At last: a Christmas in the West Indiesкнига
Аннотация: the wont of West India roads, are as good as they would he in Eiighand, hut on account of the quaint travellers along it, and the quaint sights whicli are to he seen over every hedge.You pass all the races of the island going to and from town or field work, or washing clothes in some clear brook, beside which a solemn Chinaman sits catching for his dinner strange fishes, known to my learned friend, Dr. Giinther, and perhaps to one or two other men in Europe : but certainly not to me.Always somebody or something new and strange is to be seen, for eight most pleasant miles.The road runs at first along a low^cliff foot, with an ugl>' Mangrove swamp, looking just like an alder-bed at home, between you and the sea; a swamp which it would be worth while to drain by a steam-pump, and then plant \\\i\\ coco- nuts or bamboos ; for its miasma makes the southern corner of Port of Spain utterly pestilential You cross a railroad, the only one in the island, which goes to a limestone quarry, and so out alono; a wide straight road, with Neg'ro cottao'es ri^^ht and left, embowered in fruit and flowers.They grow fewer and finer as you ride on ; and soon you are in open country, principally of large paddocks. These paddocks, like all WestIndian ones, are apt to be ragged with weeds and scrub.But the coarse broad-leaved grasses seem to keep the mules in good condition enough, at least in the rainy season.Most of these paddocks have, 1 believe, been under cane cultivation VEGAS.3 at some time or other ; and have been thrown into grass during the period of depression dating from 1845.It has not been worth while, as jet, to break them up again, though the profits of sugar-farming are now, or at least ought to be, very large.But the soil along this line is originally poor and sandy; and it is far more profitable to break up the rich vegas, or low alluvial lands, even at the trouble of clearing them of forest.So these paddocks are left, often with noble trees standing about in them, putting one in mind if it were not for the Palmistes and Bamboos and the crowd of black vultures over an occasional dead animal of English parks.But few English parks have such backgrounds.To the right, the vast southern flat, with its smoking engine-house chimneys and bright green cane-pieces, and, beyond all, the black wall of the primaeval forest ; and to the left, some half mile off, the steep slopes of the green northern mountains blazing in the sun, and sending down, every two or three miles, out of some charming glen, a clear pebbly brook, each w^inding through its narrow strip of vega.The vega is usually a highly cultivated cane-piece, where great lizards sit in the mouths of their burrows, and watch the passer- by wdth intense interest.Coolies and jSTegros are at work in it : but only a few ; for the strength of the hands is away at the engine-house, making sugar day and night.There is a piece of cane in act of being cut.The B 2 SAN JOSEF.men are licwiiig duwn llie giant grass with cutlasses; tlie women stripping off the leaves, and then piling the cane in carts drawn by mules, the leaders of which draw by rope traces two or three times as long as themselves.You wonder why such a seeming waste of power is allowed, till you see one of the carts stick fast in a mud-hole, and discover that even in the West Indies there is a good reason for every- thiuii', and that the Creoles j^now their own business best.For the wheelers, being in the slough with the cart, are power- less : but the leaders, who have scrambled through, are safe on dry land at the end of their long traces, and haul out tlieir brethren, cart and all, amid the yells, and, I am sorry to say blows, of the black gentlemen in attendance.But cane-cutting is altogether a busy, happy scene.The heat is awful, and all limbs rain perspiration : yet no one seems to mind the heat; all look fat and jolly; and they have cause to do so, for all, at every spare moment, are sucking- sugar-cane.You pull up, and take off your hat to the j)arty.The Negros shout, " Marnin', sa !"The Coolies salaam gracefully, hand to forehead.You return the salaam, hand to heart, which is considered the correct thing on the part of a superior in rank ; whereat the Coolies look exceedingly pleased ; and then the whole party, Avithout visible reason, burst into shouts of laughter.SAX JOSEF.5The manager rides up, probably under an umbrella, as you are, and a pleasant and instructive cliat follows, wound up, usually, if the house be not far off, by an invitation to come in and Inive a li^ht drink ; an invitation which, considering the state of the thermometer, you will be tempted to accept, especially as you know that the claret and water will be excellent.And so you daw^dle on, looking at this and that new and odd si^ht, but most of all feastincr your eves on the beauty of the northern mountains, till you reach the gentle rise on which stands, eight miles from Port of Spain, the little city of San Josef AVe should call it, here in England, a village : still, it is not every village in England which has fought the Dutch, and earned its right to be called a city, by beatino-some of the bravest sailors of the seventeenth centur}'.True, there is not a single shop in it with plate- Q[lass windows : but what matters that, if its citizens have all that civilized people need, and more, and will heap what they have on the stranger so hospitably that they almost pain him by the trouble wdiich they take ?True, no carriages and pairs, w^ith powdered footmen, roll about the streets ; and the most splendid vehicles you are likely to meet are American buggies four-wheeled gigs with heads, and aprons through which the reins can be passed in wet weather.But what matters that, as long as the buggies keep out sun and i-aiii effectually, and as lung as those who sit in them be rc.il6 SAN JOSEF.gentlemen, and those wlio wait for tliem at home, whether in the city or the estates around, be real Ladies ?As for the rest peace, plenty, perpetual sunnner, time to think and read (for there are no daily papers in San Josef) and what can man want more on earth ?So I thought more than once, as I looked at San Josef nestling at the mouth of its noble glen, and saiel to myself, If the telortioned, having the greater part of the brain behind the ^Pronounced like the Spanish nuuu Da^^a.8 SAN JOSEF.ears ;but tlie greatest peculiarity of this singular Leing was his voice.In the course of my life I never heard such sounds uttered, by human organs as those formed by Daaga.In ordinary conversation he appeared to me to endeavour to soften his voice it was a deep tenor ; but when a little excited by any passion (and this savage was the child of passion) his voice sounded like the low growl of a lion, Init when much excited it could be compared to nothing so aptly as the notes of a gigantic brazen trumpet." I repeatedly questioned this man respecting the religion of his tribe.The result of his answ^ers led me to infer that the Paupans believed in the existence of a future state ; that they have a confused notion of several powders, good and evil, Ijut these are ruled by one supreme being called Holloloo.This account of the relicrion of Daac^a was confirmed bv the mili-O CD / tary chaplain who attended him in his last moments.He also informed me that he believed in predestination ; at least he said that Holloloo, he knew, had ordained that he should come to white man's country and be shot."Daaga having made a successful predatory expedition into the country of the Yarrabas, returned with a number of prisoners of that nation.These he, as nsual, took, bound and o-uarded, tow^ards the coast to sell to the Portnouese.The interprater, his countryman, called these Portuguese AVHITE (JE^^TLEMEX.The wdiitc gentlemen proved themselves THE SLA VE TRADE.9 more than a match for the black gentlemen ; and the whole transaction between the Portuguese and Paupaiis does credit to all concerned in this gentlemanly traffic in human flesh. "Daaga sold his prisoners ; and nnder pretence of paying liin:i, he and his Paiipau guards were enticed on board a Por- tuguese vessel ; they were treacherously overpowered by the Christians, wdio bound them beside their late prisoners, and the vessel sailed over ' the great salt water.'" This transaction caused in the breast of the savage a deep liatred against all wdiite men a hatred so intense that he frequently, during and subsequent to the mutiny, declared he would eat the first wdiite man he killed ; yet this cannibal was made to swear allegiance to our Sovereign on the Holy Evangelists, and was then called a British soldier." On the voyage the vessel on board which Daaga had been entrapped w^as captured by the British.He could not com- prehend that his new" captors liberated him : he had been over-reached and trepanned by one set of white men, and he naturally looked on his second captors as more successful rivals in the human, or rather inhuman, Guinea trade ; therefore this event lessened not his hatred for white men in the abstract." I was informed by several of the Africans wdio came wuth him that when, during the voyage, they upbraided Daaga 10 SAN JOSEF.Avith being the cause of their capture, he pacified them by promising that when they should arrive in white man's country, he woukl repay their perfidy by attacking them in the night.He further promised that if the Paupaus and Yarrabas would follow him, he would fight his vray back to Guinea.This account was fully corroborated by many of the mutineers, especially those who were shot with Daaga : they all said the revolt never would have happened but for Donald Stewart, as he was called by the officers ; but Africans who were not of his tribe called him Longa-longa, on account of his height." Such was this extraordinary man, who led the mutiny I am about to relate.' Ah, you old soldier, you knock down.' Dixon ITS CHILDISHXESS.15Tvas not Daaga's countryman, hence he could not speak to him in his own language.The Paupau
Год издания: 1871
Авторы: Charles Kingsley
Ключевые слова: Caribbean history, culture, and politics
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