ETI110PI3 Mm mM Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/ethiopiainexilejOOpullrich ETHIOPIA IN EXILE BY THE SAME AUTHOR JAMAICA AS IT IS With a Map and Eight Illustrations. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6s. " This most entertaining book, . . . packed with interesting information such as will be welcomed, not merely by the tourist, but also by the stay-at-home Englishman." — Pall Mall Ga%ette. LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN. ETHIOPIA IN EXILE JAMAICA REVISITED B. PULLEN-BURRY Fellow of the Anthropological Itistitute of Great Britain and Ireland LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN PATERNOSTER SQUARE . MCMV RESERVATION OPY ADDED RIGINAL TO BE ETAINED DEC 15 1992 ^1«^^ ^f^ >. . , '. {All rights reserved. PREFACE The contents of the following pages are the outcome of an absence from England extending over several months, during which period the writer paid a second visit to our island colony, Jamaica, having on the way thither made a somewhat prolonged tour through Canada, the United States, and Cuba. The subject-matter may be divided into two parts. The first deals with some of the latest phases of the island's history ; the second presents an abridged study of the American negro. Having been favourably impressed with the condition of the black and coloured people under British rule during a former visit to Jamaica, I thought that an acquaintance with their more recently emancipated kinsfolk in the United States would not be without interest. B. PULLEN-BURRY. 253286 "Ever since I traversed those great regions which own the sway of the British crown outside these islands I have felt that there was a cause (Imperial Federation) which merited all the enthusiasm and energy that man could give to it. It is a cause for which one might be content to live ; it is a cause for which, if need be, one might be content to die." Lord Rosebery. CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE Arrival in Jamaica — Experiences on a Cuban steamer — On the way to Constant Spring — Twilight — Arawak superstitions — Dolce far n'lente — St. Chrysostom's, an American's, and Wordsworth's defi- nitions of woman — "Fanny's" appreciation of Divine mercies — An unanswered problem . . . . . 1 1 CHAPTER II The negro on tourists — Hotels, shipping lines — The knight's career j his discovery of Jamaica — The hot springs of Bath — The attrac- tions of Cuba — An interesting anthropological discovery . . 30 CHAPTER III Dr. Bastian's collection — A poverty-stricken Government — The caves of Jamaica — Evils of slavery — Sir J. P. Grant as an administrator — Favourable outlook — Set-back of the cyclone — Port Royal no longer a naval centre — The Munro doctrine — Roosevelt's character — A few remarks on Canada . . . .43 CHAPTER IV The philosopher's " humbug " — The incontinuity of Jamaican govern- ment — The planter's views — Coolies — Over-officialism — Taxes — The tropics a trust for civilisation — India and Egypt benefit by British rule — Negro's want of initiative — Law and order essential for successful colonisation — The Canadian mounted police . 57 7 A.,^ ' ' CONTENTS ••*'''' ' CHAPTER V PAGX The cyclone of 1903 — Damage to crops and buildings — Experiences related by sufferers — Energetic remedial measures — Banquet to Mr. Olivier — Jamaica's financial record — The parochial boards — Results of Mr. Olivier's influence on the island . . • 7' CHAPTER VI The obligations of empire— " The inarticulate mass"— Praedial larceny — Spanish Town prison — Its well-cared for inmates — Increase of larceny — Prison-gangs of Georgia — The death of the unfit — Puritan legislation against the sluggard — Latent powers of government — English poor-law system — We pay for our drones — The State in loco parentis . . . . .80 CHAPTER VII What to see — Mandeville, Montego Bay, the northern coast — Bog Walk — Spanish Town — The historic lands of St. Catherine — Generous rewards given to public benefactors — The Cathedral — Port Royal — A moonlight excursion — The Blue Mountains — Drive from Bath to Port Antonio — Tract devastated by the cyclone —The Titchfield Hotel . . . . . .94 CHAPTER VIII Cotton-growing — Sea-Island, Egyptian — Sir A. Jones* views — Culti- vation in Jamaica — Cassava — Sugar — Fluctuating prices — Risky nature of banana-culture — Oranges — Coffee — Chamberlain's policy —Cult of the dollar . . . . . .111 CHAPTER IX Education in Jamaica — Bishop of Gibraltar's remarks — Schools affected by cyclone, poverty and denominationalism — Archbishop suggests compulsory education — School trusts defined — Shortwood — Teachers* agricultural course — Free Trade fatal to agricultural interests ........ 124 CHAPTER X "Quashie" — Baptists and Bedwardism — My visit to a baptism — Religious teaching suppressing African superstitions — Funeral wakes and "ninth-day" feasts — Some incidents — Negro folk-lore . 140 CONTENTS 9 CHAPTER XI PAGE Interview with aged native of Guinea — Political qualifications — Even- handed justice — Hereditary influences of the jungle not speedily eliminated — Poverty of the people — Two samples of Jamaican women — Loyalty — The island hymn — Curious native ways . 154 CHAPTER XII The dying-out of Obeah — Crime in Jamaica — Fever the common complaint — The Leper's Home — Pathetic incident — Overworked clergy — Policy of retrenchment — Visit to the asylum — Over- crowding — Reflections on "brotherly love" and ^^ noblesse oblige" —Ex-governor's opinion , . . . . .164 CHAPTER XIII The negro under American rule — Conflicting situations — Booker Washington at New York — The African survives — Other races succumb — The home of the negro — Items from the Census of I goo — New England an inspiration to Southern industry — Rival creeds — Progress of the negro amid hardship and difficulty . 176 CHAPTER XIV His condition in Africa — The semblance of the civilisation of slavery — Ante-bellum days — Lincoln's part in emancipation — Thaddeus Steven as reconstructor — Bayonet government — Weary of the "ward of the nation" — The negro disfranchised — Booker Washington's dispassionate view— Lecky on negro government . 191 CHAPTER XV How a problem feels — Southern education — The college-bred negro — His segregation in the South — Kelly Miller on race-mixture — Specimens of negro literature — On the race question . , 205 CHAPTER XVI The Indian and negro compared — "Cast down your bucket" — European education unsuited to the negro — Leading characteristics — Du Chaillu's experiences — Cranial capacity — Connubial rela- tions of the race — Famous men — Dunbar's verses — Bruce's advice 220 10 CONTENTS CHAPTER XVII PAGE The painful transition into American citizenship — A few facts on lynching — Yielding to legislation — Onlookers indicted — Bruce on crime — ^Justice at the North — At the South — The juries of Louisiana — Miss Kellor's investigations .... 233 CHAPTER XVIII The negro as soldier — His bravery and cheerfulness — As manufacturer — As farmer — The crop-lien system — Labourers, croppers, metayers, renters — Life in cities — Infant mortality — A study of birth and death rates — Diseases — Kellor's measurements of female negroes ....... 243 CHAPTER XIX Congressional representation of a disfranchised class — Grandfather's clause — Callous Mississipi voters — The negro Church in slavery days — Nat Turner — The preacher — Frenzy — Music — Emotional worship — " Footwashing " of some Primitive Baptists — The dance — Dr. Carroll's table of negro religions — Dr. Frissell on the negro 255 CHAPTER XX Where I learnt of Roosevelt's re-election — ^Arrival at Tuskegee — The Institute — The position of the educated negro in the South — Expenses of school-life — A fellow-subject — Women's industries — At the home of Booker Washington — The men's workshops — The farm — A debating society — A drive with Mrs. Washington in the "black belt" — Conclusion .... 266 CHAPTER I "Like sentinels the pines stand in the park^ And hithevy hastening like rakes that roam With lamps to light their wayward footsteps hotne^ The fireflies come staggering down the dark.^^ Dunbar. No weary, wayworn traveller ever greeted the sight or land with greater joy than did I the exquisite, wooded, mountainous shores of Jamaica from the decks of a small Cuban vessel known in the Caribbean Sea as the Benito Estengo. As I approached the low-lying promontory of Port Royal, guarding the entrance to Kingston Harbour, I noted afresh the picturesque surroundings, the beauty of colour and of form which makes this oft-described spot one of the loveliest on God's earth. A pardonable feeling of pride surged over me as my glance swept the beggarly crew passing under review of the health officer of the port before landing, and rested on the tall masts and substantial funnels of British shipping half a mile away. I realised that, though humble and insignificant, I was, nevertheless, a unit of the mightiest empire of the world wherein 390,000,000 of human beings enjoy the privileges which the highest form of government known to civilisation extends to all its subjects, who, whatever be their race, colour, or 11 12 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE history, respond alike to the impulse of a common patriotism. If any say this is not so, they deceive themselves, and the truth is not in them. Let them remember how our colonies helped their venerable mother in the Boer War ! To the natural satisfaction of finding myself once more under the protection of my national flag, there was added that blessed sense of personal security which a woman only appreciates when she has traversed lands where law and order are regarded as secondary con- siderations, if not side-issues. Those who know nothing of trans- Atlantic regions, or who are not familiar with the vast magazine literature in circulation in the United States, may fail to perceive the gist of my remarks. For their enlightenment I refer them to a recent number of McClures Magazine^ where they may learn in an article dealing with the increase of lawlessness in the United States, that an American judge, addressing a jury, pointed out the fact that the number of murders and homicides for the States in three years was one-third larger than the total losses of the British army in the Boer war, which numbered 22,000. In the three years taken by the judge the number was 31,395. The writer of the article asserts that in Great Britain murders and homicides are less than one-tenth as common as they are in the United States, and proceeds to attribute in no measured terms this lawless spirit to a dollar-hunting and office-seeking oligarchy ! I had some days previously crossed from New Orleans to Cuba, travelling 540 miles by rail from Havana to Santiago, to meet a ship sailing monthly to a Jamaican port. The Benito Estengo^ belonging to a firm in Santiago, leaving at 10 a.m. ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 13 on the Sunday following my arrival, was the said vessel. When I found myself and belongings at the time appointed on board this small, dirty, malodorous craft, 1 was unhappy — because I am not philosophical — but when I learnt that her speed was seven knots an hour and had taken a glance at my immediate surroundings my spirits, normally at high-water mark, ebbed to their lowest tide. For a moment I thought my mind had played me false, that I was back in the days of the buccaneers — for, given a blunderbuss or two, the crew would have passed any day for first-class pirates. The captain, unshaven, jovial, dirty, his elbows thrusting themselves out of his frayed jacket, addressed a few words to me in broken English. He was a remarkable figure ; his clothes, which would not have been accepted in any self-respecting pawnshop, threatened summarily to part company with their owner. The sailors were the most ruffianly, poverty-stricken looking specimens it has been my lot to sail with. A table had been laid ror breakfast under an awning on the miniature deck. Close by, a huge negress was solemnly preparing to battle with expectant sea-sickness ; pro bono publico^ she divested herself of restrictive portions of her clothing, then spreading out a primitive canvas couch, she lay down upon it, exhibiting no sign of life for the ensuing twenty-four hours. Two other female pas- sengers of Creole aspect having exchanged their attire for wrappers, presented pitiable spectacles of shape- lessness and sorrowful anticipation, the victims of a torturing imagination, for we still lay alongside the quay. Much as I had looked forward to steaming out of this 14 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE beautiful and world-famed harbour where the glory ot Spain in the New World had received its death-blow, I felt I could have dispensed even with that experience had I known under what conditions the transit from Cuba to Jamaica was to be effected. It seemed as if I were to be the only first-class passenger, when, just as the gangway was about to be drawn up, to my joy, a sturdy Englishman in a grey suit, carrying a small bottle of Cuban rum, came on board. I hailed him as a friend and a brother. He expressed surprise at finding an English lady on that ship ! I told him how I had besieged the shipping ofEces at New Orleans to find the best way to get to Jamaica, how they one and all had exasperated me by saying, " Madam, we reckon you must go back to New York, or Boston, and take the United Fruit Company's steamers to Port Antonio : there is no other way. We send all our clients to New York ; it is only forty hours from here." I told him how I had flatly refused to rattle through the States back again to either of those cities. Could I not get to Port Limon, or Colon, and tranship there for Kingston ? I had asked. Of course I could, they had told me, and two or three of the clerks at these offices had pushed tickets and prices under my nose with prompt precision. Then, fortunately, it had shot through my mind to inquire narrowly concerning quarantine arrangements. After skilfully cross-questioning the aforesaid clerks, finally I had elicited the fact that I might be detained at any of these central American ports practically at the local authorities' good pleasure. These considerations, I ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 15 informed the Englishman, had made me decide to go to Jamaica via Cuba, although I had thought it quite possible that I should have to engage a sloop to get from Santiago to Port Antonio. To my explanations my fellow-passenger listened interestedly ; he told me he had been in a similar fix, but this wretched ship was really the only available means of transit from Cuba to Jamaica. We were now invited to the table to partake of breakfast, but the scenery was more attractive than the viands, for the harbour of Santiago, down which we steamed slowly, is a lovely inlet, with tiny bays and curving shores wooded to the water's edge. Here the Spanish fleet were assembled when they issued singly from its narrow neck to face the belching fire of the American warships outside. In the latest history of Cuba, published in 1904, and compiled by Dr. Carlos de la Torre, who represents the University of Havana in the Cuban Republic, a short description of this naval engagement is thus given : — " Combat e naval de Santiago, — El Almirante Cervera recibio del General Blanco la orden de salir del Puerto de Santiago y en la memorable mai5ana del 3 de julio de 1898 se dio la serial de partida. El Maria Teresa con la bandera de combate desplegada marchaba el primero ; detrds iba el Viscaya, al que seguian el Colon y el Oquendo. El Brooklyn y el Iowa inutilizaron al Maria Teresa, el Oquendo quedo destrozado por el Oregon el Indiana y el Iowa ; el Viscaya fu6 presa del incendio y embarranco en el Aserradero, y el Cristobal Colon perseguido por el Oregon, el Brooklyn el New York y el Texas, vi^ndose irremisiblemente perdido, se arrojo A toda mdquina sobre la Costa, para hundirse despu^s en el 16 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE mar. En este combate perdio Espaiia su escuadra y tuvo 350 muertos y 160 heridos graves." ^ We had a terrible time that night off Morant Point, on the eastern coast of Jamaica — choppy seas, everybody ill. The steamer rolled w^ith a short, sharp movement by no means comforting. Once or twice I thought she would turn turtle, and I remembered as I lay ill at ease in my berth, cribbed, confined, perhaps to be coffined, that the bad reputation of these waters is historical, for Admiral Collingwood, the friend and companion of Nelson, was in 1781 wrecked in the good ship Pelican^ off Morant Cays, in a hurricane. In these days, when Jamaica and our other West Indian possessions are, figuratively speaking, sobbing with grief at the anticipated withdrawal of the naval and military forces, we are prone to forget how the seas of the Caribbean were sailed by men whose daring and great abilities wrested these beautiful islands from the great world-powers of glorious bygone ages. * The Sea-fight at Santiago, — Admiral Cervera received from General Blanco the order to leave the harbour of Santiago, and on the memorable morning of the 3rd of July, 1898, the signal to depart was given. The Maria Teresa, flying the standard of battle, was the first to sally forth ; behind her came the Viscaya, the Colon and the Oquendo. The Maria Teresa was soon placed hors de combat by the Brooklyn and the Iowa, whilst the Oquendo remained to be destroyed by the Oregon, the Indiana, and the Iowa ; the Viscaya caught fire and collided with the Asseradero and the Cristobal Colon, followed by the Oregon, the Brooklyn, the New York, and the Texas, realising its certain doom, hurled itself upon the coast to sink almost immediately in the sea. In this combat Spain lost her fleet, with 350 sailors, 160 being seriously wounded. ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 17 The next morning my compatriot and I exchanged confidences concerning our nocturnal sufferings and experiences. He was famih'ar with these waters, and declared we had been distinctly in danger, not so much from the currents which meet off this headland as from the unseaworthiness of the ancient craft we were in, which was only fit for calm seas, and not too safe at that. What had alarmed him as much as anything, he told me, was a yell of sheer fright the captain had given close to his cabin when we had been rolling frightfully. This had been followed up by a volley of untranslatable Spanish oaths more forcible than elegant, showing the man had been beside himself with fright. The sailors he had heard petitioning every pet saint in the calendar to see them through. After a tour extending over several months, the sunlit beauteousness, the panorama of the stately mountains semi-girdling the town of Kingston, which lies nestling at their feet, the distant plains, the shining waters reflecting the blue vaulted expanse of tropical sky, seemed to beckon to me a friendly welcome. How glad I felt that I was not in a strange land ! Once on my way in the electric car to Constant Spring I turned intuitively to say something to the brown occupants beside me. How different was the spontaneous, smiling courtesy of these poor souls to the behaviour of < their brethren in the land from whence I had come ! The colour, the charm of the island picturesqueness and of life generally, drove out the memory of an unpleasant experience. The tasteful colonial homes of English people and of the Jamaican-born smile at you as you are swiftly whirled past, catching glimpses of the scarlet blossoms of the poinsettia, of purple bougainvillia, of 2 18 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE red hibiscus, and yellow alamander, whilst you recognise an old friend in the handsome polished leaf of the bread- fruit tree, and you hear again the " women's tongues " rattling in their pods as the cool breeze off the sea sweeps over them. A short distance from the road you catch sight of that hoary-headed giant, the ceiba, better known as the cotton-tree. All around you teems the prolific life belonging to the regions of heat, but perhaps the life which interests you most is that of the busy, swiftly passing people belonging to a transplanted nation. Along the great island highway leading from the mountains to the metropolis descendants of the once enslaved, like ants, laden with burdens, come and go. " Where are the men, then ? " you naturally ask as you watch women hoisting huge baskets on their bandana- girdled heads, the beflowered hat resting, perhaps, on top of the produce destined for to-morrow's early market, many of them coming from the hills a distance of over twenty miles. The man, comparatively speaking, is scarcely in evidence at all in Jamaica ; a class of them we may describe as the women's encumbrances. When such, irresponsible, oblivious to the duties of paternity, add three or four smaller encumbrances, then indeed the lot of these hard-working toilers is sad. If you blame them for straying from what you have been taught as the path of virtue, a path you have not mentally evolved as the only admissible one, put your- self in their place ; think of their past, of the dark heritage of their African descent ; think of their present poverty-stricken surroundings, their limited equipment, mental and moral, for the battle of life, which you at times, with all the props of a boasted civilisation, all the ETHIOPIA m EXILE 19 support of a highly-organised religious system, find so difficult ; think of their lives in those wattled huts — no books, no pictures, with no power to connect cause with effect, no mind trained to think of the future, to weigh the relative proportion of things, with no memories of the past to steady them, no traditions to inspire them, their only possessions the two human cravings for hunger and love. The first satisfied, why not gratify the desire for the other ? Perhaps by your side a well-meaning moralist will mournfully depict to you the sad state of morals which obtain in "exiled Ethiopia," but if you look below the surface you will call to mind that great scientific principle laid down by Herbert Spencer in his " Principles of Biology " — the antagonism between indi- viduation and genesis ; in other words, the higher the individual type the less prolific it is. The exact opposite of this confronts you in your studies of the negro race wheresoever you may find it. A class of lazy black men are the curse of the island. It is said that a tourist once was heard to exclaim : " It is extraordinary to what a pitch these negroes have cultivated laziness ! " And he went on to describe how he saw four stalwart negroes pushing heavily behind a cask on a dockside, which slowly rolled to its appointed place, when the men seated themselves for a rest with the air of " Well done, boys I " Supposing that the barrel must contain at least something as heavy as cement, he walked up and looked into it. It was totally empty ! People remark on the happiness of the Jamaican black ; philosophers may perhaps say it is a false happi- ness, because based on ignorance, but after my experi- ences in the United States I incline to think that the 20 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE more gradually the changes in racial evolution take place the more merciful they are to a people who have no idea of the various needs which increasing knowledge brings in its train. Here in Jamaica is a race embraced by Imperial rule, protected from hostile powers, from lawlessness and crime in its island home, loyal to the claims of an empire of the extent and grandeur of which its limited ken can never fully grasp. As I watched the blue shadows darken the flanks of the sheltering mountains I thought, as we waited for some people to get on the car, of those merchant princes, those monied despots, who a century ago had ruled this island, now past and gone. How little they had under- stood the true meaning of " the boast of heraldry, the pomp of power," of its obligations, its duties ! They had known nothing of the subtle, cohesive, sympathetic spirit which binds kindred to kindred with links of steel- like strength. They had never had the prophetic eye to pierce the intervening years, to speculate how the quick interchange of thought by telephone and telegraph would revolutionize the world, nor would they, if appear- ing in our midst to-day, comprehend what that bond of brotherhood means which unites in one nations differing widely in history, race, and religion. Imperialism which is nothing short of this is not the game of grab or the happy hunting-ground of the capitalist and the schemer ; it is the conscientious recognition of the right of the stronger to protect the weaker ; it exists for the sake of those governed, and it calls to those who own its sway to aid in the proud task of consolidation. My reflections were here disturbed by the arrival of the car at the important station of Half-way Tree. No one seems to ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 21 know exactly how this place acquired its name. When the English in CromweH's time took the island from Spain there stood in the Liguanea Plain at the spot where there is now a junction of four roads one of the majestic cotton-trees of the Eriodendron variety. In those days, apparently, it was only a tree in a stretch of open country, but later on the country people coming from the mountains paused to rest in its shadow before they proceeded to Kingston. In 1866 this tree was still in existence, but it died shortly after. This is perhaps the origin of the name. We are indebted, however, to the Arawaks, the aboriginal Indians whom Christopher Columbus dis- turbed in the possession of the island, for many words now in daily use. The barbecue, a cemented platform where coffee, pimento, and other crops are dried and cured, was originally a framework on which the Indians placed their food for smoking purposes. The canoe cut out of the trunk of the cotton-tree in Jamaica survives in our language ; the word " cannibal," derived from the man-eating Carib, is of West Indian origin ; "hurricane," " iguana," " guava," "maize," come from the same source. The Jack Crows sitting on the housetops with out- spread wings fit in with other objects in the tropical landscape. Sir Hans Sloane said when the English first landed they mistook these birds for turkeys, " by their bareness and colour of the skin on the head." He narrates that some killed them, labouring under this delusion, " but the offensiveness of their lean bodies soon deceived them." The old naturalist, speaking of the island fauna, causes one to regret that the parrot, with its gaudy plumage, and the macaw almost cease to exist. 22 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE In April the migratory birds begin to appear, the curious cry of the gi-mi-mi-bits is heard, and late in the day they may be espied in company with the swallows in pursuit of insects which swarm everywhere. The cheery note of the John-to-Whit is also recognisable at this time, and its cry is said to be prophetic of rain. Butterflies in Jamaica chase each other all the year round, but the exquisite long-tailed humming-birds with metallic plumage on their breasts, trembling over sweet-smelling blossoms, recall the quaint but charming legend, that the humming-birds embody the souls of the dead Arawaks. That strange historian, Peter Martyn, declared that the aborigines used to hunt the Indian conies by the light of fireflies fastened to their toes ! but a more curious story of a use to which fireflies were put is told of a Creole belle who years ago appeared in a dress covered with the beautiful insects alive and sparkling. They had been carefully and separately fastened on to a net, and the effect was probably as beautiful as it was original. The Arawaks were famous for their superstitions. One of these was that the indentations on the head and tail of the alligator were fierce blows inflicted by clubs rained upon him by the Sun. This god (the Sun) had descended to earth to fish, but the alligator interfered with the Sun's sport, whereon divine vengeance whacked him on the head and tail. The owl, said the Arawaks, once discovered a package prepared by a malevolent foe ; thinking it con- tained gold, he opened it, but it immediately enveloped him, for it was a package of darkness, and ever since the owl has not been able to endure the light. The names of the villages, rivers, parishes, and towns in the colony are historically interesting to the visitor. ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 23 He is reminded of the Spanish occupation in Spanish Town, Rio Cobre, Rio Bueno, of governors in Trelawny and Manchester. Savannah-le-Mar means the " flat by the sea." Mandeville comes from the title of the Duke of Manchester's eldest son. Bog Walk, near Spanish Town, is derived from "boca d'ague," signifying the mouth of the water ; and as the spot thus called is in a gorge down which the river flows, the name speaks for itself. Xaymaca, the Indian word for Jamaica, signifies "the land of springs," and considering the numerous streams which find their way to the sea, the island is appropriately named. I must, however, bring my remarks back to the scene of my destination. I had reached Constant Spring Hotel, and after securing my room descended to the dining-room. Here from January to April one can taste all the edible fruits of the island — oranges, shaddocks, guavas, star apples, grape-fruit, papaw, melon, naseberries, pineapples, granadillas, tamarinds, sour-sop, mangoes, and others. In fact, this colony is becoming a very fashionable winter resort. Droves of Americans land on the northern shores, where a magnificent hotel at Port Antonio, named the Titchfield, has just been opened. It is a mam- moth construction, built and run by Americans, whose steamers, known as those belonging to the United Fruit Company, ply between this port and New York. The most direct way for English people to reach Kingston is to travel by the Direct Mail, sailing fortnightly from Bristol, and accomplishing the voyage in from ten to thirteen days. Another route is by the Royal Mail Company's steamers, which leave Southampton fort- nightly, calling at Barbados and Trinidad on the way. There are two hotels at Kingston to which travellers 24 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE generally wend their way on arrival. Myrtle Bank, in the town, with pretty gardens and a private pier looking out on to the waters of the picturesque harbour, has spacious verandahs, and is cool and pleasant. In the morning a crisp sea breeze generally blows, and in the evening cool, spice-laden winds from the hills descend upon the sleeping town. The rapidly falling twilight, the lovely moonlight nights, the clear, star-spangled skies, add to the charms of this tropic island. " Subtle perfume of some flower — What it is, no one knows, Myrtle or orange or logwood — Jasmine, coffee or rose ; Flashes of light and of colour — Firefly flames in the trees. Murmurs of minor music From water and birds and breeze ; Tropical earth-laden odours Coming up from the ground ; A chorus of evening insects And — twilight falleth around." These words, written by a Jamaican under the nom de plume of " Tropica," express the beauty of the island at twilight better than any lame words of mine. Constant Spring Hotel is the best West Indian hotel I have yet visited, and it is an ideal place to winter in. Situated on rising ground six miles from Kingston, with beautiful grounds adjoining, many persons stay for months and never find the time hang heavily on their hands. Tennis, golf, croquet, billiards, and riding are some of the amusements open to visitors ; a large swim- ming-bath attracts numbers ; whilst in the season the band plays three times a week. Numerous dances are ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 25 arranged, as well as excursions to the places of interest in the neighbourhood. Bellevue, a house on the hills not far away, where a lovely view is obtainable, and Stony Hill, a village some three miles off, together with Castle- ton, seventeen miles distant, where the Government has a beautiful botanical garden, are the best of these. The building itself is extensive, and the reception-rooms large, cool, and very comfortably furnished, with veran- dahs on either side. In these hot regions the enervating influence makes itself felt on the dusky race as well as on the European ; here the strenuousness of the inhabitant of the temperate zone must not be looked for. Writers have described the tropics as the empire of fecundity, the rich source or life, but not of effort to direct its prolific, teeming production. The negro is the denizen of equatorial countries, the sensuous climatic influence was the atmo- sphere wherein his race was cradled, as ours in the health- giving, energetic temperate zone ; nor should we overlook this consideration when we visit our West Indian Colonies and pit race against race. It is not just to ignore it, but this is what the casual Briton invariably does in Jamaica. Of course one meets all sorts and conditions of visitors. Here you can, if you choose, study the whims of humanity from the third-rate American girl who disturbs your rest at midnight by calling for drinks to the curious, titled aristocrat whose sufferings from thirst become also distressingly poignant in the small hours of the morning. You meet ladyships, too, with enlarged livers and tempers to match, demanding sustenance for their sinking constitutions just when the hard-worked servants have sought rest for a few hours, 2G ETHIOPIA IN EXILE to say nothing of some who carry " Palestine " writ large on every interesting feature ; all afford material for improving psychological studies, and all of them give infinite trouble and pain to " Silent Ethiopia " — but I confess it puzzles me to find for what reason some of them cross the Atlantic in mid-winter ! As I took my first cup of tea at Constant Spring on the spacious verandah looking out on to the Blue Moun- tains I watched a group of smartly-dressed ladies who sat near me, discontentedly fanning themselves ; they were grumblingly comparing Jamaican food, fruit, and table- service with that of the best hotels in London. It evidently did not occur to them that West-end provi- sion shops and co-operative stores were not within hailing distance, nor that the coloured islanders could scarcely be expected to wait as well as those deftly trained to hotel and restaurant table-service in London and Paris. These hypercritical, disconsolate ladies admitted to each other that they could see nothing in the scenery worthy of admiration. Further inquiry elicited the fact that their search for beauty in any shape had been limited to shopping at Kingston ; not a halfpenny upon carriage-hire had they expended, without which one can see nothing of the loveliness of the island. They had been a fortnight at the hotel when I met them. Two out of the three were feeling ill, so they told me, when I at once suggested they should enlist the kindly attentions of the senior lady housekeeper, whose reputa- tion for nursing is that of a ministering angel, several men having admitted to me that her skill and devoted care had snatched them back from the jaws of death ; but the ladies explained that they were martyrs to indi- ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 27 gestion, and were doctoring themselves I Possibly the cure consisted in the regularity with which I afterwards noted they appeared at meals. These swallowed with intermittent courses of grumbling, such as I heard pro- ceeding from their table, would, I fancy, tend to promote discomfort in the hardiest constitution in subsequent chemical changes. These leisured, inappreciative, dull women, as they lounged for hours in easy chairs, the lace flounces of their be-frilled skirts waving in the cool breeze, their expressionless faces, repulsive rather than attractive, re- minded me often of a game we played as girls at school, called the " Book Game." In it we arranged tableaux to represent the title of a book, which the onlookers had to guess. The idea came to me repeatedly, as I studied them, how I could pose a group to represent a work I had lately read entitled " Pigs in Clover " ! Let it not be thought, however, that this extreme type is meant to convey an impression of those persons who spend the winter in the West Indies. The variety of our sex constitutes its charm. St. Chrysostom, with harsh severity, considered us " a neces- sary evil, a natural temptation, a desirable calamity, a domestic peril, a deadly fascination, and a painted ill. * An American says, "Woman is the only aristocrat — elects without voting, governs without law, and decides without appeal." And our woodland poet, Wordsworth, the lover of nature, conceives the helpmate of man to be "A perfect woman, nobly planned, To warn, to comfort, and command." There are some women who come up to the standard 28 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE of the poet's ideal, and we thank God for them. There are also " painted ills " to be met with, and from such we fervently pray Him to deliver us, but there are all sorts between these extremes, and amongst their ranks some very good company. After making the acquaint- ance of the "discontented fair" on the evening of my arrival, I had gone to my room, to unpack my trunks with the aid of Fanny the chambermaid. I was curious to know her experience of the awful cyclone of August, 1903, to which I have devoted a chapter further on. She vividly described how all the inmates of the hotel had sought refuge in the great central hall while the storm was at its worst. She told me they had not expected to live through the night, so terrible had been the hurricane, although its fury lasted only a few hours. The roof in some parts had been carried away whole and flung on the tennis lawn. The bedding was soaked, almost every window was smashed to shivers, but they had scarcely been given time to collect their thoughts, so energetically had the manager immediately set to work to repair the mischief. She concluded her story with emphatic thanks to the Almighty, for "de Lord was so good to us. He turned de wind away, when we thought we couldn't live t'rough any more." I have noticed in my travels that just those whom you would naturally imagine had least of all of this world's possessions for which to feel thankful, are often those who are most appreciative of what they consider God's goodness to them. This was brought home to me when I visited one or two famous negro institutions in the United States, most noticeably at Tuskegee, Booker Washington's far-famed industrial establishment for ETHIOPIA m EXILE 29 negroes, where some 1,500 students burst into stirring hymns of praise to the Giver of all good gifts. It was pathetic to me to hear this oppressed, backward, slowly- developing people praising and magnifying the Almighty for His mercies, when from my point of view those mercies had been so unequally divided between the white and black races, the latter's share in them being so infinitesimally small as compared to the benefits of civilisation showered upon the Caucasian. If little is given, surely little will be required, if in the hereafter there is to be a general balancing of accounts for good received. As I recall these incidents I am lost in reverie as to which in the long run I would rather be! — simple, ignorant but thankful, like black Fanny, or complex, educated, but discontented, like the ladies of the fans and flounces I have described. CHAPTER II ** Hov) dull it is to pause ^ to tnake an end^ to rest unburnished ; not to shine in use as though to breathe were life^ — HoMER. There are pros and cons to most questions ; and in the newly opened-up tourist traffic which is now one of the leading phases of the developing commercial interests of Jamaica, the black man has his opinion to give of how the much-desired tourist patronage affects his prospects. The following is an amusing summary from an island source of what the native thinks of visitors to Jamaica. " Tourists ! Dem is a confusion set of people. What we want dem for ? What good dem going to do ? All dem idle buckra drive and ride over de mountins in dem buggy and harse wit all dem 'surance, and look down upon we poor naygurs. True ! dem say dey brings we money, but when time we eber see it ? All de storekeepers dem in Kingston and de big tabern-keeper, dem is de one dat get de money out of dem ! An when de tourists come up de country and see we working in de ground, dem is not goin' to do anyting fa we, but take picta and laugh at we. Chu ! me bredder, only de buckra dem will profit. Let me go dig mi yam-hill.'* At present the hotels are not numerous j there are^ 30 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 31 however, comfortable boarding-houses and several ladies glad to receive paying guests. The Montpelier, near Montego Bay, at the end of the island railv^^ay, the Moneague in the parish of St. Ann, the Titchfield, now- rebuilt at Port Antonio, the Rio Cobre at Spanish Town, together with the two hotels at Kingston I have already mentioned, are the chief. The two latter, owned and managed by the Elder, Dempster Company, are best known. The fortnightly steamers bringing the mails direct from Bristol to Kingston also belong to this well- known company, the moving spirit of which is one of the most famous merchants in English commercial circles. He is undoubtedly a remarkable personage, combining with business capabilities of the highest order exalted patriotism and open-handed generosity. One day you read of this benevolent millionaire giving ;f 10,000 to the building fund of a new cathedral, the next as founder and president of the recently-formed British Cotton-growing Association, in the guise of a prophet endued with foresight predicting the day to be within measurable distance when America shall look to the cotton-growing fields of the British Empire for her raw material. Looking forward into futurity, this far- seeing and sanguine knight heralds the day when, instead of the British industry being bound hand and foot to the cotton belt in the United States, the British cotton-grower will be " cornering " the Yankee manu- facturer. Oh, blessed vision ! Listen and rejoice, ye cotton spinners of Lancashire, at the prospective promised prosperity in store for you ! 'The title of "Banana King" has been bestowed upon this princely merchant. Christopher Columbus has long 32 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE since been relegated to a back seat in the estimation of Jamaicans, for everybody knows that this astute English- man discovered the island in reality by publishing to an apathetic, indifferent world its latent potentiality for fruit culture and by rendering it accessible to the British tourist. Last Christmas (1904) he metaphorically poured oil and gladness into the hearts of its inhabitants by his welcome message, whereby he showed himself still interested in this sometime distressful island, notwith- standing the pecuniary loss which the company he repre- sents suffered in common with others from the damage of the cyclone in 1903. In his message to the people of Jamaica he congratu- lated the islanders on their steadily improving prosperity, and promised further encouragement by the advent of two new turbine steamers ordered for West Indian trade. These vessels are built to travel at a speed of eighteen knots an hour, to meet, as he says, "the vast possibilities of trade opened up by the splendid success achieved by the Port Kingston.''^ This last-named addition to the Elder, Dempster fleet performs the journey from Bristol to Kingston in ten days, and, speaking from personal experience, it is the steadiest and most comfortable vessel in which I have ever had the good fortune to cross the ocean. In stormy weather mid-Atlantic, the fiddles were not once required at table. Its genial and popular captain is acknowledged to be one of the smartest men in the mercantile service. As sailor, as parson, as auctioneer, he is a striking individual, and no one need complain of dulness who sails the seas with him. The commercial interests of the knight are not con- ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 33 fined to the West Indies ; they are as numerous as they are far-reaching and extensive. The fleet which he controls numbers over one hundred steamers. Some of the concerns run by him are the Grand Canary Coaling Company, the Teneriffe Coaling Company, and that of Sierra Leone. He rescued the Canaries from bankruptcy by his recognition of the wealth there lay in banana culture. He is aiding to bring about an improved financial status similarly in Jamaica. Inducing the indolent natives to cultivate the fruits of the earth, he ships them to England, where he creates a market for them. His belief in the banana is proverbial. Report is rife that he keeps by his side in office hours a huge dish of his favourite fruit, and to be asked to take a banana may be regarded as a signal that the interview is at an end. " Have you had a banana ? " is often asked of the caller issuing from the great man's presence. A story is told, however, of some one who had a big business deal on hand and who declined the proffered fruit when the knight thus delicately intimated that he did not wish to proceed with the subject : " No, Sir A ," said he ; " we have not yet reached the banana stage." Whether the negotiation was satisfactorily concluded report does not say. This successful business man believes in extensive advertisements. On the high, bare face of the hill facing the harbour at Grand Canary the following advertisement was painted in gigantic letters : " The Grand Canary Coaling Company. Messrs. Elder, Dempster and Co., Managers." Passengers calling at this busy half-way house to the Cape could not help 3 34 ETHIOPIA m EXILE seeing it, but its huge size was offensive to Spanish dignity, and the authorities requested it might be obliterated, since it would convey to the world the impression that the company owned the island. The sign was removed, but the substance of it remains to this day, for the knight practically runs the place. An apostle, like Theodore Roosevelt, of the dignity of labour, this great Liverpool merchant preaches the gospel of strenuousness, of continuous application to work. Knowledge and capital, he says, are necessary in keen, competitive business, but the latter is of little use without the former. Jamaica requires men pos- sessed of both to build up splendid industries and to establish a satisfactory labour market. The trend of events, too, goes to show that with the accelerated speed of new vessels many visitors will be tempted to come to this island for a more or less lengthened stay instead of wintering in the South of France. The climate is more equable, the scenery more attractive, besides which it is a British possession and full of historical and ethnical interest. At the time of writing flocks of Americans are visiting the island, and it must, sooner or later, become a serious consideration whether the hotel accommodation will not have to be materially increased to cope with this rapidly developing tourist traffic. A large hotel in Manchester, one on the Blue Mountains, another in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and one in the hills of St. Thomas, would be attractive centres. With some system of light railways and coaches connecting them with each other much might reasonably be expected. A coach to Bath, in the parish of St. Thomas, and ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 36 better accommodation there, would spread abroad a knowledge of the hot springs in that neighbourhood which are known to have effected marvellous cures, and which are identical in chemical properties with the " aquae solis " of Bath, in Somersetshire, after which city the Jamaican resort has been named. The tem- perature at the head of the spring, at Bath, is 1260 to 1280 F., but the water loses about 9° in its transit to the bath. The waters are sulphuric, and contain a large proportion of hydro-sulphate of lime. A cold spring flows from the same hill side near the hot spring, so that cold and hot water are laid on by nature. Then there are warm saline baths at Milk River, in the district of Vere, where numerous cures are on record. This is one of the most remarkable springs in the world. If its powers were known in Europe and America it would be thronged by crowds of sufferers. At these hot springs palsy, rheumatism, gout, neuralgia, sciatica, and lumbago are healed. One can only feel that were Jamaica's treasures, either in the way of mineral springs or natural productions, handled in the same way and in the same spirit as that in which hardy Scots wring a livelihood from an ungracious, grudging, northern soil, Jamaica would be rich beyond compare. Already the island has exchanged her evil reputation as the " white man's grave " for that of a health resort. Were her mineral springs and their efficacy advertised thousands would be attracted to the radio-active waters of the colony. The death-rate, which in 1895 was 227, has steadily declined. In 1903 the rate was only 19*8, which figure compares most favourably with those of our big towns. The same year the rate of Manchester was 36 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 20-0 ; Liverpool, 22*5 ; Dublin, 24*3 ; Belfast, 20-8 ; Glasgow, 20-0 ; whilst the death-rate of Madrid stands at 32-8; Cairo, 35-4; Calcutta, 37*2; New Orleans, 21*5. Possibly Jamaica has not yet reached the highest development in hygiene and sanitation, so that as knowledge advances we may look for a still lower death- rate. The northern coast is especially beautiful, and we agree cordially with the novelist. Miss A. E. Holds- worth, who declares — " To Jamaica God has given Just a little touch of heaven." Once clear of human habitations the country is lovely, but West Indian towns are by no means attractive, and Kingston less, perhaps, than most. " The lights of the town Madonna Are the eyes of a soul's despair ! The streets are the thoughts Madonna, That are dreary, and dark, and bare." These lines emphasize my advice to visitors to literally lift their eyes to the mountains. Some day when I return, grey-haired, sad, and serious, as becomes those whose approach to the end of life's tether cannot be postponed, to this glorious, tropical, sunlit colouring, to the prolific, teeming life of this island, I am confident the march of progress will have made it possible for me to go from Port Antonio to Montego Bay by easy stages. There will be good hotels along that lovely coast, but what I look for- ward to in a nearer future is the establishment of frequent and efficient steam service connecting Jamaica ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 37 with Cuba, and so with continental America. Now that the big hotel is finished at Port Antonio we shall soon hear of something of the kind, " Cook's Tours " want it badly. I worried them on this point myself, when at New York, and they said in an injured way they were again and again asked to facilitate travel by this route, but that they could not possibly guarantee, or permit, their clients to trust themselves to the un- certainty of Cuban vessels. Remembering my own experience on the Benito Estengo^ I hold now that they were much to be commended for their refusal to send people to Jamaica via Cuba, and I call to mind the shock I had felt when confronted one morning at Santiago by a lady who appeared to be the victim of an awful skin disease. She had explained to me that she and her husband had only a short holiday every year and had gone to Jamaica from New York by the Fruit Company's ships ; they wanted greatly to see Cuba and to return via the States, and had, with much difficulty, found a sloop bound for Santiago. For two days they had lain becalmed, and had sat exposed to the sun's rays on deck, there being no awning ; they had subsisted on biscuits and tinned food, with cockroaches for nocturnal companions. The poor lady's peeling nose was the result of her scorching experience. " Guess you thought I'd got the leprosy," she laughingly exclaimed as she concluded the recital of her woes. Personally, I think Jamaica would benefit largely if a round trip or extension to Cuba could be comfortably included in a visit to our colony. Americans in coming or returning via Cuba would be much interested in the curious Spanish-built towns and developing trade of their 38 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE ward ; by rail they would in twenty-six hours reach Santiago from Havana. The interior of Cuba, however, is not to be compared with the lovely scenery of Jamaica. The line recently finished by Sir W. Van Home, whose fame for engineering skill will go down to posterity linked with that gigantic enterprise the Canadian Pacific Railway, traverses virgin forests, vast grazing tracts, where cattle knee-deep in guinea-grass are sparsely visible from the train. You see also solitary negroes' huts where children, without a vestige of clothing, far from church or school, scamper off like rabbits into their holes directly they perceive you watching them from the carriage windows. The only difference in Cuban travel to American is that no restaurant car is attached to the train, so it is advisable to take a little fruit and some biscuits with you. There are two stops for lunch and dinner, which are prepared for the advent of the passengers in special buildings. At one of these stoppages, having lunched, I perambulated the length of the train for exercise, when I found I had subjected myself to the gaze and inquisitively whispered queries of the curious ; my appearance they evidently thought was not American ; just then the guard of the train came along and in one word cleared up the question of my nationality. I heard Inglese in an undertone repeated from one to another as they eyed me with increased interest, but respectfully. Some American engineers were travelling through Cuba to report on a survey of the harbour of Santiago. One of them laughingly guessed I was " the first Englishwoman that crowd had ever struck." That night when I had arrived at Santiago at 11.30 p.m., a solitary Englishwoman — for the engi- ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 39 neers had with many apologies left the train at the station before — I realised that I had stepped somewhat aside from the bounds of civilisation, but the ill-favoured- looking hotel porter, who met me with an enormous cheroot in his mouth, proved a friend in need. He hated Americans and loved the English. Once more I had reason to be grateful to the land of my birth. The undeveloped wealth of Cuba is enormous. The Spaniards settled all round the coasts, the interior of the island is almost untrodden. It could grow, I was told, all the sugar wanted in the States, and I was most interested to learn that the cane on some of the estates near Matanzas has been known to produce a good crop after thirty years, whereas in Louisiana, when visiting friends who own a large sugar property, I was informed that every year the cane was planted afresh, and that it was at best a precarious crop, requiring skill and much care to make it profitable. Here virgin land, when cleared, will produce a first-rate crop without any dressing, so fertile is the land. The island could support a population of 13,000,000, whereas its inhabitants number only 1,600,000, of which a third represents the negro popula- tion. It struck me that Havana is on the way to become a second Nice. Improvements on every side are progressing, and the Americans have introduced a knowledge of modern sanitation. With its fine squares, public gardens, its hotels and beautiful shops, it is an attractive city. Its harbour is historical, and as you steam past Castle Morro, a frowning fortress overlooking the entrance to the harbour, the remains of the ill-fated Maine rise up from the waters to remind you of the part the United States played in wresting from the 40 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE enfeebled grip of Spain the last of her once proud possessions in the Western hemisphere. Havana boasts of an university, which since Cuba's lately acquired independence is now removed to a height above the town, formerly the Spanish barracks. I visited its lecture-rooms with an eminent professor, Dr. Carlos de la Torre, whose history of Cuba I have already mentioned. This gentlemen was the first Alcade (Mayor) of Havana after the war. His academical appointments and posi- tion in the Senate, together with his popularity, con- stitute him a well-known figure in Havana society. He told me that in the year 1762 the city with the fortress of Morro had for a time been in the possession of the British, until the Treaty of Paris in 1763, which ended the Seven Years' War, restored Cuba to Spain, and it was interesting to hear from the lips of this progressive Cuban that during that short period of British occupation an impulse was given to the development of commerce. In his " Nociones de Historia de Cuba " Dr. de la Torre places this fact on record : " Este periodo funesto para la Metropoli puede considerarse como el primer paso para la prosperidad de Cuba." ^ Modern ideas are superseding those of decadent Spain. Some 500 youths and actually 35 women students are now attending the university lectures. I was shown over the miniature anthropological museum, which has only been two years in existence, where I was interested in a collection of Voodoo curi- osities, all closely related to Obeahism as formerly, and occasionally now, practised in Jamaica. Dr. Montana, the enthusiastic occupant of the newly-established chair * "This period, fatal for the Metropolis (Havana), maybe considered as the first step towards the prosperity of Cuba." ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 41 of anthropology, has, however, collected some strange garments, worn by negroes even now, I believe, in processions on feast days, which point to the fact that to-day, as in the first centuries of Christianity, the new religion has not been assimilated without a strong admixture of primitive superstitions. Obeah has not been beaten out of the field by the Roman Catholic priest in Cuba ; and with Jamaican professing Church members it still claims a clientHe. But what interested me very considerably in this anthropological collection were some recently discovered skulls, considered pre- historic, still partially embedded in the limestone in which they had been discovered in some caves in the interior of the island. In no way, I was told, did they resemble the artificially compressed skulls of the Caribs, or those of the Arawaks, the earliest known inhabitants of these islands, nor could they be classified with the skulls of any race known hitherto on the Western Continent. Such were the conclusions to which learned scientists in Paris had come on their having been sub- mitted to them by Dr. Montand, to whom Dr. de la Torre introduced me. It is hoped, however, that at the scientific conference, to be held at Mentone in 1906, at which Prince Albert of Monaco, who has built oceano- graphical and anthropological museums at Monte Carlo, will preside, light will be thrown upon this interesting discovery. I left these two scientific gentlemen planning to spend a time in further excavations, in the hope of unearthing more human remains in the caves where they have found these skulls. In this cursory talk about matters of interest which came across my path during my short stay in Cuba I 42 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE may, perhaps, venture to suggest that with increasing facilities for travel British and American tourists would find a good deal to interest them in taking Cuba as a stepping-stone from Jamaica to the United States directly a reliable steam service is established between the two islands. CHAPTER III Industry must be our oracle, and reason our Apollo" Sir T. Browne. In connection with this interesting discovery in Cuba one feels that of all nations in Europe we of British stock spend less money on science and education than any other in ratio to our alleged wealth. I was present at Southport in 1903, when this was the burden of the theme of Sir Norman Lockyer's inaugural Presidential address at the first meeting of the British Association that year. It was with feelings of irritation that I learnt not long since, from the curator of the Jamaica Institute, that a famous German professor, Dr. Bastian, of Berlin, had just collected in this island a splendid lot of Indian pottery and implements, in addition to which he had himself discovered in the cave at Newmarket a complete sarcophagus, such as the aborigines used in the disposal of their dead, a nearly V-shaped earthenware jar, perforated at the bottom. In this the professor discovered the complete skeleton of an Indian woman. It is true that the island Government has no spare cash available for scientific interests, or even for necessary expenditure on hospitals and lunatic asylums, as is proved 44 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE by a visit to those institutions, which fact, together with a knowledge of how hampered the revenues of the colony are by supporting an expensive official staff, now that King Cane has been dethroned considered by many no longer necessary, causes one to wonder for what reason Jamaica is run on the lines of a first-class colony when each year it seems harder to make both ends meet. Wiser heads than mine, namely, the authorities at the Colonial Office, can perhaps make this clear to the tax- payers of Jamaica and the British public. Nevertheless it is regrettable that another nation should carry off trophies of scientific interest which, rightly, should have found a place in our national museums. A gentleman who has seen the collection declares that Professor Bastian's is the best extant. In a former work I described a visit to one of the caves of Jamaica ; on inquiring more closely into the subject as to whether they have been visited for scientific purposes, I learn that Lady Blake, a former Governor's wife, had been interested to know whether prehistoric or Indian remains were dis- coverable. Under her direction, with some difficulties to overcome, for these caverns are everywhere infested with bats, careful research was instituted, but without result. Probably it was local, and not exhaustive, for some of the sink holes formed out of the limestone are of great size and grandeur. At a place called Cave Hall Pen, east of Dry Harbour, near the main road, a huge cavern is to be found, with various grottoes, halls, and galleries, with stalagmites formed by the dripping of calcareous water. At Mexico, in the parish of St. Elizabeth, there is a cave nearly a mile in length, the Black River passing through it. In consequence of some deep bodies of water ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 45 obstructing the passage no proper examination has ever been made. The Peru Cave, in the same parish, is con- sidered very fine, but one most easily reached is the Grand Cave at River Head, in the parish of St. Thomas. Here the Rio Cobre, after sinking at Wortley Park, emerges from this cavern, which is of large dimensions, and in former years was much resorted to by picnic parties. With the aid of a raft it may be traversed for a quarter of a mile. In these semi-explored caves remains of the Indian aborigines flying inland, probably from Spanish cruelty, have at times been discovered. During the occupation of the Spaniards, from 1494 to 1655, when they surrendered to Penn and Venables, the generals of Cromwell, some 60,000 of these entirely disappeared ; it was in consequence of their extermina- tion that slaves from Africa were imported to do the field-labour. The slave-trade begun by the Spaniards was carried on by all European nations possessing colonies till recent times. The enforced labour on the sugar estates was the basis of the wealth of the West Indian planter, whose princely revenues were mostly spent in the United Kingdom. The black was a chattel. The creed of the day taught that he was the beast of the earth ; no doubt the contemplation of the raw product as seen in the Kingston slave-market gave the planter no reason to think differently of him. From the humani- tarian standpoint the evils of slavery lay in the continued ignorance and profanation of family life ; in the abolition of all moral restraint on the part of the owner ; and in the brutal reprisals on both sides occurring frequently under the system. These considerations increasingly gained strength at home until slavery was abolished in 46 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 1834, and an apprenticeship system of four years inaugurated, at the end of which time, in 1838, the slaves became free men and women to the number of 255,290, costing the British Government ;^5)S53)975 to compensate their owners. From the establishment of civil government by the British conquerors in 1661 until its surrender in 1866, the island was governed by the wealthy plantation owners, and few realise what the value of sugar estates amounted to in the middle of the eighteenth century, when we read of a property in St. Thomas in the East selling for ^^ 100,000 sterling. Absentee landlordism led to the subsequent decline in value of these lands. There is a monument raised to the memory of one of England's great men in the Guildhall, London, to that William Beckford, Lord Mayor of London, who won the grati- tude of his fellow-citizens for boldly remonstrating against certain abuses to George IIL, he first saw the light in Jamaica in 1709, and inherited great wealth from his father, who was a representative in the Assembly for many years. At the age of fourteen he left the island, visiting it once again in 1735. When he died he bequeathed a million of money and ^100,000 a year from his Jamaican estates to a son, who squandered it in England, never once visiting the island from which he derived his fortune ! Now that the hour approaches when these historic possessions of ours are to be left almost without naval and military protection, few think of the part Jamaica played in the early days of our colonial history, of the fabulous riches of Port Royal in the days of the buccaneers, and how that mart for illicit barter was, for a century and more, our greatest naval depot in ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 47 foreign waters. The reverse of her fortunes, almost in inverse ratio to her former glory, is pathetic. It is strange, too, but it is true, that wherever slavery reigned in the New World there either blighted prospects, ruined industries, or inter-racial strife have been the immediate consequence of the upheaval of a system which has cursed earth's fairest portions. The history of Jamaica since 1834 has been one of prolonged and continuous struggle ; rich in natural re- sources, the country is poor for lack of industry and intelligence. Early in the beginning of last century the luxurious land-owning class, apparently semi-paralysed by traditions of inherited grandeur, enervated by climatic conditions, irritated by the long agitation preceding emancipation which threatened the source of their wealth, failed as a body to realise that other lands were growing sugar, that it was necessary to study how to improve production to cope with new economic problems of competition and modern methods, and to devise ways to meet altering conditions. Thus they brought upon themselves as many difficulties as those which were bound to accompany the superstructure of a new regime upon the destruction of the old system. For several decades before 1865 the history of the colony is full of political disputes, of natural disaster, such as floods, earthquakes, and cholera, following in quick succession. The treasury bankrupt, the newly emanci- pated peasantry idle and thriftless, necessitating the intro- duction of coolies, a severe drought, and the American Civil War tending to increase the cost of foodstuffs, were some of the troubles which, reaching their culmi- nating point in 1865, led to a rebellion of the blacks, 48 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE which assumed a serious aspect in the parish of St. Thomas, when hundreds armed themselves with guns, sticks, and cutlasses. In front of the court house at Morant Bay they declared war, their cry was, " Colour for colour, blood for blood ! " Several persons were killed, but owing to the prompt conduct of Governor Eyre the outbreak was speedily quelled ; the ringleader, Gordon, a mulatto Baptist, was hanged with others. It is still within the memory of some how Governor Eyre was recalled by the British authorities at home in consequence of the verdict of the Commission of Inquiry sent out to investigate the causes of the rising. The conclusion arrived at by the Commissioners was that the outbreak had been quelled with unne- cessary severity ; but it pointed out that to obtain land free of rent was the immediate origin of a planned resistance to lawful authority. At this juncture the bankrupt legislature, finding that the island's troubles, financial and otherwise, were beyond their powers of administration, previous to Governor Eyre's departure passed a law to abolish the then existing constitution, empowering Her Majesty the Queen to create and constitute a government for this island "in such form and with such powers as to Her Majesty may seem fitting." Thus the House of Representatives, which had sat for two hundred years, flung the responsibilities of government upon the shoulders of the Crown. Sir John Peter Grant arrived in the island as Governor in 1866, and immediately inaugurated the new form of government, which, with some modifications, is at present in force. His policy was strong, fearless, and energetic. In 1868 for the first time for many years there was a ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 49 surplus of revenue over expenditure. He reduced the number of parishes from 22 to 14, thus approximating equality in size and population, by this measure reducing considerably the annual expense of maintenance. His reforms in the collection of taxes were also beneficial ; he organised a semi-military system of police with an auxiliary rural force for distant parts in the country. To this practical Scotchman the island owes its medical department, also the training of schoolmasters at Mico College, and the establishment of savings banks, the reduction of postal rates, and efficient arrangements for the supervision of the roads of the interior. Kingston, the commercial centre, was chosen to be the seat of government instead of Spanish Town. In 1868 the fruit trade, which is, let us hope, destined to recuperate the resources of the colony, was started by private individuals at Port Antonio. In fact, things looked more promising, and in consequence of the progress made in financial matters, in 1878 Sir A. Musgrave ventured to suggest the propriety of some special undertakings for purposes of public utility, and this prosperous aspect of affairs had steadily grown till the terrible set-back occasioned by the cyclone which, disastrously sweeping over a great portion of the colony in August, 1903, merged it once more into a period of gloom, poverty, and distress. The latest events in the island's history which I have to relate are perhaps more important in their future issues than any which have previously affected the colony's prosperity. The closing hours of the year 1904 brought pain and regret to many a family circle in Jamaica, for in them it was made public that the naval 4 50 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE authorities intended to abandon Port Royal as a naval station ; apparently this decision on the part of the Admiralty had been foreshadowed for some time pre- viously, but now abandonment is complete. The Commodore at Port Royal has pulled down his flag and has returned to England with his staff; the abandon- ment of the yard took place on March 31, 1905 ; the direct result of this to the island will be the loss of many thousands- per annum. Possibly this is but a temporary measure necessitated by the enormous naval programme — the building of new warships — on which the Govern- ment has embarked, calling for retrenchment where economy can safely be effected. The Panama Canal route will be finished in ten years, says Chief Engineer Wallace ; it may then be found necessary to re-equip the naval establishment ; ships needing repairs will otherwise find it a long way from Colon to Bermuda. Perhaps one of the most noticeable points in this recent decision is that Great Britain is taking au grand serieux the American interpretation of the Munro Doctrine as exhibited in the attitude of the United States in the late Venezuelan dispute. Having con- stituted itself responsible for the integrity of the lands lying in the Western hemisphere, there seems no need for the British Government to be at the expense of some ^200,000 per annum, which is the rough estimate of naval and military defence combined for the island of Jamaica alone, when strategically the West Indian islands are worthless, and in the world's altered conditions her sailors and soldiers are wanted elsewhere. The old order changeth, and considering the rapid development of certain foreign navies, that of Germany especially, which ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 51 is SO fortunately circumstanced that it is able to con- centrate almost the whole of its fleet in its home ports, the time is at hand when it has been considered necessary to revise "the principles on which the present peace distribution of His Majesty's ships and the arrangement of their stations are based." This new scheme is seemingly as much due to the recognition of American friendship as it is to the realisation of the wonderful mobility of modern ships. With regard to the cruisers in the Atlantic, the North American Squadron is to have its headquarters at Devonport ; its weaker ships are to be withdrawn, they will be replaced by the ships of the new Particular Service Squadron. The principle at work in this plan of reconstruction is that " the peace distribution of the fleet should be also its best strategical distribution for war." We have vast commercial interests in every quarter of the globe— our shipping is to be found in every sea, at every port. The enormous expenditure of our fleet is an item in the national budget which cannot safely be curtailed. To be available when wanted seems to be one of the lessons which the Russo-Japanese War has to teach us; the unwieldy organisation of the huge Russian forces presents material for thought, both in naval and military departments. The serious blow to this colony consists largely in the loss of considerable sums annually expended for the upkeep of the dockyard ; quite recently contracts were entered into to the extent of ^10,000 for the erection of new buildings which I recently noticed were nearing completion; but the Naval Hospital, lately finished, costing many thousands, constructed on the latest sanitary principles, with concrete floor, an operating-room, bacterio- 52 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE logical and other rooms, fitted up with the best modern appliances, now no longer needed, is the best undoubtedly in the British West Indies. Following closely on this came a report that the Imperial Defence Committee has decided to withdraw the European garrisons from all the West Indies, and that in future they would be garrisoned by local troops. This, from a financial point of view, would be a serious matter to the island, but it seems evident that the idea of concentrating the army and navy in places from which they can strike most promptly and most efficiently is the basic principle for the abandonment of these islands as a strategic position. Increased concentration, we are given to understand, is the reason that a movement is being made to centralise the European troops in the North of India, leaving the rest of the peninsula to be protected by native regiments, although recent events show us that Russia is as much a menace to the moon as she is to our great Indian Empire. The further proposal to disband the native troops will be carried out gradually, so we gather from island sources, and may cover a period of two or three years. Port Royal and Castries in St. Lucia will be kept, it seems, as coaling depots for His Majesty's ships, the expenditure in time of peace being small, but which in case of war can be increased if necessary. The West Indies will continue to be visited every winter by a naval squadron, and we are given to understand that a fast cruiser will be permanently stationed in West Indian waters. In consequence of these changes the same authority declares that the Jamaica Militia is to be raised to its full strength as soon as possible. ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 63 This force in 1903 consisted of 20 officers and 588 non-commissioned officers and men. I find the follow- ing exploit recorded as " the first of the many brilliant achievements of the Militia of Jamaica," of which I pre- sume the present force is the lineal descendant : " On the 2 1st of September, 1662, eleven ships sailed from Port Royal with over a thousand men, chosen principally from the Militia. Within a few days they landed at St. Jago de Cuba ; captured the castle and block-houses and demolished the fortifications and the town. The Spaniards sustained an enormous loss in men and pro- perty, whilst the loss of the English was but six men killed and wounded." This expedition was fitted out by Lord Windsor, then Governor of Jamaica, in addition to the permission he had given to the buccaneers to prey upon the neighbouring territories and to make prizes at sea. Not long since an old Militia badge, dated 1803, was dug up, a similar specimen is to be found in the island museum. It is an oval, convex bit of iron with an alligator carved in the middle, while the name in Jamaica is cut in large letters above and " 1803" below. At the back are two knobs and a lock intended foi fastening on the badge, which was worn either on the shoulder or high up on the arm of the soldier. In view of these changes one hears a good deal of idle chatter about the Old Country forsaking her sons and daughters and the probability of the West Indian islands being in the near future annexed to the United States. But not a word of it is to be believed when we see for ourselves how the native element loathes the idea of such an union. The Porto Rican's experience is not lost upon them ; the yoke of the American is worse than that of 54 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE the Spaniard, say the inhabitants of that island ; and in the Herald of New York the following words describing their policy toward the black republics of Hayti and Santo Domingo were published quite recently, as coming from that newspaper's special correspondent at Porto Rico : " The great North American imperialistic octopus has riveted its baleful gaze on Santo Domingo, Hayti, and other Latin-American republics, whose seeming defence- lessness renders them an easy prey to the greed of this terrible enemy, which has already extended one of its loathsome tentacles for the purpose of absorbing Santo Domingo, but the gluttonous monster will discover that though weak there is still enough heroism left in Santo Domingo and Hayti to injure at least severely, if it be impossible to destroy it." Another consideration is, that it is by no means apparent that the Americans have com- mitted themselves to a land-grabbing policy, although a perusal of some of their literature might tend to make us think so. A swelled head may account for the following quotation which I found, much to my amuse- ment, in a work entitled " St. Louis' Fair " : " Impressed by our expansion across the Continent, and seeing that the whole of North America^ including Canada^ was likely to become ours ultimately^ Russia in 1867 sold us Alaska for $7,200,000, and 600,000 more square miles of territory were added to the 3,000,000 square miles of our national domain." A shrewd Scotchman remarked to me anent the recent acquisition of the Philippines that a few more such troublesome and expensive colonies would do the Yankees a power of good. They had become rich too quickly, he thought. The dark places of earth might well benefit by their dollars ! Let them do their share, ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 65 as Anglo-Saxons, in bringing remote, uncivilised regions into order for the sake of humanity. We have done ours ; we have spent blood and treasure, and other men, especially Germans, have entered in where we should have kept them out. The enormous majority which replaced Roosevelt in the Presidential chair testifies eloquently to the universal esteem which his strong individuality has called forth. Those who know anything of American politics know, too, that he stands for justice. On the race problem, which, like the poor, is ever with them, Roosevelt declared that he could not treat mere colour as a per- manent bar to holding office. His doctrine of expansion is reliable and reasonable. According to the Outlook^ it means the right to acquire territory beyond the national borders but the duty to help dependent peoples to self- government ; this he has exemplified in restoring Cuba to the Cubans. The same authority declares his foreign policy to be friendliness to all other Powers and a strong navy to keep the peace. So long as these sentiments predominate in Congressional councils the West Indians and Canadians need not look for aggression on the part of the United States. A pleasant incident of travel which impressed me was the very friendly feeling which Americans in the Southern States entertain, not only towards English people, but for Canadians. I had some opportunities of testing this in the hospitality and kind attentions showered upon me at the different houses in "The old South " which I visited. In the same way I was struck with the loyalty to the Crown of our fellow-subjects in Canada. In a conversation I held with the coadjutor 56 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE bishop of a Canadian province I referred to this sub- ject, when that dignitary indignantly exclaimed with the most charming Hibernian accent — " Madam ! we do not understand the meaning of the word disloyalty ! " An American whom I met at Washington asked me one day in pitying accents — " Do tell me how it is there is so much poverty in Canada ? " to which I replied with some warmth that I was not aware that Canada was a poverty-stricken country. According to the statistics given in the latest handbook, therefore official, I read that 49,000 Americans had settled in Canada in 1903. " I should imagine your farmers are too wide awake to cross the border if they could not do better in Canada than in the States," I had said. It is a fact, Yankees, mostly of British descent, are flocking to the great wheat- belt of Manitoba, of which Winnipeg, with its wonderful mushroom growth, is called " the buckle " ; and not long since a Canadian told me that when he heard Americans talking "high falutin'," as he expressed it, about the future union of Canada with the States, he asked if they were aware that Canada is already annexing the States, or, rather, its inhabitants, at the rate of 50,000 a year ! In Jamaica the Americans have large financial interests, hundreds of them seek its shores in search of health. This island has also a monthly service of steamships sailing between Halifax and Kingston calling at Bermuda and Turk's Island, and Jamaica groans for reciprocity with Canada. There is no doubt that all tropical products could be grown here for the Dominion. CHAPTER IV " A small drop of ink, Falling like dew upon a thing, produces That which makes thousands^ perhaps millions thinks Byron. An amusing story is told of the late Charles Darwin. Some mischievous boys, friends of the great apostle of evolution, knowing his interest in insect life, planned together to play a joke on him. They caught a beetle, a centipede, a grasshopper, and a butterfly, and out of these insects they compounded a stranger to natural history. To the body of the centipede they skilfully glued the wings of the butterfly, the legs of the grass- hopper, and finally, fixing the beetle's head on to this wonderful trunk, they put the new insect into a box. With that beautiful assumption of innocence which some of us recognise at once as the schoolboy's cloak to the brewing of mischief, they knocked calmly at the philosopher's door. "We caught this in a field," said they, "can you tell us what it is, sir ? " Darwin looked at the strange insect, then he scrutinized the enthusiastic young naturalists. He smiled slightly. " Did it hum when you caught it ? " he asked. " Yes, sir," they answered quickly, nudging one S7 58 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE another. " Then," said the philosopher, " it is a humbug." This insect, fearfully and wonderfully made, is not unlike the policy of the Jamaican Government. One hears complaints of its lack of continuity, of the want of a definite policy, of too much tinkering, too many bits of this and attempts of that, of its being likened to Joseph's coat of many colours. Possibly the constitution of all Crown Governments may be blamable for this tendency. No two men think or act alike ; individual charac- teristics must show themselves in public as in private life. What seems to one Governor of paramount im- portance, another deems trivial. The same is true of corporate bodies. One set of naval and military authori- ties will spend millions of British taxpayers' money on barracks, dockyards, hospitals, &c., in the West Indian islands, whilst their successors find, before even the con- tracts for new buildings have been fulfilled, that these colonies are henceforth almost useless, for a time anyway, in the new strategical peace distribution of His Majesty's land and sea forces. In the lighj of these events, though not blind to the fact that the recent history of the world renders it essential we should be prepared to meet fresh contingencies, we cannot help regretting that these changes were not foreseen, and money, so badly needed for other national purposes, uselessly expended. In Jamaica, one Governor gives his attention to irri- gation, another to steamship lines and railway extension, whilst Sir Henry Blake considered that good roads were indispensable to the developmentof an agricultural country. In this island there have been splendid administrators and skilful financiers such as Sir J. P. Grant, Sir Henry Blake, and latterly Mr. Olivier, but their control of the ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 59 colony's destinies has been apparently of too fleeting a nature to ensure lasting effect. In the history of Jamaica there seems to have been a lack throughout of a class of leisured influential residents of wider views and interests than those immediately con- nected with the working of their own estates ; this circumstance perhaps accounts for the failure of con- tinuity in any settled policy and for the strife and inefl[iciency of the old Legislative Assembly. On the other hand there is in connection with these changes, which the constitutional system renders indispensable, something to be said on the part of those who pay, in a great measure, the taxes, but practically have little voice in their disposal. This naturally constitutes the planter's standpoint versus an expensive over-oflicialed system. It must be remembered that it is on his knowledge of agriculture, his power to cope with a disorganised and difficult labour market, his wise or unwise outlay of capital, that the prosperity of the island depends, or its return to its wild state. This being so, his interests, which are bound up in the agriculture of the land, the main source of the island revenue, should, one would think, be the first to receive consideration from the powers that rule. It is not difficult to realise, there- fore, the irritation with which a new Governor, fresh to his work, bent on retrenchments, immediately proposes measures which, in the long run, would prove damaging to agricultural interests. The expenditure on main roads has been, since 1890, defrayed by the Government, and one of the features which Americans and tourists generally remark is their splendid condition. Now, in an island where the pro- 60 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE duce is largely carried from the interior to the coast it is evident that good roads facilitate internal commerce, and their upkeep is essential. A proposal to retrench in this direction met with general dissatisfaction from property- owners. Following on this came a proposal to restrict the immigration of Asiatic coolies. On some of the banana estates hundreds of these intelligent, reliable workmen are employed, to the gradual ousting of the negro, whose uncertain labour, with its alleged inferiority, cannot be depended upon. To prevent coolies landing in the island would be a blow to those planters who employ them in large numbers. People in England who regard contract labour as slavery should study how the coolie immigration works in Jamaica. These Asiatics are better cared for than ordinary unindentured labourers, being housed, doctored, and strict justice being rigidly maintained between em- ployed and employer. They prosper exceedingly after they cease field labour. The East Indians, generally, hold property in the island to the value of nearly ;^ 30,000, they hold over 400 licenses, and rent a good deal of land in different parts. The deposits to the credit of the immigrants in the Government Savings Bank amount now to ^f 24,000. The planters have their grievances. If the Govern- ment wants to retrench, why does it not begin by cutting down some of the salaries of the officials ? they ask. The judicial system alone is preposterous ; the salary of the Governor out of all proportion to the island's needs, say they. With a population of a little over three-quarters of a million, the whites numbering only 15,000, is it necessary to have a Supreme Court ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 61 consisting of a staff such as I quote from the " Handbook to Jamaica" for 1904 ? ^£(. Salary and Other '-'"^^^- Emoluments. Chief Justice ;^2,ooo o o Puisne Judge 1,200 o o Ditto 1,000 o o Attorney-General ... ... ... 1,500 o o Solicitor-General 500 o o Crown Solicitor 820 o o Registrar of the Supreme Court of Judicature ... ... ... ... 600 o o First Class Clerk 230 o o Second „ Clerk 150 o o Third „ Clerk 100 o o Administrator-General and Trustee in Bankruptcy 400 o o Instead of the population being abnormally criminal, as the above table suggests, excepting praedial larceny, it is abnormally free from crime, scarcely a murder per annum taking place. This is only one department, but it is typical of others, and shows the extravagant lines on which the island is run. To meet its liabilities increased taxation is now being considered. A planter near Kingston, owning a beautifully situated property of 1,100 acres, told me that within the last few years his taxes had been raised to about double what they were originally. Instead of paying about ;f 20, in the year of the hurricane his taxes amounted to ;^43. A good deal of acreage was let to negroes at a rental of twenty shillings an acre ; but they lost, as he and many others did, all their fruit. He had no rents, no crops, very little ready cash to pay these taxes, of which not a cent was remitted in view of the catastrophe which 62 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE ruined a great part of the island's wealth for 1903 ; not- withstanding, the officials received their salaries just as usual. To keep up the revenues the taxes on imported goods are prohibitive to many. On tea the tax is, per lb., IS.; on wheat flour, per 196 lbs., 8s. ; candles, compo- site, wax, or spermaceti, per lb., 2d. ; potatoes, per barrel of 180 lbs., is. 6d. ; rice, per 100 lbs., 3s. Spirits of all kinds are taxed, per gallon, i6s. Considering the risky, almost gambling nature of banana culture, which is an uninsurable crop, at the mercy of every wind that blows, though when every prospect pleases one of the most profitable, I have heard planters question whether they cannot do better elsewhere and get surer returns for capital invested, where they will not be at the mercy of every change in policy of an unpro- tecting legislature, or of an experimenting Governor. However this may be, new departures in agriculture may shortly be expected ; cotton and cassava seem destined to be successfully exploited, the old spirit of apathy is giving place to a more healthy infusion of new blood and fresh ideas, the conservatism of the past is disappearing, and colonists are adopting progressive methods. To adapt and modify itself to newer con- ditions honesty compels one to admit the Government is not adverse, and no doubt it is difficult to retrench an expensive regime without impairing its efficiency. As regards Jamaica and other smaller dependencies, Crown rule, as distinct from self-governing colonies like Canada, New Zealand, or Australia, is not, perhaps, in the near future destined to be superseded, but it might be re-modelled to suit altered conditions. The English- speaking nations have mentally evolved to that degree ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 63 that they no longer regard their tropical possessions as so many happy hunting-grounds where they can wring from the black his labour without giving him due return. They hold them rather as a trust for civilisation. The King of the Belgians apparently, in the gutta- percha forests of the Congo, shows himself of the old unprogressive type, but here in the West Indies, the home of a once-enslaved race, the spirit of humanity has conquered, grudgingly perhaps, because men are fallible, but striving to attain the high ideal which characterizes the civilisation of the Anglo-Saxon. This spirit is not nationally confined to us. Let us look at America in her perplexities with the Philippines. How gladly would she leave the inhabitants of those far-distant islands to govern themselves instead of spending valuable lives and large sums of money to reduce them to order ! but the chaotic conditions which would undoubtedly follow in the wake of such a step imperatively forbid her to evacuate her troublesome possessions ; and let us note in passing to the credit of the United States, the fulfilling of the promise to restore Cuba to the Cubans, when the annexation of that fertile and almost unde- veloped island would have repaid them in hard cash a thousand times for the war undertaken on its behalf, is a striking testimony to the growth of a high ideal of national honour with a due recognition of the sacrifices occasionally demanded by it. To return to Jamaica, undoubtedly the fusion of fresh ideas which the present system ensures makes for improvement. The Crown intervened only at the request of the former legislative body ; the planters, with a ruined exchequer professing inability to cope with the insular troubles which cul- 64 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE minated in the Gordon riots, effectually bowed themselves out of office. The Legislative Assembly which had sat for two hundred years was dubbed " the house of the forty thieves" ; its corruption and mismanagement were famous. To-day men trained with high ideals of public service, of unimpeachable honour, educated at our universities, fitted to rule, responsible to the Home Authorities, should ensure good government ; such men, too, should be sufficiently paid for their services, since the climate is trying, and unless it were made worth a man's acceptance positions in our colonies would not be filled by the best men. The pity of it is that the island of Jamaica is not three times as large and as populous as it is, since the existing over-officialed staff would scarcely have to be supplemented in such a case, and the expenses of its upkeep would not fall so heavily because they would be shared by an increased population. That our tropical possessions should be carefully studied and well governed is of the utmost importance when we consider that British commerce with tropical countries constitutes a fourth of our entire trade. At the end of the last decade the combined trade of Great Britain and the United States with tropical regions was estimated at 44 per cent, of the united trade of those two English-speaking powers. A study of colonial history in modern times shows us that there have been in tropical regions two opposite principles at work in methods of administration. The first obtained almost universally till the cry of " no taxation without representation " at the Boston tea-party resulted in the ultimate adoption of the principle of self- government, the last phase of which we see in Canada, ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 65 Australia, and New Zealand. The second policy is the reverse of the selfish egotism of the former and is repre- sented in the result of regarding the tropics and their dusky races as a trust for civilisation. In no other way can they be successfully dealt with. India is proof positive that a conscientious recognition of our duties towards native peoples is not inconsistent with steady progress ; in other words, it pays best. Here public works, great railways, internal commerce, irriga- tion schemes, have added to the fertility of large tracts of country. In a recent sketch of tropical themes the writer says commerce has grown by leaps and bounds till India now ranks as one of the foremost of the world's producing nations. Her exports to and imports from Great Britain nearly balance each other. India is our greatest customer. Nor can it be alleged that that country is only exploited for the ruling race — the world at large trades with the peninsula markets on equal terms. Of the beneficial results of British influence exerted in Egypt for the improvement of a corrupt and tyrannical system Lord Milner has said that it " is not exercised to impose an uncongenial foreign system upon a reluctant people. It is a force making for the triumph of the simplest ideas of honesty^ humanity^ and justice^ to the value of which Egyptians are just as much alive as any one else, and that the improvement of Egyptian administra- tion leads directly to the revival of Egyptian trade, and in that increase England, who has more than half the trade of Egypt in her hands, possesses a most direct inte- rest of the most unmistakable kind." Time also has shown that backward races have not even with freedom and education, as in Jamaica, plus 5 66 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE self-government as in Hayti, been of themselves able to develop the growth of agriculture or trade, or to conceive any sane, progressive, stable type of government. In Jamaica we confront arrested industries, traces of former opulence, indeed the proverbial wealth of which we read seems mythical when we compare the decaying ports with accounts of once crowded shipping, when we look at stately buildings now fallen into decay, or cleared estates reverting into primeval jungle. What is the cause of it ? Perhaps one-third may be set down to the decline of the white man's energy, his luxurious life in slavery times having enervated him and made him dis- inclined to toil, but surely very much is traceable to the low standards, the want of initiative and ambition on the part of the former slaves. In America experience has discovered that backward races cannot assimilate Anglo- Saxon civilisation in one generation. The hard-headed Yankee, disappointed at the continual shiftlessness of the " ward of the nation," talks of him as an economic hind- rance. The Northern philanthropist, contemplating the social conditions of the Southern States, stands aghast at a situation he with his abolitionist creed has helped to create. Nor will it be in our time that we shall see, as Mr. C. H. Pearson in " National Life and Character " vividly and optimistically pictures, "the globe girdled with a continuous zone of the black and yellow races, no longer too weak for aggression or under tutelage, but independent, or practically so, in government ; monopo- lising the trade of their own regions and circumscribing the industry of the European — when Chinamen and the natives of Hindostan, the States of South America by that time predominantly Indian, and it may be African ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 67 nations of the Congo and the Zambesi under a dominant caste of foreign rulers are represented by fleets in the European seas, invited to international conferences, and welcomed as allies in the quarrels of the civilised world. We were struggling amongst ourselves for supremacy in a world which we thought of as destined to belong to the Aryan and to the Christian faith, to the letters and arts and charm of social manners which we have inherited from the best times in the past. We shall wake to find ourselves elbowed and hustled and perhaps even thrust aside by people whom we looked down upon as servile, and thought of as bound always to minister to our needs." Let us pause, too, to consider how the South American republics have comported themselves since they gained their freedom from the yoke of Spain. It was commonly thought that in those rich undeveloped lands an area of unprecedented prosperity lay before them. Have they fulfilled those expectations ? Are they not republics in name only ? aptly described by an American as " dis- organised military camps where government has neither continuity nor prestige, and where the only representa- tives of the ethics of civilisation are the foreign trading firms." It is no secret that the normal condition of things in the Central American Republics is one of revolutionary excitement, presenting equally to the capitalist as to the unfortunate native a most unlikely field for speculation or for commercial activity. Under British rule we have evolved the fact that with a minimum of education but with a maximum of the white man's guidance, in contrast to the segregative policy of the American, a great deal has been done in 68 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE converting a backward race into helpful members of a civilised community. In these days when the signs of the times point to other overflows beside those of British populations, for where the Stars and Stripes go trade will follow, it has already been pointed out that the Anglo- Saxon nations are not likely to permanently look on at the mismanagement and waste of earth's richest regions through the lack of the elementary principles of the ethics of government in the races who possess these lands. They may leave them in possession, but not in an undisturbed one. The progress of the world, the feeding of her immense nations in the temperate zones, may one day demand that the enormous natural products of these countries shall be utilised. Hindrances will be swept aside, new regions given over to the capitalist, the agriculturist. France and Germany seem perfectly aware of the probability that English-speaking peoples will one day occupy the tropical lands. What else does the recent scramble for Africa imply ? Vast tracts in the one case have been parcelled out to a Power with- out the men to effectually colonise them, and on the other to a system of bureaucracy repelling instead of attracting the settler. We have remarked upon the insecurity of the South and Central American Republics. No enterprise, no capitalists' scheme can thrive or even be entertained without sufficient guarantee of safety. In our own colonies such as Canada and the West Indian Islands, hitherto, whatever else needs remedying, law and order reign supreme. They are the first requisites in the bringing into being of new provinces, and the history of the world shows that the influence of a ruler or the work ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 69 of the legislator is in no way equal to the combined effort of the individuals of the race who, each in his place, shows strength, justice, energy, and general uprightness. To the exercise of these manly qualities is due the splendid reputation for law and order which exists under our flag. For example, in the newly developing North West Provinces of Canada, where enormous resources ot wealth in forests, rivers, mines, and soils are as yet scarcely tapped, the lonely emigrant can go to the most sparsely inhabited districts and settle in a homestead in the utmost security. The Indians dare not molest him,, the American scalawag from the other side of the border knows better than to interfere with the possessions of those belonging to the Dominion, for the reputation of the mounted police of Canada, a constabulary of some hundreds of picked men, is such that no criminal has been known ultimately to escape justice. Each of these is endowed with magisterial powers, so that the criminal once unearthed can immediately be brought to the nearest police court. A short time since some Indians escaped from a Canadian reservation to the States. After a correspondence between the respective Governments, the Indians, 150 in number, were escorted to the border by a contingent of some 250 American cavalry. At the appointed place and hour two Canadian mounted police- men stood ready to receive them. The officer in charge inquired where was the company into whose hands he was to deliver the runaways, when he was informed that the two mounted policemen had orders to escort them to their reservation. This episode shows in what respect this body is held. In Jamaica a speedy and efficient administration of the 70 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE law proves to be the best means of securing that public order which, considering the disparity of whites to black and coloured, makes the island an object-lesson to those Americans who visit her shores, and who compare the favourable conditions of the once enslaved people with those which obtain in the United States. No surer test of superiority of one race over another is there than to observe the standard which, individually or nationally, is kept steadily in view, to examine what qualities count most in the lives of a nation's rulers. Mr. Lecky says, in speaking on this subject, " It is by observing this moral current that you can best cast the horoscope of a nation." We may not forget that there are now, as in the past, great forces ever at work which are steadily bearing races onward to progression or back- ward to stagnation and decay. The idea has repeatedly occurred to me that half the island of Jamaica's troubles, both present and prospective, would disappear if the present constabulary force were substantially reduced in number and supplemented by a few hundred white mounted police such as preserve order in Canada. Praedial larceny in excess would then be a thing of the past ; the lazy class of negroes would com- pulsorily learn the law of meum and tuu?n. In view ot the reported disbandment and removal of the troops, mihtia would not be needed to preserve law and order in the presence of such a force in the colony. CHAPTER V ** Otir remedies oft in ourselves do lie Which we ascribe to heaven.'''' Shakespeare. My former work on Jamaica had scarcely been launched into the world of books when the whole of the Empire was appalled by the news of the great cyclone, which, sweeping over Jamaica, affected an area east of a line drawn from Old Harbour to Montego Bay, containing within it nearly the whole of the banana and cocoa culti- vations, a large portion of the pimento land, and cocoa- nut groves. This disaster happened on August ii, 1903. Considering that seven or eight years elapse between the planting of the cocoa-nut palm and the reaping of the crop, many owners of these plantations were ruined. The banana takes about a twelvemonth for the sucker sent out by the parent root to grow into a tree yielding fruit. Besides the damage done to fruit culture, many houses were seriously injured, in some cases destroyed altogether. Fortunately, prompt steps were taken by the Government to relieve the general distress and to commence the restoration of buildings, also to aid peasant proprietors and tenants to recommence fruit cultivation, upon which they almost entirely depend for support. All the religious communities suffered more or less, 71 72 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE The Church of England, disestablished in 1870, and almost dependent upon local sources, consisting of the weekly pence of the subscriptions of its black and coloured members, suffered severely. Five of their churches v^^ere completely v^^recked, also thirty-three mission and school chapels ; forty-four of them seriously damaged, also twelve parsonage houses. Help being urgently required towards meeting the distress amongst the clergy and towards restoring the churches, collections were made in England, when a generous response met the efforts of the Arch- bishop of the West Indies, who had not long before landed in England. Every one, from the highest to the lowest in Jamaica, has in some way or another suffered from the devastation of the hurricane. Some have recorded their experiences ; the following is that of a rector of a northern port : " Monday evening closed in with a dark rim along the south-eastern horizon, and a heavy wind, which continued all night until about 4 a.m., when it became impossible to remain in bed. By this time our drawing-room was under water, and some of the piazza windows had to be nailed up to keep them from being smashed. By 5 a.m. the cyclone in all its deadly destructiveness was upon us. A portion of the rectory roof was blown away and the water poured in. Soon we were all wet to the skin and every room under water. Out- side the trees were falling in every direction. The cyclone reached its fiercest between 5.30 and 6 a.m.; by 7 a.m. it had spent itself, and its force quickly died down and we were able to get outside." A cocoa-nut plantation, after the storm had spent its fury, was described to look like a battle-field after a fearful fight. More than three-fourths of the great trees with their grey trunks lay like fallen ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 73 men. All the banana fields for miles appeared utterly- destroyed, and fruit trees of every kind torn up by the roots. A lady living at Stony Hill, a few miles north of Kingston, adds her testimony to the horrors of that night. "The house stood it well," says she, "but every gust was like a wave striking a ship, and the walls shivered in exactly the same way as a steamer does. . . . The front verandah posts were wrenched up. . . . Kitchen, pantry, servants' room, tanks, fowl-houses, stables, are all unroofed. Every tree is down between us and F . One danger to this house was the zinc sheets (with boarding attached) flying over the roof into the carriage-road in front — some perched in the big bullet tree, and hung fluttering there till midday ! Oh ! the awful suspense of that night between two and three o'clock ! " Port Antonio suffered the most severely of all. The banana plantations were completely injured, the town badly wrecked, not a residence but had been damaged grievously : the peasants' homes were lying flat on the ground : hundreds of them were homeless. With orange trees, cocoanut, and breadfruit trees levelled to the ground, starvation looked them in the face. The Fruit Companies necessarily ceased operations immediately, suffering tremendous loss. Their hotel — the Titchfield — was too much damaged to be repaired ; but American enterprise has already erected a huge building on the site of the former structure. We can scarcely conceive how helpless the islanders were, for communications by road, telegraph, and railway were completely cut off in many places. The eastern coast bore the brunt of the storm : some lives were lost : 74 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE many persons never expected to survive that night. A newspaper correspondent in the district of St. Mary vv^rote a vivid description of this terrible experience : " On the evening of Monday, lOth, a strong w^ind began to blov/ ; at midnight it became alarming, accompanied by rain ; from that time it steadily increased until 6 a.m. Then the house v/e were in began to give. At first only a slight crack in the roof appeared, but it was sufficient to cause us to rush downstairs and collect in what seemed to be the strongest room in the house. Hardly were we there when a terrible crash was heard, and we knew that the roof had gone ! The lady in whose house I was had eight children (there was no man in the house) crouched in that room. . . . Crash succeeded crash, as bit by bit the walls and roofing went, piano, tables, chairs being swept out of the house. At last . . . the walls began to rock round us ; almost desperate, we all rushed to the only room left — the kitchen. When the roof began to lift and the walls to give, we rushed outside, exposed to the full force of the storm ; but the air was so thick with dust and stones flying about and the rain so blinding that it was difficult to see clearly. Only one tree — a large cedar — was standing ; again and again we were knocked flat on our faces as we struggled to it. Once there, we lay on the ground between the roots ; for over an hour we lay like that, everything being dashed to pieces before our eyes. Trees whirled past with their roots in the air, puncheons spinning along like biscuit tins. ... I can hardly find words to describe the agony we went through at the sight of the poor little children shivering with fright and the hours of exposure, some with great gashes and bruises ! " ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 75 In the same parish a Customs officer and his wife narrowly escaped a watery grave — a huge wave com- pletely swept away their house. The man, seeing the great danger, leapt through a window along with his wife into the sea, when another wave of terrific force providentially flung them back again to terra firma^ which received them safe and sound. Over a twelvemonth has passed since this terrible trial, and the island is slowly recovering itself. One cannot pass by this crucial period without eulogizing the fine public feeling exhibited by the planters, and the energetic way in which the peasantry, instead of sinking under this misfortune, applied them- selves to the speedy replanting of their small holdings with the aid of the loans which the Hurricane Relief Committee throughout the island placed at their disposal. The fertility of the land has by this time rewarded uncomplaining industry, although poverty in many parts is still excessive. In the parish of St. Mary, 3,000 applicants for loans were dealt with. Had it not been for the public spirit of the gentlemen of that parish, and others who gratuitously gave their time to investigating the resources of the numerous suppliants, the work of alleviating the distress of the sufferers could never have been so admirably performed, and have produced in so short a time such satisfactory results. Many of these gentlemen had themselves suffered considerable loss from the cyclone; nevertheless they ungrudgingly gave their time and labour for the common good ; in fact, it is acknowledged that their action at this time was a credit to the island. There are certain qualities which we love, rightly or wrongly, to think are the special attributes 76 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE of subjects of the British Crown. To them we ascribe success in colonising : leadership in the parliaments of the world. In steady, unflinching courage in the face of obstacles, in championing the cause of humanity and of justice, lies the secret of British success in bygone days, as, let us hope, in the present. At a public banquet given to his Excellency, the acting Governor (Mr. Olivier), on his leaving Jamaica, the Archbishop of the West Indies laid special stress on the constructive, helpful, energetic characteristics of Mr. Olivier, as well as on the self- denial, zeal, and sympathy he displayed throughout this trying time, referring to the many ways in which he left good work behind him. The names of such men are riot forgotten in the colonies which they have benefited when their time has come to pass to other fields of labour. Referring to the relief associations which Mr. Olivier and his associates had effected by means of loans from the public purse to small settlers for the resuscitation of cultivation after the cyclone. His Grace hoped for a continuance of the satisfactory individual transactions which had so far resulted from their labours, and that at an early date the movement which seemed operating so beneficially might develop into a wisely-managed Agricultural Loans Bank. At the lowest estimate by competent authority, the damage done by the hurricane was two and a half millions. During that year the colony lost ^^ 750,000, and probably the deficit in the next financial year will not be much less. It may be interesting to note the figures given by the Governor, Sir Alexander Snettenham, in dealing with ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 77 the island's revenues. In his speech at the beginning of the session of 1905, he said : " For the year 1903-4 the actual results shown by the accounts were : — Revenue ;^926,i64 Expenditure » ;^822,876 but in the revenue was included a sum of ^100,393 by transfer from the Widows' and Orphans' Fund Account. For the current year, 1904-5, the originally sanctioned estimates gave the following totals : — Revenue ^^807,632 Expenditure ;£8i7,o88 "The experience of the year has justified the following amendment : — Revenue £747>327 Expenditure ;^835,779 "It will be seen, therefore, that the revenue is expected to fall short of the estimate by ^60,000, while the expenditure is expected to exceed previous anticipation by over ^18,000, and the prospect before us is that the financial year will end with a deficit of at least ;f 88,000. The falling off in revenue is the result principally of the hurricane of 1903, from which the island has not yet entirely recovered." The loss of domestic food not exported, but forming the mainstay of the peasantry, such as yams, sweet pota- toes, and other vegetables, was enormous, and many of the poor would have died of starvation but for the prompt methods of relief organised by the Parochial Boards. About ^120,000 was expended by Government on 78 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE relief works, repairing damage done to buildings and Government works. When one learns that 17,000 houses of the peasantry were blown down, or destroyed, the magnitude of the blow from which this island is slowly recuperating itself and regaining its strong com- mercial position is realised. There has been no stand- still ; pluck and courage have been exhibited by every class of the community. To the credit of the planters, they actually carried on their cultivations without any Imperial loans. Mr. Olivier, referring to this gratifying fact, declared at the banquet which I have mentioned that Jamaica has " the prestige of having sulFered a loss of ^^2,500,000. We have passed through it without raising any public loan whatever"; and he added, "There has been a wider planting of bananas for next year than there ever has been before." I have already alluded to the heavy debt lying behind the island's yearly expenditure ; and it may be as well to mention one or two of the factors which account for the enormous addition to the annual debt charges. There was an expenditure of ^^ 7 8,000 for the railway, which was taken over by the Government, and which yields a good profit on working expenses, but as yet pays no interest on its debt ; then ^20,000 a year for the annual subsidy to the Imperial Direct Line. In review- ing the programme which had been carried out during the five years of his financial administration, Mr. Olivier, at this farewell gathering, taking place the 8th of Sep- tember, 1904, declared that the financial position of the Government was better by a quarter of a million than it had been five years before. " This means," said he, " that the colony has recupera- ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 79 tive ability to an extraordinary extent. The island has recovered itself in a remarkable manner. Five years ago the Parochial Boards owed the Government j^ 107,000, and now they only owe ^^ 57,000. In other words, the Parochial Boards owe the Government ^^ 50,000 less than they did five years ago, so much has the position of the Boards improved." There are fourteen parishes in the island. These Parochial Boards very much resemble our County Councils. The Custos, or chief magistrate, with from thirteen to eighteen persons elected by the taxpayers, manage all local affairs, which prior to 1885 had been in the hands of the municipal and road authorities. Not- withstanding the depressed financial condition in which Mr. Olivier found the island, on every occasion he has kept steadily before him the great necessity for main- taining the standard of education, and at the same time he has insisted upon the spread of agricultural knowledge and development, recognising clearly that it is through the cultivation of the land only that this island will some day win her way to a permanent, substantial prosperity. Better exhibits at local shows, improved stock-keeping are some of the results of his initiative in this department ; and undoubtedly there is a class of settlers growing amongst the peasantry who are sufficiently intelligent to perceive that there is money to be made in banana and other fruit culture, and who are taking a real interest in its furtherance. CHAPTER VI " Only that State can live in which injury to the least member is recognised as damage to the whole.'''' — Emerson. In the year 1865 Professor Huxley wrote his opinion upon the recent abolition of slaves in America. He said : " Whatever the position of stable equilibrium into which the laws of social gravitation may bring the negro, all responsibility for the result will henceforth lie between Nature and him. The white man may wash his hands of it, and the Caucasian conscience be void of reproach for evermore, and this, if we look to the bottom of the matter, is the real justification for the abolition policy." In complete contradistinction to that view I quote from an address on " The obligations of Empire," delivered by the late Bishop of Durham : "We have at length realised the nature of the struggle in which we are engaged ... we have learnt, are learning still that the sign of Empire is not self-assertion, but self-sacrifice. We stand before the world with a great and chequered inheritance. The work of our fathers for good and for evil lives in us still ; we cannot dissociate ourselves from our ancestry . . . our contemporaries. If a period of wealth brings with it a corresponding growth of reckless excess, 80 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 81 this concerns us ... we may keep ourselves, but how do we attempt by prayer, by sympathy, by appeals to more generous instincts, to keep our brother? How do we dare to face the otherside of the question — almost encourage his misdeeds by seeming to regard them as the natural consequences of conditions which we are unable to modify ? " Here are two expressions of opinion, from two eminent Englishmen, on what may be looked upon as our national responsibility towards the sons of Africa. History shows that the first view of our duty has not been nationally accepted. In the persons of our pro- genitors, we, as a nation, enslaved a people : we have owned our misdeed by emancipating it. But here comes the question which arises out of the fact that the nation has full legislative and disciplinary powers over its citizens : Are we using those incontestable powers to build up worthy citizens ? or are we encouraging, in Jamaica, a class of persons belonging to what Mr. Olivier has described as " the inarticulate mass of the population " — with whom our interests are bound up, and who have little understanding, even, of the meaning of government — to continue in evil doing, regarding that as the natural consequence of conditions we are unable to modify ? Whilst one adheres to the belief that largely the problem of how to solve the emancipated race has been success- fully worked out under British rule — as opposed to the gross crime, inter-racial hatred, and positive personal insecurity which in the United States have been the unhappy sequel to abolitional policy — one is bound to admit from a study of Jamaican life that if the American treatment is marked by inhumanity ours tends to err in over-humanitarianism. 6 82 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE Under existing conditions the landowners and employers of labour representing the taxpayers of the community are distinctly mulcted in unfair ratio to the good actually derived. Not only do they pay taxes to support an efficient or non-efficient island constabulary and the upkeep of the prisons, hospitals, asylums, work- houses, run on European lines, for a large class of the community whose laziness or whose shifting, unreliable labour they have to supplement at increased cost from Asiatic sources, but they also suffer from any amount of undetected, as well as detected pilferingand praedial larceny. Many able-bodied persons who in prosperous times easily pick up a livelihood, but who in times of scarceness such as prevailed after the hurricane have no other resource than to steal, belong to this class, as well as the weak and sickly. Habitual offenders and parasites are generally well known in a community ; and individually, the negro, as proprietor or tenant, objects to being robbed as much as the white man ; but he seems to have no idea of com- bining with other industrious peasants like himself to prevent the increase of praedial larceny. A planter once told me he had actually lost a cow and a calf, and had never been able to trace either. Often, the injured party prefers to suffer his loss than to put in motion the expensive arm of the law. In parts of Jamaica both plantation-owners and peasant-proprietors abstain from planting vegetables and fruits, simply because they never reap the benefit of their labours, owing to this thieving propensity. The evil, therefore, is serious, and calls for prompt remedial legislation. "When I see a poor man selling pork all the vear round with no pigs of his own, and when I see women ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 83 carrying baskets with yams and bananas to market, and I know for a fact they have none of their own, I feel pretty sure where mine are gone," said a lady living in the interior. An island Gamaliel told me that the cost to the colony of convicting, sentencing, and punishing a black for stealing sixpennyworth of yams is not less than £$, The planters say that to go to law for these trifling thefts is far more expensive than the value of them in loss of time, &c. Those persons who live by pilfering prey upon their own people also. I heard a pathetic story of an aged widow, who was found almost starving because her yams had been stolen by a lazy loafer. Thieving characteristics have always been a noted feature of the African. In 1797, a French book was published at Philadelphia, U.S., on the character and manners of the slaves of the island of Saint Domingo by M. Moreau de Saint Mdry, and it was put into my hands by the curator of a well-known library in New Orleans. In it the French writer, speaking of the different African tribes from which the slaves were recruited, says of the Bambaras, living east of the Senegal, that in their native land they were known as " voleurs de dindes, voleurs de moutons." Speaking of the superior tribe of the Mandingoes, he says, " II est a employer aux iles, il y perd quelquefois son penchant pour le larcin." My visits to both the penal establishments in Jamaica filled me with admiration for those responsible for their sanitary, cleanly, up-to-date condition, and the cared-for, well-fed look of the convicts reflects credit upon the humane, generous, and civilised community at whose 84 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE expense these delinquents invariably put on weight at the end of their term of incarceration ; but I confess I laugh to this day at the idea, even, of prison life, such as I saw it, being a " terror to evil-doers." Instead, they live in a fine, airy, hurricane-proof, magnificently-built edifice, for sanitation and substan- tiality far and away the best building I have yet seen in the island : excessive care is lavished upon the feeding and doctoring of the inmates. I refer especially to the prison at Spanish Town, for short sentences, which, together with the Penitentiary at Kingston, cost in the year ending March 31, 1904, ^^ 13,6 12 2s. gd., or £12 3s. iijd. per prisoner. Labour yielding no money return, including that in connection with a lately estabhshed prison farm, one of the best things started by Mr. Olivier in his term of office, is assessed at ^^6,104 I2S. 2d. ; the deficit, of course, comes out of island revenues. But the point impressed upon me was that those planters whose interests are closely allied to those of the negro tenant-peasantry would not grumble at the expense of the prisons if they could see any decrease in petty larceny. If the coloured constable showed one-half the cunning which the habitual thief betrays in carrying oiF, unmolested, bananas, yams, and other produce, there would soon be a marked diminution of this irritating crime ; but the fact remains, instead of decreasing, the number of arrests and convictions for this offence in all its varying phases denotes that with all the fathering care of an enlightened and expensive administration it is fast increasing. In an official summary, showing the state of crime for the last ten years under the heading of Offences against ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 85 Property committed without violence^ it is stated that there were in — 1900-1 4,807 arrests and 2,756 convictions. 1901-2 4,775 „ and 2,756 1902-3 3,850 „ and 2,084 1903-4 5»i8o „ and 3,047 „ This heading includes larceny of small stock from dwelling-houses, from shops, from warehouses of dye- woods, simple and praedial larceny. A quotation from this report emphasizes a point which struck me, that prison life actually offers attractions to an irresponsible portion of the population in contrast to the deterrent effect upon crime which, I presume, is the main object of these institutions as distinct from benevolent establish- ments, or educational experiments : " This increase (of convictions under the above heading) is accounted for by the large number of criminals released from prison during the year, some of whom spend but a few weeks out of prison, if as long, before they again commit them- selves." In fact, it is a joke in Spanish Town to speak of the enlarged criminal as having ordered his pudding- pan of the jailer to be kept ready for his return ; and with this curious people the man who has been to prison is regarded on his home-coming as somewhat of a hero as he recounts his experiences of jail life, and expatiates upon the good food and regular meals he has, for possibly the first time in his life, thoroughly enjoyed. In England a man shrinks from the public gaze when he comes out of prison ; but the mental make-up of the Caucasian is on different lines to the aforetime denizen of tropical jungles. Wherever, apparently, the experi- ment of treating the peasant negro as a similar class of 86 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE Europeans is treated, one meets, as in America, with failure all along the line ; but when he has been taken as a backward childish specimen of the genus man, his very best qualities, such as fidelity, affection, trust, have been called out. There is, in this island, a shiftless, un- progressive, idle class, who are a hindrance, not only to their black brethren, but to the economic progress of the colony generally, of whom the Inspector-General remarks : " It cannot be denied that a great deal of this crime is perpetrated by idle vagabonds who will not work, but prey on their more industrious neighbours, and also by hardened offenders who have repeatedly been punished, and, in some instances, flogged : the prison seems to have no effect on them." In the majority of the cases the value of the property stolen did not amount to more than sixpence, and in some cases did not exceed a penny-halfpenny. Not long since, I read in a newspaper that a man stole a baby's feeding-bottle the same morning he was dis- missed from Spanish Town ! Which incident bears out my belief that to some, prison life, with its regularity, its freedom from care, is attractive, not repellent. Imagine, however, the waste of money, of time, of labour, such ridiculous cases involve ! These idle vagabonds, half the time supported by their women-folk, are the curse of the island. If they could be shipped to Panama never to return, Jamaica would be no poorer than it is at present. There is plenty of work to be had ; otherwise why import coolies ? In supporting the prisons and the judicial system, and in the continual robbery of these miscreants, the planter is, in my humble opinion, to put it in common phraseology, " badly had." ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 87 Perhaps flogging, plus or minus hard labour, might have a deterring effect. An influential magistrate told me he had once sentenced a man to one month's hard labour, who, when he was removed from the dock, shouted an insulting remark, for which he immediately ordered there and then a severe flogging, standing by afterwards to see it thoroughly administered. On hearing he was to be flogged the man " yelled enough to fetch the roof off the court-house," as my friend expressed it. I remember, too, my surprise at seeing fourteen convicts in the prison farm shouldering guinea grass and marching off in single file in charge of one black warder carrying a club, no firearms. Nothing in the shape of walls or fences divided the farm from an adjoining plantation of bananas, yet I was told escapes are very rare, the con- victs standing too much in dread of the severe flogging which is the sequel to being caught. " They are docile enough, and great cowards," a warder explained to me. The women are invariably industrious, but why a lazy class of males should enjoy the privileges of living under a civilised Government which keeps them in sickness and in health, in old age, and, what is more important, from the lawlessness of their black brethren, and not be legally compelled to work for such advantages, seems to me to be sinning against light and knowledge, constituting, as it does, far greater robbery from the taxpayer's pocket than walking off with babies' feeding-bottles, bananas, or chickens. In the once " Sovereign State of Georgia," as well as in the other old slave states, they do things differently. Felony is a State asset ! Convicts are remunerative instead of an expense. The following is a quotation 88 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE from an article in The Times of recent date : Here (Georgia) " two classes of the population — the felons and the paupers — are valuable State property. The first, like our convicts, work in chains, but, unlike our Dartmoor prisoners, they are put to do remunerative work and made to do it. I have seen the best of English piece- workers on railway cuttings, but I never saw earth removed as these negroes do it. That is why contractors are anxious to hire them from the State. . . . The per- suasive instrument is the whip, the restraining one the rifle." On the employment of negro warders being bad economy, since the black shoots to kill his brother if he tries to escape, whereas the white man shoots to frighten, the writer goes on to say : "Mrs. Beecher Stowe thought that the negro was a man and a brother, but that was to the white man. He is no brother to his own race, whom he will shoot as freely as he would a cotton-tail rabbit, where no more danger threatens. From sun-up to sun- down these chain-gangs labour as if each of their lives depended on doing more work than his neighbour. They labour as strenuously as an Englishman plays football ; there is no other efficient simile in our land." In America I learnt that in the State of Alabama the profit to the Government from convict labour was nearly $250,000, at least four-fifths who earned it were coloured. One admires the go-a-head policy, which, seeing an evil, mmediately starts curing it, notwithstanding the difficul- ties. In Mississippi and in Georgia loafers and idlers are compelled to hunt for work, those who can show no means of earning an honest livelihood — gamblers, parents making their children support them, with beggars — come under the law. If they refuse to bind themselves to work ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 89 in the future they are punished. One wonders if some vid media between lax discipline and ultra-severity might not be formulated by clever heads for Jamaica, which would not only be really corrective in principle, but aid substantially in reducing that huge debt, which, like a strangling ghoulish monster, threatens to squeeze the life out of this promising little island. The present system as at present in operation fails to cure the inherent weak- ness on the part of the negro to steal. The number of habitual criminals for other offences besides prasdial larceny reconvicted during 1904 was 636, against 560 in 1902, and 466 in 1903, whilst 2,319 first convictions were registered in 1904 against 1,989 in 1902, and 1,680 in 1903. It is hard to comprehend why British law in any part of our vast dominions where law and order reign permits the tramp in England to wander from union to union, or the lazy vagabond in Jamaica to roam at large without visible means of livelihood. We talk glibly of the " sur- vival of the fittest." We never give a thought to the death of the unfit, and of all paths to unfitness the encouragement of laziness seems to me to offer most attractions both to rich and to poor, hedged in as that path is with every form of moral stagnation and physical deterioration. The greatness of the New England States was built up in appreciation of that stern dictum of Holy Writ, "If a man will not work neither shall he eat." The righteous severity of Puritan virtue did not brook the sluggard to loaf in its borders. At an early date the rulers legislated against lazy vagabonds, and in some States those laws remain on the statute books to this day. In Rhode Island a law enacted that if any servant or 90 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE apprentice shall depart from the service of his master, or otherwise neglect his duty^ he was liable to arrest and detention in the State workhouse of correction. In the statutes of Massachusetts, Vermont, and Con- necticut there are similar provisions : " Every sturdy beggar, every person wandering abroad not giving a good account of himself, every vagrant or disorderly person shall be imprisoned not less than six months nor more than three years." In Maine the law enacted that whoever went about " from place to place in any town asking for food, or shelter, or begging, shall be deemed a tramp and imprisoned not more than fifteen months." In Jamaica the situation is unique and worth studying ; humani- tarianism presents curious phases. Here we have a highly-taxed, long-sufFering, and, with exceptions, a hard-working community ; a Government bent on retrenchment, groaning at its heavy debt and its liabilities, yet in the undisputed possession of rich, fertile, undeveloped lands, such as individuals and companies have in fruit culture rendered highly remunerative, also with full powers to educate, control, discipline, and civilise an inferior race, on whose behalf a great portion of its financial difficulties have been incurred, yet it takes no initiative to put in operation its undeniable latent powers and privileges towards the reduction of its debts and dis- proportionate expenditure. Lands, labour, are all within its reach, the criminal and the shiftless wait to be guided and to be organised. Steady markets at home and else- where are open, turbine steamers to travel i8 knots per diem are promised to run direct from Kingston to England. Yet this enlightened Government by way of lessening expenses can devise nothing better than to ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 91 harass the real industry of the country by suggesting schemes which, in the course of years, will act pre- judicially to the important agricultural interests of the colony. Jamaica wants a Daniel to sit in judgment. We could also welcome one at home, for to the minds of many of us the poor laws regarding the vagrant are anything but perfection. Those who deal with these matters say that instead of reducing the number of tramps, our laws tend to produce more. We English are at times maudlin where we should be hard-headed — Sybarites where we should be Spartans. In these days, when infatuated free- traders are ruining English agriculture and horticulture, farm lands, at least those of them remaining in culti- vation, are groaning for labourers, and the cry goes up unceasingly, " Back to the land ! " But our penny-wise policy, instead of fathering the honest working man in want of a job, and compelling the lazy man to work, after a night's lodging sends both alike to tramp to the next union. A few days of this sort of life, with insuffi- cient food, brings the former down to the level of the latter, his constitution becomes so weakened that he cannot do a good day's work if offered him. Personally, although a taxpayer, without representation, I avow publicly that in contributing my item to the upkeep of our poor-law system I do it under protest ; for I con- sider in so doing I contribute to conditions distinctly detrimental to a class for whom I entertain respect and sympathy, namely, the honest British workman — agricultural or otherwise. My reasons for objecting to the system I have mentioned are — (i) we want agri- cultural labourers; (2) we don't want tramps; but 92 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE the present treatment of workmen looking for work distinctly tends to increase that class. There are two sets of persons in all communities. One tries to get everything without paying for it, and, as things go, this is a fairly successful class ; the lazy vagabond of this island and the tramp at home furnish examples ; the other accepts the fact that for so much gain he pays in ratio. Surely the first principles of good government consist in the fact that one class should not suffer at the expense of another — each, according to its responsibilities and capabilities, contributing to the common weal. Tax- payers, both at home and in this colony, are to-day suffering for the expenditure of State monies on an irresponsible class who should be compulsorily educated up to an appreciation of the privileges of living under the most civilised Government in the world, towards the maintenance of which every unit, if not by his own will, then by the will of the nation, should contribute his pro- portionate item. At home it has been suggested that central farms or industries could be organised where these persons, temporarily displaced in the industrial world, could work out their keep ; at the same time such an institution might operate locally as a labour bureau, and the means of earning a livelihood found for those in search of it. Instead of planning relief for the deserving and com- pulsory employment for the lazy and vicious, we build palaces for our thriftless paupers out of taxes wrung from the industrious and the sober. The workers in the British hive pay dearly for the privileges of keeping their drones ! If Puritanism does not commend itself to our aesthetic taste, in contemplating the wealth in the New ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 93 England States, we see notwithstanding, an object lesson in the efficacy of the stern, healthy spirit which guided its early legislators. Plato reminded his world that character is the only possession we carry with us beyond the grave. If the first duty of a parent is to select that kind of education which shall result in the building up of character in the child, no less an obligation devolves upon the State, standing as it does in loco parentis to the submerged part of the population. CHAPTER VII *' Oh, Nature., how in every mood supreme I Whose votaries feed on raptures ever new. Oh for the harp and fire of seraphim ^ To sing thy glories with devotion due ! " Beattie. Americans, escaping from the blizzards and storms of their severe winters, land in Jamaica from November to April, at Port Antonio, on the Northern coast, situated in the most beautiful part of the island, from which port vast quantities of bananas are shipped by the United Fruit Company to Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. Canadians, forsaking the " Lady of Snows," either land here or at Montego Bay, a small port also on the northern coast, but to the west of Port Antonio. Londoners, flying from enshrouding fogs and mists to bask in the brilliant sunshine of the " pearl of the Antilles," come to Kingston either by the steamships of the Royal Mail Company or of the Direct Mail. The first question they ask is, What is there to see ? Where shall we go ? At Constant Spring Hotel many of them find golf, tennis, croquet, riding about the neighbour- hood, with dancing bi-weekly, an occasional drive to Hope Gardens or Castleton, and a moonlight excursion by electric tramway to Rockfort as much as they want 94 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 96 to do. Others who wish to see somewhat of the beauties of the island should, on landing, visit the Educational Supply Shop in King Street, and provide themselves with Dr. Johnston's celebrated photographic views, published in book form ; from these representations of Jamaica's choicest scenery they can determine upon subsequent excursions. Many persons, preferring the climate in the interior of the island, go by train to Williamsfield, from whence they drive to Mandeville (a distance of five miles), picturesquely situated in the hills of the parish of Manchester, over 2,000 feet above sea-level ; the climate here is cool after that of Kingston. There are several lovely drives to be taken from Mande- ville ; and from vantage-points in the surroundings beautiful and extensive views of the interior are to be obtained ; coffee and oranges are the chief products grown in this parish. The well-kept roads, bordered by great clumps of bamboos, waving palms, stately cedar-trees, orange-trees, acacia bushes, attracting the multi-coloured humming birds with their sweet-smelling blossoms, mango-trees laden with luscious fruit, are in themselves a never-ceasing source of delight to the lover of nature. Here, too, is the ceiba, the king of Jamaican forestry, and the home of many ghostly superstitions in negro duppy-lore. Those who proceed to Montego Bay, the terminus of the line, cannot fail to admire the partially explored, wild, and inaccessible regions of the Cockpit country, through which the railway, which was a feat of engineering skill at the time of its construction, passes. From the steep gradients and numerous curves one catches glimpses of small cultivated patches and isolated negro huts in the valleys far below as the train slowly 96 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE winds its way through this remarkable region. From Montego Bay the traveller can return by a series of drives along the northern coast, or, after passing Falmouth, he can strike inland towards Brown's Town, from which spot a drive of thirty miles or so through the parish of St. Ann would bring him to Moneague Hotel. Here a stay of a day or two should include a drive through Fern Gulley, where the tropical tree-ferns and maidenhair grow so luxuriantly on the high banks on either side as almost to exclude the penetrating rays of the sun. Of the island ferns writes a lover of Jamaica : — "All along the roadsides, Over rocky walls, Hidden 'midst the bushes, Splashed by waterfalls, Where the island streamlets Sparkle on the ground, Deep in tangled gullies — There the ferns are found. Bright with golden powder, Touched with silvery sheen, Pink as shells of ocean, Decked in tender green. Star-leaves seed embroidered. Dainty maidenhair — O'er our lovely island Ferns are everywhere." From Moneague a magnificent drive over Mount Diabolo, 2,000 feet above sea-level, brings one to the railway station of Ewarton, whence the tourist can pro- ceed to Port Antonio, if that be his destination, or back again to Kingston. In the latter case he should alight at a station called Bog Walk and drive to Spanish ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 97 Town, the old capital. The high-road skirts the Rio Cobre ; on either side of this river the lofty cliflfe are covered with the luxuriant growth of the tropics. Strangers to Jamaica often get their first impression of tropical flora in this well-known spot, rapphit vient en mangeant^ and Bog Walk to my knowledge has operated as a preliminary canter to more extended excursions. There is a legend of the Rio Cobre concerning a golden table which is kept in captivity by the entrancing charms of its waters. In the following verses by " Tropica " the story is beautifully told : — "Sparkling, flashing, gleaming, glowing, Where no eye can see its rays, Rests the mystic Golden Table Dreaming dreams of olden days. 'Neath the Cobre's silver waters It has lain for ages long ; And an undertone of warning Mingles with the river's song. Just at noon (so says the legend) Comes the Table every day Softly to the river's surface. Where the yellow sunbeams play ; For one magic moment lingers Then sinks slowly out of sight, While its crystal prison shimmers In a cloud of burnished light. Since it sank that far-off evening 'Midst the lightning and the rain Never man has found the Table ; All his seeking has been vain. Still the jealous Cobre guards it, Safe concealed from human eye — While it charms its golden captive With an endless lullaby." 7 98 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE The bare-legged peasant women, with skirts bunched up so as not to impede their swinging stride, pass by carrying on their heads their stock-in-trade, a straw hat crowning the erection ; possibly a black bottle may be sticking out which may contain kerosene for the lamp in the little lonely shanty, or rum for a " burial wake " ; as a rule, however, the happy, irresponsible people are not a thirsty race ; sometimes they sing as they pass along, and the tune of an old familiar hymn greets your ear. At the Rio Cobre Hotel lunch should be taken ; island delicacies are often served up here to innocents abroad — turtle steaks, turtle soup, snooker, calepeva, or jack-fish cooked in various ways ; of cod-fish and ackie let the stranger beware ! Jamaican vegetables are numerous and good ; cho-cho, garden egg, ochra plantain, yams, and yampis are frequently given. Guava jelly served with cocoanut mik is delicious, so too are the fruit salads ; cassava biscuits, and cake sometimes flavoured with island ginger are by no means despicable ; a cup of Blue Mountain coffee will complete a typical Jamaican meal. But as you saunter away refreshed and ready for new scenes of interest after such a meal as I have described at the only hotel in this once famous city, the melan- choly, deserted air of the place strikes you as that belonging to the city of the dead ; and it is hard in these days to realise that for over a century and a half Spanish Town figured as the metropolis of our most important colonial possession. Towards the end of the seventeenth century, when the growth of the sugar-cane industry became the chief source of the wealth of the island, and the cultivation of the fertile lands offered a more legiti- mate occupation than the fitfU and dangerous career of ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 99 the buccaneers of Port Royal, Spanish Town rose in importance, and the colonists improving in type the plantations of Jamaica for 150 years became England's greatest pride. When the New England colonies acquired their independence their value was enhanced. But economic changes, with the deflection of commerce from her shores in the nineteenth century, brought ruin in their train. In the scamper for wealth, in the rush to newly opened-up lands, the once opulent and flourish- ing colony has been forgotten, but there are few English families tracing back their history for a couple of hundred years [who have not been connected more or less with Jamaica. Prior to the abolitionist agitation the colony suffered from absentee landlordism to a degree in these days scarcely credible. In 1796 out of 769 proprietors, 606 were absentees. In the light of this fact the subsequent history of this colony is not remarkable, but it is sug- gestive and instructive. The fall in the price of sugar, the neglect to improve methods of cultivating the soil, the inability to organise the labour-market, were prob- ably the direct consequences of leaving valuable properties in the hands of unscrupulous overseers ; and a knowledge of the personal character of such persons entrusted with the lives of thousands of a childish race inclines us to modify a harsh judgment on the morals of a people not many generations removed from the jungle, and brought in contact with some of the most unworthy of the sons of Englishmen. Many of us do not realise that the slave trafl[ic as a trade was not a colonial enterprise at all, but was carried on by British merchants having their headquarters at 100 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE Bristol, Liverpool, and London. As early as 1774 the Jamaican House of Assembly passed two Bills to limit the slave trade, but British merchants protested against them. The Secretary of State at that period when receiving these petitions declared, "We cannot allow the colonies to check or discourage in any degree a traffic so beneficial to the nation." The vicissitudes of fortune are curiously evident in a study of Jamaica's social conditions, past and present. How are the mighty fallen ! The former merchant princes have disappeared, their lands and patrimonies have passed into other hands. To-day the descendants of hard-working slaves are gradually becoming possessed of the crumbs from the rich man's table ; an increasing class of land-owning peasantry are learning to cultivate the soil intelligently and profitably. Lord Acton said that history is the true demonstration of religion. Sometimes when I hear the blacks sing, " He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble and meek. He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He hath sent empty away," I wonder if the thought ever strikes them how literally this has been accomplished in their island home. The most flourishing epoch of Jamaican commerce were the seven years anterior to the abolition of the slave trade. During this time, 1 800-1 807, sugar was annually exported to the amount of 133,000 hogs- heads. The seven years after, 1807-14, these exports fell to 118,000 hogsheads. From 1828 to 1835 the amount had fallen to 20,000. The extravagance of West Indian planters was proverbial in days past, which may account for the notorious fact which parliamentary blue-books show, that over a hundred estates had been ETHIOPIA IN EXnvB ; : acil abandoned for debt even in the times of Jamaica's prosperity. Returning to the Rio Cobre Hotel, where up to the year 1858 stood a stately mansion with a staircase of solid mahogany on which fourteen persons could walk abreast, a stroll from thence through the Square on our way to the Cathedral will suffice to show us all that is left of this once famous city. If we were clairvoyant and clairaudient the ghostly monks and nuns who in the time of their mortality lived here under Spanish rule might tell us strange tales of the past. Some no doubt could speak of that semi-forgotten Seville Nueva built by the son of the discoverer, Diego Columbus, in St. Ann's parish, of which scarce a trace remains, but containing the site of the first religious building erected by the pious Spaniards. They could tell how, harassed by pirates from adjacent coasts and hostile Indians, the frightened citizens of this primitive settlement penetrated the tangled woods of the interior, moving in an easterly direction ; how they climbed over threatening rocks, calling them the Devil's Mountain (Monte Diablo) ; descended into lowland forests, and how, passing through a narrow defile following the course of an impetuous river (Rio Cobre), they once more beheld luxurious plains and distant ocean. On this vast savannah the fugitives breathed in safety, and soon erected temporary huts till the little settlement grew into a good-sized town built round a central square according to the Spanish-American fashion, as exempli- fied to-day in the town of Santiago de Cuba. To enlist the patronage of a powerful saint this city was called Saint Jago of the Plains, to distinguish it from its Cuban ii)2;; ;1ithio3pia in exile namesake. Religion and architecture in the rise of this place went hand in hand ; the Spanish inhabitants were called "hidalgoes," which term is equivalent to the English "knights." It is, however, of greater interest to us to recall the early period of British possession when Jamaica with its sugar plantations figured as the El- Dorado of the day. The parish of St. Catherine, of which Sant Jago de la Vega, or Spanish Town, is the principal town, teems with memories and traditions entirely its own. The lands of the surrounding districts bear historic names associated with many deeds of weal or woe in colonial history. Lawrencefield was, two hundred years ago, the resi- dence of Sir Henry Morgan. Great things are often evolved from small beginnings. In early life this re- nowned freebooter, whose deeds of infamous cruelty in the storming of Porto Bello and in his raids on the Spanish Main will always be associated with his name, served as a slave in Barbados. Turning, however, from the error of his ways, he actually persecuted his old ship- mates. He acted as Governor from 1675 to 1678 and again in 1680-81, but, popular as he appears to have been, notwithstanding his real or assumed conversion he made himself '* cheap at the Port (Port Royal), drinking and gaming in the taverns." At that date this high- minded gentleman as admiral of the fleet commanded on one occasion twenty-eight English-built ships and eight taken from the French, representing in all a tonnage of 1,565 ! The Caymanas, a fine property in this parish, was originally connected with the names of Dawkins, Ellis, ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 103 and Taylor ; the latter name is familiar in Jamaican ears. Sir John Taylor died at Kingston in 1786 while on a visit to his Jamaica estates, and lies buried with his brother at Lyssons in St. Thomas. The present Gustos, or chief magistrate, of that parish is descended from this well-known family, St. Jago's Farm was once the abode of Don Sasi, the governor at the time of the Spanish capitulation ; it has since belonged to the Colbecks of Colbeck, whilst the estates of Aylmer and Bannister bear the names of two military men, colonels, who sailed with Generals Penn and Venables, and who subsequently, under the Restora- tion, obtained these grants of land. Port Henderson and Rodens bear the names of settlers from the Mother Country. Keith Hall tells of a mountain residence of Sir Basil Keith, governor during part of the American War, 1773-5. Government Pen was the home of a celebrated governor in the annals of this island, the Earl of Balcarres, famous for his expedition against the Maroons in Trelawney, 1795 to 1801. The cause of the insurrection had been the flogging by a runaway negro at the workhouse at Montego Bay of two Maroons who had been convicted of stealing pigs. On that occasion, the Legislative Assembly, for his successful mode of dealing with the difficulty, voted Balcarres seven hundred guineas for a sword ! So history records and we literally stand agape, wondering if the present impoverished Government could find seven hundred pence to reward a public benefactor ! The Square which I have already mentioned is one of the saddest places in Jamaica, though once the centre of rank and fashion ; and to-day, as we pass down its 104 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE desolate paths our imagination conjures up a picture of that gay, extravagant, dissolute past. "Old faces look upon us, old forms come trooping past." On one side King's House, a substantial, ^but plain Government build- ing speaks of other, happier days, of lights, and music, and whirling forms, of gatherings of fair women and brave men ; suggesting many incidents, vows exchanged, lives made or marred in intervals all too fleeting, between the stately minuet and mazy waltz. Elsewhere the visitor turns an impatient glance from buildings suggesting red-tape officialism to a monument hidden under a canopy of masonry. Here patriotism has expressed itself in raising a monument to Lord Rodney, who saved the West Indies from the combined naval strength of Spain and France off the coast of the island of Dominica in 1782. Again we note the open- handedness of the gentry of Jamaica, for this handsome monument cost the colony ^8,200 ; at the same time it is not clear to my comprehension why a British admiral should be presented in perpetuity to posterity in the accoutrements of a Roman warrior. When I think of this lavish sum, and read of many others, such as the ;^ 8,700 which the funerals of Howard, Earl of Effing- ham, and of his Countess, who died respectively in October and November of 1791, and the memorial monument subsequently raised to his memory, executed by the sculptor Bacon, now adorning the Cathedral at Spanish Town, I confess my mind misgives me as to the certainty of anything in the shape of landed and commercial securities, and I feel like the Queen of Sheba at the sight of Solomon and all his glory, of whom we read that " there was no more spirit in her " ! These ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 105 magnificent islanders only wanted an occasion to spend and to be spent ! When Prince William Henry, afterwards William IV., visited Jamaica in 1788 he was presented with a diamond star, and in 1801 the Assembly voted 3,000 guineas for a service of plate " as a testimony of the high respect and esteem indelibly impressed on the minds of the loyal inhabitants of Jamaica for His Royal Highness." Again, in 1806, the island generosity was once more in evidence when Sir Thomas Duckworth, commander-in-chief, gained " one of the completest victories on record," capturing three French ships ofF St. Domingo and bringing them into Port Royal, burning the remainder which were not driven ashore and stranded. The Corporation of London gave him the freedom of the city and a sword of honour, but heroic, generous little Jamaica voted ;^ 3,000 straight away to buy him a service of plate, as well as ^^ 1,000 for a sword of honour. The Cathedral and mother-church of Jamaica was erected on the site of the Church of the Red Cross, built nearly four hundred years ago by the Spaniards. It is a handsome building of simple but pure architec- tural style, with a lofty nave and stained chancel window somewhat damaged by the late hurricane. The nave and transepts are older than the chancel, and the tower dates from the year 17 14. Perhaps the parish church of Kingston, with its spacious double aisles, has larger seating capacity, but the proportions of the cathedral are more symmetrical, and it contains a really beautiful organ, with three manuals, built in the middle of the last century. Visitors frequently express surprise at finding what can be effected in the way of training a 106 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE mixed choir of natives when they attend the services. The Cathedral contains many handsome monuments erected to the memory of departed island notabilities, and the aisles are paved w^ith monumental slabs bearing well-know^n British names and familiar heraldic crests. Those visitors who are interested in the historic past should not fail to visit Port Royal, once as noted for its wealth as for its depravity. Let them look upon its deserted houses and streets as a " naval reserve " ! A visit to the church and a study of the mural tablets will impress them with the fact that this place, through that scourge of tropical countries, yellow fever, was in verity a white man's grave before science successfully combated the microbe. My memory of the Pallisadoes, a name given to the long spit of land which tongue-Hke obtrudes from the coast-line, is of a delightful moon- light excursion, when with others I was rowed across the harbour and looked up at various French and American ships standing high above us, motionless upon the glancing moonlit waters, of going on to a sandbank, of getting off and rowing through a man- grove-bordered lagoon to a landing-place from whence^ two hundred yards away on the opposite shore, we heard the booming sound of huge Atlantic breakers as they thundered up the beach. At this spot a lighthouse warns the sailor of his approach to land. The Blue Mountains should be visited, instructions and arrangements how to compass a climb to the Peak, the highest point of the range, 7,000 feet above sea-level, can be obtained at the hotels. The visitor who leaves Jamaica without ascending the Blue Mountain Peak assuredly misses one of the finest sights ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 107 in the world. Without expatiating on the vast scene of range on range, of blue seas, of distant plains and rivers far below, which one views from the summit, the ascent from start to finish lies through the most wonderful natural botanical garden imaginable. Leaving the coffee plantations about 5,000 feet above sea-level the path leads through scene after scene of floral delight, natural rustic arches, formed by tree- boughs and half hidden by the green lacery of the fronds of great tree-ferns, form glades where the sun cannot penetrate, hedges of begonia and hibiscus line the way in spots here and there, ginger, and graceful bamboos spring from the banks, wild heliotrope, wild calceolaria claim recognition, and as you approach your destination mountain strawberries invite you to taste them. A drive to Newcastle, an almost deserted military station built at an extraordinary altitude, rewards the tourist on account of the magnificent views afforded by the frequent curves and bends of one of the most skilfully engineered roads in the West Indies. As you ascend these mountains and, at sunset, turn round in your saddle in your upward and onward progress to look at the distant ocean, plains, and hills you have left behind, the great vault of the sky above you is sometimes a mass of gorgeous colouring, deep blue transfusing itself into purest purple as the light of the setting sun is reflected over the whole of nature, changing into brilliant gold as your glance sweeps the horizon, whilst the fleeciest and flimsiest of clouds, warmed by the rays of the sinking orb, chase each other, varying in form, across the vast expanse of the heavens. Few people visit the eastern parts of the island, for there 108 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE is no railroad communication and buggy hire is expensive for long distances in Jamaica. I greatly desired to visit those districts most affected by the recent cyclone, and I found the best way to carry out my design was to sleep overnight at Kingston, so as to start at 6 a.m. on a small coastal steamer, making weekly trips round to the island ports, called The Delta, Passing Morant Bay, famous as the scene of the rising of the blacks during the Gordon riots, we steamed to a place called Bowden, where I left the ship and entered a carriage I had previously ordered from Mr. Jacobs, of Bath. A drive of eight miles through beautiful mountainous country brought me to this small market town, con- sisting of a long street bordered on either side with detached houses and shops of varying condition and size. During the cyclone the people had taken refuge in the substantially built church and Wesleyan chapel. Traces of the disaster were visible in the temporary adjustment of the roofing of the boys' school-house, the girls being taught in the church opposite. Here I found the accommodation primitive, but clean. I sub- sisted on boiled eggs and bananas, since the keeper of the solitary lodging-house had been taken seriously ill, and on my arrival the doctor, coming fourteen miles, was anxiously awaited. A winding mountain road bor- dering one of Jamaica's many impetuous streams led up to the baths for which this place is famous, and which I have mentioned on a previous page. Here I made the acquaintance of the Otaheite apple-tree, the red, pear-like fruit growing in clusters, half-hidden by the handsome dark foliage, was ripe and juicy. ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 109 The baths are of very simple construction, but accord- ing to the attendant distinctly beneficial in many cases. Here accommodation can be obtained if there are not too many patients. The following morning I started in a single buggy with two capital horses and a reliable driver — which is requisite, considering the hilly country — to Port Antonio, a distance of thirty-seven miles. I never took a more interesting or diversified drive. The whole of the way I saw only three white people ! Two clerical-looking gentlemen passed me and a lady whom my driver informed me was the wife of the doctor in that neighbourhood. The road at first lay along a fairly level tract of land, skirting the mountains on the left, whilst to my right banana plantations, which seem the only agricultural product cultivated at this end of the island, stretched away to the coasts. Here one's roving gaze strays through — " Long aisles made dusky by broad wind-frayed leaves That bend and arch the narrow pathway o'er Like green waves curling as they reach the shore. Some touched with yellow of the autumn sheaves, Not bright, but as a beam of sun that grieves. Left lonely when its comrades shine no more. Like sunset rays that pierce a fretted door, Through emerald lattice-work a dull light weaves." The names of two estates in these parts, Potosi and Golden Grove, are suggestive. A few miles of this and we commenced to ascend the last spur of the mountain range, and away to the east the gleaming waters of Holland Bay attracted my gaze. As we approached the eastern coast at once it was apparent that we were on the track of the devastating 110 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE hurricane. Thousands of cocoa-nut palm-trees lay on the ground where they had fallen, but most of them had been broken off short by the force of the wind. Some torn up by the roots mutely testified to the awfulness of the catastrophe. Apart from the " stricken " look over the landscape, the views of blue sea, of white surf dash- ing over reefs or falling on creamy sands, the few waving palms which had survived, the winding road and the frequent fords over innumerable streams, combined to make the drive the reverse of monotonous. At Man- choneal, a tiny port with a police-station and post-office, we rested the horses, and I talked to several passers-by, but the most beautiful scenery was yet to come, and I know of none more exquisite in the whole of the colony than the coast approaching Port Antonio from the east, indented as it is with bays, inlets, lagoons, and creeks, where streams meander or rush to the sea, and where you may still see the aboriginal canoe formed out of the trunk of the cotton-tree, some of these inlets necessitating a wide detour inland to circumvent them. Everywhere banana cultivation is strenuous. The situation of Titchfield Hotel is unique in its beauty, and the superb structure superseding the former building, facing the north, with steps leading to the landing-stage immediately in front, with its great ball-room, spacious verandahs, luxurious rooms, lifts, and modern con- trivances, leaves nothing to be desired in the way of comfort. From Port Antonio I travelled back by rail to Kingston, thoroughly satisfied with my three days' excursion into a large portion of what, to me, had previously been "untrodden Jamaica." CHAPTER VIII " There is a tide in the affairs of men Which, taken at the Hood, leads on to fortune.''^ Shakespeare. We have seen with our eyes and heard with our ears that where dollars are to be made there the Yankee with his keen business talents, foresight, and energy is to be found. Now I read some time since in the l^ew York Herald^ under the heading of "Great Chances for Cotton in British West Indies," the declaration of an American expert that, not in Cuba, but in the West Indian islands lay the best chance for American capital spent in raising cotton. The Canadians in Cuba, in railway and tram- car schemes, have secured much of that island's trade, and British subjects have for once got ahead of the Yankee ; but as regards cotton the latter hitherto has had it all his own way. However, the writer of the article believes that in these islands the production of the article at the lowest figure is obtainable when accessibility, labour, climate, and soil are considered. He proceeds to tell us that a hundred years ago 70 per cent, of cotton imported into England came from the West Indies, and, says he, there are only 4,000 acres in these islands planted in cotton, though there are signs showing that interest is m 112 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE being directed to a speedy return to this product. Since my sojourn in Jamaica I have found enthusiastic believers in the future of cotton cultivation. Sea-island cotton, which can only be grown in a limited area in the United States on the sea-board, can be grown throughout the West Indies ; that coming from Barbados last year sold in Liverpool at is. id. per lb., and was said to be the best ever seen in England. A correspondent in Liverpool, well qualified to advise on this product, writes to Jamaica that planters should understand that Egyptian cotton depends largely on the price of American, whereas Sea-island does not. " Cotton growing in the West Indies is going along splendidly," says Sir Alfred Jones, in a letter dated May, 1905, to the writer of these pages. "The steps we have taken have had the effect of making Lancashire independent so far as long staple cotton is concerned. West Indian cotton has been sold as high as is. 6d. per lb." In a letter to the editor of The Timesy he writes : " We cannot have too much cotton for our ships to carry and our spinners to spin." He attributes the big crop in the States last season to smart Americans who have noticed the stir going on to grow cotton elsewhere, and in referring to the colonies which can produce cotton Sir Alfred says, " People forget the labour question as an element of cost. Can the Americans get labour at 6d. and is. per day as we can, and in abundance, too, in our colonies ? and is America, which has been planted fifty years, likely to be as fertile as our virgin soil in our colonies ? We do not require ferti- lisers or to buy corn and bacon for field hands. No doubt when our cotton comes to Liverpool we would in ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 113 one sense rather get fd. for it than /\.d., but if any one thinks that we cannot grow it and sell at a profit at 4d. he will be wiser by and by." After journeying through the States, where from the Carolinas to the Gulf I had been whirled through hundreds of miles of ripe cotton, it was pleasant to find certain ardent spirits in Jamaica determined to see that product rank once more amongst the island's industries. In a Louisiana newspaper I read that at a meeting at Baton Rouge, on October 14, 1904, the Commissioners of Agriculture from the cotton-growing States were told by their President that the value of the year's product of cotton amounted to the immense total of $418,358,366. This gentleman had further informed his hearers that the demand being in excess of the supply the planter was at last independent, the grower could hold his crop for fair and just prices. A paper was subsequently read by an agricultural expert from Tennessee, in which the writer glorified in the fact that the British mill-owners have but a vague idea of the great territory available in the South for cotton production. Events tend to show that the gentleman was not posted up to date ; cotton- growing in British dependencies will soon free us from the grip of American cropping and cornering. Shortly after reading the above I met with another bombastic production, with which a short sojourn in the States renders one familiar. It referred to the cry of fifteen years ago, when it was maintained that American textile goods could not compare with British goods of the same nature, adverse climatic conditions, unskilled labour, lack of experience and knowledge of detail being insuperable obstacles, and the writer declared " that one solitary 8 114 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE decade has knocked down all these adverse conditions, Huns, Slavs, French Canadians, Italians, Poles, Arabs, Syrians, Russians, and Armenians are to-day producing fabrics as fine and perfect as any made. Already American machinery is so good that European manu- facturers send over their brainiest men to study our methods." Viewed in the light of the last decade of industrious and educational development one cannot doubt that a very brilliant commercial outlook lies before " the New South," as the old slave states are now termed, but from the point of view of an Englishwoman the last few lines of this literary effort were solacing. Animadverting upon the " indifference which is scarcely checked by continuous and consular hammering," the writer deplored that " Britain exported in one month more than we did in a year by $20,395,515 ; when England can increase her exports year by year and sell 137 per cent, more in one month than we do in twelve months, it is time that some shock be given to arouse us from the commercial apathy in which we have been so long." After having read, with dismay, wonderful arrays of figures denoting present and prospective cotton- wealth, it was a relief to me to learn in Cuba, from an English traveller representing a well-known firm in Lancashire, that he had sold in the Republic of Colombia, during the last three years, ^150,000 worth of English cotton goods, and that many of his customers in the islands of the Caribbean would not look at American productions, on account of their inferiority in finer textile goods. Some persons do not realise that of late years in the cotton-growing States of America, where the raw pro- ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 115 duct is grown, Northern capital, in the shape of large factories, has come to the South. In 1900 over 900 cotton-mills have recently been built close to the cotton-field, so that there is less raw material to import. Pushing little Japan has become a great cotton manu- facturer ; besides growing cotton, she is importing it largely from the United States and India : these con- ditions account, in some degree, for the fact that numerous mills in Lancashire have been short of raw material, many workers being out of employ owing to the closing of several factories, and they urge us to grow cotton for ourselves. At a recent meeting of the Colonial Section of the Society of Arts, Mr. A. Emmott emphasized two facts : that an increased demand for cotton all the world over exists, and that in five years' time 19,000,000 bales will be wanted, in ten years 23,000,000, as against a present production of 16,000,000. This increased supply of raw material, he declared, should come from the British Colonies. There seems, therefore, little chance of a slump in the cotton trade for many years to come. Indeed, the question seems to be how to prevent the price of the raw material going up to an almost prohibitive figure ; the prospects for cotton-growers everywhere look encouraging. The increasing demand for it is due to many reasons ; the opening up of West, East, and Central Africa is causing millions of people who required little or no clothing before civilisation reached them, now to wear cotton fabrics, and they will demand more and more as they come in contact with the European. Then, cotton has been supplanting wool ; shirts are often made with linen fronts only, the rest is cotton. So also are hand- 116 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE kerchiefs, where linen was formerly used. Shortly after my arrival in Jamaica a very interesting meeting took place at Kingston, where the room was filled with planters and others. Two English experts, who had been visiting the West Indian islands to learn the latest details as to cotton-growing, addressed the audience ; the chief points they insisted on were (i) that Sea-island cotton was most profitable ; Egyptian, restricted to dis- tinct areas, was always in demand ; (2) the cotton should be carefully graded, to prevent lengths and quali- ties being mixed up together ; (3) special attention should be given to the cleanly picking of the bolls, and it should never be done till the cotton is thoroughly ripe ; (4) ratoons, or second crop, should be given up and fresh seed planted yearly, since ratoon cotton is always weak and infected with insects. Some gentlemen present declared that to replant yearly would not pay ; that the soil in Jamaica is so good that ratoon cotton was worth having. I saw some splendid-looking Sea- island cotton growing on an estate near Spanish Town, where a gentleman two years ago began by experiment- ing with 50 acres sown in different spots in an area of 25,000 acres. He had succeeded beyond his most san- guine hopes, and found that he could produce over 150 bolls to a tree, whereas in the United States 35 was the average number. He assured me that the soil of Jamaica was so nitrogenous that the same experts who had advised him to try certain chemical manures from England had, after an analysis of different Jamaican soils, declared they were not needed, for the land with- out artificial means could go on cropping indefinitely. An American cotton expert visiting this gentleman's ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 117 experimental cotton-fields declared he could suggest no improvement in the way of cultivating Sea-island cotton, either chemically, agriculturally, or from the marketable view. Ratooning, or getting a second crop from one seed, he intends to further experiment with. In this island vegetation is so rapid, so prolific, that with every plant, notably the banana, immediately after reproduction it commences to reproduce tissue, or two crops off one rod. Cotton should be sown here in April and in October, so as to benefit by the rains of May and November directly the plant shows itself above the ground. Cotton sown in February should be reaped in September or October ; that sown in the autumn the succeeding spring, when it should be ginned on the spot — by this process the seeds and refuse are separated from the bolls when the former serves for replanting. The manager of the Jamaica Cotton Company told me that he was the first to bring home the fact to some of the mill-owners of Lancashire that cotton, and cassava starch, and logwood dye can all be produced in Jamaica. As the two latter commodities are necessary in the manufacture of cotton goods, let us hope that a stimulus will be given to the cultivation of those agri- cultural products. Soil that suits cotton suits also cassava. There are already quantities of logwood in the island. An era of prosperity should be approaching the shores of this once opulent colony. Even now signs of a great agricultural upheaval are apparent. The outlook for sugar is distinctly favourable ; the movement on foot to cultivate cotton and cassava can scarcely help to bring money to the island ; banana culture has been flourish- 118 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE ing for some years ; but one of the best signs of the times is the effort all classes are making, especially the educationalists, to extend a practical and scientific know- ledge of the cultivation of the soil with its inexhaustible and, so far, unknown possibilities. In Jamaica, as in the States, the peasantry must learn to alternate their crops ; the black is often too lazy to plant other than bananas on his small holding, a " blow " comes ! all he possesses is lost ! To safeguard themselves by multiplying their products in times of economic distress is now being urged. Some Manchester capitalists are now attempting to grow cassava for starch and to ship it to England, where it will be tested as to whether it will equal German starch and American corn-starch in sizing Lancashire cloth. All over the West Indian islands cassava starch is used by the peasantry ; whether it can be so manufactured as to compete favourably with that produced by the perfect machinery and long prac- tice of foreign-made starch will shortly be ascertained. If proved successful, cassava-growing, say the authorities, would pay better than sugar. It is grown from cuttings, which should be planted in the end of June or in July. The Manchester Association have taken a property, where Mr. J. W. Middleton has already made a be- ginning on his own initiative. They propose to cultivate 1,000 acres of cassava, and, according to an island news- paper, the factory will buy cassava roots. Field and factory industries, giving profitable employment to the peasantry, are what the island needs. It is not, however, for the man of small capital to engage in this, as yet, experimental industry. What John Barleycorn once was to English farmers, ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 119 such was King Cane to the planters of Jamaica, until foreign competition, continental sugar bounties, and emancipation played havoc with His Majesty. When he ruled in Jamaica money was abundant, trade flourished ; let us hope that as State-paid premiums no longer encourage the growing of continental beet-root sugar that the king is coming to his own again. The days seem over when the British markets, glutted with French- and German-grown sugars, reduced the value of that exported from our own colonies. The West Indian Committee's Circular for Sep- tember 27, 1904, shows how the abolition of the bounty system, with its complicated financial arrangements, has brought about a marked increase in the consumption of sugar. We hear that in British Guiana the sugar planters are on the tip-toe of expectation. A discoverer claims, if his process can be substantiated, to obtain from a quantity of canes which now produce ^() worth of sugar, j^i2 worth. The difference between these amounts represents the difference between a daily struggle for existence and comparative affluence. If by this process 25 or 30 per cent, more sugar can be obtained from a given weight of cane than is at present the case, the prospects for the resuscitation of the old staple industry of Jamaica are encouraging. Such a discovery would be a godsend to the West Indies. Loud of late have been the outcries against the Sugar Convention and at the abolition of the bounty system. New economic measures often act temporarily in a detrimental way to special industries, but that dis- turbance tends invariably to adjust itself to new con- 120 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE ditions. Lord Farrer once declared that the result of bounties was "glut, collapse, and ruin." In considering the fluctuating nature of the price of sugar from year to year it should be borne in mind that even with bounties there was no constant supply of cheap sugar. One year the price was at the lowest figure, the next at the highest. In 1902 sugar fetched only ^6 per ton. This just antedated the repeal of the bounty system, and it was artificially low. At that price the staple in the West Indies would have ceased to be cultivated. Had the repeal not taken place cane-sugar would have been a thing of the past. The confectioners, who groaningly complain that under the Convention imported sugars from Russia and the Argentine are virtually prohibited, ignore the fact that without the Convention the sugar crop in Java and the West Indies and other tropical countries, now 2,000,000 tons, would not be forth- coming. They forget that the crop on the Continent in the year 1904 has been many times below that of 1903. The dumping of sugar in England below real cost could only be temporary, and industries dependent on artificially cheap sugar are naturally precarious and at the mercy of foreign Powers, purchasing their profit at the ruin of their colonial kinsfolk. We venture to think that the present agitation is based on imperfect knowledge, and its futility will be made manifest when sugar once more reverts to rea- sonable prices. The abolition of this system in Europe naturally had its reflex action on the sugar market. Statistics show a gradual decrease in the quantity pro- duced, with the result which might be looked for, namely, an enormously increased demand in Great ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 121 Britain and elsewhere. In Jamaica central factories and modern machinery are still needed. The culture of bananas goes on apace ; from the hills of the northern parts it is extending nearer the centre of the island. The moist atmosphere and the frequent rains descending upon these banana-clad hills are specially conducive to the growth of the banana. Notwithstanding the damage done by the cyclone, this industry is once more in full swing. Its remunerative nature is distinctly of a gambling character. When every prospect pleases, when no cyclones or " blows " occur, returns have been known to figure at 200 per cent. But those who are attracted by its speedy returns compared with other crops should weigh well in the balance the great risks run by those who cultivate them exclusively in these uncertain climates. The Field regards the China, or short bananas, exported from Barbadoes, as the best variety. It is grown in Jamaica for local consumption, but no one seems to think of growing it for exportation. No doubt the coming agricultural development in this colonial possession will attract youths from home. Unless they are exceptionally steady, frugal, and industrious, bent on saving money to invest, when they have fully learnt the details of some agricultural industry, no young men should come to Jamaica unless they have some capital (not less than ;^ 1,500). They may then, after mastering practical details on a plantation, be fortunate enough to buy a property — for lands change hands more frequently than in England — and plant it with bananas. I was told from £1'] to ;^20 is the price of land per acre, already planted with this fruit, but, unless it be 122 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE accessible by rail or road to shipping ports, it is practically worthless. A knowledge of chemistry, as to soils, of stock, so as to buy the most profitable breeds, is indis- pensable. The European cannot do the actual field labour, and it is not advisable for a white man to lay himself open to competition with the native labour market. These are the opinions of gentlemen who, being successful planters, I have thought fit to consult upon this subject. There are other products annually exported, such as oranges, the best of which grow in the parish of Man- chester, of which the town of Mandeville is the centre. The coffee exported from the Blue Mountains, sometimes growing at an altitude of 5,000 feet, has an unsurpassed reputation. I Honey sent to the United Kingdom during the month of August, 1904, was valued at ^2,250 ; but in my remarks on cotton, cassava, sugar, and bananas I have touched upon those agricultural products which, one hopes, have a permanent and prosperous future in store. Jamaica, like our other possessions, looks for the success of the Chamberlain Tariff scheme, by it the sugar planters after four years have everything to gain ; the markets of the United States, which afford the principal outlet for the island produce, will gradually close them as they give preference to their own colonies, or protected islands ; and not only are the astute Yankees encouraging Cuban and Porto Rican exports, but they are insidiously cultivating the friendship of Canada, in the hope of * There are large plantations besides amongst the Man- chester hills. One well-known shipping firm at Montego Bay is actually exporting pure ground coffee at sixpence a pound. ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 123 ultimately arranging reciprocal trade relations with the Dominion. Should reciprocity be established between the United States and Canada, it will be because the Mother Country is indifferent to the calls of Imperialism, of which Joseph Chamberlain has proved himself to be so valiant an apostle. Surely it is patent to the most vacuous of intellects that it is not to Canada's interest, therefore not to British advantage, to help build up vast industries in the States. Those who know our Canadian kin, rightly appreciate their actual sentiments towards the Yankee and towards the British Crown. A wave of indignation swept over the Dominion last autumn, when report had it that a be-dollared New Yorker's daughter would shortly be raised to the vicereineship. Such a position they rightly considered should be filled by " the daughter of a hundred earls," not by lesser lights ! The cult of the dollar is ruining much that is good in American life, but there are finer traditions amongst us than those which appertain to successful finance. The rush for the " foul tissue of terrestrial gold " is affecting society to its core — which demoralising circumstance comes with the Americanising of our social life. If this were not so, would comparatively penniless peers espouse the undowered daughters of successful American trades- people ? CHAPTER IX " Schools ^t us fo7 the tmiversity rather than for the world" — Locke. One day, during my recent stay in Jamaica, I was asked to distribute Christmas gifts to a number of patients in the Public Hospital. I noted whenever the gift was a card, or book, and the recipient was asked if he or she could read it, the answer invariably was " Yes, Missus." On other occasions I have been struck by the rapid advance in education which is going forward amongst the present generation of exiled Ethiopia. This, with other considerations, led me to inquire more carefully into the educational facilities offered to these people. I read that their literacy compares most favourably with that of the same race in adjacent countries, and that it is developing on account of the improved methods of instruction afforded them through Government and other schools. In American negro institutions the mental achievements of students hailing from this island were held up to me as above the average. Ten years ago the proportion of persons who signed by marks at marriages amounted to 52*0 per cent., whereas in 1903 the proportion was reduced to 42*4 per cent. Illiteracy is gradually being stamped out with other objectionable features, though survivals must be expected of hereditary disability to 124 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 125 assimilate Anglo-Saxon cultivation. In this respect Jamaica is an oasis in the Caribbean desert. The education of a backward race does not necessarily imply a growth in grace all along the line as a study of the coloured people in America reveals ; but in Jamaica, where statistics show there is comparatively little gross crime, education, denominational or otherwise, has distinctly been one of the factors in the rapid evolution of this people since the semi-savagery of slavery. No segregative policy has been at work, only persons living in remote localities have ever been long out of touch with church and school. The present Bishop of Gibraltar, better known as Professor Collins, visited this island some years since, and pointed out two important features in reviewing his visit. (i) The inhabitants he described as a people formed out of various races by a common life-history — no rigid line of separation existing between white, coloured, and black. (2) The work of the Church of England in Jamaica, deserves, he considered, to stand out in the history of Christendom. Mr. W. P. Livingstone in his work entitled " Black Jamaica," after an intimate knowledge of its people for fourteen years, warmly praises the work of the clergy and ministers of all creeds who have perseveringly carried on, in the face of continuous poverty and often physical weariness, their unceasing efforts. To their earnest ministrations he attributes the favourable conditions of " the inarticulate mass," the public safety, and the industry of a large part of its people. Elementary education up to the present has been religious as well as secular. With the example of 126 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE France before us, and her rising generation with its increase of infant criminality, the direct result of her anti-religious propaganda, let us take warning. A some- what intimate knowledge of the insidious policy of M. Combes (once a seminarist), in which he has done his best to bow the Almighty out of France, compels me to say that I hope the day is far removed when, nationally, we exchange our belief in something spiritual, for the denial of everything that is not rationalistically material. In these days of scientific discovery, when every year, unknown, but waiting laws in the universe are gradually unfolding mysteries, who will deny that there are "more things in heaven and earth " than those dreamed of in our philosophy ? Actually in this year of grace, 1905, we are brought face to face with an extraordinary circum- stance. Emanations of vital energy flowing from the human body have been discovered by a lady named Mrs. Northesk Wilson ; they are said to possess healing qualities, and in a lecture at the Queen's Hall, London, the discoverer pointed out the correspondence between mental conditions and the colours of the rays : deep crimson denoting strong passion ; blue, devotion or aspiration ; yellow, intellect, and so forth. Only the other day, as it were, our attention was drawn to a theory that life began on this planet at the poles. We were told that the frigid zones led the advance in the cooling process, the whole globe having once been a molten mass too hot to maintain life, and therefore the polar regions have passed gradually from extreme heat to extreme cold, at one time or another possessing climatic conditions suited to all known flora and fauna which have progressively migrated towards the Equator. ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 127 Last winter I stayed a few days with a near relative in a French convent, now broken up, its inmates dis- persed. I shall never forget the sad groups of pale-faced, firm-lipped, purple-clad, white-veiled Sisters as, in the convent garden, they spent together their last Christmas. Some of them were prematurely old, all were hard- working, sober-minded women, many coming from the best families in France. It was not for the beggarly pittances which the parents grudgingly paid for their children's education and maintenance for which they sacrificed their lives ; but it was to set forth the nobility of a spiritual creed, as opposed to the ghoul of animalism which is sapping the vitality from a once chivalrous and religious nation. Although I am not a member of their Communion, when I think of these good women chased from the scene of their labours, the words of an American poet come to my mind — "Believe and trust, through stars and suns, Through life and death, through soul and sense, His wise paternal purpose runs ; The darkness of His Providence Is star-lit with benign intents." I travelled direct from the convent to Monte Carlo. No contrast could be more striking. Passing from the women France discounts to those nameless ones she pets and pampers, the scenes I witnessed were object-lessons in the decadence of empire. Vice, encrusted with diamonds, blazing in jewels, clad in exquisite Parisian draperies, attended by her votaries, stalked rampant, unabashed from hall to hall ! I watched her in her 128 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE triumphal progress signal to her worshippers, throw here and there handfuls of ill-gotten gold upon the gaming- tables, sweep together her gains, then, under the glare of a hundred lights, her bosom heaving with the excitement of the moment, the wrong colour, the unlucky number coming uppermost, I was conscious of a snarl, a muttered curse, a shrug of gleaming shoulders, a swish of silken skirts as, sweeping past me, wrathful, insolent, but beau- tiful, she passed to fulfil her frightful destiny. In Jamaica, prior to the taking over by Government of the island's elementary schools, different sects main- tained their own. The Church of England had over three hundred day-schools. A point to bear in mind is, that they were originally erected for other than scholastic purposes ; many, as now, were used for Church services, Sunday Schools, and for carrying on Church work of various kinds. The Government rents these schools from their owners, under the present system, at pro rata a shilling per child. In 1900 there were 757 elementary and infant schools in the colony, but as a process of combining has for some time been in progress, the number varies. The three R's, with Elementary Science, having special regard to agriculture, are the subjects primarily taught ; few would deny this elementary instruction to the child of the emancipated slave, but many leading men think it unfair, under existing con- ditions, to ask the ratepayers to pay for more — such as instruction in drawing, or singing, &c. Grants are made by the Government based on a system of marks, also on the average attendance at some schools. The subject of education has recently been receiving some attention on the part of the colony, for, owing to the destruction by ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 129 tht cyclone of 1903, many schools were so damaged that they require to be rebuilt, and those religious bodies who own some of them desire a better understanding than heretofore as to the aid guaranteed by Government. In many cases it seems that the rent does not cover repairs, much less represent interest on capital, and there is apparently a conviction that compulsory attendance is essential to efficiency and progress. Obviously it is waste of time and money to expend public funds on schools for the children of the peasantry unless some measures are taken to compel their attendance. Here, as in America, agriculture and domestic service are destined to be the main industries of the peasantry for many generations ; given the three essentials — reading, writing, and arithmetic — if intellectually ambitious, boys or girls will acquire other knowledge by the exercise of those qualities which have already given to the world some of her most useful, but literally self-made men. By his own personal exertion a man, if he determine so to do, will forge his way to the front, and will climb the royal road to learning as others, unaided, have done before him. To see in England, or in Jamaica, a half-educated class dissatisfied with their lot in life is a piteous spectacle. When I was in Cuba I was given to understand that soon the American elementary school system would be adopted throughout that island, and a professor said in my hearing, " It will be the ruin of the sugar trade ; we shall have no peasantry left." So long as a man has a body to feed as well as an intellect to cultivate, to semi-educate, to dissatisfy those persons who are not fitted by nature or by brain-power for other than lowly employment is, to my mind, misguided philanthropy and false philosophy. 9 130 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE In reviewing the present position of schools in this island the fact is ever present that the lack, of funds operates detrimentally to creating an universal system of Board Schools, which many would prefer to see estab- lished throughout Jamaica. Any immediate extinction of the denominational schools involving increased expen- diture out of revenue for education would be an unwel- come addition to the already overburdened taxpayers. Recently much irritation seems to have been caused by the proposal of the Government, obviously for purposes of retrenchment, to close or amalgamate almost at once 55 schools, and 133 more within the next five years. The uncertainty of their position has been a veritable nightmare to many of the island teachers ; drastic changes like these, some of which, if adopted, would upset existing methods without any provision for future and better ways of replacing them, have called forth much animadversion. At present, owing to poverty and a spirit of denominational rivalry, with other causes, the primary education is not reaching half the population, the proportion of children attending the schools is grow- ing smaller instead of larger. If this state of affairs is permitted to proceed half the population of the present generation will be illiterate, and instead of progressing the peasantry of Jamaica will retrogade, which would be deplorable considering the efforts hitherto made to uplift the black and coloured people. The Archbishop of the West Indies, reviewing this unhappy situation and bearing in mind Jamaica's straitened financial circumstances, in his annual address to the Anglican Synod, suggests "com- pulsory regulations for the whole island, and a free edu- cation for every child from the age of eight to the age ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 131 of twelve." During that period insist, says he, on scholars being well grounded in the four R's (Reading, 'Riting, 'Rithmetic, Religious teaching), and also in as much of agricultural and manual training as is possible at those ages. For the periods before and after, for pupils between the ages of five and eight, and for those between the ages of twelve and sixteen, let the Government only give assistance in meeting the educational charges which may be incurred in accordance with the regulations adopted to the extent of one-fourth of such cost, and let the parents provide the remainder by fees to be paid weekly as an essential condition of a child being in school." Another interesting item in the archiepiscopal review was the announcement that a Catechism had been prepared for general use in the island day-schools ; by its aid the religious difficulty in the way of hearty co-operation among denominationalistic educationalists will be sur- mounted, so that, if schools remain denominational or governmental, all interested in the education of children will be conscious that a solid religious basis for further instruction, as in the case of children going to Sunday Schools, will be uniform, tending to unify the work of instruction. The use of this manual will, of course, be subject to the operation of the conscience clause. This wise, pacific, and important move is thus referred to by His Grace : "As I have a good deal to do in the preparation of this Catechism ... I desire publicly to acknowledge the cordial and very helpful co-operation of those gentlemen belonging to various Christian com- munities whose names are associated with my own in the commendatory note prefixed to the Catechism. I think our joint and sole desire has been to produce a book 132 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE which will be of general and lasting benefit to the youth of Jamaica." How different is the spirit which these words convey to that which at home some time since marked the proceedings of a portion of the community who dissented to the terms of the Education Bill ! Instead of a dignified protest, with any real effort made to minimise differences and unite for the public weal, abuse was showered broadcast over those responsible for it. The writer recollects well attending a huge meeting in the Albert Hall, where some ten thousand Noncon- formists met to express their resentment over this measure. An enormous sheet with the text in red lettering, "The God of Hosts is on our side," was suspended behind the platform, the great audience were invited to sing "O God, our help in ages past," a chapter was read, then philippics by two of the foremost dissent- ing orators of the day vied successively with each other in vituperating the Government, the Premier, and the Archbishop of Canterbury. "See how these Christians fight ! " I heard a man behind me remark sneeringly to his companion. His observation was not unfounded ; the charity that " thinketh no evil " was not apparent in the motives ascribed to those responsible for the Bill. To see these shrieking passive resisters gesticulating, and to hear them abusing the Anglican Episcopacy was a sight I shall not soon forget. In the light of subsequent history one can scarcely believe that the religious sects represented in that hall can congratulate themselves on the fact that the God of Hosts has shown Himself entirely on their side, resist they ever so passively, or that their special forms of worship have resulted in a monopoly of the Divine favour ! ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 133 There is another subject in this island controversy anent the schools, which in these days, when many persons incline to a very liberal interpretation of the Church trusts respecting money and buildings, may be of interest to some, especially when we consider how carefully British law guards trusts and financial obliga- tions incurred under them, a case in point being the recent decision of the highest legal tribunal in our island in that of the Scotch Free Church. In a letter written by the Colonial Secretary of Jamaica to the Board of Education that gentleman thus states the Government's view of its position with regard to the payment of nominal rent, or otherwise, for the use of denominational schools : " Generally speaking, when denominational school buildings are taken over by Government for Government schools there is no justification for any rent being claimed or paid, the buildings having been erected by voluntary contributions of money, or labour, or both combined, for educational purposes, and being by their transfer to Government not diverted therefrom." In view of these considerations the writer objects, on behalf of the Government, to the words "rented not nominally." In answer to this expression on the part of the Government the Archbishop, in acknowledging its increasing liberality towards education and its willing- ness, as far as it can, to help in the matter of buildings, calls attention to the fact that, taking any seven years into account, the Church of England has not received on the average in any one year as much money from Government as would effect necessary repairs in such year to her buildings used for school purposes. His Grace also explains the legal position of these buildings, 134 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE and sums up the situation in declaring that it does not admit of doubt or debate ; he writes : " The buildings are held by the Incorporated Lay Body of the Church in trust for their intended uses. They are the property of the Church and can only be alienated by an act of the Legislature assented to by the Crown on the advice of His Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies." Considering the tendency of the age to deal broadly with property left by special persons or by corporate bodies for special purposes, definite and authoritative statements are often essential. There are other endowed schools, where the educa- tion is equal to any of its kind in the United Kingdom ; and means of education for the children of the upper classes are not lacking in Jamaica. At recent Cambridge local examinations a boy from the Jamaica High School stood first among the seniors, a daughter of the head- master of another school stood first among the senior girls, another Jamaica boy stood first in the world in religious knowledge. I visited the Government Training College at Short- wood for women teachers ; it is a very fine institution of its kind, situated scarcely a mile to the north of Constant Spring Hotel ; the building was once a great mansion belonging to a planter. Formerly it cost the Govern- ment ;^ 1,500 a year ; now, under the able management of a board of ladies and gentlemen, forty-five instead of thirty female teachers are trained to teach in elementary schools at a cost of ^1,200 only to the Government. Latterly, under its principal. Miss Marvin, educated at Cambridge and trained under Miss E. P. Hughes, a great change has been inaugurated : no servants are kept, the ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 135 young women are responsible for all the domestic arrange- ments, and this manual training united to that necessary for their lot as school teachers is sure to produce healthy and desirable results in the homes of the peasantry. The Mico Training College for male teachers in Government schools is a handsome building on the outskirts of Kingston. About eighty men are educated in this institution. Students are admitted in January by a strictly competitive examination and expected to remain three years. During the Christmas vacation there has lately been established an annual meeting of school teachers for agricultural instruction. They assembled this year on January 2nd, and the course continues for a month. Board and lodging are provided gratuitously together with railway fares. Some of the subjects of the afternoon lectures are as follows : The foods of Jamaica, Cattle, Citrus plants. Poultry, Bees, The preparation of produce for market, How to make the most of small holdings without borrowing capital. In connection with the foregoing, at Hope Gardens on three days in the week practical demonstra- tions on the chief crops of the island are demonstrated by competent instructors. Teachers are also shown how to create a school garden for teaching purposes, the object being to surround the pupil with materials for nature-study. Natural pheno- mena such as rains, wind, drought, dew, fog, and their effects on plant life are pointed out to them, also the mode of germination of various seeds, the growth being carefully followed from the seedling to the bearing stage. Physics, Chemistry, and Agricultural Sciences are all taught in these courses. Considering the importance 136 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE which agriculture takes in the affairs of the colony the wisdom of this effort is apparent. I heard Archbishop Nuttall speak at an afternoon lecture at Mico College ; the audience of some ninety teachers was mainly black, so far as colour went. The speaker impressed upon them to make the most of their opportunities in implanting in the minds of the children a knowledge of true industry and the value of teaching the best methods of doing things. Alluding to the "Blue nose" Halifax butter, which finds its way to Jamaica, His Grace declared that if the Jamaicans had learnt to make sugar-rum, and cure coffee, they knew nothing of practical farming, and alluded to the splendid grazing lands where dairy farming might well be carried on. Often, too, in the course of his travels, said he, he had met a cartload of bananas with one or two country-folk seated on the top of them, to whom the driver in a spirit of Christian kindness had offered a lift. The bananas were not improved by being sat upon. His Grace explained, nor were oranges when dumped down from baskets off women's heads into carts ready to receive them — such treatment gave Jamaican fruit a bad name. At the Board of Agriculture, he had that day suggested that a chart should be drawn up with sharp, crisp instructions, what not to do and what to do in the way of handling fruit. One of these instructive sentences might be, suggested His Grace, " Don't sit on the bananas." Such a chart read once a week in every school would do an immense amount of good in six years ! When I looked to the end of that room and noted the earnest, interested faces of those black and coloured men and women, poorly paid, and living in remote spots ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 137 of the island, giving up one month of their holiday to learn practically, and theoretically, the newest methods in agriculture, to impart them to the rising generation, it struck me that in English rural parishes it would not be a bad thing to encourage our elementary school teachers to impart sound rudimentary knowledge in the way of cultivating the soil. To those who know anything of the difficulties at home connected with land, it is no secret that agriculture, which now ranks about fifth amongst our national industries, will, in a few years, scarcely exist unless Free Trade dies a speedy and violent death. Owing to the free importation into England of foreign corn, fruit, and vegetables, profitable cultivation of the soil is rapidly becoming impossible. Under a reasonable tariff, not to exclude altogether foreign produce, the possibilities in fruit and flower culture especially, and in market gardening, are practically unlimited. There are many reasons why parliamentary attention should be directed to this languishing, but all-important industry. Agriculture meets the cry of " Labour for the unskilled ! " vide Hadleigh Labour Colony and similar institutions. For the same outlay of capital more labour is employed than in almost any other industry. In Great Britain we cannot hope to export fruit and vegetables, but given reasonable protection we could do far more than is done at present in feeding our population of 40,000,000, checking the annual drain now going out of the country to the amount of j^ 10,000,000. The consumer with a limited income would fare more healthfully on fresh produce than he now often does on stale foreign fruit. Chemistry shows that fresh vegetables 138 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE and fruit in contrast to stale, contribute far more valuable nutriment to the system. Perhaps the greatest benefit of a reasonable tariff on foreign agricultural produce, nation- ally, would be in the fact that a stimulus to trade in home-grown articles would bring about a healthier condition of affairs. Country districts now going out of cultivation would be re-populated ; with more certain wages labourers could afford to pay rents which are now prohibitive. Another benefit, and one which in these days is well worth consideration, is that agricultural industries in some branches offer facilities for the employ- ment of men of advanced years who find other occupations too strenuous. Those of us who derive our income from lands, inherited or acquired, are well aware of the onerous burdens the land in England has to bear. It supports all branches of the exchequer, local rates, and it largely maintains the beneficed Anglican clergy. Few are aware of the losses which the present un- limited influx and dumping of foreign fruit and vegetables into home-markets occasions. Believers in Free Trade will scarcely credit me when I tell them that in 1901, conse- quent upon this massacre of the English market, nineteen truckloads of fine plums grown in Kent were thrown into the Thames. If they ask. Why were they not sent to the jam factories ? The answer is, The buyers of fruit had already bought foreign ones for the purpose of jam- making. There is something pathetic in the obtuseness of the individual who thinks it a fine thing to encourage by free imports foreign competitors who reward us for our generosity by refusing us free exportation to their countries, but there is a lack of that Masonic grip of ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 139 patriotism which should weld us together with links of steel, when the timorous, the weak-kneed, preach the gospel of Universalism. The policy of Chamberlain as the colonists understand it, as most business men regard it, is the message of to- day. Now is the psychic moment, the acceptable time when it behoves every patriotic Briton to draw closely together the component parts of this great Empire against commercial rivalry, the greed of other nations, and the insidious political scheming of seemingly friendly powers. Chacun pour sot is the battle-cry of commercial invaders as they dump their surplus on our markets. " Our ancestors made the Empire," said Mr. Chamber- lain on his 68th birthday, in ringing tones. "We have to maintain it. They conquered this great dominion ! we have to consolidate it." CHAPTER X ^* Lo! as the wind is, so is mortal life — A vioan^ a sighy a sob, a stormy a strife''"* Arnold. The happy, irresponsible character of the Jamaican negro, together with his docility and his politeness to strangers, produces favourable impressions upon visitors to the colony. The Kingston specimen of this class goes by the generic name of Quashie, and the following verses so well describe the simplicity of his nature that I have inserted them : — QUASHIE. " Quashie's always happy ; Quashie him don' care — Happy when it's gloomy, Happy when it's fair. When de sun is shinin', Den it's jus' all right ; When de rain is pourin', Better dan were bri^^ht. When him hungry climb tree, Knock one breadfruit down ; Buy a bit of 'salt ting' From de shop in town. ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 141 Pick few pepper, mek soup, King can wan' no mo' ; Eat from out a tin pan Just befo' him do' ! Ebry Sunday go to church, Walkie many mile ; How him bran new boot queak Going up de aisle. Nebber tink — what's de use ? — T'inking hurt him head ; If him hab a headache, Him jus' go to bed. Quashie always happy, W'y cry about de grave When de sun is shinin', And de palm-trees wave ? " In these lines, however, no hint is given of the super- stitious or religious vein which runs through the mind of the race. In pre-Christian days Obeahism and Myalism were the direct expression of it, and these beliefs of the jungle still survive in remote parts of the country. Every year a few delinquents find their way into jail for practising Obeah, but the island has been Christianised, more or less, by the efforts of various religious bodies. Moravians, Wesleyans, Baptists, Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, and the Church of England all minister to the spiritual needs of this childish people as well as to the enlightened and educated portion of the population. During my recent visit I was fortunate in being able to be present at a curious religious rite — a Christian baptism performed by negroes. For the benefit of those who have in prospect 142 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE a visit to the colony I will relate my experience. The Baptists in Jamaica numerically preponderate amongst religious persuasions — at least, such is their claim, which is not worth disputing ; apparently, they are independent of the Mother Country, for soon after Emancipation the home authorities of that sect withdrew some of their white missionaries, replacing them by blacks and coloured men educated in the island. Several notable Baptist preachers, after the abolition of slavery, were indefatigable in agitating for what they considered fair treatment for the negroes. It has, however, been laid to the charge of these zealous sectarians that they ignored the fact, in dealing with one of the most childish and backward of the races of the earth, that half a dozen generations of contact with Europeans and their ways weighed little in comparison with the influences of thousands of years of jungle ancestry and savage environment. To their preaching and insistence on the equality of all men, persons whose opinion is of value ascribe the rising of the blacks at Morant Bay in 1865. Be it as it may, there is, in these days, a curious branch of this Church called Bedwardism, from the name of the negro who started the movement some years ago. It numbers 6,000 members ; the leader is an uneducated black, not reared at the local training college for the Baptist ministry, having only recently learnt to read. At one time he was placed in the lunatic asylum, but owing to some flaw in legal technicalities he was enlarged. One would scarcely think there was much imbecility about him, for his ministry, according to all accounts, must be a very thriving financial concern. His adherents are spread all over the island. Besides his chief chapel in August ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 143 Town, there are others in various parishes, at Port Antonio, and in Clarendon. I learn his ministrations are much in request amongst his own people. If you visit his church, a neat wooden structure, fitted up with good pews and a reading-desk, an envelope will be put into your hands bearing these printed words : "Jamaica Baptist Free Church, August Town. A free-will offering to Our Lord." Bedward's organisation is fairly complete. I under- stand he has already sent missionaries and evangelists to Port Limon and other places in Central America. Everything is being done to increase the numbers of his followers. I learnt one day that one of the quarterly immersions in the Hope River was to take place. The scene was described to me as a perfect black Lourdes, for the waters of this river are far-famed amongst the hills and valleys for their miraculous healing properties. The sick on stretchers, brought long distances, are said to have gone away cured. We are not inclined to dispute the belief of the black, since faith not only figuratively moves mountains, but has been known, time and again, to cure nervous diseases. It was not seven o'clock, when, one Sunday morning, a friend drove with me to the spot which had been indicated as the scene of the immersion. Leaving the Hope road on our right, we were driven down a somewhat rough lane to August Town. In the midst of the village stands the prophet's chapel, not far away the house he inhabits. Here we left our carriage on the top of the hill. The roads over which we had passed had been literally swarming with black devotees, men and women in their best attire chattering garrulously as they hurried along. Many of 144 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE them had been on foot all night, coming from a radius of twenty miles, so great is the spell which attracts them. When we alighted from our carriage we found ourselves in the midst of an avenue of women squatting on the ground, selling cakes, loaves, and sweets, a very necessary provision considering what religious picnics the day's pro- ceedings are to the excitable blacks. We carefully picked our way down a dirty steep descent to the river in company with bare-footed lithe natives, members of this fascinating cult anxious to secure good places to see the immersions. At the foot of the hill a mountain torrent in a stony bed swept southwards to the sea. On either side steep banks rose abruptly from the water. A turn in the course of the river displayed to our view one of the most interesting sights I have ever witnessed in Jamaica. Every vantage-point on the wooded banks on either side, as well as the great boulders which obstructed the shallow, rushing waters of the Hope river, were covered with gaily-dressed natives. We looked around to find ourselves the only white people present, although we knew others were coming later. Thousands of negroes were assembled. We could see nothing of what was going on, so I suggested climbing up the bank nearest to us. Even then we could not see the immersions, which were going on below in a pool encircled by boulders crowned with masses of blacks, singing as each penitent stepped into the water. On a projecting crag we found ourselves at the back of a group of women. One seemed to object to our presence, but was reprimanded with much violence by some older women. The squabbling chatter gave way to polite deference when I explained we only wanted to stay a few moments. We were respectfully ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 145 pushed into good places in front, whilst one elderly woman, who seemed spokeswoman for the rest, declared loudly, " De w'ite people pertect us, now it's our turn to pertect de w'ite ladies," and wound up her eloquence by telling her companions " to do to udders as dey would be done by." I asked which was Mr. Bedward, and apostrophised him as a very clever man, which pleased them immensely, whilst I had the satisfaction of feeling I had in no way committed myself, for this " Archbishop," or " Shepherd of the Particular Baptists," is the reverse of a fool. He was sitting in an arm-chair, dressed in white, surrounded by a hierarchy of white-clad negroes carrying roughly- nailed small wooden crosses. The women informed me that his assistants were standing in the pool below, per- forming the baptisms, which we, as yet, had not seen. I declared my intention to descend and interview this remarkable Baptist, which again met the unqualified approval of the surrounding ladies, whom we thanked effusively for their kindness to us as we left them. Having found our way to the spot where the charmed circle sat on either side of the prophet, I went straight up to him with an assumption of much dignity, shook hands with him, named a well-known and influential person who had in former years benefited him considerably, and explained that I should like to see the ceremony but could not for the crowds. He immediately smiled, and with that peculiar fatuous laugh which characterizes the uneducated negro, led the way to the pool, ordering his people to make standing-room for us on a boulder. Bedward, as I saw him, is tall, broadly built, with a round, fairly intelligent, black-whiskered face, but I could divine nothing in his appearance, which was that of 10 146 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE an ordinary negro, to account for the spell he exercises over thousands of his brothers and sisters. Two of his evangelists, full-blooded blacks, stood in a pool not more, I should say, than seven feet broad by six in length, in about four feet of vi^ater, two assistants stood beside them to relieve them of the penitents when they had been immersed, and several stood at the edge of the pool to arrange the long garments worn by the female candidates for baptism as they emerged from the water. Three hundred persons were to be immersed. They were then beginning with the women who, in an orderly procession, all respectably clad in white, came down from the opposite bank where some tent-like shelters could be seen amongst the trees. It was a curious sight to see them handed on till they reached the celebrant of the rite, a very fat negro who separately plunged them beneath what looked to me very dirty water, saying, " I baptize thee in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,*' whilst the crowd of blacks and white-clad Bedwardites, sitting or standing on the boulders around, sang, or rather crooned a verse of a hymn at each immersion. I tried to catch the words, but I could only hear as each person was plunged beneath the water the same sing-song refrain, " Jesus came, a soul to save." Many of these women had to be helped back up the opposite banks; one seemed in convulsions, fighting with the air, and rolling her eyes horribly, giving the bystanders some trouble to convey her away. After the baptisms, so I was told, Mrs. Bedward took charge of them in the tent on the opposite bank, where they exchanged their dripping gowns for their ordinary clothing and partook of breakfast, the charge being a shilling a head. ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 147 Besides quarterly immersions, Bed ward holds several weekly services where hymns, extempore prayers and preaching are the chief features. But these occasions of obtaining salvation and healing at cheap rates and at the same time are veritable negro gala days. After all are immersed they repair to the chapel, where, with his white-clad immediate followers, Bedward dispenses the "supper of the Lord." I did not stay for this, but learnt from a reliable source that the services in the chapel are accompanied with sobriety and decorum. Late that day, returning from paying a visit, the electric cars going to Kingston were crowded with returning negroes, singing hymns with much gusto. The Moravians in their day seem to have done really lasting good. Whilst I was in Jamaica they celebrated the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of their mission- work. The Church of England, poverty-stricken as it is, its clergy often subsisting on mere pittances, exercises a greater influence on the religious life of the colony than it ever did in the days of its affluence. Under the guidance of one of the most able men, as famous for his statesmanlike views as for his practical philanthropy, who ever landed on the shores of the island, the Church of England has, notwithstanding its impecuniosity, almost doubled the number of clergy, and in remote hamlets, as in more populous centres, carries on its civilising work. Were it not for such uplifting influ- ences, for the continuous zeal of the teachers of religion, we should hear of a recrudescence of the spells of Obeah, with its senseless, demoralising insignia — grave- dirt, cocks'-feathers, wood shaped like a coffin, birds* 148 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE feathers, snakes' teeth. To terrify the timid, to detect crime, but generally to obtain revenge, resort is even novir occasionally had to Obeah. Myalism, apparently, is a name given to counter-witchcraft. Native superstitions and fears revolve round the deathbed, or ghost of the departed, which latter is locally known as the " duppy." The funeral wakes and "ninth-day" feasts are occa- sions of great excitement among the blacks. Those who live close by a negro settlement are familiar with the awful din proceeding from a dead man's house as soon as darkness has settled over the earth. The body, coffined or otherwise, lies in the inner apartment ; friends and relatives collect in the outer room, sing hymns, lament the dead, and solace their grief with plentiful potations of rum. The only difference between an Irish wake and a negro one is that the former is more humorous in its character, the corpse being in the centre of the lamenting friends and kinsfolk. The principle of grieving for the departed as night advances is soon lost sight of : at midnight, orgies of the lowest character, tinged with the spirit of religious revivalism, are a perfect nuisance to the community. The second ceremony, which is held nine days after the first, is a repetition of the wake, rendering night hideous to the respectable community — drinking and immorality marking the pro- ceedings. It is, however, interesting from the standpoint of folk- lore, for it embodies a vestige of pagan superstition to the effect that the ghost roams over the earth until the ninth day, when it may be conciliated before taking its departure for spiritual spheres. Some say weird and terrible formulas are gone through and the "duppy" ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 149 implored to go in peace and not haunt the house and relatives. Formerly, so it is said, the watchers tremb- lingly lifted the sheet from the dead face and asked the phantom if it were still there, when they begged it to have mercy and not appear to them. Another custom used to be observed. When a death took place in a family, every drop of water in the house at the time was thrown away, for Death cools his dart in the water as he departs, and it would be highly injurious to drink it. In the house of more enlightened folk, mirrors and looking-glasses have been known to be turned to the wall lest the spirit of the departed should be reflected in them. In some families, immediately after the removal of a corpse a jar of water was placed in the room, and a light kept burning for nine days — the idea being that during this time the deceased would return to his room, needing a light to guide his footsteps and water to quench his thirst. From a Jamaican source I quote the following : — " One of the superstitions of a more serious nature is the belief that the devil sometimes comes for the soul of the departed who has spent his life in this world as the wicked often do. I am not aware that his Satanic Majesty is ever seen, but as he comes at night and is supposed to be black his invisibility may be accounted for. However, the rattling of the chains which he brings for the souls of the deceased is distinctly heard, and not by one or two persons, but by a whole neighbour- hood ; and the traces of his cloven feet along the sand of the street in which the deceased resided are next morning clearly seen. I could name a case in which it is believed by a great many persons, many of them 150 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE leaders in church, that these circumstances occurred ; that the rattling of the chains was heard ; that just previous to the departure of life a seeming internal struggle was observed to take place in the body of the deceased ; that a whole neighbourhood was disturbed by the clanking noise of the chains, and that crowds of persons went, the succeeding morning, to view the marks of the devil's feet." From another source I find that the negro connects the moon with agriculture, certain of her phases being favourable to the planting of crops. All Fools' Day is thought best for sowing corn. The 15th of April is the favourable day for sowing peas. If a man points at a young pumpkin with his finger the negro declares it will drop off and be no good ; in the same way it is most unlucky to inspect the soil when tobacco has been sown, before it has appeared above the surface. Nothing gives us a better insight into the characteristics of a people than a study of their folk-lore, and in Jamaica a number of letters bearing on native superstitions were collected a short time since for a competition. Some are worth noting. West African students very probably could produce analogous ideas in comparing them with the tribal folk-lore of their former habitat, which would tend to explain their origin. The follow- ing superstitions are still believed by some in Jamaica. If any one kills an annancy (spider) it makes him, or her, liable to break plates. A person about to proffer a request putting the right foot first will meet with success, but if he put the left he will be disappointed. ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 151 If a man is at enmity against another and wishes to injure him, he catches his enemy's shadow in a bottle and corks it tightly. So long as the bottle is corked, so long has the possessor absolute mastery over the destiny of the person who is thus rendered incapable of hurting him. If the shadow should escape through the uncorking of the bottle, the only way to bring it back is to boil rice and put it at the bottom of the bottle. The effect of bottling a man's shadow is to make him stupid and imbecile. The Jamaica black bird — the John Crow — is regarded with great superstition. A writer narrates that one day while passing through the market he saw a black bird fly across. Instantly a large number of ragged boys were pushed forward by their elders, who cried out : "Pickney oo' no see bad luck bird," a shrill chorus, " Kirry out ! kirry out ! " was repeated with " Pepper an' salt fe your mammy." This treatment satisfying all parties, they quickly retired. No one dares to throw a stone at this bird, as it is believed fever would result from such an action. In no part of Jamaica will gravediggers commence digging a grave without imbibing freely of rum. Often some of the liquid is thrown round the spot to give it to an unseen being to whom they talk as they dig the grave. This custom prevails still when cutting down a cotton-tree, which, as the home of " duppies," they hold sacred, or when building a tank, or when washing a " dead." The bitter-bush shrub has been repeatedly mistaken for a terrible phantom ; the backs of the leaves are white, and if looked at from a distance in moonlight are spectre- like when, the wind suddenly blowing them, they gleam 152 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE momentarily forth from the surrounding foliage. The belief in unseen spirits pervades the Afric- Jamaican mind. According to the blacks, it is disastrous to refer to duppies. If, unconscious of this strange remnant of African superstition, you innocently point to a peculiar object which strikes you, the negro in an excited under- tone mutters, " No talk, no talk ! " It is recorded of bygone days that when an infant was to be bathed, a tub of water would be placed in the sun in order that the chill should be taken off — this was done at midnight. At twelve o'clock in daytime, as well as at night, " duppies " are abroad. To prevent them from playing with the water, the mother would place two sticks across the tub, thereby making the sign of the cross to scare away unseen spirits. The story which won the prize at the competition I have mentioned is worthy of quotation, and describes the handing over and receiving again of a surviving twin- baby across the coffin of the other, which is lying inside, lest the dead child should return for the survivor, the idea in so doing being that the living babe is supposed to be given to the departed and taken back. In the Dark Continent it is well known that many widespread beliefs are connected with the birth of twins. Sometimes the mother was put to death, and I learnt that years ago, in Jamaica, a woman who gave birth to twins was persecuted and reviled by her black neighbours, who regarded the event as execrable and to the last degree unlucky. The love of the negro for music is so well known that it is hardly worth comment. Before me, however, is an amusing incident of how a negro preacher, probably a fisherman, illustrating his texts by alluding to ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 163 the familiar objects of his calling, describes the patience of Job :— " Me will tell you. Fisherman go out all night ; him fish-fish-fish ta daybroke and no' mo' ketch so tru prat (three sprats I imagine to be the correct translation). Him came home — him put him tree prat pon top-a-house fer dry. John Crow come, tek one, berry well — John Crow come tek nadda — him come tird time, tek tarra. De prat all gone, but fisherman no say — John Crow !! Dat da Job-pashance ! " CHAPTER XI •' Useful little donkey! A true friend you are When the human helpers Seem but few and far ; And Jamaica's commerce You do more to aid Than some folk who wisely Chatter of our trade.'''' Tropica. On one occasion I was invited to a rural cattle show, arranged by a lady known in the district where it was held as " Sister Isabel." The peasants had been induced to bring their donkeys, mules, sheep, goats, and poultry to the school-yard outside the mission chapel, used also for a weekly day-school, and some were very fine, well- cared-for specimens ; prizes had been adjudged to the best. This is distinctly a good work, for kindness to dumb beasts is not an instinctive African virtue ! But the most interesting incident, so far as I was concerned, was my introduction to a very old negress, who was fetched out of a hovel made of kerosene tins stuck together with mud. Before my arrival she had been smartly got up for the occasion, but her domestic duties requiring her presence at home, she had exchanged her starched cotton gown for her usual rags. This old negress, prognathous, flat- nosed, with white kinky hair showing under her bandana 154 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 155 head-covering, with legs like turned polished mahogany, but bent and fleshless, told me she remembered coming over the sea in a big ship when she was a picaninny. With descriptive gesticulations she told how the robbers took her from her people ; she had never known her father and mother ; when she arrived as a small child in Jamaica it was after the slaves were freed. I could barely understand the jargon she talked, but "Sister Isabel " elicited a good deal of information. She asked her how they spoke of God in Guinea, when the old creature's tone became reverent ; she pointed upwards, half made an obeisance, and said a word I thought resembled Sancho Panza ; but we made her repeat it several times, and Sakkia Poonka is the nearest equivalent I could catch. Probably this old woman is the only Guinea native on the island. I find that the first census taken in Jamaica, in 1662, numbered 4,205; in 1673 it had increased to 17,000; to-day it is slightly over three-quarters of a million, out of which there are barely 15,000 whites. As regards political privileges in this island, the coloured and black man stand on the same platform as the white, possessing equal electoral facilities, but it is remarkable, because of its contrast to the excitement with which in the United States all questions concerning coloured voting are approached, how little the Jamaican peasant cares for or values them. "The inarticulate mass " is, in this respect, a very appropriate definition for a portion of this people. But it must not be forgotten that there are many landed proprietors and persons employed on newspaper staffs, in trading concerns, clergy, doctors, teachers, and others who come from the 156 ETHIOPIA m EXILE ranks of the coloured people. There are fourteen electoral districts, or parishes, cf Jamaica, represented by fourteen members, who sit in Council with the Crown officials and any nominated members the latter may from time to time appoint. To vote for the election of these gentlemen the following qualifications must be possessed by registered voters. They must be twenty-one years of age, under no legal incapacity, British subjects by birth or naturalisation, and they must have paid taxes to the amount of ^i on property owned or rented. In these days we could scarcely imagine possible a cry of " colour for colour," so closely are inter-racial interests interwoven. Here and there amongst the educated Creoles one may occasionally hear an indignant protest when local positions are filled by British officials to the exclusion of Jamaicans, although many of them fill posts in the Civil Service, but possibly the qualifications for efficiency, measured by local standards, would scarcely approach the level of some of the requisitions of the Colonial Office. No one can deny that the progressive developments of late are due to influences coming from beyond the seas. I heard the island chemist at Mico College, who has just had conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Science at Oxford, declare that the large class of industrial black and coloured population, who own about 90,000 small properties in this island, could, if they cultivated them on newer methods, get 40 or 50 per cent, more for their produce. Inter-racial feehng is scarcely perceptible ; all classes live together harmoniously ; there are few instances of revolting against legally-constituted authority; justice is meted out evenhandedly to the black as to the white. ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 157 The fact is significant to one who has studied the complexities of the negro question in America, that in this island there is not on record a case where a white woman has been molested. Visitors can roam at will all over the colony without losing the feeling of perfect security. It is commonly admitted by philanthropists, socialists, and others that under British rule the problem of how to deal with a backward race is in process of satisfactory solution. To those who wonder at my optimism when the race is admittedly so immoral, let me advise them to procure books written by well-known African travellers, such as Ellis* " Ewe-speaking People of Africa," dealing with the jungle life of tribes of West Africa. Where, in some cases, descent was only counted through the women, the unbounded license of savagery will not be eliminated in their descendants in a few generations. People so often ignore the fact that heredity and environment are the two strongest influences bearing on human actions. The habitual sinner, as a rule, does not become the exceptional saint in the twinkling of an eye ! Those who have lived long in Jamaica consider that within the last few years a gradual improvement in the mode of life amongst the peasant women is distinctly discernible. When I consider them toiling, heavily laden, in antlike processions, walking to and fro to market, I wonder if it is not possible to divert that senseless expenditure of strength for such small gains as they receive for their produce. If vans or carts could collect those agricultural goods of theirs, and if they could be paid for them on the spot, valuable time would be saved ; in fact, if the peasantry in their scattered 158 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE holdings had any idea of combining, they would surely be better off; as it is, writes an island clergyman, "Not only is the wage remuneration low, but the return for anything they do or sell is in the same category. Owing to lack of better methods, the crops they grow on rent lands and even on their own are nearly all swallowed up in rent and expense. The low prices current for produce of all kinds leave them little after taxes are paid and a few personal and household necessaries are pro- cured, and so they grow disheartened and hopeless." I often talked to them as I passed them on the road. One day a girl of twenty, carrying a huge basket on her head, stepping along with that elastic step which bears them over so many miles in Jamaica, attracted my attention ; her smile was quite engaging, and she seemed bright and intelligent. I asked her if she were married. No, she lived with her father, she said, and went on to inform me that she was a Baptist — not a Bedwardite — she sang in the choir, and told me she prayed " de good Lord to tak me home. Missus," before she had "anyting to say " to some of the youths where she lived, who had " such wicked minds,'* and she vividly described the sad lives of those who had been "brout to nutting." Religion had taught this girl race-pride and womanliness. I have met with numerous examples of young Jamaicans besides, who are not far behind a similar class of white persons, manifesting every wish to live decently and soberly. The sceptic may rail against Christianity en masse^ but as long as its ethics produce results such as I have portrayed, we may agree with Darwin, who, when speaking of New Zealand in 1835, declared "that the lesson of the missionary is the enchanter's wand." To ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 159 those earnest teachers who strive to turn the less favoured from darkness to light, let every one give their vv^ell-earned meed of praise ! If v^^e eliminate the spiritual element out of our lives, M^hat, I ask, are v^^e going to introduce in its place ? What teaching, for instance, w^ill produce such a complete change of front in the conduct of these descendants of the jungle ? How else put life into the dry bones of humanity ? An episode in my travels bears upon one of the points I have mentioned, namely, the feeling of respect and real love which lies in the heart of many a dusky subject of King Edward, not only to the <* buckra,'* but to the " buckra's king." In a subsequent chapter I have described my visit to a great negro institution in the State of Alabama. Shortly after my arrival there I had learnt that a Jamaican woman learning nursing had been clamouring to speak with " her lady " from England. When she discovered I had visited Jamaica her enthusiasm knew no bounds. She wrote me poetry about the British flag and her island home, with its beautiful flowers. She sent me roses, and when disengaged came repeatedly to my rooms to have a chat. Once she could not come as she had promised, so she wrote to explain, signing herself K. Jamaica, which amused me considerably. However, I had had some experience in the fanciful and weird ways of the race, for my friend was unmistakably coloured, and when I saw her next day I asked her her name. It was Kate C , but she explained that the Archbishop of the West Indies signed himself E. Jamaica, that she thought, as she loved her home so much, she would also thus perpetuate its memory, and the dear name should 160 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE henceforth be her own. Not the slightest tinge of dis- respect accounted for the assumption of His Grace's signature — her reason, as told to me, was quite charming in the simplicity but deep affection it betrayed. This Jamaican woman talked unrestrainedly to me, and evidently the fact of her frequent visits and attentions to the English lady gave rise to a good deal of talk among her companions. " They say," said she, " that I am not loyal to my colour, that they have no use for a white lady or for any white people ; then I tell them," — she spoke passionately, — " that I thank God I am not American, but a British subject, where they are so good to us coloured people. Why, in Jamaica," — and I fancy she had told her hearers with much emphasis, judging from her manner to me, — " we love our white people, and they love us, and instead of hurting us, or letting others hurt us, we would run to them and they would protect us." In a low, awe-stricken voice she had talked of the lynchings as a perpetual dread to the women with whom she consorted, concluding her remarks with, " Fancy any one being lynched in Jamaica ! " I have gone into this subject of mob-murder in another chapter, but the editor of the Spectator sums up the situation in these words : " If the law is not drastic enough in the case of the crimes to which the negroes are specially prone, let them by all means be made more drastic ; but between severe laws and the hideous injustice of lynching there is all the difference in the world." The passionate love of and loyalty to their island home is growing in Jamaica, and it is encouraged by ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 161 those in authority. The following beautiful lines are often sung at the conclusion of meetings and at school gatherings, which I take to be a healthy symptom of the feeling in this island colony. They were written by a Miss C. M. Garrett, and are set to music, which can be procured at i8, King Street, Kingston — I. "God shield our Island Home From all the storms that roam, Dark'ning the West; Over this land of ours, Flush'd with her tropic flowers, Breathe through the golden hours, Thy perfect rest. II. For those who rule we pray. Wisdom from day to day, Grace to proceed ; May they the right defend Each man his country's friend, Toiling for one grand end, Brothers in deed. III. Grant to our sons who toil Harvest of fruit for spoil. Sunshine and rain ; Over this isle of Springs Spread Love, thy healing wings, And from vain murmurings May we abstain. IV. Bless our beloved King, Keep him our Island's King, From year to year ; 11 162 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE Sorrow and joy betide, Be Thou his friend and guide, So may he aye abide Safe in Thy care." In common with other backward peoples the peasantry have a number of trite sayings and aphorisms which show considerable imagination, such as " Greedy choke puppy ; " " When cow hab no tail God A'mighty brush de fly ; " " Cockroach eber so drunk him no go 2L fowl-house ; " " Bad name no kill John Crow ; " '* Rock-a-tone a ribba bottom nebba feel sun hot.* Their epithet for a social mushroom is a "Hurry come up." Their well-known weakness for long words is also very amusing. A native Baptist gave out his text one Sunday, and then announced that in dealing with that portion of Holy Scripture, he proposed (i) to expounderate the text, (2) to arguify the facts, (3) to put on the rousements. The following letter by a Jamaica schoolmaster to a clergyman is an illustration of this tendency : — " Reverend Sir, — I don't entertain the least ambiguity that the character of a philanthropist which you had when I was at St. George has been neutralised since I have been separated from you, owing to the direful interposition of external circumstances over which I think you saw from your preceding experience I had no control. From any point of view I deem I was quite injudicious to have departed from you ; but on the other hand had not that been performed, neither peace, nor comfort would I have enjoyed on account of the inflexible and unpragmaticable companion (his wife) I ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 163 had to share part of my being there. I maintain, Sir, that this philosophical remark of Mr. Locke's is true, ' That all our ideas emanates from experience.' I maintain, furthermore, Sir, that people ought to be bold, women bold, but not too bold. Bearing in mind. Sir, your philanthropic character, let not my partner's behaviour to self or Mrs. be the means of your prohibiting doing me some favour, for I think I can safely assert she has repented. * Ira furor brevio est.' With humble cordial regards of self and circle, I am, etc." Natives in the West Indies will sometimes give names to animals denoting some particular event or peculiar occurrence. A pig named " Try See " meant that an experiment with pigs had been made to see if they could be reared profitably. " Carting " was the name of a small property denoting the source from which the wealth to buy it was derived. The opportunity of carrying on the culture is indicated by the appellation " Occasion Hall." Sometimes the spirit in which the property has been acquired shows itself in names like " Endeavour," or " Freeman's Hut." I have repeatedly been told that imitation and cunning are the leading characteristics of the race, but their garrulousness and love of chatter and argument are to my mind equally striking, and if these two latter qualities could be directed into utilitarian channels as skilfully as the superstition of the savage has been exchanged for church membership great things might be expected yet. CHAPTER XII ** They ask what is the secret of the spell Thai draws me southward from their land of snow ; I hear it calling like a far-off bell — But whence the glamour comes I do not knowJ*^ Tropica. In a previous chapter I have mentioned Obeahism, and I have intimated that its demoralising effects were gradually disappearing before the tide or enlightenment and education v^^hich the last few decades have spread through the breadth and length of the island. To those whose notions are vague as to what is implied by the word " Obeah " I would recommend an acquaintance with Mr. Heslceth Bell's book entitled, « Obeah." The word comes from a distinguished lineage being connected with the Greek 6(^Lg (ophis) and the Egyptian ob (a serpent). In the modern signification of the term the idea of serpent-worship has become obscured, and by Obeah is meant the working of magic by the Obi-men, charlatans trading on the childish, superstitious, credu- lous West Indian negro. Amongst their numerous functions are to be reckoned the prevention and detection of crime, especially theft, the cure of disease, and the concoction of love philtres. Recognising the power which these wizards still exercise over their fellows, to ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 166 prevent midnight raids upon their plantain and cocoa patches and to check the besetting sin of theft, Europeans not infrequently have recourse to the magic of the Obi- man. For a stipulated sum one of these rascals will come and mutter some mystic formula in the orchard requiring his protection and v^rill hang bottles containing salt vi^ater, a dead cockroach or two, and a little washing blue on the branches of the trees, after which only the most hardened sceptic of a black man would dare approach the place by night, otherwise he may be stoned or " swell up and burst," or be killed by fero- cious snakes let loose by the Obi-man. This way of keeping marauders away is decidedly more efficacious in Jamaica than any number of notice-boards threatening trespassers with the rigours of the law. One of the many ridiculous superstitions connected with Quashie's Obeah is the belief in the existence of vampires, or " loogaroos," who are supposed to suck the blood of their victims while asleep, and who are credited with the mysterious power of leaving their skins and moving about in the form of a blue light, like a sort of Will- o'-the-Wisp. Anybody who should chance to discover any one of these temporarily deserted skins is recommended to pound it in a mortar with pepper and salt, in order that its former occupant may never re-enter but die from consequent exposure. In an official police report for the year ending March 31, 1904, seventeen convictions for Obeah against eighteen in the preceding twelvemonth, is not a large proportion considering the population of the colony. 166 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE The Studies I had already made in the states of the descendants of transplanted Africans, to be found in the succeeding chapters, induced me to inquire somewhat narrowly into crime in Jamaica. I have already alluded to the prison at Spanish Town where short-term prisoners are confined, and have remarked upon the excess of larceny of all kinds, especially prsedial, but a subsequent visit to the Penitentiary at Kingston, with a perusal of the latest police reports, struck me that this island shows a marked immunity from gross crime compared with that prevalent in the United States amongst the coloured people. In 1903-4 there were two executions for murder — one of the culprits was an East Indian — but there had been none in the two preceding years. There were six cases of manslaughter, three of concealment of birth. Four hundred and twenty-six cases of cutting and wounding, although, excepting one, none of the wounded persons were seriously injured, shows that this crime is on the increase, and the authorities recommend more drastic measures. There were thirty assaults on women — no Europeans — showing a decrease of thirty-three as compared with the two previous years. Out of a group of 4,356 noticeable offenders arrested for disorderly conduct, nineteen only were charged with being drunk and disorderly, showing, too, that drink is by no means a national sin. Of these 3,422 were prosecuted for using obscene and abusive language. Tables of statistics prove that there has been of late years a decrease in minor offences, such as gambling, desertion of families, cruelty to animals. ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 167 Lovers of the dumb creation will rejoice to learn that several ladies and gentlemen have recently started a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Kingston — and not before it was needed, although the black's ignorance, not innate cruelty, accounts for much ill-usage of the beasts of burden. Unless steps are taken to keep their animals free from tics, which are the pest of the island, the poor beasts become weakened from impoverished blood. Persons who value their horses and mules have them " ticked " once a week, and oftener, by which means they keep them in good condition. The lady secretary of this lately established society told me she had frequently seen heavily-laden donkeys belonging to the peasants literally covered with tics, and that few people were aware of the fact that when they see these animals with one ear up, the other pendant, it was because tics had actually eaten away the sinews. Some modern thinkers of the West, in these days of rapid progressive thought, incline to believe the creed of the mystic East, that " all that doth live, lives always." With all our scientific discoveries we comprehend so little of the great principle of life. Who can tell that in injuring, or permitting the ill-usage of the dumb animals, we are not in some way damaging the embryo of sentient existence ! The seamy side ot black nature under the present police system in force, where punishment swiftly follows the crime, has not much chance to flourish in Jamaica. It may be interesting to note in a return of 550 cases of sickness treated in the prisons for the year ending March 31, 1904, amongst the totals including both 168 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE sexes, that 268 were suffering from malarial fcvery 3 from enteric, 68 from dysentery. In a group entitled "Diseases of the Respiratory System," there are only 17 cases. This shows that pulmonary complaints are not, as in the United States, a prevailing weakness, but 108 cases are given as suffering from complaints of the digestive system. Much of it, I am told, arises from abso- lute ignorance of what constitutes proper food, and a well- known medical man who visited the island this winter assured me that half the children were not properly fed whom he inspected in various schools ; I heard the same complaint in the United States, and that when actually possessing good means to buy nourishing food, the negro cannot tear himself away from enticing candies and cakes. In the Lepers' Home at Spanish Town the saddest sight in Jamaica is to be found. I visited this institution in company with the chaplain and superintendent and came away impressed with the assurance that it is a merciful and necessary institution. Here the phase of the disease differs from what I have seen in the East, in many cases, and is known locally as " bump " leprosy, from the facial disfigurement. There are about 130 cases in different stages treated in the Home. As we entered the grounds several patients were playing croquet. I spoke to one or two, and the rare occur- rence of a visit from an English lady seemed to interest them, for once inside the gates of the Lepers' Home the patients never leave it. We then passed through the well-ventilated men's wards ; some were partially dressed, but on the last bed sat a young fellow with averted face. The superintendent turned and in an undertone told the ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 169 chaplain that it was a new case coming from a part of the island well known to the latter who had but just relinquished a living there and who recognised the new patient. The chaplain stopped and spoke gently to his former parishioner, a coloured man, who had been earning a first-rate salary as a clerk, but whom he had frequently warned as to his fast mode of living. " I tell you, sir, I did not want you to see me in this place," burst passionately from the youth, who sobbed piteously. Whatever his past had been, the picture as I saw it was enough to move the hardest heart. " He will suffer terribly," said the clergyman to me, as, after a few encouraging and comforting words, we turned away leaving the stricken, huddled, human wreck weeping his heart out on his narrow couch. It was unnerving to one, unaccustomed to such sights to witness the purgatorial suffering, because it was mental as well as physical, of such a case. The world of sunshine, of gay companionship and laughter, of love, lay outside, beyond his reach. What a prospect lay before this poor soul ! Year by year he would watch the insidious, stealthy advance of the hideous disease ; his gaze would only rest on loathsome spectacles, like himself, slowly rotting into decay, pitiable pictures of death in life ! I felt I could implore the All-Merciful to send an epidemic amongst them and put a swift end to the long drawn-out torture of death-deferred years to come, but I was told lepers do not suffer so much as do the victims of less horrible-looking complaints. For many years a saintly woman has visited and read to these afflicted ones, and every week there is a service held in the little church built for them by a com- 170 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE passionate visitor from England, but which, by the by, would be all the better for a ten-pound note spent in repairs. The chaplain described to me his feelings when for the first time he, in administering the sacra- ment, had placed the consecrated bread on a palmless stump, had looked into the disfigured face as he told the kneeling leper to feed on Him in his heart " by faith with thanksgiving" ! If any kindly disposed persons in England would send weekly pictorial newspapers to the Home, or to the chaplain at Spanish Town, it would be a good work. For such there is a never-ending demand, as pictures form the chief means of amusement to the patients, and it is not in the power of the ill-paid, over-worked clergy to supply them. I may mention, perhaps, without giving offence, that for his weekly ministrations and frequent visits to this Government institution, situated a mile from Spanish Town, the chaplain's stipend is ^4 per annum, and that in addition to this he is responsible for the Sunday and week-day services at the Cathedral. One is scarcely surprised, when one learns the immense amount of work falling to the lot of the clergy of the Church of England and realises how the enervating influence of a tropical climate must tell on their health, to say nothing of the ever-present, burdening sense of con- tinuous poverty, that they are constantly breaking down under the strain. It is said that in the not far distant republic of Columbia many thousands of lepers are at large, no separative measures being taken to segregate them, a consideration which explains the necessity of such an institution in our tropical possessions. A visit to the public hospitals confirms what I have already ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 171 remarked as to the prevailing diseases of the black and coloured people, there being a majority of cases of fever, pulmonary complaints being in the minority. Over- crowded poorhouses and hospitals, described by com- petent medical authorities as "not up to the mark," afford testimony to the system of retrenchment about u^hich one hears so much in Jamaica. Suicide is a rare occurrence amongst these people. A good deal of imbecility, as distinct from lunacy, is to be found throughout the island. Over i,ooo cases are confined in the asylum at Kingston, the matron of w^hich took me over the women's part of the establishment, and a very interesting person I found her. She had come to the island in 1888, and has just sent in her resignation. She had then 210 lunatics in her charge, now she has over 500 ; which leads one to think, taking into consideration increase of population, that weak-minded- ness, if not madness, is increasing in the island. She is the only white person resident in the women's asylum, and has 50 coloured nurses to instruct in their duties and superintend generally. The responsibility of her position was telling upon her, she informed me, and I was not surprised when she explained to me some of the difficulties she had to encounter. The nurses, apparently, gave more trouble than the patients, and if the latter were ordered special delicacies, it was imperative to see that they got them. The present overcrowded state of the asylum is lamentable, especially when there are actually quarters, built eight years ago, ready for occupa- tion, where it is intended to remove the females, but, presumably owing to lack of funds, the authorities, all these years, have not seen their way to effect the proposed 172 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE change, and the overcrowding increases with every newly-arriving patient. I confess I was curious to learn what were the prevailing forms of insanity, since in this island neither drink, nor over-education, nor business pressure could be regarded as predisposing causes. I was told many were cases of arrested insanity, of Obeah delusions and religious mania, of depression and melan- cholia. The poor things looked inquisitively at me as I passed by. Both men and women asked me my name, some offered to shake hands, others begged me to give messages to their relatives, and it was strange, almost pathetic, to hear some of the women in the laundry, better than the rest, call after me as I left them, " God bless you. Queen Bess ! Come again. Missus Bess." In answer to their inquiry as to my name, I had told them I was called Queen Bess, since the double name had not been easy to catch. If the overcrowding in this Government establishment is deplorable, honesty compels one to admit that nothing in the way of medical attendance or good food, even delicacies, are wanting in the care bestowed upon the inmates. Once more I mentally question whether we do not suffer the spirit of over-humanitarianism to carry us away in our treatment of this race. Whether it is just to the hard-working, highly-taxed portion of the coloured inhabitants of this colony, to say nothing of the white, to expend public money in fostering and pro- longing artificially by stimulants and expensive delicacies the tortured existences of pauper lunatics, who, many of them, when sane, are, economically, a dead weight upon the community — I refer to those coming from the ranks of the lazy classes, which in Jamaica are legion — when ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 173 these industrious colonists often have much difficulty; in procuring similar comforts for their own children, is a question I leave the level-headed to answer. Many of the lunatics have cost the country, individually, hundreds of pounds. One old lady to whom I was introduced had cost Jamaica during her thirty years' residence under Government care over ;^500. This may be an exemplification of the text, " Let brotherly love continue,*' but what strikes my limited compre- hension of the science of political economy is, that the money which permits the practice of fraternal affection on this wise to one class of the community is not sufficient to permit the extension of the principle in just rates to every other portion of the inhabitants having an equally just claim; upon public monies. The education of the youth of Jamaica seems to me as important as the care of its lunatics, and I have already intimated how retrenchment in amalgamating and closing various schools has of late acted detrimentally to the instruction of the rising generation. When one thinks of the public institutions of this island, of its schools, hospitals, prisons, poorhouses, asylums, and of the planters' contributions by taxes over which he practically has no control, when one realises that these are almost entirely destined to benefit a portion of the race from which the European, comparatively speaking, derives little economic return, for the coolie is ousting the black, whose unskilful, unreliable labour in these com- petitive days is a continual hindrance to success, one can only say that the motive power, the principle which guides the stronger race to educate the weaker race on the same lines as its own, to keep it in sickness and in 174 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE health according to the requirements of the high standard of Anglo-Saxon civilisation, is nothing less than that of noblesse oblige. Before I bid farewell to Jamaica let me remind my readers of what has already been said in these pages concerning the extravagant lines on which some of the departments are run, especially such as prevail in the judicial system of the colony, universally admitted to be out of all proportion to the needs of its inhabitants. There is no doubt that Jamaica's financial position is not such as one would wish to see in a country with such vast agricultural and commercial possibilities, and in her present bankrupt state the suggestion is not out of place that there is something radically wrong somewhere. Various causes have brought excessive taxation in their train, and the deficit caused by the cyclone calls for an increase in that direction. On all sides education, hos- pitals, and Government institutions are suffering from a policy of retrenchment. If such be manifest to the casual visitor of a few months, how do the words, backed by an intricate knowledge and experience extending over six years of the working machinery of the Government by an ex-governor, confirm what I have ventured to express ! In the columns of the leading island news- paper of March 13, 1905, copied from a January issue of the Spectator^ the late governor. Sir Augustus Hemming, declares that the Jamaican constitution was a compromise extracted from a weak-kneed and opportunist Liberal Secretary of State, and, like the majority of compromises, it has turned out a complete and sorry failure. To impose a similar constitution upon the Transvaal, he writes, would not only be serious but probably disastrous. Of ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 175 this hybrid constitution Sir Augustus says : " My experience of six years as governor of that island has convinced me that his (the Master of Elibanlc) description of its constitution as * a farce and a delusion ' is very little, // at all^ beyond the truth. It is, at all events, a hollow mockery, ' neither fish, flesh, fowl, nor good red herring,' and cannot in any circumstances he satisfactory to any party in the colony P CHAPTER XIII *• One ray of GocT s good mercy gild The darkness of their night/* Trench. From a study of transplanted Africans under the British flag I now pass to those living under American rule. The two classes designated black and coloured in Jamaica are all included for statistical purposes in the United States under the heading of coloured people. Every person of whatever shade of colouring, if he be known to have so much as a drop of negro blood in him, is accounted as much a negro as the full-blooded black. The passing from chattelship to proprietorship of this people so lately emancipated from slavery is now an accomplished fact. The change from the polygamic family of West Africa, where fatherhood with many or its peoples does not count in tracing tribal descent, to the monogamic domestic life of the Anglo-Saxon, is one fraught with manifold difficulties to these newly in- corporated citizens of the great Republic. Personally, I venture to think that too little time has elapsed since President Lincoln, with a stroke of his pen, freed the slaves to be able to speak definitely concerning the progression, or the retrogression of this people, so great 176 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 177 are the complexities of a situation unparalleled in history, so conflicting the factors it contains, the influences at work, the opinions advanced, some optimistic, others to the last degree pessimistic. In the face of much mislead- ing data one proceeds cautiously. The time, however, is scarcely ripe for any satisfactory summing up of the points at issue. Sufficient evidence is, as yet, not forth- coming. Whilst appreciating fully the sterling worth and the growing influence on the race of exceptional individuals and adequately recognising the worth of their leadership, one must refrain from confusing such with the evolution of a nation. If one regards the coloured population as a whole, one sees that forty years of freedom has resulted in a great moral expansion on the one hand and an increasingly immoral one on the other. The race has developed for good largely, for evil undeniably. Indeed, the seamy side of negro nature has grown to such an extent that it now constitutes a grave danger to the community. Last September I was present at St. Thomas* Protestant Episcopal Church on 43rd Street and Fifth Avenue, New York, when a large and influential congregation was addressed by several persons speaking on the negro problem. The two speakers in whom I was particularly interested were Dr. Strange, Bishop Coadjutor of South Carolina, and Booker Washington, the acknowledged leader of the coloured people. This famous negro, or to speak more correctly, mulatto, has been described by a well-known writer as "the most noteworthy and out- standing figure to-day in the American Republic." The Bishop, after an emphatic declaration that the one indis- pensable factor in dealing with the problem was the 12 178 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE complete separation of the races in social, scholastic, religious, and domestic life, went on to say that they must await in patience the growing feeling of conscience and justice in the South which in due time, when the negro was sufficiently educated, would give him his political rights. He strongly urged that education was the real solution of the question, and this, he considered. Congress owed in simple justice to the black. He was a Southerner himself, and knew that the South had done much to instruct the vast masses of the coloured folk, but it wa« beyond its power to cope with the enormous population. When the Principal of Tuskegee rose to speak my interest was unusually aroused. 1 had received an invitation to visit this famous negro institution, but I had not as yet met Dr. Washington. A man of middle height, dusky, not black, stepped briskly forward. He spoke clearly, eloquently, and persuasively, but virility, strength, and penetration were manifest in every sweeping glance from his wonderful, wide-open, magnetic eyes which seemed to search out, include, and demand the sympathy of every member of the congregation. His facial expression seemed to change with the topic he discussed ; if he told an anecdote, his features relaxed to an almost boyish appreciation of a good joke. If he dwelt on injustice done to his race, his tones were sad and touching, or at times loud in indignant reproach. I listened, deeply interested, whilst he described the nation he represented as an alien race pitted against the highest civilisation the world has ever known. He spoke directly, forcibly, and fearlessly, pointing out what is a unique fact, that from a penniless ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 179 horde just out of slavery 372,414 owners of homes have emerged, and of these 255,156 are known to own their homes free of encumbrance, at the same time reminding his hearers that by no will of their own had the negroes first come to America. Referring to the handful of them landed in 161 3 at Jamestown, in Virginia, he declared there were now nine millions of them, and it seemed likely they were there to stay. Deportation had not succeeded in decreasing their numbers, nor had amalgamation improved the stock. Concerning his own efforts he sketched a noble apologia pro vita sua. As to education, they had already wiped out the reproach of illiteracy from their midst ; only 54 per cent, were now returned as iUiterate, whereas Spain and Portugal at the present day had over 60 per cent, who could neither read nor write. Russia had over 70 per cent, of illiteracy. Regarding the acquisition of property, the speaker de- clared that, in Georgia alone negroes paid last year taxes on $16,700,000 of property, and he added with a gleam of mischief, surveying his audience, " I guess they have learned from the white man somewhere not to give the full taxable value either." Speaking of the irrefutable increase of crime, he attributed most of it to poverty and ignorance ; informing his hearers that in one county in the South alone, last year, there were more murders than in the whole of Great Britain during the same period. " It is not the educated negro that commits crime," he asserted, " but the negro who has never had a chance." The insufficiency and inefficiency of Southern education he adroitly compared with that of the Northern States. In Alabama a negro child gets four and a half months' schooling in the year at a cost of sixty-six cents j the 180 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE New York white and coloured child goes to school all the year at a cost of $20.88. " You people," said he, " of the North make a mistake to let it be said that it costs so much more to wake up a white child than a black one." At the close of his address he brought out a pathetic fact in declaring that the Americans only hear of the worst negroes. The doctrine of segregation has been brought to such a pitch that people do not know the truth about this race, and that there are men and women belonging to it not only living pure, simple, useful lives, but imbued with the finest missionary spirit, living in the darkest spots of the Black Belt helping to uplift their degraded brethren. This is perfectly true. Some of the newspapers in the States are as truly the scourge of God as Attila's devastating hosts, for they destroy and nullify every impulse to think charitably of this often traduced people. Ever ready to advertise guilt, to pander to a low type of readers, some of these papers contain passages describing crime, often gloating over the horrid details of a lynching, calculated to stimulate instead of allay race-hatred. No more interesting problem stands before the scien- tific world than this of the American negro. Ethnolo- gists, theologians, economists are narrowly watching the outcome of the gospel of industrial education, of com- mercialism, and of agriculture, preached and taught by Booker Washington, while sociologists, physiologists, statisticians point warningly to the abnormal increase of criminals in the States' prisons. I believe, however, that we shall see in the near future worked out once more before our eyes the scientific truth of the survival of the fittest. ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 181 When we consider how aboriginal races tend to dis- appear before the white man as the Maoris, the Tas- manians, the Caribs, the Hawaiians, the Iroquois, we are distinctly facing in the growing population of the coloured people in the United States an exceptional circumstance. The African shows himself able to endure climatic changes, national transitional epochs, poverty and commercial competition. So far he has held his own when placed side by side with Anglo-Saxon civilisation. The solution of the race problem in the States was considered by Mr. Gladstone to be the crucial test of American civilisation. Mr. Balfour thinks it holds the foremost place among the problems of the national life of the United States. No part of that vast territory affords more interest to the student of history than " the new South," with its gospel of corn, cotton, and capital, the home as it is of nearly eight millions of the coloured race. The old South with its aristocratic slave-owning conditions has passed away completely. For a clear and intelligent grasp of its present status, its difficulties, its achievements, its possibilities, I would recommend those interested to read a book published in 1904 by Messrs. Macmillan, of New York, entitled, " Problems of the Present South," by E. G. Murphy. It is a sociological and political study of interest and value dealing with the education of negroes and whites, the later vast industrial developments, of the political treatment of negroes, their instincts, and the hindrances and extravagances of race-prejudice. That so well- balanced a writer as Mr. Murphy, himself a Southerner, has handled a difficult and obscure subject so ably should be a boon to philanthropic Americans who stand out 182 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE from that narrow, carping, unscientific, prejudiced class which is so rampant in the States. On most subjects the Yankee is a level-headed thinker, but whenever the flow of talk turns on this unfortunate people he seems to lose his mental equilibrium. I have noted that the ordi- nary American rarely, if ever, speaks dispassionately and calmly of the negro. To say that " the ward of the nation " has not been extremely disappointing would not be to admit the truth. One source of irritation is the fact that his numerical importance in the population is undeniable. Possibly a few facts taken from the latest census (1900) publications may be of interest. In the United States, Alaska, Hawaii, and Porto Rico the negroes were 9,204,531. In the States only, the following table will show their ratio to the entire white population during the last four decades : — Whites. Negroes. 1870 ... 33,589,377 4,880,009 1880 ... 43,403,400 6,580,793 1890 ... 55,166,184 7488,788 1900 ... 66,990,788 8,840,789 The eight States comprising the Carolinas, Virginia, Louisiana, Texas, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi art the homes of seven-tenths of them. The percentage of negroes in six of these States to the whole population is as follows : — Mississippi ... 58-5 South Carolina ... 58-4 Louisiana ... 47-1 Georgia 467 Alabama ,,, ... 45-2 Virginia 35-6 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 183 The Black Belt, a name given to the area where negroes constitute half the total population, running through South Carolina, Central Georgia, Alabama into Mississippi, lies mainly in what is known, agriculturally, as the Austroriparian zone, where flourish the cotton plant, sugar-cane, rice, pecan, and pea-nut. The district of Columbia with Washington, which city is regarded as the Mecca of the black, has more negroes in ratio to its area than any other county or state. In the southern towns of Jacksonville, Montgomery, Charleston, Savan- nah, the percentage of negroes is over 50 to the total population. In Atlanta, Birmingham, Norfolk, Chatta- nooga, Mobile, Augusta, and Memphis they are over 40 per cent. Washington D.C. has 31 per cent. Previous to the last census the mulattoes, as distin- guished from full-blooded blacks, were separately dealt with. This was unsatisfactory, but the results of the enumerations of mulattoes taken in 1850, i860, 1870, 188O5 1890, compared with the latest returns, indicate that between 11 and 16 per cent, of the negro popula- tion are believed to be of mixed blood. Mulattoes are as a rule found lowest in number where the proportion of whites in the total population is lowest, and vice versa. More than three-fourths (77*3) of the negroes live in the country, or, as the official report explains, outside of cities of 2,500 inhabitants, this proportion being far greater than that (57*3) of the whites. In the Southern States the increase of these people between 1800 and 1840 was more rapid than that of the whites. Since 1840 it has not been so rapid. Between i860 and 1900 Southern negroes increased 93-4 per cent., and Southern whites 134*9 per cent. Negroes, unlike the Indians 184 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE and native whites, have a slight excess of females. The census bureau has no authentic records as regards deaths throughout the States, but it accepts as trustworthy the records of deaths in an area of registration containing 13*4 per cent, of the negroes and 41*2 per cent, of the whites of the United States. The reason of this is that many of the Southern States do not register births and deaths. Probably in the South to do so would be impos- sible. In this area where deaths have been registered the rate for negroes was in 1900 30*2 ; that of whites in the same area was 17*3. The median age of negroes is ig'^ years, by which is meant that half the negroes in the United States are below that age. This is four years below that of the whites, which is placed at 23*4. The high birth-rate and the high death-rate of the coloured people account for these differences. When comparing the negro population with the white in the States the fact should never be lost sight of that yearly there is an immigration from Europe of over half a million persons. In New York city something under 20 per cent, repre- sent the native-born children. These facts gathered from the latest census bulletin, explain sufficiently how the coloured population is scat- tered in the States, and since the South js destined to be the home of the race, I propose to give a rudimentary outline of its present status. The " solid South," stand- ing for Democracy as opposed to the Republican party, is the outcome of the old aristocratic regime which the Civil War swept into the past. How that change was brought about is outlined in subsequent pages. The social and economic conditions of the country have undergone rapid transition since 1870. This was ETHIOPIA m EXILE 185 essential before the freed slave could even remotely be regarded as an integer in its new life. The aristocrats, representing about 8 per cent, of the white population, had hitherto conducted public business to the exclusion of the non-slave-holding men, who were then known amongst the coloured folk as " poor white trash." To- day what Mr. Murphy calls the non-participating white of a former age is politically, educationally, industrially, and socially a factor in the State. Manhood, without regard to race or colour, is the only basis on which a democracy is workable, and in the history of its growing influence in the resurrecting political life of the Southern States the, as yet, partial recognition of the black to par- ticipating in the Constitution is of importance ; especially too when the memory of the negro governments still lives in the remembrance of those who were ignominiously compelled to live under that degraded and corrupt regime. The wealth of the South is practically unlimited, though it is as yet imperfectly developed for want of capital, but every year it is increasingly being exploited by Northern millionaires. The industrial wealth which New England has acquired may well inspire the South. Buying coal in the Virginias and Maryland, iron from Alabama, timber and cotton from the South, foodstuffs from the West, it has, with an area of 62,000 square miles, a population of 5,500,000, against an area in the South of 827,000 square miles and a population of 23,000,000, produced nearly $2,000,000,000 a year against $1,400,000,000 a year for the entire South. Massachusetts alone has more cotton spindles than the fourteen Southern States. Yet, according to the autho- 186 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE rity I quote, the South possesses more iron than all Europe, one-half of the standing timber of the United States, coal estimated to be forty times as much as Great Britain ever had before she raised a ton. The founda- tion of New England's wealth was its manufacture of cotton goods. Great Britain's riches were created by coal, iron, and cotton goods. The North-west provinces grew rich on timber, but the Southern States possess in the raw all these products. Of late years a tremendous stimulus has been given to the manufacture of cotton goods. The mills have been built close to the cotton- fields with Northern money. In 1880 Southern factories, valued at $458,000,000 dollars, by 1900 had reached the great value of $1,463,000,000, which means that, at present, the social and industrial conditions are enormous. In 1880 there were 180 mills at work ; in 1890, 412 ; in 1904, 900. The South, in her possessions of raw material, vast stores of cheap fuel, water-power and favourable climate, is an ideal country for commercial enterprise. Added to her natural resources is her supply of tractable and cheap labour, consisting of the masses of " poor whites," in whose ranks the negro is scarcely repre- sented. The factory is to benefit the white man, but the field where the raw product is grown is the negro's domain. Trades-unions and race-prejudice combine to segregate him and to exclude him from all trades where he would work side by side with the white who has come South to this newly-found sphere of labour. One of the evils of this rush to the South for wealth on the part of the Northerner is that of child-labour. The census of 1900 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 187 in Alabama shows that nearly 30 per cent, of the mill operatives were under sixteen years of age. Throughout the Southern States the proportion of all mill-hands showed that 25 per cent, were under sixteen. Philan- thropic persons will, however, be glad to learn that laws regulating this abuse, laying heavy penalties upon able- bodied parents content to live idly, supported by their young children, have been passed in Alabama and in most of the Southern States. That this was a crying sin, and calling out for remedial measures, is shown in Mr. Murphy's book. He had seen and photographed little children who worked twelve and thirteen hours a day ; their little fingers had been mangled with machinery ; their bodies, he writes, were numb and list- less with exhaustion. No one has- more correctly appreciated this change of front in Southern life than Booker Washington. Seeing that the great masses of the negroes are per- manently destined to remain in the South, and that apparently they are destined to play no part in the manufacturing industries, his earnest endeavour is to interest the majority of coloured youths in agricultural pursuits, to familiarize the girls with every department of household and domestic service. In the present disturbed atmosphere of political polemics he does not advocate any agitation for civil rights, believing that, with the evolution of the race to better standards, those rights will no longer be denied. The chief articles of his creed are: (i) that the race give up clamouring for political privileges ; (2) that the higher education is not fitted for the present needs of negro youth. In- stead, (3) the rising generation should concentrate their 188 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE powers on industrial education, the accumulation of wealth, and the conciliation of the South. The sound sense of these propositions is self-evident to the most casual observer of economic conditions in America. The race may clamour for its rights, but without a dollar in the tiller they can never make them- selves heard. The same request may be proffered by a man in rags as by a well-clad citizen. We know which of the two will first gain the ear of his hearers. But Dr. Washington has his opponents. The race is divided upon some of the most important subjects. Professor Du Bois, of Atlanta, with other coloured men, heads a faction who, although they appreciate the work done at Tuskegee, deplore the results of fifteen years of Booker Washington's teaching. During that period they point to the disfranchisement of the negro, the legal creation of a distinct status of civil inferiority for the race, and the steady withdrawal of aid from insti- tutions for the higher training of the coloured people. This school of thought declares that Booker Washington faces a triple paradox in (i) that he strives nobly to make citizens and agriculturists owners of property, but how, they ask, under modern competitive methods, can these defend their rights without that of suffrage ? (2) He insists, say they, on thrift and self-respect, but counsels a silent submission to civic inferiority. {3) He advocates common schools and industrial training, and deprecates institutions of higher learning. Thus there is a rift within the lute. Personally I have little in common with those who build without a foundation. To educate on European lines a race utterly unfitted to assimilate such knowledge ETHIOPIA m EXILE 189 is like learning the idioms of a language without having mastered the rudiments of its grammar. I stayed several weeks at Washington D.C. when in the States, study- ing, in the Congressional Library — possibly the finest in the world — the voluminous magazine and other litera- ture dealing with the negro problem of the United States. A few incidental remarks which different per- sons made to me were worth jotting down, for they sum up a good deal of the foregoing matter. A young man observed in connection with the exclusion of the negro from trade-unions : " I guess the black man is goin' to get a hard time in this country, but it's the white man's land. He ain't goin' to the wall for a nigger!" Our conversation drew forth the following remark from a lady : " The negro has been long enough here to know his way about. He's got to hustle for himself nowadays." It is just this hustling for himself in the face of the strenuous life, the severe competitive strain in business, where the negro fails. The law freed him for ever from the white man's mastership, but who will free him from the heritage of his black and barbarous past ? In the different walks of life he feels the estrangement of the white man more than he ever felt the humiliation of slavery. He resents the subordination which the white man insists upon, the denial of his rights with the emotion of a childish race, indefinite, unpractical, his tropical temperament delights in chatter. He revels in subtle imaginative flights, ignoring his every-day environ- ment. Without the capacity and training for the close thinking of the Anglo-Saxon, many of the race to-day, superficially educated, mistaking and misunderstanding 190 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE the relative importance of things, are afflicted with mental dyspepsia. To strike back, to damage, are uppermost instincts in the dimly lighted spirit. Add to this passions of the lowest order and you begin to understand the reason of certain crimes commonly said to occur so frequently in the States, although closer examination of facts proves irrefutably that stabbing and manslaughter are the greatest crimes of the race. Still, a large proportion of negroes are showing, increasingly, capacity to improve j larger numbers yearly go to swell the number of respectable citizens. In our judgments let us always remember that the capabilities of a people should not be judged by the depravity of the worst, but by the virtues of the best. Hard, laborious toil lies before the leaders and instructors of this race. History shows that difficulties can be overcome and that difficulties and hardships in their youth generally result in the making of earth's finest nations. No race ever rose to prominence from the lap of luxury. As with the individual, so with the nation, no short cuts to learning or fame compensate for steady, prolonged effort. I will conclude this chapter with a story I heard from Booker Washington at St. Thomas' Church on the occa- sion which I have already mentioned. He took it to illustrate the social and economic position of his race. A stage-coach of the olden days stuck in the mud. The order to the first-class passengers was, " Keep your seats." Those travelling second-class were told to " get out and walk," but the third-class travellers were ordered to " get out and push." CHAPTER XIV * * Behind the dim unknown Standeth God within the shadow Keeping watch above His ownJ** Lowell. In an able work on the negro in Africa and America, published for the American Economic Association, the writer, J. A. Tillinghast, M.A., in describing the principal slave markets to have been in the neighbour- hood of the mouths of the Senegal, Gambia, Niger, and Congo rivers, declares that the very worst sweepings of the Soudanese plateau, the dregs and oflFscourings appa- rently gathered along the coast -lands of West Africa. The Dahomey people, he says, reached the sea by the wiping out of the Whydahs in the beginning of the eighteenth century. The Fans were in the interior when visited by Du Chaillu in 1856. Mary Kingsley finds them in 1893 wedging themselves rapidly down to the sea, ousting the older inhabitants of the land. If this process has been going on for centuries, and Tillinghast considers it has, then the negroes living along the western verge of the continent at any given period have not been the best specimens of their race, and, he says, American slaves were raided from these peoples. In 191 192 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE their native state they lived in conditions adverse to thrift ; neither clothing nor houses were requisite ; they tapped the palm for palm wine, pressed oil from the nuts of a species of the same tree; the forests teemed with game, fish was plentiful, rice in Guinea grows pro- digiously, also plantains. For seven or eight hours daily, man, woman, and child in the tropical heat sought effort- less existence. Du Chaillu, speaking of the rubber- gathering industry, said, "Even here I noticed the laziness of the men and the cruel way in which the women are obliged to work." Mary Kingsley speaks "of that great native African industry stretching themselves," and of thieving in Lower Guinea ; " stealing is a beloved pastime — a kind of game in which you lose only if you are found out." An explanation of certain problems of morality which, in Jamaica as well as in the States, are, to-day, the despair of well-wishers of the negroes, may be understood in the study of the conditions and environment of these people in their primitive state. The mortality occasioned by slave-raids, pestilence, famine, and tribal wars drained the population of its fighting men. To maintain existence there must have been a proportionately high birth-rate. If great fecundity was essential under African conditions for race-preservation one can only look for the continuance of this trait when civilised life is substituted. In the question of race conservation the issues are so vital that the nation is not to be controlled at the demand of civilised reformers. The intermingling in slavery on American soil of many tribal streams of blood originally distinct in Africa, Wolohs, Fulahs, Senegambians, Dahomians, &c., Soudanese stock having Moorish blood in them, have caused ethnic diflferences to ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 193 disappear quickly. At the close, says Tillinghast, of the period of slavery this crossing and amalgamation had brought about approximate homogeneity. In the Northern States slavery was abolished, not from religious motives, but from economic reasons. Pious Puritans had sent ships to ply along the middle passage, deeming that they w^ere doing God and man good service to transport benighted savages to work for God- fearing people, but altogether there were only 42,000 slaves in the North ; they were not profitable, whereas the opposite was the case in the South, where Thomas Nelson Page, a well-known Southern writer, says America gave to the negro a semblance of a civilisation. It left him, at the close of slavery, a trained labourer and in good physical condition ; he knew how to raise and prepare cotton, he had learnt how to grow and grind sugar, also to raise and market tobacco, corn, wheat, and hay. The slaves of the Southern aristocrats were shepherds, cattle-men, horse-trainers. Another class performed the whole of the domestic service required by their luxurious owners ; trained as house-servants, coachmen, gardeners, carpenters, wheelwrights, boatmen, builders, they built nearly all the houses in the South. As shoemakers, tailors, knitters, weavers, they performed the whole of that work of the industrial South. This is an important point ; on it hinges much that is past and present. To- day, the loss in one generation of all this industrial training constitutes most of the " problem." Few persons in England realise that President Lincoln, whose name will descend to posterity as the emancipator of the negro, only resorted to this measure from military necessity, which was General Sherman's justification for his 13 194 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE desolating march through Georgia. The passion which possessed Lincoln was not abolitional, it was to preserve the Union. On December 22, i860, after South Carolina had seceded, he declared that the South was in no danger of being interfered with as to slavery. In his inaugural address he said : " I have no more purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it now exists. I believe I have no right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so." Congress resolved in July, 1861, that the war was not waged for any purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the rights and established institutions of the Southern States, but to defend and maintain the supre- macy of the constitution, and to preserve the Union with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several states unimpaired. In March, 1862, Lincoln declared, "In my judgment, gradual, not sudden, emancipation is best for all." This special message to Congress that en- lightened individual Thaddeus Steven described as "about the most diluted milk-and-water gruel propo- sition that has ever been given to the American people." When the Emancipation Proclamation of Mr. Lincoln was issued, January, 1863, the war having then been in progress some two years, it bore on its face that it was issued by " military necessity." Those of us who were brought up to believe in the righteous North and the cruel South, with the baying bloodhounds tracking the runaway slave, receive a shock to the creeds of our child- hood when we examine for ourselves the causes which led to the abolition of the slaves in America. At the close of the war, the " states lately in rebellion " re- quired the presence of a great many garrisons scattered ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 195 over the South to introduce a free labour system and to protect the rights of the freedmen. Military rule is uncongenial to the spirit of American free institutions. Garrison life seemed, to be demoralising to volunteer soldiers desirous to return home after the war. These considerations, added to the vi^ish to enable the freed slaves to protect themselves by the privilege of sharing in political power, seem to have been the predispos- ing causes which led to the bestowal of the suffrage upon the negro. This measure was the true pioneer to subsequent race-troubles. The explanation of no less an authority than Carl Schurz, who took part in the reconstructive policy, is that negro suffrage was not the outcome of hatred and vindictiveness, as the South asserted, but the only way which serious and in- fluential men could see out of a situation fraught on either side with unknown difficulties, and a necessary measure to safeguard the legitimate results of the war — the abolition of slavery and the establishment of free labour — which they considered were in danger of being rendered practically inoperative by the reactionary move- ment in the South. In justification of their policy, Schurz quotes ordinances adopted by municipal bodies and parishes shortly after the war, where the negro or freedman was permitted only to enter the limits of a town with special permission from his employer, speci- fying the time of his visit and its object, and such-like prohibitions, to which the Southerner retorts that the stipulations were no different in character to laws relating to vagrancy in the Northern States, framed on the basis of free individual labour, to which I have alluded in a former chapter. 196 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE To the harassed, poverty-stricken, home-returning Southern soldiers, whose first pressing necessity was to earn the means of living — for parts of the country had been swept bare of produce — the greatest trial in the early period of reconstruction was the establishment of the Freedmen's Bureau. This institution was based on the principle that the blacks and whites were naturally antagonistic, and that the former had to be protected. On its staff there appears to have been a few sensible men, but their councils were swamped by enthusiasts who considered their duty to consist in regenerating the slave and in scourging their already ruined former masters. The negro regarded his newly-acquired freedom as synonymous with a beatified state of per- petual rest ; the ex-master, said some, was determined to re-establish slavery under another name. The Bureau, for some $15,000,000 spent on it, did a little good, but it irritated where it should have conciliated. It set going a system of free labour, established the beginning of peasant proprietorship, secured the recognition of black freedmen before law-courts, founded the free common school in the South, but it failed to re-unite master and freedmen ; it did not encourage self-reliance, and failed entirely to carry out its promise to furnish the coloured people with land. The bank known as the Freedman's Bank, which was part of the Bureau, came to grief; the hard-earned dollars of the emancipated slaves went when it crashed. At this time the great, surging, ignorant, black masses were a pitiable race ; as sheep without a shepherd, they were literally between the devil and the deep sea ! Their former masters they distrusted, the promises of the Freedmen's Bureau were not fulfilled, ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 197 their money gone with the failure of the bank. True, political privileges by this time had been conceded to them, but a vote vi^ithout a loaf w^as mockery ; the everlasting holiday, the black's vision of freedom, was visionary, vague, and disappointing. The task before the Southern people at this time was Herculean. $4,000,000,000 worth of property had, in emancipation, been wiped out ; banks were closed ; money was so much waste paper ; cities, homes, mills burnt ; the manhood of the South lay sepulchred in hastily-dug graves, or returned shattered and wrecked, unable to cope with the miserable conditions of a disorganised society. But, as descendants of good fighting-stock, they had accepted in good faith the terms of their defeat, and were willing to abide by the Union. When they returned to their poverty-stricken homes the last thing that ever entered their heads was the elevation to political power of the negro. They never dreamed that their lands and homes would be confiscated, their widowed and desolate women left to the mercy of an African Government comprised of their emancipated servants. History has no precedent for such an anomalous situation. In 1867, when two years had passed since the war, when every state was comparatively peaceful, struggling hard to regain former prosperity, Thaddeus Steven passed through Congress his notorious bill destroying the govern- ment of the several states, dividing them into military provinces, enfranchising the whole negro race, and pro- tecting them with Federal troops in the exercise at the polls of their newly-acquired political rights, disfran- chising one quarter of the Southern whites. For years ten states were plunged into " roaring hells 198 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE of anarchy." The Anglo-Saxon spirit of the oppressed and conquered race rose against the tyranny and cruelty of such enactments. When Congress thus armed millions of negroes with political power and thrust them into battle against the proud and wounded South, it made itself morally responsible for every bloody deed committed out of racial hatred. The democracy of " the solid South " is to-day an undying protest against the party who, in the hour of their poverty, and whilst the gaping wounds left by the fierce contest were still unhealed, imposed upon them years of degraded government, under a triumvirate such as the carpet-bagger of history, the ignorant negro, and that hybrid born of reconstructive days known as the scalawag. We can easily credit the black, in the strange reversal of his position, with consummate impudence. To pre- serve a political principle was the object of the powers that ruled at Washington, but to keep intact their society, the purity of their blood, was the first considera- tion of the Southerners. In the hopelessness of their weakened state nothing was left to them but to effect by cunning — playing upon the superstitious nature of the black they understood so well — that which they could perform by no other means. To hit a dog when he is down is not a noble ethical principle when applied to human beings, but Congress not only hit Southerners, but essayed to keep them down for ever when in 1870 the celebrated Fifteenth Amend- ment absolutely forbade the States to deny, or abridge the right of citizens to vote on account of race, colour, or previous condition of servitude. ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 199 Whatever excesses were comm itted as " moonshiners," or Ku Klux associates, the blame attaches far more to those who forced such an odious position upon their brother- whites than to men who could find no other way to extricate themselves from an intolerable situation. Passages from Southern writers well describe the humi- liation of this piece of Republican tyranny. I quote one such : " A degraded alien race, but recently slaves, had by Congressional enactment been placed in control of eleven once sovereign states ; men whose grandfathers decided guilt and innocence by the ordeal of the bean (a poison of emetic property, if the accused vomited and recovered, he was innocent ; if he died, he was judged guilty) sat in judgment over men whose forefathers had fought at . . . Negroes who would not undertake a journey, however necessary, if a cat crossed behind them, boldly launched enterprises which bound the State for millions." With the experience of those years still fresh in their memory we do not wonder if the mere words "amalgama- tion," " social equality," rouse unspeakable indignation. A segregative policy may not be calculated to hasten the negro's progressive development, for everywhere he is at his best under judicious white surveillance ; nevertheless, we are not surprised that the South considers that to be the only way for the races to live side by side. But the curious social phase in America at the present time is that race-hatred is stronger at the North than at the South. The " ward of the nation " concerning whose lot the Northern philanthropist was so sanguine, thinking that the negro would assimilate Anglo-Saxon civilisation with as much ease as he wears its clothes, finds himself vastly mistaken : hustling millionaires find him in the 200 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE way — an economic hindrance. Gradually, but undeni- ?bly, the black realises that his best friends are not to be found in the North, where his chances of gaining a livelihood are yearly decreasing, colour being a paramount objection in all co-operative trades. The sweating, grimy, hard-working, level-headed New England trades-unionist sheds no crocodile's tears over the alleged hardships of slavery. He argues this way : once the master hunted the slave, now the slave hunts the master, begging to be allowed to serve him. It could not be, he thinks, a bad form of slavery where the negro had plenty to eat, to drink, to wear, no responsibilities, where he could bring into the world droves of children without a thought as to their future. He calls to mind that a black babe in those days was a valuable asset to be reared with judicious care ; nowadays, the town statistics show him how many black infants are abandoned. The Socialist at his club tells him that the labour of every citizen should procure him the satisfaction of the two elemental laws of his being, love and hunger. He knows by experience that he has to work hard to secure them, which primitive necessities the negro possessed without a moment's anxiety as to procuring them. Professor Shaler, of Harvard University, declares that if the accepted account of the negro had been true, if he had for generations been groaning in the chains of servitude while passionately longing for liberty, the South would have flamed into insurrection at the first touch of war. Had this been the case we should have seen a repetition of the horrors of many a civil insurrection. It is most noteworthy that during the four years of the great contention, when the blacks had every opportunity ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 201 to rise, there was not a single instance of their turning on their masters. Notwithstanding the frictional nature of the South, it is there where the race is destined to multiply into a great nation, or to gradually dwindle before the white man. No one comprehends this better than does the Principal of Tuskegee, whose great influence is hard at work to effect conciliation between the two races. A story was told me in the States of a young black seeking employment in a Northern city. From house to house he went, knocking at the front door ; at one of these the master opened to him, asking what he wanted. Learning that he asked for a job, the worthy citizen solemnly shook his head, saying : " Ah, my dear young friend, your case is very sad. I regret I am unable to assist you." The man went on and knocked at the next door, repeating his request for work. The owner came out in a passion and indignantly asked how he, a d black rascal, had the impudence to come to the front door. " Go to the back door, ask for a broom and sweep out the yard," shouted the irate gentleman, as he slammed the door in his face. " Bless de Lord ! " effusively answered the negro. " He's led me to my own Suddern people at last." Had President Lincoln lived, a gradual method and wise selection would have characterized his policy of enfranchisement. This is indicated in a letter to Presi- dent Hahn, of Louisiana. In it he wrote : " Now you are about to have a convention which among other things will probably define the elective franchise. I barely suggest for your private consideration whether some of the coloured people may not be let in, as for 202 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE instance the very intelligent, and especially those who have fought so gallantly in our ranks." His successor, Johnson, held his viev^s, but some of his utterances were misconstrued, and in the passionate political fray, in which Thaddeus Steven was the most prominent figure, he was impeached, since he " contemplated drenching the country once more in the blood of civil war." Con- gressional speeches at this time show that the Bill was passed for party purposes, the chief aim being to maintain a Republican majority in the councils of the State. Schurz even describes the Government " born of the bayonet " as " a mimicry of legislation by negroes, some of whom were moderately educated, some were planta- tion hands led by a set of cunning rogues (Northern carpet-baggers) bent upon filling their pockets quickly. It is difficult to exaggerate," says this Northern states- man, " the extravagances, corrupt practices, and down- right robberies perpetrated under these Governments." H. A. Herbert, in "Why the Solid South ? " describes this expensive mimicry. In Alabama the negro Govern- ment, between 1868 and 1874, began with a debt of $8,000,000,000 ; at the close of that term it was $28,000,000,000. The first resolution of the Demo- cratic platform in July, 1874, was that "the radical and dominant faction of the Republican party in this State persistently and by false and fraudulent representations have inflamed the passions and prejudices of the negroes as a race against the white man, and have thereby made it necessary for white people to unite and act together in self-defence and for the preservation of white civilisation." During the four years of carpet-bag and negro rule in Tennessee there was a total expenditure more than ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 203 double that expended in the same length of time pre- ceding, or subsequent. The condition of affairs under this regime Mr. Herbert describes thus : " Before the close of the last of the four sessions of this assembly a moral stench seemed to rise from the State capitol." In the State of Louisiana the debt was increased more than $40,000,000, that of the city of New Orleans about $12,000,000, under this infamous Government. The estimated wealth of this city in eight years shrunk in value from $99,000,000,000 to $47,000,000,000. In North Carolina, when State funds had all been used up to pay mileage and negro members' services per diem, the executive sold and divided school funds and railway funds worth $500,000 for $100,000 cash. They re- furnished the Legislative Halls, spending over $200,000 for furniture, and appropriating $300,000 for " supplies, sundries, and accidentals." With this sum they built a booth around the statue of Washington at the end of the capitol and established a bar with fine liquors and cigars for the free use of members and their friends. From the galleries black courtesans smiled on their favourites below. The printing bill in this State had not been more than $8,000 in any one year. In the last year of negro rule it cost $480,000. The same story of corruption cha- racterizes all these travestied Governments, and such we may regard as an object-lesson in the lengths that party spirit can carry any reasonable body of men. The amusing part of it is that Congress paid something like $200,000,000 to the army annually to maintain and protect these mimicries. Subsequent history shows that the United States Government found it was paying too dearly to maintain its satellites in office. When the so- 204 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE called "Force Bill" of 1890 had to be abandoned, because public sentiment lagged in its support, the South, waiting for the first opportunity, regarded this as a signal that Washington was tired of the negro, and the separate States immediately took measures to disfranchise him constitutionally. The calm, dispassionate words of Booker Washington upon this phase in his races' history are worth quoting. " The time," he writes, " is not distant when the world will begin to appreciate the real character of the burden that was imposed upon the South when 4,500,000 ex-slaves, ignorant and impoverished, were given the franchise." The historian Lecky sums up negro government in these words : — "Then followed under the protection of Northern bayo- nets a grotesque parody of government, a hideous orgy of anarchy, violence, and strained corruption — undisguised robbery such as the world had scarcely seen. State debts were profusely piled up. Legislation was openly put up for sale. With the withdrawal of the Federal troops the scene changed ; the carpet-baggers returned laden with booty. Partly by violence, partly by the force of old habits of obedience and command, the planters shortly regained ascendancy. . . . Two or three centuries are all too brief a period in which to compass almost the entire range of human development. Heroic measures are obviously needed to reach the millions of negroes." CHAPTER XV ** A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deepy or taste not the Pierian spring ; There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, And drinking largely sobers us again.'''' Pope. Notwithstanding the evils arising from the sudden enfranchisement of the negro, which, for a time, made him master where formerly he had been slave, those who know his childishness, his readiness to fall a victim to the wiles of the unscrupulous, scarcely blame him for his delinquencies, since in no way was he fitted to fill positions into which Congress thrust him. To describe how the best of their race epitomize their history, how they feel their present status, I quote from the writings of one of the most prominent coloured men in America, Professor Du Bois, of Atlanta : — " How does it feel to be a problem ? One ever feels his two-ness — an American, a negro ; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings, two warring ideals in one dark body. Here in America, in the few days since Emancipation, the black man's turning hither and thither in hesitant and doubtful striving has often made his very strength to lose effectiveness. . . . And yet it is not weakness ; it is the contradiction of double aims. 205 206 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE The double-armed strength of the black artisan — on the one hand, to escape white contempt for a nation of hewers of wood and drawers of water, and on the other hand, to plough and moil and dig for a poverty-stricken horde — could only result in making him a poor crafts- man, for he had but half a heart in either case. By the poverty and ignorance of his people the negro minister or doctor was tempted towards quackery and demagogy, and by the criticisms of the other world towards ideals that made him ashamed of his lowly tasks. "Few men ever worshipped freedom with half such unquestioning faith as did the American negro for two centuries. To him slavery was indeed the sum of all villainies, the cause of all sorrow, the root of all prejudice. Emancipation was the key to a more promising land of beauty than ever stretched before the eyes of wearied Israelites. In song and exhortation swelled one refrain — Liberty ! In his tears and curses the God he implored had freedom in His right hand. At last it came — suddenly, fearfully, like a dream ; with one wild carnival of blood and passion came the message — "'Shout, O children I Shout, you're free ! For God has brought you liberty ! ' " Years have passed away since then — ten, twenty, forty. The nation has not yet found peace for its sins ; the freedman . . . his promised land. What ever good may have come in these years of change, the shadow of a deep disappointment rests upon the negro people — a disappointment all the more bitter because the unattained ideal was unbounded save by the ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 207 simple ignorance of a lowly people. The first decade, like a tantalising will-o'-the-wisp, maddened and mis- led the headless host. The holocaust of war, the terrors of the Ku Klux Klan, the lies of carpet- baggers . . . left the bewildered serf with no new watch- word beyond the old cry for freedom. As the time flew, however, he began to grasp a new idea. The ideal of Liberty ! A million black men started with renewed zeal to vote themselves into the kingdom. So the decade flew away. The revolution of 1876 came and left the half-free serf weary, wondering, but still inspired. Slowly, but steadily, in following years a new vision began gradually to replace the dream of political power, the rise of another ideal to guide the unguided, another pillar of fire by night after a clouded day. It was the ideal of book-learning, the curiosity born of compulsory ignorance to know and test the power of the cabalistic letters of the white man — the longing to know. Up the new path the advance guard toiled slowly, heavily, doggedly. Only those who have watched the misty minds, the dull understandings of the dark pupils, know how piteously, how faithfully this people strove to learn. Emancipation to the youth brought with it dawning self-consciousness. He began to see himself darkly as in a veil. For the first time he sought to realise the burden he bore upon his back — that dead weight of social degra- dation partly masked behind a half-named negro problem. He felt his poverty, his ignorance. To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships. He felt the weight of his igno- rance not only of letters, but of life, of business, of the humanities; the accumulated sloth and shirking and 208 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE awkwardness of centuries shackled his hands and feet. The very soul of the toiling, sweating black man is darkened by the shadow of a vast despair, while sociologists count his bastards and statisticians enume- rate the ratio of mulattoes to the entire black population. And all in all the black men seem the sole oasis of simple faith and reverence in a dusty desert of dollars and smartness." The vision of this people athirst for knowledge is not misleading — it is the keynote to their latest development. I have been waited on by young coloured men at Washington who, directly the table service was over, rushed ofF to their University (Howard) to be present at lecture or class. Since slavery the negro has blotted out 55 per cent, of racial illiteracy. Persons highly placed often scofF at the education of the negro, but the question really narrows itself into how to educate him. Last year Dr. Washington proudly emphasized the fact that not a single graduate of the Hampton and Tuskegee Institutes were to be found in any jail or State penitentiary. This statement alone disproves the oft- repeated assertion that the more you educate the negro the more criminal you make him. The reason for this accusation is that statistics show that the race is more addicted to crime in the North than in the South ; the fact that at Washington D.C., the hub of the black man's universe, with its educational advantages offering every inducement for him to assimilate the white man's civilisation, crime is as great as in any other city is quoted to prove that education does not carry with it the essential qualities of virtue. But the primitive law that man must live by the sweat of his brow explains this curious ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 209 phenomenon. The negro problem is almost wholly an economic one. There are no openings for employment in the North, there are in the South. Educated or ignorant, he must eat to live. Poverty, inability to earn a livelihood, since his " colour " excludes him from almost every opening in business, combine to sink him to the lowest level in urban districts. That the negro is valueless as a workman when educated is disproved by a study of what he has since slavery achieved. To persons who speak of negro education as a failure, one may retort that it has never been tried. Owing to their scattered homes all over the South, and to the paucity of the State funds available for school pur- poses, consequent upon the insistence on separate schools for the two races, the education given is unworthy of the name. In Louisiana one-fourth only of negro children attend school, and four months is the average term yearly of its being open. The white child of the South, who receives $4.92 per capita for education per annum, and the black child, who receives $2.21, can scarcely be con- sidered fit to fight the battle of life from an educated stand- point. Mr. E. G. Murphy, who is the Secretary to the Southern Education Board, writes that the peril to the white man lies in the negroes' ignorance, inefficiency, and vice. Slavery permitted no outlet for their superior talent — to-day the talented tenth of the coloured people constitutes the controlling factor in the life of the race. In the fight for education, past and present. Northern philanthropists' generosity has been extreme. The best type of women teachers from New England after slavery times went to the South, and taught the emancipated 14 210 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE blacks with the utmost devotion. In this matter the negro owes the North a debt it can never repay. The official Annual Report on Education for 1 900-1, in alluding to State-supported elementary schools, gives as the total expenditure of the sixteen former slave states with the district of Columbia $35,405,561 ; of this sum 17 per cent, went to support negro schools. It is estimated that the South has spent in the education of colour about $121,000,000 since 1870. In 1900-1 the number of children of both races in these states was placed at 8,698,888. Of these 31*43 per cent, were coloured, 68*57 P^^ cent, were white. Altogether 71 per cent, of white children are enrolled in the public schools and 57 per cent, of the coloured. The average daily attendance was placed at 65*89 out of the white enrolment and at 62*46 of the coloured. These figures indicate the extension of school influence. The educa- tional funds are not equally apportioned between the two races except in a few states, the reason being that a higher grade of scholastic attainment is given in white schools. Generally, the latter run longer than the negro schools, but for both races the schools in the South are far below the average American school. This arises from paucity of funds together with the insistence on separate schools. In some cities high schools are provided, but it is not compulsory to have them for negroes ; the coloured teacher compares favourably with the white. Often the plantation hand of yesterday becomes a class lecturer at a Northern university to- morrow. There are over thirty institutions giving collegiate training to negroes ; many are denominational in character. Some date from ante-bellum days ; some, ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 211 like Howard, Fisk, and Atlanta, were founded by the Freedmen*s Aid Societies and missionary bodies, 1867-9. Others, like Shaw, Knoxville, and New Orleans, are run by Church societies. Many of these institutions are gradually conforming to the new industrial system, where manual training is as important as book-learning, scholars paying nearly a third of their expenses in work. The outcry against college-bred negroes is ridiculous, in the light of their percentage to the whole population which the subjoined table, showing the employment of the race, exemplifies : — Professional Agriculture Trade Manufactures Domestic service Men. Women. Total. 1*2 o'9 i-i 63-4 44-0 57-2 6*8 o"2 4*7 7*0 2*8 5-6 21-6 52-1 31-4 lOO'O lOO'O I00"0 It is obvious that if the coloured people are to live separate from the whites they must have their own lawyers, doctors, teachers, and ministers of religion, and it is satisfactory to learn that the garrulous, shallow, half-educated preacher is now giving place to a better type of men filled with the desire to uplift their people. Under British rule the race is not segregated from the rest of the population ; therefore college-bred youths are not wanted, it being superfluous to train men for profes- sional life for which there are few if any openings. The contradictory feature in American politics, where democracy is the basic principle of government, which the race problem affords, is this : here is a race within its jurisdiction of a backward and unassimilable cha- 212 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE racter, a nation within a nation unable to adjust itself to its environment. Instead of democratic and segregative, the British policy towards the emancipated race has been paternal, sympathetic, and helpful ; thus our race troubles have been nil as compared with those of America. It should, however, be kept in mind when dealing with the coloured people of the States that the essence of abolitionism was that the status of the black man was the charge of the nation. If Congress so translated its responsibility once, what, one would ask, is that respon- sibility to-day in view of the poverty of the Southern States towards the great untaught masses of the negroes ? Left to themselves they constitute a menace to the community ; industrially trained, as at Tuskegee, they evolve into useful citizens. Money seems to be the only thing needful to establish institutions like Booker Washington's in the old slave states. The lack of train- ing in some branch of industry characterizes the generation born after slavery, and is the leading cause of its economic condition. We have seen that, though a hard school, slavery taught the inhabitant of the jungle rudimentary civilisation, but it did so without eflfecting a moral change in him. We have also seen how the freed slave, intoxicated with joy at his newly-acquired freedom, gave himself up to the enjoyment of blissful laziness, his children grew up naturally connecting manual labour with that evil from which their parents had escaped ; hence the enormous mass of black shiftless- ness and uselessness that roams from one place to another. Children of this generation are simply learning that which their grandparents learnt in the great house, or on the plantations of the Southern aristocrat. Now is the ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 213 psychic moment to take hold of the race, to fit the children of the second generation to become useful citizens, not to permit a second descent into criminality. To study this subject thoroughly, to adapt the training in different branches according to the capacity of the " colour '' dealt with, is rendered exceptionally difficult by the wide classification in vogue in the United States, which includes under the name of negro every shade from black to yellow. In the segregative legislation no dis- tinction is made between the coal-black negro and the palest mulatto. In the Southern States they have separate cars and waiting-rooms, hotels and churches, &c. I was told of a black Methodist bishop who in the "Jim-crow " electric cars of New Orleans had to take a back seat behind a screen labelled " for coloured patrons," declaring that if he died in a Jim-crow car he should go " straight to hell." This speech shows the feeling induced in the educated blacks by such treatment. Some, accounted negroes, are as fair as Europeans, so that it is difficult to the uninitiated to duly grasp where "colour " comes in. People worthy of credence told me that the height of miscegenation has been reached. Gradually admixture of black with white will tend to diminish, for the white man no longer lives on terms of familiarity with the women in servitude ; the negro is learning to value home- life and the best of the race to protect their women. Different states have legislated strongly against mixed marriages ; the better coloured women are beginning to comprehend what social purity and race-integrity mean. The poor white man was never acceptable to them, and nowadays they are rarely sought by the rich. It is not 214 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE easy to differentiate in the States between the hybrid and the black, because, notwithstanding the generally received opinion that the mulatto is a mixture of white and black vice, the fact is undeniable at the present time in America that that class wherein European blood pre- dominates contains the leaders of the race ; what good is done is effected by them. This is traceable also to the separative attitude of the American people towards the negro. With superior education, with an accredited share of the white man's energy and power to organise, the leading coloured men and women who are doing good work spring from this section of the race, and its pro- gression, or its retrogression depends upon their influence for good or for evil. If it be hitherto the verdict of experience that the mulatto is excessively vicious, it seems to me that future generations of negroes will rise up some day and call him excessively blessed ! When influenced rightly he rises in mental and moral stature far above his coloured fellows ; the reverse of this, I doubt not, is equally true. There is a saying in Jamaica, " God made the white man. God made the black man, but the devil made the brown man." It is interesting to note what negroes themselves think of race-mixture. Gaines, ^ coloured bishop of Georgia, considers that amalgamation, as partially consummated, operates as detrimentally to the black as to the white. Prior to 1865, he asserts, no legal marriage among the Southern negroes had ever taken place. Mulattoes have, according to him, the preference in employments and in the marriage market. No ignorant race, he thinks, can preserve the semblance of virtue when brought into ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 215 contact with intelligence and money. Kelly Miller, a professor of mathematics at Howard University, a full- blooded black, writes thus on the subject of race-fusion. After stating that the maximum of miscegenation has already been reached, he says "there will henceforth be a more equable diffusion of this blood. The race is undoubtedly approaching a medium of yellowish-brown complexion, the extreme types disappearing in both directions. The light-coloured negroes, on account of the proscription of their present status, are, when possible, entering into identity with the white. Extreme blacks tend to marry lighter hue. The race is toning down into a more compact ethnic group." Choice of colour both in Jamaica and the States in selecting marital com- panions operates largely as does the custom of the lady keeping, by her personal exertions, the object of her affections. In New Orleans I was told of a negress who had taken up laundry work on the occasion of the home-coming of the fourth sharer of her domestic hearth. The reason of her so doing was, she informed her friends, she must offer some " indoocement." I find that President Lincoln expressed himself on the amalgamation subject somewhat strongly. " Because I do not want a coloured woman to be my slave, it does not follow that I want her to be my wife." A very interesting article on this subject appeared in the Atlantic Monthly Magazine^ May, 1903, written by a member of the American Economic Association, appointed to investigate the condition of the American negro. He regrets that no attempt to separate the mulatto element was made in the census of 1900, declaring that any consideration failing to reckon this 216 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE element ignores the most important factor of the race problem, and is faulty in its premises. Every proposed panacea in the way of voting, education, industry is made to fit the same Procrustean bed, forgetting that the primal postulate of these discussions is that the negro is an undeveloped^ not an inferior race. To the error in proceeding towards the negro as though heredity could be overridden by constitutional enactments of law, and in the absolute elimination of the mulatto element, he attributes the prevailing confusion of ideas. The article is lengthy, but Mr. Stone's views are worthy of note. He says those who declare that the black is not inferior, but only undeveloped, ignore the fact that he is one of the oldest races we know of. His failure to develop in his own habitat, as the Caucasian, the Mongolian, is significant. Regardless of the persistence of a racial status fixed thousands of years ago, people think forty years of freedom are sufficient to develop gifts which slavery apparently obscured. The years of slavery and of free- dom are a short span in the life of this people. Mr. Stone then describes a movement to uplift the race recently made by a member of Congress, who cited the achievements of negroes. In reality they were all those of well-known mulattoes, from Murillo's pupil down to Bruce, Du Bois and Booker Washington. The hybrids which race admixture has given, according to this writer, should be classed as the Mestizio of Central America, where the crossing of Spanish with Indian blood has pro- duced so fine a type as Porfirio Diaz. Protesting against the misapplication of the term " negro " in American classification, I quote from a speech made by Major- ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 217 General Banks, before a Boston audience in 1864, in which he says the people of the North are much more disturbed and distressed at the condition of the negro than he is himself. " If we study the true source of all negro agitation of disfranchisement, &c., it will be found that the true negro takes but m insignificant part. The cry which goes up about racial injustice comes from the mulatto or the white politician." If the statutes dis- criminating against the black were not equally applicable to the mulatto the race-question would speedily resolve itself into simple proportions. A few months in the United States is enough to reveal how in the pulpit, in industrial, social, and political gatherings the mulatto wields tremendous influence over the negro. The hybrid is seen at its best in converting masses of the black into solid citizenship, whereas the opposite is an element destructive, dangerous, and inflammable. Examples of the literature of the latter have been collected by me from some of the coloured magazines, which in the States are legion. Speaking of the white landowners of the old South, one contributor writes : " Their established morality, depravity, and deviltry, stimulated and inflated by the absurdity that they were superior to the negro race, actuated them to demoralise, tyrannise, ravage, and murder their brother in black. This bloated and brutal persecution perpetrated by irresponsible de- pravity, and perpetuated by the social attitude of the aristocratic class, became so deeply implanted in the unprincipled citizenship that it is almost hereditary instinct to murder, malign, rob, and brutalise the black to-day. Night-raiders, white-caps, moonshiners, guns, revolvers, knives, these are among the arguments which 218 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE this hereditary outlawry and cut-throatery employ." And again, in the same publication for August, 1903, in an article entitled " Man's Inhumanity to Man," the writer, after referring to the American's boast of humanity in freeing the Cubans, in erecting homes for incurables and lunatics, asks him to consider what treat- ment he has meted out to a people forced from their homes. A vivid description of the ills of the race follows : " You fed us," says he, " clothed us, sheltered us, furnished us with schools, political rights. Then you stood aside to see what we would do. Like the children that we were, we advanced with faltering steps. But since we failed in forty years to rid ourselves of all the vices you in two hundred had taught us, instead of encouraging in us manhood and self-respect, you try to crush it out with your sneers and curses. You of the North may wonder why these words are addressed to you. You say, 'We have not subjected you to such outrages.' No ! but you have been indifferent to these outrages. You have tried to shift the responsibility ! You heard the cry of the Cuban, and rescued him ; but in your own land your ears are deaf to the howl of the mob, the cry of the negro pleading for justice and mercy. Since you are silent, the odour arising from the burning flesh of human beings is not offensive to you. . . . Wrought into the very fibre of your lives is the heritage of your ancestors ; but when you look at the negro behind his unnatural polish there lies the potency of the jungle. Prolific as the womb of Africa the negro race is outstripping the white in the number of its population. How will the reckoning be when this black child, grown to the estate of man, shall feel the power in his veins and ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 219 stretch his mighty limbs for retaliation ? " From another source the following : "The negro is growing restless on the subject of caste prejudice in darkest America. He is not satisfied at the treatment he is receiving from the whites. The more enlightenment he gets the greater his persecution ! " Perhaps the liberty granted to the Press serves its turn ; it may be healthier to throw off such matter into print than to repress it, and keep it simmering without a safety-valve. It cannot fail, however, to perniciously in- fluence the minds of excitable, disaffected persons for whom it is intended. These quotations sufficiently describe the drift of thought of the mischievously inclined mulatto class. At the same time, I repeat that it is unfair to judge a race by their worst productions. Before I pass away from this subject I cannot do better than bring before my readers the conclusions which a celebrated authority has come to concerning race-mixture. Professor Bryce, in a Romanes lecture delivered in 1902 in the Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford, said : " We have been led to conclude, though more doubtfully, for the data are imperfect, that the mixture of races very dissimilar, and especially of European whites with blacks, tends to lower rather than to improve the resultant stock. May not the new-mixed race stand, not half way between the two parent stocks, but nearer the lower than the higher ? Should this be so, it tends to dissuade any attempt to mix races so diverse as the negroes and whites. Yet the negro race in America is not wanting in intelligence : it is fond of learning. . . . Teutonic races seem destined to keep their blood distinct from colour, whether in Asia, Africa, or America." CHAPTER XVI " The laws of changeless nistice bind Oppressor with oppressed. Afid close as sin and suffering joined We march to fate abreast.'^'' THE Indian and the negro met on the American continent for the first time at Jamestown in Virginia in 1619. Both were complete savages. There were then twenty negroes and thousands of Indians. At the present time there are some nine millions of negroes and sixty thousand Indians. The latter race is an annual tax upon the Government for food and clothing to the extent, in 1899, of $12,784,676, to say nothing of the sums spent in " policing it." In contrast to this, the negro, now in the possession of wealth estimated at $900,000,000, for two hundred years and over was sought for utilitarian purposes, and whilst other immigrants were not permitted to land on American shores unless they could prove the ability to sustain themselves, not only was his passage paid, but agents were sent to force him to come. That he could be and was convertible into a good workman in ante-bellum days the whole life of the old industrial South, with its wealth in cotton, sugar, tobacco, and rice, proves. Professor Shaler, of Harvard University, in comparing 220 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 221 the negroes with the Algonquin Indians, says : " A touch of housework and of honest toil took the breath of the aborigines away, but these tropical exotics fell to their tasks and trials far better than the men of our own kind could have done. . . , For this work" (raising cotton) "the negro proved to be the only fit man, for while the whites can do this work, they prefer other employment." Much has been written about the dislike of the white man for work in association with the negroes. That dislike is less in the old slave-holding states than in the North. In the South to-day the freed negro is not, as many foretold, a tax to the community, but with few excep- tions takes care of himself and of the unfortunate members of his race. The white people in a county of the Black Belt had been holding a convention, the object being to encourage white people to emigrate into the county. After the adjournment of the convention an old coloured man met the president of the meeting in the street and asked the object of the gathering. When told, he replied, " 'Fore God, boss, don't you know that we niggers got just as many white people now in this county as we can support ! " In Georgia a short time since, great consterna- tion prevailed because a large portion of the coloured people decided to leave and go elsewhere. No stone was left unturned to induce them to remain, to prevent financial ruin to the white farmers. Many of the coloured people appreciate the fact that their sphere is the scene of their former slavery. Here they are better 222 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE understood, their capabilities more appreciated, their inhe- rent weaknesses more readily condoned than in the North. In the cotton-fields they are acquiring independence. A story is told of a ship lost at sea for many days. Finally it sighted a friendly vessel. From the mast of the unfortunate ship was seen a signal — " Water, water ! We die of thirst ! " The answer from the approaching friendly vessel at once came back — " Cast down your bucket where you are." A second time the signal came from the distressed ones — "Water ! water ! Send us water ! " and was again answered — " Cast down your bucket where you are." A third and fourth signal for water was similarly answered. The captain of the distressed vessel at last heeded the injunction, cast down his bucket, and it came up full of fresh, sparkling water from the mouth of the Amazon river. This is exactly the position of the negro in the Southern States. If he will but turn his attention to the cultivation of the soil he has a future. To encourage them to "cast down their bucket" in agriculture, in mechanics, in trade, and in domestic service is the aim of the training at Tuskegee and Hampton. In the great leap from slavery to freedom the fact seems to have been overlooked that the masses of " colour " must live by the productions of their hands, and that their manual efforts will be enhanced in value in proportion as skill, know- ledge, and science are brought to bear upon their indus- trial pursuits. The necessity of fitting the negro for his walk in life was overlooked by earlier educationalists, who, instead of making him a useful member of the community, succeeded in transforming him mostly into a ridiculous anomaly, alienating from his race the ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 223 sympathy that otherwise he might have enlisted on its behalf. "The fact is," says Dr. Washington in one of his addresses, " that 90 per cent, of our people depend upon the common occupations for their living, and outside of the cities 85 per cent, depend upon agricul- ture for support. Notwithstanding this, our people have been educated since the war in everything else but the very thing that most of them live by. An institution that will give this training of the hand along with the highest mental culture will soon convince our people that their salvation is in the ownership of property, industrial and business development rather than in mere political agitation." Considering that the coloured people's possessions were nil in i860 their acquired property and status is revealed by the census of 1900 to be astonishing, and shows that a large class of them has cultivated thrift and industry, denoting wonderful pro- gress. In the year 1900, 746,717 farms were worked by negroes, 33 per cent, of the farms in Florida, 39*9 per cent, in Georgia, 42*1 per cent, in Alabama, 50*2 of the farms in Louisiana, 27*2 in Mississippi were operated by negroes. Of all these coloured farmers in the United States 70 per cent, derived their income from cotton, 24 per cent, from miscellaneous products, 6 per cent, from tobacco. The reasonableness of industrial education is apparent. To educate men for posts which they can never profitably fill is folly, but until this training of the hand was seriously considered the Northern philan- thropists spent vast sums on the education on modern European lines of negro youth, the result being that they have been woefully disappointed. The lethargy 224 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE of Africa is still in negroid veins, and a smattering of Greek, Latin, and the sciences has not been the right corrective. This greater chance to earn a livelihood in the South operates beneficially in every way. Statistics show that the coloured folk of the South are more generally married, have far larger families than Northern negroes, the result of earlier marriages. The proportion of children in Southern States is greater than in the whole country at large. In 1900 the percentage of population of the whole South under ten years of age was 277, in the rest of the country it was 21 '9. To impress upon the negro the need to identify himself closely with the interests of the South, in the same way in which the negro in Cuba has practically settled the race question there by making himself a part in thought and action, is one of the present objects before the race leaders, as well as to induce the large shifting class to buy homes and settle, not roam from place to place, this being essential to ameliorate and to stimulate the growth of family life. To the lack of this many of the lamentable features related to negro life are attributed by those who know the coloured people. Curiously enough, science corroborates Biblical teaching as to the benefit to humanity of what we call family life. Among mammals the longer the animal requires parental care so much higher the development. The parallel to this holds good with human beings, the greater the love and care bestowed upon the offspring, so much physically and mentally will he be superior to the neglected orphan. Ethnology proves that where the family life is at its highest, so the race in ratio improves. Love, self-sacrifice. ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 225 forbearance are qualities called into being in the home circle, character is moulded by the incidents of daily life. The acknowledged basis and raison d ^etre of civilised marital union is affection. May we not infer from it that affinity and repulsion in opposite race-groups are the natural guides to race-integrity ? This great law of nature, apparently, cannot be infringed in the individual or in the race without, generally speaking, unfortunate results. The Afric-American people possess the religious instinct, but its saving grace is a grand capacity for fidelity and affection ; these latter qualities the race exemplified in its faithful care of owners' households and property during the Civil War, when thousands of scattered homesteads in the South were practically at the mercy of four millions of slaves. It is not possible to believe that scenes such as are depicted in " Uncle Tom's Cabin " were of common occurrence in the face of the incontestable fact that during the great contention no case is recorded where any slave turned against his master's wife and children entrusted to his keeping. This is all the more noteworthy when one remembers that the cause for which the aristocrats of the South were fighting, if successful, meant that those slaves could never be free. A lady told me how she, her sisters, and an aunt, after the war, had been kept from starvation by the earnings of their former cook, who, years before, being an intelligent mulatto, her father had sent to New Orleans to be trained as a chef. Several similar stories of former slaves supporting their ex-masters' families in post-bellum days were told me by Southern people, convincing me that the generally conceived notions of the hardships of slavery 15 226 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE have very little fundamental truth as a basis. The slaves represented to their owners so much money ; vvras it likely that the latter would lessen by systematic bad usage their market value ? Cruelty was not the rule, it was the exception. Even in slavery days, apparently, there was in the minds of some of the masters great pre- judice against mulatto children. I was told by several persons that plantation-owners would only sell their female slaves if they produced hybrid children ; the experience of masters in those days was that the half- breed was more treacherous, passionate, and vicious, also more delicate in constitution than the full-blooded negro. People in Jamaica have repeatedly said to me, " I love the black man, he is child-like, faithful, and tractable, but I have no use for the hybrid." I have already pointed out the difference between the social status of the light- coloured people both in Jamaica and the States. Under British rule the mulatto tends to ally himself with the European, whereas in the States, owing to the attitude of the American against all "colour," he is forced against his will into the ranks of the negro. The firm, authoritative rule of the educated white is the best possible training for the black. Du Chaillu found that as long as he was merely kind and considerate with his African porters they cared less for him and his fate than when he assumed an attitude of despotic power, and asserted his will with decision on pain of death on the spot. Always the strong-minded governor or officer along the coast of Africa becomes the most popular with the natives. The temperament of the pure African shows marked and interesting peculiarities. Everywhere you note lack of will-power, inability to ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 227 take the initiative ; impulsive, he is unable to realise a future, or to control present desire. He shows callous- ness to the sufferings of others, is speedily aroused to ferocity under personal fear ; hating silence, he passionately loves rhythm in sound and motion. His excitability and his lack of reserve are two powerful integers in his mental make-up. In the jungle he led a happy-go- lucky, thriftless existence: life to him was one long holiday. He forgot the disaster of yesterday as soon as it had ceased to trouble him ; in the same way he failed to foresee impending disaster. When anger or fear aroused him the tiger in him flashed out; somebody died a bloody death. His every emotion is readable on his face, his garrulousness knows no limit, and he ever craves for the companionship of his fellows. The cranial capacity of the negro is placed above that of the Australian aboriginal. Tylor, of Oxford, quoting Professor Flower, gives a mean cranial capacity of 79 cubic inches for the Australian, 85 for the African, 91 for the Caucasian. It may interest some to learn what the students of craniology have to say as to the qualitative comparison of structure and texture of the negro brain. Topinard declares that in the African the secondary convolutions are less complex and rich in minute struc- tures than in the European. Professor A. H. Keane cites the opinion of Waitz to the effect that the convolutions in the negro brain are less numerous and more massive than in the European. Professor Tylor writes ; " The development of cellular tissue with a corresponding in- crease of mental power apparently goes on till arrested by the closure of cranial sutures. The serratures are stated to be more complex in the higher than in the 228 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE lower races, and their definite closing appears to be delayed until a later period in life amonjst the former than amongst the latter." This physiological feature has been observed by Colonel Ellis among Upper Guinea peoples and amongst the Soudanese. Another writer says "the black is a child and will remain so, and the sudden arrest of the mental faculties at the age of puberty is attributed to the closing of the sutures." Some scientists consider that the marked development of the reproductive instinct among Africans at this particular age absorbs energy at the expense of mental force. Possibly this accounts for the circumstance that African children learn easily, generally speaking, till that period, but fail to progress at the same rate afterwards. Others argue that in the earlier stage memory, the perceptive and imitatory faculties are mostly required, whilst later the faculty for abstract reasoning is needful, wherein the African is lacking. The summing-up of Mr. J. A. Tillinghast, whose writings I have often quoted on the subject or the negro's mental equipment, is interesting. He con- siders that the low state of the African can hardly be deemed the accidental effect of conditions, for it has its counterpart in the inner constitution of the race. It is well known that selection operating through many generations tends to bring about a close physical and psychic adaptation of the organism to its environment. In West Africa no industrial system could be self- developed. Considerations of biologic evolution lead us, apart from other evidence, to believe that the mind of a lower tropical race is unfitted to assimilate the advanced civilisation of a strenuous and northern race. Yet it is, ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 229 as is evident, not incapable of progress. The outcome of the pitting of the sensuous African against the strife of Anglo-Saxon civilisation is indeed a problem ; still in the face of temperamental obstacles a portion of the race has achieved much. The coloured people in America are divisible into three classes : (i) The educated class ; (2) the home-earning, industrious, agricultural, and domestic classes; (3) the shiftless and the criminal. Under the heading of "Conjugal Condition," in the last census bulletin I find that three-fifths of the negroes are reported as single, nearly a third being married ; a fractional proportion is given for widowed and also for divorced. Since the census of 1890, the class of single has lost ground relatively, each of the other classes having gained. The difficulty of obtaining true returns is admitted, but I think that these declarations by State statisticians represent as accurately as can be ascertained the fact that on the whole an improvement in morality is taking place. Coloured people themselves admit that vice exists now in far larger proportion than during slavery. This was to be expected ; and persons who take isolated examples, such as one I have before me, where in a county in Mississippi during twelve months 300 marriage licences for whites, against three for coloured people, were granted, where in proportion to the population 1,200 should have been issued, deduce very lamentable arguments. Much good work in this respect may be looked for from the graduates of Tuskegee and Hampton ; both these establishments are open to both sexes, who meet together in class-rooms at meals and elsewhere, and I was told on the best 230 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE authority that a case or immorality is of the rarest occurrence. Space forbids me to speak of the numerous papers and magazines issued and edited by the coloured people of the States, or of the many flourishing concerns in the financial world in which they are interested, but I must devote a few words to some of negro blood whose names are famous, such as Dumas the novelist. Tanner the artist, Coleridge-Taylor the musician, Pushkin the Russian artist, Toussaint L'Ouverture the general, Dunbar the poet, the beauty of whose writings is not so universally known as it deserves to be. The following are some of his thoughts on love. We know how the white poet treats this theme ; let us for a moment follow the inspiration of an Afric-American bard : — "Love does not come at every nod, Or every voice that callcth 'hasten,' He seeketh out some heart to chasten, And whips it, wailing up to God. Her life was like the stream that floweth, And mine was like the wailing sea, Her love was like the flower that bloweth, And mine was like the searching bee ! " Douglas, who first preached the creed of thrift and industry to a dreamy, dollarless, dazed, unpractical race, was one of the foremost reformers. " We have been accustomed to hear," he said, " that money is the root of all evil ; on the other hand, property, money will pur- chase for us, is the only condition by which any people can rise to the dignity of genuine manhood, for without property there can be no leisure, without leisure there ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 231 can be no thought, without thought there can be no invention, without invention there can be no progress." Dunbar, who was, according to Howell, the first black man to feel the life of the negro aesthetically and express it lyrically, laments Douglas in these lines — "And there is pause, a breath space in the strife, And vapours that obscure the sun of life j And Ethiopia, with bosom torn. Laments the passing of her noblest born." As editors, senators, congressmen, divines, teachers, men of negro blood are serving in the interests of the great republic, and have served. Phillis Wheatley, a scholar and poetess, belonged to the coloured folk, also Chesnutt, the novelist, who wrote " The House behind the Cedar." Fortune and Bruce, together with Du Bois and Booker Wash- ington, are the leading representatives of the race to-day. In foregoing pages I quoted some passages proceeding from the classes of race-prejudiced amongst the coloured people. I will, however, close this chapter in making my readers familiar with a finer spirit exhibited in writings of men of saner judgment, of maturer, better-balanced mental acumen. In an article published in The Coloured Magazine^ by Professor Roscoe Conkling Bruce, the son of a former senator of Mississippi, graduate of Harvard, where he took high honours, that gentleman writes : "And now, my friends, you enter the circle of educated men and women. Your personal influence will be felt in schoolroom and in pulpit. Your directing intelligence will count in law and medicine and business ; as able 232 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE and devoted men and women you, by your example, will steady the nerves of a staggering people and make the word * negro ' more than a reproach. Delicate indecision, hesitant virtue, carping discontent, bric-a-brac culture, these ill become stalwart men and robust women. By all the honourable traditions of the noble family into which you are now adopted you are pledged to pick your way daintily in the soft places of the earth, you are pledged to make your lives real, useful, con- structive. Remember noblesse oblige^'* Professor Du Bois pithily describes the aim of educa- tion thus : " The idea should not be simply to make men carpenters, but to make carpenters men." CHAPTER XVII " A crust of bread and a corner to sleep in^ A viiniite to suiile and an hour to weep in, A pint of joy to a peck of trotible. And never a laugh but the moans covie double. And this is life." Dunbar. These lines, written by Dunbar, the negro poet, describe pathetically the light-hearted African painfully struggling to adapt his inherited characteristics to the pitch of civilisation into which he finds himself suddenly thrust as a responsible unit. To hammer and to shape his individuality, his idiosyncrasies between sunrise and sunset, from the savagery of the jungle to the orderly, polished estate of American modern life, is much to require of this newly incorporated element into civil life, and the transformation is being accompanied by much sloughing of his original moral and mental tissue. This chapter deals with the painful process ; and in the criminal revelations of the negro let us bear in mind that he is set in the midst of a people extreme to mark amiss his failures and his lapses from virtue. It has been already made evident to my readers that the temper of the Southern white population towards the black had grounds for its provocation, the initial cause of its 234 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE antagonistic attitude being the enfranchisement of the negro when in a state of unfitness. But in the historical complexities of this situation curious phases present themselves. The greatest animosity towards the coloured people does not come from the remnant of the old aristoc- racy, the slave-owning class, who suffered severe financial loss by the abolitionist policy, but from that known as " white trash," who in ante-bellum days were excluded from participation in the government. Probably there is an economic reason for it lying in the fact that competition between black and white in the South industrial world is beginning to be felt as a result of the improved training of the negro. Race-prejudice, as we have seen, is as great at the North as at the South ; lynchings have taken place in New England States as well as in the Black Belt. Since 1885 statistical information recorded by Mr. G. P. Upton, sub-editor of the Chicago Tribune^ shows the date, name of victim, race, crime, locality where these execrable mob executions have taken place. Prior to September, 1904, the number of lynchings he recorded was 2,875. During 1891, 1892, 1893, and 1894 the maximum took place ; they were respectively 193, 236, 200, 189. Fortunately the latter years show a decided falHng off. In 1901 there were 10 1 ; in 1902, 96 ; and in 1903, 104. In a tabulated record by states and territories since 1885 he shows that lynching is neither local nor sectional, but universal. Mississippi with 298 cases leads the way, and Maryland with 20 shows the fewest for the South, but in this list actually Alaska has had 4 lynchings ; Maine and Pennsylvania 3 each ; Indiana, 38 ; Illinois, 19 ; Iowa, 12, &c. ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 235 The best citizens of the United States feel it to be a blot upon their national civilisation. These 2,875 people sacrificed to mob fury for 73 reasons prove to the hilt that the commonly asserted cause for lynching, namely, assaults upon women, is not the besetting sin of the negro, for out of this number recorded since 1885, 564 only have been lynched for that cause against 1,099 for murder ; 106 cases were for arson ; 326 for theft, burglary, and robbery; 94 for race-prejudice; 134 for unknown reasons ; 53 were lynched for simple assaults ; 18 for insulting whites; 16 for threats; 17 for un- popularity ; 10 were innocent. The remaining causes offered not the slightest reason for mob murder — slander, miscegenation, informing, drunkenness, fraud, Voodoo- ism, elopement, train wrecking, poisoning stock, passing counterfeit coin, introducing small-pox, concealing criminals, gambling, kidnapping. One youth was lynched for jilting his girl, another for advocating colonisation, another for " moonshining." The above causes show how common at present the evil has become, and how it tends to barbarize in the exceptionally cruel lynchings in Northern communities. At first negroes were lynched only for assaults and murders. The Bishop of Georgia considers that lynch- ing is due entirely to race-hatred, not to horror over any particular crime ; unless checked it may involve anarchy. But the sub-editor of the Tribune^ who has kept track of the increase of legislation of a repressive nature and observed its effect, sees a more encouraging trend or public opinion. Law-abiding men are doing all in their power to restore the authority of the courts, and their efforts are beginning to be felt. "Whereas," says he, 236 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE " there has been a decrease in lynchings, it is to be noted there has been an increase in legal executions. In the South this year there have been legally hanged 123 persons ; five years ago every one of them would have been lynched." Wherever the law works promptly and retribution follows swiftly on the crime lynchings decrease. Whilst I was in the States last autumn Governor Terrell, of Georgia, ordered the trial by court martial in Savannah of all but one of the officers stationed at Statesborough who allowed the mob to enter the court-house and take out Reed and Cato, two murderers already convicted and sentenced, burning them afterwards at the stake. In another case, that of a negro who murdered a white pedlar and was taken from jail at Huntsville, Alabama, and hanged, a special grand jury indicted nineteen persons who took part in that lynch- ing, when their leader declared, " If we cannot eradicate the spirit of anarchy from among us, if we cannot curb the lawless element of our country, then we have failed in the highest purpose of our government, and our boasted civilisation is but a delusion and a myth. Realising that this is the supreme moment of our history, we must either take a stand for law and order to-day, or surrender to the mob and to the anarchist for all time." This is the feeling of responsible men coupled with an earnest resolve to abolish the evil. Professor Lombroso says that while the coloured are 12 per cent, of the population, they are responsible for 40 per cent, of the homicides. The increase in the criminal rate for the whole of the United States from 1880 to 1890 was 12 per cent. ; compared with the parallel growth of education it is noticeable. Professor Kelly ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 237 Miller accounts for the excess of Northern negro criminality over Southern in declaring it is, in urban districts, due to - congested population, more stringent enforcement of law, the difficulty of earning a livelihood, and to the circumstance that many undesirable Southern negroes fly North to escape from justice. Without appealing to statistics to confirm the alleged increase of crime in Northern cities, I cannot do better than quote the words of one of the foremost negroes, R. C. Bruce, whose name I have already mentioned as a graduate of Harvard. He is also a philanthropist and teacher at Tuskegee. The Washington Posty January 15, 1905, reviews this gentleman's article in a well-known magazine, and cites a portion of it dealing with the increase of crime, thus: "A second characteristic of the negro population is excessive crime. In St. Louis there are statistics of arrests since 1876, of inmates of the house of refuge since 1892, and of commitments to the workhouses. All of these statistics are of course open to serious qualifications, but grave excess of crime must finally be acknowledged. With the exception of one year, to use the crudest but simplest index of criminality, the negroes furnished an increasing percentage of the arrests until 1898-99, when the proportion decreased slightly ; in that year, though forming only 6 per cent, of the population, they furnished almost 27 per cent, of the arrests. From the statistics of the arrests in Philadelphia we may draw the legitimate conclusion that from the middle of the seventies negro crime has steadily increased. With some qualifications the records of the Eastern Penitentiary make it plain that the negro, con- stituting 4 per cent, of the population of Philadelphia, 238 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE furnished from 1885 to 1889 14 per cent, or the serious crimes, and from 1890 to 1895, 22 J per cent. More intelligent and therefore more dangerous crime seems to come from a trained negro criminal class.** The American newspaper comments thus on Mr. Bruce's conclusions: "So here is a coloured educator, not a white Southern politician, who finds that physical and moral decadence among the negroes, at least in St. Louis and Philadelphia, is not arrested by what we call * educa- tion,' but on the contrary seems to spread and flourish hand in hand with it. What makes his conclusions especially important is the fact that he is a student looking for truths whereon to found a plan — not a doctrinaire looking for arguments wherewith to justify a theory.'* Professor Du Boissaid recently at a coloured meeting: "The negro academy (Atlanta University) ought to sound a note of warning that would echo in every cabin of the land. Unless we conquer our present vices they will conquer us. We are diseased, we see developing criminal tendencies at an alarming high percentage ; our men and women are habitually immoral.** The Pro- fessor, whose studies of negro life are accepted by officials in the States as trustworthy, assigns one-tenth of the negro population to the potentially criminal class. He considers they are not so vicious and quarrelsome as they are shiftless and debauched. Mr. W. F. Willcox, a census statistician, read before the American Social Science Association, in 1899, a paper in which he stated that in the eleventh census (1890) in the South there were 6 white prisoners to every 10,000 white persons, there were 29 negro ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 239 prisoners to every 10,000 of the negro population. In representing that it is sometimes urged that the Southern judicial system being in the hands of the whites, justice is not impartially administered — that less evidence is required to convict a negro than a white he answers the objection by asking if justice is also impartially, or not, administered in the North, since in 1890 there were 12 white prisoners in a population of 10,000 whites, and 69 negroes to 10,000 negroes. According to Mr. Willcox, defective family life and training account for much crime. Prisoners between 20 and 30 years of age are always more numerous than at any other age, but this is especially so with negroes ; and he urged that kind of education which should aim to supplement the shortcomings of their family life and reduce their temptations to crime by increasing their desire to live by legitimate industry — this is the aim of the industrial school. The difference between urban and country justice is suggestively illustrated by the following item from a New York paper. The Attorney-General of Louisiana prepared a Bill to submit to the legislature to have the effect of suppressing lynching. It reported statistics for 1 902-1903 thus : — Murder trials and convictions 129 „ „ „ acquittals 140 „ „ pending 101 Manslaughter trials and convictions ... 148 „ „ „ acquittals 131 „ » pending 31 Commenting on this curious phase of aflPairs, the New York Sun says the country juries apparently are sterner 240 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE than those in New Orleans. In that city there were, during the same period, 23 acquittals and only 5 convic- tions, 56 acquittals in manslaughter cases against 15 convictions. "Of the 129 murderers convicted there are a larger number under sentence than ever before. Louisiana juries, however, still continue tender-hearted, and the death penalty is rarely ordered." In connection with this tender-heartedness it is as well to mention that in the South the prisons are managed on highly economic principles. I have previously stated that instead of prisoners being a burden to the State their labour constitutes them an asset ; no doubt this aspect appeals to the hearts of juries and judges in the adminis- tration of justice. The ex-mural prison-gangs are eagerly sought by contractors and others for road-making and such-like purposes, since they furnish under compulsion and good food some of the most highly-prized labour in the world. A very interesting study of female criminals, entitled " Experimental Sociology," by F. A. Kellor, a lady graduate of Chicago, was published a short time ago. This book describes the work which Miss Kellor under- took to investigate, namely, the cases of female delinquents anthropologically, sociologically, and psychologically, in tire prisons, workhouses, and penitentiaries of eight Southern States. Her study is avowedly incomplete ; women students, white criminals, and negro criminals are compared. She notes the difference of mode or commission of crime by the two races, that of the coloured people being more impulsive, lacking premedita- tion and careful scheming, with inability to anticipate the results of the crime. Negroes, she thinks, do not yet ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 241 clearly see the relations of things ; accepting standards of morality from the whites, which they can as yet only imitate, they do not recognise them as essentials until worked out by race-experience. Miss Kellor's individual inquiries into the nature of their crime yields the know- ledge that although there may be notorious and dangerous criminals, there are few professionals whose livelihood consists in the pursuit of crime ; she found little or no organised crime such as gangs, with recognised leaders. To the assertion that negroes who can read and write are more criminal than the illiterate, she replies that the statement is not borne out in the South. Another consideration should not be overlooked, in the States where Miss Kellor pursued her investigations of crime no agencies for its prevention exist ; there are in the South no vacation schools, no aids to discharged convicts, co- operative societies, and employment bureaus. Penalties in the South, she says, are extreme, and negroes are serving life sentences for crimes which receive penalties from one to five years in the North. The value of this lady's work lies in the fact that it represents the first scientific study of American female criminals ; she took the first series of measurements, and shows the link between physical, psychological, and social data. For instance, it is of interest to learn that 50 per cent, of the inmates admitted idleness at the time the crime was committed, and 33 per cent, were engaged in non-pro- ductive employments. She found 46 per cent, were married, 30 per cent, divorced, the others had irregular relationships. The average age of marriage she places at 16 years, the average number of children was 3*i. Almost a third of the stories of homicides told her by 16 242 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE negroes were committed under the influence of liquor, through jealousy, or fighting, often at social gatherings. In answer to her inquiries as to the families from whom criminals came, she found the number of children to range from 8 to 27 ! This points to extreme poverty of childhood years and to its being forced prematurely into the ranks of labour. The average age at which girls began work was 12*5 years, the minimum being 6 years, when they began life as nurses, receiving no wage till 10 years and upwards. CHAPTER XVIII *Wf a man is unhappy this must be his own fault, for God made all men to be hai)py'^ — Epictetus. The negro in his assimilation or American life could be studied from many points of view, but space compels me to confine my remarks to three or four phases of them. Talcing him as a soldier, he has been considered satisfac- tory both from British and American standpoints. The regular army of the United States from 1870 to 1900 included four coloured regiments. At first a motley mixture joined — volunteers, freedmen, released slaves ; these shovi^ed loyalty, sobriety, and courage, entertaining a healthy pride in the efficiency of their corps. They were at the same time childlike, possessing no indepen- dence or self-reliance ; as years passed more confident and educated men appeared, but they added to their former qualities gambling and quarrelling ; there were, however, no deserters. For drill, fidelity, and smartness the negro regular takes first rank ; his fighting powers have been proved over and over again in the Civil War, in conflicts with Indians, and lastly in the Cuban War, where they fought with vigour and dash. To have heard them laughing and chaffing over the events of a day when for twelve mortal hours they had lived under a galling fire, 243 244 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE says Lieutenant M. B. Stuart, you would have thought they had been returning from a picnic. In the exhaustion of the moment, says this officer, race and social distinc- tions were forgotten ; officers lay down among their men and slept like logs. Suddenly an officer was heard to yell : " Here ! you man, take your feet off my stomach ! Well ! ril be hanged if it ain't a nigger ! " As the commotion subsided the negro was heard to remark, " Well ! if dat ain't de mos' partikler man I ever see." A characteristic story is told of a negro cavalryman in an engagement in Cuba returning to the rear where some black troops were anxious to get to the front, and bawling comfortingly across the intervening space, " Dat's all right, gemmen, don't get into a sweat ; dere's lot's of fighting left for you ! " Their cheerfulness amid the hardships of campaigning is as striking as their bravery. As an employer of labour the negro is by no means deficient in common sense in his methods. In 1899, at Fazelleville, North Carolina, a mulatto named T. W. Thurston established a silk mill ; it was successful, he had 400 negro operatives at work. When interviewed by the correspondent of the New York yournal of Commerce^ October, 1900, he told that gentleman that no one could successfully run a mill by applying white methods to coloured people^ Strict discipline, no indulgence, was his rule ; the boys he beat for faults and irregularities. " My methods may be objected to by humanitarians," said he, " but I am proving their success." I may perhaps insert a word for the coloured medical man. When at Washington I constantly heard that it was folly to educate coloured men in the medical pro- ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 245 fession, since no white people would employ them, and their own " colour " distrusted them, and called in white doctors. At Howard University I inquired into the truth of this statement, and was assured that already several coloured doctors were making money fast in their profession, their patients naturally being coloured persons. Teachers of every shade are doing increasingly good work in the South, where the great masses of the negroes live their lives under fairly normal conditions, which fact discredits the opinion of certain writers who consider the race is tertding to decrease and who generalize on inductions drawn from studies of special centres like Charleston and Washington, but which do not apply to the whole race scattered over the breadth and length of the land, but solely to locally infected centres. To emphasize that it is by the sweat of his brow in the cultivation of the products of the soil of the South to which the negro must look for his future sustenance, I will quote what Mr. Fortune, the coloured editor of an influential negro paper, said in 1899 • "When I left Florida for Washington, twenty years ago, every brake- man, every engineer, and almost every man working on the railroad was a black man. To-day a black man can hardly get a job at any avocation. This is because the fathers did not educate their children along the lines they were working. And as a consequence the race is losing its grip on the industries that are the bones and sinews of life." The competition is accentuated by refusals to admit negro membership into labour organisa- tions. The race is thereby thrust upon the land. Of the 746,715 farms operated by negroes in the States in 1900, 21 per cent, were owned entirely, another 4-2 per 246 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE cent, were owned in part, by the farmers working on them. The fact, in other words, is that forty years after emancipation about a fourth of all negro farmers have become landowners. The crop lien system of credit farming, though very unsatisfactory, was the only door open to freedmen, through it thousands have left penury to become proprietors. The three factors of this system are A the plantation owner, B the merchant, C the negro after emancipation ; and it worked in this fashion : A, partially bankrupt, divided his plantation, letting C and his family work 80 acres on shares. A furnished as before food, shelter, tools, stock, possibly clothes. C worked the land, receiving from a third to a half of the net proceeds after the cost of food and cloth- ing advanced by A had been deducted. B, the merchant, after a time treated directly with C, securing himself by a mortgage which constituted a second lien on C's growing crop, A's rent being the first. The situation of the farming population in the Black Belt at the present time shows four definite classes on the way towards farm ownership. Labourers, who either receive fixed wages at the end of the year with or without home and food, or, as contract hands, receive in the working season 35 to 40 cents per diem. Croppers, who have no capital, but get a stipulated portion of the crop when payment for advanced supplies has been deducted. Above the cropper comes the metayer, or share-tenant, who works the land on his own responsibility, pays rent in cotton, supported by the crop-lien system. This class includes the great mass of the negro agricultural people. The renter, who for fixed money-rental belongs to the intelligent and responsible ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 247 class, chooses his own crops and learns the value of money through these rudimentary transactions. At Tuskegee there are negro conferences held annually when numbers of the better class are glad of the privilege to attend these meetings, in which they are encouraged to progress in thrift, industry, and intelligent farming. At one of their conventions, which take place during vacation time, a delegate was interrupted in his speech by the question, " Are the coloured people in your district buying land this year ? " to which he replied with much dignity, " A pup gits his eyes open in nine days, but it took us niggahs thirty-nine years from 'mancipation to git our eyes open. We see now fast enough ! " Amusing stories are told of these agricultural con- ferences as well as of Booker Washington's tact in bringing the ramblers home when apt to roam from their subject. One of the members, who was not pleased with the way in which negro farmers spent their leisure, called to a speaker — " Do you live in the city or in the country ? " " I thank God," was the answer shouted back, " I live ten miles from a railroad." Another farmer, owning his farm and a surplus of cash which he lends to his coloured neighbours, was asked what interest he charged. " Ten per cent.," was the reply ; " but the white folks ask fifteen and twenty." " Don't you ever lend to white folks ? " he was then asked by the Principal of Tuskegee. " No, sir," he returned ; " I'm afeard they'd beat me out of it." " Don't the negroes ever cheat you ? " 248 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE " Yes, I get beat once in a while by them great pray-ers, they've got away with about $125 may be." " Whom do you mean by ' them great pray-ers' ? " he was asked. " Our Baptist friends," was the answer. " How about the Methodist ? " somebody inquired. " I ain't ever had no dealin's with them." Roars of laughter followed this speech, but when it had died away, looking gravely around, he said — " This ain't joking. We ain't got a Methodist in the place." The Black Belt is, however, not filled with farmers of the above industrious, happy, and progressive type. The one-room cabin is found all over the South, ignorance and poverty are boon companions, still there is decidedly an encouraging aspect in the agricultural industrial outlook. Freedom has not destroyed the economic value of the negro, let people say what they may. In 1850 the cotton bales produced by slave labour were estimated at 2,233,781. In 1899 ^^^ amount of bales was 8,900,000. It is in the cities where negroes are at their worst ; here they sink to the lowest level or created beings : slum meets slum, black scum and white scum mingle in these dens of iniquity, with disastrous consequence. Perhaps some day legislation will prevent negroes flocking to populous centres where competitive industries give them no chance to struggle against the human vortex of evil. This strife to live, with alcoholism and the evils of slum life, are causes assigned by Dr. Rosse, of Washington, D.C., for the increase of nervous disease, insanity, and suicide, which some say has taken place since emancipation. Infant mortality is phenomenal in ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 249 the big towns ; one-half of negro infants die of inherited disease, of consumption, and of inherent debility. Dr. Gamble, a coloured medical man, writes in The Coloured American Magazine as follows : " Through- out the world infant mortality has rarely fallen below 25 per cent. . . . For the years 1890, 1891, 1892 in New York alone the death-rate for all children under five years was over 41 per cent. The twelfth census (1900) shows a much more alarming state of affairs, especially amongst the negro population. Fifty-six cities in all parts of the country give a greater death-rate than birth- rate among negroes." By way of illustration he takes New Orleans. In this city white births were 5,224 and deaths 4,977, the excess of births being 247. Coloured births were 1,725, and there were 3,300 deaths, an excess of deaths over births of 1,585. Deaths and births are registered in special areas ; many States have no records, distances are so great, and in many regions the population is so scattered that accuracy in returns is almost impossible. The following items were given me last autumn by the health officer of Wash- ington, D.C., which may be of interest. The population of this city is 278,718, of which 86,702 are coloured. In 1903 the total number of white deaths was 2,398, the average age of whites being 42 years 9 months 23 days. The total number of coloured deaths was 2,546, the average age of coloured persons being 29 years 2 months 27 days. There were registered 513 deaths of white children under i year ; of coloured children of the same age 579. The total number of white births for that year was 3,307, 80 being illegitimate. The total number of coloured births was 1,817 5 the illegitimate 250 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE registered were 414. There are three complaints amid all the statistics I have seen which are most prevalent amongst the coloured people in America. They are consumption, pneumonia, and typhoid. Dr. Pattieson, the health officer of Washington, D.C., also gave to me the subjoined table for deaths from these causes for 1903 :— White. Coloured. Pulmonary consumption 355 421 Pneumonia 185 240 Typhoid 83 57 These figures show how deteriorating to the negro are the conditions of life in cities. In the country, miles from railroads, he lives normally, and the birth-rate is high ; towns are being reinforced by negroes flocking into them, sometimes for educational, sometimes for improved financial advantages, which, I may say, are imaginary. The most reliable information on many interesting subjects was probably that collected by army authorities during the war. According to those statistics, the rate of rejections for insanity was o*8o8 per thousand amongst white applicants for enlistment, and 0*503 per thousand for coloured men. In no way does the negro show a special tendency to commit suicide. There have been exceptional circumstances in slavery times such as have at various periods induced people to end their existence. " Dirt-eating " was not un- common amongst them, due generally to depression brought about by Obeah, and cases can be cited similar to that described by Bryan Edwards in his history of the West Indies, when some of the Maroons before the advance of the British, defeat being inevitable, hurled ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 251 themselves over precipices and were dashed to pieces on the rocks below ; but the race nowhere shows any specific proneness to self-destruction. Alcoholism is less prevalent with negroes than with whites. The real danger menacing the negro in the present and in the future is consumption. Concerning this Mr. Haycraft, in " Darwinism and Race Progress," writes thus : " Sufferers from phthisis are prone to other diseases, such as pulmonary and bronchial attacks, so that over and above the vulnerability to the one form of microbe, they are to be looked upon as unsuited not only for the battle of life, but especially for parentage and for the multipli- cations of the conditions from which they themselves suffer." Statistics based on the census of 1890 give, in fourteen cities of the United States, rates of mortality from consumption for every hundred thousand of popu- lation as under : — White. Coloured. Charleston 355*4 686-3 New Orleans 250-3 587-7 Savannah 37i'i 544'^ Mobile 304*1 ^8-2 Atlanta 213-8 4837 Richmond 230-5 411-1 Baltimore 250-6 524-6 Washington 245*0 591-8 Brooklyn 284*9 539*o New York 379'6 845*2 Boston 365*8 884*8 Philadelphia 269-4 532*5 St. Louis 159*9 605-9 Cincinnati 239-1 633-3 That the disease has increased since slavery times, a table of death-rates from this disease for Charleston, 252 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE South Carolina, proves. From 1822 to 1848 for every 100,000 persons the average rate for consumption was 347 for whites and 342 for coloured people ; thus in slavery times it was more prevalent amongst Europeans. From 1865 to 1894 the average rate for whites in a population of 100,000 was 213 ; for negroes 576. When one recalls the fact that the slave quarters on the plantations were hygienic models — for an epidemic meant ruin to the masters — and compares their former sanitary habitations with the present, where the negro mostly digs a shallow well in low ground, while his shanty and outhouses are perched a little way off and higher up, one is not surprised that the result should be increase of disease. Around the towns there is often an irregular settlement of these habitations. Where Dr. Washington's industrial teaching has not penetrated there are districts in the Black Belt where the proverbial lazy farmer may be seen any day. This class of agricul- turist has a social life of his own, everywhere revivalistic religious meetings are its favourite dissipation. In the diet of the average country negro family Professor Du Bois has pointed out that the amount of protein, i.e.y that which goes to form blood, bone, and muscle, is about three- quarters of that which has been found in the diet of well- fed American whites. If this be true of country diet, town food presents no better phase. The result of the generally unnutritious food which the negro assimilates is that less resistance is offered to the insidious march or invading microbes. In any case, given equal conditions, the white opposes the greatest resistance to disease ; next, the full-blooded black ; while the mulatto, whose com- parative infecundity is established, and whose general ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 253 Stamina is inferior to the pure types, is most susceptible. This fact is brought out in Dr. Gould's military statistics. According to this authority, the average lung capacity ot white soldiers was 1847 cubic inches ; of blacks, 163*5 ; and of mulattoes, isS'g, The mean circumference of the chest for whites was 35*8 inches, for blacks 35*1, for mulattoes 34*97. An interesting table of the mean frequency of respiration per minute according to age is given ; a few of the points may be interesting. Usual vigour was the requisite condition : — Age. White. Black. Mulatto. Under 17 ... ... i6'4o 18-45 18-32 „ 21 ... ... i6-53 18-15 18-74 „ 30- ... 16-41 17-03 18-85 Mean frequency of pulse for the three classes are given — for whites 74*89, full blacks 74*02, mulattoes 76*97. Inferior vital capacity is closely allied to diminished ratio of physical strength, and I subjoin a table showing the mean lifting strength of not the three distinct classes, but of (i) white and (2) coloured : — Age. White. Coloured. Under 17 250-4 lbs. 258-9 lbs. „ 21 337'4 » 327*4 n „ 30 35i'2 „ 349*8 „ 50 and over 321-2 „ 297-0 „ In F. A. Kellor's "Experimental Sociology" some interesting anthropometric points are noted in her investigations of female prisoners. The result of her head measurements of negro criminals (she treats all colour as negro) was that she found 27 per cent, of these women to be dolichocephalic (long-headed), 55 per cent. 254 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE of them mesocephalic (medium), and i8 per cent, of them brachycephalic (broad-headed). She measured females only who were under forty years of age, and remarks that the fusion of Indian blood is so common that it is changing the physical characteristics of negroes. This tendency was, she notes, observable in variations in the width between arches, orbits, corners of eyes, these differences being less than in the pure negro types. She considers that the narrow, receding forehead of negroes is tending to disappear, and justifies her obser- vations by a comparison of older negroes and negro students at Tuskegee. She gives the average height of women students as 65 inches, white criminals 64* i, of negroes 63, with other measurements which space forbids me to insert. Foot imprints were taken to ascertain the degree of arch. Some had none, in others it was most decided, but negroes have less arch than Anglo-Saxons. CHAPTER XIX ^^ Self-reverence^ self-knowledge y self-control y These three lead alone to sovereign power," Tennyson. There are at the present time twenty representatives sitting in Congress at Washington whose sole title to be there is based upon that portion of non-voting American citizens excluded from the franchise by the recent enactment of the Southern States. That they hold their office is a distinct violation of the constitution of the United States. As I was about to land on American shores I was told America was "the land of the free." That I found in one sense to be true. Those who would be unhampered with the laws and customs which appertain to civilisation can find what they want to their heart's content, but my personal observation tended to convince me that it was a land of strange contradictions. In a community based upon the fundamental rights of man not only do caste and prejudice abound, but we see a large class disfranchised, yet represented in the councils of the nation. This is curious, for it was the political power arising out of the then existing basis of representation, and the threatened secession from the Union in consequence of its being 255 256 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE menaced, which led to the Civil War, for the North was not willing that more states, half-slave and half-free, should be admitted into the Union on the same basis of representation upon chattel property which could be sold or transferred, giving thereby to the Southerner a power operating with galling discrimination against the Northerner. Thus it was that the acute issue was raised in American politics as to the extension of slavery, the promulgation of laws for its protection and perpetua- tion. Without discussing the means by which the South at length recovered the reins of government after negro domination I pass on to the present relations of the coloured population to government. In view of the past it is decidedly a step forward to see state after state including, natur^ally with qualifications, the negro as an inherent integer of the community. In 1890 Mississippi enacted that after January i, 1897, no person could vote unless able to read any section of the Consti- tution, or to understand the same when read to him and give a reasonable interpretation thereof. South Carolina in 1895 required every voter should be able to read and write any section of the Constitution, or show he owned and paid taxes on property assessed at $300. Louisiana followed in 1898 with the famous grandfather clause which enacted that if the voter could neither read nor write, or pay taxes on $300 worth of property, still he might vote if he, or his father, or his grandfather was entitled to vote in 1867, and if he registered within six months, this provision admits the white illiterate, hence its notoriety. North Carolina, Alabama, and Virginia have recently legislated on the same lines, and probably ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 257 in time all states having a preponderance of negroes will pursue this policy. In most cases a poll-tax is demanded on registration as a voter. It was entertaining to read in a Southern newspaper when staying in New Orleans that Mississippi negroes did not trouble to go to the polls and register their votes at the last Presidential election. Here they have followed the precepts taught at Tuskegee. Their business was more important than politics, for there was no intimidation at the polls to prevent their voting, and their non-appearance was a loss of 30,000 votes to the Republican party. They said Mr. Roosevelt had not done as much as Mr. McKinley for them in putting coloured people into Federal positions. This fact points to a new phase ; henceforward interest in commercial expansion may supersede the empty vision of political rights. Other signs of the times show that vital changes are at work amongst this isolated race. A healthier symptom is in the saner, more educated and earnest teaching of the negro Churches, Space forbids one to enlarge on this topic, but for those who would be interested in the details of the work done by numerous religious bodies of the coloured folk I cannot do better than refer them to a publication of the Atlanta Uni- versity entitled, "The Negro Church" (1903), where scrupulous care has been exercised in gathering together details of negro religious societies. Professor Du Bois, under whose able direction it was compiled, is better able than most to deal with the ethics of negro creeds, and persons desirous to gain an intelligent grasp of the sociological situation of the negro to-day cannot afford to overlook the various publications of the Atlanta University. The dominating feature of primitive 17 258 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE African religions is Nature-worship with a strong belief in sorcery ; add to this a widespread worship of the moon and a great veneration of the cow. Ellis tells us of the belief of the Ewne people in the indwelling " Kra," the shadowy man who haunts the earth after death ; this in Jamaica is the " duppy " or ghost which haunts the cotton-tree. It is interesting to find as early as the year 1624, a few years after the arrival of the first slave ship at Jamestown, Virginia, a negro child was baptized, and in many of the oldest Churches in the South the names of negroes baptized into the Church are registered. James Habersham, who accompanied Whitefield in his travels in Georgia about 1730, said : " I once thought it was unlawful to keep negro slaves, but I am now induced to think God may have a higher end in per- mitting them to be brought to this Christian country than merely to support their masters." In ante-slavery times there were curious attempts to blend religion and expediency, as, for instance, in 17 10 a clergyman of Massachusetts evolved a formula for negro marriages in which the bride solemnly promised to cleave to her husband " so long as God in His providence " and the slave trade let them live together. The New England plantations were at times visited by emissaries from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, but the Moravians seem to have been the first to formally attempt missions exclusively for negroes; as early as 1773 Baptists had negro preachers under white supervision. Until the Turner insurrection in 1830 negroes seemed to have been per- mitted considerable liberty in the exercise of their religion, but after the tragedy of Southampton, in which ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 259 a negro preacher, Nat Turner, with his associates, turned against the whites, sparing neither age nor sex, prohibitory legislation in almost the entire South forbade pure negroes to preach or to hold religious meetings at night. Three characteristics marked the religion of slavery — the preacher, the music, and the frenzy. The preacher was then, as he is now, the most unique individual the race has developed on American soil. He is the leader of his people, the politician who excites them by his oratory, the "boss" to whom now, as then, they instinctively look up, an intriguer, oftener an idealist than an utilitarian. He forms the centre of the district where he is located. The frenzy of the revival meeting has been described as a sort of suppressed terror which hung in the air, a kind of pythian madness, a demoniacal possession, lending terrible reality to the songs of the backwoods and to the bombastic and inflated oratory of the speaker. Du Bois thus describes his experience of these frenzies : " The black, massive form of the preacher, his singular eloquence, the people moaning and fluttering when a gaunt-cheeked woman leapt straight in the air and shrieked like a lost soul, while round about came wail and groan and a scene of human passion such as I had never seen before." Their music, sprung from African forests, where its counterpart can still be heard, was adapted, changed and intensified by the tragic soul-life of the slave. Under stress of law and whip it became the expression of a people's sorrow, despair, and hope I The race is distinctly religious ; the Church to-day represents the centre of its social as well as of its religious element. In these buildings, not only Sunday 260 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE schools, but insurance societies, women's meetings, mass meetings, entertainments, lectures, and suppers take place. The negro Church takes the place of that great world from which the gregarious and sociable black is debarred by his colour. In the Methodist Episcopal Church the bishops are the most powerful negro rulers in the world. In Africa the negro lived a polygamous clan-life under headship of the chief and the potent influence of the medicine-man ; he believed profoundly in invisible in- fluence both good and bad, whom he propitiated or invoked through incantation and sacrifice. The same principle works to-day though the environment has changed. Negro preachers, of whom possibly 25 per cent, have had a fair common school education, 20 per cent, some- thing approaching a college course, are in their way remarkable evangelists ; converts with weird and rap- turous experiences are baptized hastily, so as not to escape into other folds. There are many Churches where orderly services, good Sunday schools and young people's societies are established. Thousands of edifices, some costly and well equipped, bear witness to the persuasive power of black preachers. Very largely too the old order is changing with the advent of younger men coming from the various theological schools. It may be safely conceded that two-thirds of pulpit oratory is of the crudest kind, emotional, visionary, abounding in misconceptions of Holy Writ, the close of the sermon being generally delivered with much gesticulation, and in the most sonorous accents ; " rousements " to excite the hearers are indispensable to the black theologian if he ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 261 wishes to have a good meeting. It is on record that an itinerant expounder of the Word preached that Joshua never had father or mother, because he w^as the son of Nun ; another wrought up his congregation to immense excitement by repeatedly shouting, " Mesopotamia ! Mesopotamia ! " The supreme element in the old system was emotionalism ; an interesting phase of it is to be found in St. Ann's Primitive Baptist Church, in Yamassee in Florida. The usual tenets are taught, but the distinguishing ceremony is " foot-washing." Here the regular communion service is held on the second Sunday of each month, and after the sermon the mem- bers turn their benches so as to form two large squares on each side of the pulpit, the men on one side, the women on the other. They then wash each other's feet in turn, the preacher taking the lead. This they say is merely carrying out the example of Christ. The service generally ends with a kind of a dance which they call " rocking Daniel." No information as to the origin of this peculiar custom is obtainable. A leader stands in the centre of a circle which the members form in front of the pulpit. They begin with singing the lines — " Rock Daniel, Rock Daniel, Rock Daniel till I die." Gradually they move round in the circle, single file, then begin to clap hands and fall into a regular step, or motion difficult to describe. Finally, when they have become worked up to a high state of excitement and almost exhausted, the leader gives a signal and they disperse. Inordinate rivalry between the denominations and the necessity almost to pander to this need of spiritual excitement constitute two great difficulties to the rising generation of coloured preachers. 262 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE How much the religion of the race influences indi- vidual lives it is not possible for me to say. There are earnest souls amongst them, but prominent positions in negro Church circles are often filled by men v^rhose lives are a contradiction to the beliefs they profess. The Church is undoubtedly the centre of this people's social system. The value of all negro Church property, de- nominational or otherwise, is estimated at $26,625, 448, and the numerous sects into which their religious bodies are split are somewhat interesting. Under the head of Baptist I find a sub-section calling themselves " Old Two-seed in the Spirit Predestinarian Baptists " ; there are four Episcopalian divisions known as: (i) Union American Methodist Episcopal ; (2) African Methodist Episcopal ; (3) African Union Methodist Protestant ; (4) African Methodist Episcopal Zion. A table sub- joined, as compiled by Dr. H. K. Carroll, reports the following membership of negro Church bodies in the United States, not including foreign mission membership, for the year 1903, and shows the numerical influence of the various sects : — Denominations. Ministers. Churches. Communicants. Baptists Union American Methodists . . African Methodists African Union Methodist Pro- testants •• .. .. .. •• 10,729 180 6,500 68 3,386 5 2,159 450 15,614 5,800 68 3»o42 5 1,497 400 1,625,330 16,500 785,000 2,930 551,591 319 207,723 39,000 African Zion Methodists . . Congregational Methodists Coloured Methodists . . . . Cumberland Presbyterians Total 23,477 26,931 3,"8,393 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 263 To these may be added the following figures as already given : — Denominations. Ministers. Churches. Membership. Methodists (Methodist Epis- copal) 139 85 209 230 200 353 ^45.954 12,155 15,000 21,341 Congregationalists Episcopalians Presbyterians * Catholics In the first few pages of that portion of this work dedicated to a study of this A fric- American people I ventured to suggest that the time had not yet come to state definitely whether racial evolution for the better had taken place or not, and the reason I gave was that the evidence for such a proposition was not yet forth- coming, but that a mighty wave of uplifting influence has passed over a large section of the race I admit without qualification. A few years will show us the outcome of this movement, its results in the pulpit, in the field, in the workshops, in the schools, and especially in the homes. Inexpressible chaos characterized the first decade of emancipation ; the people, like driven sheep, were the prey of the vicious white and the victims of their own ignorance and lack of efficient leadership. Visionary political power has disappeared before the greater need of ready cash ; industry and thrift are doing more for the race than all the combined preaching of Baptists and Methodists, bawl they ever so loudly. The redemption of the coloured people in America » Not including twenty-four Northern Coloured Churches. 264 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE depends upon the remedial effects which those now being taught professions and trades in institutions like Hampton, Howard University, and Tuslcegee will have upon the coming generation when they, in their turn, become race-leaders. No nation ever attained greatness through luxury ; those which have come to the front have fought their way thither in the sweat of their brow, overcoming obstacle by effort. To make themselves useful and indispensable to the community, to realise that idleness is not only disgrace- ful, but morally suicidal, and to remember that labour ennobles and dignifies their status as human beings, is the chief tenet of the revised education of the present day of the coloured people. Some possibly suffer from what we may term a swelled head, but I have met negroes whose humility was pathetic ; a maid-servant said to me once in the States, "Jesus Christ came down to teach us poor niggahs, but Meed we wasn't wurf it." And I was on one occasion irritated by the airs of a negress who was taking lessons in elocution, but whose knowledge of her duty, which was to keep tidy my room, was altogether lacking. On the improving condition of the morals of negro youth Dr. Frissell, the Principal of Hampton, where Booker Washington first imbibed the industrial creed, says ; " The coloured race is not degraded. Many of the young people who came to me years ago had no conception of the wrong of certain lines of conduct, and who, since they have gained that knowledge, have lived up to what they know. I have seen young people coming from one-room cabins where morality seems well-nigh impossible, who sloughed that old life and have ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 265 made good use of the clearer knowledge they have gained at Hampton." Dr. Frissell is one of the best types of Americans ; at his institution over i,000 young men and women are brought together in school work. Many devoted men and women who have worked for twenty years and upwards among the coloured people note marked improvement. Personally, the more I study the voluminous literature on this subject, the more I recall my visits to sundry institutions, I feel persuaded that nothing less than the best personal influence and touch with a backward race will bring them, nationally, into line with the requirements of American civilisation. From what standpoint soever one regards the problem, one thing seems certain : that since the United States Government took upon itself to rectify the race's social status, it is also logically bound to concern itself about its moral condition. If the black man was the charge of the nation in post-slavery days, why is he not its charge to-day ? CHAPTER XX ** You will do the greatest service to the State if you shall raise y not the tops of the houses, but the souls of the citizens ;for it is better that great souls should dwell in small houses^ rather than for mean slaves to dwell in great houses.'' — Epictetus. When the news of Theodore Roosevelt's re-election to the Presidency of the United States was announced I, an Englishwoman, the only representative of the Caucasian race, sat in the crowded Memorial Institute Chapel of Tuskegee, Alabama, belonging to the famous educational settlement for coloured folk, of which Booker Washing- ton is the founder and principal, as the guest of the negro people. Exactly opposite, on the platform, sat this celebrated man whose life-story from slavery to high social and academical distinction is known world-wide. Around him, looking down on the dark, eager, upturned faces of expectant young men and women, were gathered together the majority of his large staff of instructors, ladies and gentlemen of refined manners, of education and culture. A secretary stood beside him reading out telegrams giving the latest returns at the polling centres from various cities and states as fast as they were handed to him. The excitement of an excitable race is a thing to have witnessed, held in check as it was by the pre- sence of their principal, but as time passed on, and the ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 267 clappings of 1,500 pairs of black hands announced emphatic approval of the swelling Republican vote, it rose to an almost uncontrollable pitch, and snatches of songs burst from the youths when any interval occurred between reading out these telegrams, eliciting a grim smile from the otherwise motionless figure in the chair. Some 1,500 students, with perhaps 100 teachers and outsiders, brought up the assemblage to nearly 2,000 people. The orderly, well-dressed, intelligent faces of these students, who are picked specimens of the race — for no young man or young woman without determination, physical strength, and intelligence could endure the hard curriculum of the school routine — impressed me with the fact that they had grit, fine qualities of head and heart, needing only the magnetic influence of faith in the potentiality of their leader, to wake them from the sensuous, lethargic spell 'of Africa. Anxiety, keen expectancy were written on their features, and no wonder ; for the black associates all the privileges he has ever received from the Republican party ; to him democracy and oppression are one and the same thing. Herein lies one of the complexities of the problem. In its unqualified vote for democracy " the solid South," as we have seen, records its undying antagonism to a party which forced upon it the humilia- tion of negro domination; to-day, when justice is suc- cessfully combating passion and prejudice, and the white man of the South contributes taxes to the education of the negro and meets him, outside the sphere of politics, in commerce in a fairly friendly way, he asks why should the Southern coloured folk vote against Southern interests ? 268 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE "If an angel came down from heaven we should not vote for him if he were Republican," was said to me by an important citizen of New Orleans. On this occasion many democratic voters rather admired Roosevelt's personal character, Parker, his oppo- nent, being practically unknown to them ; but they were loyal to their party. At length the noise became furious, especially when returns were read from cities considered doubtful, show- ing the enormous popularity of the Republican candi- date. Shortly after Dr. Washington rose from his chair and read the defeated Democrat's letter congratulating his opponent on his victory, the country having shown unmistakably its continued confidence in his leadership. Prolonged cheering relieved the tension of the preceding hours. That night there was no marching out to the sound of the band, no singing of negro songs and melo- dies ; the girls first, in charge of their teachers, trooped out, then the youths passed in front of me into the starlight night with radiant, joy-lit faces, for their cause had won. Outside the building, as they dispersed to their different dormitories, I expressed my surprise that they went off with so little noise, thinking how British lads under similar conditions would render night hideous with their yells and shouts. But the teachers escorting me to my quarters told me that instinctively the lads would repress any exhibition of feeling. Down below the hill, said they, the whites in the little town of Tus- kegee would be feeling very sore at the overwhelming triumph of their political opponents, and would be in no humour to hear the coloured people rejoicing. Dr. Washington, they said, always enjoined upon them to ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 269 forego offering the smallest irritation to the white people in the neighbourhood. I can scarcely explain my own feelings as I partially realised what it must be to live, an alien and hated race, in a strange land ; it was wisdom, learnt in a school of persecution, to train these young people to walk warily, to refrain from the expression of heartfelt joy which might awaken the latent enmity of the dominating race. I had not personally come in contact with race-prejudice to any extent, but a few days at Tuskegee convinced me it is no myth or fancy. On a recent occasion, when almost every Southern paper teemed with abusive language in describing that event which roused race-feeling to the highest pitch of indignation — Booker Washington's dining with the President of the United States — in consequence of anonymous threats upon his life, members of the staff at Tuskegee for many nights kept guard over their beloved leader's house ; and a British subject at this institution told me that many of the coloured people of the South go about in daily dread of being lynched. After learning for what slight causes negroes have been burnt at the stake, I was not surprised that this should be so. Picture such a state of things amongst the peasantry of any country in Europe ! Russia even, unprogressive as she is, has not its parallel. So far as my personal observation goes, it seems to me that efforts to civilise some of the degenerate white people of the Southern States might well be undertaken in the cause of humanity and justice ! One morning I had stood sheltered by a hedge bordering the main road ; opposite, in a field, a sergeant was drilling some of the 270 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE Students. As I stood concealed from view I watched the faces and the behaviour of several white people walking and driving past. Two waggons filled with poor whites, apparently farmers from the country, slowly passed by. They had been chatting together in their vans until a turn of the road brought them in full view of the negro recruits. Immediately their attitude changed ; they sat bolt upright, looked neither to the right nor left, but straight in front of them, until they had passed the obnoxious settlement. I noted their expressions, and if ever I saw mortal hatred and pride of race on any human faces I saw it there. A gig passed shortly after with a better-dressed specimen of an American. He too looked scrupulously in front of him. This, added to what I have heard, convinces me that to conciliate the South is the most important work lying before those endeavouring to benefit the race. It was on a Saturday in last November when I arrived at the little station belonging to this country town situated amongst the hills of Alabama ; the last few miles since I had left the main line at a junction a short distance from Tuskegee already betokened the influence of the industrial creed. I noted this in the neatly-kept, trimly-built little houses scattered about the country-side, so different from the one-roomed squalid cabin of Georgia and other parts I had passed through. Tidily-dressed peasantry were to be seen from the carriage windows, and when I arrived at my destination I was agreeably surprised to find a well-equipped buggy with two good horses awaiting my arrival to conduct me to the school. A coloured gentleman, who apparently had been told off ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 271 to escort me, proved to be Dr. Washington's private secretary. We passed swiftly through the outskirts of this interesting little Southern tovv^n ; the clear, blue sky above, the bright green of the trees and gardens on either side, with the brilliant red colouring of the light soil, against vv^hich stood out two or three solidly-built mansions of olden times with their pillared verandahs, speaking of days of affluence and luxury gone never to return, struck me as excessively picturesque. A railway ran alongside the road which, my guide explained to me, was most convenient for school traffic and for delivering freight ; it had been built by the generosity of a friend in Brooklyn to the distance of about a mile from the station we had just left. Tuskegee Institute, situated on hilly ground, com- prises 123 buildings of varying size, and destined for different purposes — dormitories, dining-halls, class-rooms, library, halls, cottages, residences of the teachers, farm- buildings of all kinds, schools, workshops, fitting in with the great scheme of industrial education. Nearly all have been built by the students, who are also responsible for the recent adoption of electric lighting. The larger buildings are mostly named after their donors. The Slater- Armstrong Memorial Building is fitted up for the instruction of practical and scientific agriculture ; the Phelps Hall Bible Training School was given by a generous New York friend 5 Thrasher Hall, Porter Hall, Olivia Davidson Hall, Cassedy Hall, Rockefeller Hall are the chief; the Douglas Hall contains an assembly-room, besides 33 rooms for young women ; the Huntington Memorial Hall for girls belongs to this class. The Institute is fortunate in the possession of a 272 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE Carnegie library, which is a rare advantage, and highly prized by the teachers as well as the students. The list of subscribers to Tuskegee is a long one, and amongst its kind and helpful friends I find a Miss Emery, of London, has provided funds for the erection of two dormitories for young men, each to contain sleeping-rooms for 78 pupils. I was escorted to Alabama Hall, where I made the acquaintance of the dean of the women's department, and a very charming lady I found her — educated at a Northern university, of refined manners and distin- guished bearing. I was delighted to find that I was to have such an agreeable hostess, and I may say that from the time I arrived at this interesting educational centre to the time I departed no one could have been more courteously treated or more generously entertained than was I, a stranger, although a sympathetic one, in a strange land, among a strange people. Everything I desired to see was shown me under efficient guiding. The students manifested throughout my stay a politeness which is not generally met with in the United States, although we are familiar with it in the British West Indies, and they seemed desirous to render every possible attention. I was shown to the guest chambers prepared for visitors, which were hand- somely fitted up with every possible convenience. This lady, who came from a Northern state, was not over thirty ; tall, with the complexion of an Italian, she had pretty, dark hair without the suspicion of a kink or a curl in it. She was an n enigma to me, as were several others I saw at Tuskegee. When I got to know her better I told her it was an absolute impossibility for me ETHIOPIA m EXILE 273 to draw any " colour line," for often I could not see the smallest approach to African characteristics in persons accredited as negroes. Herein lies the pathetic nature of the segregative creed. This class of educated people, with the refined feelings of the best type of Anglo-Saxons, whose grand- parents may have had an African admixture, who in Europe would any day be taken for Americans, are placed in the same category as the blackest, fullest- lipped, broadest-nosed scion of the jungle. On American tramcars in the South, in railroad coaches, they have to travel in the same cars, or run the risk of being humiliatingly expelled from the company of white people. This difficulty is sometimes obviated by their going to the expense of travelling in the Pullman carriages. Their position in the American Republic is unspeak- ably sad, and is calculated to rouse the worst feelings ot revenge against the powers that be. Nowhere else in the civilised world has one ever heard of a distinction so harsh against a law-abiding, educated, well-dressed class such as the one to which this lady and others I met belong. The parody of a democracy where such sense- less distinctions are made has no parallel in monarchical countries in the Old World, where a labourer in dirty working clothes can travel, if he chooses to pay for the privilege, in a first-class railway carriage with a princess of the blood royal. Shortly after my arrival I was invited to the midday dinner, and sat down to it in company with the whole staff of teachers. On my way I passed through the large dining-rooms 18 274 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE where the students were at table. A large number of student waitresses were actively engaged in supplying the wants of their fellows ; the grace being sung, tongues were unloosened, and the noise was deafening. The food consisted in stewed meat, yams, and very substantial corn bread. That afternoon I began my tour of inspec- tion, visiting the workshops where the female students are being taught industries. I learnt that no hired " helps " are kept on the place, the entire work of the institution being done by the students under efficient teaching. This is a great aid to the development of industrial tastes. All this labour is profitable to the students engaged in it, being taken in part payment of their expenses, according to their proficiency and capa- bilities. The laundry work is especially heavy, and provides employment for a large number. The washing of teachers and scholars, the bed and table linen of the whole institute being performed on the premises by machines, also by hand, the mangling, starching, and ironing requisite represents a big industry, and the course of instruction covers a year, in which time the pupils acquire a knowledge of soaps and alkalies, how to wash flannels, linens, laces, and silks, together with useful knowledge of blueing and starching and keeping in order the machinery. It must be remembered that in the one-room cabin in the Black Belt and elsewhere the inmates have never seen most of the articles used in the above industry ; they do not start with the rudimentary knowledge a child of a higher race acquires in even a poverty-stricken home. To the African, words constantly have no meaning, the cause being the initial condition of inherited ignorance and awkwardness. The plan of ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 275 crediting students with so much payment for work done enables many of them, with the help of their friends and with what they can earn in the vacation by domestic service, in the case of girls, to pursue a three-years' course at some trade, and to reap the advantage of the night-school classes which, after six o'clock and the industrial part of the day is over, are in full swing. The expenses of each student are almost nominal — tuition is free, $8.50 only per month is charged each for board, $6 covers book expenses. The uniform for girls is a braided navy blue sailor dress and a plain sailor hat, costing about $6. That for men students is dark blue with military caps, costing about $12. Besides the enrolment of 1,500 students, there are 452 pupils attending the " Children's House," the Greenwood and town night-schools, an afternoon cooking class in Tuskegee, and a night Bible class. Students come from thirty-six of the United States, from Africa, the Bahamas, Central America, Cuba, Hayti, Porto Rico, Jamaica, and Barbados. In the millinery department I met with an extra cordial reception. The teacher was a British subject, and shook hands with me as she revealed the fact, adding how proud she was of " the flag." She told me she had come from Canada ; her father was French, her mother an Indian, she was one of those known as the Metis. Some of Britain's most loyal coloured subjects came and intro- duced themselves to me on the ground of our common Imperialism. This was very interesting, especially when they amused me by telling how they proudly asserted their nationality when shown to a back seat on account of their colour. So far as I gathered, they were on that 276 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE account allowed the same privileges as British subjects generally. An experience such as this in the New World, amid a people treated as aliens, was impressive. I felt proud to shake hands with these loyal-hearted coloured subjects of King Edward. I was delighted to note the confidence they felt in coming up and making themselves known to " the English lady," as I was called. It was so different from the feeling which the American black has towards the casual lady visitor who occasionally visits Tuskegee. Their loyalty to the British Crown was no less strong as it was to " the flag" ; the personal element was exemplified in the pictures they severally treasured of the late Queen and of our present gracious rulers. After I had temporarily bidden this lady farewell I went to the departments where plain sewing, dressmaking, cooking, upholstering, mattress- making, domestic science, basketry, and hospital training are taught. It being Saturday, the scholars were leaving their work earlier. I thought the plain sewing was possibly as useful as any, and found that the three-years* course should indeed transform an ignoramus into a skilled needlewoman. The teaching at first is very simple, and arranged for girls who know nothing about needlework, who perhaps have never seen or heard of a thimble. When they have completed this course they are pro- moted to the dressmaking division. I copy from the Tuskegee Catalogue the teaching comprehended in the plain sewing course, as it is typical of other branches in the industrial training : — " First Tear. — Threading needle and use of thimble ; practice work, basting, overhanging, stitching, overcast- ing, gathering, putting in gussets ; herring-bone stitching ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 277 on flannels ; patching, hemstitching, tucking and whip- ping ruffles, chain-stitching, feather-stitching ; darning on cashmere, slip and blind stitching, mending, darning, making buttonholes and eyelets. ^^ Second Tear. — Familiarity with first year's work neces- sary ; names of sewing-machines and parts ; how to clean, oil, and operate the machine ; attachments, uses, machine stitches ; choice of material ; cutting and making men's underwear, also white shirts ; taking measures, cutting white shirts by measure ; cutting, basting, stitching, and trimming underwear ; cutting and making plain cotton dresses. " Note. — This course is intended for hand-sewing, giving practice in all kinds of stitches on suitable material." I noticed in the different divisions I visited that special stress was laid on training the eye to shapes and measure- ments and the relative proportion of things. The reason of it was explained to me to be that there are no ideas at the back of words learnt by rote ; no shapes, no images are called up in the imagination by the mere sound of the name from the simple fact that this paucity of imagina- tion is the outcome not of stupidity, but of the un- familiarization of the black with those articles and essentials of every-day life of which white children have a knowledge as soon as they can toddle. The eradica- tion of objectionable habits, the adoption of others, means to those in charge of the girl students a strenuous tax upon their patience and their energies. It seemed to me that the bright, sharp, light-coloured young woman required as much supervision as the dullest, perversest, most obstinate black. The yearly term is nine months. 278 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE How the teachers value their holidays one can easily imagine. That evening after my arrival I was taken after supper to a short service in the Memorial Chapel, which I have already mentioned as the scene of the announcement of the re-election of Roosevelt. Every evening, after school is over at 8.30, the students don their uniform and assemble for a short service, mostly musical. The plantation songs sung at Tuskegee by these natural musicians, who, with no knowledge of notation harmonize without a wrong note, are quite a characteristic feature. I enjoyed hearing them immensely. When dismissed they marched in procession out of the • chapel whilst the band played, the girls first, escorted by the teachers in charge, then the young men, who, as they passed the platform where the principal sat watching them, straightened themselves up with a curious touch of conscious pride, I fancied, both in themselves and in their benefactor. The chapel, which is used for other purposes besides weekly and daily services, reflects more credit on the students and teachers of the Institute than any other of their many buildings, according to my mind. For many years apparently, religious services were carried on in a long, low wooden structure called " The Pavilion," but when sufficient money was forthcoming the chapel, student-built, was erected on a commanding site. The plans were drawn out by the Institute's instructor in architectural and mechanical drawing. It is built in the form of a Greek cross ; its extreme length is 154 feet, breadth 106 feet. The roof is of what is termed hammer-beam construction, the main trusses having a clear span of 63 feet. It is fitted up to seat 2,400 persons. The platform is large enough to ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 279 accommodate the entire staff, and directly behind it is the choir, which will seat 150 persons. The yellow pine finish, the high ceiling, the tall windows with stained-glass lights, add to the general pleasing effect. Three large central chandeliers, reinforced by small lights around the auditorium, are fitted for electric lighting. Thus money given towards building this chapel, or for any other building, is specially helpful and well expended, as it gives the students an opportunity to learn plastering, brick-masonry, brick-making and paint- ing, Sec. In this way they not only acquire the know- ledge of useful trades, but pay their board by their labour, and get their education at the evening classes at the same time. The next day was Sunday, and I was invited to the principal's house, where I had the pleasure of meeting the philanthropical founder of this famous institution. In his home Booker Washington is a man of quie^ manners, gentle voice, and unassuming domesticated tastes. His house, which is commodious and comfort- able, but not luxurious, in no way showed that boastful, assuming spirit which characterizes some of the much be-doUared Americans who have recently risen to affluence, and which lowers them in the estimation of the average European who for centuries, instead of a couple of decades, has been accustomed to the refinements of life which money procures. Traces of work and evidences of intellectual interests were manifest in the books and papers which lay scattered about. I opened a volume of poetry : it had been well thumbed and heavily marked on marginal spaces. The special passages thus emphasized assured me by whom they had been read, marked, learnt, 280 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE and inwardly digested. On this occasion I made the acquaintance of Mrs. Washington, who shows herself a helpmate to her noble husband in the real sense of that word. A son by a former wife was present. In a few moments we were joined by two or three of the teachers and a coloured clergyman, who was to officiate at the chapel services later on, when we were shown into the dining-room, where breakfast was served. As the only representative present of a proud Imperial race whose ancestors had brought by force from their jungle home across the ocean the progenitors of those whose guest I was, I confess I felt during the short family worship which took place before breakfast that that house was no place for me. Why had I placed myself in such a position ? I mentally queried, and I blamed myself for having permitted my passion for travel, my curiosity to know about these people to have landed me in what I felt to be an awkward position. But as break- fast proceeded and I endeavoured to shake off the feeling of restraint which the situation imposed, it gradually vanished as mists before the rising sun with the kind consideration manifested towards me. I have tried since to analyse this curious sensation, it was so novel, so un- expected, but I cannot account for it ; however, it went away almost as quickly as it had come, and I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation I subsequently held with Booker Washington and his wife. He told me of the immense efforts requisite to get together the yearly income of thirty thousand pounds which the upkeep of the Institute cost. He explained that the workshop and plant required for the industrial training added enormously to the expense — although a good portion of the articles made ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 281 and work done was sold profitably in the neighbourhood and elsewhere. Every year he, with his secretary, travels over some part of the States on a lecturing tour ; in season and out of season he pleads for his people. That year he was going to the North- Western States. He told me that nine smaller schools on the Tuskegee plan had been started by former students who had settled in some of the toughest spots in the Black Belt. At the close of the school year about five hundred young men leave for vacation ; all their services are practically engaged long before term is over by mail, by telegraph, or by personal visits. His students were solicited mostly for trades of different descriptions they had learnt in the college workshops, and the majority were wanted for employments requiring skill and intelligence ; " in fact," said he, "if the Institute were twice as large, employment could be found over and over again during vacation time, or after leaving school altogether." Notwithstanding the outcry against the educated negro the fact is unde- niable that the Southern white people place three times as much value on the services of an educated negro as they place upon the service of an uneducated one. This holds good with the young women also, who secure temporary work as domestic servants during vacation time. Con- sidering the strenuous nature of the life during the three- years' course at Tuskegee, where the work of the day begins at 7 a.m. and continues till 5 p.m., allowing inter- vals only for meals, with two hours' attendance at evening classes afterwards, and the hard work often required of them in the vacations, one is compelled to admit that there must be sterling qualities beneath the dusky skins. " They would not value education if it cost them 282 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE nothing," Booker Washington remarked as I mentioned the long hours and dwelt upon the severity of the daily routine. One feels in talking to this singular, complex man that there are depths in his thoughts and in his nature which he carefully guards; gentle, kindly opti- mistic, sensitive to the last degree, he is intensely observant, ready to glean an idea or to note a passing suggestion. One is conscious of a powerful mind, of a forceful indi- viduality held tightly in check — at least such was the impression I received. I remember on one occasion the conversation fell upon Africa and our late acquisitions. In an unguarded moment I casually alluded to the time in the near future when it would be easy to go by rail from Cairo to the Cape. He flashed a significant look at me, but observed quietly — "You think it right to take the black man's land ? " '* By lawful means," I answered. "You think because you are stronger you ought to have it," he questioningly said in his quiet voice, to which I replied, looking him full in the face — " Providence seems to point to the fact that the stronger must take care of the weaker when they can't do it for themselves. Doesn't it strike you that it is so ? " "That is a large question," he remarked slowly and thoughtfully. " Anyway, it's one you have settled long ago for your- self," I rejoined in a quick, impulsive way which ever since I arrived at years of discretion I have been trying to eradicate, but, unfortunately, have not yet succeeded. " That is exactly what you and your friends are doing all the time for the weak and incapable of your own race who can't look after themselves," I explained. ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 283 I went to the morning service at the chapel in company with Dr. Washington and his wife. Before entering we watched the girls, neatly dressed in uniform, march in couples up the rising ground and disappear within the edifice ; then the youths in hundreds, headed by the students' band, formed in procession and approached us by a more circuitous route. Inside the chapel I noted in the large congregation the differing shades of colour which went to make up this variegated collection of humanity. Some were white with the African kink in the fair hair, others yellow, brown, to the blackest of equatorial hues. Yet all were accounted negroes. It saddened me to look upon this racial admixture, to think that the childish African, who should have been regarded as the white man's trust, had been transformed into this multi-coloured motley crowd by the white man's lawlessness, and how the latter is, in the States and else- where, unto the third and fourth generation paying dearly for this breach of a Divine trust — a fact which a knowledge of the social taint which exists in countries where white rules black suffices to show. That afternoon I held a reception in my rooms, and was visited by several British fellow-subjects amongst the coloured students. The following morning (Monday) I was escorted over the workshops, where youths are trained to be blacksmiths, carpenters, harness and carriage makers, house decorators, tailors, shoemakers, and wheelwrights. Over twenty trades are taught by first-class instructors ; after a year's experience, many of them are able to make their labour profitable, and so contribute towards their board. In the afternoon a buggy and guide were placed at my disposal and I was driven over the farms, where 284 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE the practical work is done by students. These comprise 2,300 acres of land and belong to the Institute ; over 900 head of cattle, and 58 waggons, carriages, and vehicles of various kinds are possessed by the faculty of Tuskegee, who place their property valuation at $719,000. In 1899 the National Congress granted to the school 25,000 acres of mineral land ; the probable proceeds will be $100,000, to be used for endowment purposes ; this added to the pre- sent endowment fund represents a total, so far, of $1,043,905. The Institution, as far back as 1880, was established by an Act of the Alabama Legislature as Tuskegee State Normal School, and in 1893 received its present appellation of The Tuskegee Normal and Indus- trial Institute. The agricultural branch has proved to be the most successful work as yet undertaken. Here negro lads learn the importance of the rotation of crops — a knowledge badly wanted in the Belt farming ; this alone should be the salvation of the ignorant labourer and peasant farmer, who hitherto has possessed no other idea in his head than to raise cotton ; in many cases he is even too improvident to plant a few sweet potatoes for his own consumption. He also learns how to raise food supplies, to look after stock, to grow fruit and vegetables. The young women are taught dairy work, bee-keeping, poultry-rearing, and ordinary gardening. In reading over the subjects included in the year's course of agriculture I noticed especially how thoroughly every department was studied and adapted to the ability of the scholars ; slowly perhaps, but gradually, the dullest brained cannot help acquiring useful knowledge, fitting them for some path in life, whilst nimbler wits have every opportunity to pick up knowledge of different kinds at every turn. ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 285 On one of the farms beds of clay suitable for making bricks have been found, and from them the school has already been able to make enough to erect its most substantial edifices. These bricks are made, turned, and laid by the students, thus reducing outlay for building to a minimum. The latest machinery has been installed in this division, and the output per diem, in good weather, averages 20,000 bricks. Every cent given to Tuskegee gets its full value. This cheap but efficient building of its different halls and houses has been a great score in the extension of the institution. One evening I received an invitation to be present at a young men's debating club. The subject under discussion was "whether genius was hereditary." A mulatto spoke smartly ; one or two toiled along with quotations, which they read out ; some wandered vaguely into discussing the healthy or unhealthy physical con- ditions of the parents of so-called geniuses, when a youth, with much vigour and eloquence, precociously declared that extraordinary qualities of bone and muscle might reproduce themselves in the sons of prize-fighters, but what they could effect in the matter of the bestowal of extra brains he failed to see ! The meeting was conducted after the usual method of debating societies. As the guest of the evening, the President asked me to speak to them. It impressed me very greatly to see the evident interest awakened in this room full of black and coloured youths when I rose from my chair. The fact of my nationality secured me a cordial welcome. I began by telling them how I had often listened to the debates of the undergraduates of the University of Cambridge, and that some of our most 286 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE famous politicians had found in debating societies the training-ground for future feats of eloquence. As I pointed out to them that they had, close at hand, a fine example of studying genius in their race-leader, the Principal of Tuskegee Institute, not a black head stirred, not a sound was audible. Very keen was their interest as I told them how he was regarded in my country, but I noticed the swarthy features relax into a satisfied smile as I dwelt upon the story of his life, and assured them that the world to-day had its eyes on this Institute of theirs, at the progress many of them were making up the steep road to learning, and that the work they had to do in uplifting their still ignorant brethren was a noble and a God-given one. The last day of this interesting visit was a very en- joyable one. Mrs. Washington, who is a very charming woman, drove me a long distance in her carriage into the country to visit a school-house she was herself organising for a district several miles away, for the beneficial influence of the Washingtons' teaching is spread abroad in the surrounding neighbourhood. We had a delightful drive through the hilly country, sinking deep into the light-red Alabama soil. We ate our lunch al fresco on the verandah of the little cottage where she had installed her teacher for the children of the district. Then we drove through what must have been a once beautiful avenue, leading up to the luxurious home of a Southern planter in bygone days, out on to a farm track beyond. Mrs. Washington stopped occa- sionally to accost a few labourers on the road, speaking kindly to them, and asking them to an out-door service to be held at her cottage the following Sunday. She ETHIOPIA IN EXILE 287 inquired into their circumstances, and elicited from one man the information that he was paid 50 cents per diem — about two shillings of our money — which is the wage of many a farm labourer in certain parts of England. I left the carriage and visited a home or two with her. A one-room cabin in one case was divided into two compartments with a curtain, but the wife and children were in nearly the same condition, as to clothes and mode of existence, as if they were living in the middle of Africa. They were literally " no man's charge." To get the half-dozen children to school was the object of our visit. It was on the evening of this day that the re-elec- tion of President Roosevelt took place. The day following I left for New Orleans, not without express- ing my great appreciation of the hospitality and kindness I had received. When I alluded to my visit to friends in New Orleans I was confidentially advised by an acquaintance not to mention the fact that I had sat at Booker Washington's table, since I might lose caste in the estimation of the New Orleans people. I endeavoured to control myself sufficiently to reply calmly, " You forget I am English, not American. We treat our coloured races differently to the way in which you do in the States. There is no race on earth, unless it were cannibal, with whom I would not sit down to a meal — even if I could not touch the food. If the invi- tation were offered in good faith, I should accept it in the spirit in which it was given." The young man bore me no grudge for protesting against prejudice ; on the contrary, he very kindly offered 288 ETHIOPIA IN EXILE to escort me over some of the worst slums of the city. The day following he took me into an indescribably dirty locality, and what he told me of the low, thrift- less, filthy state of its inhabitants I fully believed. The experience was gruesome, but it is well to look on both sides of a picture, and my sympathy was all the more intensified with those noble souls who are striving against great odds to uplift their race. The reward, I trust, of their labours will be the conciliating of some of the finest people in the world ! The magnitude and far-reaching results of the in- dustrial teaching, I venture to hope, will in time permeate the Southern States. A teacher at Tuskegee, speaking of its principal, remarked to me, " He seems as if he were directly inspired of God." We may believe he is led by a Higher Power, or we may disbelieve it ; the fact remains that the negro has himself set about solving the problem ! What, in the face of this phenomenon, is going to be the attitude of the American people towards the alien in their midst ? To consolidate national assets is better than to prepare for visionary fields of colonial expansion. The negro can be converted into a useful member of the community, or he can be left to become irremediably criminal. The United States is probably the richest country in the universe. She is building great battle- ships for wars outside her borders. Has she no dollars to spend on reclaiming the unfortunates v/ithin her boundaries ? The ex-slave has shown her the way to build up a contented, industrious peasantry. Will she not profit by the lesson ? UKWIN BBOTHEBS, MMITED, IHE GBEBHAM PRESS, WOKINO AND IK)NIX)N. RETURN TO the circulation desk of any University of California Library or to the NORTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY BIdg. 400, Richmond Field Station University of California Richmond, CA 94804-4698 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS • 2-month loans may be renewed by calling (510)642-6753 • 1-year loans may be recharged by bringing books to NRLF • Renewals and recharges may be made 4 days prior to due date _ DUE AS STAMPED BELOW SEI^tONILL APR 2 200Z U C RgRKELEY DD20 1M 3-02 YB 09017 GENERAL LIBRARY - U.C. BERKELEY 8000132400 253286