African Immigrant's After Freedom. 83 



"There can be no question" (says the -'Gazette" of 

 April 16, 1850) " but that the best labourer is the rude African. 

 He requires no acclimatization." 

 And again, on February 20, 1851 : — 



" There can be no doubt that the most desirable class of 

 immigrants for this Colony are Africans." 

 But the African was not employed by either Goverraent or 

 " Gazette." What did the Planter say ? 



Examined on March 23, 1848 before a Parliamentary Commission 

 Dr. William Eanken said : — 



" The imported African is a pattern to the more civilized 

 Creole of the colony. There is no class of people I have seen in 

 the West Indies by any means so well adapted as the Africans 

 for field labour under the sun." 

 Mr. Matthew Higgins (April, 4, 1849) said : — 



" I think I may say that if we had access to the coast of 

 Africa for labour we should have no desire to return to 

 India ... I think African labour is the only species of labour 

 it would be worth our while to import." 

 The African's main asset then, as now, was his physique and perfect suit- 

 ability to the climate. Where the Madeiran and the coolie sickened and 

 died, the African throve and prospered. He gloried in the sunlight. His 

 black skin shone with health on a hot day. Nor did the experienced 

 planter find him difficult to handle. He was intensely suspicious — the 

 first Africans on Pin. Vreed-en-Hoop would drink water only 

 after the Creole Blacks — and he could be obstinate with an unreasoning 

 obstinacy. But the planter who was just, who humoured him without 

 weakly giving way, who was kind but firm, who gained and kept his 

 confidence, could as he put it, " do anything with him." 



He fell into his niche on the plantation naturally. Nothing is more 

 pleasant in the eld records than the brief, occasional glimpse of the 

 friendly relations which existed between the imported African and the 

 Creole Black. The African went timid and friendless to the plantation, 

 and the people did all they could to make him feel at home. There was 

 the bond of race. Blood is thicker than water. There were yet alive up- 

 wards of seven thousand of the old, old " Salt Waters," — Africans who 

 had been brought to Guiana before the abolition of the Slave Trade, — and 

 these delighted to " cut country" with the new-comer if he understood 

 their language. If the new African was young, as many were, he would 

 be put with an old " Daddy" or " Aunty " whose immediate business (and 

 pride) it was to teach him "Bakraways," including, — so much as he had 

 mastered himself, — " Bakra talk." The pride of those old people in their 

 charges' progress — in the way they could say the alphabet or repeat the 

 Lord's Prayer — is described as touching. 



A Stipendiary Magistrate who visited Pin. Rosehall found an old 

 Kongo beating a drum for the new Africans. He was trying to cheer 

 them all up. 



