cc 



-.f 



CHAP, ii.] WEST INDIES. 31 



desire of acting from the impulse of their own minds, 

 We discern, savs Rochefort,t a wonderful change hi 



* * o 



the dispositions and habits of the Gharaibes. In some 

 respects we have enlightened; in others (to our shame 

 be it spoken) we have corrupted them. An old Cha- 

 raibe thus addressed one of our planters on this sub- 

 ject: "Our people/' he complained, " are become 

 fcC almost as bad as yours. We are so much altered 

 " since you came among us, that we hardly know our- 

 66 selves, and we think it is owing to so melancholy a 

 change, that hurricanes are more frequent than they 

 were formerly. It is the Evil Spirit who has done 

 <c all this, who has taken our best lands from us, and 

 " given us up to the dominion of the Christians. "t 



My present investigation must therefore be neces- 

 sarily defective.- Nevertheless^ by selecting and com- 

 bining such memorials as are least controverted, I 

 shall hope to exhibit a few striking particulars in the 



f Rochefort, liv. ii. ch. ix. p. 436, 



j This extract from Rochefort is surely a sufficient answer to the ob- 

 servations of Mons. de Chanvalon, who wrote so late as 1751, and, 

 judging of all the Charaibes from the few with whom he had any com- 

 munication, represents them as not possessing any sagacity or foresight 

 beyond mere animal instinct. He makes no allowance for their degrada- 

 tion in a state of captivity and servitude, although in another part of his 

 book, speaking of the African blacks in the West Indies, he dwelis 

 strongly on this circumstance respecting the latter. " Feut on connoitre 

 ' (he observes) le vrai gen'e d'un peuple opprime, qui voit sans cesse 

 " les chatimens levcs sur sa tete, et la violence toujouis prcte a etre sou- 

 ' tenue par la politique et la surete publique ? Pern on juger de la vs. 

 " leur, quand elle e$t enchainfe, et sans armeer- ? w Voyage a la Marti 

 juque, p. 58. 



