The Martyrdom of Man by Winwood Reade (mini ebook reader .TXT) π
The Egyptians were islanders, cut off from the rest of the world by sand and sea. They were rooted in their valley; they lived entirely upon its fruits, and happily these fruits sometimes failed. Had they always been able to obtain enough to eat, they would have remained always in the semi-savage state.
It may appear strange that Egypt should have suffered from famine, for there was no country in the ancient world where food was so abundant and so cheap. Not only did the land produce enormous crops of corn; the ditches and hollows which were filled by the overflowing Nile supplied a harvest of wholesome and nourishing aquatic plants, and on the borders of the des
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longer to sail through the straits of Gibraltar; Lisbon was
almost at their doors.
The achievements of the Portuguese were stupendous β for a
time. They established a chain of forts all down the western
coast of Africa, and up the east coast to the Red Sea; then
round the Persian Gulf, down the coast of Malabar, up the coast
of Coromandel, among the islands of the Archipelago, along the
shores of Siam and Burma to Canton and Shanghai. With handfuls
of men they defeated gigantic armies; with petty forts they
governed empires. But from first to last they were murderers
and robbers, without foresight, without compassion. Our eyes
are at first blinded to their vices by the glory of their
deeds; but as the light fades, their nakedness and horror are
revealed. We read of Arabs who had received safe conducts, and
who made no resistance, being sewed up in sails and cast into
the sea, or being tortured in body and mind by hot bacon being
dropped upon their flesh; of crocodiles being fed with live
captives for the amusement of the soldiers, and being so well
accustomed to be fed that whenever a whistle was given they
raised their heads above the water. We read of the wretched
natives taking refuge with the tiger of the jungle and the
panther of the hills; of mothers being forced to pound their
children to death in the rice mortars, and of other children
being danced on the point of spears, which it was said was
teaching the young cocks to crow. The generation of heroes
passed away; the generation of favourites began. Courtiers
accepted offices in the Indies with the view of extorting a
fortune from the natives as rapidly as could be done. It was
remarked that humanity and justice were virtues which were
always left behind at the Cape of Good Hope by passengers for
India. It was remarked that the money which they brought home
was like excommunicated money, so quickly did it disappear. And
as for those who were content to love their country and to
serve their king, they made enemies of the others, and were
ruined for their pains. Old soldiers might be seen in Lisbon
wandering through the streets in rags, dying in the hospitals,
and crouched before the palace which they had filled with gold.
Men whose names are now worshipped by their countrymen were
then despised. Minds which have won for themselves immortality
were darkened by sorrow and disgrace. In the island of Macao,
on the Chinese coast, there is a grove paved with soft green
velvet paths, and roofed with a dome of leaves which even the
rays of a tropical sun cannot pierce through. In the midst is a
grotto of rocks, round which the roots of gigantic trees
clamber and coil; and in that silent hermitage a poor exile sat
and sang the glory of the land which had cast him forth. That
exile was Camoens; that song was the Lusiad.
The vast possessions of the Spaniards and Portuguese were
united under Philip the Second, who closed the port of Lisbon
against the heretical and rebellious natives of the
Netherlands. The Dutch were not a people to undertake long
voyages out of curiosity, but when it became necessary for them
in the way of business to explore unknown seas they did so with
effect. Since they could not get cinnamon and ginger, nutmegs
and cloves at Lisbon, they determined to seek them in the lands
where they were grown. The English followed their example, and
so did the French. There was for a long period incessant war
within the tropics. At last things settled down. In the West
and East Indies the Spaniards and Portuguese still possessed an
extensive empire; but they no longer ruled alone. The Dutch,
the English, and the French obtained settlements in North
America and the West India Islands, in the peninsula of
Hindustan, and the Indian Archipelago; and also on the coast of
Guinea.
West Africa is divided by nature into pastoral regions,
agricultural regions, and dense forest, mountains, or dismal
swamps, where the natives remain in a savage and degraded
state. The hills and fens are the slave preserves of Africa,
and are hunted every year by the pastoral tribes, with whom war
is a profession. The captives are bought by the agricultural
tribes, and are made to labour in the fields. This indigenous
slave-trade exists at the present time, and has existed during
hundreds of years.
The Tuaricks or Tawny Moors inhabiting the Sahara on the
borders of the Sudan, made frequent forays into that country
for the purpose of obtaining slaves, exacted them as tribute
from conquered chiefs, or sometimes bought them fairly with
horses, salt, and woollen clothes. When Barbary was inhabited
by rich and luxurious people, such as the Carthaginians, who on
one occasion bought no less than five thousand negroes for
their galleys, these slaves must have been obtained in
prodigious numbers, for many die in the middle passage across
the desert, a journey which kills even a great number of the
camels that are employed. The negroes have at all times been
highly prized as domestic and ornamental slaves, on account of
their docility and their singular appearance. They were much
used in ancient Egypt, as the monumental pictures show: they
were articles of fashion both in Greece and Rome. Throughout
the Middle Ages they were exported from the east coast to India
and Persia, and were formed into regiments by the Caliphs of
Baghdad. The Venetians bought them in Tripoli and Tunis, and
sold them to the Moors of Spain. When the Moors were expelled,
the trade still went on; negroes might still be seen in the
markets of Seville. The Portuguese discovered the slave-land
itself, and imported ten thousand negroes a year before the
discovery of the New World. The Spaniards, who had often negro
slaves in their possession, set some of them to dig in the
mines at St. Domingo: it was found that a negroβs work was as
much as four Indiansβ, and arrangements were made for importing
them from Africa. When the Dutch, the English, and the French
obtained plantations in America, they also required negro
labour, and made settlements in Guinea in order to obtain it.
Angola fed the Portuguese Brazil; Elmina fed the Dutch
Manhattan; Cape Coast Castle fed Barbados, Jamaica, and
Virginia; Senegal fed Louisiana and the French Antilles;
even Denmark had an island or two in the West Indies, and a
fort or two upon the Gold Coast. The Spaniards alone having no
settlements in Guinea, were supplied by a contract or assiento;
which at one time was enjoyed by the British Crown. We shall
now enter into a more particular description of this trade, and
of the coast on which it was carried on.
Sailing through the Straits of Gibraltar, on the left hand for
some distance is the fertile country of Morocco watered by
streams descending from the Atlas range. Then comes a sandy
shore, on which breaks a savage surf; and when that is passed,
a new scene comes to view. The ocean is discoloured; a peculiar
smell is detected in the air; trees appear as if standing in
the water; and small black specks, the canoes of fishermen, are
observed passing to and fro.
The first region, Senegambia, still partakes of the desert
character. With the exception of the palm and the gigantic
Adansonia, the trees are for the most part stunted in
appearance. The country is open, and is clothed with grass,
where antelopes start up from their forms like hares. Here and
there are clumps of trees, and long avenues mark the water
courses, which are often dry, for there are only three monthsβ
rain. The interior abounds with gum-trees, especially on the
borders of the desert. The people are Mohammedans, fight on
horseback, and dwell in towns fortified with walls and hedges
of the cactus. In this country the French are masters, and have
laid the foundations of a military empire; an Algeria on a
smaller scale.
But as we pass towards the south, the true character of the
coast appears. A mountain wall runs parallel with the sea, and
numberless rivers leap down the hill slopes, and flow towards
the Atlantic through forest covered and alluvial lands, which
they themselves have formed. These rivers are tidal, and as
soon as the salt water begins to mingle with the fresh, their
banks are lined with mangrove shrubberies, forming an intricate
bower-work of stems, which may be seen at low water encrusted
with oysters, thus said by sailors to grow on trees. The
mountain range is sometimes visible as a blue outline in the
distance; or the hills, which are shaped like an elephantβs
back, draw near the shore: or rugged spurs jut down with their
rocks of torn and tilted granite to the sea. The shore is
sculptured into curves; and all along the coast runs a narrow
line of beach, sometimes dazzling white, sometimes orange
yellow, and sometimes a deep cinnamon red.
This character of coast extends from Sierra Leone to the Volta,
and includes the Ivory Coast, the Pepper Coast, and the Gold
Coast. Then the country again flattens; the mountain range
retires and gives place to a gigantic swamp, through which the
Niger debouches by many mouths into the Bight of Benin, where,
according to the old sailor adage, βfew come out, though many
go in.β It is indeed the unhealthiest region of an unhealthy
coast. A network of creeks and lagoons unite the various
branches of the Niger, and the marshes are filled with groves
of palm-oil trees, whose yellow bunches are as good as gold.
But in the old day the famous red oil was only used as food,
and the sinister name of the Slave Coast indicates the
commodity which it then produced.
Again the hills approach the coast, and now they tower up as
mountains. The Peak of Cameroons is situated on the Line; it is
nearly as high as the Peak of Teneriffe; the flowers of
Abyssinia adorn its upper sides, and on its lofty summit the
smoke of the volcano steals mist-like across a sheet of snow.
A little lower down, the primeval forest of the Gorilla Country
resembles that of the opposite Brazil; but is less gorgeous in
its vegetation, less abundant in its life.
Farther yet to the south, and a brighter land appears. We now
enter the Portuguese province of Angola. The land, far into the
interior, is covered with farmhouses and coffee plantations,
and smiling fields of maize. San Paolo de Loanda is still a
great city, though the colony has decayed; though the convents
have fallen into ruin, though oxen are stalled in the college
of the Jesuits. Below Angola, to the Cape of Good Hope, is a
waterless beach of sand. The west coast of Africa begins with a
desert inhabited by Moors; it ends with a desert inhabited by
Hottentots.
In the eighteenth century, a trifling trade was done in ivory and
gold; but these were only accessories; the Guinea trade
signified the trade in slaves. At first the Europeans kidnapped
the negroes whom they met on the beach, or who came off to the
ships in their canoes; but the βtreacherous nativesβ made
reprisals; the practice was, therefore, given up, and the trade
was conducted upon equitable principles. It was found that
honesty was the best policy, and that it was cheaper to buy men
than to steal them. Besides the settlements which were made by
Europeans, there were many native ports upon the Slave Coast,
and of these Whydah, the seaport of Dahomey, was the most
important. When a slave vessel entered the roads, it fired a
gun, the people
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