ON THE BELIZE RIVER.
The journey from the Cayo to Belize by the river presents no features of interest; the scenery is monotonous and the rapids are not dangerous. Although the river is navigable for canoes and pit-pans at almost all times of the year, and supplies can thus be carried in small quantities to the mahogany-cutters and other settlers on its banks, a more satisfactory highway must be established if the colony is to advance and prosper. There would be no great difficulty in constructing a light railway from Belize to the Cayo, and I have shown, in the account of my excursion into the great Southern Pine Ridge, that a considerable elevation in an open and well-watered country could easily be reached from the Cayo by a road which could be cheaply made, and there can be no doubt that a sanatorium in such a situation would be of inestimable value to residents in the colony. It cannot be contended that Belize could ever become a pleasant place of residence; the town is commonly said to be built on a foundation of sand and mahogany chips, and the saying is almost true. A shallow sea lies in front of it, and at the back it is cut off from the more solid earth by a belt of half-drained mangrove-swamps; the streets are bordered by broad ditches or canals and the ubiquitous cat-fish is the principal scavenger, and in truth no more generally approved sanitary arrangements are possible. Yet with all these disadvantages the town is well ordered, clean, and healthy; and although it has been from time to time visited by the terrible scourge of yellow fever, this can generally be traced to some indiscretion on the part of the inhabitants, such as the recent attempt to deepen the foreshore. Creole negroes form the bulk of the population, and next in number are the so-called Caribs, who have already been mentioned in connection with Livingston. In British Honduras they have come under the influence of the Jesuit Missions, and I believe that the whole race now profess some sort of Christianity, although it is closely mixed with much of their old heathen superstition; they still make periodic excursions to the depths of the forests, there to celebrate certain rites on which none but a Carib’s eye is allowed to gaze. They are generally polygamists, and when a man has built a house and cleared sufficient ground for a plantation he leaves a wife in charge to look after its cultivation, considering himself free to visit his other wives whom he has similarly established on other parts of the coast, and to give his attention to fishing and canoe-building and other forms of man’s work. Their beautifully-shaped doreys are to be seen all along the coast from Yucatan to Nicaragua, and although not such bold deep-sea sailors as the Creole negroes, they handle their canoes and doreys most skilfully and are well acquainted with every reef, island, and inlet on the coast. It is most curious to note how distinct they have kept from the Creole negroes, no Carib woman ever being known (unless a change has quite recently been made) to cohabit with a negro of another race. It has always seemed to me that the exclusiveness of the Caribs and their excellence as coasting sailors may be due to their having originally been brought to the coast of Africa as prisoners of war from the banks of some of the great lakes in the far interior, and to their thus having no kinship with the tribes from whom the slaves were usually captured, rather than to their supposed mixture with the Carib Indians of the Island of St. Vincent.
Belize as a British Colony has rather a curious history. The mouth of the Belize River was originally a haunt of buccaneers, and the very name itself is said to be a corruption of Wallace or Wallis, one of the most formidable of those pirates. Later on, as buccaneering was abandoned, a settlement was formed there by wood-cutters, and the little colony literally fought its way into recognition. Although the Spaniards were loth to give up their claim to sovereignty in any part of the New World, the Colony of British Honduras became an established fact, and its boundaries have since been recognized by treaty with Guatemala and Mexico. The Spaniards had never effectively occupied the eastern side of the peninsula of Yucatan, and although from time to time they established stations at Bacalar and even further south, the Indians of those parts always regained their independence, and beyond the British border they have kept it up to the present day. The Yucatec newspapers never tire of writing about the “Guerra de Castas,” the war of races, and inveighing against the iniquity of the English colonists who trade with the Indians, and are alleged to supply them with munitions of war. In reality these barbarous Santa Cruz Indians have been as great a nuisance to the British as to the Yucatecans, and both countries have suffered severely from their bloodthirsty raids. I cannot help thinking that in recent years it has not been the fighting strength of the Indians which has prevented the Mexicans from conquering them once for all, and putting an end to the raids and to the desultory warfare which—although there are really long intervals of rest—is supposed never to cease. There may be truth in the suggestion that the Mexican authorities found the war of races a convenient excuse for keeping Federal troops in Yucatan, with one eye turned to the frontier and the other on the Yucatecans themselves; for Yucatan has not always been a very loyal member of the Mexican federation. However, that has all changed now, for the very good reason that the governing class in Yucatan has become rich and is not likely to risk its wealth for the sake of independence, and general improvements in communication have somewhat deprived Yucatan of the safety derived from its isolated position. Meanwhile Mexico has become better organized and infinitely more powerful, and it is to be hoped that under the enlightened government of Porfirio Diaz an end may finally be put to the “Guerra de Castas,” and the Indians be brought to submission and fair terms granted to them.
In the year 1881 I met the Santa Cruz chiefs in Belize, where they had come to make their annual purchases of foreign goods. In a conversation with them through an interpreter, I explained to them that the purpose of my visit to Central America was to study the works of art of their forefathers, and they very courteously asked me to visit them in their own country, an invitation which I greatly regretted my arrangements did not permit me to accept. When I passed through Belize again on my way to Guatemala in 1883, I asked the Governor if the Indians were still peaceably disposed, and if there was still a chance of visiting them; and thereon hangs a tale. He replied that he thought everything was favourable for such an expedition and that a very pleasant and learned ethnologist, whom I will call Dr. X, had just been to see him on the same subject, and no doubt it would be agreeable for us to travel together.
Dr. X had gone out of town for a few days, so I was not able to see him before my steamer sailed for Livingston; but I learnt that he did not intend starting for the Santa Cruz country before April, and I promised to write to the Governor should there be a prospect of my getting through my work in Guatemala by that date, so that arrangements could be made for Dr. X and myself to travel to Santa Cruz together. However, later on, I had to write and say there was no chance of my reaching Belize until the middle of May, and the expedition to Santa Cruz must be given up. Earlier in this chapter I have told how hurried was my return to Belize, and how nearly I lost the steamer, and it was not until we were walking to the boat which was to convey me on board that I asked the Governor how Dr. X had fared in his expedition to Santa Cruz. He replied “Thank God, I have got rid of that fellow! I found out that he had been concerned in the most abominable practices.” At that moment my baggage came up and I had no time to ask any further questions even had it been discreet to do so, and although I was rather mystified the matter passed out of my mind. On my return home, one of my first visits was paid to my old friend Mr. Bates, then Secretary to the Royal Geographical Society, and in the midst of his kindly greeting he stopped short and said, “By the way, did you come across Dr. X?” I said no, that he had already left Belize. “Thank God for that!” he said, and then rapidly changed the subject. But now my curiosity was fully aroused, and I wanted to know why everyone thanked God when Dr. X departed; I told Bates how mystified I had been at the Governor’s last words to me and how nearly Dr. X and I were becoming travelling companions. He shook me by the hand again and said, “Well you have had a lucky escape; perhaps I had better tell you the whole story,” which he did as follows:—Not long ago Dr. X came to me with good introductions, and said he intended to visit Belize; he asked my advice and assistance, and as he seemed a very well-informed and pleasant man I gave him a note to the Governor. A few months later I had a visit from the Colonial Office clerk, who asked me if I knew anything of the whereabouts of Dr. X; and when he heard what I had to tell him, he informed me that a Foreign Embassy in London had been in correspondence with our Foreign Office regarding Dr. X’s career. It appeared that he had been travelling for some years in different parts of the world, and as a cultivated and pleasant companion had been well received in South America and elsewhere, but it had been noticed that his progress was followed by most unaccountable deaths in the families or amongst the households of his hosts, and although no actual evidence was forthcoming against him, suspicion had grown so strong that he had more than once to flee the country he was visiting. No sufficient motive for crime could be adduced; for although it was said that he occasionally borrowed money, or some article of which he had need, from his newly-made friends and acquaintances, the sums were so small, and the articles so insignificant, that his need of them might easily have been the result of carelessness on his part, and could never have afforded adequate motive for a series of cold-blooded murders. The theory put forward by those who had known him was that he had discovered the secret of some subtle and insidious poison with which he took a maniacal delight in making experiments on his unfortunate companions. However, the lack of tangible evidence and insufficient motive combined prevented any proceedings being taken against him, but suspicion was so overwhelmingly strong that it was a matter of urgent necessity to watch his movements and future career. He had been lost sight of for a time, but he was known to have expressed his intention of visiting some of the English Colonies, and the Embassy wished to put the Colonial Office on its guard. Poor Mr. Bates’s feelings on learning that inadvertently he had been assisting a possible fiend may be more easily imagined than described, and he was greatly relieved at my news that Dr. X had left the Colony before any evil had been done. I heard nothing more of Dr. X and his doings until a year or two later, when the following incident occurred:—I was sitting one morning in the verandah of the house of a consular officer in Guatemala when the foreign mail came in, and my host, leaving me to read the newly-arrived newspapers, went off to look through his correspondence; presently he returned, and after some remarks about the news of the day, casually produced a photograph from amongst some papers he held in his hand, and said, “Do you know this man?” I looked at the rather indifferent photograph and said, “No, I don’t think I have ever seen him; who is he?” He said it was the portrait of a foreigner who was travelling about here some time ago, and changing the subject he turned to walk away towards his room. Then with a sudden memory I called after him, “Oh! that is a portrait of Dr. X, isn’t it? is he in this country?” Of course explanations followed, and I learnt that the Doctor was still on his travels, and that as there was some idea that he might visit Guatemala, directions had been sent to ensure a careful watch on his movements. From that day to this I have heard nothing of Dr. X, and can only hope that if he had been trying more interesting experiments he may have tried them successfully on himself.
CARIB WOMEN.