Four years aboard the whaleship / Embracing cruises in the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, and Antarctic oceans, in the years 1855, '6, '7, '8, '9

by William B. Whitecar

These people are anything but temperate as regards the consumption of ardent spirits; but I never saw one of them display the slightest approach to intoxication. Their favorite beverage is the fiery arrack, (distilled from rice,) which they buy for a trifle, and consume in large quantities.

And now we come to the most influential, wealthy, and thrifty people in the port. I refer to the Creoles, the issue of a union of some one of the white races with the East Indian. They are mostly French, and nine-tenths of the mercantile business is conducted by them. Their distinguishing traits are—industry, neatness, and exact business qualifications. They are also enterprising, and possess all the politeness and suavity of Monsieur himself. It is not at all unusual, on going into their business-places, to be waited upon by a bevy of saffron-colored clerks, whilst at one side sits the maternal relative, dressed in the handsomest manner, but with a skin as black as ebony. The Creoles treat these relatives, notwithstanding the difference of color, with a degree of filial affection pleasing to witness.

These Creoles, on account of their wealth, and character as substantial men and good citizens, are much respected, even more so than the white residents, and are freely admitted to all the privileges and immunities possessed by the latter.

In speaking of the Malabars, I omitted to describe a funeral procession in which they were the participants. The corpse was borne in a coffin, on a hurdle, supported on the shoulders of six men. Preceding the coffin was a musician with a horn in the shape of the letter S, from which the operator produced more noise than music; next came two drummers with their instruments, and then two tambourine players—all uniting in making as much din as possible. Those in the procession not engaged in discoursing the melody, were dancing and shouting. This manner of testifying grief seemed rather odd, and diametrically opposite to all my preconceived notions of these people, as I had judged them to be incapable of any joyous demonstration; but it seems they can act a farce, although they choose a rather sombre occasion to indulge it. I have not, however, done with the funeral, not having as yet mentioned its most peculiar feature. Over the coffin was erected a bower of twigs and green plants, intended to represent, as nearly as possible, a temple. I followed the procession to the cemetery, which is an unenclosed piece of ground, situated just outside the European cemetery, and unmarked by a single headstone. Just previous to arriving at the cemetery, the policemen, who accompany all such funerals, obliged them to desist from their merry-making. At the grave, which was not more than four feet in depth, the bower was opened, and a young chicken taken from it, which a near relative placed in his bosom very carefully. This form, I suppose, has something to do with the doctrine of the transmigration of souls—these foolish people imagining that the spirit of the deceased is obliged, after death, to take refuge in the body of some animal; and the chicken is carried thus, so that the spirit of the defunct may easily find a tenement. All this seems to us supremely ridiculous; but, on the other hand, these people are just as much amused at our forms of worship as we are at the unreasonableness of theirs—education and the early instillation of traditionary or other precepts, making a believer of any race in the doctrine of their forefathers.

And now the question arises, how these Malabar and Madagascar natives came here in such numbers. Fortunately, it is very easily solved. Their presence is the natural fruit of the French and English apprentice system—a mode of procedure as much blacker and more disgraceful to the nation engaged in it, than the slavery of our Southern States, inherited from these same nations, as the pirate’s bloody pursuit is to that of the legitimate merchantman. I will merely state the manner in which these people are purchased. An English, or French vessel, runs into some out of the way port in Madagascar, lets go her anchor, invites the king aboard, makes him presents of articles trifling in value to us, but in the eyes of the savage of intrinsic worth. After flattering his vanity and cupidity they broach their object in visiting the coast. The king, nothing loath, invites the supercargo ashore, and shows him the flesh and blood he has for sale. The merchant in human slavery carries ashore old condemned muskets, kegs of powder, jack-knives, hoop iron, trinkets, beads, and calico (these being the articles most sought after by them). He then selects the most fitting objects for his purposes, and, after considerable chaffering on both sides, the purchases are taken aboard ship to be conveyed to a foreign country, ostensibly for a term of years, but really for as long as their owners choose to detain them. At the same time the purchasers do not know whether they are prisoners of war or the king’s own flesh and blood; neither do they care, their object being to gain money by making merchandize of a free people. The governor of Mauritius receiving so much per head, as a perquisite, for each one that is imported into the colony, holds out every inducement for their introduction into the island; and I should judge, from the crowded state of the ships that arrived with them as cargoes, that the trade was most thriving. In fact, at the time we lay here, this was the only freight procurable, shipmasters complaining that they could not find employment for their vessels; some of them having laid here for months without being able to engage a freight. I should think that at least two thousand of these pseudo apprentices arrived whilst we were here; they embraced for the most part the natives of the Malabar coast, and of the Island of Madagascar. I omitted, in my description of the latter, to remark upon their fondness for ornament; scarce one of them can be seen, male or female, young or old, whose arms or ankles are not covered with silver wristlets and anklets; those whose finances will not admit of their wearing: the precious metals for ornamental purposes, use those made of clay, neatly ornamented and gilded. Many of the women wear jewels, which, by some contraction of the skin of the forehead are so arranged as to always remain there. They are worn in its center, directly over the bridge of the noise; they are diamond- or lozenge-shaped, and, for the most part, of an emerald green.

One day, whilst strolling up an avenue contiguous to the wharf, I was attracted by a crowd assembled around a walled enclosure; taking the privilege of my nation (curiosity), I elbowed my way through the mixed assemblage, and saw (“tell it not in Askalon, publish it not in Gath,”) two English auctioneers, in a country under England’s control, and governed by England’s laws, mounted on their rostrums, selling what they call in the British Isles, their fellow-men, co-equal in all respects to themselves. To say that I was surprised would convey but a faint idea of my feelings—I was really astounded. After recovering somewhat from my astonishment, I was so thoroughly convinced of the ridiculousness of England’s so often vaunted philanthropy, that, had I been in a proper place, I could have indulged in a hearty burst of laughter. As it was, I could not, without an effort, control my risibilities. This feeling soon gave way to that of indignation at the recreant sons and daughters of our own soil, who disgrace our country, after having been nursed and rocked in the cradle of liberty—as soon as they are out of their swaddling clothes, turning upon and stinging their nurse, and for the sake of political or monetary personal aggrandizement, publishing wishy-washy novels containing such perverted descriptions of our Southern slavery system, as to induce foreigners to think our boast of liberty and a free government is but a farce. Such persons do not merit being dignified by the notice of honest men, which they court; and, whether it be in the form of a favorable mention or a criticism, is all one to them, so long as it gives them publicity. As they cater for the morbid literary appetites of the sycophantic courtiers of the Old World, who are only too eager to pick holes in our beautiful and, to them, unattainable system of government, a notice, to these horror fabricators, answers all the purposes of an advertisement; so I shall bid them farewell, only exhorting Americans to cry shame on such scorpions.

To return to the slave-mart. As I before said, there were two rostrums erected, on each of which an auctioneer was busily employed crying the merits of the merchandise, and eagerly soliciting a bid; both were crying the same article—the second repeating, word for word, all that his superior said in regard to the price and quality of the article put up.

The slaves were gathered and arranged in groups close by the rostrums. Neither sex had any other covering than the breech-cloth, so as to display the muscular system to the utmost advantage. The purchasers, who for the most part are French planters, walk in amongst them, examine their muscles, teeth, and joints, make them leap to show their activity, and in every way that their experience suggests satisfy themselves with respect to the availability of the slave. Their almost nude condition displays to advantage their erect and symmetrical forms, and in the women particularly, those points for which the females of the East are so justly celebrated.

The only saving clause in the whole transaction was, that, in case any of the slaves had a family, the purchaser was compelled to buy them all together, or not at all.

Instead of having the gloomy faces and downcast mien that one would naturally expect to see in rational beings under such somber auspices, these people, with the thoughtlessness, or recklessness, of their race, were laughing and joking apparently with heartfelt glee. The younger portion engaged meanwhile in little love-passages; and I was struck by the coquettish archness with which the young women naively avoided the too pressing advances of their admirers, by gracefully shaking their beautifully-formed heads, adorned with the glossiest of ebon hair, and at the same time accompanying it with the most roguish expression from their deep black eyes, while merrily laughing and displaying their pearly teeth. At such times, and on such occasions, the beholder, albeit he may belong to a superior race, is apt to forget his prejudices, and think that the poor slave before him is susceptible of truly loving, and of being loved, as well as the fair representatives of his own race.