The "Good Old Tin/nee" in Guiana. 121 



places. Here we have people trying to judge the so-called savage and 

 speaking as if he telt what they consider drawbacks. Humane and 

 tender-hearted people feel sad when they look upon the poor of their 

 own or other countries, who have few comforts and conveniences which 

 would be exceedingly painful for them if wanting in their daily lives. 

 Most of us have some likings which are necessary to our comfort but we 

 do not always consider that others have not the same tastes but their 

 own peculiar ideas of what is necessary. We can easily see that were it 

 possible for one of the old fogeys to come down and live with us they 

 would be grumbling and finding fault with many things we do which we 

 could hardly avoid even did we wish to do so. 



The historian, if his judgments are to be of any value, must try to do 

 the impossible, that is, look upon the events of the past with the eyes of 

 contemporaries. Although however, he cannot do this altogether he can 

 try his best Bo as not to make the common mistake of putting up wrong 

 standards. The standards of time and place vary so much that he must 

 be changing his views and trying to change himself for every period that 

 he is studying. Again, his efforts are made to see an event from several 

 aspects, including the many sides represented by kings, lords, commons, 

 people, governments, planters and slaves, buyers, sellers, aborigines and 

 settlers, as well as a host of others. The result is bound to be faulty but 

 we must give him credit for what he has tried to do. 



The traveller of the olden time saw much more than he of the present 

 day who wants to rush round the world in a month or two. He was 

 however far more credulous and reported what he heard or supposed 

 that he was told. Foreign languages have always been drawbacks and 

 are so still, but there is a point which has to be noticed, i.e., misrepresen- 

 tations through interpreters. The man who poses as an interpreter is so 

 rarely exact in giving a word that is near to the real meaning of the 

 original that the historian must be doubtful of all old interpretations. 

 The principles at the bottom are only now being understood to mean 

 that we must get at the back of the word and peep into the mind of him 

 who uses it before we can venture to translate it. Even when we attempt 

 to get translations from European languages into our own we are sometimes 

 at a loss, hence the original expression is often quoted. Linguists know 

 too well the various readings of translators from the classics, and we may 

 safely state that no one represents the true meaning of the author. 

 Even in our own language we find words understood in different senses 

 by different people ; were we sticklers for exactness, many common words 

 would have to be defined by the people who use them. Old writers often 

 put ideas into the minds of foreigners that they would not have understood 

 if they had been consulted. Hundreds of popular notions have been 

 derived from ^uch misrepresentations, some of which are so fixed that 

 we can hardly expect that they will ever be rectified. It is hardly neces- 

 sary to give examples, but we may only mention the fact that the average 

 negro uses words that sound magniloquent when he has no idea of their 

 meaning. Those who hear the statements of witnesses in law courts 



