Besides the Wesleyan and Mico schools, Antigua is further supplied with “repositories of learning,” belonging to the established church and the Moravians. Our worthy rector, zealous in every good work, has a pleasing little infant-school near the rectory, besides schools in various other parts of the town and country. The Moravians have large schools at their different settlements; and a boys’ and girls’ school, with infant-school attached, adjoining their chapel in St. John’s. I visited this last-mentioned school twice; but I am unable to speak of the acquirements of the scholars—they having been dismissed soon after my entrance, upon both occasions. They appear to cultivate the art of singing; for I heard them join in Mrs. Hemans’ “Better Land,” to the accompaniment of a small, but very sweet-toned organ, played by their superintendent. If I may be allowed to judge of the manners of the children, (which, I own, would not be quite right,) by those of the female teacher, I should be inclined to say, they were far behind any of the other schools I have visited in the island; for she appeared totally deficient in politeness or agreeable behaviour.
I have thus endeavoured to shew that Antigua abounds in schools—the exact number of which will be found in the chapter on statistics. I sincerely hope that the benefits arising from them may be permanently felt by the lower classes, and that the patrons of these schools may reap the reward of their philanthropy. There are some sad examples: (sorry am I to be compelled to say so!) where, instead of improving, education has but tended to lead further into the paths of error; for the very passages of Scripture that have been taught them—the doctrines of salvation which have been inculcated, these unhappy creatures pervert to raise their ungodly mirth. Oh, how do our ears become shocked at every turn of the street, at every hour of the day, by the language of this class of persons! while that great and holy name, “at which every knee shall bow,” is bandied about as a common interjection.
There are some to be met with among the negroes whose display of learning is very ludicrous. We have a servant now living with us who often calls up from me an involuntary smile. I heard her speaking the other evening to a fellow-servant, whose name is Diana. “Diana, my goddess! come here. Let me see, Diana was the goddess of truth, and Junus the goddess of sleep, and so you must not tell me a story, or go to sleep!” Diana did not appear to comprehend this burst of eloquence, and so her friend went on to explain to her, that as “Airy was the ram, and Callus the bull, Virgo was a lion, and Quaris was a water-pot;” she must bow to her superior knowledge in everything. To this, Diana humbly assented with “Ees, Miss Charlotte!” accompanied by a stare of amazement. I don’t wonder, however, at poor Diana’s surprise at her friend’s knowledge; I am sure she often startles me. Another evening, I saw her standing in the yard, with outstretched arms, and upturned eyes, gazing upon a bright star, which twinkled above, while in a very lackadaisical tone, she exclaimed, “Oh, Mars! invoke me by thy rays!”
I hope, however, what I have said in this last page will not discountenance those worthy characters who are employed in opening the book of knowledge to the eyes of the ignorant. In the words of a much-admired writer, “the delightful hope may be cherished by him who shall bring his mite for the promotion of the Lancastrian system of instruction for giving knowledge to the ignorant—the hope that he is providing for the display of a genius in works of the highest utility, which might otherwise have expended itself in a career of infamous contrivance, long operating as a pest to society, terminating in the ignominious destruction of the victim of the want of education. And when the intimate connexion between ignorance and vice is considered, surely all who wish to lessen the sum of the latter will assist the endeavours that are now making to plant the tree of knowledge amid the desert and deformed waste;—to convert that which is now cheerless and blank into a field of profuse beauty teeming with the real wealth and strength of nations.”
[[99]] Several of these forts were sold by the legislature, after the conclusion of the war with America.
[[100]] It has been the custom, although the law does not command it, to pay to the captain of this fort 18s. currency, for every vessel, no matter what her tonnage, passing from the harbour. As there are many owners of small crafts in Antigua, whose pockets are not so well provided with this world’s wealth, as to enable them to fling it abroad upon every occasion, they are glad to take advantage of the absence of necessity, and retain for their own use the two dollars, which custom or caprice has reserved for the commandant, and pass the fort without paying the tribute. This conduct is generally resented by despatching after the offending vessel an angry message, in the shape of a cannon-shot. It appears extraordinary, that such a monstrous and illegal proceeding as firing upon the vessels should be permitted, or at least tacitly sanctioned by the government.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Remarks upon the aboriginal Americans—Suppositions of various authors—Caribs—Arrowawks—Ferocity of the Carib—Complexion—Dress—Ornaments—Dreadful revenge—Wars-Chiefs—Severities practised—Feasts—Remarks upon paganism—Anthropophagi—A traveller’s tale—The Carib’s opinion of death—Religious tenets—Altars—The burning Carib.
It may perhaps be proper to remark, that although this work has been entitled, “Antigua and Antiguans,” still, as I have commenced its history from the period of its first discovery, it will be necessary to say something about its ancient inhabitants, the Caribs. As it is impossible at this lapse of time, to give the history of the individual tribe who peopled this island, I have been obliged to gather my information from what the early writers have transmitted to posterity, of the habit and customs of the entire nation. Consequently, while I am writing of the Carib of Antigua, or, as the island was called at that period, “Xamayca,” I must at the same time allude to those of the other islands; only remarking, that ferocious as they all were, the Carib of this country seems to have borne the pre-eminence in hardy daring and relentless animosity toward their conquerors. In the same manner, I have thought proper to give a short account of the discovery of America, as antecedent to that of this island; and as, in furtherance of my plan, I have introduced Columbus to my readers, from his boyhood, it is but right I should trace the Caribbean nation from their source. With this apology for trying the patience of my readers, while I write of a people whose existence is no more, I will proceed with my subject, which I hope may neither prove foreign nor unpleasant.