12 TRINIDAD. 



slaves, it remains for me to add a few remarks on the character 

 of the African race as exhibited in these islands. 



Be it the result of slavery or of natural disposition, or of 

 both, the African does not seem to understand the motives and 

 the object of legislation. He would not decide a case on 

 principle, but on circumstantial considerations. Whenever he is 

 wronged, he finds that the law is not severe enough ; but, as the 

 offending party, he is amazed at its severity. In his own 

 favour he wishes it to exert a spirit of revenge, and does not 

 seem fully to understand that, in its application, it must be 

 impartial and governed by fixed principles. Should justice be 

 done him, he is unsatisfied and unconvinced, because that justice 

 was not awarded according to his own views ; to realise his 

 ideas, the law must avenge him to the utmost extent and 

 independently of all extenuation. So predominant is this 

 peculiar disposition of the African character, that nearly all the 

 heinous crimes he commits have no other cause or source than 

 his misconception of justice. An African labourer who may 

 have received an offensive epithet from his employer, or some 

 other trifling injury, will satiate his revengeful passion by firing 

 a megass or curing-house, or perhaps the dwelling of the 

 offender. It would be unjust to pretend that this is a distinc- 

 tive characteristic of the African, for it is still more strongly 

 delineated in the Javanese race, and the more civilised in- 

 habitants of Corsica and Italy generally ; with this difference, 

 however, that the African aims more at the property, the others 

 mainly at the person. Arson is in the hands of the negro a 

 weapon as redoubtable as it is treacherous. 



He seems to nourish a great dread of the watchful eye of a 

 protecting law, and, as a consequence, has the greatest re- 

 luctance to aid in the discovery of crime, unless he has very 

 strong personal motives for so doing; it does not concern him. 

 He has besides a sort of supernatural fear of a daring criminal, 

 and the more dangerous to society, the more certain is the 

 culprit of escaping detection and punishment. The fact is this : 

 the African is wanting in moral courage ; and he willingly 

 submits to the chance of being deprived of the blessings of 

 civilisation provided he be not required to fulfil the obligations 

 it imposes. 



Considered in domestic life he has many defects, and not 

 a few capital faults. Since emancipation, marriages are much 

 more frequent among all classes than they were during the 

 period of slavery ; an increased desire exists of engaging in its 

 bonds, for marriage is regarded as a claim to respectability. 

 The respect manifested towards this rite is, so far, a good 

 symptom; but let it be added that in no part of the world 



