The human species

by A. de Quatrefages

Day broke, and all seemed quiet; the hatchways were opened wide, and those who could were invited to come up There were five; all the rest were either dead or wounded. The corpses were hastily thrown into the sea, and at the same time six living individuals who were badly wounded.

Could we find among savages many industries more infamous than kidnapping, many deeds more atrocious than those of which Dr. Murray and his accomplices were guilty?

Let us hasten to do justice to the local legislature and the English Parliament, which promulgated severe laws and rules for the prevention and punishment of the crimes of kidnapping. Unfortunately, the colonists, more or less interested in procuring labourers at a cheap rate, show themselves remarkably indulgent towards those whose business it is to provide them with coolies. Some officers of the English navy have learnt this to their cost. Captain Montgomery, commander of the Blanche, had seized, and sent to Sydney, the schooner Challenge as a slave-ship. It was proved that on two occasions the Challenge had imprisoned blacks in her hold, who had been fraudulently enticed on to the ship; that two of them had been taken, under circumstances of violence, to the Fijis; that the others had only been released, because in their despair they had set to work to make a leak in the side of the vessel with a hatchet; and, finally, that these wretched creatures were obliged to swim back to their island, from which the Challenge already lay at a distance of about 6¾ miles. In spite of these grave facts, the Challenge was acquitted. On the other hand, Captain Montgomery was condemned to pay £900 sterling damages, and interest to the owners of the ship.

III. If it is only too easy to detect amongst ourselves the evil deeds of savages, it is, happily, easy to point out among these people, whom we are so ready to accuse and despise, the feelings upon which our own societies are founded, the good which, as a whole, predominates in them, and the virtues which we most honour. My readers will, however, understand that I cannot here enter into details incompatible with the nature of this work. We must confine ourselves to a rapid glance at the opinions held by men in general upon property, respect of human life, and self-respect, and compare what travellers have told us of some of the most inferior races with what we know of our own and of ourselves.

It has often been said, in speaking of certain races and peoples, that they have no idea of property. Those who look a little closer into the matter will see that this is an error. Among tribes of warriors, hunters, or fishers, however low a position they may hold in the scale of humanity, arms and tools are looked upon as personal property, and the testimony of travellers, who have taken but little interest in the question, is very explicit upon this point. In the Paris Museum there is a boomerang upon which some signs are roughly carved. M. Thozet, the donor, was showing it on some occasion to an Australian from the neighbourhood, when the latter at once discovered from the signs to whom it had belonged. But there is another form which property assumes among savage or barbarous populations. If it is a question of land, it will often be found to be under the jurisdiction of the clan, tribe, or nation. The hunting-grounds of the Red-Skins are met with in every place where civilization has stopped at the level which they represented at the epoch of their discovery. This species of property exists in New Holland among peoples, supposed by some to be degenerate monkeys, and the right which rules it is so rigorous that the Australian never enters the property of a neighbouring tribe without express permission. To act otherwise is equivalent to a declaration of war. Our common lands, and the annual conflicts which took place formerly, and which, perhaps, still take place, in spite of official settlements, between French and Spanish shepherds, will give some idea of such a state of things. Among certain Australian tribes, territorial property is still more divided and definite; every family has its hunting-grounds, which are inherited by the sons to the exclusion of the daughters.

Among the most savage peoples, when we have been able to gain definite information as to their manners, we find that theft is regarded as something wrong, and punished. Among the Australians, poaching is punished with death.

But theft is only a crime when it is committed under certain circumstances. When under others it is, on the contrary, regarded as meritorious. To rob an enemy of his horses or cattle is a praiseworthy act of cunning. It is no longer theft, but an act of hostility. Now, to the savage the stranger is almost always an enemy. The case is the same with a great many Aryan and Semitic peoples. Was it not so among the classic nations from which we derive our civilization?

Nothing is more common than to hear travellers accuse entire races of an incorrigible propensity for theft. The insular populations of the South Sea have, amongst others, been reproached with it. These people, it is indignantly affirmed, stole even the nails of the ships! But these nails were iron, and in these islands, which are devoid of metal, a little iron was, with good cause, regarded as a treasure. Now, I ask any of my readers, supposing a ship with sheathing and bolts of gold, and nails of diamonds and rubies, were to sail into any European port, would its sheathing or its nails be safe? And would not numbers of people be found ready to reason like the Negroes, who make no scruple of robbing a White? “You are so rich,” they say, when reproached with any misdeed of this kind.

These same Negroes, however, have a great respect for property among themselves. Theft does not appear to be more frequent with them than it is with us between Europeans, and the thief is punished upon the coast of Guinea precisely in the same manner as in Europe.