The Press. — London, England, 1855-01-20 00:00:00

JANUARY 20, 1855. Xittraturt. History of British Guiana. By H. G. Dalton, M.D. Loudon : Longmans. GREAT labour has been bestowed on this book to make it as complete as possible. Dr. Dalton describes first the geographical posi tion of that portion of the South American continent known as British Guiana ; then traces its political and social history from its first discovery by the followers of Columbus to the close of the administration of Governor Barkly ; notices especially the changes effected in its industrial state by the Slave Emancipa tion Act and free-trade legislation; and gives a particular description of its natural history, with full statistics on the cultivation of the island, its produce, the number of the in habitants, lc. The two volumes contain about eleven hundred pages, with several plates, and though, from its nature, the work cannot be expected to interest any large class of persons, it is only fair to say that it is conscientiously compiled, and is the latest and most compre hensive extant on its subject. British Guiana, lying just north of the equator, is supposed to contain about 100,000 square miles, an ars a larger than the whole of England and Scotland, but so little value is attached to territory in that part of the world, that the boundaries of the several States which have settlements there have never been aster tamed. Only a small tract of British Guiana is under cultivation, and the estates have been diminished by the violent and unjust legisla tion of the Imperial Parliament. That part of these volumes which will be likely to attract most attention is the first chapter in the second volume describing the present state of the colony. The African race has, Dr. Dalton is con vinced, been very materially modified, not in character only, but in physical qualities, through its residence in Guiana, and its con tact with European civilisation. He writes : Amongst the alterations that have taken place in the social and political condition of the country, perhaps the most remarkable is that which has been effected in rela tions between the African slave and his creole descendant. Introduced into this colony about three centuries ago, the slave has passed from a state of oppressed ignorance to the position of a thriving and independent peasant. He has gone through bondage, toil, and degradation ; he has been brought into contact with several civilised races; and his character and habits, his physical as well as mental features, have been modified to a surprising extent. The creole nation (for so we may now term it) stands midway between its African progenitors and its European teachers. The individuals of that nation are placed in a country suitable to their health, their tastes, and their capabilities, and may fairly be adduced as an example of a happy peasantry, if the absence of want, and the means of enjoy mg remunerative employment, may be admitted to consti tute the happiness of that class. Inheriting the dark skin of his forefathers, the deep black colour formerly so common to the African has faded to a lighter shade. It is a subject of common remark that very few black Negroes are now to be met with. Formerly it was held, ceteris paribus, that the deeper the colour the stronger was the constitution of the African ; but it. does not appear that the present creole race are more sickly or delicate than their progenitors. They may generally be considered healthy, strong, and active. Their features, too, have undergone a marked alteration, approaching in the present day much nearer to the European type; the noise is straighter, and less flattened, the mouth smaller, the lips thinner, the hair less crisp and woolly. Many of these ethnological changes may be attributed to intermarriage with Europeans, but even in those of pure black colour the seine transition appears. I have repeatedly seen the most delicate and regular features in a person entirely black, and sometimes have noticed a Roman cast of countenance. The figures of the men and women are in general very good: they have finely•formed backs, shoulders, and arms. There is a tendency to the curved shin in the men; and in general, both in men and women, the legs and feet are defective. The black population of this colony, and generally of our West Indian possessions, are now placed under the most favourable circum stances for ameliorating their moral and physical state. They are free, but kept under the restraint of Christian laws; their labour easily procures them the necessaries of life, and something more, as their rapid purchase of landed property sufficiently attests; and, above all, they are placed in contact with a superior race and with the comforts and con veniences of civilisation. According to the last census, the black population had possessed themselves of 11,162 freehold properties, which have been estimated at the value of nearly a million sterling. THE PRESS. Their moral and intellectual condition is less satisfactory. Out of the 127,695 inhabi tants of British Guiana only 12,952 could, by the last census, read and write ; 11,460 could read only. Morality is so little cared for that in the rural districts marriage is rather the exception than the rule. "In England and " Belgium," says Dr. Dalton, " one child in " 15 is illegitimate ; in Prussia and France " one in 13 ; in Austria one in 9 ; in Bavaria " one in 4 ; but in Guiana more than half the " children are illegitimate." Some amusing notices are given of Negro manners:— Unable, as yet, to appreciate the advantages of liberty and industrial independence, they affect to illustrate their condition by their self-pretensions to good breeding and gentility. A black woman, carrying starch or any other article about for sale, is hailed, when required, by such expressions as, " Ho, lady with the starch !" while an un pretending fisherman, vending crabs or other fish, is ad dressed, Stop, gentleman with the crabs I" Servants in search of situations are introduced to your notice by a statement, that a gentleman or a lady down stairs has come to see if you require a butler or cook. When two persons in the position of servants or labourers meet one another, the first inquiry generally is, " How is your lady ?" " How is de fumbly I" The term wife is considered rather derogatory than otherwise ; in fact, a married man will re pudiate the vulgar appellation, and declare, " She no me wife, she is my lady." In cases of christenings, marriages, and burials, it is not considered genteel in town to attend on foot, but as many as possible are crammed in hired carriages, where they sit as much at ease, and apparently as self-pleased, as it is possible to be. Printed cards of invitation, and embossed note-paper, are habitually sent round among servants and others for suppers, dances, and prayer-meetings. The latter ceremony is a favourite with many of the townspeople, who, dressed out in full costume, assemble to spend the night in monotonous and dreary " hymn singing." On Sundays a great many of the old people spend positively nearly the whole day in the several churches. After the morning service is over, they continue inside the building, having a little quiet gossip until the next service occurs in the afternoon. The industry of this fine colony has been reduced to a pitiable state through the opera tion first of the Slave Emancipation Act in 1835, and next by the free-trade sugar duties in 1846. The surest test of the prosperity of any country is the progress made in bringing new or waste lands under cultivation; but in Guiana, and through the West Indies gene rally, the estates under culture have rapidly declined. "In 1829 there existed in British " Guiana 230 sugar and 174 coffee and cotton " estates, while on 31st December, 1849, the " colony numbered but 180 sugar and 16 coffee " estates, even nominally carried on." The diminution in the crops of sugar, coffee, and cotton between 1829 and 1849 may be seen at a glance by the following figures : lbs. sugar. lbs. coffee. lbs. cotton. 1829 103,898,617 .. 9,230,486 .. 1,696,171 1849 60,811,854 .. 91,056 .. nil. This decline was the direct result of legisla tive enactments. Estates which had formerly been worth 10,0001., 20,0001., and even 50,0001., had to be abandoned after 1835 and 1846 ; the proprietors were reduced to ruin, and the labourers thrown out of employ ment. Had slavery really been diminished through these acts of our Legislature we might have regarded the sacrifice with some complacency, but just as slave-labour has been abolished in British possessions it has in creased and thriven in other countries. In the very last number of the Southern (Charles ton) Quarterly .Review we read how sugar culti vation is extending in Florida, and how profit able the labour of the slave is found : A hand usually tends seven acres will , therefore a hand make 420 dollars. We were told by a planter in Marion county that he generally cleared 350 dollars per hand after deducting all expenses for the year. The 350 dollars would about represent the prime cost of the unfortunate Negro, so we need not wonder that land in the southern States of America is brought into cultivation as land in our own colonies returns to waste, nor that the slave population of those States so rapidly increases as it does. The slaves in Florida in 1830 were 15,501, and in 1850 were 39,309. The increase has been much greater in other States : in 1830 the slaves iti Alabama numbered 117,549 ; in 1850 they had risen to the astonishing number of 342,899. In Louisiana the slaves in 1830 were 109,588 ; in 1850 were 239,021. But the State of Missis sippi showed a rate of increase far more rapid : the slaves in 1830 were only 65,659, and in 1850 were 309,898, showing in the short space of twenty yearn a rate of increase nearly five• fold. Under the most favourable circum stances but a small portion of this increase would be due to natural causes, and hence we must attribute it to the renewed activity of the slave trade, directly encouraged by British legislation. To have given a fair trial to the Slave Emancipation Act, commodities produced by slave-labour should have been excluded from our ports ; but to admit, as we have virtually dono by the act of 1846, the produce of slave-labour on the same terms as the produce of our own free labour, is to fling away all the sacrifices which the Slave Emancipation Act has cost us, and to encourage in other countries the slave-labour which we have put down in our own posses sions. A passage quoted in this book shows what was the immediate effect of our free-trade legislation of 1846 in encouraging planters in slave States : With the foreign slave-driver, cheap sugar means cheap slaves. I spent the year (1847) in Cuba, with a view of ascertaining the preparations which were being made in that island to meet the opening of our markets. To an Englishman coming up from Grenada and Jamaica, the contrast between the paralysed and decayed aspect of the trade of those colonies and the spirit and activity which your measures ( Lord J. Russell) had infused into that of Havannah was most disheartening. The town was illumi nated when I landed in consequence of the news of high prices from England. Three splendid trains of De Rogues' machinery, costing 40,000 dollars each, had just arrived from France, and were in process of erection ; steam engines and engineers were coming daily over from America; new estates were forming; coffee plantations were being broken up, and their feeble gangs of old people and chil dren, who had hitherto been selected fur that light work, were formed into a task gangs, and hired out by the month to the "new ingenious" then in full drive. It was crop time ; the mills went round night and day. On every estate (1 scarcely hope to be be believed when I state the fact) every slave was worked under the whip eighte4 n hours out of twenty-four, and in the boiling-houses from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m., and from 11 a.m, to midnight the sound of the hellish lash was incessant ; indeed, it was necessary to keep the overtasked wretches awake. The six hours during which they rested were spent in a barracoon—s strong, foul, close sty, where they wallowed without dis tinction of age or sex. There was no marrying amongst the slaves on the plantations ; breeding was discouraged ; it was cheaper and less troublesome to buy than to breed. On many estates females were entirely excluded. In 1835 public sentiment triumphed ; in 1846 public interest; and the British planter was sacrificed in both cases. But we may hope that the worst of those changes is now over. Since the immigration of free labourers, the industrial condition of our West India possessions has improved ; the produce of sugar has, on the whole, increased; and, with such fair encouragement as it is the duty of the Government to afford to those yet struggling interests, together with the appli cation of capital and the introduction of more labour, we may reasonably hope that they will show their ability to compete with slave-labour in the open markets of the world. The chapter devoted to the aboriginies of British Guiana (i., 59-88) contains much curious matter. Their skill in boat building approaches much nearer to instinctive sagacity than we have any example of in civilised life:— From the useful timber-trees which grow in the forests they manufacture canoes and corials of considerable size and strength. Some of these are large enough to carry upwards of 100 men, besides cannon. They are constructed on the best model for speed, elegance, and safety, without line or compass, and without the least knowledge of hydrostatics; they have neither joint nor seam, plug nor nail, and are an extraordinary specimen of untaught natural skill. These boats are frequently used by the Spaniards as privateering launches. A canoe forty feet long, six broad, and three deep in the centre, capable of carrying twenty-five men, besides baggage and material for two months, was bought by Mr. Hillhouse for about ten pounds sterling. He describes it as traversing falls, sailing through rollers and being hauled over rocks and sands , and capable of fasting for ten years without a patch, and far superior to any European craft for such purposes. The knowledge they display in this particular species of handi craft naturally leads to the inquiry who imparted it to them? How did they acquire that combination of mechanical powers indispensable to the production of such a proof of ingenuity as a well-built boat, so unlike the rude canoes of the surrounding tribes ? It appears reasonable to suppose that they must have obtained this knowledge by admixture with some Old World race, of whose intercourse with them no trace remains. Mention is made of one custom so ludicrous that we imagine it must be confined to this par ticular part of the South American continent. After childbirth the mother soon gets abroad, and returns to her usual duties The husband, however, is not let off se ally; the etiquette of savage life requires that be shod& hike to hi. hammock Yer several dap ) where, with WNW 111411MMIIIINI