, it may be supposed that few 
individuals of the race are disposed to venture 
beyond the precincts of the land of their birth. 
The Hindoo who crosses the Indus loses caste, 
even supposing that he continues to practise 
those minute observances in respect to diet and 
purification, a due attention to which is hardly 
possible under any circumstances in a region not 
peopled by men of his own persuasion. In 
26 INDIA. 
ancient times, the Hindoos were doubtleH more , 
strict in this particular than they are at ; 
and we may reasonably doubt if the Asiatic who 
followed Alexander the Great to Babylon, and 
the person of a similar description who, at a 8Uhle-
quent period, visited Greece, were real Brahmans. 
They more probably belonged to the claaa of wan-
dering mendicants that still exist in India under 
the name of .logies, and who acknowledge no 
caste, and partake of all kinds of food without 
distinction. Bell, in his Travels from Moscow to 
Peking, states that he met with an individual on 
the confines of Tartary, who professed to be a 
Brahman. He was standing on tbe bank of a 
river where several boys were angling, and as often 
as any of them caught a fish however small, he 
would purchase it with a piece of copper money, 
and throw it into the stream; thus evincing his 
belief in the doctrine of metemp'ychosis; but he 
was more likely a disciple of the Grand Lama than 
a Hindoo; for the latter would have been rather 
out of his element in such a part of the world. 
Thus the Hindoos, refusing to learn anything 
from the foreigners who may visit their territories. 
and prohibited by their religion from going abrOBd 
themselves, and withal naturally disinclined for 
illnovation, have successfully resisted the 
of those new opinions and artificial wants, whose 
• 
ABORIGINES OF INDIA. 27 
di1I'usion amongst a people has in so many in-
stances caused the decay and downfall of great 
empI• res. 
The third main cause of the stability of the 
Hindoo government appears to be its unlimited 
, toleration of religious sectarianism. So long as 
men are permitted freely to exercise their opinions 
in this respect, they never entertain the idea that 
there is any connexion between religion and poli-
tics, nor consider that the existence of different 
views of the former authorises or requires that 
the persons indulging them should live in natural 
hostility; but, whenever persecution begins, or 
even when the govert)ment manifests a strong 
partiality for any particular sect, and a determi-
nation to advance its interests, the denounced 
• 
or neglected party becomes a political one, and, 
-- throwing aside the weapons of theological contest, 
assumes those of civil warfare; because it has, or 
rather appears to have, no longer any community 
••  of interests with the nation to which it belongs. 
, In a case of this kind, when the objects of perse-
• 
i cution are able to take refuge in a foreign coun-
try, and establish themselves there -as the Puri-
tans did when they quitted England and settled 
in North America-the evil is a temporary one; 
and society, freed from its disaffected members, 
soon regains its tranquillity, and has nothing far-
28 INDl.~. 
ther to fear from their machinations. But tbe 
victims of intolerancy ill Hindostan, had such 
ever existed, could not have resorted to emigra.-
tion for relief and liberty of conscience, because 
it is a measure utterly repugnant to the feelings 
and most sacred prejudices of a Hindoo, to what.-
ever religious sect he may belong; and one which, 
according to his notions, would invoh-e him in 
perdition, or entail upon him the penalty of _ 
veral hundred thousand transmigrations. Had 
religious persecution been authorised or practised 
in Hindostan, it must in every instance have con-
tinued till the sect undergoing it was extermi-
nated; nor would examples of the kind have 
• 
frightened the rest of the people into conformity, 
or check ed that fickleness of belief and opinion 
which is one of the characteristic failings of the 
llation. The Hindoos have therefore always 
wisely avoided domestic or foreign holy wars; and 
the only instance of religious persecution which 
is even surmised ever to have occurred amongst 
them, is that which the Brahmans once exercised 
amongst the Boodhists, and which is supposed to 
have led to several sanguinary battles, though the 
w hole story rests almost entirely upon obscure 
tradition. Dut putting political considerations 
out of the question, the tolerance of the Hindoo 
is fostered by the placidity of his temper, and by 
, 
ABORIGINES OF INDIA. 29 
his unirritable disposition, as well as by the pliant 
character of his religion; all the minor doctrines 
and tenets of which admit of much latitude of 
interpretation, and are calculated to encourage a 
spirit of discursive and imperfectly-defined sec-
tarianism amongst its professors. 
Having thus sketched a few of the principal 
features of the constitution of the Hindoo em-
pire, I come next to speak of the religion which 
has prevailed there from time immemorial. I 
have already remarked, that the general character 
of the natives of India has been represented in 
very opposite lights by different writers; and the 
same observation applies, in at least an equal de-
gree, to their system of relig;on. In the opinion 
of one class of authors, the sacred books of t,h e 
Hindoos abound with sublime ideas and grand 
- conceptions; while others describe them as being 
a repository of the most monstrous and revolting 
fictions that ever were invented by man. But 
these contradictions will easily be explained, if we 
consider that the authors of them have respec-
tively grounded their opinions upon an examina-
tion of a particular part of the subject, instead of 
taking a view of the whole. The Hindoo religion 
may be regarded under two distinct aspects, one 
of which is noble and inviting, and the other 
absurd and contemptible. If we confine our 
I • 
so INDIA. 
attention to the leading principles which it recog-
nizes and developes, and which doubtlesl at first 
constituted the sole tenets of its votaries, we 
shall find much to admire and little to condemn: 
but if we direct our view to the mass of mytholo-
gical corruptions and extravagancies which has in 
the lapse of ages been superadded to the original 
system, our minds will recoil from the 8ubject, 
and our sympathies take Hight from a sphere in 
which they can find no r.esting-place. 
The leading doctrine inculcated by the Hindoo 
religion is pure, consistent, and sublime, and is 
unfolded in a style of dignity and grandeur which 
we shall look for in vain in any other system of 
paganism. It inculcates a belief in ooe Supreme 
Being, self-existent, infinite, omnipresent, omni-
potent, and unchangeable, and describes him as 
reposing in perfect tranquillity and happiness, and 
in a state of absolute unity; like the waters of 
a motionless, transparent, and &thornless 
interminable in extent, everlasting in duration, 
and unsusceptible of disturbance. This Being is 
too exalted in his nature to engage in the work of 
creation himself; and the universe was formed 
through the medium of an emanation of hia di~i­
nity, personified under the character of Brahma, 
from whom were afterwards generated two attri-
butes essential to the government of the mund. .... 
ABORIGINES OF INDIA. 31 
system, viz. those of preservation and destruction, 
figurately expressed by the names of Vishnoo and 
Siva; but, in reality, having no separate existence 
or individuality any more than Brahma. Such 
is the fundamental tenet of the Hindoo religion, 
and such was doubtless for a long time the only 
one admitted by its promulgators; who, though 
they might entertain a variety of speculative 
opinions respecting the nature of the soul, and 
the moral relations of one species, did not incul-
cate a system of idolatry, or reduce the divine 
character to a human standard, till they perceived 
that the gross perceptions of the mass of society 
required that the Almighty should be represented 
in a tangible form, and that his qualities should 
be illustrated by characteristic images. 
At what time this corruption of the religious 
- system of the Hindoos took place is uncertain; 
but it must have been effected by the Brahmans, 
in order to pave the way to the establishment of 
that theocracy which has long prevailed in India. 
The theological creed of all the well-informed 
Brahmans of the present day is confined to the 
acknowledgement of a Supreme Being. and to a 
belief in the transmigration of the soul, and in a 
system of future rewards and punishments. At 
the ceremony of investing a young Brahman with 
the triple cord, which is usually performed when 
• 
32 INDIA. 
he has attained the age of twelve years, the offi-
ciating priest, it is said, whispers to him that there 
is only one God, and that the popular mythology 
was invented for the purpose of affecting the 
imaginations of the vulgar, and as an instrument 
for maintaining them in subjection; but that . he 
must preserve an inviolable secrecy upon these •,  
• 
subjects except when in the society of individuals of , f 
.. , his own caste. In the same manner, at the celebra- , • 
tion of the mysteries of Isis, the Hierophant used • 
to announce to the newly initiated the doctrine \ 
• 
of the unity of the Supreme Being, and also to 
) 
assure them that the various deities worshipped , 
by the populace were onl y men, or incarnations of 
physical phenomena, intended to fix the ideas and 
strike the senses of the ignorant. 
In directing our attention to the mass of pagan 
fables which has been appended to the original 
simple and sublime tenets of Hindooism, we cannot 
but feel astonished that the character of the latter 
should not have in some small degree infused it-
self into the composition of the former; but this 
is so far from being the case, that the convoluted 
pillar of Hindoo mythology presents scarcely a 
single feature or outline in accordance with the 
style of the pedestal upon which it has been 
erected, and is in its construction as offensive to 
taste, and even unassisted reason, as the other is 
ABORIGINES OF INDIA. 33 
agreeable and conformable to both. Thollgh the . 
Egyptian and the Grecian mythologies embrace a 
mllititude of fantastic and frivolous fictions, still ' 
we can generally discover some meaning in the 
greater number of these, whether it be a moral 
I truth, a personification of the powers of nature, 
an astronomical problem, an ingenious allegory, 
or a far.fetched conceit. But the sacred fables of 
the Hindoos are for the most part so wild, inco-
herent, and obscure in their character, as to defy 
criticism and discourage conj ecture; and so un-
• natural in conception, that they entirely fail either 
to please our taste or engage our sympathies. 
The Grecians have been accused of having in· 
vested their gods with a smaller portion of reason 
than belongs to the generality of men; and the 
- Hindoos may with equal justice be said to have at-tributed to theirs a greater amount of folly than is 
common to our species. Indra, Siva, and Krishna, 
and the rest of the heavenly host, perform, it is 
true, various wonderful and prodigious deeds, but 
generally without any comprehensible or useful • 
result, while the caprice of the actors is often as 
apparent in these scenes as their reported motives 
are inconsistent and reprehensible. Even Sir 
William Jones and Mr. Colebrooke, and other 
persons well qualified to appreciate the Indian 
mythology, and likewise disposed to place it in as 
VOL. II. o 
• 
34 IN DlA. 
favourable a point of view as ,possible, have ac-
knowledged that many of its details are beyond 
their comprehension, and irreconcilable with the 
general principles of that religion of which they 
fonn a part. 
Who then were the inventors of these extra-
vagancies ? Surely not those Brahmans who found- • 
ed the Hindoo dynasty, and who taught and be-
lieved that there was only one God. Surely not 
I 
their successors, from whom the Greeks borrowed • 
most of their systems of metaphysics and philoso- • • 
phy, 3nfl who cultivated the sciences at a time i 
when the greater part of Europe wa. immersed in .. \ 
utter barbarism. 
The purest. and most attractive part of the • 
H inrloo religious code is that which relates to 
penitents, and to the practice of those austerities 
which are calculated to procure to him who per-
forms them direct absorption into the divinity. 
The rules delivered in the institutes of Menu, 
for the conduct of a Sanniassy, or holy recluse, are 
simple, sublime, and impressive, and at the same 
time so severe and rigid in their character, that 
even those of the Trappists in Europe seem mild 
and endurable in comparison. It must, however, 
be observed, that .Menn does not enjoin to ascetics 
• 
even of the strictest order the adoption of any of 
those vulgar modes of bodily torment which are 
• 
i 
J 
r•  
ABORIGINES OF INDIA. 35 
resorted to by wandering Hindoo mendicants 
• 
with the view of exciting pity and extorting 
alms, and which most travellers in India have 
described as being penances which are instituted 
and recommended in the religious code of the 
country. The man who holds his arm over his 
; head till it withers, or who allows his nails to grow 
through the back of his hands, is regarded by the 
, majority of Hindoos in the same light that Dio-
I genes was viewed by the Athenians, when he sat 
I 
in a tub on the highway, or embraced a marble 
statue in freezing weather. The Brahman who 
aspire. to become an orthodox Sanniassy, or a holy 
recluse of the most exalted grade, must abandon 
• 
· his wife and children, and all human society, and • 
retire into the solitude of a dark and unfrequent 
! __e d forest, carl'ying with him only a staff, a black 
antelope's skin, · and a vessel to hold water. He 
may build a hut, but he ought rather to be con-
tented with the shelter afforded by a tree, and his 
food should consist entirely of the plants and roots 
growing around him. However, should the place 
not afford a sufficiency of these, he may occasion_ 
ally go for a supply of grain to the nearest village, 
and this must be obtained in the form of alms; 
but should anyone refuse to bestow these, he is 
to walk away in silence, and make application 
elsewhere. The only bodily torment which he is 
D2 
36 INDIA. 
authorized to inflict on himself, independent of 
those produced by hunger, cold, wind, and rain, 
is the penance of sitting in the midst of four fires 
at mid-day, under the blaze of an unclouded sun. 
In general he is to remain fixed in one place and 
posture, his mind intent upon the contemplation 
of the Diyine Being, and indifferent to glory, 
earthly happiness, and the praise of men; his 
body emaciated by abstinence, destitute of pas· 'n 
• i 
sions, and exposed t o the mercy of the elements. .'•  i 
Living thus, he will sooner or later enjoy absorp- I •I •  
• 
tion into the deity, instead of bei ng previously 
subjected to a succession of hirths under different II• •  
forms, like the generality of mankind. A Sanniassy !r 
may be considered u personification of the real ; I 
principles of the H indoo religion. Instead of .. ;,  
pprforming idle ceremonies, repeating certain forms • 
of prayer, and visiting holy places, he tries to sub- • • 
due hi s spirit, and to mortify his passions, and to j 
divest himself of all sensual and human propen. • 
sities ; and it is worthy 'of remark, that the Hin. 
doo code declares that no man can justifiably be 
come a Sunniassy recluse, until he has performed 
certain social duti es comprehended in the state of 
life called A grastha ; which implies a residence in a • 
\ 
town or village, the pursuit of some kind of busi. •,  
ness, and the rearing of a family. ' An individual ~ 
having thus performed his part in the world, and , 
ABORIGINES OF INDIA.  37 
. provided for his children, may lawfully and con-
scientiously withdraw from all intercourse with 
his own species, and devote himself to penitence, 
should he feel so inclined; a restriction wwch it 
would be .well to enforce in all countries where 
people are in the habit of adopting a monastic life 
I 
from indolence or caprice, or disappointed ambi-
tion, and without having previously rendered any 
service either direct or indirect to their fellow-
• 
, creatures. 
i In examining the religious code of the Hindoos, 
i we are at first struck with the variety of frivolous, 
i complicated, and apparently unmeaning ceremonies < which it enjoins, and . the strict observance of 
which, as the Brahmans themselves admit, would 
• 
occupy the whole time of any individual wh,o 
- might attempt it, to the exclusion of every other •,  - employment. But if we look a little more deeply 
I into the subject, we shall perceive that the legis-
lator who invented these multitudinous rites, in-
tended by them to secure permanence and stabi-
lity to his system, by attaching the idea and prac-
tice of it to every action of human life. He was 
aware that men quickly become regardless of 
things which do not affect their senses; and there-
fore he ordained that the Hindoos should neither 
go to sleep, nor awake in the morning, nor cross 
their thresholds, nor walk abroad, nor eat or drink, 
• • 
• 
~j8 lNDlA. 
nor wash themselves, nor change their clothes, 
without performing some rite inseparable from 
each of these transactions, and calculated to re-
mind them of their religion; and he instituted a 
vast number and variety of ceremonies, in order 
that every individual might find amongst them 
a few that were suited to his taste and his circum-
stances. Thus has the Hindoo religion been , •  
preserved in operation and activity for thousands 
· I 
of years. Upon the same principle the Catholic 
system has retained its primitive character up to 
the present time; and the Jews ha\'e upheld their 
identity as a people amidst the merciless storms 
of persecution to which they have constantly been I • 
subjected. 
'Vhen a system of religion ceases to affect ex-
ternally the manners and domestic habits of those • 
who profess it, we may safely conclude that iis • '1 
propel' influence is nearly unfelt, or is rapidly de-
clining. Such seems to be the case with Christia- i•' •  
nity at present, and more particularly in Protest-
ant countries, where, in so far as the mass of society 
is concerned, its doctrines are received as a mat- • 
ter of form, and assented to merely in compliance 
with the customs of the day. Religion has long 
since ceased to be a subject of enthusiasm in the 
more civilized states of Europe; and any mark or 
badge indicative of its influence is rejected by the 
• 
• 
ABORIGINES OF INDIA. 39 
people as a symbol of ignorance and superstition. 
They are ashamed to allow it to interfere in the 
remotest degree with their habits of life; and 
everyone furnishes himself with arguments in 
proof of the uselessness and nullity of external 
observances. It is pleasant to hear our clergy-
men weekly thanking God from the pulpit that 
we do not live in times of persecution. Nothing 
can be more in harmony with the spirit of the age 
than this. For who amongst us would willingly 
suffer anything for the sake of Christianity? 
Who would die for it ? Were a crusade preach-
ed, who would join its standard without pay? 
Fasting has long si\lce become unfashionable 
amongst clergy and laity; and when money is 
required for the erection of a church, no one ~ill 
-- give it unless he be assured of receiving a fair per-centage. This indifference to religion is called in 
, modem phraseology general enlightenment, and 
emancipation from the prejudices and supersti-
tions of our ancestors. But their prejudices and 
superstitions had a happier effect upon society 
than the present system of general instruction; 
the obvious result of which is to create discord 
and disunion amongst men, and to excite their 
selfishness and avarice, by giving them wants and 
desires which their condition in life will not per-
mit them to gratify. It is very certain that the 
• 
40 INDIA. 
first effect of the diffusion of knowledge and edu-" 
calion amongst the lower classes of any country 
is to render them freethinkers and atheists; as is 
exemplified in England in the present day, where ~•  
the wretched mechanic or labourer, intoxicated 
by the superficial notions which he has acquired 
at school, or from the perusal of some" newspaper 
or pamphlet, feels a pride in exercising his un-
fledged reason upon the affairs of church and 
state, and considers himself qualified to form ori-
ginal opinions in reference to both. The exist-
ellce of numerous ceremonials of religion has al-
ways proved a powerful bond of union amongst 
a people, and is more calculated than anything 
else to impede the progress of that mercantile and 
selfish spirit which corrupts every highly-civilized 
society, and sets its members in hostile array 
against each other. Nearly all the ancient legis-
lators have imposed upon the mass of their respec-
tive nations the daily performance of a variety of 
rites and ceremonies. as a powerful means of dif-
fusing and preserving a sense of religion, and of 
making bodies of men move, act, and think in 
unison. The happy influence of this principle is 
evinced in the history of' the ancient Egyptians, 
the Hindoos, and the Mahomedans, all of whom 
have respectively been distillguished for national 
.. 
ABORIGINES OF INDIA. 41 
conformity, and for simultaneousness of views and 
opinions, arising, without doubt, in a great mea-
sure, from the interweavement of a ritual system 
into the daily and familiar transactions of their 
lives. Hence all of them retain, even in the pre-
! sent time, an enthusiasm in the cause of their re-
ligion, and recognize in it a bond of fellowship and 
mutual alliance; while enlightened and instruct-
ed Europeans, having shaken off the trammels 
. imposed by the practice of external observances, 
I 
I are a prey to sectarian discord, and have become 
too conceited to conform themselves without re-
pugnance to the spirit of Christianity, and in many 
, instances too sceptical to believe in its divine origin. 
The adoption of a strict observance of a ritual 
similar to that of the Hindoos, or even of a far 
, less complicated character, of course implies the 
-- existence of a theocracy in the country where it 
has taken place. Though. this form of government 
has been much reviled as the parent of ignorance 
and superstition, it is well calculated to maintain 
large masses of people in concord and tranquillity, 
and to force their energies into one channel, and 
to produce unanimity of opinion and national en-
thusiasm. It is curious to remark, that all those 
monuments of antiquity which astonish us by 
their grandeur, magnitude, and durability, are the 
• 
42 INDIA. 
work of nations who lived under a theocratic 
government. 
In Egypt, the pyramids, the catacombs, the 
lake of Mooris, the Sphinx, and the embankments 
and canals of the Nile, were executed during the 
reign of the Pharaohs; and all works of the kind 
ceased on the termination of their dynasty; and • 
! 
though the Ptolemies raised the country to a high • 
degree of commercial prosperity, they never suc-
ceeded in reviving that taste for the execution of 
grand designs which had prevailed previous to the 
invasion of Cambyses, when the priests ruled with 
absolute and unlimited sway. TI,e city of Tad-
mor, or Palmyra, in the desert of Syria, whose ruins 
exceed in beau ty and magnificence everything of 
a similar kind in the world, was built by a peo-
ple who worshipped the sun, and wbo lived under 
• 
a theocracy which, though of a milder kind tban 
that of ancient Egypt, wa. equally influential 
upon the character of those who were subjected to 
it. The pyramids of Otumba. and the vast mili-
tary monument of Xaxicalco, in Mexico, were one 
of the results of the theocratic system which 
existed there at the time of the invasion of the 
Spaniards; and though these structures may ap-
pear not very considerable, when compared with 
some of a similar kind in the old world, yet, if we 
reflect ill how Iowa slatc the mechanic arts were 
ABORIGINES OF INDIA. 43 
amongst the people who reared them, we shall be 
led to regard them as mighty and imposing efforts 
of h \lman labour. 
Hindostan, as may be supposed, abounds with 
monuments of a theocratic kind. There the splen-
did pagodas, palaces, caravanseras, and tanks, have 
invariably some sacred associations connected with 
their design or construction; and man y of them 
are extraordinary evidences of the patience and 
inexhaustible resources of the people by whom 
they were erected. In Europe, we owe nearly 
all our architectural monuments of magnitude or 
beauty to the zeal and enthusiasm of the Roman 
Catholics. There the , Protestants, living under 
no religious bond of union, and experiencing no 
,I  
,,  popular directing influence, turn their means and 
, energies into a variety of channels, and seldom 
I,  ' - - employ them in the erection of sumptuous and 
durable edifices, illustrative of the opinions and 
spirit of their own times. Voltaire has remarked 
that the pyramids of Egypt must have been built 
by a despotic sovereign, who had thousands of 
slaves at his command; and that, though England 
is more powerful than Egypt could have been at 
the period in question, the king of the former 
would find it impossible to erect monuments of a 
similar magnitude. The last assertion is doubtless 
a correct one; but it appears to me, that the ob • 
• 
• 
44 I NOlA. 
stacle which a king of England would experience 
in the accomplishment of such a design, would 
arise less from his want of absolute power, than 
from his want of the means of awakening popular 
enthusiasm, and causing unanimity of opinion 
amongst his subjects upon a point which did not 
concern their personal interests. •I  
Those who built the pyramids were animated I 
by the spirit of religion, and no other kind of in- I•,  
fluence would have led men either to conceive so • 
magnificent a project, or given them patience and I 
perseverance to execute it. The mercantile cha- · 
racter of most of the nations of Europe is as hostile i 
to a taste for expensive works of art, as are the • • 
circumstances of all the highly~ivilized commu-
nities which belong to that quarter of the globe. 
The vice and misery of the lower classes, and the • 
pride and selfishness of the higher ones, cause 
mutual and wide disunion; while the universal 
diffusion of knowledge has led to innumerable 
differences of religious opinion, which serve to in-
fuse additional asperity into the entire mass of the 
people. The national resources are expended in 
the erection of gaols and penitentiaries for the re-
ception of criminals, and in the support of troops 
to protect the rulers from the fury of the ruled; 
while private individuals employ their means ill 
building sectarian places of worship, and in endea-
• 
ABORIGINES OF INDIA. 45 
vouring through the medium of missions to give 
the savages abroad a taste for the practice of those 
virtues which have latterly become vulgar and 
antiquated amongst themselves at home! 
Having thus described the general characteris-
tics of the Hindoo people, it now remains for me to 
enter into some personal details respecting them, 
, and to speak of their domestic habits and relations. 
, Hindostan certainly presents a larger proportion 
of well-formed men and women, whether we 
regard the higher or lower classes of its people, 
than any other country whatever. It is true that 
few of the male Asiatics display that sinewy and 
muscular vigour which in Europe is generally con-
sidered essential to the perfect beauty of the male 
figure; but in gracefulness of gesture and pliancy 
of deportment they altogether excel the hand-
somest men of northern climates. In India, con-
trary to what is observed almost anywhere else, 
the best-proportioned people are found amongst 
the labouring part of the community; for those 
of a su perior class are too often slender and effe-
minate when young, and clumsy and corpulent in 
after-life. A foreigner, on first arriving in India, 
is impressed with the idea that all the Hindoos 
closely resemble each other in features and expres-
sion of countenance, and he is very liable to mis-
take one individual for another, even though he 
• 
46 INDIA. 
may have been in the habit of daily seeing both of 
them; and it must be admitted that the mOllt 
practised observer cannot discover in the Asiatic 
population that variety of physiognomy which 
exists amongst Europeans, whatever may be their 
country or their condition. The contour of the 
Hindoo face presents nothing angular or salient; 
the features are generally regular, and the chin 
and forehead smooth and rounded, the eyes dark 
and large, and the hair soft and without curls 
or ringlets; these characters render the expression 
mild and tranquil; and if it is often destitute of 
vivacity, it is scarcely ever mean or disagree-
able. 
The striking gracefuluess of carriage observable 
in the labouring Hindoos, both male and female, 
results in a great measure from their habit of 
carrying burdens of every kind upon their heads. 
A copper jar or other "esse! containing three 
or four gallons of water, or a box or bale weigh-
ing twenty or thirty pounds, is not considered 
too heavy or unwieldy to be borne and balanced 
upon the crown of the head; and the person 
thus loaded will walk several miles without 
once requiring to adjust his burden, so exactly 
does he maintain the spine in the due line of the 
centre of gravity; and while it continues there, 
the body and limbs must necessarily be thrown 
• 
AIlORIGINES OF IN DIA • 47 
• 
into a natu. ..a l and easy position. 'Some Europe-
ans in India, sensible of the advantages of this 
kind of exercise, make their children walk about 
their houses for a certain time every day, carrying 
a moderate weight upon their heads; and the boy 
or girl thus treated seldom . fails to acquire a fine 
and imposing carriage, which is never afterwards 
entirely lost. 
Though Europeans have had establishments in 
India more than three hundred years, and though 
they have during that period diffused themselves 
over a vast extent of its territories, and carried on 
a long series of transactions, both commercial and 
political, with the natives, it is very certain that we 
know actually nothing of their private life and 
domestic feelings and opinions, beyond the su-
perficial acquaintance with each, which we have 
- acquired from Hindoo literature. But those 
very prejudices which have always rendered the 
Hindoos extremely reserved upon such points 
even amongst themselves, would deter their ' 
dramatists and poets from describing in their 
writings the family manners and social habits 
of their countrymen; and therefore everything of 
the kind coming from their pens is to be received 
with due caution. No European is ever admitted 
into the house of a Hindoo, ell:cept to make a for-
mal, or, rather, official visit; nor has he at such 
• 
48 [NDIA. . 
times the smallest opportunity of seeing the style 
of his host's private establishment, or of learning 
anything upon the subject in tbe course of con-
versation, that being strictly confined to compli-
ments and common-place remarks. Nor is it 
probable that an introduction to the domestic 
circle of even the best educated Hindoo would I 
afford much gratification to an European, or dis- J•,   
play to his view human character under any ano-
malous or remarkable aspect. Languor and indo-
lence on the part of the men, and childish desires 
on that of the females, might be expected to form 
the principal features of the picture, which, in 
however favourable a Eght it was placed, would 
fail to exhibit those contrasting shades and defi-
nite outlines which form the great charm of do-
mestic life in those countries where social inter-
course is unfettered by prejudices or by religious 
Op•J lll• Ons. 
The educated men amongst the Hindoos fre-
quently employ their time in reading the Pooranas, 
and the variolls works of fiction which their lan-
guage affords; but as none of these books furnish 
any useful information on any just and extended 
views of human life, the perusal of them can be 
regarded only as an amusement, and does not 
serve to excite a love of knowledge in tbe mind of 
the student. The Hindoos read very slowly, and 
AllOlliGlN ES OF INDIA. 49 
reflect and comment upon every separate passage 
of their author, though it may in reality neither 
deserve the first nor require the latter. . A small 
volume consequently engages them a long time, 
and the libraries of the most learned individuals 
appear insignificant in so far as the number of 
books is concerned. The scientific works of the 
• 
I 
· Hindoos, whether astronomical, medical, or ma-
l thematical, are scarcely procurable either by na-
tives or Europeans the Brahmans jealously re-
taining them in their own hands. But the usual 
style of these treatises is so mysterious and ob-
scure, that no one can comprehend much of them, 
unless he has previous~y been instructed how to 
explain the enigmas and allegories with which 
• they abound. 
: . , None of the fine arts are now cultivated in 
Hindostan, except music, for which the natives 
have a strong relish. They never, however, prac-
tise it in private, the art of playing upon any in-
strument being accounted degrading in itself, and 
suitable for those persons only who make a pro-
fession of it. Perhaps it is owing to this preju-
dice that the Hindoos have made very little pro-
gress in musical taste or knowledge; for the ge-
neral adoption of the art amongst any people as 
a domestic amusement, encourages public pep-
formers to aspire to excellence, in order that they 
VOL. II. E 
50 INDIA. 
may be employed to teach others; while at the 
same time the composers of music. deriving pro-
fit and celebrity from the sale of their produc-
tions, find it their interest to devote themselves to 
the improvement of these. and to study to invent 
new combinations of harmony. It does not ap-
pear that the stock of melodies possessed by the 
Hindoos is at all increasing, or that new ones are 
ever introduced from abroad. Ne\'ertheless. these 
people feel no monotony in the frequent repetition 
of the same airs; and they will listen with rapture 
to the nautch girls for five or six hours at a time. 
though they may not. comprehend the words of 
their songs. 
'Ve have no reasoll to believe that the art of 
painting was ever much esteemed in India. As 
the Hindoos have at all times adomed their tem-
ples and public edifices exclusively with statues, 
the painter's skill was necessarily little in request 
, ,1 "  
amongst them; and the few pictures that we do , 
> 
find in the country are remarkable for those glar-
• 
ing defects which seem to attach themselves to the 
productions of the artists of all tropical regions. 
1 
The total ignorance of perspective and chiaro ob-
scuro, and the hardness and stiffness of outline. 
which characterise the paintings of the Hindoos, 
the Chinese, the Mexicans, and the ancient Egyp-
tians, are circumstances equally notorious and 
ABORIGINES OF INDIA. 51 
perplexing; and the only plausible theory that 
has ever been advanced upon the subject is the 
one which supposes that the perpetual sunshine, 
and strong reflection of light in hot regions, in-
jure .the vision of their inhabitants, and render 
them incapable of estimating distances and pro-
portions by the eye. I am the more inclined to 
this opinion, because I have found that the gene-
rality of the natives of India neither relish nor 
comprehend the system of perspective and light 
and shade which is adopted by European paint-
ers. On viewing our landscapes, or groups of 
figures, an Hindoo will remark, in reference to 
those parts of the piece. where tbe relief is strong-
est, that the objects are of two colours, a dark and 
a bright one; and he will inquire why the figures 
.t , of men or animals, that may be represented far in 
the back-ground, are not equally large with those 
in front. The lower classes of people in India 
have not the smallest idea of symmetry in the 
arrangement of furniture, or in the disposal of 
table equipage; and it is not till after they have 
been some time in the service of Europeans that 
they are able to lay a carpet exactly in the centre 
of a room, or place two couches or similar articles 
in the same relative position. Their masters 
commonly attribute this to stupidity, though it 
evidently enough arises from defective vision, con-
£2 
52 INDIA. 
sequent upon long.continued irritation of the optic 
nerve by the glare of a tropical sun. 
The Brahmans have always taken great plea.-
sure in metaphysical disputations; and they con-
duct these with an acuteness and subtilty which 
is peculiar to themselves, and which is displayed 
in a transcendant degree in the writings of many 
of their ancient philosopher~. The web of Hindoo 
philosophy is infinitely more complicated in its 
texture, and curious in the adaption of its parts, 
than that of any other nation whatever, not 
even excepting the Kantism of Germany; and it 
is very certain that nearly all the most celebrated 
ethical and metaphysical systems and theories of 
the moderns had their origin in India, and were 
promulgated and discussed there, many centuries 
before they appeared in Europe under a new dress. 
Even the celebrated and apparently original sys-
tem of Descartes is distinctly recognisable in the 
doctrines of the Sankhiya Brahmans, which were 
taught in Hindostan twelve or fourteen hundred 
years ago. 
The passion for philosophical argument was 
formerly so great amongst the Brahmans, that 
many of them used to travel over India with the 
sole view of enjoying disputations with the va-
rious learned men whom they might happen to 
encounter in the course of their journeys. On 
ABORIGINES OF INDIA. 53 
arriving at any large town, they would give pub-
• 
lic notice that they were ready to enter the lists 
with all who were disposed for controversy, and 
the assemblages of pundits thus convoked would 
hold long and daily meetings, and continue them 
till the subjects chosen for discussion were ex-
hausted. Something of this kind occasionally 
takes place in the present day, and there are many 
instances of Brahmans and Mahornedans challeng-
ing the missionaries to defend their religion. 
These disputations, as may be supposed, com-
monly end as they began. The following account 
of a subha or meeting of the former description, 
which took place at Poona in 1831, is extracted 
from a newspaper, edited by a native, and published 
in Born bay, and will serve to show that a taste 
- for metaphysics still prevails amongst the Hindoos of the higher class :_ H An apartment in an upper-
roomed house was prepared for the company, fur-
nished with lamps, &C. and decorated in a magni-
ficent style. The gentlemen present being seated, 
a learned person of this city rose, and said, ' It is 
the humble solicitation of our host, that subjects 
from the four Shastras, the Vyakurn (grammar), 
the Nyaya (logic), the Meemansa (ceremonials), 
and the Vedant (a philosophical system, which 
teaches the nature of the Deity and the universe), 
be introduced for discussion here, as it is not always 
• 
54 INDIA. 
easy in this city to get a person like Moreshwar 
Shastree, capable o(!Ji,s cussing all of them, to pre-
side at such a meeting.' The learned persons pre-
sent were delighted on hearing this; and while 
they were thinking of a subject to begin with, a 
student introduced a question on Vyakum, on 
which an able debate was held by Moreshwar 
Shastree and Vyasachariya. A topic on Nyaya 
was then introduced, in which again the former 
individuals were the principal speakers. Other 
pundits joined occasionally in the discussion, and 
made speeches. Lastly, an objection was raised 
by Vyankutachariya against the Advyta Vedant, 
(the doctrine of the identity of the human soul and 
the divine essence, and of the unreality of matter.) 
This was answered by l\Ioreshwar Shastree, ex-
plaining what was meant by the denial of the ex-
istence of matter. A question on Meemansa was 
afterwards started, but it was not well managed." 
A reference to the general character of the re-
ligion of the Hindoos, and to the principal features 
of their metaphysical and philosophical systems, 
will serve to account for the propensity which 
they have always shown to enter into discussions 
upon these subjects. The wonderful fantastie and 
perplexed nature of most of their doctrines is 
calculated equally to excite the imagination of 
those who admit them, and to keep alive in their 
'.'\r" .. ," 
ABOIUGINES OF INDIA. 55 
minds a restless desire to some tangible 
and satisfactory notions of so m nch 
intricacy and importance. dogma of the 
transmigration of the soul, which is firmly believed 
by a vast majority of the Hindoos, is of itself 
sufficient to afford constant exercise to the facul-
ties; and they are in the habit of considering any 
misfortunes that may befal them in this life, as a 
punishment for the evil they have committed in 
some former state of existence; and they estimate 
upon tbe same principle the past merits or de-
merits of animals, particularly domestic ones, by 
their general condition and treatment. The horse 
or dog that is well fed, and belongs to a kind 
master, is supposed to have committed fewer sins 
while it existed under a human form, than the 
• 
animal of either species whose circumstances are 
- -less agreeable and supportable. The different 
transmigrations which a human being must un-
dergo in expiation of different crimes, are laid 
down with exactness in the institutes of Menu; 
and, consequently, the sight of any particular ani-
mal mentioned in the list is calculated to suggest 
to an instructed Hindoo some point in the his-
tory of its supposed mortal occupant, and to give 
birth to various interesting speculations, which can-
not be indulged by those who reject the doctrinE> 
of m~tempsychosis. 
\NDIA. 
The monotonous character which domestic life 
assumes amongst the Hindoos, from their not cul-
tivating the fine arts, or any of those social amuse-
ments which are so highly esteemed by Euro-
peans, is somewhat relieved by the frequent occur-
rence of national festivals and holydays, which, 
both in number and duration, exceed tbose of any 
other country. The holydays that are more or 
less observed throughout Hindostan, amount to 
at least one hundred in every year; and they prove 
a source of serious loss and inconvenience to fo-
reigners transacting business there, both commerce 
and labour being in a great measure suspended 
upon such occasions. Almost every Hindoo, 
whether high or low, is in the habit of spending 
his time and money in the celebration of these 
festivals, or at least of some of them; nor during 
, 
their continuance will he attend to anything else, 
even though his interests should suffer from bis 
negligence. It is truly wonderful to observe with 
what enthusiasm the poorest individuals take part 
in the games, sports, and processions wbicb are 
carried on at such times. The half.naked la-
bourer, who can seldom earn more tban tbree-pence 
a day, and whose food is rice and pulse without 
seasoning or addition, will dance for hours toge-
ther in the open air, or join in the chorus of B. 
song during an entire night, or follow at a cur-
ABORIGINES OF INDIA. 57 
veting pace a band of muSic for many miles in 
the heat of the meridian su.i,l ; ·.and he will occupy 
himself in this way for several days in succession, 
unsupported by any stimulus except the natural 
buoyancy of his animal spirits. If the proceed-
ings of the Hindoos during their national festivals 
appear to us puerile and absurd, we must in jus-
tice to them admit, that at such times they dis-
playa gentleness of disposition and a spirit of 
concord which are unknown anywhere else upon 
similar occasions. Some exceptions to this occur 
now and then amongst the Mahomedans at the cele-
bration of the Mohurrum, when the bier of Hosein 
is carried in procession.  by torch-light. The two . 
great Mussulman sects are then liable to quarrel 
about precedence in the line of march through the 
streets, and violent affrays sometimes take pllice 
- between them. I have already made some re-
marks upon the tolerant spirit of the Hindoos; 
and the existence of this quality is strongly evinced 
in the fact, that though most of their •f estivals 
bear a religious character, they not only seldom 
quarrel while engaged in them, but never seek to 
annoy the Mahomedans when the latter are em-
ployed in celebrating their own holydays, though 
they condemn the followers of the Prophet, and 
abstain from any particular intercourse with them. 
The Abbe Dubois justly remarks, that a popu-
58 INDIA. 
lar prejudice respecting the wealth of the inhabit-
ants of India has existed from the remotest times.  
.. The treasures," says he, .. collected by some of its 
princes, the large and rapid fortunes which a great 
number of Europeans have acquired in the coun-
try, the rich produce of its mines of diamonds, 
the quantity and quality of its pearls, the abun-
dance of its spices and aromatic woods, the fer-
tility of its soil, and the long unrivalled superi-
ority of its various manufactures, were known and 
admired in the earliest ages, and it was naturally 
supposed that a nation that furnished so many 
articles of luxury must exceed aU others alike in 
opulence and industry:' But he asserts that no 
conclusion co.1n be more erroneous, and that India 
is in reality the poorest country ill the world; the 
value of the personal property of nine-twentieths 
of its inhabitants falling short of the proportion 
of five pounds sterling to each individual family. 
N or would it appear that the above estimate is 
an incorrect one; and if poverty, under its severest 
and most undisguised form, seldom meets the eye 
in India, it is more owing to the contentedness 
and sobriety of the people, than to the general 
diffusion of the means of subsistence amongst 
them. But it is not my intention to inquire into 
the distribution of pl'Operty ill Hindostan, but 
rather to \l1ake some remarks lIpoll that state or 
o 
ABORIGINES OF INDIA. 59 
indigence which has been re~rded as a character-
istic of the great mass of society in all parts of the 
East, and which different writers have attributed 
to different causes. We well know that at least 
four-fifths of the entire population of the warm 
regions of Asia have barely sufficient to support 
them in their respective ranks of life, and that they 
are contented with this, and seldom make any 
efforts to improve their means and extend their 
enjoyments. That desire of accumulating money 
and possessing various kinds of property, which 
operates so universally amongst Europeans, is 
almost unfelt by the Hindoos; and they never 
abandon the natural simplicity of their habits ~nd 
• 
mode of life, even when immense riches enable 
them to do so. They neither fill their stables 
with horses, nor their houses with ornamental 
- furniture, nor cover themselves with finery, nor 
load their tables with splendid services of plate. 
On the contrary, they remain contented with the 
simple domestic equipage to which they have 
always been accustomed; and their wealth is 
allowed to lie unemployed, until a marriage or 
festival affords them an opportunity of bringing 
a part of it into circulation, which they then do 
with a degree of liberality and extravagance more 
than sufficient to prove that it was not avarice that 
had previously limited their expenditure. Any 
60 INDIA. 
exceptions to the above remarks that m~y occur, 
will be found only amongst Hindoo merchants, 
who, from living in the great commercial cities of 
India, have acquired European ideas on the sub-
ject of wealth, and a taste for accumulating it in 
a systematic way. 
This peculiarity in the character of the Asiatics 
has been ascribed by some to a natural and uncon-
querable indolence, nursed and fostered by the 
belief in the dogma of predestination; and, by 
others, to the influence of a despotic government, 
where the people, having no security of person or 
property, arc deterred from seeking to acquire 
wealth, from the uncertainty of their being able to 
retain or enjoy it. Volney is disposed to adopt 
the latter opinion; nor is it surprising that he 
should be so, for his observations upon the Asia-
tics were made in Syria and Egypt, where the 
Turks exercise absolute dominion, and continu-
ally oppress and impoverish the inhabitants by a 
system of rigorous and indiscriminate extortion . 
But if we look towards British India, we sball 
find the same results existing under very differ-
ent circumstances. There every man may amass 
wealth in peace, and expend it without fear, or 
bequeath it to his relatives, in the assurance that 
his intentions will he fulfilled; hut, nevertheless, 
we ohserve much the same indifference to riches 
ABORIGINES OF INDIA. 6l 
iil the mass of the Hindoo population, as Volney 
remarked amongst the Turks and Syrians. It 
would therefore appear that this national cha-
racteristic of the Asiatics has no direct connexion 
with the nature of the government under which 
they may happen to live, but arises from their con-
stitutional indolence and contentedness, and from 
their aversion to that state of anxiety and excite-
ment which attends the pursuit of riches, and is 
so hostile to all those sedate and contemplative 
forms of enjoyment in which they chiefly delight. 
British India affords daily examples of the 
Asiatic mode of spending a fortune en masse, to 
which I have above alluded. The Hindoos often 
• 
spend upon the marriage ceremonies of their chil-
dren sums which, if given to the parties as a 
dowry, would render them opulent during their 
-- whole lives; and long.established custom has so 
far accredited this ruinous and unsatisfactory kind 
of extravagance, that every rich man is obliged 
more or less to conform to it, if he has any regard 
for the esteem and respect of society, though he 
may entirely disapprove of the practice. This 
nuptial expenditure in a great measure prevents 
the Hindoos from providing for their children in 
the way that European parents generally endea-
vour to do; neither have they the same ideas re-
specting the stability of wealth that are current 
62 INDIA. 
amongst ?lIrselves; and they commonly lavish 
away the greater part of what they do posae81 in 
the course of their own lives. 
Hut while we condemn the ostentatious extra-
vagance of the Hindoos on their marriages and 
at public festivals, and their general improvidence 
in the management and disposal of their fortunes, 
we m list at the same time view with admiration 
the noble nse to which they often apply their 
riches. In every part of India are to be found 
monuments of the munificence and charity of 
private individuals, in the shape of reservoirs for 
water, pagodas, wells, or caravanserai; but, of 
whatever description these may be, they are inva-
riably intended for the benefit of mankind. He 
who expends thousands in the formation of a tank 
which shall supply with water thousands of his 
fellow-creatures, who would otherwise be liable to 
suffer the greatest extremities from drought, surely 
deserves the name of a benefactor of the human 
race; as also does he that builds a house for the 
shelter and convenience of travellers in some deso-
latc spot where no other accommodation is to be 
found. Works of public charity are 90 much 
esteemed by the Hindoos, that those who cannot 
accomplish them on a large scale, will sometimes 
hire a person to sit under a tree by the road-side, 
with vessels of cool water for the supply of thirsty 
ABORIGINES OF INDIA. 63 
passengers; or will monthly, on a parti~ular day, 
give a quantity of grain to every mendicant who 
may present himself at their doors. Yet the de-
tractors of the Hindoos do not hesitate to assert 
that all their acts of this kind proceed from osten-
tation. I will reply to this only by remarking, 
that it would be well if a similar spirit of ostenta-
tion could be introduced into Enrope, since it is 
attended with such happy effects in Hindostan. 
But a man may travel from the southern extre-
mity of the continent to the polar regions with-
out observing one monument of charity or uti-
lity which has been devised or erected by pri-
vate munificence. What European nobleman or 
wealthy citizen ever thinks of expending his mo-
)ley in the construction of any work of art which 
shall benefit a whole town or village, or call forth 
__ the blessings and admiration of the passing travel-
ler? To see how such persons employ their 
wealth, it is necessary to visit their castles and 
houses. There we shall find the apartments en-
cumbered with fantastic pieces of furniture, and 
the walls nearly concealed by pictures of imagi-
nar-v value; while in various comers stand tables 
and cabinets, displaying the varieties of art and 
the monstrosities of nature, multiplied to the eye 
by the reflection of enormous mirrors. The vapid 
owner of the mansion saunters from one place to 
64 INDIA. 
another, and perhaps tries in vain to find either 
amusement or instruction in contemplating tbe 
heap of anomalous baubles wbicb he has spent 
half his fortune in collecting, and wbich his re-
fined taste and his refined selfisbness neverthe-
less render him desirous of retaining in his 
• sion and augmenting, even though the cries of the 
neighbouring poor should daily plead against bis 
doing either. Once or twice a year he bestows 
a trifling amount upon some public institution, 
and conceives that by tbis paltry sacrifice he bas 
liquidated his arrears of charity to his fellow-
beings, and obtained a dispensation to employ his 
remaining wealth in procuring the purposeless 
materials of his personal pleasures; or in visiting 
foreign countries, where, careless of instruction, 
he studies nothing but the vices and vanities of 
their inhabitants. The Hindoo style of charity 
must always bear the appearance of ostentation, 
because its character is so striking and comprehen-
sive as to attract the notice of the least inquiring 
or observing individual. 
The Hindoos being a mild, peaceable, and 
easy-tempered people, t.hey live together in great 
harmony; and the streets of their towns and vil-
lages seldom present scenes of riot or social dis.-
turbance. They fulfil the relative duties of lite 
with tolerable exactness, and are naturally kind 
AllORIGINES OF INDIA. 65 
and indulgent to each other, and always ready to 
exercise the rites of hospitality, even when their 
poverty might exempt them from anything of 
the kind. Their domestic life, in so far as the 
married state is concerned, has little to recommend 
it; in particular amongst the higher classes, where 
the curse of polygamy and its accompanying de-
basement of the female character operate daily in 
one way or another, and are more or less destruc-
tive of family peace and enjoyment, however 
much the parties may be disposed to humour and 
conciliate each other. In Hindostan, the females 
in the lowest grades of society are the happiest, 
because their husbands ,c annot afford to have more 
wives than one; and because, from their being 
obliged to contribute their share of labour for the 
, 
family subsistence, they enjoy the freedom of go-
- - ing abroad, and associating with their neighbours 
of hoth sexes- while Hindoo etiquette forbids 
that women of the higher class should do either. 
The wives of mechanics, artisans, and day labour-
ers appear upon the streets and highways in as 
open and unconstrained a manner as a similar class 
of people do in Europe; and the domestic affairs 
of the household being exclusively under their 
management, they acquire a degree of independ-
ence and importance in the eyes of their husbands, 
which goes far to ensure them respect and kind 
VOL. 11. F 
66 INDIA . 
treatment at home. Many of the poorer Hindoos 
are very happily married, and love their partners 
with strong and durable affection; an uncom-
mon circumstance amongst the wealthy polyga-
mists, in whose houses there is a continual division 
of interests instead of a bond of sympathy. 
None of the domestic relations of the Hindoos 
appear so amiable or praiseworthy as that of , 
filial affection; in this they are never deficient; 
and they honour and respect their fathers and 
mothers to an extreme degree, and consider it a 
I 
sacred dllty to support them to the end of their " 
days when they happen to he in a state of indi- .;,  
gence. This strong sense of filial ohligation ope-
rates equally amongst the rich and the poor; and it 
, 
is a common thing to find Hindoos in the humhlest , 
walks of life monthly bestowing one-third or even 
half of their scanty earnings upon :111 aged and 
destitute parent. Indeed the natives of India 
scarcely regard these sacrifice~ as meritorious; and 
the inhumanity of the individual who refuses to 
practise them when they become requisite, excites 
more notice than the kindness of the devoted son 
who gives all that he can possibly spare to relieve 
the wants of the authors of his existence. They 
even manifest a sacred regard for their parents 
after the latter have ceased to live, and perform 
sacrifices, &e. for the benefit of their SOil Is. One 
• 
ABORIGINES OF INDIA. 67 
striking instance of this kind occurred within my 
own observation. At a certain festival in Hin-
dostan, it is customary for the people holding it 
to erect a long pole, upon the top of which is fixed 
a cross beam, having a large iron hook swung by 
ropes to each extremity. When a devotee wishes 
to perform penance, one of these hooks is lowered 
, to the ground, where he has previously laid him-
self flat upon his face, and is forced through the 
fleshy part of his back. He is then hoisted up to 
the height of fifteen or twenty feet, and remains 
suspended in that situation till he requests to be 
relieved from his misery. I found one of my ser-
vants undergoing this penance; and on afterwards 
• • 
inquiring into his motives for having done so, 
, he told me that his father had made a vow to 
I 
suffer eight suspensions, but not living long enollgJi 
-to perform more than five, he had on his death-
,I  bed requested his son to accomplish the remain-
ing part of his vow, which the latter said he in-
tended rigorously to do. An indifference to pain, 
where religion and conscience are concerned, has 
al ways been a characteristic of the Hindoos; and, 
however much we may condemn their often irra-
tional and superstitious motives for such exertions 
of constancy and fortitude, we must give them 
due credit for their distinguished powers of en-
durance, however misdirected these may be. It 
F2 
• 
68 INDIA. 
was a view of exhibitions similar in prinl'iple to 
the one above described, that used to lead the 
Jesuit missionaries in India to exclaim, " What 
glorious Christians these people would make ," 
The timid and fickle dispositions of the Hindoos, 
and the puerility of their ideas upon many su}).. 
jects, seem entirely at variance with their devoted 
and unconquerable attachment to their national 
manners and religion, and with the sacrifices which 
they are ever ready to make for the sake of both. 
'Ve call this ohstinacy, and the triumph of ignG-
rance and prejudice, because we are too much ac-
customed to consider everything subordinate to 
self-interest, and to render our opinions and ac-
tions conformable to its dictates. No prospect of 
personal advantage will induce the genuine and 
conscientious Hindoo to quit his country, or to 
renounce its customs, or to adopt those of fG-
reigners; and the happy effect of this is to set 
bounds to his desires, to confine him to the region 
in which Providence has placed him, and to pre-
vent his warring with other races of people, or 
creating dissension amongst them by the intrusion 
and enforcement of his peculiar opinions. Ad-
mitting that he is actuated in all this by irrational 
motives, we must still admire the consistency, 
sobriety, moderation, and harmlessness of character 
which they produce, and allow to the Hindoo 
• 
• 
ABORIGINES OF INDIA. 69 
people the proud distinction of being the only 
civilized nation upon earth that has never injured, 
annoyed, or massacred any of its neighbours. On 
the other hand, the enlightened and adventurous 
European feels from his earliest years the advan-
tage of making himself all things to all men; and, 
unchecked by the useful influence of prejudice, 
and often unrestrained by religion, he overruns 
the earth, and finds no condition or employment 
either base or revolting, so long as it enables him 
to gratify his avarice. In the wilds of North 
America we observe him trafficking with savages 
for the skins of beasts, and overreaching them 
when they are in a state,  of intoxication from the 
liquors which they have received from his own 
hands. On the coast of Africa he is to be found 
, 
purchasing his fellow-creatures for trinkets and 
- brandy, with a view of selling them to slavery 
elsewhere. In Japan he annually makes a public 
denial of his faith by trampling under his foot 
the Cross and Bible, in order to secure the pri-
vilege of trading with a people who detest and 
execrate Christians. In the South Sea Islands he 
employs his ships and artillery in the service of 
the native chief who will pay him best, and as-
sists in massacring his employer's enemies or re-
volted subjects, without inquiring or caring which 
party is the aggrieved one. In the cities of Turkey 
• 
70 INDIA. 
and Barbary we find him submitting, for the sake 
of commerce, to be reviled, bastinadoed, and spit 
upon by Mahomedans, who consider him a dog 
and an infidel, and unworthy of respect or com-
miseration: and should any foreign power require 
mercenary troops, thousands of Europeans are ever 
willing to embody themselves under its standard, 
be the cause what it may; and if they are seldom 
guilty of fighting against their own countrymen, 
they are deterred rather by a dread of the penalty 
which they might tllPreby incur, than by any 
sense of the detestableness of the act itself. 
It is, however, to the extinction of religious pre-
judices that nations owe that commercial opu-
lence which is alone regarded by them as an ob-
ject of ambition in the present age. The Pharaohs 
tried in vain to make the ancient Egyptians a 
maritime and commercial people, nor would they 
become so till after Cambyses had conquered the 
country and annihilated their religion. An Eng-
lishman and a Brahman conversing upon the 
character and merits of their respective nations, 
the first boasted that the British, tbough an 
inconsiderable people in point of numbers com-
pared with the Hindoos, far surpassed them in 
wealth, power, and extent of dominions. .. True," 
replied the Brnhman, .. and the reason is, that your 
countr"men fear neither God nor the DeviJ." 
• 
• 
ABORIGINES OF INDIA. 71 
It is the rigid and restraining influence of the 
national and religious opinions of the Hindoos 
which bas hitherto prevented their advancing to 
a very high degree of civilization, or adopting 
European manners and modes of thinking. Nor 
can they comprehend why the British should be 
so anxious to introduce these into India, or so per-
severing in their condemnation of everything that 
does not accord with their own notions; for the 
Brahmans, notwithstanding their prej udices and 
high sense of self-superiority, Hever maintain 
that their own institutions are calculated for all 
nations and countries, but freely admit that differ-
ent climates and races of men require different 
social and political systems. Knowing that the 
Hindoos bave practised the same customs, and 
been governed by the same laws, for thousands of 
-. years, and that too with the happiest effects, they 
ar~ naturally sceptical about the propriety or even 
safety of making any changes in reference to these 
points; and view with anger and detestation the 
endeavours of their foreign invaders to alter things 
which have been established and consecrated by 
the most remote antiquity. Nor is this all; for 
as the Brahmam have latterly, by acquiring a 
knowledge of the English language, enabled 
themselves to learn the real state of human so-
ciety in Europe, they have become more than 
• 
72 INDIA. 
ever distrustful of the influence of our laws and 
institutions as applied to their own countrymen, 
and less and less disposed to admit the superior 
happiness of European nations. From the histories, 
descriptions, and notices of these which they 
peruse, they find that the amount of moral and 
physical evil in all highly-civilized societies far 
exceeds what is known in Hindostan, and that 
tbe different classes of people composing them 
are disunited by opposite interests, and perpe-
tually opposed to each other, and that they 
scarcely ever practise any of the virtues which are 
inculcated amongst them, except from self-inter-
est or compulsion. They observe, also, that large 
standing armies are everywhere requisite to ensure 
the stability of the government, and to keep the 
lower orders of people in subjection; and that a 
great part of the national revenue is expended in 
the support of a vast and complicated judicial esta-
blishment, which nevertheless proves totally inad-
equate to repress crime, or even to bring the offen-
ders to punishment; while that very system of 
religion, which instructs men to live in peace and 
forbearance, is converted into an engine of discord, 
and employed as all excuse for intolerance and 
persecution. Under these impressions, the more 
enlightened Hindoos naturally ask themselves, 
what .hall we gain by adopting the social institu-
• 
ABORIGINES OF INDIA. 73 
tions of Europe? 'Vill not these, instead of re-
medying the evils that now exist amongst our-
selves, serve to introduce new ones, to which we 
have hitherto been strangers ? We may be in 
some degree enslaved by prejudices and supersti-
tions; but since these have existed for thousands 
of years, and are congenial to the minds of the 
people, will it not be dangerous, both in a moral 
and physical point of view, to annihilate them, and 
thus dissolve the constitution of Hindoo society, 
without the certainty of being able to reorganize 
it on a better model? 
The various attempts that have been made, and 
are still making, to give the natives of India a 
taste for European knowledge, and to convert 
them to Christianity, have been eminently unsuc-
cessful, alike as respects the establishment of Bri-
tish schools and the labours of missionaries; and 
it would appear, that the better the Hindoos be-
come acquainted with our social institutions and 
religion, the more repugnant do they find these to 
their prejudices and peculiar modes of thinking. 
The adults who attend the schools, whether public 
or private, are almost exclusively persons who 
wish to qualify themselves for some employment 
in the government offices, or in the counting-
houses of European merchants; while a large pro-
portion of the younger pupils consists of the off-
74 INDIA. 
spring of individuals holding subordinate situa-
tions in the different departments of the public 
service, and desirous that their children should 
succeed them in these, or at least obtain some pro-
vision of a similar kind. The knowledge which 
both these classes of persons acquire in the scbools 
often has the effect of shaking their belief in the 
Hindoo religion, and of rendering tbem free-
thinkers, or even atheists; but it never in the 
least degree disposes tbem to receive Christianity, 
or to renounce the usages to which they have been 
accustomed. In their dress, manners, and mode 
of life, they resemble other Hindoos; while tbeir 
conduct often proves the correctn~ss of the max-
im, that any religion is better tban none at all. 
In short, the Hindoos esteem European acquire-
ments only in so far as these can be made subser· 
vient to their personal interests; and a large num-
ber of pupils at any school can never be regarded 
as indicative of a prevailing disposition to embrace 
Christianity. 
The small success whicb the missionaries have 
had in the conversion of the Hindoos is easily 
explained, by a reference to the national opinions 
and institutions of the latter, which fonn the 
strongest and most insurmountable barrier to 
• 
innovation, either domestic or foreign, that ever 
was constructed by human ingenuity. But, in 
ABORIGINES OF INDIA. 75 
addition to this, the missionaries have experienced 
\,  a strong obstacle to the reception of their doc-
trines, in the subtle, inquiring, and argumenta-
tive spirit of the Brahmans, who are ever ready to 
enter into discussion with them, and to urge a 
multitude of insidious objections against the te-
nets which it is their business to inculcate and 
support. The career of a missionary in India is 
attended with difficulties whicb he would not 
encounter in almost any other country. The 
preacher who labours amongst a horde of savages, 
is generally listened to at first without interrup-
tion or dissent, partly from the indolence, and 
partly from the stupidity of his auditors; and if 
they are not convinced of the truth of what he 
says, they will affect to be so out of respect to 
, their instructor. In the course of time they ·be-\ 
come reconciled to his doctrines, from frequently 
hearing them repeated, and afterwards, wearied 
by his solicitations, and perhaps encouraged by 
the prospect of personal advantage and conveni-
ence, they take up their residence in his neigh-
bourhood, and form a social community, and assist 
him in building a church. Free from deep-rooted 
prejudices, wavering in their opinions, unaccus-
tomed to exercise their faculties, and biassed by 
the superior intelligence of their teacher, they are 
easily led to renounce some of their objectionable 
, 
• 
76 INDIA. 
customs, and to attend divine worship at certain 
times. All this is supposed to imply their con-
version, and they forthwith receive the title of 
Christians, and are considered as such by the ge-
nerality of observers. But a work of this kind is 
not so easily accomplished in Hindostan, wbere 
the missionary, instead of being viewed with re-
spect and consideration by the Brahmans, (and tbey 
rule the opinions of all the other castes,) is regard-
ed as an inferior being, whom it is an act of con-
descension to listen to. Instead of finding him-
self surrounded by simple and ignorant men, nei-
ther accustomed to reasoning, nor wedded to any 
particular doctrines, he encounters the determined 
opposition of a haughty, artful, and sagacious 
race, familiar with the subtilties of refined argu-
ment, strongly prepossessed in favour of their own 
creed, and hostile alike from conscience and from 
private interest to any kind of f<>reign innovation. 
Most Europeans who have resided long in India are 
well acquainted with the superior argumentative 
powers of the Brahmans; and Hoole, in his ac-
count of his mission in that country, mentions that 
many of the Company's civil servants (all of whom 
are linguists) had complained to him that they in 
general found themselves overmatched by the for-
mer in the discussion of religious subjects; and it 
would appear, from the tenor of his narrative, that 
• 
ABORIGINES OF INDIA. 77 
he himself had very seldom come off triumphant 
on similar occasions. 
Seeing, then, that the Hindoos are resolute in 
refusing to receive any improvement, either reli· 
gious or political, from our hands, would it not 
be better that we should henceforth desist from 
attempting to force our institutions upon them, 
and allow them that tranquil enjoyment of their 
national opinions, which is the poorest boon that 
a conquered people can ask of their conquerors? 
It has always been found difficult to reconcile the 
interests of these two, but never so much so as in 
the case of Hindostan, where the intensely strong 
line of demarcation which exists between the cha-
• • 
racter, manners, and sympathies of Europeans and 
natives will never be obliterated, because neither 
, the one nor the other people will make any c~n­, -- cession of its prejudices. 
Let us, then, spare the Hindoos the torture of 
being forced to conform to our institutions, and 
to our notions of right and wrong, lest the work 
of adaptation should become as sanguinary in its 
nature as the one which history bforms us was 
practised by the robber Procrustes; when, seized 
with the mania of making the statures of his cap-
tives correspond with the dimensions of his own 
bed, he either stretched their bodies till they were 
dissevered, or shortened them by mutilation, ac-
• 
78 I NOlA. • 
• 
cording as they happened to fall short of, or 
exceed, his standard of human proportions. The· 
vast social edifice of the Hindoos deserves to be 
viewed with respect from its antiquity alone; and 
though its proportions may be defective, and its 
design may embrace incongruities that are offen-
sive to reason and to good taste, still all alterations 
must be attempted with extreme caution, lest, in 
carrying them into effect, the structure should 
lose its stability, and, falling down in ruins, crush 
its inhabitants, and along with them the incon- • 
siderate renovators employed in the work of 
presumption. 
79 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY IN INDIA. 
• 
• THE notices which I have to offer on the subject 
of European society in India will necessarily be 
. ~ meagre and deficient in variety. No Europeans 
+ having ever established themselves in the country 
, with the intention of spending their Ii ves there, 
they have always felt . themselves to be in the 
• 
situation of visiters and strangers, and have never 
undergone that assimilation to the climate and 
• 
soil, which sooner or later occurs in the case of 
· - those individuals who have emigrated anywhere 
for the purpose of permanent settlement and na-
turalization. Hence, in tracing the . history and 
describing the character and condition of the Eu-
ropean inhabitants of Hindostan, we shall not find 
them, even on their first arrival there, struggling 
with physical difficulties, or in a state of petty 
hostility with the natives, or engaged in expedi-
tions of discovery, or searching with avidity 
for gold-mines, or employed in agriculture or in 
the chase. Those scenes of wild adventure and 
-. 
110 INDIA. 
romantic enterprise which marked the appearance 
and early proceedings of Europeans in the New' 
,,,ro rld, and in a few parts of the Old, never had 
any existence upon the shores of India; where 
the first adventurers, finding a powerful and a 
civilized people who despised foreigners, were 
restrained by prudence and fear and self-interest 
from attempting to invade and plunder their coun-
try in the usual style of European aggression. 
Even the idolatry of the Indians became respect-
able in the eyes of their foreign ,"isiters, because 
their gods were adorned with gold and gems, and 
because their worshippers appeared to abound in 
wealth; and those very men, who would have 
waged a holy war against the Hindoo infidels had 
these been weak and poor and defenceless, used 
cvery means to flatter and conciliate them, under 
the idea that more spoil would be obtained in the 
last way than in the first. But if the domestic 
and personal history of the European residents of 
Hindostan presents little variety of character or 
circumstance, the political and military one of 
their respective nations abounds with extraordi-
nary features, and embraces such a complicated 
system of mercantile enterprise, artful policy, 
brilliant valour, and prodigious sway, as is un-
folded in the annals of no other country. Details 
of this nature, however, do not fall within the plan 
• 
• 
• 
• 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 81 
of my work, and the reader will not in the follow-
ing pages meet with any allusions to the political 
events that have led to the subjugation of India, 
except in so far as they may be essential to per-
spicuity, and illustrative of the subject before us. 
The first Europeans who visited India, (at least 
as far as we know,) were Alexander the Great and 
his army; but traversing the country as conquer-
ors, they could have had little intercourse with 
its inhabitants, and their sojourn there made so 
slight an impression upon the latter, that it is but 
faintly and obscurely adverted to in their tradi-
, tions. Judging from the character of Alexander, 
we may fairly presume that he did not unneces-
• 
~ sarily oppress the Hindoos, and that he respected 
• their customs and religious belief. When the 
.I,  Gymnosophists, or more properly speaking the 
- Vanaprasta or Sannyasa Brahmans, refused to at-
tend his summons, he did not force them to com-
ply; and the sage who asked him what purpose 
his thirst of extensive dominion would serve, since 
after death his body could occupy and possess only 
a few feet of ground, was heard with forbearance 
and even commendation. Had Alexander re-
mained any length of time in India, it is probable 
that he would have accommodated himself to the 
customs of the country, and to the modes of 
thinking of its peopl!', in the same manner as he 
VOL. II. G 
• • 
, 
•,  
82 INDIA. 
did in Persia. Either owing to the instructions 
of his liberal-minded preceptor Aristotle, or to 
an idea of his own immeasurable superiority to 
all other men, the Macedonian hero had di-
vested himself of the prejudices that prevailed 
amongst the Greeks in reference to other nations, 
and did not regard all foreigners as barbarians, or 
maintain that none of them practised any cus-
toms worthy of imitation, or knew anything that 
it was desirable to know. But if Alexander was 
disposed to be one of the mildest and most con· 
ciliating of conquerors, his soldiers were of a very 
different character; and it is a happy circumstance 
that he did not leave any garrisoll! in India, for 
the Greeks would undoubtedly have treated the 
Hindoos with cruelty and contempt, not more 
because of the peculiar manners and mode of life • 
of the latter, than on account of that want ofmili. 
tary valom with which they have so often been 
reproached by Europeans, but which arose in those 
times from the principles of eq uity adopted by the 
. ancient sovereigns of India, who, never aspiring 
to extend their dominions, or seeking occasions • 
to plunder their neighbours, had no object in cul-
tivating the arts of war, or cherishing a martial 
spirit amongst the people. 
Shortly after the death of Alexander the Great, 
Seleucus Nicanor, who succeeded to his Persian 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 83 
conquests, sent Megasthenes on an embassy to the 
Indian sovereign, whose capital was the celebrated 
,-. 
city of Palibotbra, the site of which; has been so 
often a subject of doubt and discussion. Here 
Megasthenes resided for several years, and wrote 
a description of what he observed; but his work is 
no longer in existence; a circumstance much to 
be regretted, for it most probably contained many 
domestic details in reference to his intercourse 
with the Hindoos, and to the manner in which he 
lived amongst them and was affected by their 
personal habits and opinions. 
We learn nothing more of the visits of Europe-
ans to India (if any such did occur) till the middle 
• • 
of the thirteenth century, when Marco Polo, the 
Venetian traveller, published an account of his 
abode in various parts of the country, whither he 
'- - was sent by the Grand Khan or Tartar Emperor 
of China. Polo's narrative is meagre and unsa-
tisfactory, and exhibits him in the character of 
a merchant, rather than of an instructive and 
animated observer; for though the particulars 
which he gives respecting the Hind!los are in 
most instances strictly correct, they are altogether 
general in their application, and he never de-
scribes what his personal feelings were during his 
residence amongst them, or whether the differ-
ence of his habits and mode of life subjected 
G 2 
84 INDIA. 
him at such times to any perplexity or inconveni-
ence. It ought, however, to be remarked, that his 
long abode at a Tartar court had probably caused 
him to forget his European prejudices, and had 
rendered him less sensitive to those prevailing in 
India than he would otherwise have been. 
It was not till the end of the fifteenth century 
that Europeans were brought into close colli-
sion with the Hindoos, and led to concei"e the 
design of appropriating to themselves their com-
merce and their seaports, and of forming establish-
ments in a country which had long been supposed 
to lie beyond the reach of the inhabitants of the 
'Vestern world, and to possess a climate to which 
their constitutions could never become assimilated. 
In 1499, the Portuguese navigator Yasco de Gama 
appeared before Calicut, on the Malabar coast, and 
announced himself as the ambassador of a power-
ful European sovereign; but being unprovided 
with suitable presents for the Zamorin or Indian 
prince whose territories he had approached, and 
exciting the jealousy of the Arab merchants settled 
• 
there, his assertions were at first discredited, and 
his overtures of alliance received with indifterence 
and even contempt. However, it was enough for 
De Gama that he had discovered the long-sought 
passage to the Indies; and he hastened homewards 
to communicate that important intf'lIigf'nce to the 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. !l5 
court of Portugal, by whose instructions a new ex-
pedition on a large scale was shortly fitted out, and 
despatched, under the command of Cabral, with 
the object of forming commercial establishments in 
the East. Cabral, on reaching Calicut, was treated 
much as his predecessor had been, and ere long 
he came to hostilities with the people, and was 
obliged to proceed along the coast in search of a 
more favourable reception. This he obtained at 
Cochin, the sovereign of which being under the 
yoke of the Zamorin, and desirous of shaking it 
off, willingly entered into an alliance with his 
foreign visiters against their common enemy. He 
allowed the Portuguese to build a fort and a fac-
• • 
tory within his territories, and thus enabled them 
to commence a system of conquest, which soon 
involved him in destruction, and eventually ex-
'- tended to the remotest parts of the coast of Hin-
dostan. 
At the beginning of the sixteenth century. 
the Eastern and 'Vestern worlds were alike suf-
fering the ravages of European conquerors, and 
presented equally extraordinary examples of des-
perate courage and of individual energy. It is 
difficult to determine whether the Portuguese in 
Jn dia, or the Spaniards in America, performed the 
most brilliant actions, or were guilty of the great-
est excesses; . for the theatres of their respecti ve 
• 
86 INDIA. 
exploits had few points of resemblance. The 
Portuguese, making war upon a civilized people, 
were assailed by weapons similar to their own, 
though less skilfully managed, and had to engage 
with armies of embodied troops, instead of tribes 
of wandering savages; but the country wbich 
they invaded was rich in supplies, and tbey con-
fined their operations to its coasts, while their fleets 
generally lay close hy ill readiness to afford tbem 
protection, and even refuge, in case of reverse. 
The Spaniards, on the other band, were opposed by 
men who neither used fire-arms, nor knew how to 
construct fortifications, nor to rally after a defeat; 
however, they pursued their conquests far in the 
interior of wild and unfruitful territories, and 
suffered incredible hardships from fatigue and 
famine, and were seldom within the reach of as-
sistance from their own COUll tn-men. The dis-
• 
tillction between the character of the conquests 
cffected by the two European powers in question 
consists, if I may use the expression, in those of 
the Portuguese being national, and those of the 
Spaniards individual; for the court of Portugal 
always supplied armaments for the subjugation of 
Hindostan, while the Spanish government only 
encouraged adventurers to invade America at 
their private risk and expense. 
Nearly all thc most important exploits of the 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 87 
Portuguese in the East Indies were maritime ones, 
and it was principally by their navy that they ex-
tended their conquests, and established their domi-
nion. The numerous fleets of the native princes 
were in many instances dispersed and destroyed 
• 
by a few Portuguese ships of war, which derived 
this superiority less from their magnitude and 
well-managed artillery, than from the power of 
••  
I out-manreuvring the enemy, which a knowledge of 
European nautical tactics conferred. ('(\!TIrara-
tively defective as these must have been at the 
period in question. Accounts, more or less ex-
aggerated, of all the general actions that took 
place on the coasts of India between the Portu-
guese and the native· sovereigns have been pre-
• served; but they embrace little of that personal ,•  
• adventure which communicates variety to scenes 
of the kind, generally in other respects monoto-
nous, and conveys an accurate idea of the indi-
vidual character and habits. of feeling of the con-
tending parties. In the history of the Portuguese 
conquests, we meet with few examples of despe-
rate enterprise and strange vicissitude, similar to 
what attended the sUbjugation of America by the 
Spaniards; but this is not to be attributed to the 
inferior valour of the (ormer nation, but to the 
nature of the country which formed the scene of 
their victories, and the civilized character of the 
88 INDIA. 
people who inhabited it. In the following anec-
dote, however, we find a characteristic instance 
of that enthusiastic military ardour which gene-
rally animated European conquerors at tbe 
beginning of the fifteenth century. 
The taking of Cali cut was one of the first ex-
ploits of the celebrated Albuquerque after his ar· 
rival in India. In that affair he was assisted by • 
Marcchal Coutinho, who had previously made it 
a condition that he should command the advanced 
guard, and make the first attack. The troops 
being disembarked, the Marechal proceeded lei. 
surely towards tbe city at the head of his division, 
while Albuquerque led his men to the assault by 
a different route, as had been agreed upon; but 
having, either intentionally or otherwise, got the 
start of Coutinho, he began the action without 
waiting for him. Coutinho, on disc-overing this, 
was inflamed with rage, and, ('Onceiving that he 
had been insulted and betrayed, he tore off his 
helmet, and, dashing it and his arms to the ground, 
called to his attendants to procure him a cap and 
a cane. Having received these, he hastened to-
wards Albuquerque, and cried, .. Is it thus, Sir, 
that you keep your faith? You doubtless hope 
to have the satisfaction of informing his Majesty 
that you were the first man to enter Calicut; but 
I will take especial care to let him know what sort 
, 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 89 
of people these Indians are, of whose prowess you 
send him such exaggerated accounts.- He will 
learn how to estimate them, when 1 tell him that 
I forced my way into the city, having only a cap 
on my head and a cane in my hand." 
Though the Portuguese established several fac-
• tOl'ies on the Malabar coast shortly after their ar-
,,  rival in India, they cannot be considered to have 
properly settled in the country till the year 1510, 
when Albuquerque captured the city of Goa, and 
fixed the seat of the colonial government there. 
This circumstance, conjoined with the favourable 
position of Goa for commerce, drew a great num-
ber of Portuguese to the spot, and its European 
, 
population soon became considerable. It was now 
• for the first time that the collision of opposite pre-
I 
r judices and discordant religious opinions began 
-- to be experienced; for the Portuguese had hither-
to seldom come into contact with the natives of 
India except in the course of war or commercial 
transactions, and nearly all of the latter were 
conducted by Moors or Mahomedans, whose par-
ticular creed did not offer any obstacles to their 
free communication with foreigners. But no 
sooner had the Portuguese fixed their residence 
amongst the Hindoos of various castes, who form-
ed a considerable portion of the population of 
Goa, than causes of public and private disturbance 
90 INDIA. 
daily arose, during which excetiges were often 
&mmitted by both parties. These evils at length 
increased to such a degree, that Albuquerque, in 
order to check them, divided the city into several 
q narters, one of which was allotted to his coun-
trymen, while the Hindoos, the Mahomedans, 
and Malabarites occupied the others respectively; 
the gates of each of them being closed at a certain 
hour every night, in order to prevent any irregu-
lar communication between the different classes of 
inhabitants. Abont this period tbe Portuguese 
established themselves in l\Jalacca, and regulations 
similar to the above were put in force there; for 
no sooner did the Europeans and Indians come 
into contact, of whatever race or caste the latter 
might be, than affrays and excesses took place 
which often led to fatal consequences. 
It is agreed by all writers, that the most fright-
ful dissoluteness of manners began at 1\11 early pe-
riod to prevail in the Portuguese settlements in 
India. This general corruption was produced and 
fostered by the temperature of the country, the 
luxurions idleness of the Europeans residing in it, 
and the mild and unresisting character of its na-
tive inhabitants. Had those Portuguese, who 
held offices and appointments at such places as 
Goa and l\1a1acca, been required to devote them-
,elves to business, or had their persollal interesb 
• 
• 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. •  91 ' 
encouraged them to do so, habits of industry 
and occupation would have prevented, or at least 
partly restrained, the developement of their pas-
sions; but, on the contrary, living in absolute 
idleness, and devolving their duties upon deputies 
and dependants, they cultivated licentiousness as 
a pastime, and found a solace in the practice of 
all kinds of depravity. They did not, indeed, wan-
tonly shed blood, or commit unmeaning acts of 
cruelty, like the Spaniards in America; but in 
sensual excesses, base desires, and desperate pro-
fligacy, they far surpassed them. "The gentle-
men in particular," says Lafitau, "w~~ distin-
guished for the most unbridled licence; as if it 
were a privilege of persons of high birth to do 
more evil than their neighbours. Despising the 
common people, and, above all, the Hindoos arid 
- Mahomedans, they subjected them to all sorts of 
injustices and insults, regardless of what was due 
to their station or their persons. They carried off 
their wives and their daughters, and deprived in-
dividuals of liherty, often with the sole view of 
gratifying propensities at which nature shudders; 
and, to crown the whole, these guilty ravishers of 
the property and honour of their fellow-creatures 
often formed designs against the lives of those 
whom they had maltreated, and rendered thelll_ 
~el\'es doubly obnoxious by their acts of a~sassilla_ 
• 
92 INDIA. 
tion, which had become so frequent that it was 
dangerous to go abroad." 
It was during the prevalence of this state of 
things that the celebrated Francis Xavier arrived 
in India; and, while he deplored the general corrup-
tion of manners amongst the Portuguese, his aposto-
lical zeal was augmented by a consideration of the 
extensiveness of the field which demanded his la-
bours. He found the churches and confessionals of 
Goa deserted, and reNgion and its ministers treated 
with indifference and contempt; while every pri-
vate house contained a seraglio, or nightly exhi-
bited scenes of profligate enjoyment. Concubines 
and female slaves were publicly bought and sold; 
the officers of justice received bribes; usury pre-
vailed to an excessive degree; and assassination 
was of such common occurrence that the act had 
ceased to be regarded as a crime. Xavier devoted 
himself exclusively to the work of reformation; 
aud every morning he traversed the principal 
streets of Goa, ringing a small bell, and exhorting 
the passengers to repentance. He was particular-
ly desirous of remo.ving the evil of concubinage, 
which existed to a great extent amongst the Por-
tuguese; and in order to effect this, he did every-
thing in his power to conciliate the offenders, and 
to gain their esteem and confidence, and often 
visited them, and even proposed that he should be 
, • 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY . 93 
. 
a guest at their tables. On these occasions, seiz-
ing a favourable opportunity, he would desire his 
host to fa,'our him with a sight of his children, 
when, having caressed . them affectionately, 'be 
would next propose that the mother should make 
her appearance. If she happened to be fair.com~ 
plexioned and handsome, he would express his 
, admiration to her gallant, and say, "You possess • , a charming slave, who is in every respect worthy 
I to become your wife;" buJ..J!i she was black and unprepossessing, he would '" exclaim, .. Why do 
you keep such a monster in your house~bow 
can you endure the sight of her ?'~ T~e and si-
milar expressions, combined with moral advice, had 
generally so great an effect upon the polygamist, 
• 
\ that he would marry the female whom Xavier had 
. commended, and dismiss the others from his 
• 
_ house. 
The system of concubinage which I have de-
scribed as prevailing so universally at Goa, would 
seem to imply that there were few Portuguese 
ladies in the Indies at that time, ,o•r  at least that • 
they had little influence in the society there . 
.~  
About the period in questiqn, however, several 
females, the wives of European officers, distin-
guished themselves in the fortress of Diu when 
it was besieged by Soliman Pacha. On that occa-
sion a lady named Isabella de Vega assembled her 
• 
• 
94 INDIA. 
companions, and exhorted them to assist their 
husbands in repelling the enemy, and called to 
their remembrance various instances of female 
heroism which had occurred in former times. 
Her eloquence had the desired effect; and a 
small band of amazons' immediately volunteered 
their services, and proceeded under her orders to 
employ themselves in carrying arms and ammu-
nition to the soldiers requiring them, and ' even 
occasionally mingled in the fight, and exposed 
themselves to imminent personal danger. But this 
exhibition of courage does not imply that the 
parties who made it possessed that refinement of 
mind and manners which elevate the female cha-
racter In the eyes of men, and which render them 
ambitious of pleasing the other sex, and willing 
to do so, even at the expense of their passions and 
their pleasures. "" 
The settlement of Goa rapidly attained a high 
degree of political grandeur. private opulence, and 
commercial prosperity, and it was in the zenith of 
its glory a few years after the conquest of the 
celebrated fortress of Diu had secured to the Por-
tuguese the sovereignty of the coasts of Western 
India. The ambition and insolence of that na-
tion increased in proportion to the extension of 
its poWer; and the rapacity or the tyrannical ac-
tions of individuals were neither noticed nor I'e-
• 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 95 
pressed so long as they involved only the natives 
of the country, who were regarded by their in-
vaders as a race too contemptible to deserve any 
respect or consideration. The Indian fleet annu-
ally brought out a crowd of adventurers from 
Portugal, who settled themselves at Goa, or Mel-
liapour, or Malacca, or at other places of minor im-
I portance, and immediately began to turn their at-
tention to tbe rapid acquirement of wealth. Some 
of these men obtained situations under govern-
ment, in which they practised all manner of ex-
tortion; others became bankers and merchants; 
and not a few daring and desperate characters be-
took themselves to piracy, and amasse-d riches by 
plundering the ships of'the Mahomedans and Ara-
bians. Every Portuguese emigrant, however hum-
ble his birth and pretensions might be, assumed 
- - the rank of a hidalgo, or gentleman, as soon as he 
• 
bad doubled the Cape of Good Hope; while, on 
his arrival in India, the humility and respect with 
• 
which the Indians conducted themselves towards 
bim, served to increase his idea of his own im-
portance, and the example of his countrymen 
encouraged him to commit every kind of excess 
that might suggest itself to his exhilarated ima_ 
gination. 
But, nevertheless, the combined eff'ec~" of the 
disorders committed by private individuals, of 
96 INDIA. 
much public mal.administration, and of the inve· 
terate hatred of the natives of the country, did not 
for a considerable time materially affect the pro-
sperity which the Portuguese enjoyed in India; 
• 
and had no rival European nation assailed them 
there, it is probable that their power would have 
long continued without sensible decline. As it 
was, it lasted in its height exactly one century, 
that is to say, from the taking of Goa in 1510 to 
the period of the successful competition of the 
Dutch in 1610. 
But the town of Goa, though the seat of the 
viceroyalty of the Indies, and containing a large 
European population, always preserved its Asiatic 
character; and its Portuguese inhabitants, intole. 
rant and imperious as they were, found it neces-
sary to make many concessions in favour of the 
prejudices of the natives, and to permit them to 
live and dress as they pleased, and to conduct 
commerce and the general affairs of life in the 
way that they had been accustomed to do while 
in the enjoyment of their own laws and form of 
government. This has been more or less the case 
with all European communities who have esta. 
blished themselves in tropical regions. Their own 
indolence and disposition for luxury, and the 
dangers of the climate, have always combined to 
render them dependent IIpon the natives of the 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 97 
country alike for personal service and for a regu-
lar supply of the necessaries of life; and heme in 
most instances, where the latter enjoy any privi-
leges, or are exempted frolD molestation, they are 
indebted for both more to the selfishness of their 
conquerors than to their benevolence or human-
ity. The Portuguese inhabitants of Goa did not 
make much external display of wealth, either in 
the construction of pu blic works of art, or in the 
pomp of gorgeous equipages. They supported 
no theatre or opera, or any other description of 
popular amusement, and seldom went abroad for 
pleasure, but found their chief entertainment in 
gaming. and in the festivals of the church, which 
were celebrated by them with remarkable splen-
dour. Females had but small influence in society, 
because they were few in number, and because 
- the extreme jealousy of their husbands obliged 
them to confine their intercourse to persons of their 
own sex, or to their nearest relations belonging to 
the other. 
A considerable influx of the priesthood took 
place into Goa shortly after the Portuguese had 
established themselves there. About the middle 
of the sixteenth century, the Franciscans, the 
Dominicans, the Jesuits, and several other reli-
gious orders, founded convents, and built those 
splendid churches for which the settlement was 
VOL. II. H 
• 
, 
98 INDIA. 
at one time celebrated. Most of the early clergy 
were men of learning and piety, and upon them 
devolved the task of educating the children of 
the Portuguese residing in India; ,and colleges 
were instituted for that purpose, at which the 
youth enjoyed such favourable opportunities of 
instruction as are seldom found in a distant colony. 
Dut literature and the fine arts have never flourish-
ed under the skies of the torrid zone; and they, as 
may easily be supposed, were little esteemed or 
cultivated at Goa, where, in addition to the nature 
of the climate, the condition of the people was 
hostile to theil· progress . . 
Nearly all the }'ortuguese, except the clergy, 
being either mercantile speculators, or military ad-
venturers, or aspirants for office, thpy were too 
deeply engaged in their respective pursuits to feel 
, 
any interest in subordinate objects; while the few 
government functionaries wAo enjoyed leisure and 
independence thought only of making the most 
of their appointments, because they well knew 
that their tenure of them was uncertain, and that 
the climate of India was a fatal one to European 
constitutions. It is evident, too, that the esta.-
blishment of the Inquisition at Goa, in 1560, must 
have contributed in no small degree to retard the 
progress of taste and knowledge there; for that 
tribunal exercised its functions with so much 
• • 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 99 
strictness, that no books or specimens of the fine 
arts could be imported without its sanction, while 
it at the same time kept the opinions of the people 
under censorship, and was ever on the watch to 
denounce and punish those individuals who might 
, 
attempt to introduce new ones, whether in refer-
ence to church or state. Father Cottineau in 
,i  defending the Inquisition of Goa against the 
charge of undue severity in its proceedings, re-
marks that it always sincerely desired to save the 
lives of those who had incurred its displeasure, and 
that at every auto-de-fe that took place, most of 
the criminals were reprieved, while those who 
did suffer death were in general" strangled before 
they were burned." , . 
! About the middle of the seventeenth century, 
I' the wealth and power of the Portuguese in the 
. -- East had prodigiously declined, and the general 
character of the people had suffered a correspond-
ing and proportionate abasement. The men whom 
the court of Portugal now appointed to fill the dif-
ferent offices of governmellt in India, were greatly 
inferior in rank, pretensions, and talents, to their 
earlier predecessors; and, coming to the country 
less with a view to personal glory or distinction, 
than for the purpose of acquiring wealth, they set 
but an indifferent example to their inferiors and 
subordinates, and failed to practise those pub-
H 2 
• 
100 INDIA. 
lic virtues, or exercise that noble energy. which 
had distinguished the career of many of the 
founders of the Portuguese dominion in the 
East. Private individuals naturally began to par-
take of the avidity and interested spirit of their 
rulers; and with the more readiness, because they 
saw that the rapid decay of the Portuguese esta-
blishments, which was going forward under their 
observation, would, ere long, prove fatal to their 
own prosperity, and close all the avenues to pre-
ferment that had hitherto lain open to their am-
bition. The trade of Goa and Malacca, and other 
places, being ruined hy the competition and in-
trigues of the Du tch and English, many of the 
Portuguese merchants were reduced to indigence; 
while their countrymen of the lower orders, no 
longer getting employment in the large towns, 
found it necessary to wander in search of it to dis-
tant spots. The establish menta were thus gradu-
ally depopulated of Europeans; nor was the loss 
supplied by that annual arrival of adventurers 
from Portugal which had formerly occurred, for 
persons of the kind had no longer any encourage-
ment to seek their fortunes in the Indies. This 
despressed state of things rendered many of the 
Portuguese hopeless of ever being able to return 
to their native land; and to console themselves, 
and to improve their resources, they formed alli-
EUROPEAN SOCIETY, 101 
• 
ances with the Moorish and Malabar women, and 
adopted their habits and prejudices; and ' these 
unions, between two different races of people, 
occasioned (as they always do) a deterioration of 
character in both. 
The reduced fortunes of the Portuguese did 
not, however, lower their personal pretensions, or 
! produce amongst them an increase of industry; 
for all the travellers who visited their Indian set-
tlements at the period in question, speak of their 
pride, their idleness, and their voluptuous and 
quarrelsome dispositions. "The men are generally 
excessive proud," says Baldreus; "there being 
scarce any of them that thinks himself removed 
, 
a little above the vulgar sort, but what has his 
~ 
,••   umbrella carried over his head, another servant to 
f carry his cloak after him, and another who holds 
his sword. They use frequently snuff, not ex-
cepting the maidens and women; and as they 
walk along the streets, they are continually strok-
ing and setting up their whiskers. The women 
never appear abroad either on foot or in chairs 
unveiled, their husbands being (and perhaps not 
without reason) very jealous of them; for which 
reason, also, they keep them at home in their 
apartments above stairs, the windows whereof are 
so contrived that they can look upwards, but not 
downwards into the streets." The same author 
102 INDIA. 
observes, that the men seldom employed them-
selves in any way, but left tbe management .of 
their affairs to their slaves; and that, though tbey 
were abstemious in drinking, affrays and murders 
were very common amongst them. Navarette, 
a Dominican friar, who visited the Coromandel 
coast in 1649, was equally scandalised by the be-
haviour of the Portuguese residing in the town of 
St. Thomas; and he complains that one woman 
used to go to church attended by several slaves 
of her own sex perfuming her with sweets from 
a burning censor ... What follows is worse," con-
tinues he; .. many told me (would to God it were 
a lie, and I had not heard it ') th3t Catholic men 
were pimps to Catholic women with Mahome-
dans and Gentiles." He further states, that at a 
procession in the holy week, the people fought 
with drawn swords; and that at Travancore one 
Portuguese killed another, close by the altar, dur-
ing the performance of mass. 
About this period Tavernier. the jewel-mer-
chant, celebrated for his travels in the East, arriv-
ed in Goa, und resided there for some time. He 
found many of its most respectable inhabitants re-
duced to a state of indigence; and several of them 
of both sexes, who had formerly enjoyed large in-
comes, visited him secretly in the evening, for the 
purpose of demanding alms. The females came 
• 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 103 
in their palanquins, and remained at the door, 
while a servant carried in a paper containing a 
description of their destitute condition, attested 
by the signature of one of the priests of the city_ 
Those who felt disposed to relieve the fair peti-
tioners either sent their donations, or delivered 
, them in person. In the last case they had an 
- opportunity of conversing with the object of their 
I charity, who would sometimes be prevailed upon 
to enter the house and partake of a collation. 
The Portuguese were so jealous of their wives, 
that if they suspected them of infidelity, they con-
sidered it lawful to put them to death, and also to 
procure the ass!lssination of their paramours. It 
sometimes happened that individuals were mur-
r 
• dered within the churches; and in two instances 
certain bravoes, who had been hired for the work 
of death, fired at their intended victims through 
•- the church-windows, careless about the injury 
which they might do to the bystanders. Though 
the officiating priest was severely wounded upon 
one of these occasions, the criminals were not pro-
secuted or proceeded against; and similar outrages 
were usually allowed to pass unpunished, because 
persons in power and office were in general impli-
cated in them. 
Of late years the power of the Portuguese in 
India has still farther declined, and of all their 
104 INDIA. 
former extensive possessions the settlements of 
Goa and Damaun now alone remain to them. 
They. have in reality long since ceased to exist in 
Hindostan as a nation; that population, called Por-
tuguese, which is now found upon the Malabar 
coast, being a race of mixed descent, possessing 
very few and very indistinct marks of European 
extraction. For nearly a century past no Euro-
pean Portuguese have come to India, except those 
individuals who have been appointed to the situa-
tions of viceroy, of bishop, or of commandant of 
the troops; the subordinate officers of govern-
ment having always been selected from amongst 
the reputed descendants of the Portuguese resi-
dents of former days. These men are in general 
of a . darker complexion than the Hindoos them-
selves, and of a very spare habit of body, and they ' 
are 'seldom well-proportioned or good-looking. 
They are mild in their manners and temperate in 
their mode of life, and never exhibit either that 
quarrelsome disposition or that ferocity of mind 
with which their progenitors have so often been 
reproached. In Bombay they form a numerous 
and useful class of the native community. A few 
of them are merchants; but by far the greater pro-
portion hold subordinate situations in the various 
government offices, where their services are found 
to be highly valuable, from their steadiness of 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 105 
character, and their expertness in keeping accounts. 
A good many of them gain a livelihood by music, 
for they are the only class of the native pppula-
tion of India that can be made to understand and 
practise that art in the European style; and if 
their performances are seldom above mediocrity, 
that is to be attributed rather to their want of 
opportunities of instruction, than to any feeble-
ness of capacity on their own part. 
The site of the once celebrated city of Goa is 
now a depopulated and desert spot, exhibiting in 
various quarters cathedrals, chapels, and colleges, 
all of them in a state of decay, and most of them 
entirely neglected by the descendants of those 
under whose auspices 'they were founded. The 
Portuguese occupy a straggling town in the 
• neighbourhood of the ancient one, which last they 
, __ rarely visit, except on patronal and festival days, 
when mass is celebrated in several of its moulder-
ing churches. The commerce of Goa is limited to 
an inconsiderable coasting trade, and to the annual 
arrival of one vessel from Europe. Hence the ex-
treme poverty of most of its inhabitants, who used 
, to derive all their resources from mercantile pur-
"' su-its, and who now languish in idleness and 
obscurity; for a certain degree of national pride, 
and also a strong attachment to their birth-place, 
prevent at least those of the better class from seek-
106 INDIA. 
jng their fortunes elsewhere. But even the Por-
tuguese of the meanest condition prefer Goa to 
any other part of India; and many of them are in 
the habit of annually visiting it for a few month., 
and there spending the sums which they may 
have been earning during the rest of the year. 
Happily for its inhabitants, Goa is one of tbe 
cheapest places in the world; there a person with 
an income of sixty or seventy pounds a-year is 
considered affiuent; and sixpence a day is suffi-
cient for the maintenance of an individual of the 
most respectable class of society. 
The British have obtained a greater extent of 
dominion in India than the Portuguese ever en-
joyed; and in tracing the Asiatic history of the 
two nations, we find the causes of the decay and 
final ruin of the one explained by the events and 
principles of policy which have led to the existing 
power and prosperity of the other. It was not 
British valour that drove the Portuguese out of 
India, any more than it was British valour that 
enabled us to acquire the influence there which 
we now possess. Had we entered the field in the 
character of warriors and conquerors as the Por-
tuguese did, we should in all probability have 
failed in making a single permanent estahlishment 
upon the coasts of Hindostan. But, corning at 
first in small numbers, and under the unimposing 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 107 
guise of merchants, we had time to obtain such 
an intimate knowledge of the nature of the coun-
try, and of the character of its inhabitants, as en-
abled us afterwards to employ our strength and 
resources in the most efficient way whenever any 
particular point was to be gained. Nor was the 
economy attending this mode of proceeding one 
1 of its least advantages. The Portuguese, from the 
period of their first establishing themselves in 
India, had found it necessary to maintain large 
fleets and garrisons there to protect their com-
merce and to ensure their dominion by land; and 
they were continually engaged in expensive wars 
with the native princ, e.s , with whom they in ge-
neral scorned to employ measures of conciliation, 
• even when the point at issue was of the most tri-t 
" vial nature. This overbearing and military spirit J 
~ ___ infused itself into most of their officers of govern-
t ment, and the natives, everywhere harassed by 
their tyranny, were at all times disposed to con-
spire against them; and the most inconsiderable 
Portuguese factories required a garrison for their 
protection from plunder and insult. On the other 
hand, the Eritish sought to advance their influence 
in Hindostan by artful policy and prudent nego-
tiation, and in this w~y they gained advantages 
at an insignificant expense, which would have cost 
millions had they been extorted by force of arms. 
• 
108 INDIA. 
They had possessed establishments in Hindostan 
upwards of fifty years at the period when they 
first commenced hostilities with the natives; while 
the wars of the Portuguese with the same people 
began on Vasco de Gama's second arrival on the 
Malabar coast, two years subsequent to the dis-
covery of a route to India by the Cape of Good 
Hope. 
The advancement of the British interests in 
India was likewise in no small degree favoured 
and promoted by the description and character of 
the individuals who were sent there in an official 
capacity. The East India Company have from 
tIle earliest period of their existence filled up the 
ranks of their service with men of respectability 
and education; and it is doubtless to their con-
stant perseverance in this system, and to the ex-
clusion of adventurers from the country, that they 
owe the extent of dominion which they at present 
enjoy. The Portuguese home government, though 
it in general appointed men of talent to fill the 
higher official situations in India, allowed persons 
of the lowest grade and worst principles to emigrate 
to the East, with the view of improving their 
fortunes; and the outrages and excesses committed 
by such men not only led to many disturbances, 
but also degraded the European character in the 
estimation of the natives, and required the atten-
• 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 109 
tion and control of authorities who ought to have 
been otherwise employed, and who found insubor-
dination and opposition in the very quarter from 
whence they ought to have derived efficiency and 
support. Sir Thomas Roe, who was sent by James 
the First as ambassador to the Great Mogul, ad. 
dresses some advice to the East India Company 
" on the subject of adventurers, which they haye 
•,,  scrupulously followed ever since, and with great • 
advantage to themselves and to the people of Hin-
dostan. "The suffering of volunteers to pass in 
your fleets (says he)' is an extreme incommodity. 
How to dispose of one here honestly I know not. 
Assure yourselves that they are either some un-
, 
ruly youths that want ground to sow their llU-
, mours, or are exposed to be tamed, and may do 
, 
, you and me much prejudice in reputation. ' I 
, 
" __ have had a bitter experience of some taken by 
, 
! myself in good-nature. Here is subject to practise 
all vice upon and no virtue to be learnt." 
The East India Company's officers both civil 
and military having always been chosen from the 
same class of society in England, and having al-
ways derived their salaries and emoluments from ' 
the corporate body employing them, and also been 
responsible to it for their good behaviour and in-
tegrity, it is easy to suppose that a great simi. 
larity of habits, opinions, and modes of life must 
• 
, 
no INDIA. 
have at all times, and under all circumstances, 
prevailed amongst them. 
The independent adventurer, who visits a fo-
reign country with a view to his own interest or 
personal gratification, may run a wild career, and 
proceed according to the dictates of his fancy; 
but men holding offi~jal situations abroad, and 
subjected to the control of their superiors, natu-
rally regulate their actions and ideas by a-certain 
standard, and abstain from engaging in affairs or 
speculations which do not lie within the sphere of 
their duties, but which, by placing them in un-
common circumstances, might lend a novelty and 
variety to the tenor of their lives calculated to 
make it worthy of being minutely described. 
For these reasons, the English residents of India 
have always preserved their national habits and 
manners more unaltered than any other class of 
Europeans who ever had establishments in the 
country 113ve done. It is also very certain, that 
the nritish have maintained a reserve in their 
intercourse with the Hindoos, which was never 
adopted by other foreigners, and which proceeds 
in an equal degree from their strong attachment 
to their own customs, and from their being to.-
tally independent of the natives, and therefore 
indifferent to their good-will. Were they to de-
rive their incomes from commerce, or agricultW'e, 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. III 
or manufactures, instead of being paid regular 
salaries by government, they would necessarily be 
brought into much closer contact with the Hin-
doos than they are at present, when no com-
munity of interest exists between the parties, and 
when the Company's servants are strictly prohibit-
ed from carrying on any local transactions of what-
ever kind the o~ect of which is profit. We are 
told that Albuquerque, shortly after the establish-
ment of the Portuguese at Goa, caused many of 
his officers and other Europeans to form allIances 
by marriage with the native families resident in 
the place, and that the best effects resulted from 
that arrangement. It is difficult to understand 
how such a thing could ' have been effected. The 
female parties in these unions were undoubtedly 
not of a low caste or class, for such persons would 
_not have answered the purpose in view; which 
was to create a bond of interest and harmony be-
tween the Portuguese and the Indians by an ho-
nourable mixture of blood, and by the ties of 
relationship and property. But no man in the 
least degree acquainted with the feelings which 
the Hindoos entertain towards foreigners in the 
present day, will for a moment believe that it 
would be possible to induce any wealthy and 
high-caste man amongst the former to give his 
daughter away in marriage to an European. 
• 
• 
• 
112 INDIA. 
Hence it is probable that the native females 
whom the Portuguese obtained in marriage were 
Moorish women, and the daughters of those rich 
Mahomedan merchants who monopolized nearly 
all the foreign commerce of the Malabar coast at 
• 
the period at which the Portuguese first visited 
that part of India. 
The British residing in India live very much in 
the way to which they have been ac('ustomed in 
their native country; nor has th~ influence of a 
warm climate produced any alteration in this re-
spect worth mentioning. As all of them enjoy 
the prospect of returning home after a greater or 
less period of service, they consider themselves 
strangers in India, even after having spent half 
their lives there; and this hahit of mind, conjoin-
ed with the frequent change of residence to which 
they are liable, has a' strong tendency to prevent 
their assimilating themselves to the country and 
its inhabitants, or forming any local attachment 
to either. Comparatively few of the Company's 
servants, whether civil or military, take any de-
light in studying the history, character, and insti-
tutions of the people amongst whom they live; 
and hundreds of individuals, who have passed a 
long series of years in Hindostan, possess as little 
real knowledge of its native inhabitants as the mass 
of society does in England. I have explained the 
• 
• • • 
• 
• 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 113 
cause of this in the preceding section of the work, 
and will merely remark here, that the ignorance 
ill question is an evil which is likely always to 
exist, because self-interest has no voice in sug-
gesting its removal. 
At the Presidencies of Calcutta, Madras, and 
I 
• Bombay, in each of which there is a large Euro-
pean population, the prevailing style of manners 
• and routine of society rese'illbles that of the cities 
I 
of Great Briqin. But at out-stations, where 
only a small circle is assembled, the manner of 
life and the amusements are, as may be supposed, 
rather destitute of variety. There field sports and 
gardening employ the leisure ti me of the gentle-
men, while the ladies 'find resources in music, rid-
ing, and in domesdc occupations. The sciences 
are rarely cultivated by E\!rQpjl3ns in India; and 
__ only a few persons seek e~joy~~t ,in literature, 
which, to please them, must be oc: the lightest 
kind. The general tone of society is gay, liberal, 
and unconstrained, though frequently "ery lan-
guid. As most of the Company's servants enjoy 
a.good deal of leisure time, they have continual 
intercourse with each other, and thus successfully 
supply the want of those amusements and sources 
of interest which their situation may place beyond , 
their reach. • 
I have already stated that the British in India 
VOL. II. I 
114 INDIA. 
retain nearly unaltered their national manners 
and habits of feeling, and this will sufficiently 
account for the meagreness of the details which I 
have presented respecting them. I might indeed 
describe certain local peculiarities in their.m ode of 
life, which the nature of the climate has forced 
them to adopt; but the subject would be of little 
interest to the generality of readers, and would in-
clude no information illustrative of human charac-
ter, or more applicable to the condition of anyone 
European nation in India than to that of another. 
And fervently do I hope that it may never be in 
my power to describe any class of European resi-
dents of Hindostan of a more ,·aried character 
than the one to which I have now directed the 
reader's attention; for if the colonization of that 
country is permitted and encouraged hy the Bri-
tish' government, and if persons of every kind are 
allowed to emigrate there and purchase landed 
property, the consequences will certainly be such 
as to cause the historian to shudder while engaged 
in narrating them. The colonization of India is 
a measure hateful in its character, repugnant to 
the commonest principles of justice, indefensible 
upon any ground, real or imaginary, and involving 
outrage and misery to the Hindoos, and the sure 
and speedy sn bversion of the British dominion 
there. 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 115 
The Hindoos suffer the residence of Europeans 
amongst themselves with extreme reluctance even 
under the restrictions that now attend it. These 
prohibit any European from becoming a landed 
proprietor, or taking up his abode in the interior of 
the country, or even travelling through it, without 
) 
r permission from government. Hence the only in-
> dividuals of the kind to be found in the provinces 
of Hindostan, are the civil and military servants 
of the East India Company, all of whom are con-
fined to certain stations, at which they must always 
reside, except when their duties may require their 
{•, 
 
 temporary presence elsewhere. The stations in 
i question are on an average forty or fifty miles 
• • 
distant from each other; and a great proportion of 
them do not contain more than the same number 
• 
of European inhabitants, and many of them not 
, one third that amount. All the intervening tracts 
•.,  
• of country being totally free from foreign intru-sion, their native occupants enjoy all their customs 
and prejudices without disturbance, and have 
no cause to know that there are any Europeans 
in their neighbourhood, except when they may 
happen to see them travelling from one post to 
another, or when the collector of the district visits 
their villages to receive the annnal taxes, But it 
is obvious that this state of things would not con-
tinue were colonization to be permitted. Thou-
12 
116 INDIA. 
sands of Europeans would then disperse them-
selves over the country. settling for life wherever 
the best lands were to be obtained. and barassing 
and irritating the Hindoos by their wilfulness. 
cupidity. and encroachments; and offending their 
religious feelings by an open disregard of the in-
stitutions imposed by caste. and by the Asiatic 
code of purity and contamination. In vain would 
the Hindoos seek relief by changing their neigh-
bourhood. for they would find European habita-
tions in every quarter. and the same annoyances 
wherever they went. Their e\'ils however would 
not stop here. Let any one consider what de-
• cl'iption of people the majority of the colonists 
would be. and he will find it easy to form an 
idea of the treatment which the Hindoos might 
expect to receive at their hands. Would the 
stubborn. fiery-tempered. and imperious European • 
• 
think himself called upon to pay the smallest re-
gard to the feelings of the timid. gentle. and sub-
missive ryot or Indian peasant? 'Va uld the ra-
pacious emigrant. impatient to derive a revenue 
from the soil. hesitate to force the Hindoo la-
bourer to toil for him without fair remunera-
tion? 'Va uld the expatriated profligate curb his 
passions. and refrain from offering an insult to the 
modest reserve of the Asiatic women ? Would 
the indolent and unprincipled settler fail to supply 
EUHOPEA:\ SOCIETY. 117 
his own wants by plundering the natives of their 
flocks and implements of agriculture? Would 
the religious enthusiast fear to profane the pago-
das and sacred places, and to disturb the people 
while performing their rites and ceremonies? 
Assuredly not. Nothing would serve to check, 
much less prevent, the commission of the acts of 
\ outrage above enumerated, and of a multitude of 
• 
otbers, except the prevalence (amongst the colo-
nists) of a state of bodily fear of retaliation, or the 
maintenance on the part of the government of a 
widely-extended magistracy alld a very efficient 
and available civil power. Those who are ac-
quaintI'd with the mild, humane, and long-suffering 
• 
character of the Hindoo, will not require to be in-
• 
, formed that the first source of restraint would 
• have no existence; and those who know the dilfi'-
! --culty, intricacy, and expense of the local adminis-
tration of justice in India, will see the obstacles 
that stand in the way of establishing and securing 
the latter. The colonization of Hindostan by 
Europeans would render that country a theatre 
of discontent, oppression, divided interests, and 
bloodshed. The concluding scene of the drama 
of foreign dominion in India is hid by the curtain 
of futurity, and the reflective mind almost fears to 
anticipate its character. But let us not hurry 
the catastrophe, lest we increase its frightfulness; 
• 
12~ ARCTIC REGIONS. 
farther to the northward, he meets with vast level 
fields of the same substance, some of tbem several 
miles in circumference, and varying in thickness 
from fifteen to twenty feet. Channels of mode-
rate breadth separate these from each other; and 
the vessel pursues her course through the widest 
and least obstructed of these, and at length ar-
rives in those regions where mountainous ice-
bergs stand forth in crowds, fronting each other 
with desolate aspect and stern distinctness. At one 
time they lie as motionless as a range of hills; but 
at another, disturbed by winds or by submarine 
currents, they undergo continual changes of po-
sition, and are seen in a variety of lights, which 
serve to exhibit by turns the peculiarities of 
their structure and the beauty and curiousness 
of tbeir forms. The largest of them in general 
present a broad front rising perpendicularly from 
the surface of the water, like a rocky precipice, 
and gradually sloping back to the level of the 
sea. nut others resemble masses of building, or 
ruined castles, or ships under sail; while not a 
few shoot forth spires and pinnacles, or consist 
of a vast tablet of ice resting upon a single and 
isolated column. Those that have been long ex-
posed to the action of the waves are commonly 
hollowed out into caverns and chambers of V8_ 
rious shapes, or present a reticulated mass, whieh 
ARCTIC OCEAN. ]25 
transmits .light, and shines with all sorts of glori-
ous and evanescent hues. The predominant co-
lour of icebergs is a green, more or less deep, 
particular! y after their surfaces have been washed 
by the sea; but some of them, being covered with 
SIlOW or with hoar-frost, are dazzlingly white, 
or sparkle brightly in the sun; and others, that 
contain earth and stones, or any kind of extra-
neous substance, as often happens, are of a dark 
hue and perfectly opaque. But whatever their 
colour and form may be, the eye is never weary 
of contemplating them when a moderate wind 
sets them in motion; for then they either open 
into extensive and regular vistas, whose entire 
length the view can follow without interruption, 
or they crowd together in masses, and are forced 
upon the top of o~e another, till the icy pile attains 
__ a fearful magnitude, and falls asunder·-or they 
are driven suddenly into violent collision, and 
eventually shattered; but when the tumult sub-
sides, and they again separate, they appear under 
more surprising forms than before, having ac-
quired beauty and renovation from those shocks 
that seemed only calculated to deface and destroy 
them. 
A peculiar state of the atmosphere existing 
in the Arctic seas, contributes in an extraordi-
nary degree to vary the scenery there by chang-
126 ARCTIC REGIONS. 
ing and disguising the natural appeanmce of 
the objects within view, whatever tbese may 
be. It depends upon the unequal refraction of 
the air produced by the excessive coldness of 
the climate on the one hand, and the meridian 
warmth of the sun on the other, and is exactly 
similar to the mirage of hot and temperate 
regions, except that its e/fects are incompar-
ably more conspicuous and astonishing. They 
become most apparent about noon, when ships 
lying within a few miles of the observer appear 
either far elevated above the surt'ace of the sea, 
or with masts separated from the hulls, or with 
sails and yards greatly lengthened, or shortened, 
or increased in number; and not un frequently 
the entire vessel is seen in an inverted position, 
the tops of her masts resting upon the sea. Ice-
bergs undergo a similar distortion, and seem to 
float in the air instead of the ocean, or present to 
the view pinnacles and chasms whic~ in reality 
have no existence. But the most admirable thing • 
• 
of all is, that this refraction sometimes brings , 
within the scope of human vision the image of 
such objects as actually lie far below the horizon, 
and consequently beyond the utmost range of 
the eye, though assisted by a powerful telescope. 
Home's Foreland, a part of the coast of Greenland, 
••  
three thousand five hundred feet in height, was 
ARCTIC OCEAN. 127 
once distinctly seen by Scoresby at the distance of 
a hundred and sixty miles; though in an ordinary 
state of the atmosphere it would have been to-
tally invisible so far off, unless its elevation had 
amounted to twelve thousand feet; the effect of 
refraction being in this instance equal to eight 
thousand five hundred feet, or to one-fourth of 
the arch of the distance. On another occasion, in 
the course of the same season, he saw the invert-
ed image of a ship in the sky, and immediately 
pronounced it to be one called the Fame, com-
manded by his father: and this opinion, as was 
afterwards found, proved correct, though the 
distance between the two vessels at the time of 
t observation was nearly 'thirty miles, being about 
-, seventeen miles beyond the horizon, and some • 
leagues beyond the limit of direct vision. Nor 
__ do the heavenly bodies themselves escape the 
influence of Arctic refraction; for circles round 
the sun ana' moon, and even multiplied images 
of both planets, often occur, and add splen-
dour to a sky nightly lighted up by the aurora 
borealis and other electrical phenomena. 
The navigation of the Arctic seas is rendered 
difficult and hazardous not only by icebergs, but 
also by fogs and strong gales of wind. These last 
generally come from the north or north-west; 
and, as they make the ice drift rapidly, ships are 
• 
128 ARCTIC REGIONS. 
often in danger of being compressed between 
two enormous masses of it and totally destroyed. 
Happily, at such times the sea seldom rises high, • 
the icebergs sheltering its surface from the force 
of the wind; and if it is covered, in addition, 
with fragments of field-ice, the agitation is still 
less considerable, and amounts only to a moderate 
swell. The navigator not unfrequently finds pro-
tection from the storm under the lee of an ice- ! 
berg, to which he moors his vessel, and lies, as it I 
were, in the harbour of a Hoating island. At 
other times, mounted on the top-mast, with a 
telescope in one hand and a speaking-trumpet in 
the other, he surveys the surrounding sea, and, 
by commands isslIed from aloft, bruides the ship 
in her course through sllch open channels as may 
present themselves in the half-frozen expanse 
beneath him. No kind of voyage, not even one 
of discovery, requires such incessant attention on 
the part of those engaged in it. as that for the 
whale-fishing in the Arctic seas. It is a scene of 
almost continual anxiety, toil , and danger; and 
the severity of the climate forms the least of 
the many hardships that are inseparable from it. 
An individual without experience in the naviga-
tion of the polar ocean is apt to consider his situ-
ation as very hazardous when he finds himself 
smrounded by icebergs, and still advancing to the 
, 
• 
• 
• 
ARCTIC OCEAN. 129 -
• 
north, through channels of open water, so narrow 
as not to afford room for manreuvring the vessel; • 
while, if he looks astern, he observes that all the 
passages that might have allowed egress in that 
direction are closed, or rapidly closing. But the 
Greenland whalers, at least in the early part of 
the summer, see little danger or ground for unea-
siness under circumstances of the kind; and they 
are seldom so long beset by the ice as to be much 
delayed in their return southward. Instances of 
permanent and fatal detention amongst the ice are 
very rare; and in the few that have occurred, the 
sufferers have generally been the Dutch, who 
used to carryon the whale-fishery nearer the Pole 
•·  than any other nation ever ventured to do. It is 
well known that animal substances will remain in 
; a state of perfect preservation under ice for a great 
j length of time. The entire carcass of the masto-
don, which was discovered upon the frozen shores 
of Siberia some years ago, must have been there 
at least several centuries. Is it 1I0t possible 
enough, then, that some adventurous navigators, 
in advancing far northward, may discover a ship 
and her crew embedded in a mountain of ice, like 
insects in a transparent piece of amber? every 
, man retaining the attitude in which he died thirty 
I• ,  or forty years before, and every object connected 
I' 
" with his former existence continuing without dis-Ii,  
II VOL. II. K 
I 
130 ARCTIC REGIONS. 
placement or decay - perhaps even the ashes of 
the last fire which the last survivor had sat by 
in his expiring moments! Who would not exert 
himself to set free these imprisoned corpses? 
Vain effort! That sun, and that south wind, 
which would at one time have preserved their 
lives, now only serve to hasten the progress of 
mortal corruption. Not one of them, unaltered as 
they all appear to be, can tell his own tale: and 
the ice-bound vessel must be ransacked in search 
of some journal of their sorrows or record of their 
past history. . 
The possibility of reaching the North Pole by 
water has for some time past ceased to be a sub-
ject of discussion; and those theorists, who used 
to contend for the probable existence of an ex-
panse of open sea in that quarter, have been 
forced by recent nautical researches to abandon 
tl,eir opinion. A comparison of the heights at 
which eternal snows are found to exist in various 
parts of the world, between the equator and the 
arctic circle, fix the curve of perpetual congelation 
under the former at fifteen thousand feet above 
the level of the sea, and under the latter at three 
thousanrl five hundred. In extending this line in 
regular progression to the Pole, and calculating 
its height in proportion to the diminution of 
temperature that takes place as we approach the 
ARCTIC OCEAN. 131 
extremity of the earth, we shall find that the 
curve of perpetual congelation must cut the Pole 
five or six hundred feet below the surface there, 
whether it be land or sea; and consequently that 
eternal frosts must prevail in these regions to the 
same depth, and render the existence of a space 
of open water totally impossible, even in the midst 
• of the hottest summer. The interest which these 
,,  regions have always excited, and the many dar-
ing attempts that have been made to visit and ex-
plore them, are the result not of our expectation 
of discovering anything useful or extraordinary 
there, but of a certain indefinable anxiety to pe-
netrate the mystery that overhangs that great 
portion of the earth. In dreariness, desolation, 
• and gloom, the North Pole would probably be 
t·  , found to exceed anything that we can conceive ;' 
but who would not wish to stand there for a few 
moments - to descend to the extremity of the 
pendant world - to observe the revolution of the 
heavenly bodies from that sublime station,-and in 
person to interrogate Nature why so large a seg-
ment of our planet has been rendered unfit for 
the use or habitation of man? 
Though the Greenland seas have for two hun-
dred years past been frequented by vessels en-
gaged in the whale-fishery, we have derived near-
ly all our geographical knowledge of them from 
K2 
• 
132 ARCTIC REGIONS. 
other sources. The masters of these ships nearly 
al ways follow the same track; and, though good 
practical seamen, they seldom possess nautical in-
struments calculated to make accurate observa-
tions, and their attention is necessarily directed 
to other objects. Hence, many of the coasts and 
islands are laid down upon very uncertain 
data, and so milch the more so, because it is well 
known that accumulated icebergs have often been 
mistaken for tracts of land, and placed in the 
charts as such. Scoresby, in surveying the north-
west coast of Greenland, so late as 1822, found 
part of ' it to be 820 miles wide of the meridian 
assigned to it in the charts published for the use 
of whalers; and the very existence of Baffin's Bay 
is still considered doubtful by some geographers. 
The Arctic Ocean has long been to the natives 
of Europe a vast repository which annually opens 
its icy lid and permits the treasures which it en-
closes to be extracted by those who go in quest 
of thcm. Few of the richest mines in the world 
have yielded such a continuous stream of wealth, 
or been worked at so little expense, as the north-
ern whale.fishery. It has for upwards of two 
centuries past been pursued with more or less 
success by the British, the Dutch, and the Danes, 
who together have aunually, on an average during 
that time, drawn from the Frozen Ocean the value 
, 
ARCTIC OCEAN. 183 
of about half a million sterling clear profit, and in 
many years a great deal more. The Dutch alone 
captured 32,900 whales in the course of forty-
six successive summers, the value of which may 
be estimated at 25,000,0001. The pursuit of the 
whale-fishery during so many years, by so many 
different nations, has greatly reduced the cetace-
•,  ous tribe in number, at least in the Arctic seas; 
<,  and the whalers are now obliged to penetrate much 
,-
farther north in search of their prey than they 
used formerly to do. If we reflect upon the com-
parative small extent of ocean in which the 
fishery has hitherto been pursued, the prodigious 
number of whales that must have been captured 
,,  since its commenCemellt, the necessarily slow in-
,•  
, crease of the species, and the great length of time 
which its individuals require to attain maturity', 
we shall be astonished to find that it is not now 
nearly extirpated. The female whale seldom pro-
duces more than one at a time, which does not 
arrive at its full size, it is believed, in less than a 
century. Nor can we suppose that the northern 
seas are annually supplied with whales from some 
mighty and inaccessible depot near the Pole, where 
they breed and multiply undisturbed by man, for 
all the cetaceous tribe require to come frequently 
to the surface of the water to breathe, and this they 
could not do in those regions where it unquesti-
184 ARCTIC REGIONS. 
on ably is covered at all times with an unbroken 
expanse of ice of immense thickness; and, admit-
ting this, we must suppose that the close of the 
polar snmmer, which forces the whalers to quit ; 
the Northern Ocean and proceed home, must also 
drive the whales towards the south, since the 
latter have as much cause to shun a frozen sea as 
the former. "\\T e have no facts to prove that 
whales are found in a lower latitude in winter 
than in summer, but their anatomical structure 
demands that this should take place; the surface 
of those parts of the ocean where the fishers pur-
sue ~nd capture them in June, July. and August, 
being one impenetrable mass of ice during the 
rest of the year. But we are not likely ever to 
obtain any accurate information upon this subject, 
any more than upon another, which relates to a 
different, but scarcely less important, inhabitant 
of the Arctic seas. 
It will be obvious that I allude to the her-
ring, which is a source of even greater commercial 
wealth to many European nations than the whale; 
and the fishery for which has long formed one of 
the principal nurseries for seamen. The annual 
migration of a prodigious shoal of these animals 
from the Northern Ocean, and the manner in 
which it divides into branches, which severally 
follow the coasts of America, Europe. and the 
• 
• 
ARCTIC OCEAN. 
British Isles, are circumstances too familiar and 
too well authenticated to admit of being treated 
in detail. The whale must be captured not with-
out peril and difficulty in its remote and native 
haunts; but the herring voluntarily approaches 
the shores of most countries in the northern he-
f misphere, and, as it were, offers itself to their in-
••  habitants at an insignificant rate of expense or 
· 
! labour. In numbers this fish exceeds every other 
•••  whatever, and it is frequently observed advancing 
in closely-packed columns four or five miles wide, 
and forty or fifty long, and, it is believed, a thou-
sand or twelve hundred feet in depth; the track of 
which is shown during the day by the rippling of 
, the sea and at night by its luminousness. Here 
!,  we have another instance of the inexhaustible and 
I mysterious productiveness of the frozen sea, for it 
is from its depths that the herrings come; and it 
is there we may believe that they return when 
they annually disappear from the more southerly 
parts of the ocean. 
The annual migration of the species affords a 
striking instance of the range of temperature 
which it is capable of enduring. It would appear 
that the generality of fishes confine themselves to 
certain parallels of latitude, beyond which they 
cannot exist, or at least are never observed to 
wander. The shark, the flying-fish, the bonito, 
, 
186 ARCTIC HEGIONS. 
and a variety of others that might be mentioned, 
occur only within thirty degrees of the equator; 
while the cod, the salmon, and several species of 
the whale, are unknown except in temperate and 
cold regions. But the herring, while in its native 
seas, lives in a temperature somewhat lower than 
the freezing point, and annually, in the course of 
its migration, exposes itself without inconvenience 
to an increase of heat amounting to fifty degrees ; 
for it proceeds as far southward as the coasts of 
Carolina, where the ocean, affected by the Florida 
Gulf stream, has generally a temperature of 80', or 
even somewhat more. 
The Northern Ocean was during several cen-
turies regarded as the seat of many of the wildest 
wonders of Nature. It~ wintry darkness and tem-
pestuousl}ess strongly excited the gloomy imagi-
nations of the Scandinavians, and led them to peo-
ple it with monsters and cro" d it with prodigies. 
The Maelstrom whirlpool was believed to attract 
ships within its vortex with gradually increasing 
velocity, till they began to whirl round with such 
violence that the mariners became distracted, and 
continued so till themselves and their vessel were 
ingulphed in its raging waves. The fabulous 
krakken, a fish severnl miles in circumference, was 
reported often to raise its back above the surface 
of the sea like an island, and to erect its antennre 
ARCTIC OCEAN. 137 
as high as the mast of the largest ship. A ser-
pent, with a head like a horse and fiery eyes, was 
described as evolving his vast length upon the sea 
during periods of calm and sunshine. Mermaids 
were said to be nightly visible by moonlight upon 
the rocky shores; and cuttle·fish or polypi of enor-
, mons dimensions were supposed to lie in the shal-
• 
•,•   lows, ready to stretch forth their arms whenever 
a boat approached, and snatch from her one of 
the crew and pull him to the bottom. In these 
conceptions we find nothing either ,graceful or 
sublime. The coarse and uncultivated imagina-
tion of the Scandinavians could be moved only 
by ideas of horror, magnitude, or disagreeableness. 
The fiction of the MaelStrom is doubtless strongly 
figurative of the turbulence and indiscriminate 
fury of the ocean; but that of the krakken and 
sea-serpent is unmeaning. ineffective, and insipid; 
and the mermaid is perhaps one of the most un-
poetical creations that ever originated in the hu-
man fancy. The Nereids of the Greeks and Ro-
mans are indeed scarcely more pleasing, and Vir-
gil himself strives in vain to render Scylla and 
Charybdis either terrible or impressive. Nor has 
any nation, either civilized or barbarous, with 
which I am acquainted, been successful in invent-
ing agreeable allegories respecting the sea, or peo-
pling it with creatures of an elegant or imaginative 
1:18 ARCTIC REGIONS. 
kind. Tbe Egyptians personified it as an evil 
and malignant being under the name of TyphOll. 
and several of the nations of West Africa regard 
it as the seat of punishment for the wicked; but 
no mythology, ancient or modern, has placed its 
elysium upon the ocean, or ventured to describe 
its expanse as a sphere affording enjoyments su-
perior or even equal to what are attainable upon 
the terrestrial parts of our planet. 
• 
189 
GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER 
OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 
THE coast which the voyager first descries on 
approaching the Arctic regions by the usual route, 
is that of the southern extremity of Greenland, 
formerly called the Land of Desolation, but now, 
with less appropriateness, named Cape Farewell. 
As he nears it, the oaour of vegetation and the 
murmuring of the wind amongst forests do not 
announce the vicinity of land; in vain his eye 
wanders everywhere in search of human habita-
tions or marks of social industry, and he listens 
with useless impatience to hear the voices of birds 
and animals whether wild or domestic. A deep 
and fearful silence prevails along the desert shores, 
which rise perpendicularly to the height of two or 
three hundred feet, and consist of dark-coloured 
cliffs crowned with a ridge of ice or snow. In 
many places their outline is broken by deep bays 
and narrow channels, where the sea lies in a state 
of undisturbed and glassy stillness. Here a pro-
• 
140 ARCTIC REGIONS. 
found and dry valley, with precipitous sides, opens 
to the coast and stretches far in land-there moun-
tainous icebergs project like huttresses from the 
rocky heights, and render approach impossible 
-and in another quarter, clusters of islets lie close 
to the shore, and partake of its barrenness and its 
solitude. The interior of the country presents a 
succession of masses of elevated land, the lower 
parts of which are cased in ice, or deeply cover-
ed with snow. Their summits have in general a 
peaked or spinous form; and, consisting of dry 
rock, and being exposed to the wind, they seldom 
display any frozen envelope, but stand forth in 
naked asperity. 
Nevertheless a sublime serenity belongs to the 
landscape and softens its horrors. Every object 
included in it breathes stillness and composure, 
and Nature seems to have there assumed her most 
impert.urbable aspect. The unpeopled land, the 
silent shores, the tranquil sea, and the motionless 
icebergs, form such an harmonious combination, 
and are so much in consistency with each other, 
that the spectator ,;ews the whole with satisfied 
and absorbing delight, and even feels that the 
introduction of animated beings, or of any marks 
of their agency, would deprive the scene of its 
originality and impressiveness. 
The shores of all the Arctic lands hitherto ex-
GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 141 
plored have a great similarity of character. They 
are steep, rocky, and very bold, and often rise to 
a mountainous height close to the sea. They here 
and there afford a narrow shingly beach, where a 
landing may be effected; but the icebergs, which 
in most places lie ranged before them, form a 
• 
! greater obstacle to this than even their general 
•, precipitousness does. The interior of Greenland 
,•  and Spitzbergen, as far as it has been explored, is 
• 
extremely rugged, and much intersected by ravines 
and valleys; though in the former country tracts 
of level ground of considerable extent are not 
wanting. It would appear that the configuration 
of Nova Zembla is less elevated and irregular than 
, that of the other Polar regions: however, little 
; reliance can be placed upon our topography of 
•, any of them, because of the difficulty there is of 
_. distinguishing what is ice and what is land. In 
West Greenland several spots of ground have been 
brought under cultivation with partial success; bu t 
Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla are almost entirely 
destitute of soil, and produce only a few mosses, 
some tufts of scurvy-grass, and a species of dwarf-
willow, which does not rise more than four or five 
inches above the surface. The indigenous plants 
of Greenland are more numerous; but they are too 
thinly scattered, and of too Iowa growth, to affect 
the general appearance of the coun try, or even to 
142 ARCTIC REGIONS. 
be discoverable in its landscapes, whose only fea-
tures are mountains, rocks, ice, and snow. It is 
true, that in the middle of the Polar summer 
rivulets and cataracts sometimes diversify the 
scene, but their existence is both transitory and 
uncertain, for a few hours of severe frost is suffi-
cient to enchain their currents, and render them 
as solid and motionless as the icebergs from which 
they derived their source. 
The scanty vegetation of the Arctic regions, 
and the total want of trees there, give an astonish-
ing aspect to those vast quantities of drift-wood 
which cover the eastern shores of Greenland and 
Spitzbergen, and afford an abundant supply of 
fuel and of building materials in countries which 
of themselves produce neither the one nor the 
other. This floating timher consists principally 
of firs, larches, and cedars; some of which retain 
their roots and branches, and appear in a state of 
freshness, while others have lost their bark, and 
are decayed and worm-eaten. Every year brings 
a new supply of these trunks to the coasts above 
mentioned, and they sometimes accumulate to 
such a degree as to choke up the mouths of large 
bays and inlets, and even to form piles of inter_ 
woven timber seveml thousand feet in circumfer-
ence. Naturalists have long been divided in opi-
nion with respect to the origin of the Arctic drift-
• 
GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 143 
wood; but most of them regard it as the produce 
of Norway, Siberia, and America, carried north-
ward by the currents of the ocean, and deposited 
,. at the edge of the Polar ice, and afterwards dis-
t tributed in various directions by local and inciden-
tal causes. This explanation seems plausible; but 
J it involves the existence of a continual northerly 
t current in the Arctic seas, which is entirely con-
I tradicted by daily experience; for in no part of 
the ocean are the currents more variable and un-
certain; and that of the Gulf stream, which has 
been supposed to convey great quantities of drift-
wood into the frozen regions, does not sensibly 
extend its influence beyond 55' north latitude. 
And if the Arctic drift-wQod comes from the south, 
how can we account for its never being observed 
! at sea in its progress towards the countries where 
i- --such quantities of it are always found accumu-
lated? 
The theory of l\1altebrunupon this subject 
deserves attention, not more on account of its 
novelty than its boldness. It is his opinion that 
a considerable portion of the timber observed in 
the Polar regions comes from the bottom of the 
neighbouring seas, where large tracts of forests 
exist, that have been submerged by some convul-
sion of Nature, which at a remote period not only 
changed the climate of the Arctic regions, but 
• 
144 ARCTIC REGIONS. 
sunk under the waves an entire continent; and 
that those depots of dead timber, being in many 
places exposed to the action of the sea, a part of 
them is occasionally detached, and rises to the 
surface and floats there. It appears to me, that 
the only objection to this theory lies in the state 
of freshness and preservation in which a great 
proportion of the Arctic drift-wood is found; for 
we cannot have any difficulty in believing that 
extensive forests once existed in the frozen re-
gions, seeing that abundance of fossil timber is 
now disinterred ill Iceland, and in Siberia, and 
even in Nova Zembla. The inhahitants of all 
these countries lise the drift-wood for fuel, and the 
Greenland whalers often collect it for the same pur-
pose. But as the submersion of territory supposed 
by l\Ialtebrnn must have occurred at latest more 
than a thousand years ago, its forests could 
scarcely continue such a len/,<th of time without 
change or decomposition. Had they lain so long 
imbedded in mud or sand, they would now be 
found in a carbonized state; and had they re-
mained exposed to the sea at any considerable 
depth, they would now prove useless for fuel or 
anything else, on account of their saturation with 
salt-water, or, what is more likely, would, from a 
necessary increase of specific gravity from the 
same cause, never rise to the surface at all. 
o 
GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARAr.TER. 145 
Scoresby mentions an instance of a boat having 
been dragged to the depth of eight or nine hun-
dred feet in the Gt'eenland sea by a I\" hale, ann 
detained under water several hours. On its being 
at length brought to the surface, it had so com-
pletely lost its former buoyancy, that the seamen 
were obliged to place a boat at each end of it, in 
order to prevent its sinking from its own weight, 
and its timbers. when afterwards broken up for 
fuel, proved quite incombustible. The same 
writer gives the results of a variety of experi. 
ments which he made upon the impregnation of 
different kinds of wood with sea.water, from 
whence it appears that all of them acquire such 
an increase of specific' gravity by immersion to 
the depth of two or three thousand feet, that they 
entirely lose the property of floating. Perhaps 
__ most persons, after reflecting upon this subject, 
will be inclined to accede partially to the common 
opinion, and to assign the origin of nearly all the 
Arctic drift. wood to the rivers of Siberia, whose 
banks, at least in the sou thern parts of their 
course, are covered with trees, great quantities of 
which are annually uprooted and detached by the 
floods consequent upon the melting of the snows 
during slimmer. This timber having reached the 
ocean, will be conveyed eastward by the current 
prevailing betweell the coasts of Siberia and Nova 
YOI. . II. L 
, 
146 ARCTIC REGIONS. 
Zembla, and will necessarily accumulate upon thl' 
eastern shores of Iceland, Greenland. and Jan 
Mayen's Land-the places where drift. wood ia 
always found in greatest abundance. 
The extreme barrenness of the Arctic regions, 
and their rocky and elevated character, would 
point them out as likely to be the seat of mines of 
the precious metals, had not experience taught us 
that it is in vain to look for these in very high 
latitudes in any part of the globe, But our ances-
tors, less instructed, were of a different opinion; 
and we find that Martin :Frobisher, who made 
three perilous voyages to discover the north.west 
passage, was commanded by Queen Elizabeth to 
search for gold ore, and that he actually spent a 
great deal of time upon the coast of Greenland 
in that hopeless pursuit; and, not long afterwards, 
the Dutch were impressed with the idea that a 
silver mine existed in Noya Zembla, and under· 
took several expeditions ill quest of it. The glit-
tering of marcasite in the first instance, and of talc 
or mica in the second, was probably the origin of 
the popular error that once prevailed respecting 
the riches of these l'olar countries, which recent 
observations have shown to be in reality almost 
destitute of useful minerals. The ancient eastern 
opinion, that gold and silver, and gems, are gene-
rated by the influence of the sun, derives some 
, 
GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTEH. 147 
plausibility from the geographical distribution of 
metals, the precious ones being found in any con-
siderable quantities only within the parallels of 
latitude thirty north and south, while their mines 
• 
increase in richness the nearer they lie to the eq ua-
tor. The most northerly region in which silver 
has ever been found in such quantity as to repay 
• 
the expense of collecting it is Norway, where the 
mines of Konsberg once yielded a considerable 
revenue; and that of Edswold, in the same quar-
ter, has sometimes produced a little gold: but in 
the few instances in which the precious metals are 
found within the limits of the temperate or frigid 
zones, their locality is isolated and confined, while 
their existence at all in . such places seems to be 
entirely accidental, and, as it were, uncongenial 
to the soil around them; and yet, by a singular 
contradiction, gold in minute particles is the most 
universally diffused of all metals. It has even 
been asserted that there is no part of the globe 
where it may not be found in that state; and the 
researches of modern chemists have detected gold-
dust in the leaves and flowers of plants. 
The first of these circumstances was, it would 
appear, well known so early as the beginning of 
the sixteenth century; for Peter Martyr says, in 
his Decades of the Ocean, .. There is not any river 
in the world that does not roll gold." But, holV -
L2 
148 ARCTIC REGIONS. 
ever this may be, few things relative to the 
physical geography of our planet are better de-
termined than the equatorial locality of mines I 
of the precious metals; and supposing, on the I 
other hand, that such were to be found in the 
Polar regions, even European cupidity would in 
vain strive to overcome the difficulties of work-
ing them in a country where no fuel is procur-
able except upon the coast, where a night of 
seven months' duration occurs every year, and 
where neither roads nor animals could be made 
available for transport or labour. 
In these regions of silence, solitude, and de-
• solation, the more gigantic powers of Nature do 
not always remain in that state of torpidity 
which the general aspect of things would seem 
to indicate. The records of the past, and modern 
observation, prove that volcanoes have existed in 
Greenland; and there is strong reason to believe 
that some of these retain their activity even in 
the present day . Zeno, a Yenetian navigator, 
who made a voyage of discovery in the Arctic 
regions in the thirteenth century, mentions his 
having visited the coast of Greenland, and there 
observed a convent inhabited by religious men, 
and heated by pipes conveying boiling water 
through its various apartments. This was ob-
tained from several hot springs originating in a 
• 
GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 149 
volcano in the neighbourhood of the building, 
and most likely similar in every respect to those 
now existing near Mount Hecla in ' Iceland.-
Scoresby, in exploring Jan Mayen's Island, si-
tuated near the eastern coast of Greenland, dis-
covered a volcanic crateI' and various indications 
I of recent volcanic action; and at another time 
• 
• 
t . saw jets of smoke arising from the earth in the 
t same neighbourhood. How long these Polar 
burning mountains have been extinct must al-
ways remain uncertain; but we may suppose 
that they became so about the period at which 
those of Kamtschatka, once so formidable, ceased 
their eruptions, and that of Hecla lost its acti-
vity, or about one hunilred and fifty years ago; 
~,  for volcanoes lying under nearly the same parallels 
,. of latitude have generally been observed to act, 
,as it were, in concert, and ' to feel simultaneously 
the impulses of Nature, whether the effect of 
these was to set them in operation or render them 
quiescent. 
Though the }'olar regions present a frozen im-
mobility of aspect, their exterior is, nevertheless, 
liable to greater and more sudden and startling 
changes of appearance than that of any other coun-
try whatever. This arisE'S fwm the surface being 
ill most places encrusted with ice, either in the 
forlll of hillocks, level fields, irregular masses, 
• 
150 A RCTlC REGIONS. 
or lofty pinnacles, which in summer partIy dis-
solve, or fall asunder, or slide from their places, 
or are precipitated to the ground. The noise of 
the disrupting of immense icebergs is often heard 
by the Polar navigator in the silence of night; 
and when in the neighbourhood of land, he fre-
quently observes their castellated peaks totter 
upon their base, and tumble with a fearful crash 
into the ocean. 'Vhen a gale of wind has blown 
a few hours, and raised a high surf, the vast 
masses of ice which adhere to the rock-bound 
coast, are quickly undermined by the beating of 
the sea, and, losing their equilibrium, drop 
amongst the waves, and are bome away from 
the shore. Their removal leads to the displace-
ment of other icebergs, which were supported by 
them, but which now slide forwards and occupy 
the place of the first; and in this way a total 
change in the general outline and in the parti-
cular features of a long extent of coast may be ef-
fected in the course of a few hours. The sallle thing 
occurs in the interior of the country, though in a 
less rapid manner, frolll the melting of icebergs 
and their splitting into fragmellts, and from the 
disappearance of tracts of snow dissolved by the 
wannth of th" meridian sun. And it is moreover 
believed that the great icebergs which fill most 
of the valleys of Greenland and Spitzbergen 
GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 151 
throughout their whole extent, have a gradual 
motion forwards, occasioned by the annual melt-
ing of that part of them which abuts towards the 
open coast, and thus exposes a large surface to 
the summer rains and winds, and to the action of 
the sea. This progressive movement is known 
to occur amongst the glaciers of Switzerland. 
t The greatest of these is the Mer de Glace, in the 
valley of Chamouni. A block of granite which 
had accidentally fallen upon its surface from one 
of the neighbouring Alpine peaks, and had be-
come fixed in the ice, was observed to move a 
distance of three-quarters of a league in twenty 
years, or at the rate of a hundred and eighty-
eight yards annually. ' In like manner, it is pro-
, bable that all the inland glaciers of the Polar 
• 
I regions, however stupendous, undergo a gradual 
" 
_ change of position; and this is partly confirmed 
by human observation, defective and casual as it 
has necessarily been in a quarter of the globe 
so little frequented and so inhospitable. 
But let us cease to contemplate these scenes of 
desolation, these frozen solitudes, where Nature 
• 
. neither speaks to our hearts, nor presents to our 
eyes anything connected with the history of the 
human species. Their animal inhabitants, pecu-
liar as they are, shall not draw from us even a 
transient regard. Let us leave the bear and 
-
• 
152 ARCTIC REGIONS. 
walrus gambolling upon the ice or basking at 
midnight in the frigid radiance of the aurora 
borealis, and allow the silent arctic fox to pur-
sue his lone way amidst the drifting snow; we will 
dig into the earth, and find not far from its surface 
treasures dearer to the eye of the philosopber than 
mines of the precious metals. Iceland and Nova 
Zembla will afford us specimens of fossil wood, 
to prove that their bleak and treeless territories 
were once overshadowed by 1I0urishing forests. 
Upon the coasts of Siberia, and in the neighbour-
ing islands, we shall disinter heaps of bones be-
longing to an extinct species of elephant, fitted 
to live only in warm latitudes ; and under the 
ices of Greenland will be discovered specimens of 
tropical plants imbedded in the coal formations of ,;  
• 
tha, t COUll try. By what process of reasoning shall 
we account for the existence of these astonishing 
animal and vegetable remains in regions whose 
climate is at present so totally uncongenial to tbe 
natural productions of even the coldest of the 
temperate zones? 
According to Buffon, it , •. exactly thirty-six 
thousand years since elephants first began to inha-
bit the l'olar regions. They could not, he thinks, 
have lived there at an earlier period, because it 
would have been too hot for them; nor at a much 
later one. because it would have been too cold. 
• 
GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 158 
But they did not long find the Arctic lands a 
congenial place of abode, for the refrigeration of 
the substance of our planet producing a progres-
sive diminution of temperature, they were forced 
to proceed gradually southward, in search of a 
milder climate; and the continued southerly mi-
gration of the species, occasioned by that cause, 
at length conducted them to the equatorial re-
gions, which are now alone suitable to their con-
stitution. In this way the French philosopher 
explains how elepbants' bones are found diffused 
in every parallel of latitude between the north 
pole and the torrid zone. An English modern 
writer takes a less fanciful view of the subject, 
and would persuade us ' that the fossil remains of 
elephants which we daily discover in northern re-
gions, are the skeletons of those numerous troops 
. _ of the species which the Mongol conquerors al-
ways had in their armies when they marched to 
su bdue foreign nations; and that the bones of a 
similar kind, which are met with in Arctic lands, 
are in reality those of :walruses and other amphi-
bire, natives of th, ~pot. Maupertuis, reasoning 
upon an inscription in unintelligible characters 
which he found at Win so, in Lapland, supposes 
that the Polar regions may at one time have en-
joyed a climate similar to what the Equatorial 
ones now do, but that a change in the position of 
154 ARCTIC REGIONS. 
the earth's axis having withdrawn them from the 
direct influence of the sun, they necessarily 81-
sumed that sterile, frozen, and desolate charactt"r 
which at present belongs to them, though they 
still retain under their surface the remains of their 
former animal and vegetable productions. But 
no theory respecting the fossil exuvire of the Arctic 
regions can be built upon any foundation more 
substantial than conjecture, and our recent in-
creased knowledge of the subject has only led to 
in.creased difficulties in appreciating it. 
The whole coast of Siberia is strewed with 
mammoths' bones; but the Liachoff Islands, lying 
near to it in the Frozen Ocean, and tirst discover-
ed and visited by the Cossack '''-obtnog in 1776, 
consist almost entirely of the skeletons of prodigi-
ous animals of the elephant and rhinoceros kind, 
which exist in such quantities that, according to 
Maltebrun, that part of the e.1Tth seems to have 
been the general cemetery of these inhabitants of a 
world anterior to our own. ., The great territory 
called New Siberia," says tbe same author, "which 
extends to the north of the Strait of Bones, pre-
sents also many similar indications of the catastro-
phes to which our planet have been subjected; 
and in addition to these the remains of monstrous 
birds, a kind of remains which are found almost 
nowhere else. M . Hedenstrom, we are informed, 
GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 155 
has brought from thence feathers and claws which 
must have bt'longed to birds three or four times as 
large as our condors; and he mentions having seen 
long rows of petrified wood in the shape of square 
beams." 
Bearing in view these facts and various others 
of a similar description, we s1,lall feel but little dis-
posed to rest satisfied with any of the theories that 
have hitherto been offered in explanation of the 
anomalous appearances which abound upon the 
surface of the globe. It is in vain that some 
writers assure us that the skeletons found in the 
Arctic regions belonged to elephants that were 
drowned in the deluge, and carried thither by 
currents. It is in vain' 'that they tell us that the 
entire crust of the globe was dissolved and decom- . 
j posed by sea-water at the time of the flood, and 
~ __s oon after precipitated into its former state of soli-
dity, with the admixture of shells, plants, and 
animal exuvire. It is in vain that they insist that 
the physical constitution of our planet was al ways 
similar to what it is at present, and that its pro-
ductions in for~r times were the counterpart of 
what they now are. ' 
'Vhen we contemplate the vast extent of unin-
habitable territory at either pole, and contrast its 
actual state of desolation with the vestiges of 
abundant animal and vegetable existence which 
156 ARCTIC REGIONS. 
the Arctic countries exhibit, and which the Ant-
arctic ones would probably do likewise, could 
they be explored, we are forced to believe that 
our globe has undergone catastrophes and revolu-
tions greater than could have been produced by 
any physical agent with which we are acquainted, 
and therefore necessarily referable to astronomical 
causes, whieh must have at some period or other 
occasioned a change in the earth's position relative 
to the sun. It would be unnecessary to have re-
course to such a supposition, had we the slightest 
grounds for concluding that the mammoths and 
other animals above alluded to did not live and 
die in those places where their bones are now 
found, or at least in the immediate neighbour-
hood of them. But their anatomical characters 
distinctly indicate that they must have existed in 
a temperate, or even a warm climate; and if, in 
accordance with this fact, we transfer their place 
of abode to our present equatorial regions, how 
shall we account for their skeletons being convey-
ed in prodigious heaps to the Arctic lands, and de-
posited there, and there exclusively? On the 
other hand, let us insist that the Siberian mam-
moth was fitted to live in the frozen regions, and 
the question immediately obtrudE'S itself, why are 
not they found there now? and what has caused 
the destruction of the species in countries which 
• 
GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 157 
are at present as well calculated for itS existence 
as they ever were? The plants of a tropical 
aspect lately observed in the coal formations of 
Greenland, and the fossil wood of Iceland and 
, 
Nova Zembla, serve to render it almost certain 
that the Polar regions of both hemispheres must 
, have at one time enjoyed a climate infinitely less 
t rigorous than what they now do; and we are 
• 
compelled to inquire how this change happened, 
and whether it wa~ effected by degrees, or in a 
sudden manner. We shall incline to the former 
opinion, if we consider the stability of the solar 
system, and the unchanging routine of the celes-
tial bodies; no sudden alteration in either having 
('orne within the range 'of human observation. 
Taking this view of the subject, I think we 
t may suppose that our planet has in reality three 
, ._kinds of motion, one annual round the sun, ano-
ther diurnal upon its axis, and a third of an ex-
ceedingly slow kind; viz. a revolution at right 
angles to the ecliptic, the result of which must 
evidently be to bring every part of the surface of 
the earth successively under the equator, and to 
cause every different country to pass through and 
experience each variety of climate, hot or cold, 
that we are at present acquainted with. Our globe 
may, in the lapse of countless ages, have com-
pleted this kind of revolution se\'eral times; but 
• 
1[,8 AllCTlC REGIONS. 
it is to be inferred, from the animal and vegetable 
remains found in the Arctic lands, that it has com-
pleted it once at least. At the period, then, at 
which the Polar regions lay within the temperate 
or torrid zone, Siberia, Greenland, and Nova 
Zembla were covered with a luxuriant vegetation, 
and inhabited by mammoths, rhinoceroses, and 
gigantic birds, which continued to exist there till 
these coun tries began to be withdrawn from the 
direct influence of the sun, and to approximate 
to their present relative position to the ecliptic. 
After some thousands of years, they will again 
resume for a time their equatorial situation, and 
similar forms of animal and vegetable life will be 
repeated upon their surface, and will eventually 
perish from the same cause that destroyed those 
species of both, whose exuvire excite the astonish-
, 
ment and speculation of the philosophers of the 
present day, This theory enables us to assign to 
every quarter of the globe the successive enjoy-
ment of an equitable proportion of those advan-
tages which belong to different climates, instead 
• of leaving us to suppose that the Polar regions 
have always been doomed to darkness and ste-
rility, and unable to conjecture why so large a 
portion of the earth should remain useless and 
inaccessible to man, 
The climate of the Arctic regions is less rigorous 
• 
• 
• GENERAL PHYSICAL CHAllACTElt. 159 
••,  
and insupportable than might be supposed. This 
is in a great degree owing to the generally calm 
state of the atmosphere there during a consider-
••  able part of the year. I n Greenland there is 
sometimes scarcely any wind for six or seven 
• weeks together; and at these times the meridian 
sun feels oppressive to an European. Spitzbergen 
and Nova Zembla are tempestuous during the 
winter; and the sou th-west winds in particular 
blow with excessive fury, and bring heavy falls 
••  of snow. In summer, fog soccur almost daily 
· 
••  throughout the Polar regions; but in other sea-
••  sons tbe atmosphere is extremely clear. Astrono-
• micalobservations, independent of those requisite 
for determining the longitude, have never been 
made in these desolate countries; nor are the 
skies there, notwithstanding the wintry transpit-
· _ rency of the air, favourable for anything of the 
• 
I kind, the corruscations of the aurora borealis ob-
i 
• scuring the stars and confusing the vision of the 
i observer. Nevertheless, it would be interesting 
to ascertain whether the celestial bodies, as seen 
through a superior telescope, assume an appear-
ance any way different from what they do in Eu-
rope, where, even in the severest winters, the dens-
ity and refractive power of the atmosphere must 
fall infinitely short of what exists in Spitzbergen 
and Nova Zembla at the same season of the year. 
• -' 
160 
" .. , •  
ABORIGINES OF THE ARCTIC 
REGIONS, 
OF all the aboriginal races of men respecting 
whom I have yet had occasion to speak, those of 
the Arctic regions least deserve the attention of 
- the historian or philosopher, because their physi-
cal condition has always presented insurmount-
able obstacles to the developement of their facul-
ties. and to the diffusion of new ideas amongst 
the,m , But while we assert this, we must also in 
justice admit that the Greenlanders, the Esqui-
maux, and the Samoyeds, are nearly as far ad-
vanced in knowledge and civilization as any pe0-
ple well can be under the same circumstances; 
and that their intellectual deficiencies are a matter 
of necessity. dependent upon their physical con-
dition, instead of being the result of imperfect 
organization, or of a natural feebleness of under-
standing, It seems necessary to make this dis-
tinction; for it is a vulgar opinion that the rigours 
of a Polar climate al ways prevent the growth and 
ABORIGINES OF THE ARCTIC HEGIONS. 161 
" 
expansion of the human faculties, and render merrjo". 
rude, obtuse, and uncultivated; and that, on the 
other hand, the more temperate and fruitful any 
region is, the more polished and intelligent will 
its aboriginal inhabitants be found to be. But 
extreme cold has in reality no unfavourable influ-
t ence upon the human understanding; and if the 
~ people of Polar countries are remarkable for the 
fewness and poverty of their ideas, it is not be-
cause their minds are incapable of embracing a 
greater number of these, but because the care of 
providing subsistence, and of protecting them-
selves from the elements, necessarily engrosses 
their whole attention, and leaves them no time 
for anything else. The thoughts of the Green-
lander or Esquimaux run solely and exclusively 
upon . whale and seal.fishing; and he is grossly 
ignorant of all other subjects and occupations. 
But this does not imply that he is incapable of 
understanding such, or that he would be unable 
to extend the range of his mind, were he to be 
relieved fwm the daily and absorbing labour of 
procuring a supply of food for himself and his 
family. The Greenlander, clothed in oily skins, 
inhabiting a subterranean squalid ' hut, and living 
upon the flesh of sea-monsters, and drinking their 
blood, though a disgusting ohject to the eye of 
taste, is in reality a being well fitted to awaken 
VOL. II. 
• • 
• " 
162 ARCTIC REGIONS. • 
in our minds both interest and commiseration; 
and the dispassionate ana philosophical observer 
of human life will feel more disposed to admire 
llis ingenuity in contriving to exist at all in the I,  
region where Providence has placed him, than to , 
d well upon the narrowness of his ideas, and the 
offensive character of some of his social habits. 
Viewing the extreme barrenness of the Polar 
regions, and their eternal winter, and the scanty 
and precarious means of subsistence which they 
afford, we should naturally suppose that their 
aboriginal inhabitants must hold the lowest rank 
in the scale of human existence ; but this is so far 
from being the case, that the physical hardships 
and privations which they experience seem to 
quicken their faculti es, instead of paralyzing and 
clrcumscribing them; and if we wish to see our 
species in its most barbarous state, we must actu-
ally turn our eyes towards some of the finest and 
most favoured regions of the globe. The Anda-
• 
man Islands, lying in the Gulf of Bengal, covered 
with luxuriant vegetation, refreshed by annual 
rains, and abounding in all kinds of game, con-
tain a race of men who differ from beasts of prey 
only in being able to speak and to walk erect. 
They go absolutely naked, live in the hollows of 
trees, eat raw flesh, and are addicted to cannibal-
ism, and have a horror of strangers of every dl'-
• • 
ABORIGINES OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 163 
• • 
scription. In the fertile interior of Brazil .are 
found the Puri Indian~rwho nearly resemble the 
people just described, except that they do rIOt 
~ devour their own species; and the forests of 
J Ceylon, and the jungles of the Mysore, in South-,  
s em Hindostan, are inhabited by communities of 
• 
! people totally unacquainted with even the sim-
q plest forms of social order or the rudest arts of 
iI life. It is difficult to explain how tribes of men, 
, placed in the fruitful and favourable regions 
• above mentioned, should remain immeasurably in-
~ ferior in intelligence to the natives of the Polar 
11 countries, whose time is incessantly devoted to the 
f pursuit of the sea animals upon which theyaltoge-
I ther depend for subsistence, and whose snow-cover-
t ed domains present few objects calculated to excite 
I reflection or awaken curiosity in an uninstrncted ' 
~ \ -.!!lind; but the fact serves to show that the rigours 
• 
• of an Arctic climate are not necessarily unfavour-
" 
: able to the developement of the human faculties, 
1,  and that the mind is not an intellectual thermo-
· meter, whose grade and range are regulated and 
• 
I limited by t!Je temperature of the surrounding 
• 
i atmosphere, 
The voyages undertaken during the reign of 
Queen Elizabeth, in search of a north-west or a 
j 
, north-east passage to India, first made us ac-
• quainted with the aboriginal inhabitants of the 
\ 
I M2 
• 
164 ARCTIC REGIONS. 
Arctic regions. Martin Frobisher, in exploring 
the coasts of Greenland, had frequent intercourse 
with the natives of that country. Borroughs, 
passing through 'Vaygatz Straits, found the S~ 
moyeds living in Nova Zembla; while about the 
same time various merchants visited Lapland by 
sea and by land, and enjoyed full opportunities of 
observing its inhabitants. The Esquimaux were 
not discovered till a later period, and were pro-
bably first seen by Baffin, though we possessed 
no accurate information respecting them previous 
to the journeys of H earne and of Mackenzie to 
the North Pacific Ocean. The Russians began to 
explore Kamtschatka about the middle of the last 
century, and soon after invaded and conquered it; 
and in this way acquired a knowledge of an Arctic 
race of people whose existence had not previously 
Deen known, or eyen suspected, in Europe. AU 
these nations bear a strong general resem blanee to 
each other in their moral and physical condition 
and constitution; but still they present some distin-
gnishing shades of character, worthy at least of 
that casual attention which I fear the generality 
of rpaders will even reluctantly hestow upon a sub-
ject of'such confined and partial interest. 
The Laplanders deserve the first rank amongst 
the Arctic nations, because they excel all the 
others both in intelligence and in the arts of 
ABORIGINES OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 165 · 
social life, small as the advances are which they 
have made in either of these, except in the neigh-
bourhood of the Gulf of Bothnia, where, being 
in the habit of meeting the Swedish and Norwe-
gian fur-traders several times a year, they have 
acquired some knowledge of foreign customs, and 
also a taste for European manufactures. I t is 
only within the Arctic circle that the Laplander 
is now to be found in his genuine state. There 
he leads for the most part a nomade life, driv-
ing his flocks of reindeer from place to place, 
living upon their milk and the wild berries which 
his country produces, and residing in a tent in 
summer, and building himself a subterraneous hut 
for the winter. Low as he ranks in the scale of ci-
vilization, he has carried one of the indications of 
that state to a very high degree of perfection - J. 
-m- ean the domesticating of animals. Not content-
ed with simply subsisting upon the flesh and milk 
of his reindeer, he trains them to carry burdens 
and draw a sledge; and in the last case with so 
much skill, that the animal is guided in his path, 
and checked or hastened in his speed, merely by 
a leather thong tied to his horns, a~d by the 
voice of his master. The Laplander, during his 
summer wanderings, seldom enjoys any society 
but that of his own family; but, to compensate 
for this, he forms an acquaintance with every 
166 ARCTIC REGIONS. 
reindeer that belongs to his flock, studies hi, 
character and peculiarities of temper, gives him a 
name, and endeavours to acquire his affection 
and confidence. In this way he soon ascertains 
what each animal is best fitted for, and what his 
value really is; so that when a feast, or the mar-
riage of one of his daughters, or the want of 
food, demands that he should kill one of his 
flock, he is enabled to select for that purpose the 
individual whose loss will be the smallest depri-
vation to himself. 
The Laplander is active in his habits, of a 
cheerful disposition, and a voluble talker. He 
loves gaudiness in dress, and attaches a great 
value to the precious metals, though money is 
scarcely known to him as a medium of exchange. 
On obtaining any gold or silver coins, he either 
adorns his person with them, or secretly buries 
them, concealing the transaction from even his 
wife and children; so that. should he die sud-
denly, or at a distance from home, all know-
ledge of his treasnre perishes with him. The 
furniture and utensils of the Laplander are, as 
may be supposed, of the humblest description; 
his clothes are made of skins, he plays no games 
of any kind, and has so little idea of music that 
his songs consist of merely the repetition of three 
or four words in a howling and lugubrious tone of 
ABORIGINES OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 167 
voice. He can give no account· of his religion, 
except that he believes in the existence of malig-
nant spirits, and in the magical powers of the 
priests or sorcerers of his country. The selling 
of winds to mariners by these impostors is a cir-
cumstance too well known to be more than al~ 
Inded to here; though the practicability of the 
thing was long believed in the north of Europe,and 
is still asserted by many of the Norwegian and 
Icelandic fishermen. The Lapland sorcerers are 
also much addicted to the practice of divination, 
in which they employ an instrument called the 
Runic drum, which consists of a piece of parch-
ment stretched upon a wide hoop, and inscrib-
ed with various fantastic characters; a hand 
like that of a clock turns upon a pivot in the 
centre of the circle, and the operator affects to . 
, be guided in his predictions by observing to-
wards what figure or symbol it may in appear-
ance spontaneously direct itself, its movements 
being regulated by a loadstone which he secretly 
slides along the under surface of the parchment. 
The Greenlander next claims a transient re-
gard. He is not really inferior in intelligence 
to the Laplander, though the disadvantages at-
tending his physical condition make bim so in 
appearance. Possessing no flocks or domestic 
animals, living in an intolerably rigorous c1i-
• 
I6!! ARCTIC fi EG IONS. 
mate, and deriving a precarious subsistence from 
the sea, his ideas are intensely local; while the 
grossness of his food and the nature of his ap-
parel render his personal habits coarse and of-
fensive. Nevertheless, he constructs his winter 
habitation with a degree of art which is to be 
admired, and upon a plan which, in so far as 
respects the preservation of heat, could not per-
haps be improved upon, at least in a country 
where the only building materials procurable are 
stones and snow. In the management of his 
kajak , or canoe, he shows as mnch dexterity as 
the Laplander does in conducting his reindeer 
and sledge ; while he far surpasses him in the 
variety of arts which he employ. in the capturing 
of game, whether at sea or upon land. Nor does 
the disposition of the Greenlander partake of that 
somoreness which might be expected from his 
mode of life, and the severity of toil which he 
often undergoes in hi s seal and whale fishing 
expeditions. On the contrllry, he is gay and 
sociable, and a great retailer of long stories, of 
which he himself is in most instances the hero. 
One singular custom prevails amongst the 
Greenlanders, which seems indicative of a state of 
r<?linement to which they have in reality no pre-
tensions. H' hen two individuals happen to quar-
rel, they nen '" think of coming to blows, or of 
ABORIGINES OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 169 
decidiug the matter by single com bat, as is com-
monly done elsewhere, but they fix a time for a 
trial of skill at raillery. Notice being given of 
this, the friends of each party assemble at the 
appointed hour, and seat themselves upon the 
ground in a circle, placing the hostile pair in the 
centre of it. He of the two who happens to en-
joy the privilege of speaking first, begins to assail 
his adversary in the form of a harangue, turning 
him into ridicule in every possible way, setting 
forth his faults and peculiarities, describing his 
past follies, and striving to render him an object 
of contempt and aversion to the auditors and 
spectators. No sooner has he concluded his dis-
course, than his opponent commences a similar 
strain of satire and recrimination; and this mu-
tual war of words is continued alternately until 
both parties have exhausted their materials for 
carrying it on. The seniors of the assembly then 
carefully weigh alJ that has been spoken on either 
side, and proclaim victoriolls the individual who 
in their opinion has best defended himself, and 
most effectually assailed and aspersed his opponent. 
And Ilf're the affair is expected to terminate. This 
sort of amusement is highly relisherl by the Green-
landers; and both Crantz and Egede affirm that 
much broad humour, and even wit, is often elicit-
ed upon occasions of the kind; and that the au-
• 
170 ARCTIC REGIONS. 
ditors are kept in a state of merriment during the 
whole of the exhibition. The Greenlandera also 
entertain themselves with feasts and dances, but 
they have no idea of music, even of the rudest 
kind. Pretended sorcerers, called Angekoks, 
abound amongst them, and possess great influ-
ence, for they arrogate to themselves the power 
of visiting heaven and hell, of conversing with 
the dead, and of controlling the elements. The 
Greenlanders derive from these men their ideas 
of religion, which are too frivolous and unsys-
tematic to deserve notice or examination here. 
The Samoyeds are a singular race of Arctic 
people, respecting whom little accurate informa-
tion has hitherto been obtained. They chiefly 
inhabit the northern coasts of Russia bordering 
upon the Frozen Ocean, and are found also in tbe 
great 'island of Nova Zembla; but some writers 
assert that they never reside thl'1'e, and only visit 
it during summer, with the .. iew of collecting 
furs. The Samoyed has less acquaintance with the 
arts oflife than either the Laplander or the Green-
lander. He is diminutive in stature and awk- • 
ward in his gait, and he clothes himself in the 
skins of wild beasts; and, rigorous as his climate 
is, he constructs his habitation without art, and 
lives almost unsheltered from the inclemencies of 
ABORIGINES OF THE ARCTIC 'REGIONS. 171 
the weather. He subsists chiefly upon seals and 
foxes, and wanders from place to place with his 
family in search of a precarious meal; but, not-
withstanding the miserableness of his condition, 
he practises a greater variety of religious rites 
than any other Arctic people do. He pays adora-
tion to wooden idols, bearing a gross resemblance 
• 
to the human figure, and offers them bloody 
\ 
I sacrifices; and his obedience to his priest is so 
! • 
great, that he follows him wherever he may 
choose to go, and supplies him with food at all 
times. The priest acquires this degree of influ-
ence by performing incantations, and by pre-
tending to be in habitual communication with the 
Deity. In Hakluyt's collection of voyages, there 
is preserved a fragment respecting the Samoyeds, 
written by one Johnson, who was servant to 
Richard Chancellor when he visited Russia on an 
- embassy in Queen Elizabeth 's reign. It describes 
at some length the juggling of a Samoyed priest, 
who, after other feats, appeared to transfix him-
self with a sword; and the deception must have 
been well managed, for the narrator felt convinced 
of its reality, and attributes the whole to super-
natural agency. The Samoyeds are numerically 
perhaps the most inconsiderable nation ill the 
world in proportion to the extent of territory 
172 ARCTIC REGIONS. 
which they occupy; nor is the little that we do 
know respecting them calculated to make us 
desirous of knowing any more. 
It is scarcely necessary for me to speak of the 
E squimaux, because they are now generally ac-
knowledged to be of the same race as the Green-
landers, whom they closely resemble in every im-
portant or interesting particular. The only Arctic 
nation which remains to be noticed, is that inha-
biting Kamtschatka. It is true that the penin-
sular part of that country lies beyond the Polar 
circle; but as the climate of a great portion of it 
is extremely rigorous, and as the physical condi-
tion of its inhabitants is similar to what is observed 
in other frozen regions, a short account of them 
may properly enough be int roduced here. 
K amtschatka was discm'ered by the Russians in 
1746;' and the quantity of valuable furs which 
they observed amongst the natives, led them to 
attempt the conquest of the country, in order that 
they might obtain a tribute of peltries from it. 
The invading force consisted of only a few Cos-
sacks, who met with much more resistance, and 
encountered many more difficulties, in aCl'Om-
plishing their object than had been expected. 
The Kamtschatkans shut themselves up in fortified 
places, and foug ht desperately in defence of their 
libcrty; and in some instances, when pressed to 
ABORIGINES OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 178 
the last degree, and forced to abandon their strong-
holds, they first massacred their wives and children, 
and then fled and took up a position somewhere 
else, resolutely continuing on the defensive till 
overpowered by numbers, and either killed or 
made prisoners. This kind of warfare was pro-
~ longed many years; but the Kamtschatkans per-
.r'  ceiving that they were likely to be exterminated 
I by the Russians, and that they had no chance of 
ever being able to expel them from the country, 
at length sued for peace, and agreed to pay tri-
bute in peltries. Things were gradually restored 
to tranquillity, but not till nearly one· third of the 
entire population of Kamtschatka had perished by 
war and famine. The' Kamtschatkans, like most 
other Arctic nations, live in tents in summer, 
and in huts in winter. These latter are nearly 
, subterraneollS, their conical roofs alone rising above 
the surface of the ground; and twenty or thirty of 
them often stand close together, forming a little 
village, called an ostrog in the language of the 
country. Kamtschatka abounds with rivers which 
furnish salmon and other kinds of fish in vast 
quantities, and upon these her inhabitants almost 
exclusively subsist; for their country does not pro-
duce the reindeer, or any animal susceptible of 
domestication except the dog. Him they train 
to draw a sledge, and to perform long journeys on 
174 ARCTIC REGIONS. 
the snow, and his serviees in that way prove as 
valuable to them as those of the reindeer do to 
the Laplanders. In summer the Kamtscbatkan is 
actively engaged in fishing; but he passes tbe 
greater part of the cold season within doors, in 
the society of his wife and family, and leads a 
life of indolence except when he happens to go 
abroad to hunt sables and ermines. Unlike the 
inhabitants of any other Arctic region, he occa-
sionally makes use of an intoxicating substance, 
which possesses, it would appear, even greater 
powers of excitement than ardent spirits or opium. 
It is a plant named moucho-more, which grows 
wild in Kamtschatka, and resembles a mush-
room in its external character. The effects of the 
moucho-more are obtained by chewing small quan-
tities of it at intervals; and should the doses of it 
be very frequently repeated, the person under 
their operation grows delirious, and is liable to 
commit every kind of extravagance, and at length 
sinks into a trance from which he slowly recovers, 
unconscious of what he has done, or of what has 
occurred around him. Happily, the Kamtschat-
kans are sparing and cautious in the use of the 
moucho-more, reserving it chiefly for feasts and 
occasions of rejoicing, which however occur a~ 
often as the means of those who are to partake in 
them will admit; for this people delight much 
• 
ABORIGINES O}" THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 175 
in sbowing hospitality to one anotber, and also to 
the foreigners who may visit tbeir country, pro-
viding these are not Russians. Dobell, the Sibe-
rian traveller, mentions a peculiar 'cllstom, con-
nected with the present subject, which prevails 
, amongst the Kamtschatkans, and which it seems 
to me migbt advantageously be adopted else-
- where. When a host, after having entertained 
. , one of his own countrymen for a reasonable length 
, 
• of time, finds that he is not disposed to take his departure, he causes a certain dish, called tolkootha, 
to be prepared and served up at the next meal. 
The composition of this dish never varies, though 
a great variety of articles enter into it; and no 
sooner does the unwelcome visiter see it placed 
upon the table, than he perceives that his com-
pany has ceased to be agreeable to his entertainer, 
and that it is expected that he will quit the house 
without delay; for the tolkootha is never presented 
under any circumstances whatever except for the 
purpose of conveying a silent notification to the 
above effect, nor can the individual to whom this 
is addressed disregard it without committing an 
outrage of the laws of hospitality, which would 
subject him to general contempt and aversion. 
In the custom just described we find greater deli-
cacy and ingenuity than could be expected amongst 
a people so uncivilized as the Kamtschatkans, and 
176 ARCTIC REGIONS. 
it reminds li S of the mode in which the Asiatillll . 
intimates to' his visiter that it is time for him to 
take leave. He makes him some trifling preseot, 
.and it then becomes imperative upon the receiver 
to retire without delay, however insignificant the 
gift may be, and it seldom amounts to more than' 
a piece of betel-nut, or a few drops of attar of 
roses. 
If, in taking a general view of the Arctic nati-
ons, we are struck with the miserahleness of their 
condition, we can at least have the consolation of 
reflecting that they are absolutely contented with 
it, and that none of them wOllld exchange it for 
any other. It is well known that tbe natives of 
beautiful and fertile regions have fewer and more 
feeble local attachments than those of less favoured 
lands. That love of country, which scarcely be-
longs to the character of an inhabitant of the Tor-
rid zone, assumes the form of a predominating 
passion in the neighbourhood of the Arctic circle, 
and appears in perhaps its greatest possible inten-
sity amidst the snows and ices of the North Pole. 
Most of the early explorers of the Arctic seas 
were in the habit of enticing on board their ships 
some specimens of the different nations that hap-
pened to filII in their way, and carrying them 
homa with them. nut in. no instance was the 
Greenlander, or Laplander, or Sarnoyed, found 
• 
• 
ABORIGINES OF THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 177 
· willing to quit his country, though bribed with 
presents and delicate food, and caressed and con-
soled in every possible way; and tbe captors al-
ways found it necessary to use force in detaining 
their prisoners, who in many cases pined away 
, and died shortly after losing sight of their native 
i land, and in others leaped overboard as soon as 
they could find an opportunity of doing so. 
•,  Leems mentions, in his account of Danish Lap-
••  land, that when the King of Denmark desired 
that several natives of that country should be sent 
to Copenhagen, to be instructed in the arts of 
civilized life, no Laplander was found willing to 
• 
comply with his Majesty's proposals, or disposed 
to expatriate himself upon any terms whatever. 
About the same time, five Greenlanders, that had 
been entrapped by the master of a fishing-vessel, 
_w ere brought to Copenhagen; but though they 
were treated with the utmost kindness and indul-
gence, and gratified in all their desires, three of 
·them soon died of grief, and the other two even-
tually shared a similar fate, after having made 
several desperate but unsuccessful attempts to 
return to their native country. On the other 
hand, it is curious to remark how easy it has al-
ways been to persuade tbe inhabitants of the tro-
pical parts of the eaTth to quit their native land, 
whatever degree of fertility and loveliness might 
VOL. II. • N 
• 
, ,.  , 
178 AIlCTIC REGIONS. 
belong to it. Many of the Bahama islanders volun. 
tarily accompanied Columbus during his voyages 
in tile Caribbean seas, and even went with him to 
Europe. When Hispaniola had become nearly 
depopulated, in consequence of the excesses and 
rapacity of the Spaniards, Ovando, who was go-
vernor there at the time, sent three ships to the 
Leucayan archipelago, to procure from thence a 
supply of labourers for the mines. The person in 
command of the expedition assured tbe Leucayans 
that he had come from a distant country, the 
happy abode of their ancestors, and that his object 
was to convey there every individual who felt any • 
desire to visit his deceased parents, friends, or 
relatives. The inconsiderate Leucayans, simple 
enough to be imposed upon by this iJI-eontrived 
tale, and totally unfettered by any attachment to 
their native land, hun·ied in crowds on board the 
Spanish vessels, which immeiliately setting sail, 
carried them to an abode of sorrow, from which not 
one of their number ever returned. Cook, during 
his voyagcs amongst the South Sea islands, found 
lpany of the inhabitants willing to accompany him 
to any other part of the world; and Kotzebue, the 
Russian navigator, met with various instances of 
this migratory spirit in the course of the Polyne-
sian discoveries, which he made some years ago in 
the ship Rurick. Is it the pri,·ations and the pre-
, 
• • 
• 
ABORIGINES OF TilE ARCTIC REGIONS. 179 
, cariousness belonging to their mode of life, that 
make the Arctic nations feel an intense interest 
in the inhospitable regions which they inhabit; 
while the natives of tropical countries, obtaining 
without fatigue or danger all the requisites for 
subsistence, and having, as it were, little direct 
communion with their own soil, are less prone to 
form strong local attachments? 
It is scarcely necessary for me to state, that no 
aboriginal monuments of art exist in the Polar 
regions. Nor could we expect that nations so un-
favourably situated as are the Laplanders, Green-
landers, and Samoyeds, should have constructed 
any works of the kind, great or small, wIlen we 
observe that even abundant leisure, a temperate 
climate, and the command of materials, generally 
prove insufficient to induce an uncivilized people 
to bestow their labour in the formation of objects 
of magnitude or durability. It is true that Mau-
pertuis, the French academician, found a large 
stone bearing an inscription, or what appeared to 
be one, near the top of the mountain of Winso, in 
Lapland; but as the characters engraved upon it, 
and which he carefully copied, were found to 
resemble those of no existing alphabet, ancient 01' 
modern, he seems inclined to suspect that they 
must have been formed by nature, 01' by the ca-
pricious hand of some unlettered, being and that 
N 2 
• 
180 ARCTIC REGIONS. 
they were without any signification whatever. 
And in this view of the subject he is probably 
correct; for accident often produces lines and 
• 
figures which may easily be mistaken for written 
signs, particularly if the individual under wbose 
observation they fall happens to be in search of 
objects of the kind. Humboldt, in his voyage 
up the Oronoco, saw various characters engraved 
upon its banks, so alphabetic in their appearance, 
that he considered them worthy of attention, until 
the natives of the country informed him that they 
were the work of their own hands: and Kahn 
speaks of a pillar of stone, with an inscription, 
which was reported in his time to exist in the 
interior of Upper Canada; but we may easily he-
lieve that this supposed monument of human art 
was as much the result of accident as the rock of 
' Vinso. 
Nor do the A rctic people possess any rational 
traditions respecting themselves or the history of 
their ancestors. R ecords of the kind, however 
obscure they might be, would prove highly inter-
esting, in so far as they were calculated to inform 
uS whether the Greenlanders and other Polar na-
tions have originally emigrated from more south-
~rly regions, and whether the climate in which 
they live has ever been' less rigorous than it is 
at present. Thc current of population having 
ABOIUGINES OF TilE ARCTIC REGIONS. 181 
at all times set from the northward, some extraor-
dinary impulse or singular event must have at one 
period partially forced it into an opposite direction, 
and compelled bands of men to penetrate within 
the Arctic circle, and to exile themselves to re-
gions of lingering darkness and eternal sterility. 
Are all the nations whicb I have described, and 
• various other tribes of people, both unknown and 
unnamed, that reside upon the coasts of the North-
ern Frozen Ocean, really of European or Asiatic 
descent? Or are they the decaying and degraded 
remnants of a numerous race of men that existed 
in the neighbourhood of the Pole, at a period 
when Nature wore a different aspect there from ' 
what she does in the present day, and when the 
extensive forests and the gigantic animals whose 
fossil remains we have discovered in that quarter, 
_ overspread and inhabited a soil which now lies 
encrusted with un dissolving ices? 
182 
• 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY IN THE 
ARCTIC REGIONS. 
IN taking a general view of the condition of 
European society in the Arctic regions, we shall 
observe few varieties of character or circumstance, 
and few instances of the developement of any par-
ticular habits of mind, or peculiar propensities, 
dependent upon the nature of the individual's oc-
cupation and mode of life. In short, our atten-
tion will be much oftener engaged by the physi-
cal than by the moral part of the man; and we 
will be less curious to know how he feels and 
thinks, than to inquire in wllat way he contrives 
to resist the severities of a Polar climate, to ob-
tain the means of subsistence in a frozen region, 
to remedy the inconvenience of its annual night, 
and to make life supportable and even pleasing in 
a land of gloom, solitude, and eternal ices. And 
it appears the more necessary that we should take 
this "iew of the subject, when we consider that 
the individuals who have at all times formed the 
EUIlOPEAN SOCIETY. 183 
mass of the European residents of the Arctic re-
gions, have consisted of rude seamen, roving hunt-
ers, and uneducated fur-merchants, all of them 
absorbed by their own pursuits, incapable of ac-
curate observation, and susceptible only of phy-
sical enjoyments. Any particulars worthy of re-
cord in the history of such men must be external 
ones, and it is these alone that they themselves 
are able to communicate, and that lie within our 
reach and appropriation. How much more vari-
ed and agreeable would the picture of European 
society in Polar countries be, did it comprehend 
a view of the condition and mode of life of per-
sons of knowledge, refinement, and cultivated taste, 
who had exiled themselves either from choice or 
necessity to that part of the globe! We should 
perhaps in that case perceive the human mind 
_ §adually and artfully accommodating itself to re-
pugnant external circumstances, supplying the 
deficiencies of nature, continually drawing upon its 
own resources, rendering pain and privation a 
means of ease and enjoyment - and by a kind of 
moral alchymy (the only practicable one), altering 
the quality and properties of things, and softening 
the fiercest and most stern characters of nature into 
docility and subservience. The process by which 
a reasoning and instructed mind adapts itself to 
the most uncongenial external circumstances, and 
184 ARCTIC REGIONS. 
the means which the individual employs to coun-
teract and ameliorate any physical evils that may 
be incidental to his condition or situation, are 
amongst the most interesting subjects of inquiry 
that appertain to colonial life; and though in tbe 
present instance we shan have an opportunity of 
observing these things in their humblest aspect 
only, we may nevertheless expect to find some 
curious and aUractive features in the picture of 
European Arctic life which I now propose to lay 
before the reader. 
The earliest notices which we possess respect-
ing the Arctic regions are found in the history 
of a voyage made by Zeno, a Venetian navigator, 
towards the end of the tenth century. He in-
forms us that he visited the coast of Greenland, 
and there found a convent of monks, which was 
heated by means of boiling water, obtained from 
a neighbouring spring, and conveyed in pipes 
throngh every part of the building. This hot 
spring issued from the bottom of a volcano; and 
t he religious men employed it not only to warm 
their cells, but also for culinary purposes. Who 
these monks were, and from whence they had 
come, Zeno does not ex plain; and his narrative 
has been rejected by many writers as entirely fa-
hulous. Everyone in perusing it lUust be struck 
with the resemblance whid. the hot spring de-
• 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 185 
scribed as existing in Greenland, bears· to those of 
Iceland, situated at the foot of Mount Hecla; and 
we might conjecture that Zeno had mistaken the 
latter country for the former, did he not distinctly 
state that the-v traded with each other, and that 
Icelandic ships often visited the ports of Greenland. 
And it must be admitted that the plan of heating 
the convent by means of pipes conveying boiling 
water, implies a higher degree of knowledge and 
civilization than can possibly have existed in 
Northern Europe in the tenth century; for Zeno's 
monks were, we may suppose, emigrants from 
Denmark or Norway, these nations alone having 
had any acquaintance with the Arctic countries at 
that early period. The manufacture of iron pipes 
would not indeed be difficult to a people who 
possessed the art of forging armour and making 
__ swords and spears; but the elevating of the water, 
the regulating of its supply, and the conveyance 
of it in various directions, would demand powers 
of invention and mechanical dexterity not likely 
to belong to any body of monks in those days of 
ignorance and superstition, or at least to be exer-
cised by them in that way in a country where 
the quantities of drift-wood annually deposited 
upon the coasts have al ways afforded an abundant 
supply of fuel. And here I may be allowed to 
remark, that it is far from being improbable that 
186 AItCTIC !lEGIONS. 
the Greenlandic plan of heating buildings by 
boiling water (if it really ever was adopted) may I 
ere long be revived in Iceland from necessity. , 
• 
It appears that a vast accumulation of icebergs ,,  
is now taking place along the eastern coast of that i 
• 
island, which will soon altogether preven t the i 
approach of those heaps of floating timber upon •,•  
which the inhabitants have hitherto depended for 
fuel. Should this happen, they must either bum • 
lichens, or remove to the neighbourhood of 
:Mount Hecla, and employ the waters of the 
Geyser, and of their other boiling springs, to 
warm their habitations and dress their food. Then 
will be seen, for the first time, a volcano dif-
fusing benefits amongst mankind, attracting a pa-
pulation around its base, and regarded by every 
one as the nurse and fosterer of life, instead of 
its enemy and wanton destroyer. 
The early history of European settlements in 
the Arctic regions is rather obscure, and what we 
do know upon the subject is too familiar to 
the public to admit of its being minutely de-
tailed here. It would appear that, in the eleventh 
century, an outlawed Norwegian formed a settle-
ment upon the eastern coast of Greenland, and 
that many of his countrymen, allured by the 
agreeableness of the place, emigrated thither, 
bringing along with them cattle, grain, and agri-
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 187 
cultural implements. The colony soon became 
populous and flourishing; schools and churches 
were built, and the arts of life cultivated; while 
the produce of the whale and seal fisheries en-
abled the inhabitants to carryon an advantage-
ous trade with Norway, and to obtain from 
thence European manufactures, and other arti-
cles which were not procurable amongst them-
selves. This kind of commerce employed se-
veral ships annually; but after many years it 
declined, and, from some unknown cause, all 
intercourse between Norway and Greenland was 
discontinued about the middle of the fourteenth 
century. At a subsequent period, the Danes 
and Norwegians, desirous of renewing their trade 
with the colony, fitted out several ships for that 
purpose; but none of these succeeded in reach-
~ng their destination, or even obtaining a view 
of its coasts, for a vast and impenetrable barrier 
of ice everywhere prevented their advancing 
within thirty miles of those ports which had 
formerly been found accessible during three 
months of every year. Repeated attempts were 
afterwards made by various nations to regain a 
knowledge of the imprisoned colony, but all of 
these failed; and up to the present time we re-
main totally in the dark respecting the fate and 
condition of the civilized population of East 
• 
188 ARCTIC !lEGIONS. 
Greenland, which has been so mysteriously cut 
off from all communication with the rest of the 
, 
world. ••  
I 
An event similar to the above has not occur- ,j  
red in any part of the world with which we are I ••  
acquainted; and thus destitute of the results of 
an analogous case, we can only speculate upon !,  
• 
the consequences, immediate and rem ott', which I 
must have accrued to the inhabitants of East I,  
Greenland after the icy barrier had closed around 
their coasts, and excluded them from foreign aid 
and intercourse. The colony was, from its phy-
sical character, less able to bear a total separation 
from the rest of the globe than perhaps any in-
habited spot whatever. Producing very scanty 
and uncertain crops of grain, and affording pas-
turage for only a few cattle, the mass of the food 
consumed by its population was partly imported 
from Denmark and Norway, and partly obtained 
from the sea, which afforded a considerable quan-
tity of fish during the summer months. But the 
supply of provisions derived from both of these 
sources must have failed at the same time; for 
that accumulation of ice upon the coast, which 
prevented the approach of the Norwegian vessels, 
would also, by covering the surface of the sea, 
put an end to every kind of fishing, and reduce 
thc colonists to the most desperate circumstances.  
• 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 189 
It is probable that the glacial involvement of 
East Greenland was effected in the course of a 
few days, and about the beginning of the Polar 
summer. The observations of Arctic navigators 
prove that a vast disruption of ice takes place 
towards the Pole once every twenty or twenty-five 
years, and that the masses are carried more or 
less to' the southward by winds and currents, and 
continue to block up the seas in an unusual de-
gree, till they gradually disperse and dissolve, 
and leave the passage for ships as free as it was 
before. A periodical event of this kind caused, 
in all likelihood, the imprisoning of the inhabit-
ants of East Greenland. In some tempestuous 
night in April, when looking forward to the 
opening of the navigation, and the arrival of the 
annual fleet from Norway, they would be aroused 
--by a succession of terrific noises; and, stationing themselves on their lofty shores, would see afar 
off a vast and uninterrupted succession of moun-
tainous icebergs moving from the north in horrid 
array, and bearing down upon the coast of Green-
land. A great proportion of these floating masses 
would probably pass on to the southward, and en-
courage the frightened colonists to hope that the 
rest of them would follow the same route; but 
the gradual entanglement of the icebergs with 
one another, and the stoppage in their progress 
190 AHCTIC HEGIONS. 
caused by capes and points of land, and by the 
in-draught of eddies and local clln:ents, would at 
length render many of the largest of them sta-
tionary, and form the general outline of that 
frozen barrier which was soon to inclose the co-
lony _ 
No sooner had the progression of the icebergs 
ceased in one place, than those following close be-
hind, unable to advance farther in a lateral or ho-
rizontal direction, would be forced upwards over 
the tops of those ranged before them, and a scene 
of fearful accumulation, collisiou, and destruction 
would ensue, and go on increasing so long as 
additional materials continued to be rolled in from . 
the relentless north. Thus the frozen barrier, 
having first acquired the utmost possible solidity 
below, from the violent compression and the wedg-
ing . together of its different parts, would after-
wards attain greater and greater elevation, and at 
length rise higher than the coasts of Greenland, 
lofty and precipitous as these are, and extend itself 
into every bay and inlet, and even encroach 
upon the land. Then would the colonists begin 
to feel some misgivings respect.ing their situation; 
but so long as the wiud continued to blow with 
any degree of strength, and the least motion was dis-
cernible amongst the icebergs, they would indulge 
a hope of seeing them disperse, perhaps even more 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 191 
rapidly than they had collected together, and 
would retire to their houses on the approach of 
darkness, short as its duration is in Greenland at 
the beginning of the Polar summer. Revisiting 
the coast next morning, they 'would find that 
the tempest had ceased, and that the ice was 
motionless, while a serene atmosphere and cloud-
less sky enabled them to discern an intel'mina-
ble succession of glacial peaks and frosted emi-
nences rising to the northward and eastward; and 
the profound and melancholy silence reigning in 
these directions would indicate that Nature was 
satisfied with what she had done, and that her 
.. activity was not likely to be soon again exerted 
in the same quarter. 
The colonists would not altogether despair of 
the breaking up of the ice till the middle of 
- August, when the power of the sun begins to de--
cline in the Arctic regions. But before the season 
had advanced so far, they must have experienced 
two formidable results of their new situation, the 
total interruption of their fisheries and the want of 
the drift-wood, which had before annually float-
ed towards their coasts, and afforded their only 
supply of fuel for the winter. The impossibility 
of the usual vessels arriving from Norway they 
would -regard as a minor evil, because these 
brought to the colony merely the conveniences of 
192 ARCTIC REGIONS. 
life, which cease to be available whenever its ne-
cessaries are withdrawn. Anticipations of famine 
and benumbing cold would now take undivided 
possession of every mind; and the impulse of self-
preservation would set the colonists in array against 
one another. The hearts of the rich would be 
steeled to the miseries of the poor, and a desperate 
stmggle would take place in the partition of the 
fuel and the means of subsistence that existed in 
the country, and were to form the only resource of 
its inhabitants throughout at least a Polar winter of 
eight months' duration, and perhaps for a succession 
of years, should the ice which blocked up their 
coasts remain so long undissolved, and they them-
selves be able to protract their lives for any consi-
derable length of time. In the coursp of a few 
months all their firewood and oil would be consu-
med; and they would be reducoo to the necessity 
of pulling down their habitations to obtain the 
timber that formed their floors Ilnd roofs; and in 
this way deprived of shelter, they would dig caves 
in the ground, in imitation of the winter-housps 
of the native Greenlanders, and linger out their 
lives in these dark abodes, in the constant l'Ompa-
nionship of cold and famine. A large proportion 
of the colonists must have perished in the course 
of the second year of their imprisonment; and a 
considerable number would probably attempt to 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. ]93 
cross the country and reach West Greenland, but 
finding the route impassable, (as it has since heen 
ascertained to be,) they would mostly fall victims 
to the fatigues of the journey. The priests would 
in all likelihood continue to the last to reside in 
their churches and convents, of which there were 
several in the colony; and it is in the cells or libra-
ries of these that some written memorial or diary 
• of the events of that awful period may yet exist, 
J 
I and hereafter be found by the first navigator who 
1,  is fortunate enough to effect a landing upon the 
• 
I coast of East Greenland. 
Some sanguine speculators have even insisted 
that this colony may still be in existence, and this 
opinion has caused them to feel an ardent desire 
that its site should be visited and explored, 
in order to ascertain the present condition of the 
!,  __ inhabitants; but we shall rest satisfied that they , must all have perished within a few years subse-
••  
I quent to the first season of their imprisonment, if 
I we consider the physical character of Greenland, 
I 
I and reflect upon the immediate and insurmount-
able privations to which its residents, however in-
j ured to the climate, must have been subjected 
I 
upon the closing of the ice around them. But did 
I the least air of probability attach to the former supposition, it would indeed be an admirable sub-
VOL. II. o 
194 ARCTIC REGIONS. 
ject for human enterprise to penetrate to the c0-
lony; not so much with a view to gra~ify our mere 
curiosity respecting it, as to solve a probtem in re-
ference to the mental capabilities of the human race, 
which is involved in the following question: Can 
any community in a state of civilization, be it high 
or low, continue to make progression in that state 
without foreign aid or intercourse? 
It would appear that the Norwegian settlers in 
East Greenland were tolerably far advanced in the 
arts of life at the period at which they last had 
communication with Europe. They had regular 
forms of government and of religion; they prac-
tised agriculture and the more necessary me-
chanic arts; and they possessed schools and 
churches, which were served by priests endowed 
with a moderate portion of the learning of their 
own times. Supposing, then, that the lost colony 
is still in existence, and that ita inhabitants shortly 
contrived in some way or other to remedy the 
evils that first attended their separation from the 
rest of the world, shall we, on visiting them, find 
that they have declined, or progressed, or remain-
ed stationary, in reference to the state of civiliza-
tion which they enjoyed at the period of our for-
mer acquaintance with them ? We may reason-
ably enough conclude that the first must be the 
case; because the physical difficulties to which 
, 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 195 
they would be exposed on the closure of the ice, 
would absorb their whole attention, and withdraw 
their minds from the cultivation of learning and 
the improvement of the arts. But let liS imagine 
that no obstacle of the kind had existed to retard 
their social advancement; would they in such a 
case have presel?'ed amongst themselves, up to the 
present time, all the knowledge that they possess-
ed when they were shut out from Europe; and 
would they have increased it, and even discover-
ed new channels for the exercise of the human 
faculties and of hllman ingenuity ? 
Nothing but the discovery of some social com-
munity that had, after attaining a certain degree 
of civilization, been enfir~ly cut off from any in-
tercourse with the rest of the world during several 
centuries, would enable us to determine whether 
any portion of the human species, however well 
instructed it may be, can continue to advance in 
knowledge, and in the arts of life, without incite-
ment and assistance, direct or indirect, from neigh-
bouring countries. We well know that no peo-
ple ever were able to civilize themselves; and this 
• 
has always appeared too obvious to admit of de-
nial, even by the vainest nations of antiquity, 
however unwilling they might be to acknowledge 
that they owed anything to foreigners. The early 
annals of nearly all countries, barbarous and en-
02 
• 
196 ARCTIC REGIONS. 
lightened, llscribe the first origin of their social 
state to the arrival amongst them of some stranger 
from a distant region, who instructed them in the 
arts of life, and communicated to them a system 
of religion. Thus the ancient Greeks, boundless 
as their pretensions were, co~ that they re-
ceived these benefits from · an. Egyptian. The 
Egyptians, on the other hand, derived all their 
secular knowledge from a person called Thoth. 
Odin civilized the Scandinavians; Manca Capac 
did the same service to the people of Peru; Oran 
was the benefactor of the Friendly Islands in the 
Pacific Ocean; and Boodh enlightened the natives 
of the Eastern archipelago. These instructors of 
the lmman race are almost invariably represented 
to have come from some unknown place; and in 
many instances we find that they departed on com-
pleting the object of their respective missions, and 
never again showed themselves. And to satisfy 
ourselves that nations cannot advance in civiliza-
• • 
tion without the aid and stimulus of foreign inter-
course, we need only refer to the people of China, 
Hindostan, and Japan, none of• w hom have in the least degree progressed in knowledge, or in the 
arts of life, since we first became acquainted with 
them; and if we credit their respective annals and 
traditions, we shall rather come to the conclusion 
that they have for many centuries back been gra-
EUROPEAN•  SOCIETY • 197 
dually declining in these respects. No ~mmunity, 
therefore, possesses within itself the means of social 
improvement; this originating almost altogether 
in the frequency of its external collision with its 
neighbours, or with the inhabitants of remote parts 
of the world, whuher the agent leiding to this be 
commerce, or war; or national rivalry, or the form-
ation of settlements abroad. The greater sway 
that cupidity, avarice, discontent, luxury, pride, 
selfishness, political ambition, and all the other 
bad passions incidental to human nature, exert 
amongst any people, the more rapidly will they 
advance in civilization; which is a state of moral 
excitement existing in a community precisely simi-
lar to that animal one 'which may be kept up in 
the human frame by the continued use and repe-
tition of stimulants. It is said that the mos(iil~ • 
• 
' __ noxious living creature, if subjected to torture for 
a long period of time, will at length produce pois-
onous secretions of vir~lent and destructive qua-
lities; and in the same way, bodies of men, when 
their minds are kept in a state of irritation by 
foreign intercom,e, and harassed by anxieties and 
furious passions, and by the desire and necessity 
of circumventing each other, change their nature, 
and become the originators of those complicated 
systems 'of social life which diffuse poverty, crime, 
suffering, and sorrow amongst the great mass of 
198 ARCTIC R£dfoNS. 
those who adopt them and live under their in-
fluence; whilst the few wbom wealth or privilege ! 
I 
happens to exempt from the general evils, com- , I 
placently admire the state of things around them, ,•  
and dilate upon the blessings and advantages of ! 
••  
a high degree of civilization. Had East Green- I 
land been a fertile country, and capable of sub- I 
I 
sisting upon her own resources, ber separation I ! 
from the rest of the world by the closure of the • 
I 
ice would have been the happiest event in her 
history; because she was in this way protected I 
• 
from the evils of foreign intrusion and social re-
i 
finement, and from the machinations of those self- i 
styled philanthropists, and religious and political f • 
reformers, whom Europe has produced in such • 
numbers within these few centuries past, and who • 
• 
have in general spent their idle hours in contriving 
how. they could best sow dissension between their 
fellow-creatures, and infuse into them the desire 
of persecuting and torturing all of the human 
species that refused to applaud their own ineffec-
tive reveries, or coincide in their fantastic and 
untenable opinions. Should t~e colony of East 
Greenland hereafter be found in existence, its first 
European visiter will assuredly not discover there 
any overgrown c1lUrch establishment, the majority 
of its ministers indifferent to the interests of the 
religion which they profess to teach, and thus 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 199 
forcing the virtuous part of the people to seek 
moral consistency m.. sectarianism, and affording 
the depraved and licentious a plausible pretext for 
infidelity, and for a sceptical distrust of received 
doctrines. Neither will he discover there a set of 
men who consider knowledge and education as 
more essential to the poor than food and clothing, 
and who insist that even those individuals who 
obtain a precarious subsistence by manual labour, 
ought to cultivate the sciences, and devote the 
scanty leisure which their daily toil allows them 
to religious and political speculations. Neither 
will he find there a class of people who affect to 
be the personification of benevolence and philan-
. thropy; but who, though surrounded by every 
! form of human wretchedness, regard the whole 
with indifference, because the sufferers are their 
own countrymen, and expend t~eir sympathy and 
their money upon far distant and almost unknown 
nations, who contemn the gifts which they send, 
and too often have reason to denounce the bearers 
of these as the authors of social dissension, and 
the disturbers of their tranquillity. No such 
morbid excrescences would he found in a colony 
which had been shut out from the rest of the globe 
, for several centuries, and which had at the period , of its imprisonment attained a knowledge of those 
,,•   arts of life only that can exist amongst a people, , 
.'/  '. .. ; 
. . 
. " 
• ..... 
iOO ARCTIC REGiONS. • 
and be cultivated by them, without deteriorating 
their character or destroying their bappiness. 
Nearly all the Europeans who have resided in 
the Polar regions in more modern times have be-
longed to the lowest classes of society, and have 
gone or been sent there for the purpose of collect-
ing furs, or of facilitating the whale-fishery carried 
on during the summer season by the shipping of 
their respective nations. The Dutch first con-
ceived the idea of forming establishments in the 
remoter Arctic countries, and ventured to believe 
that the human constitution might possibly with-
stand the rigours of their long and severe winter; 
nor would it appear that they found much diffi-
culty in occasionally persuading their seamen to 
try the experiment, even after it had in many in-
stances been attended with fatal result~. It is 
very certain that the first four or five attempts 
made by the Dutch and Russians to winter in 
Greenland and Nova Zembla were altogether un-
successful, most of the individuals engaged in 
them having perished in the course of six or eight 
months from cold and scurvy. But these men 
were in reality very unfit suhjects for the purpose 
which they had in view; for though their consti-
tutions might he strong and capahle of enduring 
great hardships and privations, they themselves, 
owing to their ignoranL'e and to the grossness of 
• EUROPEAN SOCIETY . 201 
their habits, must have neglected to live with the 
requisite degree of regularity and circumspection, 
and to use proper means of preservation from the 
effects of the climate. Being seamen, they would 
seek relief from the benumbing cold in drinking 
spirituous liquors, with which they were always 
supplied, and would pass the greater part of their 
time in sleep, instead of equalizing the circulation 
by regular and long..continued exercise. Persons 
of education, refined habits, and discernment, 
would be much less likely to fall victims to a 
Polar winter, or even to suffer much inconveni-
ence from it, than men of the class which I have 
just described; for, in addition to the art of ma-
naging their own constitutions, and gradually 
acclimatizing themselves, they would possess men-
tal resources calculated to relieve the monotony 
- of life in a frozen region, and to withdraw their 
thoughts from the physical disadvantages of their 
condition . 
• 
It is usual for the persons who propose to 
winter in the remoter Polar regions, such as 
Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla, to bring along 
with them a wooden house in pieces, or at least 
tbe materials for constructing one. A stone 
building would afford much better protection 
from the severity of the climate; but it is impos-
sible to construct anything of the kind in coun-
• 
202 ARCTIC III:GIONS. 
tries where the soil is always frozen, and where 
the rocks and strata, being covered with deep 
layers of ice and snow, ar~ 'acarcely accessihle to 
human labour. The ,A rctic habitation, in gene-
ral. consists of only two apartments, one of 
which answers the purpose of a storeroom for 
provisions; the other. which is used as a kitchen, 
hall. and bedchamber. combined, has in its centre 
a large stove of a construction suitable for cook-
ing. and surrounded with benches; and a wooden 
platform, raised about a foot and a half above 
the level of the floor, and about three feet in 
breadth, extends along the walls of the apart-
ment; and it is upon this that the parties sleep 
every night, and perhaps sit or recline during 
part of the day. The purpose of the platform is 
to protect them from damp, and to admit of their 
frequently moving and airing their beds, so that 
the hoar-frost produced by the condensation of the 
breath may not accumulate and cause annoxance•  
• 
The door of the apartment is made very,mnall I;nd 
tight, as well as its window, which is not so much 
intended to admit light (that being furnished by 
a lamp suspended from the ceiling), as to enable 
the inmates to ascertain the state of the weather 
without going outside. A large supply of fuel 
(generally Polar drift-wood) is placed in the im-
mediate neighbourhood of the house; and every 
• 
EUROPl!J!t; SOCIETY. 20S 
other requisite article is so attangied that it can be 
procured with the least possible exertion. 
These domestic a~gements being completed, 
every individual of the wintering party has a par-
ticular household duty assigned to him, whether 
it be the care and apportioning of the provisions, 
or the management of the fire and kitchen, or the 
repairing and keeping in order of the building. 
The collecting of furs being the object of people 
in this situation, they daily set traps for foxes 
and such other animals as they may wish to cap-
ture. They visit these snares at particular times, 
carry home the produce, and there employ them-
selves in preserving the skins obtained in this 
way. Such is the sum and the unvarying rou-
tine of their occupations from the period of their 
establishing themselves in the Polar regions till the 
__ arrival of summer puts an end to hunting, and 
admits of their returning homewards, should they 
feel so inclined. During the greater part of t,h eir 
solitary eltile, they do not enjoy the variety of day 
and night, and scarcely even that of different de-
grees of darkness; and any circumstance, insig-
nificant as it must necessarily be, that ever oc-
curs to break the u~ual tenor of their lives, is 
always of a disagreeable and depressing cha-
racter . . Sometimes a gale of wind, attended 
with thick showers of snow, will rage with in-
204 ARCTIC llEGIONS. 
expressible fury for several days together, and 
prevent their visiting their fox-traps, or even 
quitting the house, in which they are obliged 
to remain crowded together around their stove, 
shuddering with cold, and terrified lest the 
tempest should overthrow the · fragile walls 
which but indifferently protect them from its 
violence. These high winds blow mostly from 
tile south-west; and such is their sharpness, that 
no human constitution can bear exposure to 
them for any length of time; nor is it possible 
to move from one place to another while they 
prevail, however short the illstance may be; for 
then the snow both descends in dense showers 
from above and is IV hirled aJoft in wreaths from 
the ground, and the atmosphere becomes so ob-
scured that even large objects are scarcely ills-
tinguishabJe at the distance of two or three \ 
yards. Storms of this kind are usually succeed-
ed by calm and clear weather, when the hunters 
release themselves from imprisonment by dig- I· 
ging away the snow which has ili'ifted ill large 
quantities around their habitation, and hasten 
to inspect their fox-traps, which they most pro-
bably find to have been plundered by white 
bears, or to be buried to an inaccessible depth 
in the snow. Sometimes, while they are en-
gaged in this way, it will happen that one of 
• 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 205 
them, having separated from his companions, will 
• 
fall into a deep cleft in the ice, and be .unable 
j to extricate himself from thence by his own ex-
, ertions, the others being too far off to hear his 
cries for assistance. 'Vhen, on their return home, 
',.  they perceive that he is missing, t~ey proceed 
in search of bim with torches; but, perhaps, fol-
lowing a wrong direction, they never approach 
the place wbere he lies, or arrive there too late, 
and find him frozen to death or expiring from 
cold. Nor are the 'bunters altogether free from 
the attacks of external enemies; for severlll white 
bears will sometimes appear in the neighbourhood 
of the house, and remain there many days to-
gether, watching the motions of its inmates, and 
pursuing and attacking anyone who may venture 
to walk out alone and unarmed. These animals 
sometimes become so ferocious and bold, that 
they mount upon the roof of the building while 
the hunters are asleep, and scrape with their 
pa ws, and endeavour to force the planks asunder; 
nor dare the people, though awakened by the 
noise, go outside to drive away their assailants, 
, lest these should spring down upon them and de-
stroy them. 
The bunters chiefly depend for a supply of food 
upon the provisions which they have brought 
along with them. These consist for the most part 
• 
·•  
I•  
206 ARCTIC REGIONS. 
of rye-ftour, salted pork, biscuit, sour krout, and 
spirituous liquors, articles of diet which evidently 
are selected less on account of their healthiness, 
than because of the facility with which they may 
be transported from one place to another. The 
hunters, however, often vary their fare with the 
flesh of foxes and of bears, which is considered by 
them to be both agreeable and nutritious. But 
all the care that they can employ in the preserva-
tion of their health, seldom enables any of them 
to get through the winter without suffering from 
scorbutic attacks more or less severe. The uni-
formity of their diet, the want of vegetables, their 
long confinement within doors, and their habitual 
indolence, produce a disposition to this disease, 
which is the most afflicting one that can assail 
people in their circumstances; for it equally en-
feebles the mind and the body of the patient, 
who becomes langllid, desponding, and averse to 
exertion, and at length torpid and regardless of 
himself and of others, and strongly disinclined to 
use those common means of relief that lie within 
his reach, even though he may have a firm belief • 
in their efficacy. And those hunters who escape 
the scurvy are exposed to other affections scarcely 
less disagreeable, being tormented with pains in 
their limbs, and entirely losing their appetite, par-
ticularly towards the end of the winter. They 
• 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 2()7 
likewise complain that the continual burning of 
whale oil in their habitations causes some acrid 
impregnation of the atmosPb.ere, which injures 
• 
their organs of taste, and renders all their food 
bitter to the palate, and deficient in zest and in 
characteristic fl3Vour. 
But the above picture of the inconveniences to 
which Europeans are subjected while resident in 
the Polar regions, would lose its correctness, were 
• 
human art to be employed in ameliorating and 
remedying the peculiarities of the climate and soil 
there. The hunters, whose mode of life I have 
just described, being poor and destitute of re-
sources, necessarily submit to various privations 
, 
and hardships; but these do not inseparably belong 
to an abode in the country in question, the re-
motest and most frigid parts of which might be 
~ rendered sufficiently agreeable to any class of so-
ciety whatever. At present, it is useless to inquire 
how we could best accomplish this, because there 
• 
is little pfobability of Spitzbergen or Nova Zem-
bla becoming the seat of an European population 
great or small. Nothing but the discovery of a 
gold or silver mine in either of these regions would 
lead to their being colonized, and afford to the 
world an exhibition of what civilized men can ac-
complish when they form a league against the 
powers and course of Nature, and are determined 
• 
208 ARCTIC REGIONS. 
to intrude themselves into her most sterile and 
repulsive domains. When an Euro~" settle-
ment is seen standing amidst the Arctic ices; when 
the smoke of artificial fires blackens the snowy 
ridges of Spitzbergen; when the Polar solitude is 
broken by the clank of hammers and the jarring 
of human voices; and when engines are employed 
to burst open the frozen covering that conceals the 
soil, we shall be able to explore the northern ex-
tremity of the globe, and to obtain an exact know-
ledge of those animal forms which exist there, and 
of which we have at present only an indefinite 
idea. The existence of a considerable city upon 
the steep and sterile mountain of Potosi, in South 
America, is in reality a more startling anomaly 
than a similar object would be in Spitzbergen or 
in Nova Zembla; for though these two regions 
far exceed the former in the severity of their cli-
mate, they do not more than equal it in the un-
fruitfulness of their soil, while they enjoy the ad-
vantage of being accessible by water during one-
fourth of every year, which would enable them 
to obtain through that channel those supii1ies of 
everything requisite for human subsistenee which 
in the other case are necessarily conveyed by an 
overland rou teo 
But the probable physical condition of a colony 
like the one just supposed, is a less curious subject 
• 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 209 
of speculation than what its moral one would be. 
When we reflect how much the characters of men 
are modified by the climate il\. which they live, 
by the nature of the objects which surround them, 
and by the pursuits in which they engage or ob-
. serve others engaged, we shall find it difficult to 
, determine what particular modes of thinking would 
be produced by that state of external negation 
which belongs to the Polar regions, and of 'which 
they could at best be but partially divested ' by 
the utmost exertions of human art and labOur. 
The colonists would there have a country entirely 
destitute of vegetation; uniform in colour and 
aspect at all sea.~ons; unenlivened by animals, 
wild or domestic; possessing no springs, rivulets, 
or lakes; unvisited by the vicissitudes of day and 
night; yielding nothing for their subsistence; 
unsuited for locomotion or for travelling; 'and 
placed in a climate demanding by its rigour, that 
all thearts, pleasures, and occupations of lire should 
be pursued within doors. 
Here then would be an absolute want of most 
of those scenes, employments, objects, and cir-
cumstances, which have so great influence in mo-
difying the human character, and which add so 
much more or less directly to human happiness, 
and to the interest of human life. W'hat 'a vast 
proportion of the practical knowledge in daily lise 
VOL. II. p 
210 ARCTIC REGIONS. 
amongst the civilized inhabitants of temperate 
climates would be valueless antI unintelligible to 
our supposed Polar community, however highly 
instructed they might be! How little of the 
poetry of life, and how few of the refinements of 
imagination, would accord with their sympathies, 
or appear to them to be founded upon nature and 
mortal experience! The first European colonists 
would indeed always retain a key to these mys-
teries, and continue more or less susceptible of 
their influence, owing to the recollections which 
they would preserve of their native land; but 
they would be unable to communicate these sen-
sations to their children, born and reared in the 
Polar regions; and the latter, guided by personal 
experience, would refuse to believe that the world 
contained anything but frozen lands, and commu-
nitie,s  of man ufacturers, from whom were obtain-
ed those necessaries of life which were annuallv 
• 
imported for their use and subsistence. 
The only European colony that has been found-
ed those Polar regions, since the Norwegians 
settled in East Greenland, is one formed by the 
Moravian missionaries upon the southern and 
western coast of the same country, in the year 
1756, and since subdivided into various minor 
establishments and stations. It is scarcely neces-
sary to mention that the object of the Moravians 
. 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY .• 211 
~ 
• 
was to convert the natives to Christianity; and'the 
degree of courage which they evinced in this 
undertaking can be duly estimated and appre-
ciated by those only who are well acquainted 
, 
with the horrors of a Pdlar country and climate. 
It would appear that the scheme originated in 
two young men belonging to the fraternity of 
Hernhutters, who had individually at different 
times felt a strong desire to proceed on a mission 
to Greenland, and who, on discovering that their 
sentiments upon this point mutually correspond-
ed, grew still warmer in the cause, and laid their 
views before their superiors, declaring that they felt 
tbat they had been called to the task which they 
aspired to execute. If · calls are really ever given 
from above, the one in question certainly came 
from that quarter, for unlike most of those that 
-. we hear of in modern times, an obedience to it 
brought no temporal advantage to the indivi-
duals who professed to have received it; but, on 
the contrary, demanded that they should expose 
themselves to incalculable privations and dangers. 
After many delays and difficulties, the two mis-
sionaries accomplished their wishes, and. set sail 
for Greenland, and, on landing there, commenced 
a career of extraordinary toil and almost hopeless 
exertion . . At first, unprovided with a suitable 
dwelling, and destitute of those conveniencies 
p 2 
2J!l . ARCTIC REGIONS. 
Rnd personal comforts which the rigours of the 
climate rendered necessary for an European con-
stitution, they suffered great misery from cold, 
and from exposure to tempestuous weather. 
Nor were they better provided in respect to 
food, for they had brought but a small supply of 
provisions along with them, and they could not 
at first in any degree reconcile themselves to the 
disgusting diet of the natives. The offensive 
habits of the latter, and in particular their neglect 
of cleanliness, formed additional causes of annoy-
ance to the missionaries; and the whole was 
aggravated by the dulncss of apprehension of 
the Greenlanders, by the difficult structure of 
their language, and by the ridicule and derision 
with which they usually assailed their instructors 
when they endeavoured to explain to them the 
prin<;iples of the Christian religion. Neverthe-
less, the Moravians persevered in their labouJ"S, 
and after some time they were joined by other 
members of the fraternity, and also received from 
Norway the materials for a dwelling-house, and 
various supplies of provisions and of articles of 
clothing. In the course of years they contrived 
to build a church and a school-house, and also to 
form a grammar and vocabulary of the Green-
landie language, for the use of those missionaries 
who might at any future period join th(>ID from 
F.UROPEAN SOC.I..,£  TY. 213 
Eu'rope. A sheltered and fav&rable spot, situat-
ed at the head Of an inlet of the sea, upon the 
west side of Gr~1and, was selected for the head-
quarters of the mission, which it still coilti'nues 
to be, though many subordinate stations have 
heen established in other parts of the coast. 
If the success of the Moravians in converting 
the Greenlanders has not hitherto borne any pro-
portion to the zeal which they have evinced in 
the cause, and to the severe privations which 
they have endured for its sake, we must at 
least admit that the former have derived many 
temporal benefits from the residence of these 
religious men amongst them, and that no evils, 
either immediate or remote, have attended their 
labours. The missionaries found that the Green-
landers were annually liable to suffer from famine, 
_ not because their country did not afford sufficient 
supplies of food, at least at certain seasons of the 
year, but because their natural improvidence, and 
their wandering habits of life, did not allow them 
to collect and lay up stores of the killd for their 
winter consumption. By inducing them to re-
main settled in one place, and to calculate their 
future wants, the missionaries have rendered 
famine a comparatively rare occurrence amongst 
their converts, and even amongst the natives in 
general; and an illcrease of happiness and of po-
214 ARCTIC REGIONS. 
pulation has everywhere been the result; whilr 
an acquaintance with the minor arts of social life, 
derived from the same source, has placed with-
in their reach and comprehension several enjoy-
ments which formerly were unknown to them. 
Nor has the interference of the missionaries with 
the habits and the religious belief of the Green-
landers ever been productive of those civil and 
domestic dissensions, and of that discordance of 
views and opinions, that too often disturb the 
tranquillity of those uncivilized countries where 
the doctrines of Christianity have been received 
by a part of the inhabitants only, and where mu-
tual hatred and persecution, and perhaps even 
wars and massacres, arise from the existence of 
two opposing systems of religion. . When this 
occurs, the missionary cannot well avoid taking 
an ac~ive part in the scene of hostility, in order 
alike to encourage his converts to maintain the 
faith, and to prove the strength of his attachment 
to it and to themselves; and, however enduring 
and pacifically inclined he may be, he will find it 
necessary to allow them to use force in repelling ag-
gression, and a state of warfare will thus unavoida-
bly ensue, and elicit those sanguinary passions and 
that intolerant spirit which have never yet in any 
instance produced results beneficial to mankind, 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. i15 
even though idolatry itself may have been de. 
stroyed by their operation and influence. 
The Greenlanders, liv, .i ng in small and detached 
communities, indifferent to any particular opi-
nions, and submitting to no kind of arbitrary 
power, found little difficulty in acquiescing in the 
doctrines taught by the Moravians, because these 
were neither calculated to disorganize their social 
system, nor to startle their prejudices, nor to 
overthrow an established form of government. 
But the quiet and gentle demeanour of the Hem-
hutters, and their sparing use of declamation 
while engaged in their religious duties, are qua-
lities which, doubtless, had a strong influence 
in bringing about the . conversion of the Green-
landers, who are naturally impatient of reproach 
and excitement. The Moravian is the most p~­
cific and quiescent of all other missionaries, whe-
ther Protestant or Catholic; and hence he will be 
esteemed and accredited in countries where reli-
gious instructors of a different character and de-
portinent, though equally worthy and zealolls, 
would be regarded with irritation and dislike. 
No individual missionary, of whatever denomi-
nation, possesses qualities that are calculated to 
be effective in every sphere of duty, though this 
consideration is seldom acted upon or attended to 
216 ARCTIC JtEGJONS. 
by the Evangelical societies of modern times: 
and hence the general ill-success of the agents 
whom the•v  send abroad to diffuse the Christian 
religion, and the frequent unsuitableness of their 
temper, talents, and disposition, to the nature of 
the fields in which they are directed to pursue 
their labours. In attempting the conversion of 
different races of people, it will be necessary to 
employ teachers of different characters. Some 
savages are to be moved only by energetic man-
ners, high pretensions, and a commanding deport-
ment; others are best affected by conciliating 
arts, and by an assumed though temporary ac-
quiescence in their prejudices; a third class must 
be allowed the privilege of refusing to believe 
what they do not comprehend; and a fourth 
community wi1\ reject religious instruction if it 
is no,t  combined with amusement, and rendered 
fascinating to the imagination. This principle 
of adapting missionary character to existing cir-
cumstances was acted upon by the Jesuits to its 
fullest extent; and in no other way can we ac-
count for the numerous conversions which they 
effected, and for their extraordinary success in 
attracting and retaining large bodies of people 
around them. 
In pursuing the subject of European life in the 
Polar regions, I might describe the condition of 
• 
EUROPEAN SUCIETY. 217 
the Promusklenicks of Kamtschatka, a class of 
people whom the Russian American Fur Com-
pany has sent to colonize that country and to col-
lect peltries, and which . consists chiefly ' of. men 
whom roving dispositions and dissipated habits, 
render useless , or troublesome members of society, 
at home. I might also enter into details respect.-
ing the sable-hunters of Siberia, who pass the 
winter in traversing the forests and snowy wastes 
of that dreary region, and are tasked by their 'em-
ployers to bring home a certain quantity of furs 
in the spring. I might next speak of the. Danish 
and English merchants residing upon several of 
the rocky islands in the neighbourhood of the 
North Cape of Europe; and conducting the fish-
eries there, and trafficking with the Laplanders. 
But in doing all this, I should only be able ,to 
present the reader with pictures of isolated human 
life, possessing little variety in their respective 
features, and affording no moral results worthy of 
examination, or calculated to add in the smallest 
degree to our knowledge of human character. It 
will be better, therefore, that I should not minntely 
explore the barren and unattractive field of social 
life in the Polar regions, but rather make some 
remarks upon the moral influence which frigid 
climates ' appear to exert upon the domestic cha~ 
racter and manners of our species. 
218 ARCTIC REGIONS. 
The process of seeking to form a just and an 
extendecl estimate of the general dispositions of tbe 
inhabitants of the Arctic regions will enable us 
to perceive that they have in reality two distinct 
characters-a social and a contemplative one; and 
unless we keep this in recollection, we shall find 
it difficult to explain many of their habits and 
attributes, and be disposed to regard these as in-
consistent with each other. A foreigner, desirous 
.of obtaining an abstract notion of the turn of mind 
and favourite trains of thought of the less civilized 
northern nations, would probably study with that 
view the earlier specimens of Scandinavian lite-
rature, such as the Voluspa, the Edda Sl2mundr, 
the Poems of Ossian, and the Sagas of Iceland; 
and an acquaintance with these productions, un-
assisted by any personal knowledge of the people 
to whom they relate, would make him conclude 
• 
that the latter were a melancholy. unsociable, and 
superstitious race, insensible to all the lighter 
kinds of human enjoyments, and that neither 
their climate nor their souls ever experienced one 
gleam of sunshine. The Edda Slemundr abounds 
with fantastic horrors and gloomy reveries; the 
Voluspa unfolds a system of depressing and ter-
rific mythology; the writings of Ossian present 
only the darker scenes of human life; the Sagas 
are mostly grave histories; and the poems of the 
EUROPEAN SOCiETY. 219 
Norwegians record nothing but outrages and bat-
tles and misfortunes. The geniuses of the north 
seem to be conversant with none but the most 
lugubrious aspects of nature and of human life, or 
at least to feel reluctant to describe or imagine 
any other. Even rural and pastoral scenes, as re-
presented by them, are destitute of cheerfulness 
and tranquillity. Their shepherds, whilst wander-
ing among the mountains, are visited and dis-
turbed by the spectres of individuals with whom 
they have never had any concern, or decoyed and 
drowned by malignant demons; and even the 
wild animals feel the influence of these super-
natural visitants, and start and tremble as often as 
they appear in their neighbourhood. 
Thus the contemplative character of northern 
nations is gloomy, reflective, and desponding .; 
but their social and domestic one wears an entirely 
different aspect, and is quite subversive of those 
theories which hold forth that cold, cloudy, and 
uncertain climates are unfavourable to cheerful_ 
ness of temper and gaiety of disposition. The 
truth is, that the genuine and animating spirit of 
social life is alone to be found amongst the in-
habitants of the regions bordering upon the Polar 
circle, and that in those countries where the skies 
are ever serene, and which enjoy daily sunshine 
and a perennial verdure, the people have very 
1l1lO ARCTIC REGIONS. 
little real hilarity of disposition or taste for con-
vivial pleasures. The Turks, the Hindoos, and 
the Chinese, and all other natives of tropical cli-
mates, are reserved, phlegmatic, and solitaryin their 
domestic character, and averse to having much 
intercourse with their fellow-beings; and the same 
thing is observable, though in a less degree, in the 
south of Europe, particularly as respects the Ita.-
lians, the Spaniards, and the Portuguese. But 
though the dreary climate of the Arctic regions, 
and the sombre aspect which Nature generally 
wears there, impart a melancholy tone to the re-
flective philosophy of their inhabitants, still they 
are the very causes which render them lovers of 
social gaiety. 
The native of the tropics, or the resident of any 
favoured and genial climate, may loiter away his 
days , in the open air in rural pursuits or in con-
templative ease, and may nightly walk abroad to 
enjoy the serenity and splendour of the unclouded 
heavens. But the inhabitant of a northern land, 
driven home by the blast roaring amongst his hills, 
and by the gloom and darkness of his winter even-
ings, passes his hours beside the fire, and assem-
bles there a circle of companiolls, and abandons 
himself to the pleasures of social intercourse and 
animatin~ conversation. The sombre reflections 
which his turbulent climate may have illspired, 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. .221 
:vanish away; he invents images of a lively and 
striking character, and stimulates his imagination 
with wine, and cultivates all those affections and 
those habits of thought that are calculated to lend 
interest and brilliancy to that system of artificial 
life which is alone congenial to the country in 
which he resides. An extended spirit of hospi-
tality, a desire to please others, and a cheerful and 
excitable disposition, result from this style of do-
mestic enjoyment, and confer upon the inhabitant 
of the Arctic regions more liveliness of temper, and 
greater activity of mind, than are ever possessed 
by the Asiatic or by the southern European. In 
none of the various heavens which we find de-
scribed in the mythologies of tropical nations is 
the happiness of the just represented to consist in 
social pleasures, or even to have any connexion 
_ with these. Mahommed, though minute in his 
description of the rewards which will appertain to 
the faithful after death, never mentions whether 
conversation and conviviality are cultivated and 
enjoyed in Elysium; for whatever ' might · have 
been his own opinion upon this subject, he was 
well aware that a notion of the kind would be 
uncongenial to the reserved disposition of the 
Turks and Asiatics. On the other hand, Odin 
shows an .equal knowledge of the Scandinavian 
character, when he announces ill his mythology, 
ARCTIC REGIONS. 
that the spirits of the blessed nightly assemble 
round a table, and indulge in convivial pleasures, 
and circulate the wine cup, till morning demands 
that they should cease their libations, and hasten 
to a different field of enjoyment. 
But, in maintaining that a spirit of sociality is 
one of the principal features of the domestic cha-
racter of the Arctic nations, I do not mean to 
assert that they exhibit it under a refined or cul-
tivated form, or in companionship with that in-
telligence upon which a great part of its attrac-
tiveness depends. Their circumstances and con-
dition, and their rude mode of life, render this 
impossible, and therefore the quality of which I 
am speaking assumes amongst them the forms 
of hospitality and of a love of cOlwivial pleasures. 
Hence the inhabitants of Denmark, of Norway, 
of Ice, land, and of Swedish Lapland, are in the 
habit of travelling great distonces during the 
winter, in sledges drawn by reindeer, solely for 
the pu'pose of visiting each other. No sooner 
has a party of this kind assem bled together 
than the punch-bowl is introduced, and the 
glasses are kept in continual circulation, except 
when a meal engages the attention of the com-
pany in another way; but at its conclusion they 
again begin to drink; nor on such occasions do 
they milch aUend to the lapse of time, or even 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 223 
the alternations of day and night, but abandon 
themselves to conversation and revelry. till, over-
powered by their long vigils, they sink to sleep 
in the apartment in which they happen to be 
seated. 
The Arctic nations, however, are not more dis-
tinguished fl?r their sociality of disposition than 
for their love of intox'icatin/t liquors. The last 
quality appears indeed to be an invariable attend-
ant upon the first in almost all countries and 
climates; for even the inhabitants of many parts 
of the torrid zone, abstemious in this respect as 
they naturally are, think it necessary to make a 
moderate use of spirituous liquors at their fes-
tivals and feasts, and . at all times when a large 
concourse of people happens to be assembled to-
gether for recreation. But neither they, nor the 
- natives of any temperate region, l'egard an in-dulgence in wine as one of the chief sources of 
human enjoyment, or describe it in their mytho-
logies as a celestial pleasure. The Hinc¥>o gods 
are represented to drink amrita, a beverage con-
ferring immortality upon those who partake of it. 
The deities of the Grecians use only nectar at 
their banquets, and the Turks are agreed that 
no liquor but sherbet will be found in Paradise; 
but the propensities of the Scandinavians req nired 
that one of inebriating ~ualities should abound 
• 
224 . ARCTI C REGIONS. 
in their heaven, and Odin gratified them by cUo-
c1aring that metheglin is in daily use there. 
Nor is it easy to perceive why a passion for in-
toxicating liquors should be nearly peculiar to 
Arctic lIations, except in those instances in which 
it has been introduced elsewhere by Europeans; 
for we should suppose that the people of tropical 
countries, experier1bing ~e mentai " and , bodily 
languor produced by. a hot climate, would feel 
the necessity of using artificial stimulants for the 
purpose of exhilaratioll) even more strongly than 
those of cold ones do. But it is probable that 
that delicacy of fibre and t.enderness of constitu-
tion which belong to the former, render them 
susceptible of the requisite excitement from 
agents much milder in quality than vinous or 
fermented liquors-such for instance as coffee, 
spiCeS, tobacco, and perhaps several kinds of 
fruits. However, in comparing and contrasting 
the nature of the different stimulants employed 
by the inhabitants of the torrid and of the frigid 
zones, it should be recollected that they respec-
tively seek different effects from their use. The 
nations of northern Europe give a preference to 
that kind of inebriation, whatever its degree may 
he, which increases the activity of their minds 
and the vividness of their ideas, and disposes 
them to indulge in agreeable trains of thought, 
, 
• 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 225 
and bestows self-pos§ession and freedom of utter-
ance, and also animal courage and a ~rit of re-
sistance. On the other hand, the native of a 
hot climate desires that his intoxication may be 
of a tranquil and even lethargic kind, and that 
it may enable him to find satisfactory and absorb-
ing pleasure within himself, and to remain in-
• • 
sensible for' the time eto alII external causes of 
annoyance; and he finds no agents or su bstances 
so well calculated to effect these ends as tobacco 
and opium. The moderate smokers of these 
herbs in tropical regions seldom exhibit any out-
ward sign that they are under their influence, 
but sit motionless and silent, neither exchang-
ing looks nor ideas, though they may be encircled 
by friends and associates. But the inebriated 
native of northern Europe, or northern America, 
whether civilized or savage, will neither be tran-
quil himself, nor allow others to be so. His de-
light at such times lies in external agency, and 
in commanding the attention of those around 
him; and he therefore sings, or talks loud, or 
plays antics, or does mischief. The opium 
smoker who has indulged too freely in his in-
halations merely sinks down upon his carpet in 
a state of torpor, and a similar excess in the use 
of wine has at length a similar effect IIpon its 
victim; though, in general, not till he has first 
VOL. II . 
, 
• 
226 AKCTlC KIWIONS. 
quarrelled with hi, associates, or insulted his 
friend, or committed some ou trage upon good 
feeling and propriety. 
'Vhen we consider that nearly all nations in the 
world, whether civilized or savage, are in the 
daily habit of making use of intoxicating liquors 
or drugs, and that an indulgence in these con-
stitutes one of the chief sources of enjoyment of 
the mass of society in the northern parts of our 
globe, we are led to form a depressing estimate of 
human nature, and of the real amount of human 
happiness. Let us minutely examine the cir-
cumstances and condition of the various com-
munities of mankind that exist between the 
Arctic and Antarctic circles, and we shall find 
that even those amongst them that appear most 
favourably situated, in so far as respects the con-
veniences of life, contain few individuals that are 
not in ' the habit of seeking every opportunity of 
forgetting reality and escaping from themselves 
Ly the use of exhilarants, whatever may be the 
nature of these, or the way in which they are 
applied. The Russian peasant, or the North 
American Indian, intoxicating himself with bran-
dy; the Turk smoking opium; the South Sea 
Islander sipping ava; the Kamtschatkan chew-
ing moucho.more; and the civilized and refined 
man quaffing wine, are all of them actuated 
. 
• 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 227 
by similar motives, and have a similar object in 
view-that of breaking the monotony of exist-
ence, and rendering themselves oblivious of their 
actual circumstances and condition. Even those 
persons who dislike exhilarating liquors, or who 
from various causes dare not indulge in their 
I lise, contrive to supply the want of them by 
\ 
• resorting to stimulants of a different kind; and, 
• 
,•  no sooner is the business of the day at an end s 
with them, than they hurry to places of public 
resort, and seek in the absorbing scenes of the 
drama, or in the gaiety of the ball-room, or in 
the excitement of the gaming-table, a tempo-
rary abstraction from real life, and a relief from 
the insipidity of its usual accompaniments. How 
few persons love to retire within themselves, or 
to examine their actual condition and prospects! 
'_ How few find any E:njoyment in their own in-
ternal resources, and prefer solitude to dissipa-
tion ! A contemplative life is more natural and 
congenial to the inhabitants of tropical regions 
than to any other part of the human race, because 
of the inherent cheerfulness and serenity of their 
dispositions. and their taste for tranquil pleasures. 
Nevertheless, we find them often seeking that 
personal obliviousness which is obtained from the 
use of intoxicating substances; and if this be the 
case, we must expect to observe a similar habit 
ell! 
• 
228 .~RCTlC REGIONS. 
prevailing in an infinitely greater degree in Arctic 
countries, where the reflective character of the 
people is sombre, fretful, and desponding, and 
w here a state of excitement is alone regarded as 
a state of happiness. 
The climate and the physical peculiarities of 
the Arctic regions are unfavourable to the pro-
gress of human society, and to the developement 
of the higher and more refined attributes of 
human character. \;Vherever the necessaries of 
life are scarce, or rather wherever they cannot be 
obtained without considerable labour, the people 
are of a stern and unpliant disposition, jealous of 
their personal rights, prone to evil speaking, de-
ficient in indulgence towards others, and benevo-
lent only when their conscience and their preju-
dices happen to impel them in the same direction. 
Such is the general moral constitution of the 
Arctic nations; and their domestic life, though 
they for the most part fulfil its more important 
duties with commendable exactness, is austere in 
its aspect, and appears to be more a system of 
forbearance and restraint than a state of social 
harmony and endearment; nor do the members 
of a family often acquire a similarity of disposi-
tions and pursuits calculated to make them take 
pleasure in the society of each other, or to con-
tinue mntually attached in after-life, when eir-
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 229 
cum stances have separated them and placed them 
in different spheres of action. 
But of all the defects that appertain to the 
character of the Arctic nations, the most peculiar 
and conspicuous is the homeliness and hu m ble-
ness of their ideas, or rather their love of what 
is mean and insignificant. Despising the orna-
mental arts of human life, they make a merit of 
depreciating everything of the kind, upon the 
ground that the real utility of any object is the 
proper test of its value, and that aU tastes and 
ideas which require artificial developement are 
fantastic in themselves and injurious to society. 
Whetber this habit of mind depends upon a phy-
sical obtuseness of sensation produced by the ope-
ration of a rigorous climate, or is the offspring 
of that self-love which often causes illiterate men 
to undervalue everything that is not indigenous 
~-
to their own soil, seems uncertain; but its ex-
istence seldom fails to become palpable when an 
uneducated native of the Arctic regions is carried 
to view any magnificent specimen of human taste 
or invention, whether this be a building, a pic-
ture, or a scene of ornament and splendour. His 
first impressions at such times are pain and dis-
pleasure, which gradually heighten into absolute 
irritation, and he endeavours to degrade the ob-
ject before him in the estimation of others, by 
!!:lO ARCTIC REGIONS. 
demanding what purpose it serves, and reminding 
them of the perishableness of its nature; while be 
at the same time secretly regrets that it bas ever 
been executed, and hopes that some accident may 
speedily destroy it. Nor can he bring bimself to 
view witb complacency, or even with toleration, 
any class of objects or trains of ideas that bave no 
existence or locality in bis native land. Heathy I 
deserts, naked rocks, moaning winds, and treeless j 
hills, are, in his opinion, the most agreeable con- • 
stituents of rural scenery; the wild, ungraceful, 
and strongly accented melodies of the North af-
ford him the highest musical pleasure of which I 
he is susceptible; the oral and obscure traditions 
of mendicant bards appear to him the only speci-
mens of literature that are worth preserving; and 
he loves unpretending manners, coarse habits, and 
a system of external meanness in respect to equip-
age and habitation, because his natural character 
is founded upon an antipathy to everything that 
involves the graceful, the expellllive, the ingeni-
ous, the artificial, and the superb. 
It is this constitution of mind, and not na-
tionality, as is vulgarly supposed, that makes 
the native of the Arctic regions unwilling to 
visit or reside in foreign countries. Those beau-
t.if uI  scenes, those new modes of life, those speci-
mens of the fine arts, those triumphs of know-
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 2~1 
ledge, which never fail to delight and interest the 
unprejudiced traveller, wherever they may occur, 
are sources of pain and subjects of annoyance to 
the Arctic barbarian; and the more they abound 
in his path, the more does he regret having quit-
ted his native land, and ventured amidst objects so 
uncongenial to his temper and disposition. That 
I 
• spirit which induced the hordes of the North, • 
when they overran Europe, to injure or annihi-
late all the monuments of social life that hap-
pened to fall in their way, still exists, though in 
a suppressed form, amongst the popUlation of 
most of the frigid parts of our globe; and it 
often developes itself there, causing the lower 
orders of men to take pleasure in various acts 
of petty and wanton destruction. 
And will Europe ever be subjected to a second 
irruption of barbarians from the North? and will 
her governments and her social institutions be 
again, at some future period, thrown into dis-
order by the ravages of wandering hordes of 
people? Assuredly it would be absurd in her 
to anticipate anything of the kind from the 
quarter from whence her former spoliators are 
said to have proceeded. The mountains of Nor-
way, the forests of Lapland, the steppes of Si-
beria, and the wastes of Tartary, would, com-
• 
bined together. be unable to supply a booy of 
232 ARCTIC REGIONS. 
men fOflllidable enough to devastate, or eveD 
much disturb, anyone of the more civilized 
states of Europe, though a Timurlane, or a GheD-
gis Khan, or a Nadir Shah, were to organize and 
conduct the expedition. 
No; the barbarians whom civilized Europe 
has to dread, and who will one day ravage her, 
and overturn her social institutions, and repro-
duce over her whole extent what historians have 
called the" dark ages," exist at home, and con-
stitute a large part of her enlightened popula-
tion, and are reared and fostered bv•  her as such, 
though it is evident that she is unronsciously 
training them up to become her destroyer. 
In the Scandinavian mythology we are infonn-
ed that the gods, pleased with the beauty and ap-
paren t harmlessness of the young wolf Fenris, 
nursed and educated him amongst themselves; 
, 
but that, after some time, he grew so fierce and 
dangerous that they found it necessary, for their 
own safety, to bind him with chOlins, which have 
up to the present time restrained the exercise of 
his rage, but which he will at length break, and, 
rushing forth with uncontrollable fury, destroy 
both gods and men. 
In this allegory we have a correct representa-
tion of the progress and result of the diffusion of 
knowledge amongst the lower orders of society in 
• 
, 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 233 
civilized countries. General education is the Fen-
• 
ris which we are now bringing up, charmed with 
its external aspect and unobservant of its real 
and natural character, though the monster has 
already begun to be formidable to his protectors, 
and though the hour is quickly approaching when 
he will break loose, and turn upon themselves, 
and make them his first victims. 
When the mass of the lower orders of society 
in Great Britain shall have become sufficiently 
enlightened and instructed to analyze their own 
condition, and to contrast it with that of their 
superiors-when they shall perceive that the na-
tional wealth is daily narrowing the sphere of its 
distribution, and will . at length become almost 
exclusively concentrated in the hands of aristo-
cratic, mercantile, and clerical monopolists-when 
they shall discover that these bodies have no com-
munity of interest with themselves, and that 
they wish to be regarded as privileged, authorita-
tive, and distinct branches of human society; 
then will they bring into practical use the know-
ledge that is now being diffused amongst them, 
and convert it into an engine of revolution and 
destruction; and, assisted by it, break into pieces 
our complicated social machine, and throw into 
irremediable disorder its ill-assorted materials. 
A catastrophe of this kind can be delayed or 
• 
ARCTIC UEGJONS. 
prevented only by the placing of impedimenta in 
the way of the farther diffusion of knowledge 
amongst the lower classes; since, situated as 
•• 
they are, and probably ever must be, they can 
enjoy contentment, and live innocently, and feel 
reconciled to a state of subordination, only so 
long as they are allowed to remain ignorant and 
uninstructed. 
, 
• 
• 
WEST INDIES. 
THE WEST INDIAN OCEAN. 
W ERE a traveller, proceeding from the shores of • 
Europe to those of the New World, to determine 
upon pursuing the route best calculated to please 
his eye. gratify his senses, and excite his expec-
tations, he would select the one which Colum-
bus followed on his first voyage. Had that great 
man made his approach to America in any other 
direction, his discoveries would have assumed a 
- less enchanting aspect, and a less varied and in-
teresting character. Supposing he had coasted 
Africa till the land begins to trend to the east_ 
ward, (which it first does a little north of the 
equator,) and then sailed due west, he would have 
come upon that part of South America which is 
now called Surinam; and where thick forests, ex-
tensi ve swamps, and rivers obstructed by man-
groves, would have given him an unfavourable 
idea of the wealth, fertility, and healthiness of the 
new continent. On the other hand, had he pur-
236 WEST INDIES. 
sued the parallel of the island of Gomera, whicb, 
strictly speaking, formed his point of departure, 
instead of gradually sloping bis course to the 
southward, he would have made the low sandy 
shores of Florida, and there have found equally 
little to please his eye or his imagination; while 
their warlike and vigorous inhabitants would 
most likely have repulsed him, and killed many 
of his people, had he attempted to take posses-
sion of the country. 
But in pursuing the course that he did, he gra-
dually introduced his lieet to the heats of the 
tropic; he had the advantage of a steady trade-
wind, and of the smooth seas whicb always attend 
it; and when he reached the expected land, in-
stead of finding an immense continent covered 
with woods, and equally difficult to be conquered 
or explored, he met with beautiful isles, easy of 
access, at a convenient distance from each other, 
and inhabited by a mild, a hospitable, and a happy 
race of men. I need scarcely remark, that I do 
noL mean to infer that Columbus had the least 
expectation that the above favourable circumstan-
ces would attend his discovery of the New World. 
He could not have had the faintest idea of what 
he was to meet with, or any reason to prefer one 
parallel of latitude to another in projecting the 
course of his voyage; and his approaching Ame-
WEST INDIAN OCEAN. 237 
rica by the way of the Bahama Islands must be 
regarded as the effect of accident. 
The voyager coming from the northward ex-
periences a delicious change of climate when he 
enters the sphere of the trade-winds. The air has 
no longer any harshness or asperity; it feels soft 
and bland to the skin, and respiration is particu-
larly slow and easy; mists and fogs are unknown; 
the sea is but slightly agitated; and the mind 
partakes of the tranquillity of Nature, and becomes 
reconciled to the imprisonment of a ship. Colum-
bus appears to have enjoyed all this in his first 
voyage, for we find the following remarks in his 
journal, soon after he had got within the influence 
of the trade-wind: "The air was mild and delight-
ful, and we wanted nothing but the song of the 
nightingale; and the sea was as smooth as a river." 
In another place he says :-" The sea was like the 
river of Seville, than k God! the temperature was 
also as moderate as it is there in the middle of 
April, and the air was so fragrant that it was a 
pleasure to breathe." 
In no part of the ocean are voyages attended 
with so much enjoyment as in the \'" est Indian 
seas between November and May. The tempe-
rature of the air is then always regular and mode-
rate; the sea-breeze blows steadily during the day, 
and the land-wind succeeds it at night. No sooner 
••  
288 WEST INDIES. 
does the vessel lose sight of one island than she • 
comes in view of another; and she often finds her-
self in the midst of three or four of them; while 
hour after hour new scenes of beauty unfold them-
selves to the eye: here the rich and cultivated 
savannah is seen extending back from the shore; 
there forests, impenetrable by the sun, cover the \ 
plains aud hills; or naked cliffs rise perpendicu- I • • 
larly from the smooth beach, and the pinnacles of , 
mountains appear far inland, their ridges sloping 
gradually to the edge of the sea, where the ver-
dant mangroves conceal the strand, and are washed 
by the white surf of the advancing tide. It is not 
surprising then that Columbus should have been 
enchanted by scenes of this kind, while pursuing 
his discoveries in the Bahama archipelago. Though 
he had before traversed the Mediterranean, and 
visited many of the Ionian islands, every object, 
living and inanimate, that he observed in the 
West Indian Ocean, seemed to him incomparably 
to surpass those of a similar kind in the Old \'" orId; 
and though we may suppose that his joy at the 
successful result of his voyage disposed him to 
view things through a flattering medium, his de-
scriptions, as many modern travellers can aver, are 
true to Nature and destitute of exaggeration. 
That part of the Atlantic intervening between 
the Cape Verd hlands and the Bahama &rehipe-
WEST INDIAN OCEAN. 289 
lago, forms an unbroken expanse of ocean of un-
fathomable depth; but the navigator, on reaching 
the latter chain, enters a shallow sea, through 
which he can scarcely find a passage on account 
of the islands, rocks, and sand-banks which extend 
in clusters as far west as the southern extremity of 
Florida.  
• This sudden transition from deep water to 
, shallow, and the great elevation of most of the 
t 'Vest Indian Islands, have led some theorists to 
conjecture that the eastern part of the continent 
of America, between the parallels of N. lat. 160 
and 27°, has been overflowed by a sudden influx 
of the waters of the ocean, and that the variOllS 
islands which appear in that part of the sea are 
no more than the tops of mountains or the 
ridges of hills belonging to the submerged coun-
,- try; and they assert that the extreme and dispro_ . portion ate narrowness of the Isthmus of Darien, 
compared with any other part of America, is a 
circumstance highly corroborative of the above 
supposition. It may further be remarked, that 
in various charts made previous to the voyages of 
Columbus, a large tract of land is laid down in 
that very quarter, under the name of Antilia, 
upon no other authority it would appear than 
that of ancient tradition; and some have there-
fore considered this Antilia to have been the 
• 
240 WEST INDIES. 
Atlantis of Plato, and with reason too, for the 
generally· assigned position of the latter upon the 
west coast of Africa does not accord well with 
the allusions that are made to its distance from 
Europe by all the ancient writers who have men-
tioned it. 
The W' est Indian Ocean was regarded as tbe 
scene of many wonders by the earlier navigators. I 
I 
Columbus himself, in his third voyage, expresses 
his conviction that the terrestrial paradise is situ- ! 
ated in the neighbourhood of the Gulf ofParia. He 
supposes that the earth, instead of being exactly 
spherical, is elongated into a mighty projection, 
directly under that part of the equator wbich 
corresponds with the longitude of Terra Firma, 
and that paradise is placed upon its summit, to 
which the ascent is regular and gradual, at least 
for ,a certain distance, through the superincum-
bent ocean. It was the vast accumulation of 
fresh water extending far into the sea near tbe 
mouth of the Oronoco, that led him to form this 
idea; for he conceived that there was no river 
upon earth great enough to pour it forth, and 
therefore that it must descend from the top of 
the elevated land above described. 
"I have already,"says he in his journal, "g~ven 
my opinion of thi s hemisphere and its form, and 
r am persuaded that were I to pass under , the 
• 
• 
WEST INDIAN OCEAN. 241 
equator, on arriving at the elevated point to which 
I have alluded, I should find the temperature 
more mild, and a difference in the constellations 
and the waters; though, in saying this, I do not 
mean to assert that the highest part of the uni-
verse is navigable, or that there even is water 
there, or that it is possible for anyone to ascend 
so high, because I am satisfied that it is the site 
of the terrestrial paradise, which no individual can 
reach except by the will of God."-" There are 
there strong indications of the existence of the 
terrestrial paradise, for the situation as well as the 
appearances accord perfectly with the opinion of 
wise and holy theologians; for I have never read 
or heard of so great a quantity of fresh water being 
found encompassed with salt water, and in con-
tact with it; and what still farther supports my 
--opinion, is the delicious temperature; and if the water in question does not proceed from the ter-
restrial paradise, it will be the more wonderful, 
because I do not believe that there is so deep and 
large a river in the world." 
The above extravagant theory, and the serious-
ness with which Columbus endeavours to esta-
blish its correctness, would at first view lead us to 
attribute to him a degree of ignorance and cre-
dulity which seems incompatible with his known 
vigour of intellect and grandeur of mind; but it 
VOL. 11 . R 
• 
• 
242 WEST INDIES. 
< 
ought to be remembered, that he possessed a 
highly poetical imagination, and an exquisite 
< 
sense of the beautiful and sublime; and he con-
sequently delighted to indulge opinions of a novel 
and magnificent nature, and which involved an 
original and brilliant train of ideas. All the de-
scriptions of what he saw in the course of his 
voyages are remarkable for their tone of energy 
and elevation, and also for their accurate sim-
plicity; for Columbus never was guilty of exag-
• 
geration, and never condescended to introduce 
any mixture of the marvellous into his narratives. 
His relation of things out of the common course 
of nature, are the reveries of a poetical and entbu-
siastic mind ranging beyond the confines of the 
material world-not the inventions and credulous 
mistakes of a mere lover of the wild and the 
wonderful. . 
I ' have alluded to the supposed submersion of 
the eastern part of America, lying in the neigh-
bourhood of the Gulf of Mexico, and to the 
theory which considers the vVest Indian Islands as 
the summits of its mountains, and the tops of its 
ridges of hills. 'Ve re the A tlantic and Pacific 
Oceans made to communicate by the formation of 
a canal through the Isthmus of Darien, as has 
often been projected, the level of the West Indian 
Sea would ill all probability be greatly lowered, 
• 
WEST INDIAN OCEAN. 243 
and new lands and islets would be ex posed, which, 
though they might not nearly equal in extent 
that portion of territory which some persons be-
lieve to have Been overflowed, would still add 
considerably to the archipelagoes of that part of 
the world. It is yet undecided whether any dif-
ference exists in the levels of the Atlantic and 
Pacific Oceans; but certain circumstances induce 
us to suppose that there does, and that the former 
• sea is the higher of the two. . The constant and 
regular motion of the sea from east to west must 
of itself occasion a general accumulation of water 
on the Atlantic side of the Isthmus of Panama; 
and this cannot fail to be greatly augmented by 
the particular influence' of the Gulf stream, which 
sweeps along the eastern shores of the continent, 
seeking in vain for an outlet, and which is in 
reality no more than a branch of the general equa· 
torial current above alluded to. "\Vel'e a navi-
• 
gable canal to be opened through the Isthmus 
of Darien, even upon the smallest scale, the rush 
of water that would take place from the Atlantic 
to the Pacific Ocean would speedily enlarge it, 
till it at length became a channel or strait capable 
of affording egress to the Florida stream, which, 
instead of' winding along the eastern coast · of 
America as far as the banks of Newfoundland, as 
it now does. would flow directly from east to west 
• n2 
• • 
244 WEST INDIES. 
towards the Philippine Islands, causing a great 
diminution in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico 
and the adjoining seas. The soundings upon the 
great bank of Bahama, which extends along the 
northern side of eu ba, do not, on an average, 
exceed fifteen or twenty fathoms; while many 
parts of it are scarcely navigable for a boat at 
ebb tide. Half of it would be left dry by the 
diversion of the Gulf stream into the Pacific 
Ocean; and innumerable little islets would raise 
their heads above water, and impede navigation 
so much as to render the 'Vest India Islands in-
accessible by that route. 
But allowing that these inconveniences would 
result from the junction of the Atlantic and Pa-
cific Oceans, and be counterbalanced by still more 
important advantages, we are led to ask if the 
accomplishment of so grand an operation lies 
within the power of man. History informs us in a 
thousand places that he has seldom been able to 
break through the barriers laid down by Nature 
in cases similar to the one in question. Xerxes, 
with his millions of followers, failed in cutting 
through the peninsula of Mount Athas. The 
various kings of Egypt, who built the pyramids, 
were yet unable to form a canal of communica-
tion between the Red Sea and the Mediterra-
nean; and the Ptolemies, with all their vast reo 
• 
WEST INDIAN OCEAN. 245 
sources, had much ado to open a channel to con-
nect the Nile with the port of Arsinoe. 
Were the nations of Europe to unite, as has 
been proposed, in bearing the expense of joining 
the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the requ isi te 
means for the execution of the work might 
perhaps be raised; but political rivalry would 
place insuperable difficulties in the way of their 
application. Each nation engaged in the enter-
prise would demand peculiar commercial privi-
leges in return for its co-operation and assistance; 
endless disputes would occur, and the workmen 
of the respective powers would soon be called 
upon to throw aside their pickaxes and take up 
their swords, and the ' scene of peaceful labour 
would become a field of bloodshed. 
Supposing the work accomplished, and that the 
--- sovereigns of Europe and the republics of Ame-
rica had agreed by solemn treaty that the passage 
from one sea to another should be free to all na-
tions in peace and in war, which of them would 
hesitate to blockade the entrance when his inter-
ests happened to dictate such a measure, and his 
fleets enabled him to execute it? The canal of 
Darien, instead of being a benefit to commerce, 
and to the human race, would prove a fertile source 
of political dissension, and a new stimulus to that 
love of conquest which has already desolated so 
246 WEST INDIES. 
large a portion of the world, and in the way of 
· 
which it is fervently to be wished that Nature had 1 
thrown farther impediments than she has really 
done, and altogether prevented the different races 
of mankind from exploring her surface, or ever 
,•  
seeing or coming into contact with eacb other. , 
• 
It is not a little singular, that the discoverer of 
the New World should have found naturalized 
there one of the most peculiar notions of the Old 
one-I mean a belief in the existence of a race of 
Amazons. There are certain ideas and preju-
dices which are common to al\ nations in the in-
fancy of society; and which being in a manner 
constitutional to our species, we feel no astonish-
ment at finding them diffused alike near the pole 
and under the equator: but the one in question ,,  
certainly does not belong to this class; for what • 
! 
can seem more opposed to nature, observation, I 
and reason, than a community or association of ,,  
female warriors living apart from men; and if ! 
such a thing never existed anywhere, how has a 
fable so repugnant to probability been received • 
and credited in both hemispheres? It is impos-
• 
sible to believe that the idea was suggested to ••  
• 
the natives of America by their first European 
visiters, for Columbus heard of the Amazons on 
his second voyage; and Orellana, the first ex- I 
plorer of the great river of the same name, was 
WEST INDIAN OCEAN. 247 
cautioned in the beginning of his expedition, by 
one of the caciques who lived upon its banks, 
and who had never before seen a white man, to 
beware of a nation of warlike females not far 
distant, who were likely to attack him and oppose 
his progress: and surely the invaders of the New 
I World had no taste for so innocent an employ-
I 
ment as that of instructing the Indians in the 
fables and traditions of the Old one; nor were 
the latter likely either to relish or comprehend 
these, and least of all to naturalize them amongst 
themselves and retail them to others. 
Our first acquaintance with the Amazons of 
America is derived from Peter Martyr, in his 
account of the second voyage of Columbus. "By 
the way," says he, "there appeared from the 
north a great islande, which the captives th;1t 
- were taken in Hispaniola called Madanino, or Matanino (now Martinique), affirming it to be 
inhabited only with women, to whom the Can-
nibeles (Carribs) have access at certaine times of 
the yeare, as in olde times the Thracians hadde 
to the Amazones on the island of Lesbos; the 
men children they send to their fathers, but the 
women they keepe with themselves. They have 
great and strong caves and dennes in the grounde, 
to the which they flee for safeguard if any men 
resort unto them at any other time than is ap-
248 WEST INDIES. 
poynted, and there defend themselves with bowes 
and arrowes against the violence of such as at-
tempt to invade them." 
Condamine, in his voyage down the Amazon 
River, made repeated and particular inquiries 
• respecting the existence of a nation of female war-
riors in that part of the world, and all the Indians 
agreed in assuring him that the fact was un-
doubted; and in one instance he was referred for 
farther information to an old cacique who had 
actually seen several of the race; but when our 
traveller reached his abode, he found to his regret 
that he was recently dead. The natives also 
showed him certain green and rounded pebbles, 
which they held in great esteem, and the name 
of which.expressed that they were obtained from 
a community of "women without husbands." 
M. ,Condaminc judiciously remarks, that if an 
association of females living touyly apart from 
men can be supposed to exist in any country, 
it is in America. There th .. sex, being accus-
tomed .to attend thcir husbands in their hunt-
ing and in their hostile expeditions, become 
inured to hardships, and acquire a strength 
of constitution, and an llability in the arts of 
life" which render them almost independent of 
the labours or assistance of the males, whose 
society is at the same time apt to become irksome 
WEST INDIAN OCEAN. 249 
to them, on account of their tyranny, harshness, 
and indolence. It is easy to believe that, under 
such circumstances, a number of women might 
resolve upon deserting their husbands, and for 
ever withdrawing from the evils and miseries of 
the married state. Taking up their abode in 
the forests, they would form themselves into a 
social community, not only for the sake of mutual 
convenience, but also that they might be able to 
resist the invasions of the men and avoid their 
bondage; while their numbers would be con-
stantly recruited by the arrival of discontented 
individuals of their own sex, whom the fame of 
their independence and security had attracted 
into fellowship. 
It appears to me, that the above is the only 
satisfactory way in which we can account for ~he 
- formation and existence of a community 'of Ama-.. 
zons; and when ~uthors, in ~peaking of such, 
inform us that its members are in the habit of 
receiving a visit from the other sex once a year, 
an air of improbability instantly attaches itself to 
the whole narrative; for we perceive in this peri-
odical intercourse between the sexes, however 
limited its duration may have been, an infringe. 
ment of those principles which appeal' to be essen· 
tial to the constitution of a nation of females. 
Were not the separation between the sexes 
• 
• 
250 WEST INDIES. 
total and uninterrupted, encroachments on the one 
side and love on the other would shortly destroy 
the independence of the community, and lead to 
desertion and discontent amongst its members, 
and throw the old and young into a state of dis-
cordance with each other. Sir Walter Raleigh 
found various reports on the subject of Amazons 
current in Guiana, but these are liable to the objec-
tions above stated. "They which are not far 
from Guiana," says he, "do accompany with men 
but once in a year, and for the time of one month, 
which I gather by their relation to be in April. 
At that time all the kings of the borders assemble, 
and the queens of the Amazons; and after the 
queens have chosen, the rest cast lots for their 
valentines. This one month they feast, dance, 
and drink of their wines in abundance; and the 
moon . being down, they all depart to their own 
provinces." If ever a community of Amazons 
did exist, we may safely conclude that it was not 
numerous; that instead of being formidable to its 
neighbours, it had great difficulty in defending 
itself; and that its strength was recruited and 
kept up, not by the female children of its mem-
bers, but by women whose misery and misfor-
tunes had induced them to renounce common 
society. Thus Pliny describes an association of 
men who lived in palm groves on the coast of the 
• 
, 
WEST INDIAN OCEAN. 251 
Arabian Gulf, and who neither admitted females 
amongst them, nor ever had intercourse with the 
sex; yet their number always continued nearly 
the same, because they were daily joined by persons 
• seeking an asylum from disappointments, persecu-
tion, and the various miseries of human life. 
When the timid natives of the West Indian 
r,  Islands had somewhat recovered from the panic 
which the first excesses and ravages of their 
invaders had occasioned, they began to consider 
in what manner they could best rid themselves of 
their tyrants, and being unable to accomplish this 
by force, they endeavoured to decoy them into the 
search for new lands, by extravagant tales of the 
riches and wonders to' ,be found in regions lying 
farther to the westward. After a time the ca-
ciques would never admit that their own islands 
or territories produced either gold or spices; but 
they always declared to the Spaniards that they 
would procure abundance of both if they con_ 
tinued their voyage or their travels for only a few 
I 
days longer. The most celebrated of these fabu-
lous inventions was the report circulated by the 
Indians of the existence of a fountain endowed 
with the quality of renewing a man's youth, 
although he might be far declined in the vale of 
years. Its situation was described to be upon an 
island near the coast of Florida; and in placing it 
• 
252 WEST INDIES. ,,  
there, the narrator., no doubt, had in view the 
destruction of all who might go in search of it; , 
the natives of that country being then the most 
warlike, independent, and jealous of invasion of 
any people in the western world, as the Spaniards 
afterwards experienced to their cost, when Ferdi- \ 
nand Soto attempted the conquest of Florida. \,  
• 
Several persons casually sought for the miraculous 
fountain in the course of the!r voyages; but Ponce 
de Leon, a man of rank and talents, fitted out an 
expedition expressly for its discovery, and traversed 
a great part of the Bahama seas in pursuit of that 
seducing object; nor shall we feel much astonished 
at his blindness and credulity, if we reflect that 
the study of alchymy had not then been banished 
from the cabinets of the philosophers of Europe, 
and that the elixir of life, and the art of trans-
muting metals, were still considered to be within 
human attainment. 
It was likewise the age of enthusiasm and love 
of enterprise; the New\Vorld was regarded as the 
seat of unknown wonders; and the collecting of 
gold, which had hitherto engaged the attention 
of adventurers there, was becoming a vulgar and 
uncertain pursuit, and presented a less fascinating 
aspect than the search for an object which the 
precious metals could Hot purchase, and which 
science had hitherto failed in procuring. Peter 
• 
, 
, 
, 
, 
WEST INDIAN OCEAN, 253 
Martyr, who wrote his Decades of the Ocean 
, about ten years before the period of Ponce de 
Leon's expedition, expresses himself inclined to 
believe in the existence of the fountain of Bi-
mini; and argues that as the eagle, and hart, and 
snakes, and several other animals, have the fa-
? 
l culty of renewing their youth, it is reasonable to 
suppose that men may aUain a similar power by 
, 
", curiously prying into the secrets of Nature, The 
J 
mildness of the climate of the 'Vest Indian Ocean, 
the almost perpetual sunshine there, and the ap-
parently undying vegetation of its islands, doubt-
less affected the imagination of those who were 
disposed to credit the tale of the miraculous 
spring, and led them to regard its assigned situ-
ation as strictly consistent with probability, and 
as an encouragement to engage in its discovery" 
But let us tum from the regions of fiction to 
examine what the West Indian seas really produce 
for the use of men, The turtle here abounds in 
a degree that is unknown anywhere else, and it 
would appear that it constituted a considerable 
part of the food of the aboriginal inhabitants of 
all the islands; for the early voyagers describe 
them as catching it by means of a small fish, , 
which they trained for that kind of marine hunt-
ing, and which they always carried with them 
when they went , to sea in their canoes, having 
• • 
254 WEST INDIES. 
previously secured it alongside by a string tied to 
its tail, and which could be lengthened or short-
ened at pleasure. 'Vhen the hunting fish, which 
was a species of remora, saw a turtle under 
water, it immediately rushed towards it, and 
fixed itself so firmly upon the shell by means of 
its suckers, that the Indian fisherman had no 
difficulty in pulling both animals close to his 
canoe, when, on lifting them out of the sea, the 
remora let go its hold, and dropped into its na-
tural element, while the turtle was taken on 
board and killed. It appears that this kind of 
fishing was never practised by any but the abori-
gines of the \Vest Indian Islands, and that it got 
into disuse and oblivion upon their extinction, 
probably because the Spaniards scorned to adopt 
any of the usages of that despised and persecuted 
race. • Hence the story of the hunting fish was 
long disbelieved; no instance of its powers in that 
respect having eyer come within modern obser-
vation, even in the places whe,." it is said to have 
been most generally employed in the chase of 
turtles and tortoises. But these doubts have lately 
been removed, and Humboldt, who has examined 
the anatomical structure of the remora, is satis-
fied that it is capable of performing all that has 
ever been attributed to it; and he supposes that 
it is fear that induces it to attach itself firmly 
• 
• 
• 
• 
WEST INDIAN OCEAN. 255 
to any object, when it feels itself forcibly pulled 
• back by a cord or by the band of man. He says 
farther upon this subject, " We know in the 
present day. from the united authorities of Cap-
tains Rogers. Dampier. and Com merson, that the 
same expedient to catch turtle, practised in the 
j Iardinillos. (islets on the coast of Cuba,) is adopted , 
by the inhabitants of the east coast of Africa in 
the neighbourhood of Cape Natal, and also in 
Mozambique and in Madagascar." 
The abundance and excellence of the West 
Indian turtle arises from the fitness of the seas 
and islands in that quarter of the world for its 
propagation and growth. The Bahama ocean 
presents a congregation of islets and sand-banks. 
mostly connected together by ridges of rock ex-
tending under water. the whole forming as -it 
-- were a large turtle-pond, where these animals are 
never annoyed by a turbulent sea, and where 
they find in every direction suitable places to 
deposit their eggs, which are not liable to be dug 
up and destroyed by beasts of prey, as is the 
case in many other places. 
The West Indian Ocean abounds in various 
kinds of fish; but, by a strange anomaly, many 
individuals of those species that are best calculat-
ed for food, are of so poisonous a quality as to 
endanger. and even destroy the lives of the people 
• • 
• • 
256 WEST INDlF.S. 
who happen to eat of them. And this peculiarity 
becomes the more embarrassing and fatal, from 
the same kinds of fish proving at one time an 
agreeable and harmless article of food, and at 
another a most deleterious one, although their 
ex ternal appearance and taste are alike, or very 
nearly so, in both cases. Hundreds of persons 
are known to have perished from fish poison in 
the 'Vest Indian Islands, and probably many • 
more have fallen victims to it whose death has • 
by mistake been attributed to other causes. The 
number of species of fish that are liable to be 
poisonolls is not very accurately known, but the 
principal ones are the dolphin, the kingfish, the 
barracuta, the albacore, and the yellow-bill sprat, 
(clupea thryssa,) which is the most virulent 
and dangerolls of all. 
The cause of the frequently poisonous quality 
of the fish of the West Indian seas is yet un-
known, and seems to be beyond human investi-
gation. Some have attributed it to the impreg-
nations which they suppose the animals receive 
from veins or masses of native copper lying 
under water; but the existence of these is #by no 
means ascertained; and the first suspicion of it 
has probably been suggested by the dull verdi. 
grise colour of the sea upon the great Bahama 
bank, where poisonous fish at all times particularly 
• 
WEST INDIAN OCEAN. 257 
abound. In crossing that bank in an American 
trader, I was struck with the singular hue of the 
water, which the master of her assured me was 
produced by beds of copper lying beneath us; 
• and he added that it was highly dangerous to eat 
of the dolphin caught in that neighbourhood; 
f and that when a vessel was becalmed there for ., 
j several days, the health of all the crew seldom 
; failed to be more or less affected by the exha-
,••  lations. This last assertion is completely at 
variance with the first; for if the atmosphere 
upon the great Bahama bank is really unwhole-
some, which we have strong reasons to doubt. 
that cannot arise from its being impregnated with 
copper, which is diffusible through the air only by 
fumes, and not by watery evaporation. Besides, 
the metal in question is by no means so sudden 
and active a poison as to destroy life in less than 
half-an-hour, or even instantaneously, as the 
clupea tliT1Jssa is reported sometimes to do; and 
as copper taken internally is equally fatal to 
animals and to man, how does it happen that the 
fish which live in the Bahama seas, resist the 
effects of its virus, and at the same time retain it 
in their own systems, in its fullest activity? while, 
if the deleterious quality of the fish depended 
upon its absorption of copper, all individuals of 
one species, or rather of any species, caught in the 
VOL. II. s 
258 WEST INDIES. 
same place, would be equally poisonous, which 
is so far from being confirIIJe!l by observation, 
that the good and the bad varieties are often 
dra wn up in the same net. 
Poisonous fish are most common in the neigh-
bourhood of that chain of islands called by the 
French Lesser Antilles, and by the English 
I 
Carribean Islands. These were peopled by a 
race of cannibals who used to invade Cuba, and 
Hispaniola, and Jamaica, for the purpose of cap-
turing their inhabitants and feeding upon their 
bodies. 'Vas it the repeated fatal effects which 
they experienced from eating the fish caught 
upon their own coasts that forced them to seek 
some other kind of food? And their own islands 
producing none of the larger quadrupeds, may 
. 
not we suppose that they were thus led to 
prey , . u 1'011 the Innnan species and become 
cannibals? 
259 
• 
, GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER OF THE WEST INDIES. 
, 
•,•  
IT is much to be wished that navigators, on dis-
covering unknown lands, would never give them 
what may appear in their opinion to be appropri-
ate names; for future observation seldom fails to 
show the inaccuracy and unsuitableness of these, 
though not till habit his so long confirmed their 
use, that it is highly inconvenient to alter them 
or to adopt new ones. The poorest language iIi 
the world would afford distinctive names for 
every part of the earth's surface, without employ-
ing a single word that had already been appropri-
ated in that way; but most of our celebrated na-
vigators seem to have thought differently, and 
have disfigured their maps, and caused much local 
confusion, by conferring upon their discoveries 
the popular appellations of various parts of Europe 
or of their respective countries. The New South 
Wales, New Hebrides, and New Caledonia of 
Cook, are as . objectionable as the New South 
s 2 
260 WEST INDIES. ' 
Shetland of '\T eddel, or the North Georgia of ! 
Parry; and though the Americans have been ri- , 
I 
diculed for applying to the districts of the west- I 
ern states the names of celebrated men, they 
have followed a rational principle in doing this, 
and well deserve imitation by modern geogra-
phers. 
Europeans have been so sensible of the impro-
priety of the name of 'Vest Indies, given to that 
archipelago by Columbus, that various alterations 
have been proposed, which have led to the great-
est confusion in the local definitions of th"t part 
of the world. Some geographers call these islands 
Antilles; others denote them by the word Carri-
bean; and a third class give them the name of 
American I slands; while the subordinate terms 
Bahamas, L eucayos, Virgin, L eeward, and'Vind-
ward I slands, used to discriminate particular parts 
of the chain, render the pr~nt nomenclature 
equally perplexing and unsystematic. Carribean 
seems to be the most characteristic appellation 
• 
for the whole archipelago, and also for the ocean 
in which it is situated, and some foreign writ-
ers have employed it in that way; but I have 
thought that my authority is not great enough in 
such matters to admit of my laying aside the 
English popular and long-established name of 
'Vest Indian Islands. 
, 
< 
• 
GEN EllA.\. PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 261 
• 
1\1 uch as these islands vary in size and geogra-
phical position, they nevertheless bear a strong 
~ general resembl~nce to each other. All of them 
••  are remarkable for the loftiness of their interior, 
the land in the smaller ones rising gradually from 
< 
r the shore, and forming a single hill of considerable 
• elevation; and in the greater, taking a more exten-
sive sweep, and grouping itself into mountains, 
which generally assume a longitudinal direction, 
and intersect the island from one end to the other. 
The coasts are mostly bold, and afford numerous 
I bays and harbours of easy access, and safe for 
shipping; and when low, (at least in the larger 
islands,) rich and level savannahs extend back-
wards many miles, and are here and there divided 
by limpid and never.failing streams, few of which 
are navigable except for boats or canoes. The 
savannahs, if uncultivated, are covered with herb· 
age and shrubbery, but no sooner does the land 
,<  begin to rise, than clumps and groves of trees 
•·  make their appearance; and these, as the eleva· 
,,  tion increases, become taller and more extensive, 
, 
, and at length unite themselves into one continu-
ous forest, which clothes the mountains, even to 
their very tops, with a mantle of verdant foliage so 
thick as to be impenetrable to the sun. 
Many of the small islands rise from the surface 
of the sea like volcanic cones, and are almost des. 
262 W EST INDIES. 
titute of trees, and unfit for cultivation, except 
immediately round their bases. Those islets 
called Bahamas and Leucayos are in general little 
better than barren rocks encircled by a beach of I 
broken shells; but., nevertheless, they have their i 
peculiar beauties, which are heightened by their ,•  
contrast with other spots of superior fertility . 
The hills and mountains of the 'Vest Indian ar-
chipelago, in whatever part of it they occur, are 
very lofty in proportion to the extent of the 
islands containing them. Thus, Jamaica, though ••  
only one hundred and fifty miles long and forty 
broad, presents a peak which rises upwards of seven 
thousand . feet above the level of the ocean ; and 
the interior parts of Hispaniola are in most places 
more than half that elevation, while Cuba is inter-
sected by a ridge of lofty hills about five hundred 
miles long. This general elevation, by attracting 
the clouds, and causing frequent showers through-
out a great part of the year. confers upon these 
islands a beauty and a perennial verdure which 
belong to few other countries lying within the 
tropics, besides rendering the streams ever abund-
ant and flowing, and insuring a constant supply 
of water for artificial irrigation and other purposes 
connected with agriculture. Las Casas, in his ab-
stract of the first voyage of Columbus, says - " He 
(the admiral) "was mnch astonished to observe 
GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 263 
so many lovely and lofty islands; and he assures 
, the king and queen that the mountains which he 
has seen since yesterday, upon these coasts and 
isles, are such as he believes to equal any in the 
world for beauty and elevation." 
In the West Indian Islands, the average tempe-
1 rature is much lower than their geographical posi-
• 
f tion would lead us to expect, or is found in any 
1 continent whatever situated under the same pa-
t rallel of latitude. Enjoying the full irifluence of 
the trade-wind during the day, and of the land 
i breezes at night, and refreshed by frequent show-
I ers and by numerous streams of water, and pro-, tected from the sun by extensive forests, they are 
,- 
•,  strangers to that fiery glowing of the earth's sur-
, 
• face, and that hurning atm~phere, which annually 
for months together distress and exhaust Nature 
• 
1 in the tropical regions of Asia and Africa. 
The highest average range of the thermometer 
in any of the islands is 84° at noon, and in some 
of them it is from six to ten degrees lower. The 
rains are moderate, and the general elevation of' 
the land every\vhere causes the surface of the soil 
to dry quickly; and hence the air in the interior 
of the islands is always pure, elastic, and unloaded 
with vapours. In Jamaica there are lands under 
cuHlvation four thousand feet above the level of 
the sea; and in such places vegetation loses its 
• 
, 
264 WEST INDJES. 
• 
tropical character, and the plants and fruits of · 
Europe flouri sh and attain maturity, the cold be- " 
ing so great that the inhabitants require fires in 
their houses during several months of the year. ,,  
Nevertheless, the beauty and fertility of these ,,  .  , 
islands is continually liable to be ravaged and in- , 
jIlTed by hurricanes, the most terrific and destruc-
tive of all Nature's irregularities, but which, hap-
pily, are now much less frequent than they used 
to be. It would also appear that their violence 
and strength have considerably diminished, if we 
compare the early accounts of the damage alld 
misery which they always occasioned, with the ! 
\ 
details upon the same subject furnished in more I 
modern times; though part of this difference 
may be owing to the precautions latterly adopted 
ill the constl'l1ction of buildings alld the protec-
tion of crops in those islands w hic!. arc more parti-
cularly liable to be assailed by the tropical tem-
pests in question. 
The ' ''est Indian hunicane, are most COIll-
man ill the north -e~stern part of the archipelago, 
and they have Il eyer been known to extend so 
far southward as Trinidad, or so far westward as 
the Gulf of Mexico, though vl'ry hard gall's of 
wind often occur in the last quarter. The first 
hllTricane on record is the one whidl assaill'd Co-
Illm\JIIS in the coursc of hi s fourth \'oyage, whcn he 
GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 265 
, 
was off the principal Spanish settlement in St. Do-
, 
mingo. He foresaw that a tempest would shortly 
arise, and he sent to Ovando, the governor of the 
place, to request that he might be allowed to take 
refuge in the harbour; but this being refused, 
he was obliged to stand out to sea and face the 
• 
• storm. "What man, without even excepting Job, would not have died of despair," says Columbus, 
,,  " to find that, at a crisis when the lives of my-
,<  
j self, my son, my brother, and my friends were 
in danger, I was prohibited from approaching 
that country and those ports which, under the 
blessing of God, I had purchased for Spain at the 
expense of my blood ?" 
At this time a fleet of twenty-four ships was 
about to set sail for Spain, carrying large quanti-
ties of gold and pearls, partly the revenues of the 
kins, and partIy the property of those private in-
dividuals who were passengers on board, Colum-
bus, notwithstanding Ovando's inhumanity, ad-
yised him to detain the fleet for a few days, be-
cause a violent storm was likely soon to occur; 
but his warnings were treated with contempt, 
and the vessels were suffered to proceed on their 
voyage. Before the close of the following day, 
twenty of their number, with fifteen hundred 
persons, had foundered in the hurricane, The 
loss of treasure 011 this OllCasion was so great as 
• 
266 WEST INDIES. 
to affect the financial resources of Spain for se-
veral years after. But, previous to this, the 
natives of Hispaniola and Cuba had described 
the nature and ravages of hurricanes to the Spa- I 
niards; and the preceding summer, one of these 
had desolated part of the latter island, and caus- \ ••  
ed an irruption of the sea of so terrific a kind, 
that it was viewed with superstitious dread by the 
inhabitants, as ominous of the still greater evils 
which they had reason to expect from their Eu-
I 
ropean invaders. , 
,i  
Persons long resident in the 'Vest Indian I 
Islands are able to foretel the approach of hur- ,I  
ricanes with tolerable accuracy, by tbe observation I 
of certain atmosphericnl phenomena; but this 
kind of knowledge proves, unfortunately, of little 
avail either on shore or at sea, the violence of 
the tempest generally rendering impotent all 
precautions that may be employed against its 
destructive effects. On the day preceding the 
hurricane, the weather is almost always calm 
and sultry, and the sea-breeze does not set in 
at the usual hour, or perhaps is not felt at all; 
the sky is red and hazy, and the horizon sur-
charged with clouds, and the noise of the surf 
seems particularly loud and distinct; and thun-
der, more or less distant, is heard incessantly. 
At length, the wind begins to blow in shifting 
• 
GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTEH. 267 
.. gusts, and to lull again: these increase in strength 
. and frequency, and ere long the blast comes roar-
ing from one quarter with concentrated fury. The 
cane-fields first experience its effects, the plants 
being torn up by the roots, and whirled through 
f the air as if they were chaff; the coffee planta-
.; tions are next levelled to the ground, and ap-
; pear like heaps of brushwood; the palms, after 
,• bending and groaning beneath the tempest, fall 
· 
j 
• prostrate; and, as its rage augments, whole fo-
1 rests are levelled; houses are unroofed and 
thrown down; the low grounds are flooded by 
torrents of water, and the sea is driven in upon 
the land; the inhabitants everywhere quit their 
tottering houses, and . seek safety in the open 
fields, under a sky obscured by rain and furrowed 
by lightning, and think only of saving their 
lives, having abandoned their property to the 
elements, like shipwrecked people escaping from 
their sinking vessel in a boat. 
These hurricanes often blow with a degree of 
strength which would be deemed a physical im-
possibility, were it not proved by numerous facts 
and .observations. In other parts of the world, 
the most violent gales of wind merely throw down 
trees and dismast ships; but the 'Vest Indian 
hurricanes have in many instances levelled to the 
ground large stone buildings, such as churches 
. , 
, 
, 
268 WEST INDIES. • 
and barracks, and dismounted guns of high cali-
bre from their carriages, and swept them away. 
In Barbadoes, a twelve-pounder was by the force 
of the wind and waves, removed from its place 
upon a battery, and conveyed a distance of one 
hundred and forty yards; and, during the same i 
hurricane, fourteen hundred houses were blown , 
down in the town of Port-Royal, Martinico, and 
also the cathedral and seven churches, and the 
prisons, hospital, and barracks. 
In the greatest hurricanes the wind is calculated 
to have a velocity of eighty or ninety miles an I 
hour, but this would not be adeq uate to produce 
the effects above described, unless we suppose that 
the currents of air constituting these tempests 
always possess a gravity and density greater than 
ordinary, which we have no reason to believe; 
for it · has never been remarked that hurricanes 
• 
are attended by a fall of temperature in the atmo-
sphere. They differ from common gales of wind 
only in their superior violence, and in their blow-
ing from all, or nearly all, the points of the com-
pass in succession, and within the space of a few 
hours; for they do not blow from opposite quar-
ters at the same moment, as is vulgarly believed, 
nor can a thing of the kind take place under any 
circumstnnces whatever. Fourteen or fifteen se-
vere hurricancs, ancl a much grealRr number of less 
• 
GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 269 
considerable ones, have occurred in the 'Vest 
Indian Islands since they were first settled by Eu-
ropeans, and occasioned incalculable loss to the 
inhabitants. The most violent and general of 
them all happened in 1780, causing dreadful and 
before unheard-of ravages by land and sea, and 
i destroying within a few days more ships and peo-• 
ple than had up to that time perished in the san-
• 
) guinary war which the French, English, and Spa-
i 
niards were then carrying on in the same quarter 
of the world. 
Jamaica has oftener been desolated by hurricanes 
than any other island of the 'Vestern archipelago; 
and Nature, as if envious of her blo'autyand ferti-
lity, has also subjected her to earthquakes of the 
most formidable kind. Many times have these 
laid prostrate her cities, and swallowed up their 
_ inhabitants, and as many times have subsequent 
pestilence and irregular seasons thinned her popu-
lation, and rendered her soil unproductive. In 
1692, the town of Port-Royal and three thousand 
persons sunk into the ocean; and in 1780, that of 
Savannah la Mar was totally overwhelmed by an 
irruption of the waves, caused by an earthquake, 
the effects of which last extended more or less 
over nearly the whole island. In both instances 
the vapours exhaled from the earth, and the dead 
bodies cast forth by the sea, occasioned an ende-
• 
• 
270 WEST INDIES. 
mical disease, which in the space of a month de- . 
stroyed several thousand individuals. 
It is the dread and expectation of these phy-
sical convulsions that alone destroy that serenity 
of life which the inhabitants of the West Indian 
Islands generally enjoy ; for nowhere does the • I 
soil afford a greater variety of productions, whe-
ther useful or luxurious. The forests abound with 
valuable timber, the mountains supply exhaustless 
streams of excellent water, and the plains and 
valleys are, during the greater part of the year, 
covered with rich pastures. The cultivated sa-
vannahs produce the maize. or Indian com, yield-
ing two crops a year; and also rice, and millet, 
and calavances, besides yams, potatoes of different 
kinds, cassava, and all the best European vege-
tables. Plantations of sugar-cane extend over 
a large part of tlie country; and groves of coffee, 
cocoa, and cotton-trees flourish wherever they 
happen to he planted, and nursed by the hand of 
man. The gardens con lain an assemblage of the 
• 
linest fruits in the world. In them the pine-
apple, the mango, the orange, the avocado-pear, 
the guava, the custard-apple, the banana, the 
shaddock, the lig, and the pomegranate, attract 
the attention, and equally delight the eye and 
gratify the taste. The cattle and other domestic 
animals of Europe, as may be supposed, thrive 
GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 271 
in such a country, and afford abundant supplies 
of food, in addition to the small game which 
is more or less plentiful in all the uncultivated 
districts. 
With respect to the fruits of the West Indies, 
it has been a frequent subject of discussion with 
travellers and botanists, which of them are indi-
I 
{,  genous to the islands, and which have been intro-
• duced by the European colonists. There seems to 
I . 
be little doubt that the pine-apple was found in 
the country by the Spaniards, as likewise the 
guava, the avocado-pear, and the shaddock; but 
it is equally certain that the orange was imported, 
and a tradition exists that the tree was first plant-
ed by the hands of the .celebrated Las Casas, arch-
bishop of Chiapa. But it is even more worthy 
of remark, that the history and origin of the sugar-
cane still remain uncertain; some contending that 
- --it is indigenous to the western archipelago, and 
others that it was brought there by Columbus on 
his second voyage. Bryan Edwards endeavours 
to reconcile these two opinions, by supposing that 
both are correct, and that the discoverer of Ame-
rica actually carried plants of sugar-cane to His-
paniola, lIot being aware that they already grew 
in that island and in the neighbouring ones. 
This explanation, though plausible, is far from 
being satisfactory; for it is evident from Colum-
• 
272 WEST INDIES. 
• 
bus's private journal of his first voyage, that he 
paid particular attention to the vegetable produc-
tions of the new regions which he was exploring, 
and we can scarcely believe that the sugar-cane, 
had it existed there, would have escaped his no-
tice. Humboldt says decidedly, that this plant 
was obtained from the Canary I slands, and intro-
duced into the western archipelago by the Span-
iards; and his authority will by most persons be 
considered conclusive on all botanical subjects con-
nected with the American world. 
' ''' hen we consider the magnitude of J amaica, 
Hispaniola, and Cuba, and that a " ery large pro-
portion of each of these islands ha. hitherto re-
mained without cultivation or inhabitants, we are 
astonished to find them destitute of all the larger 
quadrupeds, and containing only a few species of 
the smaller ones. The wild hogs and cattle which 
once abounded in the two former islands, and which 
still exist in the latter, were introduced by the 
Spaniards, who on their fi rs t settling in the archi-
pelago, suffered severely from want of food, and 
often ranged the forests in vain in search of game 
of any descript ion, and thought themselves fortu-
nate if they succeeded in catching a few coneys 
or wild rabbits. Had either carnivorous or gra-
minivorous animals of magnitude existed, they 
would thus certainly have discovered them, but 
• 
GEN ERAL I'H YSICAL CHARACTEIl. 273 
as no mention is made of such in their narrations, 
we must conclude that the quadruped species in-
habiting the islands were not formerly. more nu-
merous or important than they are in the present 
day. 
The only animals that deserve particular notice 
f are the moun tain crab and the iguana, both of 
.,,  which form favourite articles of food in most of 
, the islands, uninviting to the appetite as they at 
first appear to be. At a certain season annually, 
the mountain crabs descend in vast multitudes 
from the highlands in the interior of the country 
to the sea-shore, there to deposit their spawn; 
having accomplished which, they return inland 
to their former haunts, ~vhere they conceal them-
selves in crevices of the rocks, or in holes under 
• ground, and subsist upon herbage. No soon~r 
have the spawn attained a certain degree of matu-
rity than they quit the coast, and follow the steps 
of their parents, so that two distinct migrations 
happen every year, during which all persons have 
an opportunity of collecting as many crabs as they 
please. These animals are regarded as exquisite 
delicacies; but they are observed to be diminish-
iug in number, and in some of the smaller and 
more populous islands they have either become 
extinct, or no longer make their appearance in 
such large fiot'ks as they used to do. 
VOL. II. T 
• 
274 WEST INDIES. 
• 
The iguana is an animal of the lizard species, 
usually about four feet long, and not unlike a 
young alligator. It is much esteemed as an arti-
cle of food; but is withal of so hideous and for-
midable an aspect, that many persons, though 
assured of the wholesomeness and excellence of 
its flesh by the experience of others, can never 
bring themselves to taste it. The Spaniards 
themselves, even in the midst of their privations, 
on their first settling in St. Domingo, felt this 
repugnance; and the manner in which it was over-
come is thus related by one of the historians of 
their early voyages to the New 'Vorld :-"rhesc 
serpents they cal iguanas, which our men learned 
(somewhat too late) to have been engendered in 
the islande. For unto that day none of them 
dursi adventure to taste of them, by reason of 
their horrible deformity and loathsomness. Yet 
the lieutenant, being entised by the pleasantnesse 
of the kinges sister, determined to tast of the ser-
pentes. But when he felt the fleshe thereof to 
bee so delicate to his tongue, bee fel to amaine 
without all feare; the which thing his companions 
perceiving, were not behind him in greedynesse, 
insomuch that they had nowe none other. . talke 
than of the sweetnesse of these serpentes, which 
they affirme to be of more pleasante taste than 
eyther our phesantes or partriches, but they lose 
GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 275 
their taste except they be prepared after a certaine 
fashion, as doe pearshes and phesantes except they 
be interlarded before they be rosted." 
Though no ferocious animals infest the West 
Indian Islands, and though there are no poisonous 
ones there, to in vade the houses or endanger the 
lives of the inhabitants, a cause of torment equally 
diminutive and formidable is liable to assail them 
night and day. A similar one indeed exists more 
or less in all tropical regions of the world; and as 
it thus appertains as much to one country so 
situated as to another, I may properly enough 
speak concerning it in this place. When an 
inhabitant of Northern Europe is about to visit 
any of the countries lyin'g in the neighbourhood 
of the equator, his imagination most likely dwells 
upon the perils and anxiety to which he will be ' 
• 
. exposed from the attacks and the vicinity of the 
tiger, the lion, the panther, and the serpent; but he 
soon discovers that he has an infinitely more formi-
dable enemy to encounter in the most feeble and 
fragile of insects, the musquitoe. This little animal, 
wherever it exists in abundance, proves a deeper 
source of distress to the human species than tropical 
heat, disease, or confinement; and forms perhaps 
the greatest of all physical annoyances to which we 
can under any circumstances remain subjected for 
allY considerable length of time. The common 
Til 
276 WEST INDIES. 
gnat of Europe, though often complained of, is 
quite an insignificant tormentor compared with 
the genuine musquitoe, or culex pipien8, which i. 
found only ill the moist and warm parts of 
Africa, Asia, and America, and is largest and 
most virulent in the last continent. Judging from 
the accounts given by travellers in Norway and 
Lapland of their sufferings from the incessant 
attacks of this class of insects, we should feel 
inclined to believe that its worst species existed 
in the northern parts of Europe, but their descrip-
tion of the animal is sufficient to satisfy us that 
this would be a mistaken conclusion. The body 
of the Lapland musql1itoe is encircled by black 
rings, w hi I" in the American and East and 'Vest 
Indian variety these are white or rather greyish. 
\Vere it not for the protection of gauze cur-
tains, the majority of Europeans in countries 
infested by musquitoes would never enjoy 
undisturbed sleep. A long residence in a hot 
climate does not, as is often supposed, render an 
individual proof against their attacks; but there 
are some persons whom they never assail, or who 
are totally insensible to the wounds which they 
inflict, which is probably the consequence of a 
particular thicklless and opacity of the cuticle. 
Humboldt says that the Indians of the Oronoco, 
on lying down for the night, cover themselves 
• 
GENERAL PHYSIC.U CHARACTER. 277 
completely with sand, with the exception of their 
faces, as a defence from the musquitoes. In 
Brazil, the natives, as well as Europeans, for the 
same reason suspend their cots from the hranches 
of trees ten or fifteen feet from the ground; for it 
is certain that these insects are in all situations 
most numerous and annoying close upon the 
surface of the soil, and the same remark applies 
to lakes and rivers. One of the Jesuit priests, 
in describing a voyage which he made up the 
Mississippi in a canoe, says that the musq uitoes 
are so exquisitely tormenting there, that they 
cause people to lose temper and patience who 
had never lost these before; and Humboldt gives 
an account of a kind of ecclesiastical discipline 
practised in South America, of a singular and 
ingenious kind. When the superior of the mis" 
.3ions of the Apure and Oronoco determines upon 
punishing any of his subordinates for want of 
zeal or irregularity of conduct, he sends him to 
form an establishment far in the interior of the 
country, and upon the banks of one of the above-
named rivers, where his life is rendered miserable 
by the attacks of the swarms of musquitoes which 
(if I may use the expression) almost compose the 
atmosphere of these humid and woody regions. 
In the West Indian Islands, musquitoes are 
more or less numerous according to the nature 
• 
• 
278 WEST INDIES. 
of the soil and the vegetation, but they chiefly 
abound in the towns and upon the sea-eoast. A 
house in the neighbourhood of Havana, in 
which I resided a short time, was so infested 
with them that its inmates were in the practice 
of getting up twice or thrice in the course of the 
night, and making a fire of damp chips of wood 
upon the stone floor of the principal apartment, 
in order that the clouds of pungent smoke might 
drive away the tormenting insects; which, how-
ever, was effected for an hour or two only, as 
they never failed to return to thl' place as soon 
as the cause of their retreat had disappeared. In 
the back settlements of America the inhabitants 
are obliged to adopt the same I'xpedil'nt during 
the day, and their log-huts are oftl'n so darkened 
with smoke that it is impossible to distinguish 
one individual from another. 
In the northern parts of America the mus-
qnitoes are troublesome only three months in the 
year, otherwise the forests there would be un-
inhabitable; but, neverthell'ss, it is well known 
that intending settlers have in many instances 
been forced to abandon certain parts of the coun-
try by the persecntions of these insects; and it 
is probable that a large proportion of the flat 
swampy lands borderi1lg upon the Mississippi will 
never be occupied or cultivated, from the same 
GENEIlAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 279 
cause. It seems not a little singular that mus-
quitoes bred in woods and deserts, seldom, or 
perhaps never, visited by man, should have a 
voracious appetite for the blood of our species, 
and instantly attack the individual who hap-
pens to approach their haunts. Animal bodies 
of Rny kind, whether living or dead, are so far 
from constituting the natural food of this insect, 
tbat they actually are seldom found at all in 
those places where the species is engendered in 
the gIeatest multitudes. 
History affords us many instances of the mi-
grations of insects, or, at least, of some particu-
lar tribes of them being accidentally introduced 
into countries where they did not originally 
exist. The animalcula, which causes blight in 
,wheat, was brought into England from abroad; 
._and the sugar-ant, which made its first appearance 
in Grenada in 1790, and nearly destroyed all the 
cane-plantations there, is believed to have been 
imported in a vessel from Martinico. How does 
it happen that the culex pipiens has not yet made 
its appearance in Europe, or that the Lapland 
musquitoe has never been conveyed southward 
to more congenial regions 1 The moistness of the 
British climate would prove particularly favour-
able to the production and multiplication of mus-
quitoes; and it is scarcely necessary to remark 
280 WEST INDIES. 
that the cold would not destroy them, since their 
larvre so well endure the rigours of the northern 
region~ of our continent and of America. 
The Dutch inhabitants of Cape Town assert 
that the musquitoe which now abounds there dur-
ing the summer, was unknown in the colony ,,  
till within these last twenty years; and they sup- , 
pose that it has been introduced along with the 
cargoes of British vessels from India. The Dutch ; 
East India Company's ships were annually in the 
practice of touching at the Cape for a century 
before it fell into the hands of the English; but 
as they never left or landed any cargo there, the 
insects that might have been on board were not 
likely to be conveyed on shore. ,I,   
Having said thus much of a noxious insect, I I 
I 
I may be allowed to speak summarily of a harm-
less' and elegant one, which is equally an inha-
bitant of the 'Vest Indian Islands, and which 
forms the nocturnal ornament of their forests 
and gardens. No sooner doe< the twilight dis-
appear, than the fire -flies, or CllCU!JOS, are seen 
darting and w heeling through the air like stars. 
One species emits a Hash of white light at regu-
lar intervals of two or three seconds; while the 
other, or larger kind (elater lIoctiiacus), displays 
two blazing spots of an emer~ld colour, and of 
unremitting hrightness. The aborigineR of His-
, 
• 
GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 281 
• 
paniola are said to have employed the fire-flies of 
the latter sort to destroy the gnats and small in-
sects which infested their huts, and also to give 
light in the evenings, both when they were at 
home, and when they went abroad. In the last 
case, they would tie several fire-flies to their toes, 
and be guided by their light during a journey 
through the darkest woods. In the present day, 
the poorer inhabitants of eu ba often use as a lan-
tern a calabash pierced with small holes, and con-
taining twelve or fifteen cucuyos. This affords 
sufficient light for all ordinary purposes; but it 
is necessary to shake the vessel occasionally, in 
order that the concussion may excite the insects 
to give out all their phosphorescence, which be-
comes feeble if they are allowed to remain long 
in a state of inactivity. 
282 
ABORIGINES OF THE WEST INDIES. 
, 
MYSTERIOUS chain of events! Inexplicable vi-
cissitude of human affairs I The aborigines of the 
whole West Indian archipelago have long been 
utterly extinct, and we should in vain search even 
the deepest soli tudes and the most secret recesses 
of its islands, whether great or ' small, for an in-
dividual of the race, or for one of his remotest 
des,:endan ts. And who have been pennitted in 
succession to occupy the territories of these chil-
dren ,of innocence and of nature ? Sanguinary 
tyrants and remorseless seekers of gold; despe-
rate and expatriated adventurers; piratical hordes 
insatiate after plunder, and regardless of laws hu-
man or divine; hostile and invading nations stu-
dying how to destroy each other; rapacious co-
lonists, and a vast multitude of dependents in a 
state of personal slavery. Such are the triumphs 
of civilization! Such is the progress of human 
improvement! 
It is true that a survey of the earth will fur-
ABORLGINES OF THE WEST INDIES. 283 
Dish us with many other examples of the extinc-
tion of an entire race of people; but though in 
many of them this may be as complete as it is 
in the instance in question, still, the collateral cir-
cumstances having no similarity, the impression 
produced is less startling and impressive. We 
I know that every individual of the race of the 
,, ,  ancient Egyptians has long since ceased to exist; , but having the mixed descendants of that people 
before us, we are led to identify them as it were 
with their ancestors, and thus to fill up the blank 
in human society resulting from the disappearance 
• 
of the latter. The extinction of the aborigines of 
the Canary Islands has been mentioned in a pre-
vious part of this work, and here the principle 
just stated equally applies; for the Canarians of 
the present day are not so unlike those of ancient 
times as to forbid our regarding them as partak-
ing of the same descent. Humboldt discovered 
in the cavern of Ataruipe, in North America, the 
skeletons of six hundred Indians of an extinct 
race, and he describes the solemnity of his im-
pressions upon the occasion; but even in this in-
stance, the existing inhabitants of the country 
would present themselves to the mind as bearing -
some relationship to its former occupants, and 
as belonging to the same family of the human 
speci• es. 
284 WEST INDIES. 
But no link, real or imaginary, connects the ex-
tinct aborigines of the West Indian Islands with ••  
· 
the living world there, or in 'any other place, On • 
the contrary, we find their country inhabited by 
several races of foreigners, who have either come 
or been brought across the Atlantic Ocean, from 
lands several thousand miles distan t;' and no -
countenance or complexion that we meet through-
out the whole archipelago possesses a single trait 
indicative of Caribbean progenitors, The likeness 
of its former numerous inhabitants does not now 
exist in the grand panorama of the huma,n species; 
• 
and the only physical memorial of them that re- • 
mains, is the piles of their mouldering bones which 
are sometimes found in the Clves and mountains 
of Cuba and Jamaica, where it is supposed the 
last of the race took refuge from the murderous 
hands of their oppressors, and perishe~ from want 
and hunger, 
The aborigines of the larger 'Vest Indian Is-
lands having never received any general name, to , 1,  
avoid confusion and circumlocution, I will de- I 
signate them Antilians, confining the appellation 
of Caribs exclusively to the race of cannibals who 
inhabited the eastern part of the archipelago, 
Columbus, ill his first intercourse with the Anti-
lians, seems to have been even less struck with 
the simplicity of their ideas and mode of life, 
• 
ABORIGINES OF THE WEST INnIES. 285 
than astonished at the harmony and tranquillity 
which prevailed amongst them, and at the ab-
~ence of all those domestic evils which continually 
I 
, affect the condition and disturb the happiness of , 
~ the great mass of mankind in civilized countries. ,,,   He was also captivated with their mildness of de-
portmen!.- and benevolent dispositions; and pro-
bably the more so because, having always observed 
the reverse of these qualities prevailing amongst 
• 
the lower classes of society in Europe, he had 
supposed that they could not exist in any but a 
refined and educated commnnity, and were in-
a 
compatible with a state of nature and ignorance. 
, In the journal of his first voyage, he everywhere 
1 speaks with enthusiasm ofthe happy condition and 
I 
, innocent lives of the Antilians, who, he says, are 
I "una.cquainted with evil, and inexperienced , in 
• 
1 - - the art of -destroying each other, or of depriving ,,  , 
! anyone of his liberty;" but it is at the same time 
,1  painful to remark, that he had even from the first 
• 
I an eye to their prospective subjugation, for he often 
1,  owells upon their timidity, their want of arms, 
, and their submissiveness; and hints that the COIl-
quest of the islands would be easy, and that a 
very small force would suffice to garrison them 
afterwards, and to retain the natives in obedience. 
Peter Martyr, who writes from information 
derived from Columbus personally, says of the 
• 
",  
• 
286 WEST INDIES. 
Antilians-" And surely, if they had received our 
religion, I would think their life most happie of I 
all menne, if they might therewith enjoy their aun- I 
I 
ciente libertie. A few things content them, hav- ; 
I 
ing no delight in such superfluities for the which 
in other places menne take infinite paynes, and I 
commit manic unlawful! actes, and yet never 
are satisfied, whereas manie have too much, and 
none enough. But among these simple souls, a 
few clothes serve the naked, weightes and mea-
I 
sures are not needfulle to such as cannot skill of • 
i 
crafte or deceite, and have not the use of pes- J,  
tiferous money, the seed of innumerable mis- I,  
chieves; so that, if we shall not bee ashamed to ! 
confesse the truth, they seem to live in that I 
I 
golden worldc, of the which old writers speake so ,I ,  
much, wherein man lived simply and innocently I 
without enforcement of lawes, without quarrel-
ing, judges, and Iibelles; content onely to satisfie 
nature, without furthel' vexation CDr knowledge of 
things to come." 
' ;Ve may easily suppose that Columbus's natu-
ral penetration enabled him to foresee the ills 
which his discoveries were to entail upon the 
Antilians; but policy would at first prevent his 
making any allusion of the kind, and variou~ 
circumstances afterwards forced him to overlook 
or connive at the oppressions and cruelties prnc-
ABORIGINES OF THE WEST INDIES. 287 
tised upon them by the colonists, whom he was 
the means of introducing into their territories. 
I t is impossible to believe that he was not 
humane and compassionate in his nature, and 
that the severities with which he himself treated 
the natives of St. Domingo were repugnant to 
his principles and condemned by his conscience; 
but doubtless they appeared to him to be re-
q uisite to secure the conquest of the country, 
Bnd the tranquillity and personal safety of the 
Spaniards, who were forming their first settle-
ments there. However, Navarette, on the au-
thority of Las Casas, accuses the admiral of being 
the original author of that system of tyranny, 
injustice, and oppression, which so rapidly de-
populated the West Indian archipelago. After 
mentioning various instances in which the abo-
rigines of St. Domingo wer~ massacred, or con-
~ 
demned to slavery, or carried off the island, by 
order elf Columblols, he cites a pa~sage, in which 
the archbishop asserts that the sufferings and dis-
appointments which the former underwent dur-
ing the last years of Iris life were inflicted by 
Heaven as a punishment for the cruelty and in-
justice which he had exercised towards the in-
habitants of the New World. 
Columbus's exculpation must be found, not in 
a denial of the facts alleged against him, but in 
288 WEST INDIES. 
duly considering the difficulties of his situation, 
and his responsibility to the court of Spain. 
The returns drawn from the West Indies, either 
by trade or in revenue, had not nearly paid the 
expenses of conquest and colonization; and the 
avaricious Ferdinand, already dissatisfied with 
the unproductivenes5 of the New ' ;Vorld, eagerly !,  
~istened to the accusations which were brought 
against its discoverer by his numerous enemies at , 
• . 
home and abroad. Had Columbus, when he re- I • 
! 
turned to St. Domingo, and assumed the govern- ,,  
,ment of that island, immediately sent large quan- I 
tities of gold to Spain, neither Bovadilla, nor I I 
any other person, would have been appointed to 
supersede him, or to inquire into his conduct. 
But before this occurred, he was aware of the 
discontent of Ferdinand and of its causes, and 
perceived the danger and criticalness of his own 
situation; and his ouly resource to save his credit, 
and to insure a continuance of the royal fa,·our, 
was to ship a valuable cargo to Spain, and thus 
purchase the forbearance and good opinion of its 
monarch. The companions of Columbus were 
too indolent to assist him in this by their own 
• laboul· and exertions; and he found tbat there 
waS no way of procuring the requisite supplies of 
gold aud of other productions of the country, ex-
cept by extorting them from the natives, and by 
•• 
• 
ABORIGINES OF THE WEST INDIES. ~89 
robbing and chastising all those wbo refused to 
comply with his demands. Thus, to preserve 
himself in power and authority, he sacrificed the 
nobleness of his nature, and stifled the voice of 
conscience and humanity. The Antilians were 
plundered, forced to 'Iabour, and driven to despe-
I ration; and thousands perished in contests with 
• 
I the Spaniards appointed to collect the tribute~ 
I which had been unjustifiably imposed upon them. 
I The colonists, seeing that these excesses and acts 
of rapacity were permitted by their governor, 
considered themselves authorised to commit still .,. 
greater ones; and Hispaniola became a scene of 
outrage and bloodshed, in which the sufferers 
could find no eye to prty and no hand to save 
them. In the midst of this, Bovadilla arrived, 
and by his orders Columbus and his brother were 
- loaded with chains, and sent .t o Spain to answer 
for their misdeeds. " Is it astonishing," demands 
Las Casas, "that all the misfortunes which Don 
Fernando describes should befall the admiral 
and his adherents; and that the elements, the 
heavens, and everything which they contain, 
should conspire against men who had visited 
with irreparable injuries, and oppressed with the 
most detestable wrongs and the cruellest injustice, 
an innocent race of people who had never done 
them the least evil ?" 
VOL. II. II 
290 WEST INDIES. 
It is probable that Columbus considered tbe 
enforcement of the Indians to work in the mines I 
as merely a temporary measure, which the neces- , 
sities of his situation demanded that he should I • 
I 
resort to, and which was to be discontinued KS I 
i 
soon as he had collected the requisite quantity of 
gold for transmission to Spain, and had firmly 
established himself in his government. His 
sudden removal from Hispaniola, and his subse-
quent exclusion from all offices of authority and 
jurisdiction connected with the New 'Vorld, pre-
vent our verifying these conjectures, or knowing 
with certainty what his real sentiments were in 
reference to the natives of America. But it is 
probable that his estimate of them was much influ-
enced by the prejudices of the times, and that he 
regarded all infidels as unworthy of sympathy or 
consideration, and as the exclusive property of 
the Christians IV ho might happen to invade their 
country. For it must be recollected that it was 
not till forty-four ye>TS po,terior to his first 
voyage, that Pope Paul III. promulgated his 
celebrated bull, declaring the Indians to be melt, 
and that they were entitled to the commQfl pri-
vileges of humanity. 
But though we are constrained to admit, that 
circumstances (not natural inclination) rendered 
Columbus the first oppressor of the Antilians, it 
ABORIGIN ES OF THE WEST INDIES. 291 
would be unfair to consider him the author of 
that system of cruel~y to which the aborigines 
of America were afterwards subjected whenever 
they fell under the domination of the Spaniards. 
1 The natural character of the latter was such, that they required no example, either illustrious or 
I humble, to incite them to become oppressors and 
1 tyrants when the people whom they had con-
quered happened to follow a mode of life and a 
I code of belief different from their own. Bigots 
i,  in religion, encased in national prej udices, con-• 
temning foreigners, and obstinately proud and 
intolerant, they considered themselves privi-
leged to be despots, and invested with a right 
'. to despise and overthrow whatever they disliked, 
'.•  and to destroy whoever opposed them. These 
qualities led to their successes, as well as to their 
• 
) crimes; and if it is probable that no other na--
••  tion in Europe would have ravaged America so 
,I ;  wantonly as they did, it is certain that no other nation would ha"e overrun and conquered it with 
so much boldness and rapidity. 
Much uncertainty exists with respect to what 
was tite amount of the population of the West 
Indian archipelago at the time that Columbus 
discovered it. This is a point on which even the 
Spaniards used to contradict themselves; for when 
they wished to magnify the importance of their 
u 2 
• 
292 WEST INOI ES. 
conquests, they described the Antilians as being ,•  
exceedingly numerous, and when they had in 
view the concealment of their cruelty and their 
massacres, they insisted that these people were no 
more than detached and wandering tribes, alike 
barbarous and inconsiderable; but putting aside 
the testimony of historians, and grounding our 
estimate of the probable population of the is-
lands upon their physical character, we shall be 
led to believe that they were very thickly inha-
hited. Cuba, Jamaica, and Hispaniola yielded the 
plalltain and the maize in abundance, and both 
of these vegetables were extensi" ely cultivated by 
the natives, and they are of all articles of human 
food the most productive and most easily raised; 
neither are their crops liable to failure; and the 
agricultural operations required to obtain them 
are so insignificant, that indolence itself would 
find them an amusement rather than a labour. 
The aversion of the Antilians to bodily exertion 
could, therefore, never have stood in the way of 
their having plentiful supplies of food, in the use 
of which it appears that they were very moderate; 
for nothing astonished them more than the 
inordinate appetites of their invaders, and to 
avoid the ta~k of entertaining them as guests, 
they seldom failed to remove to a distance from 
their settl ements shortly after these had been 
• 
ABORIGINF.S OF THE WEST INDIES. 293 
formed. This circumstance accounts for the 
privations to which the Spaniards were so often 
exposed in Cuba and Hispaniola from the want 
t of the necessaries of life, which the Antilians 
1•  were in the habit of raising in sufficient quan-
• 
I tities for themselves only, instead of labouring to 
j obtain that surplus which the fertility of their 
islands was so well calculated to afford, but which 
their inhabitants had no inducement whatever to 
, secure either for their own use or for that of others. 
If we consider that, in addition to the maize and 
plantain, the Antilians had cassava root, and 
fruits, and fish, for their subsistence, we shall find 
that their circumstances were favourable to a 
rapid increase of pop'\ilation, which was never 
checked or diminished by war or contagious 
, 
• , diseases, or by any other local cause, except the 
1,  incursions of the Caribs who inhabited the chain 
.•.  of smaller islands to the eastward, and used to 
make descents upon the coasts of the Antilians, 
t for the purpose of taking them prisoners, and 
afterwards killing and devouring them; iowever, 
the number of their victims must have been very 
inconsiderable, for the canoes which ther~mploy­
ed in these hostile expeditions were too small to 
• 
j be capable of transporting many captives across 
1,.•   the ocean. Cuba, Hispaniola, and Jamaica were, 
j 
j when discovered by Columbus, perhaps as popu-
>•  
294 WEST INDIES. • 
lous as Java and Sumatra are in the present day, 
which they a good deal resemble in their physical 
character, except that rice is not indigenous in 
them, but, as a basis of human subsistence, the 
maize far surpasses it, whether we consider its 
nutritive qualities or its productiveness. 
In taking a general view of the Antilians, we 
are forcibly struck with the absence of all promi-
nent traits and distinctive peculiarities in their 
national character. \\le are neither astonished by 
customs and observances of a fantastic and unac-
countable nature, nor shocked by atrocious or 
revolting prej udices. Good sense. benevolence, 
and an engaging simplicity, were everywhere 
conspicuous in their ideas, habits, and mode of 
life; and we seek in vain in their history, and in 
the accounts which we have of their condition, 
for those mutual acts of violence and aggression, 
and those causes of endless di'l'ord, which are al-
most universal amongst manki"d. but which some 
writers of no mean authority would erroneously 
have us believe to be inseparable from unciviliz-
ed life, and its perpetual and essential charac-
teri stics. All the early voyagers agree in eulo-
gizing the Antilians; and it is singular and wor-
thy of remark, that those very Spaniards who 
treated them with such inhuman cruelty should 
,,<"vcr have attempted its palliation by calulllniat-
• 
ABORIGINES OF THE WEST INDIES. 295 
ing the nation upon whom it was exercised. as 
has always been a favourite practice of European 
invaders under similar circumstances. 
The Antilians had made but small advances in 
the arts of life when their country was discovered 
f by Europeans. the mildness and equability of 
l 
r their climate enabling them to dispense with almost 
• 
• everything which nature had not provided for 
\ 
, their use. They lived in huts composed of the 
l branches of trees. and tbatched with weeds or 
i grass; and some of then. buildings were of con-
siderable dimensions. and were used for public 
meetings. The domestic utensils of the Antilians 
were composed of a rude kind of pottery; and 
they had the art of fashioning native gold into 
plates of different shapes and sizes, which they 
wore as ornaments. It was the fatal display of 
_ these that brought upon them all their cala-
mities; for had Columbus observed no gold 
amongst them, he would doubtless have continued 
to sail westward to the bottom of the Gulf of 
Mexico •. and would perhaps have achieved the 
conquest of that kingdom thirty years before it 
was accomplished by the daring Co;tel The 
Antilians manufactured from their nafi've cotton 
a cloth of a coarse texture, and also fishing. nets 
and other trifles of simple fabric. Their food 
consisted chiefly of maize. mandioc. yams, fish, 
• 
• 
• 
• 
296. WEST INDIES. • 
• 
and of the various wild fruih with which the 
island abounded; but their principal luxury and 
most esteemed article of diet was the iguana 1 I 
lizard, which has already been described, and in I 
the dressing of which they employed much care i 
. Ii  
and nicety. I 
The religion of the Antilians was remarkable .1 
for the simplicity of its dogmas, and of its cere- • 
monials and observanCt's. They bzlieved in the 
existence of one supreme being, dependent upon ••  
whom was a number of inferior deities, called I I 
I 
Zemcs, who controlled the elements and regu-
lated the fortunes of men. The ..lntilians made 
images of these Zemes, and often carried them 
about their persons, but it does not appear that 
they. paid them any kind of homage or worsbip, 
or attributed to them a definite protecting power; 
for Columbus, in the journal of his first voyage, 
repeatedly assures Ferdinand and Isabella that 
the inhabitants of the i-lands are not idolaters, 
and that it would be very easy tn con verI them to 
the Catholic faith. That they entertajned the 
doctrine of the immortality of the SOil 1 is suffici-
ently proved by the speech which one of the 
caciques of Cuba addressed to Columbus on his 
landing there, but which the latter did no'·com-
pl'chend at the time, nor until it was explained 
by one of the Indians wholll he carried to Spain, 
• 
, 
• , , 
, , 
, - , 
. ' 
. ABORIGINES OF TL\E WEST iNDIES, , 297 
and wh~ e~entuaKy a~lIired the la~guage of that 
country, 'and qu~lified ' himself to be an inter- • 
pretq.. • 
The caciq ue)n question told the admiral, that 
he knew hot whether , he and his followers be-
longed to heaven or to the ~art~ or what their' 
intentions were in visiting his territories, but that , 
• 
they must undoub~edly be awa~e that those who 
, 
,• wantonly injured their fell~-.!!reatures in this 
world would suffer punishm..,e nt for their mis-
deeds in the next, and tblt tberefore he hoped he 
had nothing to apprehend at their hands, either 
as regarded h.i mself or his su'bj.ects  and · country-
men. It is somewhat cvrious tha~, about the day 
on which this remarkable address must have been ' 
delivered, Columbus notes in his journal that he 
has observed a point of land well calculated for 
the site of a fortress, and that a very small gar-
rison of soldiers would suffice to keep the natives 
of the island in subjection. Nevertheless, he lost 
no opportunity of assu~ng these simple people, 
• 
that he.came amongst them solely fol' the purpose 
of diffusing the blessings of Christianity, alld pro- . 
tecting them from the incursions and rapacity of 
the cannibals. But though he must have foreseen 
the porrow and suffering and servitude which his 
discoveries were to entail upon the Antilians 
and their latest posterity, he was obliged to ad-
, 
• 
• 
298 WEST INDIES. 
dress them in the language of policy and decep-
tion, in order to facilitate his progress through 
the New '''orld, and to encourage its inhabitants 
to deliver up all their gold, and to instruct him 
where he could obtain more. 
The Caribs, whom Columbus found inhabiting 
the smaller islands of the archipelago, were dis-
similar to the Antilians in many respects, and 
certainly formed a different race of men, inferior 
to the latter in virtue and humanity, but surpass-
ing them in courage and physical powers, and 
perhaps in intelligence. They at al\ times offer-
ed a determined resistance to their European in-
vaders; and their brothers in misfortune, the An-
tilians, were nearly exterminated before they be-
gan to experience the devastating influence of 
foreign domination. It is true that the Caribbean 
Islands, owing to their barrenness, and their want 
of gold-mines, were not taken possession of by 
Europeans till many years after they had beell 
discovered; but, nevertheless, their inhabitants 
defended themselves with a degree of vig,our and 
effect which much retarded the conquest of their 
territories, and which caused many losses and 
embarrassmellts to the invaders, whether Spanish, 
French, or English. 
The Carihs were universally addicted to canni-
halism: but it would appear that this odious prac-
ABORIGINES OF THE WEST INDIES. 299 
tiel' had not that unfavourable influence upon 
their character which might bave been expected. 
Towards each other they were meek and benevo-
lent, fulfil1ing all the principal duties of domestic 
life, and never displaying any ferocity of disposi-
tion except wbile attacking, capturing, and feast-
ing upon tbe Antilians, of wbom they ate the 
t 
} men only, reserving the grown females for slaves 
and companions, and rearing tbe children of the 
same sex witb all tbe care and kindness that they 
were accustomed to bestow upon tbeir own off-
spring. A few Carib families, forming all indepen-
dent tribe, existed in tbe island of St. Vincent 
towards the end of tbe last century. They are 
now extinct, and we bave no longer a single liv-
ing remnant of tbe three millions of individuals 
wbo, little more than three centuries ago, peopled 
, _ the'Vest Indian archipelago . 
• 
I 
I 
• 
300 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY IN THE 
WEST INDIES. 
No islands in the world have been so often the 
sport of conquest, or have caused so much poli-
tical dissension, or have so often changed their 
masters, as those of the West Indian archipelago. 
The fortunes and circumstances of their inhabit-
ants have consequently been in a state of perpe-
tual fluctuation, as well as their laws and forms 
of government, whether of local origin or imposed 
by the mother country. To describe the hos-
tilities' of which the ''Vest Indian archipelago has 
at different times been a theatre, to enumerate 
the repeated capturing and recapturing of its va-
rious islands by foreign powers. and to offer an 
account of the endless treaties, stipulations, and 
political acts to which the above events have 
given rise, would be a monotonous and uninstruc-
tive task, which happily does not fall within the 
scope of the present work, which is intended to 
represent men in their social and domestic charac-
ter, and not in that of soldiers and politicians. 
• 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 301 
The first Europeans w bo settled in the West 
Indies were thirty-eight men left in/ Hispaniola 
by Columbus, when he was about to return home-
wards to communicate the successful result of his 
first voyage to the court of Spain. He furnished 
these people with everything necessary for their 
,.'•   convenience and security, such as provisions, arms, 
• 
and implements of different kinds; and recom-
, 
, mended them to the protection of the cacique in • 
whose territories they were to fix their abode, and 
who had from the first shown a strong partiality 
for the society of Christians. Of the subsequent 
history of this infant colony we know little or 
nothing. ~Then Columbus was approaching the 
place 011 his second veJyage, several of his crew 
happening to go on shore, found two dead bodies 
lying upon the beach, one of which was observed 
to have a long beard. This peculiarity satisfied 
them that the corpse was that of a Spaniard, and 
they began to form unfavourable auguries re-
specting the fate of their countrymen, which were 
soon verified; for on reaching the spot which had 
been chosen for their settlement, they found it 
deserted, and the houses burnt, and the ground 
strewed with fragments of wearing apparel and 
other articles of European manufacture. The 
Indians in the neighbourhood gave a confused 
and contradictory account of the disappearance of 
302 WEST INDIES. 
the Christians, but agreed in asserting that they 
were all dead. It is probable that the greater 
part of them fell victims to the just vengeance of 
the natives, rendered desperate by their tyranny 
and excesses, and encouraged to resistance by the 
hope, that from the long int~al which had elapsed 
since the .departure of Columbus, neither he nor 
any of his companions would ever revisit His-
paniola. 
The destroyed colony was speedily re-established 
upon a much greater scale than before, though in 
a different part of the island; and the brother of 
Columbus was placed at the ' head of it. About 
twelve hundred persons, most of them soldiers, 
formed a settlement at a port named Isabella, and 
proceeded to build a town there, and ere long the 
spirit of destruction began to exercise itself, and 
the Antilians perished rapidly under the relentless 
dominion of the colonists, now rendered invincible 
by their numbers, and by the possession of horses, 
artillery, and blood-hounds. \Ve have no in-
formation respecting the social condition of tbe 
Spaniards at this period, or even up to a mucb 
later one; but it is easy to conjecture what it must 
have been. \"" e well know that in the present 
day, when a body of emigrants land in the coun-
try where they propose to form a settlement, they 
are liable to abandon themselves to indolence and 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 303 
to all kinds of irregularities, and to resist inter-
ference or control, though their respective labours 
and duties may be laid down and placed before 
their eyes in the most obvious and definite man-
ner. And how much less was a spirit of sub-
ordination or indust.~.  to be expected from the • Spaniards who resorted to Hispaniola with the 
• • 
view of residing there? Instead of arri;lOing with 
the impression that they should have to commence 
their career by building houses, cutting down 
forests, tilling the soil, and attending to self-pre-
servation from wild beasts and savages, they anti-
cipated a total exemption from work, the attend-
ance of slaves, and thl!' immediate ~njoyment of 
all the necessaries and .conveniencies of life. In-
flamed by these expectations, and by that buoy-
ancy and unruliness of disposition which forme.d 
at that time one of the most remarkable traits of 
• 
their national character, they were neither disposed 
to listen to the voice of reason nor to acknow-
ledge the power of their superiors. To settle 
quietly in one place, and to pursue any regular 
occupation. was in their eyes a mark of an hum-
ble and abject spirit; and everyone of them as-
pired to conduct or at least share in some daring 
enterprise; and if such objects were unattainable, 
still it seemed to them better to wander about the 
country in search of masses of gold at the risk of 
" 
• 
304 WEST INDIES. 
their lives, than to labour for the means of sub-
sistence. Having no wives or families to retain 
them at home, or give them a taste for domestic 
life, they felt as happy in one place as in another; 
and viewing the Antilians as a bestial and a pagan 
• • 
race, they forcibly made use of their persons and 
their property to supply their wants and minister 
to their convenience. 
We may suppose that the settlement at Isa-
bella, though called a town by the Spanish histo-
rians, did not merit an appellation of the kind till 
long after its foundation, and consisted at 6rst 
merely of a collection of IlUts such as the natives 
were accustomed to build; for the colonists were 
too proud and indolent to engage in any kind of 
manual labour, even when their personal interest 
and convenience were concerned. l\fartyr says 
that gardens were made in the neighbourhood of 
Isabella, and that in them all kinds of European 
vegetables grew with rapidity and attained per-
fection, and that European cattle and poultry 
throve and increased there in an extraordinary 
manner; from whence we may judge of the un-
paralleled inactivity of the Spaniards, who were 
oftpn nearly perishing of hunger in a region so fer-
tile and productive, and which they were eventu-
ally obliged to abandon, partly indeed on account 
of its unhealthiness, bllt chiefly becallse they had 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 305 
impoverished the country and frightened away 
the inhabitants, upon whose labour they had de-
pended for subsistence. Herrera gives a fright-
ful account of the mortality and distress of the 
colonists at Isabella frqI,ll famine and disease, and 
describes an apparition of seven individuals, which, 
• 
according to report, haunted the spot)l.ftef it was 
deserted. 
Spanish society in the West Indies could not 
have assumed any regular or consistent character 
for a long period subsequent to the settlement of 
the country. The scenes of plunder, enterprise, 
and danger, in which the majority of the colonists 
were incessantly engaged, were calculated to in-
dispose them for the calm pleasures of domestic 
life and the culti vation of the understanding, 
while the means of doing the latter were quite 
_ unattainable had they even been inclined to seek 
them. It was not the policy of the Spanish 
government at that time to diffuse knowledge 
amongst its subjects; and the exportation of books 
to the colonies was, doubtless, either discouraged 
or prohibited. In 1497, however, we find that it 
was authorised that some music and musical in-
struments should be sent from Spain for the 
amusement of the settlers in the West Indies; 
and, not long afterwards, jewellers, who had at 
first been forbidden to exercise their profession 
VOL. 11. x 
WEST INDIES. 
in these colonies, were allowed to do so publicly 
for the convenience of the inhabitants, which 
shows that plate for domestic use was beginning 
to be in demand. It is probably about this time 
that the colonists of the better class began 
to bring their wives with them, whose pre-
sence could not fail to have great influence in 
humanising a society of adventurers, who, in the 
midst of their excesses, affected to retain that 
chivalric adoration of the sex which existed 
amongst their countrymen at home. 
It seems probable that the city of Sevilla Nueva 
in J amaica, founded by E squiral in 15 \0. was at 
that period more disting uished for its opulence 
and splendour than any other Spanish settlement 
in the ' Vest Indies; but it is singular that history 
is nearl y silent in regard to this subject; and our 
conjectures must rest chiefl y upon the magnitude 
of the mins that once existed upon the spot 
where the town was formerly situated. When 
the E nglish took possession of the island, they 
found the remains of a variety of buildings. The 
most perfect of these was part of a cathedral of 
large dimensions, two miles from which the frag-
ments of a pavement were di scovered, which ren-
ders it probable that Sevilla Nueva was a place of 
great extent. Yet, in 1655, the Spanish inhabit-
ants of Jamaica amounted to twelve or fourteen 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 307 
hundred only, and consisted chiefly of scattered 
planters living in a state of poverty; ~nd we are 
therefore led to inquire into the causes of its depo-
• pulation, and of the total abandonment of Sevilla 
• Nueva. Bryan Edwards says that there is an 
ancient tradition existing in the island, that the 
Spaniards suddenly fell victims to a general con-
spiracy of the Indians, who were driven to despe-
ration by the cruelty of their invaders. But 
Bridges attributes the desertion of Sevilla Nueva 
to tbe fear which its inhabitants entertained of 
the buccaneers, who had begun to infest the West 
•·  Indian seas, and who, according to him, attacked 
the city in 1554, and rased it to the ground. But 
the mere removal of the 'settlers to a different part 
of the island would not have caused such a dimi-
nution of their number as to reduce them to that 
I - miserable remnant which the English found there-
when they captured it in 1655; and it appears to 
me that the only satisfactory way ill which we 
, 
• can explain the depopulation of Jamaica, is to 
• give credit to the tradition of the natives having 
on a particular occasion massacred a large propor-
l 
I tion of the Spaniards. 
••,   
.\ But, uninformed as we are in respect to the do-
• 
i mestic economy and private mode of life which 
were followed by the wealthier Spanish inhabit-
ants of the cities of San Domingo, Sevilla Nueva, 
• 
••  x 2 
l 
• 
• 
308 WEST INDIES. 
• 
St. Jago, and other establishments of a similar 
kind, we may safely conclude that they found II 
residence in the West Indies to be congenial to 
their dispositions, and attended with many advan-
tages and delights. The final expulsion of the 
Moors from Spain had given an impetus to the 
national character which was highly favourable 
to colonization; besides this, many families of • 
distinction, having been reduced to poverty and 
insignificance during the subjugation of their 
country, were glad to find a way of repairing 
their shattered fortunes by removin/! to the In-
dies . Thus the spirited adventurer and the needy 
hidalgo alike found a congenial place of resort in 
Hispaniola, which continued long after its dis-
covery to be the centre of attraction to emigrants. 
" For as mnch," says Martyr, "as it is the heade and 
as it were the principle marte of all the liberality 
of the ocean, and hath a thou sande and again a 
thousande faire, pleasant, beautifull, and rich ne-
riedes whiche lye about it on every side, adorn-
ing this their lady and mother as it were another 
'fethis, the wyfe of Neptullus, envyroning her 
about and attending upon her as their queen and 
patronesse." The Spaniards being naturally an 
imaginative people and lovers of the marvellous 
and surprising, we may easily conceive what a vi-
vid interest they felt in the progress of the dis-
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 30g 
coveries which were continually going on around 
• 
them. The field was in all appearance boundless, 
while extensive geographical knowledge did not 
then (as it does now) sober the expectations of 
men, and teach them that Nature in all places 
observes the same general laws, and that she 
nowhere trespasses certain bounds, nor is fertile 
beyond a certain point, either in yielding treasures 
or producing novelties. 
The minds of the Spaniards residing in Hispan-
iola were doubtless kept in a state of constant 
• excitement by the departure and arrival of the 
t 
·,•.   various expeditions of discovery that were under-
~ 
• taken by their countrymen. The probable suc-
cess or failure of these; the results of former ones, 
and the estimate of others that were in per-
spective, engaged their attention by turns, and 
~ __ formed almost their sole subjects of conversation. 
~,  When a ship was announced to be in view, curi-
i osity and impatience agitated every breast and 
i unloosed every tongue; and her commander and 
1 crew had no sooner landed, than they were assail-
ed with questions, and solicited to display the 
wealth which they had acquired, and describe 
the wonders which they had observed in the 
course of their voyage. lVhen King F erdinand 
, 
I demanded of Columbus why so little gold was 
,• I  
• sent to Spain, seeing that it abuunded su much in 
! 
, 
:no WEST INDIES. 
, 
the islands, the admiral replied that the cause 
lay in the idleness of the Spaniards there, .. who • 
loved news and sedition better than labour and • 
quietness;" and such was doubtless the truth; 
nor is it astonishing that these men should have 
often neglected their business with the view of 
assembling together under the groves of Hispan-
iola, and amusing their fancies by talking of recent 
or past events, such as the expedition of Ponce 
de Leon in search of the fountain of life; the 
mass of gold worth eighty thousand pesos which 
Francis Garay found in a brook; the Amazons 
reported to dwell in the island of Martinique; the 
extraordinary animals of the New '''or orld; or the 
miracles often wrought in favour of their country-
men by the Holy Virgin during their battles with 
the Indians. 
'i\7hen we reflect upon the number of Spaniards 
that emigrated to the VI' est Indian archipelago, 
the various establishments which they formed 
there, and the complete supremacy which they 
acquired by the extermination of the natives, we 
feel astonished that their settlements and their 
power should have had so little permanence and 
stability, and that the remains of them should be 
so few and inconsiderable in the present day. But 
to explain this, it is merely necessary to remem-
her that these conquerors during the early part of 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 811 
their career had nothing in view but the acqui-
sition of gold; and 'that they alike neglected and 
despised agriculture and commerce, and all those 
pursuits and occupations which are calculated to 
attach men to the soil which they inhabit, and 
lead them to form the nucleus of a social com-
f munity which shall contain within itself the 
\ principles of cohesion and future aggrandise-
• ment . 
l The towns of N avidad, Isabella, and San Do-
" 
mingo, in Hispaniola, and of Sevilla Nueva and 
St. Jago in Jamaica, became insignificant not 
long after their foundation, and even the ruins of 
several of them are now scarcely discoverable. 
Of all the early Spanish establishments, Havana 
is the only one which has acquired importance, 
and this has been within half a century only, 
, __ when Spain first began to allow to Cuba a partial 
enjoyment of that free trade which is almost 
everywhere the basis of colonial prosperity. See-
ing then that Havana was founded so far back as 
1515, and that it had no foreign intercourse till 
the end of the last century, we may conclude that 
the ideas and mode of life of its inhabitants at the 
latter period bore a strong resemblance to those 
of the early Spanish residents of the West Indian 
Islands, with the exception of the slight influence 
upon either, which the introduction of negro slaves 
• 
, 
812 WEST INDIES. 
to replace the extirpated Antilians might have 
produced. 
''''hen the French traveller De Menonville 
arrived in Havana in 1777, he announced that 
he was a botanist, and had come to Cuba for the 
purpose of herborizing ; the official gentleman 
who was examining hi s passport asked him if 
there were no plants in his own country? a ques-
tion which recalls one of a similar tenor which a 
negro addressed to P ark, after the latter had been 
pressing him for information respecting the Niger 
- " Have you no rivers in your native land that 
YOII tra"el so far to see those of Africa ?" And 
certainly the negro showed less dulness of appre-
hension than the Spaniard ; for as all rivers besr 
a strong general resemblance to each other except 
in magnitude, there was nothing unnatural in the 
idea, that to have seen those of one country was 
sufficient to satisfy any man'. cllriosity; but as 
most of I he plants of the same region differ no-
tably from each other in qualities and external 
appearance, it required little retlection to conceive 
that those belonging to separate countries were 
likely to do so in a still greater degree. 
At this time it appears that the Havanese felt 
no interest in any country except Cuba, and cuI. 
tivated no kind of knowledge or pursuit that was 
not, if I may use the expression- indigenous, to 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 313 
tbeir own city. The gentlemen amused them-
selves with pleasure-gardening, and with the super-
intendence, more or less direct, of their sugar or 
coffee plantations, provided these were not very 
distant; while the females of the better class spent 
1 their time entirely within doors, except when they 
, went to mass, or took an airing in their volan-
• tos in the evening. The houses of even the most 
wealthy persons were remarkable for the simpli-
,,  city of their furniture and decorations; and their 
inmates lived in a moderate and sober manner, 
unacqnainted with European luxuries and refine-
ments. An opera was occasionally exhibited, and 
the actors were efficient and respectable, though 
the pieces which they performed had no preten-
sions to merit of any kind. "The comedia 
which succeeded the opera," says De Menonville, 
.. was of a singular description; a single actor kills 
a dozen of men, women, and children, without 
the slightest resistance on their parts, and ranges 
them in a row as he stabs them; the work com-
plete, he calmly wipes his dagger upon the upper 
leather of his shoe; this scene, so strange is the de-
pravity of Spanish taste, was regarded as very fine." 
The inhabitants of Havana made rapid ad-
vances in know ledge and civilization in the be-
I ginning of the present century; for Spain having 
1 for some time previons been obliged to relax 
• 
814 WEST INDIES. 
• 
many of those restrictions with which she had 
long fettered her colonies, the Cubanians took 
every advantage of so favourable a circumstance. 
and began to import foreign ideas as well as 
foreign merchandise. Books were introduL'Cd 
into Havana, newspapers established, and the 
publication of statistical information permitted; 
and many of its wealthier inhabitants sailed for 
Europe, and travelled in Spain, France, and Italy, 
and afterwards returned to their native island. 
to polish and enlighten their countrymen. The 
leading circles of Havana. (according to Hum-
boldt) resemble in the elegance and politeness 
of their manners those of the richest mercan-
tile towns of Europe; and the city was at 
the time of his visit the seat of an university, 
including professorships of theology. jurispru-
dence; medicine, mathematics, political economy, 
&c. and also of a public library, a botanical garden, 
and a free school for the study of the fine arts. 
This traveller, indeed, informs us, that the cul-
tivation of knowledge was exclusively confined 
to Havana itself; and that the Spanish residents 
of the smaller towns and of the country were 
deplorably ignorant, and still retained their an-
cient prejudices. 
However, the reception which he mct with at 
Trinidad, a port in Cuba, proves that its inha-
• 
. 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 315 
bitants were at least sensible of his merits, and 
that they had liberality enough to venerate ta-
lents and knowledge even in a foreigner. Hum-
boldt, and his companion Bonpland, having land-
ed from a coasting vessel four miles from Trini-
• 
~ dad, were about to proceed there on foot, when a 
• 
party of retail merchants, who happened to be 
travelling in the same direction, offered them the 
use of a horse, and desired them to mount and 
~ ride double. The two illustrious philosophers 
1 good-humouredly complied, and advanced in this manner to their place of destination. But their 
i departure from Trinidad was in a very different style; for the corporation of the place, anxious 
i 
; to do them honour, c6nducted them to the sea-l shore in a handsome carriage, while an ecclesias-
~ tic, dressed in a suit of velvet, pronounced ' a 
,t ' _. _poem in celebration of their adventurous voy-
i age up the river Oronoco. 
1l  A little anecdote sometimes does more to ex-
I plain the character and condition of a people than 
the most laboured details. The delivery of the 
complimentary poem is not a trait of modern so-
ciety, but belongs to the courtly and figurative 
style of Spanish manners in the sixteenth cen-
tury. 
Though Cuba maintained an unshaken fidelity 
to Spain during the South American revolution. 
316 W EST INDIES. ,•  
she nevertheless profited indirectly by the diffusion 
of new ideas and liberal opinions which resulted 
from that event; while the mother-country found 
it prudent to encourage and confirm her obedience 
and attachment by granting her various privileges, 
and an extension of freedom which had hitherto 
been withheld. But the adherence of Cuba to 
Spaill will not be so favourable to the perpetua-
tion amongst her inhabitants of the national cus- .1 
toms and ideas of the latter country as might be 
supposed; for the foreign trade of Havana is not 
only immense, but a multitude of E nglish and 
American, and likewise some French merchants, 
have taken up their abode there, and arc exerting 
a gradual influence upon its nat ive society, and 
introducing the habits and prej udices of their re-
spective countries. Of nine hundred large ves-
sels which annually enter the port, not more than 
two hundred come from Spain ; so that this vast 
preponderance of foreign in tercourse and foreign 
importation must powerfully tend to withdraw 
the attentioll of the people from their local man-
ners and usages, and lead to the gradual admixture 
of these with others not indigenous to the coun-
try. It is true that few of the foreigners resi-
dent in H avana, and none of the nautical persons 
who frequ ent it, arc admitted into the higher 
circles of Spanish society there; but their influ-
• 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 317 
ence is communicated even to that class through 
a variety of indirect channels, while the articles 
of luxury and convenience which they bring for 
sale, the mode of life which they follow, and 
their personal importance in a commercial point 
I of view, draw upon them some degree of atten-
• 
,•  tion from all' quarters, whether high or low. 
Even the interior of Cuba is subject to this kind 
of foreign influence, the government having 
• lately sold considerable tracts of land to emigrants 
••  
from Europe and America, with a view of in-
creasing the white population of the island. Be-
tween the years 1815 and 1820, several thousand 
individuals had settled in the neighbourhood of 
Matanyas and Guibara, of whom not more than 
a tenth part were Spaniards or Spanish Ameri-
cans, the grand majority being natives of Great 
-- Britain, of France, and of the United States. 
Perhaps it is not going too far to say, that the 
traveller who a century hence may wish to ob-
serve the national prejudices and manners of 
Spain as they exist in America, will seek them 
in vain in her colonies in that quarter of the 
world, and will recognise them only in the heart 
of certain independent republics, which had more 
than a hundred years before renounced their alle-
giance to her, and withdrawn themselves from 
her sway. 
• 
318 WEST INDI ES. 
Having thus given a general view of the rise 
and progress of the Spanish colonies in the West 
Indies, the like remains to be done with respect 
to the origin of the British settlements in the 
same quarter of the world. Some English ad-
venturers established themselves in St. Christo- y 
• 
pher's and Barbadoes so•  early as 1620; but as ,,  
their numbers were inconsiderable, and as they , 
held their possessions on a very precarious te-
nure, and were often molested by the Spaniards, , 
the commencement of British power and influ- '".  . ' 
ence in the ' Vest Indies ought to be dated from , I 11 
the captlll'e of Jamaica by Penn and Yen abIes in ~ , • 
1655. This expedition has been yiewed in dif-
ferent lights by different historians, and it is per-
haps more easy to condemn than to justify it. 
A t the time that it took place, the English and 
the Spanish nations were at peace. and an am- • 
bassador from the court of the la:ter was residing 
in London. Nevertheless, the usurper Cromwell, , 
who was then at the head of affai rs, despatched 
a fleet, carrying a large body of troops, with 
secret orders to attack the Spanisb possessions in 
• 
the ' Vest Indies. This expedition, fitted out in 
open violation of an existing treaty, first at-
tempted the conquest of Hispaniola, but being 
repulsed with disgrace, it turned upon J amaica, 
and captured that island, not withont difficnlty , 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 319 
• 
though its whole white population amounted to 
only twelve or fourteen hundred individuals . 
• 
, The partisans of Cromwell endeavoured to jus-
~ tify these pnlCeedings, on the grou!1d that the 
a Spaniards in 'the West Indies. Md long been in 
~ the habit of treating with excessive rigour and 
, cruelty those British su~ects that happened to 
fall in their way, either by sea or land, and that 
they had arrogated to themselves the exclusive 
right of navigating the American Ocean, and 
j trading upon its coasts and islands. But why 
were not representations of this kind first made 
,. to the court of Spain through its ambassador at 
London, and had satisfaction been refused, the 
fleet might then have justifiably been despatched 
on its hostile mission? Cromwell, or his advisers, 
doubtless well knew that the Spanish government-
I would have replied by enumerating the outrages 
which her own subjects were daily receiving from 
those of the British nation, who, leagued with the 
French and Dutch, under the name of Buccaneers, 
had begun to pursue a system of unsparing and 
indiscriminate piracy. It is true that the Spa-
, niards in the 'Vest Indies tortured and put to 
death many Europeans who had at different times 
been captured by their guarda-costas,. however, it 
is but fair to state, in palliation of these acts of 
,,  violence, that no nation in the world was ever 
,,  
, ., 
320 WEST INUlES. 
more irritated, distressed, and annoyed by the 
incessant though petty warfare of interlopers and 
depredators from all countries. The outblsts and 
vagabonds of Europe found a congenial s~ of 
action in the 'Vest Indian seas, and the Spa~ards 
and their possessions were selected by them as 
common objects of plUlider, whether hy force or 
by stratagem, and alike in peace and in war. To 
have appealed for redress to the cabinets at home 
would have been a vain effort; and there remain-
ed no altel1lative but the extermination or the en-
slaving of the pirates, hoth of which plans were 
resorted to and in their execution, as may he sup-
posed, the innocent often suffered as well as the 
guilty. It is likely that the Protector was sensible 
that he had no just cause of resentment or com-
plaint against the Spanish nation, and that one 
of liis principal reasons for undertaking the hostile 
expedition against their 'IV est Indian possessions 
was the opportunity which it afforded him of 
sending abroad and getting rid of people who 
were disaffected towards his person, and who 
might secretly have conspired to overthrow his 
govern men t. 
The troops employed in Crom well's West Indian 
expedition were intended first to conquer the 
islands, and afterwards to settle them; and the 
persons selected 1'01' this double duty were, in 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 321 
accordance with the system of colonization usually 
adopted by European governments, the refuse of 
society, and the surplus population of gaols and 
peni~tiaries. These soldiers of fortune were per-
mitted and even encouraged to carry their wives 
with them, and a considerable number of females 
• em barked in the fleet. The disasters which attend-
i I'd the attack upon Hispaniola, and the feebleness 
I and timidity which the troops exhibited in the 
~ capture of .Tamaica, were such as might have 
been expected, from the materials of \V hich the 
invading force was composed. But inefficient as 
these were as soldiers, they proved to be still more 
so in the character of settlers and agriclllturists. 
After the partial evacuation of Jamaica by the 
Spaniards, the British troops were disbanded, and 
lands were assigned them for cultivation; but they 
_ preferred idleness to industry, though famine was 
, before their eyes, and though they were aware 
that she would remain in the island until expelled 
by their personal exertions. Their indolence was 
carried to such a degree, that they could not even 
be prevailed upon to work at the fortifications 
which were intended for their own defence; and 
these were erected chiefly by the seamen who 
belonged to the fleet, and who, being in a state of 
subordination, were the only useful and available 
persons in the new colony. At first the soldiery 
VOL. II. y 
• 
822 WEST INDIES. 
supported themselves tolerably well by killing the 
wild cattle and hogs, with which the island abound-
ed; but these animals at length becoming scarce 
and shy, the want of food was severely felt, and 
the more so because disease began . to enfeeble 
a large proportion of the settlers, who, being no 
longer able to hunt for their own subsistence, 
were either maintained by the charity of their 
companions, or allowed to die from want of proper 
treatment and attendance. 
And here it is impossible to reflect without satis-
faction, that Jamaica was at this time destitute of 
aboriginal inhabitants, anu of every kind of unci-
vilised population, except a few hundred .Maroon 
negroes who roamed through the woods. Had it 
been otherwise, what scenes of tyranny and out-
rage would have marked the early history of the 
settlement! How relentlessly would the gentle 
Antilians have been dealt with by a profligate 
soldiery, familiarised to crime and infuriated by 
famine! Gloomy and repulsive as the picture of 
the commencement of the colony is, it would have 
presented much darker shades, had there occurred 
the collision of' the weak and the strong, and the 
hostile state of the oppressor and the oppressed, 
such as followed the conquest of the island by the 
Spaniards, and continued till they had converted 
it into a desert and a solitude. 
• 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 323 
-
In the course of a few years, though not till 
after great mortality had taken place amongst the 
, colonists, the British settlement in Jamaica as-
,;  , sumed a promising and consistent form. The 
,I  wise administration sf one of its first gover-nors, 
,•  Colonel D'Oyley, the increase of its population 
from the frequent arrival of new emigrants of a 
respectable kind, the natural fertility of the island, 
and the free trade which it was allowed to enjoy, 
were the chief causes of its early prosperity. Ere 
long, too, its ports became favourite places of 
.•- resort with the Buccaneers, when they planned 
.•
• 
'  their expeditions or returned from the execution 
I•  of them. These maritime adventurers acquired I. 
} 
, prodigious wealth by th'eir depredations, and they • 
r lavished it with boundless and fantastic prodi-
• 
l gality; and Jamaica soon overflowed with specie, 
I __ and became the depot of immense treasures of 
; every description. From that time the island has 
, continued to increase in population, and to ex-,,  tend its trade; though its history has all along 
been a turbulent one, owing to a variety of causes, 
, 
,•,   such as foreign invasion, or the dread of it, politi-
cal discord at home, oppression, real or imaginary, 
by the parent country, civil warfare with revolted 
, 
, slaves, and physical distress from the convulsions 
• of nature. But as it is not the province of this 
, work to record these events in detail, I will pro-
y 2 
, 
, 
• 
324 WEST INDIES. 
ceed without farther delay to make some re-
marks upon the social and domestic condition of 
the inhabitants of the British ''''est Indiea. 
Though most of the adventurers who first set-
tled in Jamaica were persons of low origin and 
profligate habits, it was not long before many 
emigrants of a superior description began to flock 
to the island. The political troubles and dissen-
sions in which the British nation was involved 
during the middle of the seventeenth century, 
induced many respectable families to seek an 
asylum abroad, and not a few of these chose 
Jamaica or Barbadoes for their homes; and, 
bringing with them cultivated manners and libe-
ral ideas, they formed communities of a grade 
and character which are never to be found in the 
new colonies of any nation in the present day. 
Nor did their change of condition lead to that de-
generation of manners which usually attends the 
removal of men accustomed to the conveniencies 
of civilized life to a sphere in which these do 
not exist, and where objects of absolute necessity 
must at first engage their minds, to the exclusion 
of those of ornament or mere agreeableness. For 
the planters had their estates cultivated by slaves, 
whose labours they merely superintended, instead 
of participating in them, and thus they enjoyed 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 325 
perhaps more leisure than they had done in their 
i,  native country; while at the same time the ex-
f treme fruitfulness of the soil enabled them to 
, obtain easily the necessaries of life, to exercise 
hospitality, and to dismiss from their minds all 
subordinate cares respecting their means of su b-
! sistence. Never before had any new colonists so 
few difficulties to encounter, or so little occasion 
for the exercise of patience and perseverance. 
Instead of finding their place of settlement em-
bowered by forests, and unfit for cultivation till 
, 
, the timber was felled and removed, they saw 
•,  
, around them fertile and open savannas ready to 
,', be broken up by the hoe or the plough; a variety 
i of fine fruits indigenous 'to the islands grew in na-
tural orchards; the interior of the country swarm-
ed with wild cattle, which every man had full 
• - - liberty to hunt and kill for his own use; and a 
mild and agreeable climate rendered unnecessary 
the erection of substantial and expensive build-
ings, either for residence or for storing the pro-
duce of the soil. Under such favourable circum-
stances the West Indian planters could scarcely 
fail to prosper; and from the absence of hardship 
or privation in the commencement of their career, 
,:'   doubtless resulted that buoyancy of disposition , I 
, I 
and liberal hospitality, and those social propensi-
, 
••  
326 IV EST INDIES. 
ties, for which they were distinguished at a very 
early period, and have continued to be so ever 
si• nce. 
In comparing the character of the West Indian 
planters with that of other Europeans living in a 
similar climate, we perceive one striking point of 
difference, which it is more easy to describe than 
to account for. Weare led by common observa-
tion to conclude that Europeans resident in tro-
pical regions always lose either entirely or in a 
considerable degree, their physical and mental 
activity; and this more particularly if they are 
surrounded by slaves or obsequious attendants. 
The Dutch in the Eastern Islands slumber away 
their lives in unbroken quiescence, and never ex-
ercise their faculties except in performing those 
trivial duties which belong to their official situ-
atioJls; the English inhabitants of Hindostan are 
languid and indolent, and slow of excitement; the 
Spaniards residing in the Philippines and in cen-
tral America have the same character; and the 
inhabitants of the European establishments on the 
\Vest coast of Africa equally experience the seda-
tive and enfeebling effects of a hot climate. But 
the British West Indian forms a contrast to all 
these examples. Buoyant in disposition, active 
in his habits, full of enterprise, jealous of his 
rights, de\'otcd to business, and sensitive and 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 327 
lpirited in all the relations of life, he is a totally 
different being from what we are accustomed to 
meet with anywhere else within the limits of the 
torrid zone. That monotony of ideas, languor of 
manner, and frigidity of expression, which are the 
!,  general characteristics of European society in tro-
" pical climates, are scarcely observable in the West 
I Indies, where almost everyone has an air of occu-
•,  pation and natural enjoyment, and where people 
• 
$ appear to seek for sources of interest and excite-
I ment instead of idly waiting till these happen to 
present themselves. 
• It seems certain that the West Indians are in 
reality a happier set of men than other Europeans 
similarly situated, for they are seldom heard to 
make those complaints which have such universal 
currency amongst the residents of hot climates; 
_-they do not murmur at being exiled from their 
native land; they do not depreciate the re-
gion in which they abide, and vilify its inhabit-
ants; nor do they torment themselves by calcu-
lating how long it will be before they can return 
to Europe. On the contrary, they rather affect a 
kind of insouciance in regard to such subjects, and 
are generally disposed to view their condition with 
complacency and satisfaction, instead of studying 
to find out reasons for being discontented. Their 
sensitiveness renders them easily depressed by 
,, ,  
'I 
, 
• 
328 WEST INDIES. 
reverses of any kind, but they soon recover their 
spirits, and console themselves with bright, and 
• too often deceitful, anticipations. Bryan Edwards, 
in remarking that the disposition for pleasure 
which characterises the creoles of both sexes has 
been ascribed to the levity of the atmosphere, 
says farther :_U To the same cause is commonly 
imputed the propellsity observable in most of the 
'Vest Indians to indulge extravagant ideas of 
their riches, to view those circumstances through 
a magnifying medium, and to feMt their fancies 
011 what another year will effect. This anticipa-
tion of imaginary wealth is so prevalent as to 
become justly ridiculous." 
The superior activity of disposition which I 
have remarked as belonging to tbe "\\Te st Indian 
planters, partly arises no doubt from the nature 
of .their circumstances. Deriving their incomes 
exclusively from their estates. they find it their 
interest to apply themselves personally to the su-
perintendence and management of these, and in 
so far their inducements to mental and bodily 
exertion greatly exceed those experienced by a 
man who draws a fixed and regular salary for the 
performance of specific and often inconsiderable 
duties, as is the case in several of the instances of 
European indolence in tropical climates to which 
I have referred. But admitting this, we are, on 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 329 
the other hand, led to inquire how individuals in 
a state of pecuniary independence should not en-
joy greater vivacity of mind and a more contented 
disposition than those in similar circumstances 
whose incomes and property are subject to per-
petual fluctuation? Nevertheless the tone of en-
I joyment, and the play of animal spirits, are in-
finitely higher in the latter than amongst the 
• former, as everyone who has visited the West 
and East Indies, and had an opportunity of ob-
serving European society in the two countries, 
can testify. 
The political history of Jamaica affords strong 
evidence of the continued mental energy of its 
European inhabitants . . The colonists have, from 
their first settlement in the island, been in a state 
of almost perpetual dissension with the mother-
country, and have resisted with extraordinary per-
severance her various attempts to limit their pre-
rogatives, and to restrain the exercise of that in-
dependence of her authority, which they have, it 
must be confessed, been on many occasions too 
much disposed to arrogate to themselves. Ja-
maica has scarcely ever enjoyed one day of poli-
tical tranquillity since she became a British pos-
• 
session; and, whether she may have been right or 
wrong in resenting the interference of the Eng-
lish government in her local affairs, all her acts have 
• 
• 
sso WEST INDIES. 
• 
displayed an enduring firmness of principle, of 
which we shall find few examples in the history 
of European colonies within the tropics; the in. 
habitants of such seldom feeling very jealous of 
their political rights, or resisting with perseverance 
any encroachments that may be made upon these. 
The annals of the House of Assembly of .Jamaica 
embrace a long train of fiery discussions upon 
points of prerogative, matters of trade, limits of 
colonial obedience, rights of jnrisdiction, powers 
of voting supplies, and other subjects of a similar 
character; and the whole tenor of these displays 
the unrelaxed mental energy of her European in • 
• habitants, and indicates the existence on their part 
of a degree of extensive information, acuteness of 
intellect, and vigour of the faculties, which seems 
foreign to the climate nnder which it has been 
unfolded. 
The ''''est Indian planters, generally speaking, 
are men of intelligence, good sense, and liberal 
ideas ; affecting no fantastic refinement, and at 
• 
the same time, for the most part, destitute of that 
which is produced by a taste for literature and 
the cultivation of the fine arts. A considerable 
portion of their time is employed in the superin-
tendence of their estates; and the pleasure to 
which they chiefly devote their leisure moments 
is that of social intercoura,e . They shine as 
• 
• 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 381 
convivial companions, and are never so . happy as 
when exercising hospitality, which ' they do in a 
most agreeable and attractive style, whether as 
•,  respects their personal deportment towards their 
( guests, or the enjoyments and accommodations 
,~  which they place at their disposal. Their tables • are always abundant and often luxurious, and 
I never more so than when the materials which 
, cover them are exclusively the products of the 
West Indian Islands. 
· 
I The West Indian Islands, for some time after 
i the extermination of their aboriginal inhabitants, 
possessed only two races of men-Europeans 
and negroes. Howeve:, their mutual intercourse 
i soon produced a third description of people called 
• 
(,,   Mulattoes, whose offspring eventually constituted 
• a fourth class, comprising many branches, all 
• 
.I ._ resembling each other, but ranking in society in 
• 
,i  proportion to the proximity of their European 
• descent. Though persons of this kind are dis-
j 
1 tinguished by the general appellation of mulattoes 
I by the English, and meztizoes by the Spaniards, 
I various other names are applied to their subdi-,,  visions, which are carried even to the fifth and 
• sixth grades of descent, but which it is unne-
!I  cessary to describe or enumerate here. The 
! existence of the mulattoes in great numbers, and 
their intermediate.  .s,.t ation between the white 
• 
932 WEST INDIES. 
people and the negro slaves, have produced many 
inconsistencie~ and anomalous traits in the con-
stitution of \Vest Indian society, the European 
part of which has always pursued a vacillating 
system in its mode of treating a division of the 
community, whose real station and claims natu-
rally seeme(l ambiguous to minds habituated to 
the spectacle of slavery. At one time, we find the 
white men conciliating the mulattoes, under the 
impression that they would thus be induced to 
protect them in the event of an insurrection of the 
slaves; and, at another, we observe them study-
ing how to repress the real or fancied encroach-
ments of the sallow race, and using every means 
to lower their pretensions and degrade them in 
their own estimation. A line of conduct so 
irritating and capricious might ha\"e often led to 
troublesome consequences, had the objects of it 
been differently situated; but distrustful of their 
own unassisted strength, and scorning any alliance 
with the negroes, the mulatto people have al-
ways remained in a state of subordination, what-
ever reasons they may have had for resentment 
against the whites, except in St. Domingo, where 
they were encouraged to revolt, and aided in 
their rebellion, by a party of the latter. 
:From the vast and necessary preponderance 
of the negro population over the European in 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY, 333 
the West Indian Islands, it is evident that the 
former would often have effected the destruction 
, of the latter, had no adjusting weight equalised , 
•,  the means and the scale of power between the 
,,  
, two races. The mulatto community is tbe agent 
" that silently operates here. These people wiII 
never join the slaves in a revolt, because they 
despise and distrust them, and because they 
are aware that the destruction of the whites 
would only be a prelude to their own. On the 
other hand, the negroes would not assist the 
mulattoes in any act of rebellion, from the fear 
of becoming their slaves in the event of its be-
ing successful; for they particularly dread the 
, tyranny of these men, and consider them to be 
the severest of all masters. 
, 
, It is worthy of remark that an admixture of 
I .. European blood invariably has the effect of 
deteriorating the race in which it occurs, a fact 
little calculated to flatter the obstinate preju-
1 dices that most of us entertain respecting the 
natural superiority of our own species over 
that which is indigenous to any other quarter 
!,  of the globe. The mulattoes of the ';Vest , 
• Indies are generally persons of feeble organi-
1,  zation and imperfect mental developement; 
i and no class of people, savage or civilized, have 
; 
,I,   so seldom distinguished themselves in any way: 
334 WEST INDIES. 
in them are alike neutralised the physical strengtb 
and habitual vivacity of tbe negro, and the sound 
judgment and comprehensive faculties of the 
European; and it is their nature to sink into a 
subordinate sphere, amongst whatever people 
and in whatever circumstances they happen to be 
placed. The annals of the African race present 
us with a Toussaint, a Dessalines, a Trudo, and a 
Christophe, whose talents and courage were con-
spicuous and indisputable. The only mulatto 
hero on record is the insurgent Oge, who shed 
tears on being led to execution, and purchased a 
day's respite from death by revealing the names 
of his fellow conspirators. 
The above remarks apply also to the half-castes 
of India, whether of Portuguese or British descent. 
They exhibit neither the rotund and well-pro.. 
portioned forms of the natives of Hindostan, nor 
the muscular vigour of Europeans, but are meagre 
in their bodies and incapable of continued physical 
exertion. They however possess much acuteness, 
and a docile capacity; but these qualities are render-
ed inefficient by their indolence, and by the small 
ambition they have to shine and to excel. The 
character of the Portuguese mulattoes on the 
''Vest coast of Africa has been mentioned in 
another part of this work. These people, from 
their youth upwards, present a frightful spectacle 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 335 
of physical languor and emaciation; and the 
stranger visiting Cacheo, or the Island of St. 
Thomas, where they chiefly reside, shudders as 
he walks through streets where the surrounding 
passengers resemble corpses set in motion by me-
chanism. The men are mostly pirates and rob-
i bers, and the females devote themselves to pro-
stitution. 
Shall we be able to vary this picture of human 
deterioration by turning our view towards Ame-
rica? On the contrary, the meztizoes of Quito, 
and Mexico, and Vera Cruz, or, in other words, 
the offspring of Spaniards and Indian women, 
differ little from the mulattoes of Asia or Africa, 
except perhaps in their 'oeing even more indolent 
in their nature than either of the two. And if 
• 
we direct our eyes to the frigid regions of N orth~ 
_ west America, we shall still observe the same 
1 -general result. From the intercourse of the 
voyageurs with the native women, there has 
sprung a race of half-breeds, called Bois Brulis, 
, • who possess neither the courage and fortitude of 
the genuine Indian, nor the kind dispositions and 
joyous temper of the Canadian Frenchman, and 
who distrust their progenitors, and are in return 
despised and distrusted by them. 
The physical qualities of the half-breed of 
every country are to be ascribed altogether to the 
886 WEST INDIES. 
peculiar and mixed nature of his constitution; 
but his mental and moral defects partly depend 
upon another cause. Finding that the native 
race from whence he has sprung is undervalued, 
01' perhaps despised, by his foreign parent, he 
seeks to alienate himself from it, and hastens to 
renounce its customs and its prejudices, and all 
community of feeling with those who belong 
to it ; but, at the same time, not daring to 
adopt the ideas and assume the pretensions of 
E uropeans, 0 1' find ing it impossible to do so, he 
is constrained to take an intermediate station. 
H er!', uncontrolled by the usages or the habits of 
thought peculiar to either race, and unable to 
identify himself with the one, and unwilling to 
have any connexion ~ith the 01h er, he becomes 
as it were negative in the scale of society, and 
remains a conspicuous example of one of the 
many ills which are entailed upon uncivilized 
nations by the intrusion of foreigners into their 
country. Thus, whether the E uropean invaders 
of newly-discovered lands massacre ti,e inhabit-
ants by thousands, in the style adopted by the 
Spaniards, 0 1' gradually depopulate them by the 
introduction of ardent spirits and the small-pox, 
as the British have done, the result leads equally 
to the misery of the natives, and to the disturb-
ance of that social order which had previously 
existed amongst them; and for the defects of 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 337 
which, whatever these may have been we are in no 
manner responsible, though ' we are unquestion-
ably so for the ills that so often spring from the 
••  
• presumptuous and interested attempts which we 
• 
, 
• make to correct them. 
I purposely avoid saying anything upon the 
\ subject of slavery in the West Indies, because 
the character and peculiarities of the negro race 
, have been sufficiently described in another part 
of this work. But I must, nevertheless, pro-
test against the odium of slavery and its attend-
ant evils being thrown upon the West Indian 
, 
planters, as is too commonly done, and in par-
ticular by the advocates of general and I• m-
",  mediate emancipation. " It is well known that 
the slave trade was long. ...a rried on under the 
, auspices and protection 0'" the British govern~ 
/" , 
, - ment, as the charters granted to different African 
companies serve to show; and had not the settlers 
in the West Indian Islands been thus encouraged 
• to invest their capital in slaves, and to cultivate 
extensively the staple productions of the soil, 
they would have employed their means and their 
,I  time in some other way. 'Vhat man would have 
,,  purchased negroes, or devoted himself to sugar OJ' 
coffee planting, had he foreseen, or even suspect-
ed, that attempts would be made to force him 
, to emancipate his slaves without compensation to 
," VOL. II. z 
l 
338 WEST INDIES. 
himself, and without regard to the ruin in which 
such a measure was calculated to involve him? 
Great Britain has latterly perceived and acknow-
ledged the error which she committed in au-
thorising the slave trade: but are the individuals 
whom she misled by her previous encouragement 
of the traffic to be sacrificed at the shrine of the 
new system of policy which has been adopted? 
Is it not enough that the commerce in human 
beings has been discontinued by every European 
power? 'When the root of a tree is destroyed, 
the shoots which it may have produced must 
quickly perish; and, in like manner, our present 
slave population will gradually disappear, and be 
absorbed in the luass of society, without the out-
rageous interferencea .!l.i.  the general emancipator, and the merciless unjustifiable ruin of the 
VITe st Indian agriculturist. 
The emancipation of the slaves in the British 
vVest Indian Islands is a measure uf such import-
ance and magnitude, and involves so many serious 
consequences and considerations, that we natu-
rally are induced to inquire into the pretensions 
of those persons who have been particularly active 
in urging its adoption and supporting its expe-
diency. Let us ask if sound judgment and ex-
tensi ve local observation have qualified them to 
come to correct conclusions upon the subject, and 
,,  
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 339 
we shall find that most of them belong to a class 
of people who may be designated under the title 
of fire-side philanthropists; or who, in other words, 
, 
4 are men who seek to obtain the reputation of su-
t perior piety and benevolence at the cheapest rate 
1 practicable, and at the smallE!iit possible sacrifice 
of personal convenience, With individuals of 
! tbis kind the evils of the slave trade, and the 
,expediency of emancipating its victims, have al-
,•,   ways, for obvious reasons, been favourite subjects 
,. of declamation. In general, when a man exerts 
himself in any particular cause connected with 
the interests of humanity, he is liable to suffer 
for his activity and boldness in some way or 
J other. The zealous pUl'suit of his chosen object 
• perhaps demands that he neglect his pri-
i vate affairs, or c~uses offend persons in', 
f -power, or leads him into danger and privation, or 
!, exposes him to censure and animosity, or requires 
~ the sacrifice of a large part of his fortune. But 
I the advocates for the abolition of slavery in the 
j 
colonies ,have had no trials of this kind to en-
1 
l coonter. The public opinion has been with them 
I in a general sense, however much individuals 
! may have differed from them in their particular , . " 
, views of the subject; and the emancipators have 
, pursued their career, and published their senti-
ments, without incurring either trouble, or dan-
\ z 2 
1,  
, 
3.j.0 WEST INDIES. 
ger, or expense, or inconvenience, or fatigue, with 
the exception of so much of the latter as might 
have been occasioned by their long and continued 
talking. 
Las Casas, the protector of the Indians, visited 
America four times in furtherance of his benevo-
lent designs; and at length, finding that the arch-
bishopric which had been conferred upon him, 
impeded his exertions in the cause of humanity, 
he resigned it. Howard, the philanthropist, desir-
ous of ameliorating the condition of prisoners, 
thought it necessary to traverse Europe twice 
in search of the requisite information upon the 
su bject, and at last fell a victim to his devoted 
perseverance. These two great men were deeply 
sensible that their tfours in the departments 
which they had respectively chosen could not be 
efficient unless they were founded upon personal 
observation; and to secure tbis important advan-
tage, they cheerfully exposed themselves to the 
hardships and dangers of foreign travelling. 
Surely, if there is one subject which more than 
any other demands for its elucidation the lights 
derived from local knowledge and minute per-
sonal enquiry, it is that of negro emancipation. 
Yet which of its advocates has ever thought of 
visiting the West Indies with that view? Which 
of them ha.~ thought it necessary to see slavery 
EUROP.E'.AN SOCIETY. 341 
with his own eyes, and to verify the statemellts 
of others relative to it? Day after day, noisy, 
clamorous, and obtrusive in the House of Parlia-
ment; ever ready to declaim and vote resolutions 
at a public meeting; and at all times eager to 
calumniate the absent slave-holders, their timid 
hearts would sink within them at the idea of a 
voyage to the West Indies; and they prefer total 
ignorance of the real features of the cause which 
they advocate, to the risk of visiting the scene of 
their vapid philanthropy, where they know they 
should encounter the dangers of an unhealthy 
climate and the ardour of a tropical sun, and ob-
serve things which would constrain them to ac-
knowledge the fallaciousness of their opinions 
upon the subject to which ~hey have hitherto use-
lessly devoted so much time and attention. . 
• 
, 
• 
• 
BRITISH AMERICA. 
NORTH AMERICAN OCEAN. 
THE North Atlantic Ocean has during three 
centuries past formed the grand maritime high-
way of nations, and been the theatre of a greater 
variety of nautical scenes, incidents, and adven-
tures, than aU the other seas ill the world. From 
the time that Columbus pointed out the route 
to America, up to the present day, a progressively 
increasing concourse of ships has traversed its 
widest expanse; and those waters, which for thou-
sands of years before had lain undisturbed except 
by the winds, became in a short time a field of 
human enterprise and commerdalactivity. Nearly 
all parts of the ocean exce}>t the Atlantic were 
found to have been at least partially frequented 
by their contiguous inhabitan ts, previol1s to the 
discovery and exploring of them by Europeans. 
The Phenicians and Carthaginians had navigated 
the Mediterranean; the Arahs were well ac-
quainted with the ned Sea, and with II ronsidera-
NORTH AMERICAN OCEAN. 343 
ble extent of the Indian Ocean; the Polynesian 
islanders had been in the habit of sailing between 
the archipelagoes of the Southern Pacific; the 
Chinese and Malays had visited the whole of the 
eastern seas; and the Esquimaux had made little 
voyages within the Polar circle, long before any 
European ships visited their respecti ve parts of 
• the globe. But it is indisputable that no vessel, > or boat, or canoe, had ever crossed that division 
of the Atlantic lying within 40· north latitude 
previous to the expedition of Sebastian Cabot, in 
the reign of Henry the Seventh of England. The 
Romans and Carthaginians often looked through 
the Pillars of Hercules, as through a door opening 
into the immensity of space, and wished to ascer-
tain what lay beyond them towards the west; but 
their mariners, at those times when they did ven~ 
ture upon the Atlantic, timi, dly followed the 
coasts either of Africa or of Europe, instead of 
launching forth into the main sea; which had, 
on the other hand, no visitants from an opposite 
quarter, the natives Of North America being un-
provided with vessels capable of encountering its 
boisterousness. 
No part of the surface of our globe, whether 
oceanic or terrestrial, if viewed at any two periods 
of its history, will be found to present stronger 
contrasts than the Atlantic does, when we COtn-
lllUTlSH AMERICA. 
pare its aspect previous to the discovery of Ame-
rica with the one which it has exhibited since 
that rera. During the first period, it appears as 
a solitary expanse of water, traversed only by its 
animal inhabitants, and unvaried externally ex-
cept by its own undulations; but during the 
next, we observe it crowded with the ships of 
different nations, passing and repassing each other 
in the hurry of commercial rivalry; we discover 
hostile fleets manreuvring for battle, and hear the 
thunders of their cannon; we perceive mighty 
ships disabled by tempests and foundering in the 
open sea; we count thousands of ve<>Sels employ-
ed in a fishery remote from any land; we see 
transports conveying soldiers from the Old World 
to the New, or filled with peasants and mechanics, 
who have been forced by poverty to quit their 
natiye country, and to seek refuge in an unpeopled 
wilderness. In short, we find this once solitary 
and unvisited ocean sprinkled with little moving 
masses of human beings, and a theatre upon which 
are exhibited, in a detached manner, all those 
scenes of adventurousness, courage, danger, mis-
fortune. suffering, discord, warfare, violence, and 
competition, which occur in the most populous 
and highly civili7.ed regions of Europe - with 
this difference, however, that the sea never retains 
an)' trace nor presents any memorial of the crimes 
NORTH AMERICAN OCEAN. 345 
and outrages which men may have committed 
upon its surface - its waters, furrowed by the 
passing ship, or agitated by the struggles of drown-
ing multitudes, soon resuming their former smooth-
ness and tranquillity: while, on the other hand, 
the sbameless earth refuses so quickly to hide the 
· 
~ heaps of skeletons, the ruined habitations, and the 
records of public and private misery, which abound 
in its most favoured divisions, and perpetually 
humiliate alld insult the bystander, by forcing 
; upon his recollection the past history of his own 
speC•I es. 
But if the North Atlantic Ocean presents nau-
tical objects and nautical life under an infinite 
variety of forms, it is proportionably destitute of 
features of physical interest and of natural beauty. 
f, It consists of a turbulent and uninterrupted ex-
i _ panse, upon which we shall in vain look for the 
i -. serene atmosphere, brilliant skies, and nocturnal 
J splendours of the tropical seas; or for the ever-
verdant and far-extending archipelagoes of the 
1,  Pacific and Eastern Oceans; or for the varied and 
magnificent coral formations which abound within 
'J the torrid zone; or for the glacial architecture and • 
,,,   strange optical deceptions of the Polar waters; or , 
i even for those marine productions, vegetable and 
animal, that in various quarters of the globe float 
upon the waves, and rise from the deep and ex -
,• ••  
•,  
• 
BRITISH AMERICA. 
hibit themselves to the passing voyager. The 
climate of the Northern Atlantic is boisterous and 
uncertain even during summer, and the prevalence 
of high winds, and the want of islands to break • 
the long and tumultuous swell of the sea, produce 
an almost perpetual agitation of its waters. Here, 
as in most other parts of the ocean in either he-
misphere, the strongest gales blow from the north 
and the north-west; but in duration they exceed 
what is known anywhere else, as they are some-
times found to continue with unabated violence 
for twelve or fifteen days together. At these 
times a terrific sea gets up; and though the waves 
do not equal in elevation those that occur in tem-
pestuous weather in the South African Ocean 
and in the neighboUJ'bood of Cape Horn, they are 
more dangerous to ~hips than in these instances, 
becu';lse they are propelled with much greater ve-
locity. Therefore a vessel cannot continue so long 
scudding or running beforc a gale of wind in the 
Atlantic as she can do almost anywhere else, for 
the waves there at length acquire snch a rapid 
progression of movement, that she is liable to be 
overtaken and overlVhelmed by them. ,,,e  shall 
find that in all latitudes the waves attain their ut-
most possible height in sixty or seventy hours 
after the commencement of a hard gale. and that 
subsequently, hOlVever long the wind may con-
• 
• 
NORTH AMERICAN OCEAN. 347 
tinue, they never acquire a greater elevation, but 
are merely propelled with increased rapidity; and 
it is for this reason that even the best equipped 
• ship is always forced to heave to and bow the sea, 
, when tempestuous weather has prevailed from the 
, same quarter many days in succession; because, 
,- were she to persist in scudding, she would find it 
, 
necessary to carry a regularly increasing propor-
tion of sail so long as the wind con tin ued, in order 
that she might be able to keep pace with the 
, 
\ increasing progressive movement of the waves, 
and, as it were, outstrip and escape them. But this 
she could not do, for her masts would sooner or 
later give way under the pressure of so much 
canvass, or she would bury her bows in the water 
and eventually founder. 
The North Atlantic Ocean is remarkable for ·a 
__ peculiar kind of tempest which occurs nowhere 
else in so marked and distinct a form. This is 
called by mariners a white gale, because it is un-
accompanied with that obscurity of the atmosphere, 
j and that showery weather, which in general attend 
violent winds in all parts of the ocean. On the 
contrary, during a white gale, there is always 
) brilliant sunshine and a cloudless and transparent 
f sky, and these form a singular and startling con-
) trast with the furiolls blast and with the raging 
sea. A storm of this description seldom lasts 
• 
348 BRITISH AMERICA. 
longer than twelve hours, and is generally suc-
ceeded by one of the common sort. These white 
gales have in appearance a great affinity to those 
sudden and temporary gusts of wind, called white 
squalls, which often occur in the China and in the 
Eastern seas; and both probably arise from the 
rapid condensation of a greater or less portion of 
the atmosphere in the neighbourhood of the spot 
w here they take place, and consist of the current 
of air which rushes with impetuosity to fill up the 
vacuum thus produced. Should the latter be of 
small extent, it is supplied almost instantaneously, 
and a squall of short duration suffices to restore 
the atmospheric equilibrium; but when it is of 
great extent, the requisite adjustment is of course 
effected more slowly, and a gale of greater or less 
continuance is the result. The cause of tempests 
of t,h e com mon sort is to be found in the direc-
tion from whence they proceed, but that of the 
kind in question actually lies in the quarter to-
wards which they blow. 
The North Atlantic Ocean being turbulent in 
its character, and destitute of islands, it is scarcely 
necessary to remark that its surface does not 
abound with animal f()rms of any kind. Here 
fishes seldom appear either singly or in shoals, 
and the small storm petrel is the only bird that is 
frequently seen. If we consider how few parts 
NORTH AMERICAN OCEAN. 349 
of even the terrestrial portion of our globe are 
peopled to the utmost conceivable degree with 
living things, and how many extensive 1'fgions 
remain absolutely untenanted by these, whether 
of a high or of a low grade, we shall be little dis-
posed to accede to the opinion of those theorists 
who insist that Providence, in forming the animal 
:f creation, had in view the greatest possible mul-
a tiplication of life and enjoyment j and that in 
~ hourly effecting by secondary causes the destruc-
tion of a vast number of creatures of every spe-
cies, his intent is merely to make room for other 
individuals of the same or of a different kind j and 
that these last, having in their turn participated 
in the pleasures of existence, are likewise to be 
displaced for the benefit of the generations de-
signed to succeed them. Were things constituted 
--in this manner, we should not meet with sterile 
and solitary regions extending hundreds of square 
miles, nor should we anywhere observe vast 
tracts of country in a state of negation, or nearly 
I so, as far as respects the distribution of animal life. 
On the contrary, the plains of Siberia, the step-
I pes of Tartary, the deserts of Africa and Arabia, 
i the Pampas of the Rio de la Plata, the range of 
; Andes, the wilds of North-west America, and the 
I Polar lands of both hemispheres, would abound 
I,  with living.c reatures, and present us with multipli-
, ,. . 
• • 
350 BRITISH AMERICA. 
eel instances of that system of successive existence 
and successive enjoyment which is in reality in 
active operation in very few parts of the earth. 
And if we turn our view to the ocean in general, 
to which I ought properly to confine my remarks, 
we shall be equally struck witb the sparing and par-
tial distribution of animal life there. Even those 
birds that obtain their food exclusively from tbe sea, 
are extremely rare in all the great oceans of botb 
hemispheres; and the mariner may sail hundreds 
of leagues without observiug a single individual of 
the kind: nor do we find that fishes are much 
more plentiful, though it must be admitted that 
it is less ea.~y to discover them, and that it is diffi-
cu It to prove that they do not exist in places 
w here they are not seen. But we have every 
reason to believe that they abound in those parts 
of the ocean only which are of comparatively 
small depth, and that the grand bulk of its waters 
is entirely destitute of them, or of any other 
inhabitants. All the fisheries in the world, except 
that of the whale, exist in soundings, and can be 
pursued there only; it being useless to attempt 
to take fish in the middle of any of the great 
oceans, except in those places where islands or 
sandbanks produce the requisite degree of shal-
lowness; and were any individual in crossing the 
North Atlantic to practise every description of 
. . 
NORTH AMERICAN OCEAN. 351 
fishing in the course of his passage, he would 
meet with no success until he reached the edge of 
the banks of Newfoundland, where the depth of 
water averages from seventy to one hundred 
fathoms. Hence we may conclude that all the 
deeper parts of the ocean are uninhabited except 
very near the bottom, the neighbourhood of that 
being essential to the existence of those kinds 
of fishes that multiply fast and congregate in 
great numbers. Thus the proportion of animated 
things peopling the earth, the air, and the ocean, 
falls immensely short of what the respective 
regions of these three media are calculated to 
support and contain; and from this we may infer 
that the mere multiplication of forms and grades 
of existence is neither a principle that enters into 
the constitution of our planet, nor an object that 
ever was contemplated by its Creator. 
Since there are neither islands, nor animals, nor 
physical phenomena, to detain us in our survey 
of the North Atlantic, we must hurry across it 
tiJI we reach the banks of Newfoundland, which 
are not less worthy of attention from their mag-
nitude than on account of the celebrity and im-
portance of the fishery that is annually carried on 
upon them. ViTe  find similar accumulations of 
sand, or, more properly speaking, elevated tracts 
of ground, in various parts of the ocean, particu-
, • 
352 BRITISH AMERICA. 
larly in the Zuyder Zee, and in the British and 
GllI'man Oceans, and in the neighbourhood of the 
Cape of Good Hope; but in none of these in-
stances do they nearly equal in size the great 
bank of Newfoundland, which is about five hun-
dred and fifty miles long, and from one to two 
hundred miles wide. The soundings average 
sixty fathoms over its whole extent, and its 
edges are generally steep, instead of sloping 
down in a gradual manner to the level of the 
bottom of the surrounding ocean, The surface 
of this great bank is composed of sand, mud, and 
broken shells; and a large part of its entire mass 
consists most probably of materials of the kind 
deposited by the Florida Gulf stream, which, 
after winding along the coast of America, is 
checked in its northerly progress between latitude 
45',  ,and 50' , and there ceases to flow in a con-
tinllous current, Its waters being thus repelled, 
and, as it were, rendered stagnant, will naturally let 
fall the extraneous matter which they may pre-
"iously have carried along with them, and thus 
occasion an extensive elevation in the bottom of 
the sea; and this opinion derives support from the 
statements of the Newfoundland fishermen and 
others, who report that the depth of water upon 
the great bank is gradually decreasing. This being 
the case, there is some likelihoO<l that after the 
NORTH AMERICAN OCEAN. 353 
I lapse of centuries, it will have risen nearly to 
the surface of the sea, and that it will eventually 
" 
constitute a tract of land connected with the pre-
sent coast of America, or disjoined from it only 
by a narrow strait, like that of Bellisle. 
It is between February and June that the 
Newfoundland cod-fishery is most successfully 
pursued. During that period vessels of all na-
tions resort to the banks, and between two and 
three thousand fishing-eraft are often found as-
sembled there at one time, The voyager arriving 
in that quarter on his passage from Europe to 
America, and wearied by the solitariness and 
monotony of the Atlantic, in which he perhaps 
has not met a single sail, is powerfully affected 
by tbe concourse of vessels which he sees assem-
bled upon the banks of Newfoundland, and by 
the variety of languages which he hears spoken 
by their crews, as he proceeds across the fishing 
station; the privilege of resorting to which has 
often been a subject of contest amongst the mari-
time nations of Europe, not because the quantity 
of cod procurable there is inadequate to supply 
the wants of all countries, but because the fishery 
itself forms a lucrative branch of commerce which 
is well worth the monopolizing, and likewise an 
excellent and convenient nursery for seamen. 
And it is worthy of remark, that the banks of 
VOL. ll. 2 A 
, 
854 BRITISH AMERICA, 
Newfoundland derive their importanre, not 
from the natural wants of mankind, but from 
artificial ones dependant upon religious princi-
ples. The general observance of Lent by Catho-
lics in all parts of the world, is the source of that 
immense demand for fish which leads so many 
nations to engage in the capture of the cod, and 
to preserve and convey it to the most distant 
markets. The Newfoundland fishery has at all 
times been pursued chiefly by Protestants, and 
they themselves, or their countrymen, consume 
but a very insignificant part of its products; the 
grand proportion of these being distributed over 
France, Spain, Italy, and South America, for the 
use of their respective inhabitants, Nor, were the 
whole world of the Catholic persuasion, would 
there be any difficulty in obtaining from the 
ba,n ks of Newfoundland alone a sufficient supply 
of fish for the subsistence of its entire population 
during the period of Lent, however rigidly its 
fast might be kept, 
I t would form a curious subject of speculation 
to inquire to what extent the ocean in general 
could be made to furnish materials for the subsis-
tence of the human race; and whether its products 
might not by some mode of treatment and pre-
servation be rendered extensively available as food 
to the lower classes of people. even in the most 
NORTH AMERICAN OCEAN. 355 
inland countries, during periods of famine. The 
supply of all edible things, wh.ether of an animal 
or vegetable nature, is more or less precarious, 
with the exception of that of certain kinds of 
fish. Even in the most temperate regions, an un-
toward season sometimes prevents the ripening of 
the crops, or perhaps partly destroys them after 
• they have attained maturity; but misfortunes of 
• this kind are much more common in the neigh-
bourhood of the tropics, and of the arctic circle. 
In the former situation the periodical rains are 
often scanty, or even altogether wanting, and the 
labours of the agriculturist consequently become 
useless; or flights of locusts devastate the land; 
or plague or pestilence cause the inhabitants to 
neglect its cultivation; while, in the latter parts 
~ of the globe, the severity of the climate will sel- . 
, dom allow the soil to produce a sufficient quan-
tity of grain for the annual subsistence of its po-
~ pulation, and the want of pasture during three-
! fourths of the year is unfavourable to the mul-
••  
••  tiplication of cattle ani! other domestic animals. 
l•  But no region however fertile can be made to 
! yield more than a certain quantity of food for the 
; human species; and long before it has been forced 
,:  to this maximum of productiveness, all the neces-
• saries of life have become 80 high-priced that the 
,,  lower classes of its people suffer great and un-, 2 A 2 
356 BRITISH AMERICA. 
avoidable privation~. The ocean, however, more 
liberal than the earth, gives abundant supplies of 
• 
food without cultivation, and freely dispenses her 
treasures to all who choose to take them; nor is 
the extent of her bounty ever affected by those 
physical causes which often restrain or destroy 
the fertility of the ground. Vast shoals of her-
rings are sure to visit the coasts and islands of 
northern Europe, and countless millions of cod to 
swarm upon the banks of Newfoundland, what-
ever the nature of the seasons may be. The lat-
ter part of the ocean of itself forms a storehouse 
from which an unlimited quantity of food might 
annually be obtained and distributed over Eu-
rope, at an inconsiderable expense, so as greatly 
to lower the price of provisions in its populous 
districts, and to afford a resource to every class of 
men in times of famine. 
If we consider the general boisterousness of 
the North Atlantic Ocean, and the prevalence of 
strong westerly gales there, we shall find great cause 
to admire the intrepidity of those navigators who 
first ventured to cross it. Cabot and Cottereal, 
and the other early discoverers of North America, 
chose a much more difficult and perilous route 
tl,an Columbus did, who, had he attempted to 
reach the New v.' orld by following a high parallel 
of latitude, wonld probably have altogether failed 
• 
" 
• 
NORTH AMERICAN OCEAN. 357 
in his object, from the frailness of his vessels and 
the mutinous disposition of his crew. But by 
pursuing a track which quickly brought him with. 
in the influence of the nOl'th-east trade wind, he 
secured to himself a smooth sea and moderate 
weather, and thus was able to accomplish his 
voyage without encountering those distresses and 
~ delays which mariners are ever liable to expe-
l rience upon the more northerly parts of the 
, Atlantic. Nor are the nautical exploits that were 
" performed at a later period in that quarter less 
!f  admirable than the earliest ones, even admitting 
tbat in the interval some improvement had been 
effected in tbe construction and equipment of 
!,  ships. The voyages of· Frobisher, Hudson, and 
• 
\ Davis afford examples of seamanship tbat are un· 
• equalled in the maritime annals of any country 
in Europe, not even excepting those of Portugal; 
, for the passage to India round the Cape of Good 
'. Hope, performed under the auspices of that nation, 
is of all others of any great length ' the most pa-
cific and the most free from hidden or apparent 
dangers; and the celebrated tempests of the South 
African Ocean are in reality far less perilous than 
those of the Northern Atlantic, which has un. 
doubtedly been the grand school of navigation to 
the moderns, who never could have attained in 
any other part of the ocean that practical know· 
• 
BRITISH AMERICA. 
ledge of the art which they now possess in such a 
high degree, and employ so much to their ad-
vantage. In the Mediterranean and in the in-
tertropical seas, where the sky is usually ser~ne, 
where storms seldom continue long, and where 
total darkness is scarcely known, the mariner, in 
general certain of his reckoning, may conduct 
even a frail vessel from port to port without risk 
or accident; but in the Northern Ocean, his 
duties and his responsibility assume a more seri-
ous character and aspect. There, harassed by 
furious winds and turbulent waves, or hove-to for 
days or weeks together under the roaring blast, 
or bewildered by incessant showers of sleet and 
snow, or unable to obtain an observation for the 
latitude owing to the obscurity of the weather, or 
embayed in a gulf and drifting upon a lee-shore, 
in a night of murky darkness and polar duration, 
he must ever be on the alert to foresee and obvi-
ate danger, to calculate probabilities, to practise 
nautical manreuvres, and to enter into successful 
contention with the elements. It is true, that 
that part of the Atlantic Ocean lying between the 
west side of Ireland and the entrance of the Gulf 
of St. Lawrence is of safe and easy navigation, in 
so far as it includes no islands or hidden dangers ; 
but the outward-bound vessel is liable to be de-
tained and even driven back by violent, batHing, 
• 
NORTH AMERICAN OCl::AN. 359 
and long-eontinued westerly winds; and no sooner 
has she passed the banks of Newfoundland than 
difficulties of another kind beset her, arising from 
the hazy weather, the broken coasts, the strong 
currents, and the numerous islands in that quar-
ter; nor do obstacles of the kind cease to retard 
her progress till she has advanced two hundred 
miles up the river St. Lawrence. 
, 
) Though the North Atlantic has for centuries 
• past been frequented by all kinds of vessels, and 
though innumerable nautical disasters have occur-
red upon it, we do not find that its annals present 
any instances of those perilous and extraordinary 
voyages which have been accomplished with ap-
parently inadequate resources in various other 
parts of the ocean; and the cause of this undoubt-
1 edly lies in its extreme boisterousness having in 
4 
1 general proved fatal to those who have attempted 
(•  to navigate it in small or un~uitable vessels. The 
three most remarkable voyages of the kind in 
• 
1 question, are those of Botello, of Maurello, and of 
,I  
Bligh; and though none of them took place in 
, the North Atlantic, a cursory account of them 
j 
! may appropriately enough be introduced here, as 
, I have just made some remarks upon the opposite 
1 character of the northern and of the intertro-
• 
i pical seas. We are told by Lafitau, the Jesuit, that when 
360 BRITISH A MERICA. 
the fortress of Diu, situated at the mouth of the 
Gulf of Cam bay, fell into the hands of the Por-
tuguese, Acughna, who was at that time viceroy 
of the Indies, aware how much his sovereign 
would be gratified by that event, directed two 
messengers to proceed to Portugal with intelli-
gence of it-the one over land, and the other by 
the usual route round the Cape of Good Hope. 
A Portuguese gentleman, named Diego Botello, 
who had assisted at the siege of Diu, and who 
had some time before accidentally and unmeri-
teeny lost favour at court, thought that a favour-
able opportunity of retrieving his character and 
:Icquiring distinction now presented itself; and he 
formed the design of outstripping the viceroy's 
couriers, and arriving in Lisbon before either of 
them with the news of the capture of the for-
tres,s. With this view, he secretly procured a 
boat, which was without a deck, and only twenty-
two feet long, and having provisioned it in the 
best way possible, he embarked in it with three 
of his countrymen and several slaves, and set sail 
for Lisbon. Botello, after they had been some 
weeks at sea, lost his voice from having exerted it 
too much in giving the necessary instructions to 
his crew, and he remained fourteen days without 
the power of utterance, and was obliged during 
that time to communicate his orders in writing. 
• 
NORTH AMERICAN OCEAN. 361 
Towards the middle of the voyage the slaves mu-
tinied and refused to proceed any farther, but he 
managed to conciliate them and to re-establish his 
authority; and at length arrived in health and 
safety in Lisbon, and had the satisfaction of being 
the first to give his sovereign intelligence of the 
• surrender of Diu. Everyone regarded Botello 
with astonishment and admiration, as having per-
formed the most wonderful nautical feat recorded 
in history; but the Holy Inquisition, suspecting 
that he was addicted to magical pursuits, seized 
his boat, and caused it to be publicly burnt; nor 
did he derive that favour at court which he had 
anticipated, and which ought to have been part of 
the reward of his despetate enterprise. This voy-
age will appear less incredible if we refer to one 
c which, according to Humboldt, was performed in 
J _t he Pacific Ocean by a Spaniard named Maurello, 
who sailed from San BIas, on the west coast of 
Mexico, in a pinnace, to bfanilla, a distance of 
nearly nine thousand miles; his object being to 
• convey to the latter port intelligence of the de-
claration of war between Spain and England. 
But these two instances of nautical enterprise are 
! exceeded by the voyage of Bligh, in so far as Bo-
I tello and Maurello, having had time to provide 
1 themselves with marine instruments and equip-
1·  ments, were in a manner prepared for the dangers 
362 BRITISH AMERICA. 
which they had to encounter; while the Eng~ ' . 
!ish navigator was suddenly forced to quit his ves-
sel by a mutinous crew, and to put to sea in its 
launch, with eighteen companions and a scanty 
supply of water and provisions. This launch was 
only twenty-three feet long and of course un-
decked; but, nevertheless, Lieutenant Bligh and 
his associates in misfortune set sail in her from 
the island of Tofooa, situated in the Sandwich 
archipelago, and, standing out to sea, laid their 
course for Timor, and arrived there in safety; hav-
ing run a distance of four thousand miles, and 
experienced much tempestuous weather, in the 
course of their daring voyage. Nor is the exploit 
of the commander of the British ship of war Cen-
taur unworthy of being mentioned here. That 
vessel being about to. founder, after having en-
countered a hurricane in the \,Te st Indian Ocean, 
her captain and several of the crew took refuge in 
the jolly-boat, in the midst of the tempest, and. 
steerillg across the Atlantic, reached the coast of 
England, a distance of three thousand miles from 
their point of departure. 
These instances of nautical adventure are per-
haps less curious in themselves, than valuable from 
their showing how much may be effected at sea 
with small resources under the most discouraging 
circumstances. And even in the midst of the 
NORTH AMERICAN OCEAN. 363 
tll1bulent North Atlantic, the shipwrecked mariner 
ought never to lose hope; for a fragile skiff may 
serve to convey him to the nearest shore, how-
ever remote that may be, if he makes intrepidity 
and practical knowledge co-operate in the hour of 
danger. 
364 
GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER 
OF BRITISH AMERICA. 
THE approach to British America, by the usual 
route through the Gulf of St. Lawrence, is of 
a sombre and melancholy character. At the en-
trance of the Gulf, and upon the left, is New-
foundland, half concealed by dense fogs; and 
upon the right, the sterile shores of Cape Breton 
rise abruptly out of the sea, which there begins 
to assume a tawny colour from tbe admixture of 
fres,h water, Nor does the scene improve even 
at the mouth of the river St. Lawrence, for there 
the solitary and pine-covered island of Anticosti 
fatigues the eye by its great length, and by the 
uniformity of its appearance, and beyond it the 
lands upon both sides are bleak and uncultivated. 
About fifty miles farther up, the banks of the 
river present the white cottages of fishermen and 
farmers, scattered far apart, and the soil improves 
in fertility, and is in some places covered with 
thickets of natural wood; but it is only a short 
, 
• 
GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 365 
way below the island of Orleans. or two hundred 
miles above the mouth of the St. Lawrence. that 
Canada assumes a fertile and attractive aspect. or 
shows any defined marks of populousness and 
civilization. Advancing beyond this point. in 
the direction of the river, we find its banks dis-
playing a progressive increase of beauty and pro-
ductiveness, overshadowed by a superb vegeta-
tion. and rising from the edge of the stream with 
that gradual slope which is so favourable. to agri-
, culture, The sombre pine-forests of the lower 
districts give place to more varied and agreeable 
vegetable forms; large tracts of tilled ground 
occur within short distances of each other; houses 
and flocks of cattle here and there enliven the 
i scene; and the country in general appears to be 
1 defective in none of Nature's choicest and most 
_ yaluable gifts. These characters continue. though 
in many places in a less concentrated form, 
throughout the whole course of the river up-
wards. and even along part of the shores of 
Lakes Ontario and Erie; but they entirely dis-
appear at the head of the latter, and scenes of 
wildness. solitude. and sterility there supply their 
place. and e;xtend westward without interruption 
to the Pacific Ocean, and northward to the icy 
regions of the Pole. 
British North America is one of the largest 
366 BRITISH AMERICA. 
tracts of country in the world; for its extreme 
length east and west exceeds three thousand 
miles, and its average breadth south and north 
is two thousand, allowing its boundary in the lat-
ter direction to run in the general parallel of the 
spot, about latitude 70· north, where Mackenzie 
discovered the sea. This immense territory has 
as yet been but partially explored, in particular 
to the eastward, where Labrador is situated; and 
this is little to be regretted, either by the geogra-
pher or the man of science, for the researches of 
travellers in its interior and remoter parts have 
not hitherto produced anything calculated to 
make us desirous that these should be extended 
and continued. 
Nearly the whole extent of British America is 
remarkable for a sombreness and an uniformity 
of aspect. There, in whatever direction we tum, 
we observe an endless succession of rivers, forests, 
and lakes, respectively bearing a strong simi-
lari ty of character, and deficient, as a whole, in 
animation and in vividness of contrast. The 
traveller in these regions, even when he meets 
with the utmost variety of objects which they 
anywhere afford, is wearied and depressed by a 
repetition of the same sensations; and it seems 
to him that Nature there, whatever garb she 
may wear, always speaks the same language, and 
• 
GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 367 
is capable of expressing only one sentiment. 
One day seated in his canoe, he stems the cur-
rent of some far-winding river, or forces his way 
over its rapids and cascades; on another, he sails 
across a silent and misty lake; and on a third, he 
pursues his course through extensive forests-and 
night after night he encamps in a thicket, and 
sleeps in the security of absolute solitude, almost 
forgetful that the world contains any inhabitants 
but himself and the companions of his journey. 
Seeing neither men nor animals, he views with 
impatience regions that are calculated for the 
••  residence of both; and the more so because the 
• face of Nature is there destitute alike of that 
variety, and of that repulsiveness, either of which 
go far to reconcile us to the absence of living 
forms, and to the stillness and inactivity of un. 
inhabited territories. 
--
Of all the physical peculiarities of British 
America, the most remarkable is the general 
I levelness of its surface; for in the vast extent of 
territory comprehended between the coast of 
• 
\ Labrador and the Rocky Mountains, there does 
i 
j,  not exist one range of hills, nor even a single 
peak of moderate elevation. The high.est lands 
",,   in that part of the globe seldom rise more than 
four hundred feet above the level of the sur-
rounding country, and in many places unbroken 
, 
• 
368 BRITISH AMERICA. 
• 
plains are found the same number of miles in • 
circumferen('e. Rivers flow at the bottom of 
most of the valleys, which last are seldom of any 
considerable depth; and those that are dry pre-
sent in general smooth declivities, and are neither 
very wide nor very profound. Yet British Ame-
rica, unlike all other regions of a similar confor-
mation, abounds in an extraordinary degree with 
lakes and rivers, and is everywhere permeated 
by an excess of moisture which often proves in-
jurious to vegetation. Nearly all its different 
bodies of water, great and small, and flowing and 
stagnant, have a more or less direct rommunica-
tion with one another; and they collectively ex-
tend like an immense piece of aquatic network 
over the wide-spreading region which gives birth 
to them. 
T!lese physical phenomena have led some phi-
losophical speculators to regard North America as 
of more recent formation than any of the other 
quarters of the globe. They insist that the level-
ness of its surface, the moistness of its soil, and 
the magnitude and number of its lakes and 
• 
rivers, indicate that it has bllt lately emerged 
from the ocean; and that after it has been sub-
jected for a certain length of time to the pro-
cesses of evaporation and detrition, and to the 
influence of the sun, it will acquire that inequa-
• 
• 
GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 369 
lity, and that comparative aridity of surface, 
which belong to the continents of the Old W orId. 
Upon the same principle, we are told that Africa 
must be the most ancient division of our planet, 
because her surface is everywhere elevated into 
chains of spinous mountains and intersected by deep 
valleys, and presents vast sandy deserts and burnt-
'I up plains, destitute of vegetation, and unrefreshed 
J by springs of water. Nor can it be denied that 
I there is something specious and plausible in these 
;. opinions, though they are perhaps more agreeable 
• 
'I to the imagination than satisfactory to the judg-
j ment. In contemplating the general physical 
I character of North America, we are forcibly , struck with the air of , 'freshness and juvenility 
j 
••  which belongs to it; for we observe that the 
" 
surface of the country almost everywhere pre-' 
, • 
) sents an abundant vegetation, a fertile soil, a ro-
• 
I,  tundity of outline, an unfailing supply of water, 
, and a tranquil disposition of strata; while those 
regions of the globe which we are taught to 
I regard as the cradle of our species, wear a very 
j different aspect, and seem to be exhausted by long and incessant reproduction. In the present 
day we find some difficulty in believing that 
Egypt, Syria, and the countries bordering on the • 
Euphrates, were at one time the seat of mighty 
1 empires, and of a prodigious multitude of inha-
VOL. II. 2 B 
• 
• 
• 
870 IJRITISII AMERICA. 
bitants, because their fertility is now of a very 
limited kind; and at first view we are disposed, 
to conclude that it must always have been so, 
because no actual change in that respect has 
taken place within the range of modern observa-
tion; but we must either reject the testimony of 
ancient historians, or admit that these countries 
were once as fruitful as they are now unproduc-
tive-and into what a perplexing field of conjec-
ture does the latter opinion lead us? for if it be 
tenable in one instance, it must likewise be so 
in a variety of others. W' e shall then feel dis-
posed to regard the deserts of Africa and of 
Arabia as having formerly been fertile and popu-
lous countries, and will anticipate the time when 
the most favoured and the most thickly inhabited 
parts of the globe will be reduced to a state o. 
sterjli ty and solitnde. 
]3ut our speculations upon this subject can 
never enable li S to conjecture whether those 
regions that have become, and are in the course 
of becoming, unfit for the occupation of the 
hUlllan race, will, after a lapse of ages resume 
their pristine frllitfulness; or whether the earth, 
wearied of our species, and hostile to its per-
petuation, is divesting herself in sllccessive por-
tions of her fertility, and will at length become 
an entire desert IIpon which no flower can bloom 
• 
• 
• 
GENERAL PIIYSICAL CHARACTEIL 371 
and no flesh can live. And it is worthy of 
remark, that an opinion of this kind is found to 
exist, in a more or less developed form, amongst 
nearly all nations, barbarous and civilized. The 
~ decreasing fertility of the earth, and its eventual 
•••   unfitness for the abode of the human race, are 
• assumed as truths by people who have never 
I taken the trouble to seek for a verification of 
I either; and the Grecian allegory of the golden, 
! the silver, and the iron ages has been repeated 
• 
, and believed under various guises in every 
• 
• latitude between the arctic and antarctic circles. 
•,  It is a contemplation of the miserable condition 
•,  
'.,  of man - of the excesses which he is led to 
commit-of his incapacity to improve his circum-
stances-and of the state of perpetual dissension 
in which he lives with his fellow-beings, that has' 
Jed the sages of most countries to conclude that 
,,  such an order of things cannot for ever continue, 
and that the physical agents in actual operation 
upon the surface of our planet are calculated 
to lead eventually to the extinction of its inha-
, bitants. The Chaldeans and Egyptians alone 
I rejected all theories of this nature, which is not 
, 
,,•   calculated to astonish us, when we reflect that 
• 
•, their temperament was in a high degree sombre, 
melancholic, and desponding, and that with the 
" 
, latter, Typhon, a personification of moral evi l, was 
,i  • 2 B 2 
872 BRITISH AMERICA. 
one of the principal characters in their mytho-
logy. In speculating upon the nature and con-
stitution of our planet, they adopted the doctrine 
of cycles - a system of optimism the most un-
tisfactory and depressing that ever was con-
trived or promulgated. By a cycle . they meant 
to express that period within which the whole 
universe effects one complete revolution, which 
was supposed to be sixty thousand years. They 
assumed that, at the end of a cycle, each of the 
heavenly bodies had arrived at the precise spot 
from whence it had first commenced its career on 
its being created, and that from thence the whole 
of them were again simultaneously propelled in 
their respective courses, again to perform these 
within the same space of time. And, moreover, 
all the events that had occurred in any planet, all 
the ' creatures that had lived in it, and all the 
good and evil of which it had been the scene, 
within the period of it s first revolution, were to 
be repeated under the same form, and in the 
same succession, within the period of every 
future one, But we must not suppose that those 
who adopted these opinions found any satisfac-
tion in them, or in the idea that the things and 
the events which they observed in their own 
planet, were to recur in the course of every su~ 
ceeding cycle, and that ' the existing mundane 
GENIi:RAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 873 
system was to continue for ever without change 
and without amelioration. 
I have already reiJ\arked, that the three great 
physical features of British America are rivers, 
lakes, and forests, and I will now shortly describe 
the general character of each of these classes of 
objects respectively. The St. Lawrence is one of 
the largest rivers in the world; for though the 
length of its course seems inconsiderable when 
• 
' ,.,   compared with that of many other great streams, 
• yet in the quantity of water which it discharges 
into the ocean it falls short of only two of these-
the Amazon and the La Plata; while in naviga-
bleness and beau ty it far surpasses them both. 
Unlike most other grand rivers, its mouth is 
,•  not obstructed by a bar of sand, nor are there any 
dangerous shoals in its channl)l~ w hich every~ 
w here between the island of Anticosti and the 
town of Montreal, a distance of nearly six hun-
dred miles, affords a safe and easy .passage for 
ships of any burthen. The banks of the St. Law-
rence towards the lower part of its course, are 
barren and uninteresting, and higher up they are 
in general thickly wooded, and somewhat tame in 
their character, but the ever-varying appearance 
of the river itself amply supplies this defect. In 
some places it glides along in unruffled tranquillity, 
• t, 
• 
374 BIUTlSII AM ERICA. , 
and with a slow current; in others it is divided by 
groups of rocky islands into a variety of channela, 
and rendered more rapid in its progress; a little 
way farther on it will expand into the appearance 
of a lake several miles broad, and afterwards eon-
tract itself into less than its average width, and rush-
ing over broken rocks present an agitated and 
foaming surface. And what contributes not a lit-
tle torendel" the St. Lawrence more attractive than 
most other large rivers is the general dryness and 
accessibleness of its banks, which, instead of be-
ing covered with mud and drift-wood, are nearly 
everywhere free from any obstruction even close 
to the edge of the water, and this is to be ascribed 
to the equality in its level which the river pre-
serves througllOut the whole year; for it is never 
swelled by floods, nor in any way affected by the • 
most continued rains, or by the melting of the 
annual snows. It would be useless to describe or 
even to name the various streams, some of them 
of considerable size, which di,embogue into the 
St. Lawrence, or to mention individuall-v the 
rivers of North-west America. The Mackenzie 
and the Coppcrminc rivers are the most import-
ant oncs in that quarter; and these, and nearly all 
oll,crs ill British America, have a strong resem-
blancc in thcir gcneral character and appearance, 
which lattcr may be cxpressed in a few words. 
GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 875 
For the most part their banks are low and covered 
with timber, which towards the nortb grows to 
but a small height; their channels are sinuous, and 
bere and tbere obstructed by rapids and cascades, 
and they generally have their source in lakes or 
discharge themselves into these; w bile in their 
i course they throw off many branches, and receive a 
• 
proportionable number from neighbouring streams, 
thus producing that universal and complicated 
connexion of waters for which British America is 
so remarkable. 
The lakes of these regions next demand some 
notice, but, great as they are in magnitude, they 
afford little scope for description; nor do any of 
the features of our globe present fewer varieties of 
aspect and physical character than large collec-
tions of fresh water in whatever country they· 
, _may occur. Lakes Ontario, Erie, Huron, Mi-
1 chigan, Superior, and 'V\Tinnipeg, resemble each 
other in every particular except in extent, and 
in the greater or less fertili ty of their borders. 
All these lakes are navigable by ships of any 
burthen, but in most of them westerly winds 
prevail to an inconvenient degree during sum-
! mer, and greatly retard the passage of vessels 
i 
1 bound in that direction, and their shores are but 
, indifferently provided with harbours. Humboldt 
I has remarked, that few physical circumstances in 
• 
• 
I 
376 BRITISH AMERICA. . .I  
the external conformation of our planet exert a 
/ 
greater influence upon the character of nations 
and the progress of society than mediterranean 
seas, wllicb never fail to promote civilization, by 
enabling the inbabitants of the contiguous regions 
to come into contact with each other, and to 
exchange their manufactures and the productions 
of their soil. 
In no part of the globe shall we find a state of 
water-communication apparelltlymorecalculatedto ,~ ,I 
• 
exemplify this truth than in British North Ame-
., 
rica, where a succession of lakes extending nearly ,. 
\' 
two thousand miles communicate with each other, ~ . 
.I. 
or, at least, could be made to do so at a small ex- .'-, ~ 
pense of time and labour; but as all the adjoining • I. 
countries, when they are peopled, will, owing to the •·/ 
,  
. 
similarity of their climate and soil , produce the .• , ' • • •.  
same ·articles, and as their respective inhabitants 
will feel the same wants, they will have little in-
ducement to carry on commeree with one ano-
ther, because nonc of the parties by doing so 
will obtain anything that is not to be found 
at hOlll e. H ence the grand advantages which 
we arc at fi" st view ready to believe that British •,  
America will eventually derive from her lakes, • • 
are in a grcat degree chimerical, and arc such as 
could alone be realised were her chain of water-
coml11unieilt ioll to run lIorth and south instead of 
• 
GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 377 
east and west; for it would then extend across 
regions differing in soil and climate, and the 
productions of Upper Canada might be trans-
ported direct into the Floridas, and exchanged 
for those of tropical countries. 
I have already alluded to the opinion enter-
tained by some theorists, that the vast collections 
of fresh water which exist upon the surface of 
North America, conjoined with other circum-
, 
, 
, stances, prove that that continent has recently ••  
• emerged from the ocean; and it has further been 
I asserted, that the process of evaporation will gra-dually reduce the level of the lakes, and finally 
dry them up altogether. There is a general im-
t pression amongst the 'inhabitants of Upper Ca-
• 
~ 
, nada, that Lakes Ontario and Erie subside be-• 
; tween one and two inches every year; and the 
l _ state of their banks distinctly indicate that the 
height of their waters was at one period consider-
ably greater than it is at present. The other 
lakes, doubtless, exhibit similar phenomena; but, 
being far removed from civilized observation, no-
thing has been recorded upon the subject. 
The above conclusions derive plausibility from 
an important fact in the topography of the State 
of New York, which was first pointed out by 
De Witt Clinton, though to illustrate a question 
unconnected with the present one. A ridge of 
• 
• 
378 BRITISH AMERICA. 
land, averdging forty feet in height, runs along 
the shores of Lake Ontario nearly eighty miles, 
and preserves a distance of from eight to ten 
miles from the edge of the lake, towards which 
the intervening ground descends with a regular 
and moderate slope. This tract of land, as well 
as the inner declivity of the ridge, abounds with 
incontestible marks of the agency of water; and 
D e '''Titt Clinton concludes from thence that 
Lake Ontario must formerly have extended as far 
as the bottom of the latter, but that its outlet 
having been in some way enlarged, an immense 
mass of its waters had run off, and reduced it to 
its present level. Might we not, in admitting 
that the superficies of Lake Ontario has greatly 
diminished, attribute this exclusively to the gra-
dual evaporation of its waters, instead of suppos-
ing that these had been suddenly displaced by an 
• 
event which we have no grounds to believe ever 
• 
took place.? 
The lakes of British America are less agreeable 
• 
objects of contemplation than her forests, inferior 
as these are in perfection and beauty to what 
may be observed in the same continent farther 
to the south. The entire extent of North Ame-
ri ca, from the I sthmus of Darien ' to the arctic 
circle, is absolutely covered with timber of natu-
ral g rowth , except in places where that has been 
• 
• GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER . 879 
cleared away by the hand of man; for those 
open and grassy plains called prairies, which oc-
cur in the Illinois and the Indiana territories, 
large as some of them may appear in one sense, 
are in another no more than specks upon the pro-
digious country where they exist, and scarcely 
deserve to be cited as an exception to the ge-
I 
,•  neral character of its surface. 
• Perhaps it is the natural state of all regions to 
be covered with forests, till these are destroyed 
by the progress of agriculture and other causes; 
for in whatever quarter we may dig a certain 
depth into the soil, whether in Europe, in Asia, 
or in Africa, we find fossn or carbonized timber 
in greater or less quantities; and while wander-
ing amidst the busiest scenes of civilized life in 
,•  the Old World, or in its most cultivated spots 
J _or in its wildest deserts, we may carry back our 
imagination to the time when all such places 
were covered with woods as lofty and luxuriant 
as those which in the present day overspread the 
most sequestered parts of North America. 
The traveller from Europe, on first entering 
the forests of North America, feels something 
akin to disappointment. Filled with ideas of 
the primeval character and of the immense age 
of the trees which compose them, he finds them 
to be far less impressive in respect to appearance 
380 BRITISH AMEItICA. 
and magnitude than he had anticipated; and he 
obseryes around him few specimens of vegetable 
antiquity, and a great proportion of saplings and • 
of half-grown timber, while eyen the tallest and 
most mature trees give out no boughs within 
fifty or sixty feet of the ground, and present, 
even towards their tops, only some scanty tufts 
of foliage. He can scarcely believe that he -. 
stands in the midst of forests that have existed 
during countless ages; nor does he become sa-
tisfied of this till he turns IIp the soil, and dis-
covers that it consists, to the depth of several 
feet, of layers of decayed leaves, the deposit of 
innumerable successive autumns. 
But it is not in the centre of extensive forests, 
either in America or in any other part of the 
world. that the largest trees are to be found, 
but in places where there is a free circulation 
of air, and where their roots can spread without 
ilnpediment. The adansonia, the grandest of 
all vegetable forms, attains its utmost magni-
tude only UpOIl the edge of the Senegal river. 
The oak is seldom of any great size, except in 
pleasure-grounds and similar open situations; • 
and even the pine, which better endures a con-
fined locality than most other trees, seldom ac-
q "ires milch thickness of stem, though it may 
• 
• 
GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 381 
become very lofty, when growing in the middle 
of a forest. 
Tbe forests of North America, then, consisting 
of trees which, generally speaking, are not of 
extraordinary magnitude, which seldom display 
much luxuriance of foliage during summer, and 
( which in winter have none at all; to what source 
! shall we attribute those impressions of grandeur 
t and sublimity which they seldom fail to produce 
~ in the mind of the individual who may traverse 
~ them? 
It is their stern simplicity of character, the si-
milarity of aspect which they everywhere exhibit, 
and their vast and uninterrupted extent, that in-
vest them with a kind of sentiment, if I may use 
the expression, which does not in the least degree 
belong to those masses of vegetation which cover 
__m any of the equatorial parts of the globe. The 
forests of Brazil and of the Eastern Islands, and 
the jungles of Southern India, abound with trees 
that produce brilliant flowers and evolve perfumes, 
while parasitical plants of various colours clothe 
their stems,and lianas twine amongst their branches 
like a vegetating network, or cover the ground 
under the form of creepers. Butascene of this kind, 
however extensive it may be, and however much 
it may delight the eye, never affects the imagina-
382 BRITISH AMERICA. 
tion in the way that an American forest does, 
because its dazzling colours and sudden contrasts 
destroy all sense of unity in our minds, while its 
thickets retard our progress, and confine the range 
of vision within a small space. On the other 
hand, we wander without obstruction through the 
American woods; we look into their recesses, we 
see the stems of the trees standing distinctly apart, 
we reel the wind sweeping past us, a~d on looking 
over-head we here and there discern the sky, and 
thus enjoy shade without gloom, and seclusion 
without confinement. 
I have had occasion to remark at the beginning 
of this section, that a singular uniformity of phy-
sical aspect belongs to British America; and I may 
here add, that its productions, at least as far as 
they are known, partake of the same character. 
\Ve find these, whether mineral or vegetable, to re-
semble what are met with in corresponding lati-
hIdes over all the northern hemisphere; nor is 
there one that is strictly peculiar to the country, 
or strictly local in its constitution and origin, or 
such as can be pointed out as forming the dis-
tinctive feature of the region in which it occurs. 
No trees or plants of peculiar aspect or qualities; 
no mines of the precious metals; no remarkable 
natural phenomena; 110 perplexing geological ap-
pearances; and, in short, no objects calculated 
• 
GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTER. 383 
strongly to awaken human interest, or to excite 
human cupidity, present themselves upon the vast 
expanse of British North America, which, destitute 
of any riches except such as alone ar~estimable 
-a happy climate and a fertile soil-I not likely 
• soon to receive from the Old World a large or a 
civilized population, or to be a subject of contest 
between the rival powers of Europe. 
884 
• 
• • 
ABORIGINES OF BRITISH 
AMERICA. 
How was America peopled? This question 
forced itself upon every inquiring mind shortly 
after the discovery of that country had been an-
nounced to the European wodel, and it has form-
ed an exhaustless ~ource of research and discussion 
there ever since. I need scarcely remark, that up 
to the present day nothing conclusive has been 
established upon the subject, and that human spe-
culation and inquiry were never in any instance 
more idly employed than in the attempts which 
have been made to clear awa! the obscurity that 
involves it. And yet some secret influence often 
leads the human spirit to attach itself to questions 
of this nature, and to take delight in pursuing 
them, even under the conviction that all will be 
, labour in vain. Is it because an employment of 
the kind enables us to withdraw our attention 
from the history and general condition of our 
species, and to direct it to events and circum-
• 
ABORIGINES OF BRfI'ISH AMERICA. 385 
stances which do not present us with any specta-
cles of human misfortune and misery? It would 
have been well for the peace of the world and 
the happiness of mankind, had those ~eologians, 
those visionary E4tthusiasts, and those ~tical spe-
culators, whose theories have in so many instances 
disturbed the general tranquillity, confined them-
! selves to questions of such harmless tendency as 
t the one that is now before us; for what we might 
• 
~ in this way have lost in knowledge, we should 
) 
• have gained in contentment and in social harmony . 
Lafitau, the Jesuit, in his learned treatise upon 
the manners of the inhabitants of the New World, 
endeavours to prove that America was peopled 
by a trihe of Scythian Greeks, who in emigrating 
there carried with them their native mythology, 
which our author insists is still to be traced, though 
, under a corrupted form, in the religious systems 
- of the Hurons and Algonquins, and other Indian 
nations. Adair, an English writer, considers the 
aborigines of North America to be the descend-
ants of the lost ten tribes of Israel, who, accord-
ing to him, contrived to pass from the Old World 
to the New; and he pretends that the Jewish 
ritual is discernible in all their ceremonials and 
observances. Ranking, on the other hand, tries to 
prove that America was first colonized by a body 
of Chinese, who had been sent in a fleet to invade 
• 
VOL. II. 2c 
• 
• 
38S BlllTlSII AMERICA. 
of that rapid destrnction of the Indian nations 
which has gone on from the time that foreigners 
began to appropriate to themselves their territories 
for the purpose of colonization and agriculture. 
It is true, that the native tribes near the coast, 
being dispossessed of their hunting-grounds, found 
it necessary to retire into the interior of the coun-
try in search of other lands; in so doing they 
encroached upon the territories of their neigh-
bours ; these sought to repel tl,em ; bloody wars 
ensued; many lives were sacrificed; and whatever 
party proved the conquerors, the result was tbe 
same. If the aggressors succeeded in establishing 
themselves in the region which they had invaded, 
the people displaced by them had to seek an 
abode elsewhere, and this they could not obtain 
without driving from thence its actual occupants, 
in the same way as they themselves had been driven 
from their possessions; if, on the other hand, the 
aggressors were repelled, they necessarily repeated 
their former attempts elsewhere, and continued to 
do this till they succeeded in establishing them-
sel ves in suitable hunting-grounds. In this way 
the occupation of any line of country in North 
America by Europeans sufficed to diffuse warfare 
over the whole continent, by depriving a number 
of Indian tribes of their lands, and forcing them 
. 
• 
ABORIGIN ES OF BRITISH AMERICA. 389 
to seek others in regions which were already 
appropriated, and where there was no room for 
additional inhabitants; nor did this evil occur only 
once, for it was repeated in a more or less destruc-
tive way as often as the foreign invaders of North 
America extended their settlements, whether by 
I force, or by artifice, or by purchase; and though 
. 
J its violent results might be confined to one place, 
1 these produced impulses and undulations which 
agitated and disturbed the entire mass of Indian 
society even as far as the confines of the Pacific 
, Ocean. 
But, in reality, the disorders arising from the 
occupation by foreigners of a part of the North 
American hunting-grounds were for a long time 
, 
too slow in their progress, and too inconsiderable in 
~ 
'j their effects, to occasion that rapid and extensive 
I destruction of the aborigines which immediately 
succeeded the first colonization of the country, 
The portions of territory which were occupied and 
cultivated by the settlers in New England, in 
New York, in Virginia, and in Georgia, for at least 
a century after the emigration of Europeans to 
these quarters had begun, were so insignificant, 
that the loss of' them could have occasioned no 
inconvenience whatever to their previous owners; 
and we must ascribe the early decrease of the 
,I  
• 
• 
• • 
390 BRITISH AMERICA. 
, 
1 ndian population to other and more powerful 
causes, viz. the abuse of spirituous liquors, and 
the ravages of the small-pox. • 
All the nations of Northern Europe and Asia 
acquired a more or less decided taste for spi-
rituous liquors soon after they had been ac-
customed to them, and some of them are in 
the habit of drinking to excess as often as 
they have the means of doing so; but in no 
part of the Old 'Vorld shall we find the love 
of intoxicating fluids carried to such an ex-
travagant and unaccountable height as amongst 
the Indians of North America. Nor was this 
propensity of slow growth and gradual develope-
ment, as might have been expected in the case of 
a people who had been entirely unacquainted 
with the use of internal stimulants of any kind 
previous to the arrival of Europeans in their 
territories. On the contrary, their first experi-
ence of the effects of ardent spirits excited an 
ungovernable passion for these, which quickly 
difl'used itself even amongst their women, and 
caused both sexes to become actors in scenes of 
outrage and brutality which neither of them 
had before conceived to be compatible with 
human natnre. In vain did the chiefs and the old 
men expostulate with their respective tribes, and 
reprcsent to them the miserablc consequences 
• • 
• ABORIGINES OF BRITISH AMERICA • 391 
that would result from the prevailing habits of 
intoxication; the fatal propensity proved in most 
instances too violent to be overcome, and the 
naturally intelligent, honourable, and generous-
minded Indian, hurried away by its seductions, 
squandered his property, neglected his family, 
ruined his constitution, and forfeited all his 
.. 
• 
• good qualities. Those public meetings of the 
• tribes, which had formerly been scenes of savage 
• eloquence and calm deliberation, were now dis-
t 
• graced by intemperance, and generally ended in 
some sanguinary affray, which perhaps afterwards 
led to hostilities between two entire nations, while 
to the destruction of life that occurred in the field 
of battle was added that which took place in pri-
, vate and at home; for the Indian, unfitted for 
the chase by habits of intoxication, could no 
_ longer procure subsistence or clothing for himself 
or his family, and sooner or later perished with 
them in his lonely wigwam in the forest. 
The natural temperament of the North Ameri-
can Indian is doubtless the cause of his infatuated 
attachment to spirituous liquors. Sombre and 
melancholic, obliged to be much alone during his 
hunting excursions, seldom experiencing any 
strong emotions except while engaged in war, and 
j finding little pleasure in the society of women, 
he is happy to be able (0 animate by external 
• 
392 BRITISH AMERICA, 
stimulants the languor of a contemplative state 
of existence. The fatigues which he undergoes in 
the chase tend to increase this propensity, and the 
more so because by indulging in it he obtains, for 
a time at least, that sense of bodily vigour and 
energy which always constitutes one of his great-
est sources of sati sfaction. "Ve may suppose too 
that the sudden acquisition of a new species of 
enjoyment led the Indian to abuse it in a way 
• 
that he would not have done had he had some " 
previous experience of it ; for I think we shall , 
find that those people who were unacquainted 
with the use of spiri tuous liquors of any kind 
until these were introduced amongst them by 
Europeans, have invariably been more addicted 
,to habitual intoxication than tribes or nations 
who had always practised the art of making ex-
hilaran ts of one sort or another, An infusion of the 
caeoa-bean in ",ater was the <'nly manufactured 
li'luor that the inhabitants of the city of Mexico 
drank at the period of thc Spanish invasion and 
for long afterwards ; but no sooner were they 
instructed how to obtain pu1que (a fermented 
juice) from the agava-tree, than they suddenly be- J 
came nearly as Illuch addicted to intoxication 
as the North American Indians are in the IJresent 
day. The H ottentots of South Africa used 110 
inebriating liquors previolls to their having inter· 
• 
• 
• 
ABORIGINES OF BRITISH AMERICA. 393 
, 
'course with Europeans, but they shortly after-
wards acquired the strongest relish for them; 
and their excesses in this respect have of late 
years contributed in no small degree to hasten the 
extinction of their race. And the North Ame-
- rican Indians, once equally temperate in their ,,  national habits, are, as we have just seen, now 
, 
reduced to a few insignificant wandering commu-
, nities by a, similar desolating passion for spirit-
uous liquors. 
• 
" The small-pox was introduced amongst the 
N.orth American Indians shortly after European 
1,  emigrants had begun to flock to their country; 
, 
and if its ravages were more local and less un-
1 remitting than those produced by the abuse of 
I 
• 
I spirituolls liquors, they exceeded the latter in fear-
} fulness and rapidity. The Indians were struck with dread on the first appearance of the disease, 
'j 
,I  and their horror of it increased when they found 
,• 
• that it was contagious. To prevent its diffusion, j 
they used to shut up the affected person in a hut 
in a retired situation, and, placing within his 
reach a supply of water and food, abandoned him 
to his fate. But notwithstanding this precaution, 
i the small-pox was extensively fatal amongst the 
I 
I Indians; and those few who happened to recover 
I
,, 
 
 from it were viewed with disgust and aversion by 
I 
I their fellow-countrymen, on account of the disfi. 
I 
• 
• 
394 BIUTISH AMERICA. 
guration of visage which it occasioned. Adair 
relates that several instances had come within his 
knowledge, in which persons bearing strong marks 
of the virulence of the disease had, on seeing 
their faces in a mirror, been so shocked and appall-
ed by the change of aspect which they had un-
dergone, that they shortly committed suicide. 
Thus, though European tyranny and massacre 
have had comparatively little to do in the de-
struction of the aborigines of North America, two 
equally powerful agents have supplied their place 
and imitated their effects, and are still in more or 
less active operation in those parts of the conti-
nent where materials remain for them to work 
upon. All the great Indian nations of former 
times are now entirely extinct, or are recognizable 
only in a few wandering communities who bear 
their, respective names, though they in reality 
have no pretensions to these, and consist merely 
of the remnants of a variety of once distinct and 
independent tribes drawn into fellowship by weak-
ness and misery. The Canadas, Georgia, Virginia, 
Pennsy lvania, and the borders of Lakes Ontario 
and Erie, were formerly the grand seats of Indian 
population, but all these countries are now over-
spread wi th European farms and villages, and 
entirely destitute of aboriginal inhabitants; nor 
do we find any tribes of the kind existing in a 
ABORIGINES OF BRITISH AMERICA. 395 
natural and independent state till we approach 
the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, a dis-
tance of at least two thousand miles from the 
shores of the Atlantic. 
The Indians having been almost entirely extir-
, pated in the more fertile parts of the continent, 
• or driven from thence by the encroachments of 
Europeans, we might suppose that the few who 
still exist would find an asylum and a tranquil 
place of abode in the vast territory which lies 
, 
• between Upper Canada and the coasts of the 
" 
,,  
,.'  North Pacific Ocean. But so far is this' from • 
• being the case, that the native popUlation in that 
•2 ,..   quarter, inconsiderable as it is, has for many years 
i past been exposed to the same causes of decrease 
,•,  ·  which I bave just described as having operated so 
I 
•,  fatally elsewhere. The profits of the fur trade 
j - long ago induced a mercantile company to send I agents to carry it on in the central parts of British 
, 
•,  America, and no community of Indians, however 
• 
I remote its place of abode may be, has escaped the 
,•  
• intrusion of these men, who make it their business 
wherever they go to introduce and encourage 
l 
• amongst the natives of the country a taste for 
ardent spirits and for articles of European manu-
facture. These are offered in exchange for furs 
of different kinds, and the Indians, stupified by 
the effects of the first, and fascinated by the 
• 
, 
• 
396 BlllTISJI AMEItlCA. 
gaudiness of the last, fall an easy prey to the arts 
of the traders, and becoming slaves to new and 
pernicious wants, they devote themselves unre-
mittingly to the chase in order to obtain the 
means of supplying these; but instead of hunting 
deer and buffaloes, and such game as would afford 
abundance of food to themselves and their fami-
lies, they go in pursuit of those animals only which 
yield marketable furs. These are (as may be 
supposed) both scarce and shy; but the Indian, 
should he fail in procuring some of them, must 
renounce the pleasures of fin ery and intoxication, 
and he accordingly perseveres in the chase as long 
as his physical powers will admit ; and having at 
length procured a few peltries, he hurries to the 
nearest factory and harters them for rum or 
brandy, and perhaps drinks till he dies upon the 
spot, ,hI' ulltil his exhausted constitution becomes 
paralyzed; while his wife and children, unpro-
vided with food and destitute of protection and 
assistance, wander in the forest and eventually 
perish from want. The neighbourhood of all the 
trading posts iu the interior of North-west Ameri-
ca is frequented by Indians who have destroyed 
their constitutions by intemperance, and who, 
IInable to benr the fatigues of the chase, prowl 
around like gaunt and starved wolves in search of 
any desniption of food that may fall in their 
ABORIGINES OF BRITISH AMERICA. 397 
way. Their moral character, long before they are 
reduced to this state, suffers various degrees of 
deterioration; and the bold, sincere, hospitable and 
high-minded inhabitant of the forest becomes at 
length a timid, fawning, deceitful being, in every 
way subservient to those traders who have caused 
his ruin, and whom he had in his uncorrupted 
state been accustomed to despise and to regard 
as naturally his inferiors. 
Such are the consequences of introducing a 
taste for European manufactures amongst an un-
civilized people; nor does the above picture apply 
to North America only; for it represents what 
takes place in various other parts of the globe, 
and is no more than one out of innumerable in-
stances that might be brought forward to show 
how much misery is entailed upon men of simple 
- habits by the extension of commerce into the 
regions in which they live. But it does not be. 
come the mercantile nations of Europe to trouble 
themselves with considerations of this kind; and 
the utilitarian doctrine that by increasing the 
wants of any people we cannot fail to increase 
their happiness, is one which is now generally re-
ceived, and which is perfectly in accordance with 
the commercial and calculating spirit of the pre-
sent age. The great encouragement which the 
English have always given to the establishment 
398 BRITISU AMERICA. 
of missionaries abroad, does not arise altogether 
from a feeling of piety, or from any impression 
that these men will effect much moral good in 
the countries where they settle; but the opinion is 
that they will sooner or later introduce amongst 
their inhabitants a taste for articles of European 
manufacture, and thereby increase the commerce 
and prosperity of Great Britain; and we shall 
discover that it is this style of thinking, though 
under a disguised form, that leads many persons 
to desire the civilization of Africa, and to fonn 
associations and plans for effecting that object. 
Of all parts of the history of the human spe-
cies, the most repulsive and incensing are those 
which relate to that intercourse between civilized 
and savage communities which began upon the 
discovery of America, and which has been carried 
on in, 'various quarters, and from various motives, 
ever since. In perusing details of the mutual 
aggressions of European powers - of their san-
guinary battles - of broken faith between s0-
vereigns-of persecu tions for mat ters of opinion, 
and of political disturbances and civil discord-
however much we may have reason to bewail the 
fate of those thousands of virtuolls, peaceful, 
alld unoffending members of society that have 
perished or have been ruined in the course of 
such calamitous affairs, we can in general console 
ABORIGINES OF BRITISH AMERICA 399 
ourselves with the reHection that the authors of 
them bave seldom altogetber escaped tbe miseries 
wbich tbeir desperate proceedings may have 
brought upon others; and we sometimes enjoy 
tbe satisfaction of seeing them fall victims to 
their own insolence, bigotry, or ambition. But 
retribution of this kind is scarcely ever observed 
to occur in transactions between civilized men 
and savages, however unjustly and iniquitously 
the former may conduct themselves - all the 
pain, and spoliation, and insult, and disadvantage 
being invariably on the side of the latter; while 
the triumph, the superiority, the plunder, and the 
profit are the portion of the first. Could I find 
a single instance in which any visit, either ca-
sual or prolonged, made by Europeans to barba-
rous communities, has produced the smallest be-
_ nefit to the latter, I would willingly renounce 
the above opinion. On these occasions the in-
troductory scene has almost without exception 
proved one of hostility and bloodshed, owing to 
the insolence and haughtiness of the European 
parties; for we observe in the history of nautical 
discovery, that the persons engaged in it have 
always considered themselves entitled, when land-
ing upon any unknown coast, to slaughter such 
of its inhabitants as might venture to oppose 
them, never conceiving it possible that savages 
400 lHtlTISlI AMERICA. 
should wish to defend their native land, and 
their homes and famili es, or at least entertaining 
an opinion that they have no right to do so. 
It would be difficult to mention one navigator, 
except Anson and La Perouse, who has not, in 
the course of his voyages of discovery, put to 
death many individ uals without just calise; and 
it is curious to remark how in some men a 
natural ferocity of character, which may have 
long lain dormant, is evol ved and disclosed when 
an opportnnity of indulging it occurs. Bllt the 
command of a splendid and well-a rmed ship, or 
of a strong body of troops, and the power of 
conducting and employing these in any direction, 
are circumstances calculated to ebte an indiffer-
ently-regulated mind into an imolent sense of 
superiority, and to lead it to meditate and execute 
excesses which it wculd in a different station have 
avoided and condemned; and this appears to me 
to form the best and most l'busible excuse that 
we con offer for that wanton destruction of llll-
man life with which the explorers of the globe, 
whether by sea or by land, may justly be re-
proached. And even in those few instances in 
which an amicable intercourse has taken place 
betwecn Europeans and savages from the period 
of their first meeting, we shan find that the 
former, though they may have partaken for 
AllOIUGINES OF lllUTISII AMERICA. 401 
weeks ' together of the shelter of some friendly 
harbour upon a barbarous coast, and of the re-
freshments which it might afford, have gene-
rally, when on the eve of departure, invented 
some pretext for quarrelling with their enter-
tainers, in order that they might enjoy an oppor-
tunity of displaying the power of their fire_arms 
and the manageableness of their ships. 
But, even admitting that the small-pox and 
the abuse of spirituous liquors have had a great-
er share in the depopulation of America than I 
have ascribed to them, we cannot but feel asto-
nished that the Indians should have made such 
feebl e and such ineffectual resistance to those 
Europeans who first began to occupy their lands. 
Carolina, Virginia, New England, N ew York, 
and Lower Canada, were settled by inconsider-
• 
--able bands of adventurers, whom their abori-gines might easily have dispossessed and expel-
led, though they were at that time unprovided 
-
i with fire-arms, and unskilled in the principles of 
1 civilized warfare; for the comparative ineffi-
ciency of their weapons was fully compensated 
by their intimate local knowledge of their re-
spective territories, and by their roving habits 
of life, and their expertness in managing am-
buscades. 
'. The pacific demeanour of the first colonists, 
VOL. II • 20 
• 
, , 
• 
402 BRITISH AMERICA. 
and the artful manner in which they insinuated 
themselves into the confidence of the Indian. . 
no doubt restrained the latter from molesting 
them, even after they had begun to suspect tbat 
they would eventually prove troublesome and 
dangerous neighbours. 
Never did Europeans obtain possession of the 
territories of any uncivilized people with so great 
a show of equity and moderation as was dis-
played by them in their transactions with the 
aborigines of North America; no tract of land 
having in a single instance been appropriat-
ed by the settlers before it had been obtained 
either by gift, or grant, or purchase, from the 
tribe to which it belonged. The Indians, charm-
ed by the apparent justice of such a mode of 
proceeding, and as yet unaware of the utter 
worthlessness of some of the articles which they 
were accustomed to receive in payment of their 
concessions, and of the evil properties of others, . 
continned this system of barter for a long time, 
unsuspicious of what its results would be, but 
secretly hoping that the influx of Europeans 
would shortly cease, and that the latter would 
then seek no farther increase of territory for • 
their occupation and subsistence. And when the 
Indians at length perceived that the continual 
and systematic encroachments of foreigners were 
• 
ABORIGINES OF BRITISH AMERICA. 403 
producing fatal consequences to themselves, the 
colonization of North America had proceeded so 
far, that the expulsion of the settlers became a 
thing which they possessed neither courage to at-
tempt nor strength to accomplish. 
It is true, indeed, that about the middle of the 
last century, several chiefs and warriors proposed 
to form a confederation of all the great aborigi-
nal tribes of North America, for the purpose of 
attacking the European settlements there, and 
either massacring their inhabitants or forcing 
them to quit the country; but that po Ii tical 
jealousy, which seldom fails under similar cir-
cumstances to occasion disunion in civilized 
states, operated in an equal degree here, and no 
plan of the kind was ever organized, or at least 
reduced to an efficient form. The Indian chiefs, 
unaccustomed to subordination or submission, 
- were each ambitious of holding the supreme 
command of the confederacy; and their pride 
proving more stubborn than their patriotism, 
they always remained at variance upon this 
point, and wasted in disputes and in rivalry that 
time which ought to have been employed in the 
destnlction of their general enemy. It is certain 
that, had the principal nations of the eastern parts 
of North America combined against the white men 
at even so late a period as that above mentioned. 
2 D 2 
l 
., 
OIlITI SII AM ERICA. 
• 
tlleY would have recoverecl most oCtheir territories, 
and driven the intruders to the very borders of 
: .. 
the ocean. But the private wars and dissensions / 
of the aborigines of North America proved as 
, favourable to the security of the earlier European 
establishments there, as the system of castes ex- • 
isting in Hindostan has always been to the con-
tinuance of British dominion in that country; 
• • 
and we shall find in the history of all uncivilized , 
regions, and of many civilized ones, that party 
spirit, whatever form it may have assumed, has 
proved a more powerful instrument of subjuga-
tion in the hands of a foreign enemy than suc-
cessful war and mighty fleets and armies. 
Having made these remarks upon the present 
general condition of the aborigines of North Ame-
rica, I will now proceed to take a summary view 
of their character, manners, and mode of lift>. 
But, in doing thi~, it will be necessary that I 
should in a great measure confine myself to the 
Indians of British America; for , though all the 
native tribes inhabiting that continent to the 
northward of Mexico bear a strong resemblance 
to each other in their moral and social condition, • • 
still varieties of climate and soil have, as may be 
supposed, occasioned many very distinguishable 
local differences in these respects. The Indians 
of Georgia, of Carolina. and of the neighbouring 
ABORIGINES OF BRITISH AMERICA. 405 
territories, are of all others the mildest in their 
manners, and the most civilized in their habits of 
life; for they reside at least part of the year in 
villages, and derive most of their subsistence from 
the cultivation of the soil, pursuing the chase 
chiefly as a recreation, and as a means of procur-
ing furs for barter, and also an occasional supply 
of animal food. Such are the Muskogulge, the 
Okmulge, and the Arkansa nations, all of whom 
enjoy a gaiety of temperament, a tenderness of 
disposition, and a love of sociality, which gradu-
ally become less conspicuolls amongst t.he tribes as 
we advance to the more northerly parts of the 
continent, where the sharpness of the climate, and 
the physical chamcter of' the country, prove un-
favourable to their developement. After passing 
the parallel of latitude 40°, we shall not find any 
_Indians practising agriculture, while, at the same 
time, we shall observe a marked deterioration in 
the aboriginal character, both moral and intellec-
tual; and also that austerity of manners, and that 
reserve and taciturnity, which in all countries re-
sult from a life of hardship and privation. The 
northern tribes likewise exhibit much greater 
irritability of temper and more sanguinary dis-
positions than the southern one" and they feel 
little regard or respect for the female sex, and 
hold social qualities and pleasures in small estima-
406 IlRlTISH AMERICA. 
tion. The inhabitants of the two regions aUo 
differ considerably in personal appearance and in 
the shade of their complexions, the southern In-
dians being fairer and more athletic and better 
shaped than the northern ones, who, on the other 
hand, surpass them in the power of enduring fa-
tigue and hunger, in bravery and contempt of pain, 
and in expertness in the chase. 
Confining myself henceforth exclusively to the 
aborigines of British America, I will here remark 
that those Europeans who first had intercourse 
with them, were particularly struck with the 
goodness of their understanding, the nicety of 
their perceptions, their love of truth, and their 
sincere and honourable style of conduct. They 
found them to be savages in nothing but in their 
mode of life, and observed that they cultivated 
many virtues that had become nearly obsolete 
amongst the inhabitants of the Old World; and 
that, though they lived in absolute independence 
of all authority and of each olller, their natural 
rectitude of intention did more to restrain them 
from the commission of crimes and injuries than 
the best administered laws ever do in civilized 
society. Nor was this an exaggerated view of the 
matter, for none of the barbarous nations with 
which we were acquainted at the time that Cabot 
and Cartier and others visited Lower Canada, 
ABORIGINES OF BRITISH AMERICA. 407 
were comparable in intelligence and moral qua-
lities to the aborigines of that country, though 
several of them might surpass the latter in know-
ledge of the arts of life. The wandering hordes 
of Northern Asia and Europe, whether Tartars or 
Laplanders, the Moors of the deserts of Barbary, 
and the Negro tribes of West Africa, respectively 
possess many good qualities, but they are deficient 
in individual stamp and vigour of character, and 
are, as it were, unaccustomed to think or act ex-
cept in a mass or under a simultaneous impulse; 
while, on the contrary, almost every Indian, to 
whatever tribe he may belong, maintains a per-
sonal distinctness in the society of which he forms 
a member, and refuses to be confounded with the 
multitude. The first Europeans who became ac-
quainted with the aborigines of British America 
were not less struck with their habits of indivi-
dual independence, than with the peculiar turn of 
their national genius. An expertness in warfare, 
the arts of eloquence, a devotedness to the service 
of their country, and the power of enduring pain 
with firmness and composure, were found to be 
the qualities in which they chiefly desired to ex-
cel; while they proved, by the regular and con-
sistent tenor of their conduct, that they knew 
little or nothing of that frivolity and capricious-
ness of disposition with which most uncivilized 
• 
408 BRITISH AMERICA. 
nations may justly be reproached, and which too 
often render them altogether contemptible. The 
fatigu es and privations to which the Indian is 
continually exposed must be highly unfavourable 
to the developement of his faculties; and, if he 
nevertheless displays a large share of intellect and 
judgment, we may easily conceive how much he 
would excel in these qualities, were his attention 
less exclusively engrossed by his physical wants, 
and by the labour of supplying them. 
In taking a view of the general mode of life 
of the aborigines of British America, we find it,; 
most prominent feature to be the chase, which is 
here pursued in a style that we obser"e in no 
other part of the world. The hun ting nations of 
Europe, Asia, and Africa, employ themselves in 
that way dming a greater or less proportion of the 
year, only, and then retire to their villages or set-
tlements to enjoy the produce of their labours, 
and continue there till the former is expended, or 
until the proper season arrives for resuming the 
latter. Bllt the Indian seeks no interval of repose 
of this kind, nor has he any fixed place of abode, 
or any desire to possess such. H e roams through 
thc forest from the beginning to the end of the 
year. can'ying with him no articles but what are 
necessary for the chas", and seldom sleeps in the 
ABORIGINES OF RRITISH AMERICA. 409 
same spot two nights in succession; for, even 
though an abundance of game may tempt him to 
prolong his stay in a particular neighbourhood, he 
will in general construct a new wigwam or hut 
every evening, instead of making use of the one 
which had sheltered him the preceding day. Of 
all individuals in the world, except those of his 
,,  own race, he is the least fettered and encumber-
i ed with ideas of locality and association; and his 
, attachment to his native regions, strongly as it 
sometimes developes itself, is altogether a general 
, 
• sentiment, which allows him to feel eq uall y happy 
• 
and equally at home in whatever part of them he 
may chance to be. Day after day he traverses 
the forests, either alOlie or attended by his wife. 
or by a few companions, impelled by no object 
except the pursuit of game; and indifferent whe-
·,  
: __ ther this may conduct him to the east ()r to the 
west, or to the north or to the south, aware that, 
wherever he may go, the trees will supply him 
, 
with bark for a wigwam, and with fuel to warm 
him and to dress his food. Nor would he in gene-
ral hesitate in the course of his excursions to pass 
the boundaries of the country belonging to his 
tribe, and to roam across the entire continent of 
America, were he not restrained ill this respect, 
either by a sense of the injustice of encroaching 
~t : ~ 
, I' 
I 
• 
410 BIUTISH AMEIUCA. . ~ I,  
upon the hunting-grounds of a neighbouring na- . i,  
tion, or by the fear of being taken prisoner or 
killed by some enemy. 
The most remarkable peculiarity of character 
produced by this state of feeling and this mode of 
life, is a desire for change of abode and for conti-
nuallocomotion. TheBritishAmericanlndian is at 
all times more or less influenced and impelled by a 
sentiment of the kind; and though we must admit 
that the necessity of hunting causes him to wan-
der from place to place, he has an uncontrollable 
desire to do so independent of this, and can 
scarcely be tempted by any means whatever to 
remain ' long in one spot. The lo\"e of a nomade 
life is perhaps the strongest affection of which the 
uninstructed human mind is susceptible; and in 
examining the history of the various attempts 
that 'have been made to reclaim savage nations 
from their peculiar predilections, we shall find 
that the one in question has generally proved un-
conquerable, or nearly so, and that it has in many 
instances led them to sacrifice and abandon all 
the advantages and acquisitions which may have 
accrued to them from a temporary renunciation of ,•  
their barbarous habits, The enjoyment of abso-
lute liberty and independence, no doubt, consti-
tutes the princ:ipal charm of a wandering life; but 
as these are by no means incompatible with a 
ABORIGINES OF BRITISH AMERICA. 411 
fixed residence, there must be some other in-
fluence, whether negative or the reverse, that 
attaches men to the former; and I think we shall 
find this to lie in the physical character of those 
countries which nomade communities chiefly in-
habit. The forests of North America, the steppes 
of Tartary, the sandy plains of Arabia, and the 
deserts of South Africa, are respectively remark-
able for a dull nniformity of surface, and a mono-
tonous repetition of the same aspects of nature; 
nor in any of these regions is the eye or the ima-
gination ever delighted by agreeable combinations 
of scenery, such as occur in fertile and cultivated 
districts, and make the beholder linger in their 
neighbourhood, and even feel a desire to take up 
• his abode in the midst of them. Here we have a 
source of local attachment which is utterly un-
, known to the American Indian, the Arab, the 
Tartar, or the Hottentot, who individually find-
ing no greater external agreeableness in one place 
than in another, feel indifferent as to where they 
wander, so long as they can conveniently obtain 
the means of subsistence. 
But, independent of these considerations, a 
nomade "life presents many attractions even to 
civilized men, most of whom renounce it with 
regret after having had some experience of its 
pleasures. NOlie of its forms prove so agreeable 
'. 
412 R UtTI SII A~I ERI CA. 
to an European as that which it assumes in the 
wilds of North America ; and there are many in 
stances of white men having renounced their 
homes and country, and deliberately adopted the 
Indian mode of life, from a conviction that it is 
preferable to any other. They, doubtless, were 
seduced into that way of thinking, as much by a 
strong attachment to field sports, as by a love of 
independcnce, personal and pecuniary, and a dis-
like to every kind of social restraint. And there 
are perhaps few individuals of intelligence and 
reflection who have not occasionally, in the course 
of their existence, "iewed wi th uneasiness and 
regret the fetters which a conformity to the ha-
bits of civilized society has imposed upon them, 
and felt a secret wish to be relieved from these, 
and to be permitted to enjoy life under a more 
simple and natural form. ,~r e may conclude 
that most men, whether belongi ng to a high or a 
low sphere, would feel a similar inclination were 
they carefully to examine the ten our of their past 
existence, to balance the good and evil which it 
has cmbodied, and to weigh in opposite scales its 
pleasurcs and its pains. Finding in all likelihood 
that the lattcr have had the preponderance that 
thcy havc suffered innumerable disappointments ill 
their views and objects of ambition- that they have 
been in the daily habit of sacl'ificillg convenienc~ 
, 
ABORIGINES OF BRITISH AMERICA. 413 
and freedom to external appearance -~ and that 
after aU their troubles, irritations, and anxieties, 
they have actually acquired nothing that is 
really worth possessing, they would tum with de-
light to the contemplation of a nomade sty Ie of 
life, and regret that their fastidious tastes and 
complicated habits rendered them incapable of 
adopting it, or at least of relishing its simple scenes 
• 
J and unartificial enjoyments. Humboldt has re-
• marked, that the taste for hunting which exists 
in many parts of civilized Europe, is indicative of 
, 
.' that partiality for savage life that sometimes de- . • 
velopes itself in individuals who know nothing of 
, it from personal experience. And in accordance 
, with this idea we may observe, that a considerable 
i proportion of the inhabitants of our large cities, 
",••   whether of the middle or lower ranks, have a pas-
, 
""  sion for the solitude of the country, and find a , 
• 
• most agreeable and congenial recreation in wan-
• 
dering without an object in sequestered places, 
and in withdrawing themselves for a time from 
• 
the tumult, the punctiliousness, and the restraint 
, of active social life. 
"~  But it ought to be stated that the nomade life 
, of the British American Indian, attractive as it 
.,• ,  , may appear in some respects, involves frequent 
scenes of privation and misery, though these in 
general result rather from the improvidence of 
• 
414 BRITISH AMERICA. 
• 
the individual concerned than from the peculiar 
nature of his physical condition. Tbe wandering ·•  
• 
hunter too often abuses the liberality of fortune, • 
and wastes or even leaves behind him a consider-
able part of the produce of a successful cbase, 
instead of preserving it for seasons of want. Ac-
customed to trust to his own dexterity and perse-
verance for a supply of food, he seldom has at 
command more of this than is sufficient for the 
passing day; and should game be scarce or shy, 
he is reduced to the extremes of famine, and even 
sometimes becomes a cannibal. In the nortb-
west parts of America, the deer and buffaloes 
move to the southward about the end of autumn, 
and most of the Indians in the former quarter 
begin at that season to lead a fatiguing and 
precarious life, owing to the disappearance of the 
• 
larger kinds of game. 'Vben, as usually happens, 
they travel in parties or with their families, 
should any individual fall sick on the way, or be 
unable from any accident to keep pace with his 
companions, he is abandoned by them and left 
to his fate; not from inhumanity, but because 
they cannot carry him along witb them, and be-
cause, if they remained beside him, they would all 
be liable to perish of hunger. Hearne, in his jour-
ney to the Coppermine river, witnessed an inci-
dent of this kind. A n Indian woman, belonging 
• 
ABORIGINES OF BRITISH AMERICA. 415 
to his travelling party and labouring under con-
sumption, found herself unable to walk; her 
countrymen wrapped her up in furs and laid her 
in the pathway, and, placing within her reach a 
small supply of water and food, pursued their 
journey with lamentations. She contrived, how-
ever, to rejoin the band before many days had 
elapsed; but her strength failing a second time, 
she was again left behind, and was afterwards no 
more seen or heard of. But these gloomy scenes 
of Indian life occur only in the more northerly 
parts of America, where game is at all times com-
paratively scarce, and where every individual who 
cannot provide for his own subsistence, or at least. 
follow those who possess the means of doing this, 
is considered a burden to society and to himself, 
and as one to whom existence has ceased to b.e 
desirable. 
I -- Most of the Indians in British America are 
neglected when they grow old, and perhaps pe-
rish miserably from want of food and attendance ; 
an odious and revolting feature of society, but one 
which derives its existence, not from a deficiency 
of filial affection on the part of the children and 
relatives concerned, but from the physical cha-
racter of the country where it occurs, and the 
nature and constitution of human societv there . 
• 
And though the neglect and desertion of the aged 
• 
416 1l1llTlSH AMERICA. 
and infirm be an evil which appertains to nomade 
• 
life in barren regions only, the principle which 
leads to its being adopted there is nevertheless 
recognizable amongst wandering communities else- • 
where, though these may possess in abundance 
everything requisite for subsistence; for we shall 
find that nomade nations in all parts of the world 
set too high a value upon physical strength and 
acuteness of the senses, and are apt to regard the 
individual who has lost these qualities, or who has 
been born without them, as an useless and even 
burthensome memher of society, t.hough in ta. 
lents and in virtue he may excel most of his coun-
trymen. It is only when nomade life assumes a 
pastoral form, as amongst the Tartars and the 
Arabs, that old and infirm persons meet with due 
kindness and consideration, because mere manual 
strength and dexterity are less requisite and es-
timable in a community which occupies itself with 
the care of flocks, than in one which derives its 
means of subsistence exclusivelv from the chase . 
• 
Herodotus informs liS that the J\Iassagetre, a race 
of predatory Scythians, were accustomed to put 
to death their parents and relatives when age or 
disease had rendered them incapable of providing 
for themselves; and several tribes of North Ame-
rican Indians have been accused, not without rea-
son, of tolerating a similar kind of depravity. 
ABORIGINES OF BRITISH AMERI CA. 417 
A view of the fatigues, privations, and scenes 
of distress which the British North American 
J ndian is liable to encounter in the course of his 
wanderings, will not lead us to expect much 
, 
• agreeableness in the character and tenour of his 
•> •  domestic life. Here he is, sombre, melancholic, 
and sometimes even morose; and, though much 
, 
; attached to his family, he feels little pleasure in 
• 
,• 1  their society, at least in so far as mere conversa-
tion is concerned. At al-l times taciturn and re-
served, except when exhilarated by spirituous 
liquors, or excited to speak at a public meeting of 
his tribe, he is nevertheless a stranger to apathy of 
mind, and loves to exercise his thoughts either in 
retracing the past, or in forming schemes for the 
future; which last occupation may be said to con. 
stitute one of his chief internal resources, for owing 
to his habitual improvidence he generally requires 
to arrange and contrive every day how he shall 
supply the wants of the morrow. This continual 
uncertainty with respect to his future means of 
subsistence, exerts a most unfavourable influence 
upon his disposition and intellectual faculties, and 
, is the source of everything that is repulsive in 
• the one or defective in the other. Hence the 
,,  coldness of temperament with which he has been 
reproached; hence his want of tenderness for the 
female sex; and hence his indiffetence to the or.' 
VOL. II. 2 E 
418 DlHTISH AMEIllCA. 
namental arts of life. But, on the other hand, the 
physical evils of his condition favour the develope-
ment of those virtues in which he is seldom de-
ficient, and which, in his estimation, are alone wor-
thy to be cultivated, viz.- determined courage, 
patience under suffering, expertness in war and 
in hunting, and a devoted attachment to personal 
freedom and independence. 
The British American Indian has no domestic 
amusements to enliven his idle hours, because these 
last are so few in number that they neyer oppress 
him with languor or ennui; while the chase, 
though it be the essential business of his life, 
affords him, even in the midst of its fatigues, an 
exciting and varied source of diversion. Neither 
does he cultivate or possess that manual dexterity 
which would enable him to improve his habitation 
and ·to form for his own use articles of convenience 
or decoration; for this qualit~· ,,"ould be of little 
avail to an individual who is continually changing 
his place of abode, and whose property requires to 
be of the most simple and moveable description. 
The Indian is equally destitute of a taste for music 
and poetry; a drum is the only instrument of the 
former kind with which he is acquainted; and his 
songs, all of which are produced extempore, refer 
exclusively to war, and consist of a disjointed se-
ries of sanguinary expressions. But in eloquence 
ABORIGINES OF BRITISH AMERICA. 419 
he excels all other uncivilized nations, for in his 
speeches he argues as well as declaims; and his 
figures and allegories, though he often introduces 
both in too great abundance, possess a vigour and 
an appropriateness which render them impressive 
and agreeable even to those whose associations are 
, 
l entirely foreign to the wilds of North America 
,I ,  and to the state of aboriginal society there. , 
,• The religion of the British American Indians 
is very simple in its nature, comprehending fewer 
tenets, and a more meagre and unimaginative sys-
tem of mythology, than we might have expected 
to find in such a quarter. A belief in one God, 
called the Great Spirit, is its leading doctrine; but 
most tribes admit the existence of a great number 
of inferior deities, who govern the elements and 
regulate the fortunes of men; and it is usual for 
every Indian to select one of these as his guardian 
angel, and to propitiate it by prayers and offerings. 
In the more barren and northerly parts of the 
continent, where food is scarce and the climate 
severe, and where a nomade life is attended with 
, 
unceasing fatigues and privations, many tribes in-
cline to Manicheism; and while they acknowledge 
the existence of the Great Spirit, they assert that 
, an evil being holds immediate dominion over the 
• 
I earth, and takes delight in producing pain and 
I 
sorrow amongst its inhabitants. The women are 
2E2 
420 BRIT/SII A"/ERICA. 
particularly disposed to adopt this doctrine, because 
in these regions all the more laborious and degrad-
ing parts of the business oflife devolve upon them; 
and they even occasionally kill their female chil-
dren as soon as they are born, in order, as they say, 
to save them from the miseries which a prolonged 
existence would infallibly entail upon them. The 
Indians uniyersally believe that there are places 
of future reward and punishment; and, though 
they but ill agree in regard to where these are 
situated, they have but one opinion upon the >13-
ture of the enjoyments and sufferings which they 
respectively hold in store for their inmates. Para-
dise is, according to them, a beautiful country, 
abounding with game, and tenanted by their de-
ceased friends and relatives; while hell involves 
pain, hunger, cold, and negation. Here we perceive 
a repetition of those gross conceits respecting the 
celestial and infernal regions ',dlich characterise 
the mythologies of all northern nations, not eyen 
excepting that of the Scandin:n-ians. In them, an 
exemption from labour, and the gratification of 
the appetites, are always represented as constitut-
ing the chief rewards of the blessed; while, on the 
other hand, the religioll s systems of more southerly 
regions, where the human race liye in comparatil'e 
ease and abundance, in general give a more re-
, 
ABORIGINES OF BRITISH AMERICA. 
fined and intellectual character to the 
ments of heaven. 
It appears singular that, amongst a people so 
imaginative and intellectual as the British Ame-
rican Indians art', religion should appear under 
a form as mean and unimpressive as she ever 
assumes in even the least civilized parts of the 
earth. The Indians have neither priests nor 
places of public worship, unless we should give 
the former name to those pretended sorcerers 
who delude their countrymen into the belief that 
1 they have occasional periods of inspiration, during ,,  which they can predictfuture events, and obtain a 
,"  knowledge of what is going on in the upper and 
1 lower worlds. PersollS' of this kind are found in 
every tribe, and they meet with more or less credit 
and encouragement according as their prophecies 
f,  - have been verified or otherwise. They perform ,\  their incantations in a temporary hut or tent, 
• 
,•  composed of wooden poles covered with skins, and 
,• j  heated with the vapour produced by pouring 
1 water upon hot stones; and no one is allowed to 
enter the enclosure, or to observe their proceedings, 
the result of these being communicated or kept 
secret as happens to suit the views of the actors. 
We may recognize in these men a counterpart of 
the angekoks of the Greenlanders, the conjurers 
• 
• 
• 
422 IlRITISH AM ERICA. 
of Nova Zembla, the magicians of Congo and 
Loango, and the prophets of the Caribbean and 
Antilian islands; and the existence of this class 
of impostors has always been observed, except in 
the case of the British American Indians, to 
argue a very small developement of the faculties 
in the nations by whom they are esteemed or 
even tolerated. But if we feel astonished that 
the Indians sbould alloW' themselves to be duped 
by the clumsy artifices of their priests, we must 
be much more so at the credulity of the early 
European voyagers and travellers, most of whom 
not only gave faitb to the supernatural powers 
assumed by the magicians of unci,ilized coun-
tries, but even attributed these to the direct 
agency of the devil. Martin Frobisher describes 
the sorceri es of the Greenlanders, and expresses his 
satisfaction that both himself and his followers 
had escaped their malignant influence. !\fartyr, 
in his Decades of the Ocean. often alludes to the 
diabolical arts and enchantments practised by the 
inhabitants of the '\Te st Indian Islands; and he 
asserts that a friar, named Peter de Corduba, 
once exorcised and conjured the evil spirits of 
Hispaniola, and forced them to answer many 
questions. Carlo and Merolla, two Catholic 
missionaries who attempted to propagate the 
ABORIGINES OF BRITISH AMERICA. 428 
faith in Congo and Angola, had continual con-
tests with the sorcerers of these countries, whom 
they describe as possessing supernatural powers 
of an evil kind; and Lafitau declares himself 
of opinion that the magicians and conjurers of 
North America keep up a communication with 
infernal spirits. It is highly improbable that any 
of the nations to which I have referred ever pos-
sessed sorcerers superior in expertness and in the 
arts of deception to those who in the present day 
are found in North America; and we may there- , 
fore regard the credulity of its aborigines in this 
respect as much more excusable than that which 
was so generally manifested in similar cases by Eu-
ropeans less than one hundred and fifty years ago. 
The existence of regularly constituted priests 
is always favourable to the developement of the 
_ mythological system of the people amongst 
whom they are found, the secular members of a 
barbarous community having in general neither 
leisure nor capacity to enter into religious specu-
lations, or to define and determine which ought 
to be believed by themselves and their coun-
trymen. Hence the British American Indians, 
the Negroes of West Africa, and the Hottentots, 
are remarkable for the meagreness of their respec-
tive mythologies; nor are they better provided 
424 BRITISH AMERICA. , 
• 
in a different department of human knowledge. 
which equally falls within the sphere of the 
priesthood, and which in uncivilized countries at 
least always owes its origin to them - I mean 
national hi story. The mode in which America " 
was peopled having from our earliest acquaintance 
w ith that country formed a perplexing subject 
{)f discussion, it was hoped that many of its abori-
ginal tribes would have been able to communi-
cate some traditions relative to the question; and 
the northern part of the continent was considered , 
'the quarter in which these were most likely to 
exist, because it is generally agreed that the tide 
of human migration in the New ' Vorld flowed 
from thence. nut the British A merican Indians 
possess no traditions of this kind that merit serious 
notice, and mostly believe that the human race . ' 
',' 
originated in the regions which they themselves .'t 
\, 
respectively inhabit. Nor are they less defective " 
in monuments of art and antiquity than in 
records of the past. It would be unreasonable 
to look for buildings and works of labour and 
" ,• 
magnitude in a country occupied by a few incon- , 
siderable nomude tribes ; bu t as the Indians are 
acquainted with the use of a rude, kind of hiero-
glyphics, and occasionally employ these to express 
parti cular occurrences, we might expect to find 
that t hey had Jll'cserved amongst themselves 
ABORIGIl'iES OF BRITISH AMERICA . 425 
lOme specimens of that description of writing. 
of greater or less antiquity, and embodying the 
general annals of their nation or tribe. But no 
remains have been discovered in this department 
any more than in the other. Those tumuli-
those vast mound-like fortifications - and those 
copper axes and fragments of pottery, which have 
been discovered in North America, and which 
have led many persons to conc1 ude that a civilized 
, 
l people must eight or nine hundred years ago have 
.I.  inhabited several parts of it, are entirely confined 
to the United States, or at least have hitherto 
been observed only to the southward of Lakes 
Ontario and Erie. The Indians of British Ame-
• 
i 
• rica could therefore have had no hand in the j 
••  formation of them, and on that account it would 
1 
• be out of place to enter into any details concern-
• Jng them here. 
Various attempts have been made by Europe-
ans to reclaim the Indians from their wandering 
habits of life, and to render them a sedentary 
and an agricultural people. It has long been 
obvious that unless something of the kind is 
effected, the extinction of the entire aboriginal 
race of North. America must eventually ensue, 
from the appropriation and settlement of their 
hunting-grounds which has already taken place, 
and which is stilI going 011 in the present day. The 
• 
• • 
426 BRITISH AMERICA. 
Indians themselves are sufficiently aware of tbia, 
but the subject causes them little uneasiness; 
for being naturally improvident and disinclined 
for anticipation, they think only of the passing 
day, or consider that at worst some part of their 
territories will always remain available to them 
as long or much longer than tbey themselves 
can possibly live. Like most other uncivilized 
men, they never reflect upon wbat may be tbe 
condition or fate of .their posterity; nor is any 
inhabitant of the earth less called upon to do tbi. 
than an Indian; for having received absolutely 
nothing from his ancestors except existence, he 
possesses and enjoys nothing that he is bound in 
justice and conscience to presen'e and to hold in 
deposit ·f or the use of future generations. 
It is extremely difficult to induce even a no-
made pastoral prople to renounce their wander-
ings, and to cultivate the soil ; but it is infinitely 
more so to effect a similar change in a nomade 
hunting nation, such as tbe British American 
Indians, the transition from tbe one state to tbe 
other being less violent, and less subversive of • 
former habits of life, in the first case than in 
the last. Hence the total inefficiency of all the 
plans that have hitherto been devised for the 
civilization of the Indians, whether tbe principle 
of these was general instruction conveyed through 
• 
• 
ABORIGINES OF BRITISH AMERICA. 427 
the medium of schools, or conversion to Chris-
tianity, or the diffusion of a taste for the arts, 
enjoyments, and conveniences of social life. But • 
another difficulty stands in the way of the ac-
complishment of this object, which at least equals 
in magnitude the one just mentioned. The In-
dians, unlike the generality of savage nations, 
refuse to admit that Europeans. are superior to 
themselves, or that our manners, institutions, and 
modes of life are preferable to their own, or in 
any way deserving of imitation; and their dul-
ness of apprehension or obstinacy in this respect 
is so confirmed, that even the fire-arms of our 
manufacture, which they are in the daily habit 
of employing in the chase, and which infinitely 
surpass in utility their native weapons, are not 
regarded by them as proofs of our knowledge and 
_acquirements, or as an example of the value of 
those arts in which they themselves are so miser-
ably deficient. They conceive that it is avarice 
and cupidity alone that induce us to exercise our 
1 faculties in adding to the conveniences of life, 
and that if we had not the means of selling the 
products of our ingenuity abroad, we would be 
content to do without them at home, and would 
adopt the habits of the Indian, as being those 
that are most congenial to human nature and 
human happiness. These gross and mi6taken 
-'28 BRITISH AMERICA. 
opinions are the more deeply rooted in their . 
minds, because they fiatter one of their preju-
dices, which of itself presents a strong barrier to 
their advancement to a state of civilization. A 
condition demanding any regular manual labour 
is, according to their ideas, the most degrading 
one in which a man can be placed; and aware 
that industry is essential to the pursuit of agri-
culture, and to tbe existence of social and organ- • 
iied communities, they regard civilization as ne-
cessarily a state of toil and servitude, whicb they 
ought studiously to avoid as long as they desire 
to preserve their dignity and their independence. 
No other aboriginal people that has been brought 
into contact with Europeans, either by conquest 
or in any other way, has so long and so obsti-
nately refused to conform to the habits and 
usages of the latter as the North American In-
dians have done, excepting only the Hindoos, 
who, possessing laws, institutions, forms of govern-
ment, and systems of literature and philosophy of 
their own, are provided wi th the strongest and 
most uncontrovertible reasons for adhering to 
these and resisting innovations. But the wild, 
wandering, half-naked Indian, attached to his 
peculiar mode of life by aboriginal habits alone, 
would, we might suppose, be willing enough to 
receive from foreign hands the means of amelia,. 
ABORIGIN ES OF BRITISH AMERICA. 429 
rating his condition; he has, on tbe contrary, 
always rejected these-nOl: is he likely to accept 
them so long as he can find an unappropriated 
tract of forest for refuge between the east and 
west shores of the continent which he inhabits. 
• • 
430 
• 
• 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY IN BRITISH 
AMERICA. 
THE history of the early settlement of the 
different countries of America which lie north 
of the Gulf of Florida, is tame, uninteresting, 
and deficient in variety, compared with that of 
the more southerly parts of the same conti-
nent. It is true, that the first embraces fewer 
scenes of bloodshed, rapine, injustice, and misery 
than the latter, and that it shows us the Euro-
• 
pean invaders of the New VIr orld devoting them-
selves to the pacific and gentle occupations of 
agriculture, instead of ransacking the earth and 
the waters for gold, and committing in the pur-
suit of wealth those excesses which had previ-
ously been regarded as the peculiar province of • 
ambition and bigotry; and in so far it is the 
more agreeable of the two: but none of its epi-
sodes make the smallest approach in grandeur or 
singularity to the conquest of Mexico by Cortes, 
or to that of Peru by Pizarro; nor do even the 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 431 
most daring of them present such examples of 
valour and perseverance as the invasion of Flo-
rida by Fernando de Soto, and the subjugation of 
Chili by Valdivia. But the different character 
of the transactions which attended the settle-
ment of the northern and southern divisions of 
America, had its origin as much in the dissimilar 
state of aboriginal society in these two quarters 
of the globe, as in the opposite views, habi ts, and 
circumstances of the Europeans who respectively 
resorted to them. The Spaniards, rendered a 
martial and adventUl'ous people by their pro-
tracted contests with the Moors, carried that spirit 
along with them to the New World, and there 
delighting nearly as much in scenes of danger 
and enterprise as they did in the acquisition of 
gold, they attached themselves by preference to 
expeditions which involved these, and carried on 
the business of life as it were sword in hand; 
and coming into contact with civilized nations 
in Mexico and Peru, and with warlike ones in 
Florida and in Chili, they found a field for the 
display of their intrepidity such as had no exist-
ence in the northern parts of America, 
The British who formed settlements in Vir-
ginia, and in New England, and in the Carolinas, 
were a quiet and sedate people, either intent ,upon 
commerce and agriculture, or in search of a place 
• 
482 BRITISH AMERICA. 
of refuge from religious persecution; nor, had 
any theatre of conquest or glory presented itself to 
their view, is it probable that they would have 
been tempted to seek distinetion there. This 
may be said in particular with reference to the 
Puritans; for never was any system of opinions 
more calculated than theirs to repress that spirit 
of enterprise and adventure which leads men to 
roam abroad in quest of scenes of excitement, 
and to seek an outlet for their energies, both men-
tal and physical, in situations of danger, uneasi-
ness, and perplexity. Puritanism, with all its ex-
ternals of humility, embodied so much self-appro-
bation, and so much self-importance, that men 
under its influence necessarily became absorbed 
in the affairs of their sect, and in a manner in-
different to everything th~t did not fall within 
the range of the circle of thought which its doc-
trines prescribed and defined ; and though the 
restraint which this implied might sometimes 
prove disagreeable or inconvenient, the party 
submitting to it was encouraged to do so by 
the idea that he was one of that chosen few 
who alone possessed the faculty of discriminating 
between right and wrong, and to whom it be-
hoved the rest of mankind to look for example 
and instruction. And it was this system of ex-
• 
E UROPEAN SOCIETY. 438 
elusiveness, objectionable as it is in many points 
of view, that rendered the Puritans the most 
useful. industrious, and successful seftlers that 
ever took up their abode in North America. 
On alTiving there, they quietly and unanimous-
Iy  engaged in the essential business of life - that 
of cultivating the soil and forming themselves into 
an organized community; and though their pro-
gress towards botb of these objects was at various 
times retarded by religious dissensions, they ne-
ver altogether lost sight of either of them, nor 
t expended their means and energies in useless and 
i 
I unprofitable pursuits. Had not the Puritans 
I been animated and held in fellowship by a strong 
I spirit of sectarianism, 'and by a desire for mutual 
conformity amongst themselves, they would in 
all likelihood have followed the example of the ge-
_ nerality of the emigrants who preceded them, and 
devoted their time to expeditions of discovery, 
to schemes of conquest, to a search after the 
, 
precious metals, and to wild and unproductive 
adventures of various kinds. The early annals of 
our North American settlements might, in that 
I 
case, have resembled in interest and variety those 
, of the Spanish nation in the same continent; but, 
,,  
,• happily for its aborigines, the Puritans were al-
• 
•• •  ways so much engrossed with their own internal 
• 
• VOL. II. 2 F I 
BIllTISIl AMERICA. 
and local affairs as to be inacces..ible to a p_ 
sion for conquest, or plunder, or extensive do-
. . 
million. 
The history of the pro{,rress of European set-
tlement in Brit.ish America involves few re- . 
markable circumstances. The emigration to the 
Canadas was small and irregular while tbey re-
mained under the dominion of France, and the 
settlements were chiefly confined to the banks 
of the St. I,awrence, or to their immediate neigh-
bonrhood; nor did they extend much higher up 
that river than the present site of Montreal. The 
French were ~ufficiently aware that a milder cli-
mate and a more fertile soil were to be found 
farther westward, but they wislted to concentrate 
the scanty population of the country as much as 
possible in the vicinity of Quebec, both for the 
defence of thp. capital and for the encouragement 
of fisheries and agricllltnre along the borders of 
the St. Lawrence. And at this time the regions 
lying aronnd lakes Ontario and Erie were not &C-
ces~ible to the colonists, because the Six Nations 
of Indians held possession of them, and would 
allow no European settlements to be formed in 
any of their territories, which were immensely 
E'xten~ive, and embraced the finest districts of 
Upper Canada. 
The Count de Frontenac ha\'ing at length, 
• 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 435 
partly by intrigue lind partly by force, subdued 
the Six Nations, or at least, diminished their pre-
tensions, a large portion of their lands would 
most likely have been thrown open for settle-
ment, but the war that ensued with the Eng-
lish, and the eventual cession of the Canadas to 
that nation, prevented any measure of the kind 
from being carried into effect at the time; and 
when the country fell into our hands, all its 
most favoured and fertile parts remained over-
spread with forests, and almost unknown, except 
to the Indians who pursued the chase there. 
The French peasantry who at present inhabit 
Lower Canada, a good deal resemble in manner 
and character those of the maritime provinces 
of France; they are a frugal, industrious, and 
contented race of people, pure in their morals 
_ and benevolent in their dispositions, and strongly 
attached to their native religion. But those who 
reside upon the lower parts of the St. Law-
rence, possess little of that vivacity of temper 
and that habitual cheerfulness which belong to 
the French people generally; for, living in a 
rigorous climate, and in a sterile and gloomy 
country, and accustomed to hard labour and a 
poor dict, their minds necessarily partake of 
the character of their personal circumstances. 
On the other hand, the French Canadians set-
436 BRITISH AMERICA. 
tied · in the neighbourhood of Montreal, are, per-
haps, the most agreeable specimens of the lower 
classes of society that are to be found in any 
part of the world. Intelligent, animated, free 
from rusticity, and of unconquerable good-hu-
mour, they exemplify the happy influenc·e which 
moderate labour, abundance of the necessaries of 
life, and a limited degree of knowledge, exert 
upon the human character, But these men, or . 
indeed any of the other French residents of 
British America, are too inconsiderable in num-
ber, and too insignificant as respects their influ-
ence upon the mass of society there, to deserve 
any prolonged attention; for all the populous 
parts of that country are mostly occupied by 
individuals who, unlike them, retain few or none 
of the characteristics of their respective natal re-
gions, and who, unfettered by associations either 
foreign 01' domestic, exist in a state of unpruned 
wildness similar to that of the forests which sur-
round them. 
In taking a general view of the British colo-
nies in various parts of the world, we cannot 
but he astonished at the prolific power which 
the parent country has displayed in affording 
in habitants to so many regions, without either 
exhausting or impoverishing herself; but it ap-
pears to me t hat her success in this respect is less 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 431 
to be attributed to her redundant population 
at home than to the means which she has always 
enjoyed of promoting a systematic kind of emi-
gration, and of affording to every class of her 
subjects a suitable and congenial sphere of ac-
tion in foreign countries. No colony whatever, 
though it may be in the highest degree favoured 
by art and by Nature, can form an equally desir-
able place of resort to men of all grades and pro-
fessions; for when these are brought into con-
tact and collision in a spot where society has not 
assumed a well-organized character, and where 
the rights, interests, and duties of particular in-
di viduals remain undefined, a scene of social 
confusion necessarily 'ensues, and everyone, in-
stead of applying to his proper business, en-
gages in local dissensions, and seeks to promote 
the advantage and to increase the importance 
of the class to which he happens to belong, 
though his efforts in these respects may in reality 
be hurtful both to himself and to others. In a 
situation of this kind, the merchant; the agri-
culturist, the manufacturer, and the ship-ownel·, 
necessarily take opposite views of the affairs of 
the colony, and individually try to divert these 
into the channel that is likely to prove most con-
ducive to the prospel'ity of their respective pro-
fessions; and thus, by their intl'igues and devices, 
• 
• 
4S8 llltlTISH AMERICA.· 
throw obstacles in the way of the general im-
provement of things, and counteract each other 
even in their mutual efforts to do good. 
Such evils seldom prevail, at least to any ex-
tent, in the foreign settlements of the British 
nation, berouse almost everyone of these has a 
peculiar social character which fits it for the re-
sidence of a certain class of her subjects only; 
and it is this circumstance that has in a great 
measure enabled her to maintain in SUbjection 
and prosperity the numerons and extensive colo-
nies that at present belong to her. 
The higher classes of her subjects who desire 
to obtain employment abroad find a congenial 
sphere of action in the East Indies, from which 
nil adventurers are excluded, and where all the 
Euro, pean residents harmonize in their views and 
interests, and willingly conform to the established 
system of things; on the other hand, capitalists 
and men of enterprise inclined for foreign specu-
lations resort to the "\\1" est Indies, or to the IIM-
ports of our Eastern dominions; the labouring 
agriculturist, unable to subsist in his native 
land, has a suitable place of refuge in British 
America; and the convict, whose presence might 
irritate the feelings and poison the comfort of 
colonists of a fastidious class, is transported to 
New Sonth Wales, where he lives out of the way 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 439 
of those who wish to shun his presence and the 
country which he is permitted to inhabit. This 
individuality of character in our foreign establish-
ments has contributed to their prosperity in a 
double way; it has not only promoted emigra-
tion by enabling people disposed for it to per-
ceive at once wbat part of the world is most 
suited to their views and dispositions, but by 
assimilating the general interests of the inhabi-
tants of each colony, it has rendered the local 
government of them a comparatively easy task, 
and given a solidity to the social system in situ-
ations where, under different circumstances, it 
very commonly remains in a state of incurable 
disjunction. 
But while we admire the arrangement of the 
colonial establishments of Great Britain, we can-
, not fail to pel'ceive that their very convenience 
and effectiveness as respects emigration, has 
produced in the parent country an artificial state 
of society which involves many evils and disad-
vantages. 
The source of that impulse which in Eng-
land leads a large proportion ot: the lower classes of 
the people to endeavour to raise themselves above 
their natural and proper sphere, 'and to encroach 
upon that of the higher orders, is our numerous 
and extensive colonies; for the regular oullet 
.' 
BRITISH AM ERICA. 
which they have long afforded to men of the • 
learned professions, has encouraged mechanics 
.and tradesmen and others to educate their chil-
dren for these, though under different circum-
stances they never would have entertained an 
idea of the kind. There are few individuals, 
however humble their rank in society may be, • 
who, if they possess the requisite means, do not 
endeavour to qualify at least one of their family 
for a situation in the colonies, and should they 
.fail in obtaining this, they send him there in the 
character of an adventurer, instead of making him 
follow either his father's occupation or some analo-
gous one at home. His parents, in order to meet -
the expenses of his education, are obliged to deny 
themselves the necessaries of life, and to be 
unjust to their other children by withholding from 
them' those enjoyments and advantages which , 
• 
would have fallen to their share, had not one 
individual out of their number been selected for 
elevation to a sphere much higher than that ill 
which they themselves are destined to move. 
Nor does the evil stop here, for the family having 
fitted out one of its members for the colonies, 
and procured a situation for him there, next seeks 
to raise itself to the grade which he may have 
attained in society abroad, and . with this view 
perhaps even relinquishes its humble though 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 441 
profitable occupations, and sacrifices everything 
to the vanity of external appearance. Ruin 
sooner or later follows this change of habits, and 
six or seven individuals may thus be reduced to 
poverty and rendered miserable, on account of 
one whom the vanity of his parents has sent abroad 
to run the chance of making his fortune, but who, 
disappointed in his views, probably has cause to 
regret the care and expense that have been 
lavished upon him, and to wish that he had been 
permitted to follow some humble and illiterate 
occupation in his native country. 
Had Great Britain no colonies, or at least none 
that afforded a sphere of action for men of the 
learned professions, 'or for enterprising adven-
turers, we should find the lower, and even the 
middle classes of her population, bringing up their 
_ children as mechanics and tradesmen, instead of 
struggling to elevate them to a grade in society, 
which they could never attain in a country 
destitute of outlets for its surplus inhabitants; of 
every rank and description. 'Ve re England to 
be suddenly deprived of her foreign establish-
ments, it would at once appear evident that the 
entire mass of her population, exclusive of the 
aristocracy and the landed proprietors, had ad-
vanced at least one step beyond their proper and 
natural sphere of life; for . the meinbers of the 
•,  
, 
442 BIlITISB AMERICA, 
learned professions and various other educated 
persons, who had found employment abroad, • 
being thus thrown back upon their native coun-
try, and those individuals of the same description, 
who were qualifying themselves at home to fol-
low a similar career, being from the like cause 
,,  
deprived of an opportunity of emigrating, the 
country would be overwhelmed with legal, cleri-
cal, mercantile, and medical pretendants ;. and the 
" 
grand proportion of these, unable to Jive by their , 
professions, would be obliged to retrograde one 
or two steps in the scale of society, and to be- , 
come mechanics and manufacturers, or even to 
acquire the means of subsistenrc by manual , 
labour, It is true that most of thcm, in doing so, , 
, 
would only resume that condition. and return to 
that sphere in which they had bcen bol'll, and to 
which they properly belonged; but this reflection ,•  
would hardly reconcile them to their lot, or ren-
dcr them contented and useful members of' 
society, and their native country would long feel " , 
the evils of their presence, and the troublesome , 
effects of that progressing impulse, which exten-
sive and prosperous colonial establishments had 
communicated to the middle and lower orders of 
her population. The influx of wealth alld 
knowledge which England derives from her 
. , 
forcign relations and eonnCXlOns, IS not unac-
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 443 
companied with ill effects to society at large, in 
so far as it diffuses there a restlessness of spirit, 
a passion for wealth, and a rivalry in external 
appearance, which, though favourable to the 
progress of manners, are subversive of happiness, 
of simplicity of mind, and of quiet contentment. 
In the inland countries of Europe, where the 
1 national and individual resources are cl• rcum-
! 
• 
I scribed and defined, and where the mass of the , 
people can neither improve their circumstances 
1 by going abroad, nor derive any revenue from 
• foreign establishments, we find them living in a ! 
state of social harmony and placid enjoyment 
that are scarcely known in England. They do 
, not generally seek to' advance themselves into a 
•, ,  sphere superior to that in which they were born, 
i 
•·  nor do they endeavour to appear richer than they 
_. really are, or sacrifice their ease and domestic tran-
quillity for the sake of external appearance. In 
Germany, in France, in Austria, and in Sweden, 
poverty is seldom considered disgraceful, and the 
inhabitants of these countries take but moderate 
pains to acquire wealth, and are not led to devote 
much attention to that object, because few ways 
•  of compassing it present themselves to their 
view. But in Great Britain, the foreign channels 
through which riches flow are innumerable, and 
are open to all ranks, and consequently her in-
, 
• 
• 
446 BRITISH AM ERICA. 
they may commence their career in a vigorous' and 
enterprising way, too often stop short in the middle 
of it, or, failing in their inordinate and ill-con-
ducted speculations, abandon the settlement, and 
deter others from coming to supply their place. 
The colonial establishments that have been fonned 
by different nations in the rich and productive 
regions between the tropics, though they offer a 
far more enticing field of exertion than those 
situated in temperate regions can ever do, have 
undergone vicissitudes and disasters to which the 
latter have always been strangers. The ,\re st 
Indies, the Eastern Islands, and the .equatorial 
parts of America, have for centuries past been the 
resort of persons of wealth and enterprise; but ne- ,•  
vertheless, we find that the agricultural and com- ,,  •,  
mercial settlements in these regions have never .,,'  •  
had much stability, and that their population has 
· 
always been liable to change and to fluctuation, I 
circumstances equally arising from a want of in-
dustry and perseverance in their foreign inhabi-
tants, and from the facility with which many of 
them have acquired sufficient wealth to admit of 
their returning to their native oountry, and spend-
ing the rest of their lives there. 
,\Then we contemplate the general condition 
of the peasantry of Great Britain, and observe to 
what privations many of them nre exposed from 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 447 
want of employment, and from the high price of 
food, we would wish to form a colony for the 
reception of all of them that might choose to emi-
grate, and where they might receive fertile lands 
free of cost, and expend their labour upon these, 
and become independent of everything except 
their individual industry. The nature of the 
locality of the spot selected for a settlement of 
this kind would be a subject of great importance. 
It ought to possess a soil and a climate resembling 
as nearly as possible those of Great Britain, in or-
der that the emigrants might be able to cultivate 
the productions of their native land, and to live 
as respects diet, dress, exercise, and habitations, 
in the way that they· 'had been accustomed to do 
there. It ought to be so far distant from any sea-
port, that its inhabitants could have no opportu-
nity of acquiring a taste for commerce, or even 
any notions upon the subject; nor ought a town 
or populous settlement to lie in its neighbourhood, 
lest these should be the means of introducing 
amongst them the corruptions of busy social life, 
or of rendering them dissatisfied with the simplicity 
of agricultural habits and manners. The colony 
ought moreover to be provided with churches and 
with clergymen, but with this indispensable re-
striction, that all of the latter should belong to the 
same sect and preach the same doctrines; nor would 
• 
• 
• 
448 BRlTISlI • A~IERICA. 
it be complete without a reasonable number of 
schools, in which the simplest branches of educa-
tion were alone permitted to be taught; and lastly, 
it ought to enjoy the protection and fostering 
care of a mild, a liberal, and an equitable govern-
ment, such as would neither oppress it with taxes, 
nor interfere too much with its local and inter-
nal arrangements. A population composed of the 
peasantry of England assembled in a situation of 
this. kind, would, we may believe, exhibit one of 
the most agreeable and satisfactory states of un-
refined social life that can easily be imagined; 
for relieved from the pressure of poverty, certain 
of the means of future subsistence, and perform-
ing only a moderate and wholesome proportion of 
labour, they would become a contented, gentle, 
cheerful, and unassuming race, exempt from pre-
judice, destitute of marked peculiarities, and in 
short, the reverse of everything that is coarse, 
repulsive, or unnatural. 
But how and where shall we found a colony such 
as I have just described? The truth is, that one 
of the kind already exists in the interior of Bri-
tish America, and I have drawn an outline of the 
• 
circumstances of Upper Canada, merely to show 
that men, placed in a situation of the kind, do 
not acquire that style of character which we 
should be led to expect. The inhabitants of 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. . 449 
British America, so far from exhibiting that sim-
plicity of mind, and that similarity of ideas, and 
those mild manners, which seem to be a general 
concomitant of agricultural life in remote and 
solitary situations, and in a fertile country, are 
extremely ' artificial in their habits and opinions, 
and seem unwilling to allow these to flow in the 
channel which they would naturally follow were 
they permitted to take their own course. Those 
characteristics of rural life, that rusticity of mind, 
those unassuming manners, that placid content-
ment, and that serenity of domestic feeling, which 
belong more or less to the agricultural popula-
tion of England, are scarcely ever to be ob-
served amongst even ' the British settlers of Bri-
tish America. There the rude dwelling, em-
bowered in forest~, and remote from any other 
__ habitation, is seldom found to contain the hum-
ble and unaffected inmates who seem congenial 
to such an abode. On the contrary, we shall 
hardly fail to find amongst them high preten-
sions, an assuming style of manners, and a vain 
display of general knowledge. They usually 
recall with pain and unwillingness their former 
condition in their native country, and deride all 
local associations connected with the latter; and 
strive to show, that they have emancipated them-
selves from the trammels of national habits 
VOL. II. 2 G 
• 
• 
450 BRITISH AMERICA. 
of thought, and are now qualified of them-
selves to judge, to reason, to approve and to 
condemn, in all possible transactions of life, with-
out foreign assistance. All this is, perhaps, merely 
the result of a strong sense of personal inde-
pendence in minds that have formerly known 
nothing of the kind; nor is it unlikely that when 
it has subsided, a variety of more agreeable and 
more consistent qualities will develope them-
selves. But meanwhile, we find little difficulty 
'. 
in viewing these anomalous features of character 
with toleration, because they are accompanied 
with good and benevolent dispositions, and be-
cause we may expect, that the descendants of the 
present agricultural population of British Ame-
rica will exhibit a temperament more congenial 
to their condition, and in better harmony with 
their circumstances and mode of life, than what 
I .h ave just described; though it is impossible 
not to be stmck with the nature of the results, 
which have in this case arisen out of a condition 
of human society, which would seem calculated 
to produce very different ones. 
The great mass of the population of British 
America consists of persons of the lower classes, 
who have emigrated from Europe, or of their 
descendants. A society of this kind does not 
exhibit those shades of character, that diversity 
• 
• 
• 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 451 
of manners, and those grades of refinement, which 
afford scope for description, and therefore the 
notices which I have to offer respecting it, are 
necessarily unimportant and few in number. 
The agricultural inhabitants of British America 
are, generally speaking, an uneducated and illite-
rate people, but they are, nevertheless, remarkable 
for plain good sense, for soundness of judgment 
in the common affairs of life, and for a large share 
of acuteness and discernment. They are, moreover, 
hospitable, good-humoured, and sociably inclined, 
but have little vivacity of disposition, and their 
manners are somewhat abrupt, boisterous, and un-
conciliating. They pay little regard to external 
appearance, whether as respects themselves per-
sonally, or their families, or their habitations; 
nor do they cultivate or esteem any kind 'of 
--- amusements, or even engage in those to which 
they have been accustomed in their native land. 
Their chief pleasure consists in conversation, and 
when they carry this on with a stranger, they exhi-
bit a good deal of that impertinent curiosity with 
which the Americans have so often been reproach-
ed. The subjects upon which they talk amongst 
themselves, are in general rather beyond the range 
of their powers of mind or opportunities of obser-
vation, being chiefly politics and religious con-
troversy, and here, and in almost everything else 
2G2 
• 
452 BRITI SH AM ERICA. 
that they do, they make incessant efforts to ap-
pear superior to what they really are; but this 
kind of vanity is not without useful results, for 
it callses them to be more scrupulous in their 
conduct and transactions than they would perhaps . 
otherwise be. They are universally of active and 
industrious habits, and even after they have ac-
quired a competency, they seldom grow indolent 
or cease to engage in the common business of 
their farms. 'fhe chief faults in their general 
character are self-conceit, an affectation of know-
ledge which they do not possess, and a perpetual 
desire to sho\\' that they feel independent. It is 
obviolls that these qualities must form I,rreat bar- • 
riers to their improvement, and in reality they 
have no idea that anything of the kind is either 
requis1 te 0 1' desirable in their own case; nor are 
, 
they perhaps much to blame in this, for it is not 
easy to perceive what particular good would re-
sult fmm their cultivating their minds, and re-
fining theil' manners. except in "" fllr as it would 
render them more agreeable to the strangers and 
foreigners who occasionally come into contact 
with them. 
It must however be admitted, that the present 
manners and habits of thought of the agricultural 
population of most parts of British America, are 
compatible only with that system of social equality 
which exists there, and which does not require or 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 453 
allow of any general division of its inhabitants 
into higher and lower clrusses; but were an influx 
of emigrants of wealth and education to take 
place from Europe into the Canadas, and were they 
to purchase large tracts of land in the middle of 
populous settlements and to reside there, they 
would find it necessary, either to lower their pre-
tensions to the standard of their neighbours, or 
to incur their hostility and hatred, and continue 
in perpetual dissension with them; for nothing 
could reconcile the latter to the in trod uction of an 
aristocratic branch of the community into the coun-
try in wbich they live, and they would obstinately 
refuse to accord its members either homage or re-
spect, alike from their natural aversion to every-
thing that implies a state of individual prerogative. 
and from a fear, lest their own rights and liberties 
_ should eventually be restrained and encroached 
upon by their self-styled superiors. But a collision 
of this kind is not likely soon to occur, for no 
person acquainted with the character and habits 
of the agricultural population of British America 
would be inclined to purchase an estate there, and 
to reside at least permanently upon it, because 
he could not fail to perceive that a situation of 
the kind would involve many unpleasant circum-
stances, and also because he could employ his 
capital to greater advantage elsewhere. The 
Canadas are at present a suitable place of resort 
" -
• 
454 BRITISH AMERICA. 
for poor men only, and it is to be hoped that they 
will long continue so; for when they become any-
thing else, their utility to Great Britain, and their 
• 
value as a colony will greatly diminish. The 
humble and industrious emigrant now finds there 
a congenial asylum, and an open and unrestricted 
field of exertion, but were rich individuals to 
purchase and appropriate to themselves the best 
districts in the country, and to encumber these 
with servitudes, quit-rents, superiorships, mortga-
ges, entails, and similar territorial complications, 
that uniformity and simplicity of the social system 
which at present exists in the col,o ny. and which 
operates so much to the general benefit of the 
mass of its inhabitants, would be destroyed, and ,• 
• 
the distribution of landed property would become 
as partial, inconvenient, and fantastic as it is in the 
most 'civilized parts of Europe. We often hear 
a particular class of people in the ('anadas complain 
that the British government has never favoured 
their trade to the degree that it might do, by 
raising the duties upon foreign timber, and byen-
couraging the exportation of flour from the colony. 
Whatever truth there may be in these statements, 
the result of the system that has been adopted 
towards the Canadas by the parent country, is 
, 
exactly what every disintere~ted person must 
desire; for they have not been allowed to become 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 455 
a great commercial country, and they have for 
tbat reason preserved up to the present time their 
utility and desirableness as a place of emigration 
for the agricultural poor of England, which is the 
colonial character that ought alone and exclusively 
to belong to them. 
Though the great mass of the population of 
British America is, as I have already said, com-
posed of persons of the lower class of society, 
still a few individuals belonging to a superior 
one are to be found in various parts of the 
country. These are chiefly merchants and 
their families, either natives of the colony, or 
Europeans who may have settled there. In 
manners and mode , ·of life they resemble the 
middle ranks of socIety in Great Britain, only 
that they have more simplicity of mind, and 
_ affect less external pretension. If the substan-
tial parts of human happiness consist in an 
abundance of all the necessaries of life, in an ex-
emption from fatiguing employments, in the ab-
sence of any anxiety respecting the future, and 
in the enjoyment of health, freedom, and gene-
ral tranquillity, the class of individuals which I 
am now describing is as highly favoured as any 
portion of the human species. This is quite 
apparent in the vivacity of disposition and cheer-
fulness of temper which they continually exhibit, 
-•- 
456 llRITISH AMERICA. 
and in their unartificial tastes and unaffected 
style of thinking; for people never cease to be 
natural till they have ceased to be happy. 
In examining the general condition of the 
middle ranks of society as they exist in the CD-
lonies, and in the more civilized parts of Eu-
rope, and forming an estimate of the moral and 
physical advantages which they respectively en-
joy, our opinions are kept in a state of fluctua-
tion by a view of the tranquil bappiness of the 
first, and of the social refinement of the latter. 
I t is scarcely necessary to remark, that in the CD-
lonies we seldom observe that cultivation of the 
taste and understanding, and those accurate per-
ceptions of things, which lend a strong charm to 
social life wherever they exist, and which confer 
sources of enjoyment upon those possessing them 
which' are unknown to other minds. But then 
we are led to ask, whether all this be re'dlly 
worth the trouble which attends its acquisition, 
and the sacrifices which are in most cases re-
quired to admit of its being cultivated and dis-
played. Two-thirds of the middle ranks of peo- , 
pIe in Europe are induced, by their passion for 
refinement, to live much beyond their means; 
and in supporting their pretensions to that qua-
lity, they are obliged to have recourse to a va-
riety of disagreeable, inconvenient, and even de-
F.UROPEAN SOCIETY. 457 
grading expedients, and sometimes even to dis-
pense in secret with the common necessaries of 
life. The concealment of poverty; and the ju-
dicious management of external appearances, 
form the chief business of many of the families 
and individuals who move in refined circles; and 
to gratify their artificial tastes and supply their 
artificial wants, they sacrifice their natural ones, 
and absolutely become despicable in their own 
eyes, in order that they may find favour in those 
of the little world to which it is their amhition to 
belong. Social life, under this form, preseuts a 
most attractive aspect to persons who view only 
its exteriors, or who can cultivate these without 
sacrificing too much for the sake of them; but it 
is to be feared that the enjoyments of those who 
enter into it without adequate resources, fall infi-
_ nitely short of the chagrins, anxieties, and disap-
pointments, which they must often experience in 
the course of their deceptive career. 
On the other hand, in the colonie., social life 
presents a comparatively simple character, and if 
its details are less varied and exciting than they 
are in the more civilized regions of Europe, they 
possess a serenity and repose which have their pe-
culiar agreeableness. This arises equally from the 
moderate views and unartificial tastes of the peo-
ple, and from the general easiness of their circum-
• 
. 
• 
458 BRITISII AMERICA. 
stances, and the abundance in which they enjoy • 
all the necessaries of life; and to the last advan-
tage may, in a great measure, be attributed the 
harmony that is wont to prevail in their bomes 
and domestic circles, a requisite of happiness 
which is often wanting amongst the middle ranks • 
of society in Europe, where convenience and com-
fort being sacrifi ced to external display, the mem-
bers of a family are subjected to privations which 
are calculated to sour their tempers, and to irritate 
them against each other. The colonist, living in 
a country where fashion, splendour, social rivalry, 
and public amusements and dissipations are un-
known; is never rendered discontented bv the 
• 
view of scenes and pleasures, from which his 
poverty or his rallk of life may exclude him; and 
t he res, ources which lie within his reach, though 
these may be comparatively limited, suit the 
scope of hi s ideas, because there are none of a 
higher or more refined sort within his observation. 
' iV ere I desired to point Oll t where civilized 
society is to be found in its happiest, least de-
formed, and most tranquil state, I should refer , 
the enquirer to the superior class of inhabitants of 
such colonies as British America, the Mauritius, 
and the Cape of Good Hope. 
' Vhen we examine lipan abstract principles all 
the different conditions of human society, from 
• 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 459 
that which involves the greatest barbarism, to 
that which exhibits the highest degree of refirie-
ment, we find it extremely difficult to determine 
what specific grade deserves the preference; for, 
if men in a barbarous state offend us by the 
coarseness of their ideas, aud the defectiveness of 
their understanding and perceptions, those who 
have attained a mature civilization, present to 
our view a perpetual collision of interests, a de-
velopement of evil passions, a complication of 
sources of human misery, and an inequality of 
circumstances, which, excite repugnance and dis-
may, and force us to decide against the eligible-
ness of a state of society, which while it permits 
one-tenth of the population composing it, to culti-
vate their tastes and improve their faculties, con-
demns the remaining proportion to a life of labour, 
_ poverty, servitude, and embarrassment, and forces 
multitudes of our species to become selfish, dis-
sem bling, and even wicked in their own defence. 
The generality of persons, in contemplating the 
evils which everywhere attend a high degree of 
civilization, are satisfied to refer them to the 
innate depravity of man; but this doctrine is 
too inconclu&ive and untenable to be admitted by 
any but the most indolent and superficial ob-
servers. The innate depravity of our species 
is doubtless true in one sense of the expression, 
4.58 BllITI Sl1 AMERI CA. • 
stances, and the abundance in which they enjoy 
all the necessaries of life; and to the last advan-
tage may, in a great measure, be attributed the , 
harmony that is wont to prevail in their homes • ~ 
• 
• 
and domestic circles, a requisite of happiness 
which is often wanting amongst the middle ranks 
of society in Europe, where convenience and com-
fort being sacrificed to extel'll al display, the mem-
bers of a family are su~j ected to privations which 
are calculated to sour their tempers, and to irritate 
them aga inst each other. The colonist, living in 
a country where fashion, splendour, social rivalry, 
and ]lublic amusements and di ssipations are un-
known, is never rendered discontcn ted by the 
view of scenes and pleasures, from which his 
poverty or hi s rank of life may exclude him; and 
the resources which lie within his reach, though 
• 
these may be comparatively limited, suit the 
scope of his ideas, because there are none of a 
higher or more refin ed sort within his observation. 
, '" ere I desired to point out where civilized 
socicty is to be found in its happiest, least de-
formed, and most tranquil state, I should refcr 
the enquirer to the superior class of inhabitants of 
such colonies as British America, the Mauritius, 
and the Cape of Good H ope. 
,\V hen we examine upon abstract principles all 
the different conditions of human society, from 
• 
EUROPEAN SOCIETY. 459 
that which invol ves the greatest barbarism, to 
that which exhibits the highest degree of refine-
ment, we find it extremely difficult to determine 
what specific grade deserves the preference; for, 
if men in a barbarous state offend liS by the 
coarseness of their ideas, and the defecti veness of 
their understanding and perceptions, those who 
have attained a mature civilization, present to 
our view a perpetual collision of interests, a de-
velopement of evil passions, a complication of 
sources of human misery, and an inequality of 
I circumstances, which, excite repugnance and dis-
may, and force us to decide agaillst the eligible-
ness of a state of society, which while it permits 
one-tenth of the population composing it, to culti-
vate their tastes and improve their faculties, con-
demns the remaining proportion to a life of labour, 
_ poverty, servitude, and embarrassment, and forces 
1 multitudes of our species to become selfish, dis-
j sembling, and even wicked in their own defence. 
j The generality of persons, in contemplating the 
I 
• evils which everywhere attend a high degree of 
••   civilization, are satisfied to refer them to the 
•• •  innate depravity of man; but this doctrine is 
• too inconclu&ive and untenable to be admitted by 
any but the most indolent and superficial ob-
servers. The innate depravity of our species 
• 
• is doubtless true in one sense of the expression, 
:1 
460 BRITISH AMERICA. , 
hu t not a~ respects the question now before 
us; for it seems very certain that a vast pro-
portion of the crimes, outrages, and delinquen-
cies which occur in the world, result from the 
• 
afflictions, necessities, sufferings, injustices, and 
hardships, to which the mass of mankind is un-
avoidably subjected in. those peculiar states of 
society, where moral evil chiefly abounds. That 
men are not naturally malignant in their disposi-
tions, or inclined to crime, or disposed to injure 
each other, is proved by a reference to those coun-
tries, whether civilized or savage, in which they 
enjoy a moderate share of personal freedom and 
independence, and an abundant supply of the 
necessaries of life. It is because a condition of 
this kind is incompatible with a high state of 
social refinement that I object to the latter, and 
that 'I desire to maintain that the amount of 
moral evil in any community, is almost entirely 
regulated by the nature of the physical condition 
of its members; and that so long as these llJ'e 
miserable, it is vain to expect that they will ever 
be virtuous. 
THE END. 
I. OYDOJf : 
1')tINTED BY' IA1U"E1. aZ)i'l'LKY, 
DoI'KI Slr~d. rlftl Street. 
,