“Napoleon had just returned from Egypt, and was become First Consul; but he could not be expected to take the field till the following spring, and till then Massena was hopeless of relief from without, everything was to depend upon his own pertinacity. The strength of his army made it impossible to force it in such a position as Genoa; but its very numbers, added to the population of the city, held out to the enemy a hope of reducing it by famine; and as Genoa derives most of its supplies by sea, Lord Keith, the British naval Commander in Chief in the Mediterranean, lent the assistance of his naval force to the Austrians, and by the vigilance of his cruizers, the whole coasting trade right and left was effectually cut off. It is not at once that the inhabitants of a great city, accustomed to the daily sight of well-stored shops and an abundant market, begin to realize the idea of scarcity; or that the wealthy classes of society, who have never known any other state than one of abundance and luxury, begin seriously to conceive of famine. But the shops were emptied, and the storehouses began to be drawn upon; and no fresh supply or hope of supply appeared. Winter passed away, and Spring returned, so early and so beautiful on that garden-like coast, sheltered as it is from the north winds by its belt of mountains, and open to the full rays of the Southern Sun. Spring returned, and clothed the hill sides within the lines with its fresh verdure. But that verdure was no more the delight of the careless eye of luxury, refreshing the citizens by its loveliness and softness when [pg lv] they rode or walked up thither from the city to enjoy the surpassing beauty of the prospect! The green hill sides were now visited for a very different object; ladies of the highest rank might be seen cutting up every plant which it was possible to turn to food, and bearing home the common weeds of our road sides as a most precious treasure! The French general pitied the distress of the people; but the lives and the strength of his garrison seemed to him more important than the lives of the Genoese, and such provisions as remained were reserved in the first place for the French army. Scarcity became utter want, and want became famine! In the most gorgeous palaces of that gorgeous city, no less than in the humblest tenements of the poor, death was busy; not the momentary death of battle or massacre, nor the speedy death of pestilence, but the lingering and most miserable death of famine! Infants died before their parents' eyes, husbands and wives lay down to expire together! A man whom I saw at Genoa in 1825 told me that his father and two of his brothers had been starved to death in this fatal siege. So it went on, till in the month of June, when Napoleon had already descended from the Alps into the plain of Lombardy, the misery became unendurable, and Massena surrendered. But before he did so, twenty thousand innocent persons, old and young, women and children, had died by the most horrible of deaths which humanity can endure! Other horrors which occurred besides during the blockade I pass over; the agonizing death of twenty thousand innocent and helpless persons requires nothing to be added to it!
“Now is it right that such a tragedy as this should take place, and that the laws of war should be supposed to justify the authors of it? Conceive having been a naval officer in Lord Keith's squadron at that time, and being employed in stopping the food which was being brought for the relief of [pg lvi] such misery! For the thing was done deliberately; the helplessness of the Genoese was known, their distress was known; it was known that they could not force Massena to surrender; it was known that they were dying daily by hundreds; yet week after week, and month after month, did the British ships of war keep their iron watch along all the coast: no vessel nor boat laden with any article of provision could escape their vigilance! One cannot but be thankful that Nelson was spared from commanding at this horrible blockade of Genoa!
“Now on which side the law of Nations should throw the guilt of most atrocious murder is of little comparative consequence or whether it should attach to both sides equally: but that the deliberate starving to death of twenty thousand helpless persons should be regarded as a crime in one or in both of the parties concerned in it seems to me self-evident! The simplest course would seem to be that all non-combatants should be allowed to go out of a blockaded town, and that the general who should refuse to let them pass should be regarded in the same light as one who were to murder his prisoners or who were in the habit of butchering women and children.”
It is not intended to be suggested that the morality of the more virtuous and religious members of civilized communities is not superior to that of uncivilized races. But that such superiority can be claimed by the mass of the inhabitants of Europe is a proposition of which the evidence must be allowed to be doubtful as regards some—must be allowed, alas! to fail altogether as regards many—of those virtues of which our nature is capable!
Yet, notwithstanding many melancholy facts that seem to be repugnant to such a conclusion, there exist satisfactory grounds for inferring that civilization has a direct tendency to [pg lvii] promote the moral improvement of the Human Race, and that our species is probably destined even in this state of existence, to a course not only of social, but also of a moral progression! Of this truth distinct indications may be recognized in the altered sentiments of European nations on many momentous subjects, as evinced in the increasing aversion to wars of aggression—in the general condemnation of the principle—and the extensive abolition of the practice—of slavery, and in the rapid growth of an earnest sympathy, at once generous and humane, with the claims and the sufferings of the more unprotected branches of mankind! Of the practical results of these changes in the moral sentiments of Society—of which Christianity, which teaches that all men are of one blood and of one family, has been the primary source—and of which the English nation—influenced by the example of a few men of extraordinary piety, wisdom, and humanity, to whom it gave birth in the last generation, have been the most conspicuous instruments—one example may be appropriately introduced in this place.
“The original proprietors of this fine soil, (the neighbourhood of the Cape of Good Hope,) the poor Hottentots, the fabricated tales of whose filthiness are known to every schoolboy, and have made them proverbial in every nation of Europe, are probably the simplest and most inoffensive of the human race. By open robbery and murder, and by a cruel and persevering system of oppression on the part of the Dutch colonists, they have been reduced to not much more than 15,000 souls. Under the protection of the British government, by the careful instruction of the missionaries, and their increased importance in the colony as labourers since the abolition of the slave trade, their number is now considerably on the increase; General Craig, after the capture of the Cape, brought forward, experimentally, the physical and moral qualities of this most injured and degraded people, by forming them into a military corps, which, in point of discipline, obedience, [pg lviii] instruction and cleanliness, were not at all behind European troops. The truth is that the filthy appearance of the Hottentot was never from choice, but necessity. The anxiety which he now shows to get quit of his sheep-skin clothing for cotton, linen, or woollen, and to keep his person clean, proves that he is far more sensible than the ‘Boor’ to the comforts of civilized life. ‘Whosoever,’ says the excellent Mr. Latrobe, the father of the Moravians in this country, ‘charges the Hottentots with being inferior to other people of the same class as to education and the means of improvement, knows nothing about them. They are in general more sensible, and possess better judgment than most Europeans, equally destitute of the means of instruction.’ At Bavians Kloof, or the Monkey's Ravine, which General Jansens altered into Gandenthal, or the Valley of Grace, 130 miles E. by N. of Cape Town, is an establishment of these poor despised people under the care of missionaries, founded in 1737. It consists of a beautiful village containing 1400 Hottentot inhabitants. Every cottage has a garden, a few of the poor class still wear sheep skins, and their children go naked, but far the greater part of them make a point of providing themselves with jackets and trousers, and other articles of European dress which they already wear on Sundays. Both before and after meals they sing grace in the sweetest tones imaginable. The place externally, appears a little Paradise, and let it be remembered it is only one of a great number of these missionary stations. The Hottentots are of a deep brown or yellow brown colour, their eyes are pure white, their head is small; the face very wide above, ends in a point; their cheek-bones are prominent, their eyes sunk, the nose flat, the lips thick, the teeth white, and the hand and foot rather small. They are well made and tall, their hair is black, either curled or woolly, and they have little or no beard. Barrow and Grandprè conceive them to be of a [pg lix] Chinese origin, they call themselves Gkhui-gkhui, pronounced with a click of the tongue or throat, and say they do not come from the interior, but from over the Sea! The Hottentots are divided into several Tribes.”[21]
The nature of their language shows very clearly that the Hottentots are not closely connected by descent with the Chinese; the tradition that they came originally from a country beyond the sea might apply to the island of Madagascar where a dialect kindred to theirs is spoken. There seems however every reason for concluding, agreeably to Dr. Prichard's views, that the Hottentots are descendants of Colonists impelled by the ordinary causes of migration from the North and Middle of Africa, who, as they finally occupied the farthest extremity, were probably the earliest inhabitants of that Continent. The evidence of language serves in a very striking manner to confirm this conclusion. For proofs of the connexion of the Hottentot dialects with the Egyptian and with the Negro languages, see Appendix A. The Hottentot dialects abound also in words unequivocally identical with the corresponding terms in ancient European and Asiatic languages, as for instance Imine, “A Day,” and Ki, “The Earth,” with the Greek. Surrie, Sore, “The Sun”, with the Sanscrit “Surya.” Mamma, “A Mother,” with the Latin, &c. Bo Aboob, “A Father,” with “Abba,” Hebrew. Tamma, “The Tongue.” (See p. [15], &c. &c.) Coincidences of this nature are proofs of that species of generic connexion with all the other races of mankind which might be expected as a consequence of a separation that, judging from the Geographical position of the Hottentot tribes, we may suppose to have occurred in the earliest ages of the world.
Proofs of the Identity of the Basque with other Languages.
The following specimens of the Basque, which have been introduced in illustration of the previous statement, at p. [xxxv], include nearly all those words which are in most common use (with the exception of that class of Words which is noticed in [Appendix A]). By referring to the passages in this work, noticed below, the identity of the Basque words with those of other nations will be readily seen.
“A Father.” Aita (Basque,) Atta (Gothic), p. [52], Eiōth (Egyptian,)—“A Mother.” A.m.a. (Basque,) A.m. (Hebrew), see p. [106].