CHAP, ii.] WEST INDIES. 35 



Of the loftiness of their sentiments and their ab- 

 horrence of slavery, a writer, not very partial towards 

 them, gives the following illustration : " There is not 

 " a nation on earth (says Labat) || more jealous of their 

 " independency than the Charaibes. They are impa* 

 " tient under the least infringement of it; and when, 

 (C at any time, they are witnesses to the respect and 

 " deference which the natives of Europe observe to- 

 " wards their superiors, they despise us as abject 

 " slaves ; wondering how any man can be so base as 

 " to crouch before his equal." Rochefort, who con- 

 firms this account, relates also that when kidnapped 

 and carried from their native islands into slavery, as 

 they frequently were, the miserable captives common- 

 ly sunk under a sense of their misfortune, and finding 

 resistance and escape hopeless, sought refuge in death 

 from the calamities of their condition.* 



To this principle of conscious equality and native 

 dignity, must be imputed the contempt which they 

 manifested for the inventions and improvements of ci- 

 vilized life. Of our fire-arms they soon learnt, by fatal 

 .experience, the superiority to their own weapons; 

 and those therefore they valued; but our arts and ma- 

 nufactures they regarded as we regard the amusements 

 and baubles of children: hence the propensity to theft, 



|| Labat, torn. iv. p. 329. 



* Rochefort, liv. ii. cap. xi. Labat relates that the following senti- 

 ment was proverbial among the first French settlers in the Windward 

 elands : " Regarder de tracers un Cbaraibe, c'est le battrc, it que de le 

 <c battre c'est le tuer> ou j' ex-poser a en etre /*." Labat, torn. ii. p. -^, 



