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8
TIMEHRI
BEING
THE JOURNAL
OF
te Rona aviator & {jommercal
} oyigly ong
OF
BRITISH GUIANA.
Edited: by... .... ... --.J. J. QUELCH, <5. Sc., Lond.
Vol. I1. (New Series) 1888.
————— es
Demerara: J. THOMSON, 1888.
London Agent: E. STANFORD, 26 & 27 Cockspur Street
London.
i
Hl (io
PRINTED AT THE ‘‘ ARGOSY” OFFICE, DEMERARA.
Contents of Volume 2—(New Series.)
came sies = BNA PAGE. Our Criminal Classes, by Henry Kirke ay a I “Man’s Footsteps,’ by James Ropway Bh i 17 Gold Mining Notes, by G. H. Hawtayne,C.M.G. .. 31 Our Cable Communications (with Map), by S. Vyle .. 54 The Beetles of British Guiana, by the late Revd. W. HARPER.. or oe 62 Mr. Froude’s Neliophobil: by N. DuteeL ars see 85
On Gypsum as a Cane Fertiliser, by E. E. H. Francis 130 West Indian Produce in 1815, by Dr. C. G. Youne 144 Popular Science Lefture, by G. H. Hawtayng, C.M.G. 155
Causes of Boiler Explosions, by W. P. ABELL . : 189 An Improved three-roller Cane Mill, (with diame) te
De SKEKEL > .\. De etow? Cane Crushing, (with ee a 108 E. ‘H. re 224 A Contribution towards the History of Demerara—1 oe
from the Correspondence of GEpNEY CLARKE ae Aes A Trip to the Upper Demerara, by the Revd. Canon
Castell . Me 277 The Free Rural Eopnlation eae a Medical Point of View,
by C. E. Macnamara .. el fs se Raia ee yoy The Zoophytes, by the Editor .. 299
Seven Months up the Puruni River, oe ale dt ee 314 The Records of British Guiana, by N. Darnett Davis 339 A Colleé&ing Trip on the Abary Creek, by the Editor 358
Vi.
OccasionaL NotEes.—
Minerals from California . . te fe Kook LO Change of Plumage inBirds_ .. nk Mie 707) Fossilised Conch Shells .. Me is Been irae Colour Protection. . j 181
The Rice Industry on the North Chast scenes 183
Prof. Leidy and Parasites. . ais oi aay 70 Haiari Poison... 30 wan ea
A New Spiny Rat from Derneees a ene
Gold Mining in California ae sh zn) | B88
A Mimetic Caterpillar .. 36 Bo we 74 BOs Identification of Guiana Timber Trees .. eae SOO
Snake Poison... xe be ae Bien 22toh7/ Polymorphic Orchids .. i ae “te SOL Cocoanut as a Vermifuge ae oe sia OE
A Cosmopolitan Guiana Bird .. 30 Sao Recent Locai Literature .. 55 “6 Brew 210/53
In Memor1am—William Russell. . Pl Seana Roe Sites Revd. John Foreman .. se al, 30)5
Robert Wight Imlach .. 6 ive GOS
Popular Science Leétures ae 1 ir 155-434
Report of Society’s Meetings, January to December DSB ates ae “Ny ae as ne 186-396
SsssomCr~
INDEX
TO VOLUME 2.—(New
OF
TIMEHRI.
A.
Abary Creek, A Collecting Trip on the ...
Abell, W. P., on The causes of Boiler Explosions...
Amalgam, Gold sen American Plants, Native Cultivated Attwood’s Table, Determination of Gold...
B. Beetles of British Guiana Ms BIRDS. — Change of Plumage in Cosmopolitan Guiana of Abary Creek ... Boiler Explosions, Causes of Cc.
Cable Communications of British Guiana CALIFORNIA. Gold Mining in.. Minerals from ... Cane Crushing te Cane Mill, Improved three-roller
Series.)
Castell, Rev. Canon, on Ashort Trip to the upae Tetris
Caterpillar, Mimetic Change of Plumage in Birds Cocoanut as a Vermifuge
PAGE.
358 189 43 30 49
62
¥77 392 302 189
54
383 176 224 207 277 385 177 391
il. INDEX.
C.—Continued. Colour protection Conch Shells, Implements of CONTRIBUTORS. Abell, W. Price on The Causes of Boiler Explosions Castell, Rev. Canon on A short Trip to the Upper Demerara Davis, N. Darnell on Mr. Froude’s Negrophobia... on The Records of British Guiana Francis, E. E. H. on Gypsum as a Cane Fertiliser on Cane Crushing Hawtayne, G. H., C.M.G. on Gold Mining Notes Harper, The late Revd. W. on The Beetles of British Guiana Kirke, H on Our Criminal Classes
Macnamara, C. E.
on The free rural Population from a Medical Point
of View Perkins, H. I. on Seven Months up the Puruni Quelch, J. J. on The Zoophytes on A Collecting Trip on the Abaty Creek Rodway, James n “ Man's Footsteps” Skekel, D. on The Improved three-roller Cane Mill Vyle, Samuel on Our Cable Communications Young, Dr. C. G. on West Indian Produce in 1815 Correspondence of Gedney Clarke Cosmopolitan Guiana Bird Criminal Classes, Our... a YP
om
ee
181 179
189
277
85 339
130 224
62
INDEX. iil.
D. Davis, N. Darnell, on Mr. Froude’s Negrophobia... is 85 *> 49 on The Records of British Guiana ues 339 Demerara, Contribution to the History of ie ee 235 F. Foreman, Revd. John—Jn Memoriam ... pac ee §=—- 3905 414 Francis, E. E. H., on Gypsum as a Cane Fertiliser sec 130 90 » on Cane Crushing... ae Be 224 Free Rural Population from a Medical Point of View S00 284. Froude’s Negrophobia, Mr. occ we ote we 85 G. Geological Notes on the Puruni Gold Distri& ... re 325 GOoLp. ; Californian Mining for ... es an wie 383 Notes on, Mining F nae ah “ee 31 Notes about the Puruni Fields 506 200 ca GEG BI) Gypsum asa Cane Fertiliser... sac aes eae 130 H. Haiari Poison.. aoc 381 Harper, The lati Rev. W. on fe Beetles of British Guiana 62 Hawtayne, G. H., C.M.G., on Gold Mining Notes ae Br I.
Identifications of Guiana Timber Trees ... 500 aan 386 Imlach, R. W.—I/nu Memoriam ... wae ‘es eee) 199531421 K,
Kirke, H., on Our Criminal Classes 06 ate éa¢ I L.
Le@tures, Popular Science aes se oon er LS STAG. Local Literature, Recent ap 500 200 506 303 M.
Macnamara, Dr. C. E., on The Free Rural Population, from a Medical Point of View ... ote C0 ae 284 ““Man’s Footsteps”... or ee ao on 17 MEETINGS OF THE SOCIETY. Accounts + aa oe «.» 186, 194, 197, 222
Addresses, Presidential .., one so ss» 201, 419
iV. INDEX.
M.—Continued. MEETINGS OF THE SOCIETY—Continued.
Banana Trade ... ay sec 210, 222, 230, 415, 423 Commercial Committee ... 53 «s+ 399; 404, 400, 4.24 Editor of Zimehri am a “He «. 404, 426 Bleccons ae vi { 186, 196, 201, 216, 221, 229
306, 400. 406, 408, 414 Ele&ion of Office-Bearers for 1889... av 53 417 Exchange of Colony Woods a5 bas n 2207220
sah 197, 228, 229, 390 403, 408, 400, 415
} 188, 200, 203, 205, 223 227, 228, 400, 408
Exhibition, Local Country
Exhibition of Specimens...
Expenditure, Library ... oe ae 20H 425 Experimentation, Agricultural ... nee oe 423 Extension of Reading Rooms ise PE SAT ANA) Grasses of the Colony ... ag 2 223, 229, 406 In MEMoRIAM—William Russell ... 300 hee ei TOS H2uO Revd. John Foreman 50 es 305) 414 R. W. Imlach ae + «> —395, 4.21 Leétures, Popular Science ae 217, 390, 408, 421, 430 Librarian and Assistant Secretary... oo w» 186,421 Motse } 188, 189, 204, 220, 221 229; 397) 399) 407 Museum, Condition of ... Male 4190 is 425 Museum, Mineral additions to zis a a1 204,422 Oranges, Shipments of ... on ott ane 416 Politics, Motion relating to ane ai aoe AO7TR ALO Reading-Rooms, Night Opening of son ann 200 Scotch Herrings... An6 26 “6 +» 407,409 Telegraphic Matters 34 3 397, 401, 407 Woods, Samples of, with Bark, Taaves etc. 189, 228, 403, 407 Mimicry 53 ee A 506 Bee ee) TOM eos Minerals from California anh fae 310 on 170 Mining Notes, Gold... Ant ony 6 air 31 Mining in California, Gold 6 sve see op 383 N. Negrophobia, Mr. Froude’s_... ses ee ase 85
New Spiny Rat from Demerara... 1 shi eas 382
INDEX. Ve
oO. OccaAsIONAL NOTES. A cosmopolitan Guiana Bird bee ie oe 302 A mimetic Caterpillar... be ae ea 385 A new Spiny Rat from Demerara... 208 hes 382 Change of Plumage in Birds Sep 300 Stic 177 Cocoanut as a Vermifuge aha ate ane 391 Colour Protection HES ie ts ee 181 Fossilised Conch Shells ... Mee anc es 179 Haiari Poison ... o bac BAG 900 381 Identifications of Guiana Timber Trees... éh6 386 Minerals from California... ae +8: ads 176 Polymorphic Orchids... es shits as 391 Prof. Leidy and Parasites ay bec sida 379 Recent Local Literature... © anc a wea 303 Snake-Poison ... ee 387 The Rice Industry on the Nout eccateno Coast... 183 Orchids, Polymorphic... ni09 os ain enn 391 P. Perkins, H. I., on Seven Months up the Puruni ... ia 314 POISON. : Snake ... S56 Be ed ae 387 Haiari ... was Gon Bes jus ane _ 381 Polymorphic Orchids ... is an bes 391 Popular Science Lectures ont we so con HG aig Prof. Leidy and Parasites 600 wey Bad eas 379 Q. Queich, J. J.. on The Zoophytes es obo 209 on A colleéing Gee on the Aba Creek... 358 R. Rat, A new Spiny, from Demerara He ae bo 382 Recent Local Literature 393 Records of British Guiana ny 339 Rice Industry on the North pes Pe: ba wae 183
Rodway, James, on “ Man’s Footsteps”... Russell, William—J/2 Memoriam cus
00 17 se ws» 185, 216
Vi. INDEX.
Ss. Seven Months up the Puruni ... Shell Implements Snake-poison ... =e ave os es Spiny rat, new, from Demerara w. Upper Demerara River, A short Trip to the Vv. Vyle, S., on Our Cable Communications Ww. West Indian Produce in 1815 ... Yy. Young, Dr. G. G., on West Indian Produce in 18:5 Zz.
Zoophytes
314 179 387 382 277
54 144
144
299
he oo Aoviu tural ne fuse riety of ! isl {iam
Di beasheasepsoensseraponesnhusnsassanscctsonsss)
“Vou. it. NEW SERIES. | YUNE, 1888. [PART I.
., J. J. QUELCGH, B. Se., Lond,
Papers.—Our Criminal Classes, by Hea nie M.A., B.C.L. ; Man’s Footsteps’’, by James Rodway, F.L.S.; Gold Mining Notes, by G. H. Hawtayne, C.M.G., F.R.GS. ; Our Cable Communica- ms, by Saml. Vyle; The Beetles of British Guiana, by the te Rev. William Harper, M.A.; Mr. Froude's Negrophobia, by Darnell Davis ; On Gypsum as a Cane Fertiliser, by E. E. H. cis; West Indian Produce in 1815, by Dr. C. G. Young; opular Science Lecture, by G. H. Hawtayne, C.M.G., F.R.G.S,, a. é
ige in Birds ; Fossilized Conch Shells ; Colour Pa ae? i ite Industry on the North Coast, le: Be
. Publishers : merara: J. THOMSON, Argosy Printing Press, ( E, STANFORD, Charing Cross, S.W.
ASIONAL NoTEes.—A/inerals from California ; Change of
Our Criminal Classes.
By Henry Kirke, M.A., B.C.L., Oxon.; Sheriff of Demerara.
7) RIMES are serious offences punishable by the as ‘ laws of a community, and are not to be, as
they often are, confounded with sins. A sinner is one who breaks the laws of GoD, or rather those laws as interpreted by the particular religious set to which hebelongs. Bigamy is both a crime and asin in England, but in Mahommedan countries it is a virtuous condition of life. Adultery in England is a sin but not a crime, whereas by Hindu law it is both.
Criminals are persons who break the public laws of the country in which they reside or of the community to which they belong, so that any person residing in British Guiana, from whatever country he may have come, is liable to punishment for a breach of the laws of the colony, even although he may be entirely ignorant of those laws, and had been brought up under a system entirely different. It is this ignorance which leads to a class of crime amongst our East Indian immigrant popu-
| lation to which [| shall refer later on.
Without law there can be no crime, so in those coun- tries where civilization has reached its highest perfeétion and where innumerable industries and luxuries require proportionately numerous laws for their protection and
development, we should expeét to find the greatest
2 TIMEHRI.
amount of crime. And this would be so if it were not that side by side with this advanced luxury and wealth there also springs up a philanthropic sentiment, a desire to mitigate and assuage the miseries of the poorer classes, a development of education, of self control, a feeling of responsibility and love of order, which more than counteraéts the criminal opportunities above alluded to. It is in societies such as our own which are, as it were, in a transitional state, having a dark background of slavery and violence, an original substratum of con- viéts and refugees from justice, besides an imported population of turbulent and unquiet spirits from both hemispheres, that we may expect to find the greatest development of the criminal tendency.
It is said that every nation is differentiated in criminal statistics by its tendency to certain classes of crime. To any one studying the Criminal Records of this colony the truth of this statement is apparent. The Criminal Classes, as a rule, are drawn from the lowest and poorest section of the community. It is true that no one class has a monopoly of crime; the Medical man does sometimes poison his wife ; the Clergyman at times embezzles the Church funds ; a Captain of Dragoons may commit suicide or a’Banker forgery, but 7%%ths of our criminals are drawn from the lowest stratum of society, and are the offspring of want, poverty, ignorance, and moral and material filth. All generalizations are dan- gerous, but still 1 think we may concede that murders and felonious assaults in this colony are mainly committed by East Indians and Chinese ; larcenies by black and coloured Creoles; wounding with knives and razors principally by the Barbadian coloured people ; forgeries
OUR CRIMINAL CLASSES. 3
and embezzlements by partly educated coloured Creoles ; breaches of the revenue laws and cheating by Portuguese ; whereas perjury, bearing false witness, profane swearing and indecent language seem pretty evenly distributed amongst all classes of the community.
The amount of crime in this colony is something appalling. Taking the population at 270,000 I do not hesitate to say that the amount of dete€ted crime is at least three times more than what is found in a popula- tion of a similar extent in Europe. In 1885, 2319 persons were committed to gaol after convi€tion, the population being estimated at 270,042 which gives us 1.97 per cent. of the population committed in one year. Now if we turn to the Criminal Statistics for England and Wales for the year 1886, we find that out of an estimated popu- lation of 27,870,586 the number of persons committed to prison for indi€table offences and under summary con- vi€tion amounted to 179,324 or only .64 per cent. of the population.
The causes of this are not far to seek nor difficult to explain. In the first place our population is principally recruited by immigration, and our immigrants both from the East Indies, the West Indian Islands and China, are not the most quiet orderly and industrious of the popu- lation of those countries respectively. Secondly we have the inherited curse of slavery making our black population untruthful and dishonest; in addition an inflaming temperature anda national drink of a highly intoxicating and noxious nature. One prevailing cause of crime amongst our East Indian immigrants is the _scarcity of women, causing jealousy, assaults, and fre- quently murders to arise. An Indian kills his wife
A 2
4 TIMEHRI.
when she deserts him for another man partly on account of jealousy and revenge but more often because he is angry at being robbed of his jewelry with which he had loaded her. By the Law as administered in-this colony the jewelry given to the wife or mistress during cohabitation becomes her personal property and when she leaves her husband she takes it with her. Now in India, if a wife commits adultery or leaves her husband for any cause, her jewelry is stripped from off her, and remains her husband’s property, so that if he loses his wife he does not lose his money which he generally values most. |
This was pointed out to the Attorney General and he made some alterations in the Immigration Law by a recent Ordinance (No. 2 of 1887) to meet such cases. But that law in my opinion does not go half far enough. Every woman who leaves her husband should be com- pelled to deliver up to him all the jewelry which he has given to her ; and any man harbouring or enticing away a woman with her husband’s jewelry in her possession should be liable to arrest as a thief together with the wife, as they would be in England, where if a man elopes with a married woman and some of her husband’s towels are found in her box, he may be tried and convicted of theft.
Great hardship is infliéted by the laws of the colony upon Hindoos, who are a most conservative people, and who, although they change their country, are unable to divest themselves of their ancient faith and customs. The crimes of perjury and false-swearing are unknown to the Hindoos in the same sense as we, understand them, and the necessity of telling the truth under all circumstances—so deeply engrafted in the constitution
OuR CRIMINAL CLASSES. 5
of an Englishman—is to them a foolish superstition. The Hindoos have from remote ages lived in communities closely allied in blood, and under certain laws and obli- gations to each other, which, being of a sacred charaéter, are considered more binding than any others. The women of a family are taught to be in entire submission to the head of the family whether he be her father, grandfather or the oldest agnate ; so that if her father or brother falls foul of the law it is a sacred duty for her to do everything in her power to assist that male relative.
' The mere telling of untruths before a Court of Justice | would be as nothing in her eyes, whereas the neglecting or refusing to do so if a father’s life or liberty were at stake would be a crime of the deepest dye which in olden times would have brought her to the stake or the rope. In my experience I have known several cases where Hindoo women have been sent to prison for perjury committed to rescue a father or a brother, and when I was sheriff of Essequebo I obtained the release of a woman who had been sentenced to two years imprison- ment for such an offence by explaining the whole circumstance to Governor KORTRIGHT.
Want of education is one ofthe great fa€tors in the manufacture of criminals: and when I say education Idon’t mean teaching the three Rs of which there is too much already in the colony, but education in the sense of teach- ing the people decency, cleanliness, modesty, honesty and — thrift. It is impossible to expeé respe€table men and women to grow up out of the moral cesspools in which they are bred andreared. Let any one walk through the yards which lead out of Lower Regent Street, Lombard Street, or Leopold Street, and let him ask himself how he could
6 TIMEHRI.
expect respeCtable law-abiding citizens to be raised therein. Rents in this city are very high, and there is a class of landlords who seem to think that their duty is only to wring out of their wretched tenants as much money as they can get and yet that they have no obliga- tions to meet in return. It is a common thing to find the rent of one wretched room opening on to a yard full of slush and mud, undrained, permeated with foul odours, to be two dollars a month and more. To meet this sum the tenant takes in as many people to lodge with her as she can get, who pay her perhaps 1/ a week each; and so half a dozen people of both sexes and all ages sleep together in a place whose cubic capacity would hardly supply enough air for two adults. It is horrible to see, as I have seen, the dense population which exists in some of the yards I have mentioned. In such places, in such a manner of life, is it to be wondered at that all decency is openly disregarded, that the most violent rows, the most filthy language are the daily pabulum of the inhabitants both young and old. Surely the Corporation of Georgetown, composed as it is of practical, clear-headed and philanthropic men, should turn their attention to these foul cesspools, and insist that landlords should be compelled to make their yards and houses well drained and habitable, and should pre- vent the over-crowding of houses, by such regulations as are in force in the large towns of England. Surely some of our great planters and merchants who have made fortunes out of this colony might imitate on a smaller scale the noble PEABODY and ereét some model lodging houses for our poor people. I could name six or seven gentlemen who have died within the last
OUR CRIMINAL CLASSES. 7
twenty years whose accumulated fortunes amount to more than one and a half millions of pounds sterling and yet not one of them has left a cent for the benefit of the poor of the colony, though the whole of their great fortunes have been made here by the labour of the people. It is ashame and a disgrace! Two men only, PAUL DE SAFFON and SAMUEL BRANDFORD TROTMAN, have left charitable legacies to their poorer brethren, and their names will to all time be accompanied by the blessings of the widow and the fatherless.
One great obje& of education is to make the public understand that all crime is detrimental to their interests as members of a social state, and to make them disapprovers of criminals. Public disapprobation has.a more deterrent effect in rooting out crime than any amount of legal punishment. If the people generally were distinétly hostile to offenders it would assist justice immeasurably in catching and punishing criminals. “ An enlightened people are a better auxiliary to the judge than an army of policemen.” But unfortunately amongst the poorer classes, public disapprobation of criminals, especially when they are thieves can hardly be said to exist: on the contrary if the victims be the richer classes, more sympathy is shown than disapprobation. They consider property as a benefit in which they have no share, and that the rich are the natural prey of the poor; so that instead of being an assistance to justice the lower classes throw every obstacle in the way of the suppression of crime, and the punishment of offenders. Even respectable people of the poorer classes who would themselves shrink from theft, will at the same time screen one of their own order who is pursued by the
8 TIMEHRI.
officers of justice for an offence against property, rather than incur the opprobrium which in their class always attaches to the name of an informer.
Crime and immorality go often hand in hand. Not that immoral persons, that is persons who break what are called the Moral and Social Laws are necessarily criminals, but the praétice of immorality in its broadest sense has a tendency to weaken the mental discrimination between what is evil and what is good, and so disintegrates the moral fibre of a man’s constitution and makes him more susceptive of influences which tend to criminal expressien, It is obvious that the herding together of people of all ages and both sexes in ill-ventilated and badly-drained rooms must tend to produce disease both of mind and body, disease of body by inhaling foul air, by contagion, by want of sufficient breathing space and other causes ; disease of mind by contamination of the less depraved and younger people by the indecency and impurity both in words and aétions of the more depraved and older. Similarly the unhealthy lives of a nation or colony may equally tend to produce a low ideal of social life which may weaken the moral fibre of its people to the results before mentioned. The marriage laws of this colony are of such a nature as to put a premium upon vice and con- cubinage, and to throw every obstacle in the way of early and virtuous conneétion between the sexes. The old Roman-Dutch Law which enables parties who have lived together in concubinage for years to marry and at the same time legitimate their children so as to place them in the same position legally as children born after marriage has been most fatal in its results upon female chastity.
OuR CRIMINAL CLASSES. 9
Many young women belonging to respeétable families, enter into a state of concubinage with an unmarried man with the hope and perhaps the promise that at some time their nuptials will be celebrated, who, if they knew that the children born of such a conneétion would be for- ever branded as bastards and they themselves be objeéts of scorn and contempt, would shrink from such a state of life. Very little disgrace attaches here to a woman who lives with one man in recognized concubinage so long as that man is sole and unmarried and able at any time to consummate their nuptials, but it is a matter of common observation that where the few maintain this relationship, which if rigidly kept is certainly not the most disgrace- ful life, intaét, too frequently infidelity on the one side leads to jealousy and subsequent infidelity on the other ; illicit polyandry succeeds to the previous concubinage, and from polyandry to prostitution is under our institu- tions a step more distinguishable in name than in reality. That a vast number of our people in this colony live in a state of immorality, merely using that word with regard to the relation between the sexes, is unfortunately too true, as the number of illegitimate births in comparison with those born in wedlock clearly shows. At the same time, I think it is very unfair to class Hindoo and Mohammedan children as illegitimate whose parents have been married according to the tenets of their respeétive religions. These illegitimate children naturally grow up in acareless and negleéted fashion if they live at all, surrounded by filth both mental and physical, and it is no wonder that the results are most. unsatisfa€tory, It is well known to the City Magistrates and the Police that certain quarters of the city swarm with shameless.
B
10 . TIMEHRI.
girls between the ages of 10 and 17, whose morals are those of a Yahoo, and whose language would dis- grace a bargee. I said ‘‘if they live’ for I have often heard the late Dr. MANGET say that three-fourths of the children under twelve months that die in this colony, are done to death by the ignorance, neglect or brutality of _their parents. There can be no doubt that the prevalent relations of the sexes leads to a great development of infanticide; not perhaps the deliberate slaying of in- fants by violence, but the no less sure though more lingering death by starvation and negleét. Abortion too is extensively pra€tised by a certain class of unmarried coloured women to whom children would be a trouble and disgrace.
Adulteration is another fa€tor in the manufaéture of criminals, being a fruitful cause of disease and drunken- ness which are parents of crime. During my short tenure of office as Attorney-General I introduced an Ordinance to prevent adulteration, which became law as No. 11, 1882, but its provisions have never been carried out, and our labouring classes, the backbone of the country, are being poisoned by villainous mixtures sold in the retail Spirit Shops. The wealthier classes are not more favoured as the most filthy stuff is sold in some of our stores as butter or lard, whilst milk is delivered at our doors mixed with water to at least 30 per cent. of its bulk. Whilst the Commissariat enforces that the proper strength of the rum be maintained, it pays no attention to its purity. Rum in its natural state is the purest and most wholesome of drinkable spirits but under the hands of the Portuguese and Chinese shop- keepers it becomes a noxious and intoxicating compound.
OurR CRIMINAL CLASSES. II
It is the experience of all Judges and Magistrates that drunkenness is the cause of more than half of our crime, so that anything which may supply our population with a pure and wholesome drink in place of what they now consume, would be a step in the right direétion for the diminution of crime.
These statements as to our criminal population may seem to some readers exaggerated, but I wish I could think they were. They are founded on the experience of 16 years on the Bench of this colony both as Judge and Magistrate. The prospect is dark enough, but the darkest hour of the night is the one before dawn, so we may look forward to a better time. Already during the _ last few years there had been a considerable diminution in the smaller offences, which are dealt with summarily by the Magistrates, and, although the Criminal Sessions still maintain their formidable dimensions, we may hope that at these also the Calendar may be reduced. The number of convicts in the Penal Settlement is smaller than usual and the prisoners in the Local Gaols are not so numerous as in former years. The discovery of gold in the S.W. of the colony has given a vent to many turbulent spirits, who were wasting their energies in making raids upon their fellow citizens.
It was said of AuGUSTUS C@SAR that he found a city of brick and left it of marble. It may be said of our city A®dile that he found Georgetown built of wood and that he will leave it a city of cement. It would be well if his energies were directed for some time to the slums of this large and ever increasing city, so as to do some- thing to remedy the condition of our poorer classes. If the existing Ordinances. do not give sufficient authority
B 2
12 TIMEHRI.
to the Health authorities to deal with undrained yards, leaking houses, rotten tenements unfit for human habita- tion, and lodging houses crowded to suffocation, then fresh powers should be obtained from the Government. But the best of Laws are of no avail unless they are put into force.
An attempt has been made of late years to check the increase of crime by the reformation of juvenile crimi- nals. The Industrial School at Onderneeming has been opened since 1879 and has certainly been in one way a great success ; but I very much doubt whether the boys are in many instances trained from crime. Too frequently we find them falling back into their old courses, mingling with their old associates and entering into a bolder and more reckless career of vice and crime, ending too often in a conviét cell at Massaruni. Where numbers of bad boys are brought together they mutually contaminate each other; the morale of the school is very low, and although everything is done to teach the boys decency, industry and morality, very few I tear praétise them when away from their master’s eyes. It is a pity and a mistake that when a boy is discharged from the Industrial School he is taken by the police in custody to his native place, and sometimes ez route is detained in a Police Station for some hours. When finally discharged this police restraint leaves a sort of criminal taint on the boy, which it is difficult for him to shake off. The boys should leave the school at 16 years of age and be apprenticed to any respe¢table person willing to take them for two years, during which time they might be more or less under the control of the Superintendent and should be encouraged to appeal to him in any diffi-
OuR CRIMINAL CLASSES. 13
culty and to look to him in after life for help and encouragement. I am sure the present excellent Super- intendent of the Onderneeming School would be only too glad to do what he could to assist his boys to gain an honest livelihood and a respe€table name.
The Girls’ Reformatory which it is proposed to establish, offers still greater difficulties than the other. Amongst the abandoned young women who would form its inmates it would seem impossible to hope that any blossom of purity or industry could survive. At the most we may hope that the Matron may be able in time to inculcate some degree of self control ; to make the girls more outwardly decent in word and gesture, to train them to habits of industry and cleanliness, and teach them to sew and wash, so that when they are discharged they will be able to gain an honest livelihood without sinking back into the infamy from which they were rescued. If some kind middle-aged ladies would take some of the better behaved girls into their service, they might preserve them from evil companions and help them to obtain a respe€table position amongst their fellows.
Prevention is better than cure, but as there always will be criminals amongst us there must be some means of punishing them and preventing them from becoming a nuisance to their respe€table fellow citizens. Punishment is an evil which we make an offender suffer as an example and a warning to others: criminal proceedings are to prevent future injuries. There are many people in England who are strongly opposed to the infliction of the death penalty for wilful murder, and these numbers are yearly increasing. But I am sure it would be a great
14 TIMEHRI.
mistake to abolish it in this colony. The fear of hanging has a very deterrent effe€t on the would-be murderer: I have some experience in the matter and I say no man likes to be hanged, and the most hardened criminals show an outburst of feeling when they are told that their sentences have been commuted to Penal Servitude for Life. Imprisonment is resorted to for two reasons ; first as a punishment and example ‘to others, and secondly to keep a dangerous criminal out of the way of harming his fellow citizens. For the latter purpose Imprison- ment as praétised in this colony may be efficacious, but as a punishment and deterrent it is far from being satisfa€tory : our prisoners are much too comfortable, the hard labour inflicted by the Law as part of the sentence is mostly disregarded. None could call the constitutional which our Georgetown prisoners take to the sea wall and the pleasant pic-nic which they have on the slopes of the embankment, hard labour ; and as they walk home they are greeted by their friends who find — opportunity to tell them the news, and slip a bit of tobacco or a cake of sugar into their hands as they pass. Prisons should be made hateful to the prisoners and not as now a comfortable retreat where a man is better housed, better fed, with medical comforts and free doétors if he is ill, than hundreds and thousands of honest people outside. Although they have innumerable opportunities very few of the prisoners ever attempt to escape, they know when they are well off. They remind one of a story of an Indian prison where a dangerous riot was quelled by the Keeper telling the prisoners that if they were not quiet he would turn them all out of the prison; this subdued them at once. Let
OUR CRIMINAL CLASSES. 15
our Gaols be built outside our large towns, with plenty of space within their walls, so that when a prisoner is ‘once committed to gaol he must never come outside until his sentence has expired: hard labour can easily be found inside the prison, and a part of each week should be performed in solitude.
It is a great misfortune that our officials in high places have such a strong objection to whipping as a punish- ment: there is nothing more effective, nothing cheaper. From all time a man’s skin has been his most cherished possession. JOB lost children and wealth with compara- tive patience, but SATAN knowing human nature said to Gop: “Skin for skin, yea all that a man hath will he give for his life,’ and when poor JOB was so smitten with sore boils all over his skin, he cursed the day of his birth. There is nothing that has such terrors for both black and East Indian people as the cat-o’-nine tails. When plantain-stealing became epidemic the lash put it down: when razor-cutting was prevalent the lash was resorted to and succeeded; when garotting had become common in England, the cat was the only instrument that could proteét the lives and purses of honest citizens. I know of my own knowledge that criminals regard a sentence of penal servitude with indifference, who cringe with terror at the thought of the cat, especially if the flogging were ordered to take place in public on the estate where their crime was committed. But the phil- anthropists say: “It is so degrading.” How can one degrade an habitual thief or burglar, a murderous garotter, a woman-chopper? It is not any degradation he feels when under the lash; it is the pain, the keen _whipcord cutting into his flesh, and making him yell with
i6 TIMEHRI.
agony, it is that which he dreads. But he for his part never thought of the pain which he infli€ted on the unfor- tunate old man whom he had garotted, or the slight woman whom he hacked all over with his sharp cutlass: brutes should be treated as brutes, and the whip is the only argument that appeals to their feelings.
I have tried not to draw too strong a piéture or to make out our population worse than they are. The general behaviour of the people is good and quiet, and will compare favourably, as far as orderly conduét is concerned with the population of any European Capital. But there is no denying the faét that there is an under- current of brutality which finds its expression in many cases of violent assault ; and a carelessness with regard to the sanétity of property which is shown in numerous thefts, embezzlements and burglaries. It is, however, gratifying to know that crime does not increase in propor- tion to the population, the number of offenders during 1887 shewing a considerable reduétion from those of 1886 and 1885, and we have every reason to hope, with better sanitary arrangements, a more widespread and wiser system of education, and more severe punish- ments for habitual criminals, that our Criminal Classes will soon shrink into much smaller dimensions.
PTV o>
‘‘Man’s Footsteps.”
By Fames Rodway, F.L.S.
SW HE descriptive name of “ White Man’s Foot- steps”’ is given to that insignificant weed the plantain (Plantago major) by the Indians of North America. When the savage sees its rosette of
leaves on the prairie he recognises it as an indicator of: the near approach of civilized man, and knows that he will soon have to move on before the march of the strangers. Like all true weeds the plantain only flourishes in conneétion with man’s presence, and this chara€teristic must have been noticed at the very early period when the Romans gave it a name derived from planta, the sole of the foot, thus stamping it with a distin€tive title to all intents and purposes the same as that of the American Indian. Where the European makes his home, in whatever quarter of the globe it may be, this humble weed appears as his companion, and where it is not strong enough to exist as a feld-pest it finds a congenial spot in some corner of his garden.
Although not a tropical weed, it is able to survive conditions that none of the favourites of the garden could endure, and while it would be quite impossible to naturalize buttercups and daisies in British Guiana, the plantain finds a congenial home here and there, even in some of the little gardens of the bovianders far away from the coast.
The power of endurance in the great weed family as distinguished from the prettier native flowers, strikingly resembles that of the European as compared with other
Cc
18 TIMEHRI.
races. In the temperate zone the weeds of colder climates flourish in the open field, but when they have become naturalized in the tropics, they acquire the habit of sociability, flourishing only near houses and in gardens. While the garden and field pests of temperate climates are spreading all over the world and making their appearance within the tropics, the large family of East and West Indian weeds are making their way into Southern Europe. In the great struggle for existence these plants have become strong and vigorous, armed with stiff spines or hairs, built up with wiry and fibrous stems, and flavoured with disagreeable tastes and smells. Like a legion of invaders they are marching over the world, gradually driving the native plants farther and farther, until ultimately as man advances, the Botanist will hardly be able to find a specimen of the chara€teristic flora. The most noticeable instances of weed aggression will be found on small islands. The native vegetation has almost disappeared from Barbados and Madeira, while in St. Helena where certain species were peculiar to the island, some of them will soon be found only as specimens in our great national herbaria. A tree in the last island has lately been figured in the “ Gardener’s Chronicle” as the “ last of the race.”
In this colony man has done very little to modify nature, but the work is progressing slowly, and as the swamps are drained the native plants are being gradually driven farther and farther, to make room for about a hundred species of foreign plants which are generally unsightly and disagreeable. The line of cul- tivation on the coast and up the sxivers is coincident with a distinét flora, which could not have existed in the
MAN’S FOOTSTEPS. 19
colony when it was bordered by a fringe of mangrove and . courida trees. The coast plants are very rarely found at any distance in the interior, even where the land is cultivated ; the clearings, however, have their chara€ter- istic weeds which will be presently mentioned. The most striking examples of the coast weeds may be seen in the grasses. As all colonists know, grasses grow rampant on all the estates’ dams and road-sides to the exclusion of almost every other kind of vegetation. The sour grass (Paspalum conjugatum) is the most com- mon ; it is useless as fodder, because hardly any herbiv- orous animal will eat it in the green state, although it is said to make passable hay. It prefers moist ground but cannot exist beyond the belt of cultivation. There is a continual struggle for existence between this species and the Bahama grass (Cynodon dactylon). During the rainy season the sour grass grows rampant everywhere, extending its long creeping runners in all directions, so that every other weed is smothered by its dense growth. As the dry weather comes however, it dwindles and becomes less and less, while, the pretty Bahama grass begins to take its place, gradually covering the road-sides with its delicate foliage, until the heavy showers bring its antagonist again to the front. Although the sour grass is the follower of cultivation, it is not an indicator of it, on the contrary, good drainage like drought eradicates it for a time, but being provided with a marvellous power of endurance in its roots, and also from its bearing myriads of seeds, it recovers from the longest dry season very quickly. Although there are many other grasses scattered over the coast, none of them can compare with the above- C 2
20 TIMEHRI.
mentioned in either endurance or wide distribution. Some of these as well as other plants are provided with hooked seed-vessels, so that they may be distributed by animals to a considerable distance. These appendages are very rarely found on plants that grow in the swamps or forests, while they are rather common among the pests of cultivated land.
Very few of the common weeds are either pretty or showy. Here and there a wild ipecacuanha (Asclepias curassavica) enlivens the roadside with its rich scarlet and orange flowers, or a rattle bush (Crotalaria retusa) makes a little colour, but there is nothing to compare with the pretty wild flowers of the dry savannahs of the interior. In some places the black sage (Varronia curassavica) almost covers the ground with its strag- gling woody branches, its stinking, bitter leaves being rejected by every animal. In negleéted yards several species of So/anacez spread their prickly stems over the ground, or the stinking fit-weed (Eryngium fetidum) makes its presence known by the nasty smell it exhales when trod upon.
From the faét that certain plants are only found in connection with the presence of man, the question naturally arises, have they been developed since man took to tilling the ground, or could they exist apart from his presence ? Among cultivated plants develop- ments have occurred which in many instances would absolutely prevent the species from propagating itself in a state of nature. The sugar-cane for example, bears a large panicle of flowers but never produces seed, neither is there any record of perfeét seed ever having been developed. That such was not originally the case is
MAN’S. FOOTSTEPS. 21
obvious, but having been grown from joints for ages, it has lost its power of seed bearing, and therefore is unable to exist apart from cultivation. The banana is another instance of loss of power through disuse ; when left to itself it sometimes produces a few black specks inside the fruit, but never perfeét seeds. Other familiar examples of the development of one faculty at the expense of another, will be found among the sweet herbs, such as mint and thyme, which rarely flower under cultivation. The toya (Dianthera pectoralis) although so commonly grown in Georgetown is never seen in flower, while on the contrary in the wild state it flowers freely.
A very large proportion of the commonest weeds are of annual duration. In developing plants of this class in temperate climates, the change of seasons must have been the principal fa€tor. Where however plants are not subjeét to alternations of cold and heat, drought and deluge, annual plants are entirely absent. In the forests of Guiana all the species are perennial, while on the savannahs where the seasons have more influence annual plants are notuncommon. A rather interesting example of the apparent development of an annual plant from: a perennial may be seen in the common silver fern (Gymnogramma calomelanos). ‘This plant may be considered as one of ‘‘ Man’s Footsteps” as it is always found in clearings, on old brick-work, or on the sides of estates’ trenches, appearing as if the spores were brought to light by turning up the soil. Like nearly all ferns it is perennial, but a rather curious circumstance in conneétion with its manner of growth in British Guiana is the faét that it behaves as an annual under certain
22 _ TIMEHRI.
conditions. During the rainy season it may be found scattered everywhere along the sides of the trenches, on the brick-work of old water vats, or even on heaps of burnt earth by the road sides. Not being able to live during the dry season it comes to maturity in a month or two, scattering its spores everywhere, and then perishes as soon as the rains cease. This is apparently the only fern in the colony that may be called a weed, and it may be considered as in course of development to suit the altered condition of the cultivated distriéts. It is never found in the forest or on the savannahs, except in cases where there has been a clearing, but once the soil is laid bare, it may be many miles from the nearest cultivated ground, it comes up in profusion. The capability of certain plants or seeds to lie dormant for generations, or perhaps ages, is one of the wonders of vegetable life. Make a clearing in the forest, dig a ditch, or throw up an embankment, certain plants will be sure to appear that could not have been found in the neighbourhood before the disturbance. Terrestrial orchids of very rare species are commonly found in England on railway banks, while in Demerara the Catasetum discolor is plentiful only on the sandbanks thrown up by the charcoal burners. The question naturally arises, have their seeds lain dormant for ages ? There appears to be no limit to the vitality of seeds under favourable conditions. One of the most striking illustrations of endurance was recorded in ‘Science Gossip” some years ago. A field of turnips had been ploughed up, and planted as an orchard ; it remained in that condition for over forty years, when the fruit trees becoming old and almost past bearing they were grubbed up, and the
aa ee
MAN’S FOOTSTEPS. 23
land ploughed over, with the curious result of a fair crop of turnips. If the turnip seed could remain so long in the earth without losing its vitality, it is almost impossible to place a limit to the life of other seeds; it may there- fore be quite possible that the weeds of forest clearings may have been lying dormant since the time that the trees first gréw on the same localities.
Traces of the white man’s footsteps are quite common along the banks of the rivers in this colony. The Dutchman’s wind-mill or sugar house is gone, the plan- tation that once resounded with the cries of slaves under the driver’s whip, is overgrown with forest trees, but here and there the Botanist will notice his footprints. In cutting a path through the bush he may come upon a cocoa tree, bread-fruit, or a few mangoes still holding their own in the struggle for existence. Some approxi- mation to the date of aclearing may be gleaned from these living relics of the care taken by the former pro- prietors of these plantations. When a large mango tree is hanging over acreek it may be surmised that a clearing existed at some later period than the beginning of this century as it was not till 1782 that the first plants of this wide-spread fruit-tree were introduced into the West Indies. The stories of the cultivated plants of tropical America are very interesting, and show the great per- severance of our ancestors. The great care taken of the first coffee plants, the distribution of the sugar-cane, and the introduction of the plantain, have stories that are almost romantic. We are indebted tothe French for many of our exotics and among the rest the mango. In 1782 a vessel was despatched from Mauritius with a quantity of mango and cinnamon plants, as well as
24 TIMEHRI.
several other eastern plants of beauty or utility, intended for the French colony at St. Domingo. Special care was taken of them during the voyage and there was every probability of their arriving at their destination in good health, but fortunately or unfortunately the vessel was captured by Lord RODNEY, and its contents taken to Jamaica, whence in a few years the plants were distributed over the West Indies. The story of the Mutiny of the Bounty should be of the greatest interest to West Indians, as that vessel was fitted out purposely for the introdu€tion of the bread-fruit. After the disas- ters of Capt. BLIGH’S first expedition another was soon fitted out, and in the year 1793 he arrived at Jamaica with a fine colleétion of plants, including bread-fruit Otaheite gooseberry, and some of our most handsome garden flowers. By the agency of man most of the half- wild fruits and flowers which are so common everywhere, were introduced from distances which were tremendous in the age of sailing vessels and before the discovery of Wardian cases. The failures were numerous, many and many a time the plants died on the passage, but in the end success rewarded the colleétors. When allowances are made for the deficient means of communication, the number of privateers and even pirates, and the faét that the West Indies was a naval battle-field (if such a term is admissible) it is almost wonderful that the mango should be common in Essequebo in the time of Dr. Rop- SCHEID, about twenty years after the introduction of a few small plants into Jamaica.
About the year 1690 the governor of Batavia having succeeded in raising a few coffee plants from seed obtained from Mocha, sent one to Amsterdam from
MAN’sS FOOTSTEPS. 25
which plants were distributed throughout the Dutch colonies including Surinam. From one of the plants which had been given to LOUIS XIV. in 1714 a number of seedlings were despatched to Martinique in charge of one M. DE CLIEUX a few years after. From unfavourable weather the voyage was prolonged, until the water run- ning short, the whole ship’s company were at length reduced to a very small allowance. As a matter of course none could be spared for the coffee plants, and consequently they withered and died, until only one was left. M. CLiEUx being determined to save this plant divided his scanty share of water with it, until he happily arrived at his destination with his charge still living. Coffee planting was commenced in Surinam in the year 1718, but the Dutch would not allow either seeds or plants to be taken from the colony. A Frenchman, however, having run away from Cayenne to Surinam, and being desirous of returning, purchased the good graces of the French Governor by smuggling a few coffee berries into French Guiana.
Having shown that weeds and cultivated plants are signs of the presence of the white man, or the relics of his former occupation, it remains to be mentioned that the native Indian also leaves his traces in the forest. In wandering through the bush, the explorer or botanist is continually coming upon spots where the vegetation differs entirely from that of the surrounding country in such a manner that his attention is at once arrested. These places are usually situated on sand reefs over- looking the rivers or creeks, and the most obvious point about them is the absence of large forest trees. There may be a few fruit trees such as the Saouri (Pekea
D
26 TIMEHRI.
tuberculosa) but the general chara@ter of the vegetation is decidedly weedy. But what a horrible lot of weeds ! From a large shrub hangs a veil of what looks like some pretty grass, but go a little closer you will find that its stems and leaves are edged with saw-like teeth, which, if they should happen to be drawn across the face or hands in passing through the bushes, will cut a deep gash through the skin in an instant. It is a species of razor-grass (Scleria scandens) and deserves its name as much as any other of the genus. A little farther on may be seen a lot of shrubby Solanums, armed with stout prickles, which can only be passed by frequent use of the cutlass. A few plants of the Krattee (Nidularium karatas) are always present, their impregnable circles of spiny leaves forming an efficient proteétion to the soft fruit in the centre, through which no animal can penetrate. Pine-apples are also always present in these places, and these together with krattee may be called ‘‘Red Man’s Footsteps.” Wherever the Indian has had a home these plants remain as evidence of his former presence. Thousands of such places are to be found throughout the colony, and at first sight they appear to confirm the accounts of the first explorers, that Guiana was densely populated when discovered. But in face of the faét that the Indian is continually wandering from one locality to another as his provision fields become exhausted, or for other reasons, the evidence becomes very doubtful. It may be possible by careful observation to get some idea of the time when these settlements were abandoned. A small clearing in the forest when abandoned, will soon get covered with grasses, silver ferns, and creeping plants such as Phytolacca. These will gradually give way
MAN’S FOOTSTEPS. 27
before a dense growth of shrubs, and finally a few trees will succeed in piercing through the jungle. As they spread their branches over the bushes these become less and less rampant until the place becomes indistinguishable from the surrounding forest. On the sand-reefs, however, a very long period may elapse before any tree can establish itself on a clearing, and if the denuded space is of a great extent, ages may elapse before the traces of occupation are obliterated. The inhabitants of the upper Demerara river are still able to trace the line of the great forest fire that extended between it and the Berbice river a hundred years ago.
Are the pine-apple and_ krattee' wild plants? They appear to flourish wherever the soil is suitable, but always conne¢ted with the traces of man’s presence in some past time. It may have been centuries since the parent plants were thrown down near the Indian village of which they are the only relics. The pine-apple is certainly a native of America, but it has the chara€teristics of a cultivated plant, while it is so widely distributed and requires so little attention that it may be considered as a tropical weed rather than a development of man’s care and attention. Like the banana and sugar-cane, it produces no perfeét seeds, but while the former hardly exist for a few years without cultivation even under the most favourable circumstances, the pine-apple on the contrary may flourish for ages. It has been suggested that the New World is really the older, is it possible that we have here an example of development far beyond anything to be found in the Eastern Hemis- phere? Has the pine-apple been developed for such a long time that it is capable of flourishing independently ? D2
\
28 TIMEHRI.
If such is the case, then the banana and sugar-cane are only infants, and the theory of the dependence of culti- vated plants will admit of considerable modification.
The krattee belongs only to this continent and has probably been used for making hammock cords for ages. Like the pine-apple it is never found truly wild, but wherever there is, or has been, an Indian settlement this plant is certain to be found. Not bearing an edible fruit, its development has progressed in an entirely different dire€tion. For cordage, length of fibre is of the utmost importance, especially to savage man, who has no con- veniences for twisting, and here we have perhaps the longest fibre known, the leaves being ten or twelve feet in length.*
The seétion of Botany which considers the origin and distribution of cultivated plants and weeds is now receiving very great attention, and deserves far more consideration than is generally supposed. To Geology it has already given most valuable indications of the distribution of sea and land in past ages, and it is expected to throw as much light on the great science of Anthropology. ‘Till within the last thirty years the natural history of man was hardly thought of, much less studied, but since that time it has been extending its field so as to embrace a great portion of every other science. It may be confidently prediéted that a know- ledge of the distribution of weeds and cultivated plants will throw great light on the history of man’s wanderings,
* The Indians of the Demerara river have discovered that these fibres make good thread for sewing, and it is rather interesting to watch a woman drawing out a fibre from the half dry leaf to thread her needle,
MAN’S FOOTSTEPS. 20
and confirm some of the discoveries of philologists as to the origin of the great Indo-European race. Every- where on this continent there are indications of the growth of a distin& civilization widely different and unconneéted with that of the Old World, and our native plants appear to be in many instances farther developed than their congeners of the east. Man’s influence is best seen in the cultivated annuals, and of these the American corn (maize) will rank very prominently. The cassava again, and the way in which its poisonous properties are eliminated, show considerable penetra- tion on the part of some ancient race. Up to the present time the cradle of the American Race is unknown, although theories of various kinds are continually being promulgated; perhaps plant distribution may throw a light on the matter.*
List of the most important Plants cultivated in Guiana with date (where obtainable) of introduétion to the West Indies, and place from which derived :—
Akee, 1778 ... bac ote ba we .-- West Africa. Almond (Terminalia), 179 AB wits ... East Indies. Bamboo ... ee Bis ane wisi ... East Indies. Bread Fruit, 1793 ... Le aoe ee ... Otaheite. Cinnamon, 1782 ... Se 208 ae aaa) Ceylon.
* While giving all due consideration to man’s influence in the distri- bution and development of weeds and cultivated plants, it must be thoroughly understood that the original variation took place without the slightest effort on his part, and in the case of weeds, against his wishes. The environment which has produced the plants in question is different from that which has been working for ages to develope such wonderful contrivances as are found in the Orchid family, but they all go to prove the capability of nature to accommodate itself to any and all circumstances.
Coffee, 1716...
Ginger oe ac Sa $53 one Guinea Pepper), 1785
Grains of Paradise (
TIMEHRI.
Horse Radish Tree (Moringa), 1784
Jack Fruit 1782, Mango, 1782
Mangosteen, 1782 ...
Ochra
Oranges, Lemons and Limes, 1493?
Orange, Mandarin, 1788 ...
Pepper, 1787 Plantain, 1516
Pomegranate, 1493 ?
Rice... 4
Rose Apple (Plum Rose) 1762...
Sugar Cane, 1506... Sago Palm (Cycas), 1775...
Tamarind Yam, Common
Anatto Arrowroot Avocado Pear
Capsicum (Peppers) Custard Apple
Cashew
Cotton
AMERICAN PLANTS. Cassava
Arabia.
East Indies. South of Europe. East Indies.
East Indies. East Indies. East Indies. Africa,
South of Europe. China.
East Indies.
East Indies. Spain.
East Indies. India.
Canary Islands, East Indies.
East Indies
East Indies.
Mammee Apple Sapodilla
Cocoa (Cacao) Mespil Sour Sop Papaw Tobacco Pine Apple Yam, Buck. Potatoes
Gold Mining Notes.
EXTRACTED FROM THE 2ND, 4TH, 5TH AND OTH ANNUAL REPORTS OF THE STATE MINERALOGIST OF CALIFORNIA.*
By G. H. Hawtayne, C.M.G., F.R.G.S.
WISH to explain that my name appears in connection with the following extra€ts from the Reports of the State Mineralogist of California, simply because the Editor of 7zmehri asked me to transcribe or condense such portions of those reports as might be useful to its readers, and while wishing that he had sele€ted some more practised and competent ‘‘ devil,’ I shall be glad if the result of my task is to communicate some of the useful or interesting information contained in these reports to those employed in developing what, it is to be hoped, will before long prove a source of abundant wealth to our colony and its people.
According to the remarks on the geology of gold contained in the reports, there is reason to believe that the heaviest metals exist in the largest quantities near the centre of the earth. They exist much disseminated
* These reports which treat in detail of many mineralogical questions of general importance and more especially of gold mining, have been forwarded to the Society by the State Mining Bureau of California, through Mr. Henry S. DurpDENn, with whom an exchange of samples of colony woods had been made for Californian ores and minerals. The ores and minerals are exhibited in the Museum; and the reports are deposited in the Reading Room, where they are available for consultation by those who desire a more detailed acquaintance than can be obtained from the following notes most kindly prepared by Mr. HAWTAYNE.—Eb.
32 TIMEHRI.
in the eruptive rocks, and as the sedimentary rocks so called are built up from the ruins of these, the presence of precious metals in them is easily accounted for. Geologists tell us that the “ mother vein’, the source of all gold, is of an unknown geological age but is older than the formations in which gold is found—and that but for the upheaval of certain rocks which is continually but slowly going on, gold would never have been known. Gold is found either as free gold in the form of nuggets, which may be lumps of several pounds weight or as minute grains, or as veins, more or less perceptible, permeating other geological formations as quartz, clay, &c. Certain metals are always found together, gold and iron are always associated, just as lead always contains silver. HUMBOLDT stated that in Guiana gold is sometimes dis- seminated in an imperceptible degree in the granite rocks without any evidence of small veins, and in New South Wales granite, and in Siberia, clay and slate are permeated by small particles of gold. Dr. PERCY the celebrated English Metallurgist, thinks that gold is precipitated from an aqueous solution, while Sir RODERICK MURCHISON, who it will be remembered foretold the discovery of gold in Australia, believed that quartz is of volcanic origin and at one time was in a gelatinous condition in which it enclosed gold mechanically. Gold is found more or less abundantly in every part of the earth, and gold mines have been worked from the time of the Phoenicians. But it is not intended to enter into the geology of the precious metal nor the history of its mines, but rather to sele€t those portions of the reports dealing practically: with its colleétion &c., which may be of use to the gold- seekers of British Guiana.
Go_D MininG Notes. 33
Placer Mining is ‘‘ the gathering by mechanical means “of native or free gold found disseminated in alluvial ‘“‘ deposits in certain parts of the earth’s crust.” Every variety of placer mining is based on the faét that gold is heavier than most other metals or substances.
In placer mining the auriferous material is obtained by digging up the surface, or in larger operations by hydraulicing, as it is termed—drifting, blasting, sluicing and other modes.
Hydraulic mining occupies much of the Reports under contribution, for although it has been recently prohibited in the State of California because the débris resulting therefrom was found to be detrimental in many ways to many interests, it was the easiest and cheapest way of disintegrating the gravel banks in which the gold was richly deposited.
“ Hydraulic Mining” is defined as the application of natural ferces to move large quantities of earthy matter and the colle€&tion of a certain quantity of gold too small to be profitably severed by other and easier methods. To be successful, certain conditions only to be found in a newly settled mountainous country arerequired, namely, an abundant supply of water, a deposit of loose, easily disintegrated earth, containing a paying quantity of gold, a bed rock not too deep below the surface, a channel into which the débris can be discharged, and high ground above the drains to which water can be conveyed to give the required pressure. This system of mining was known to and practised by the ancients, and an aqueduét built at Alatri in Italy 200 years B.C., of earthenware pipes imbedded in concrete for eleven and a half miles, capable of sustaining at its lowest point
E
34 TIMEHRI.
a pressure equal to eleven and a half atmospheres, still remains in good preservation. The report contains a long extraét from PLINY on Gold Mining as pra¢tised in various parts of the world in his day.
It would take too much space to transfer to these pages the interesting accounts of the vast works under- taken in the prosecution of hydraulic mining in California; and moreover this is not necessary on the present occasion, since the conditions under which gold is sought and colle€ted in that region, differ widely from those existing in Guiana. It would be difficult for instance to transport to our gold fields iron pipes 30 inches in diameter, and to lay them down in lengths of several thousand feet. The photographs which have been kindly forwarded with these reports from the Bureau, shew very vividly this mode of applying water, and its ex- ceeding force.
“ Drift Mining” which is a form of placer mining, is the gathering gold from the bed rocks on which the auriferous gravel banks- lie, and which are generally considered to be ancient river channels. The deposits are worked by tunnels or drifts driven into the banks.
“ Ground Sluicing’”’ praétised only when water is plentiful or where the yield is not estimated to pay for the more expensive process, is carried on by bringing water in a ditch to a high point, so as to produce a strong current across the claim. A ditch is then dug which is extended by the water cutting its own way, aided by the miners breaking down its sides with pick and shovel, and if there is no rock bed at the bottom, one is made by throwing in stones. The ditch is furnished with a sluice box and riffles at its further end,
GOLD MINING NOTES. 35
’ Dirt is thrown in and carried forward by the water which is afterwards shut off when a sufficient quantity has been washed. The stones are then removed and the dirt washed in a rocker, long tom, or shorter sluice. Blasting is resorted to by the hydraulic miners to shatter the large boulders and masses of clay from which the surrounding dirt has been torn and washed by the stream of water directed against them, or when the gravel is too hard to be disintegrated by water. It is also extensively used by the quartz-miner. Where the material to be broken up presents a flat surface, a vertical shaft is sunk fifteen or twenty feet deep and a small chamber excavated at the bottom into which five or six kegs of gunpowder are placed, thoroughly tamped, and fired by eleétricity. Where a bank has to be blasted, a main tunnel or adit is run in fora distance one and a half times as great as the height of the bank to be broken down. From the end of this, cross adits are driven at right angles to the main adit. Kegs or boxes of powder are placed along the adits in rows, the tops of the middle row removed and wires laid along for con- neétion with the battery. A bulkhead of timber is then placed across the main adit where the lateral arms intersect it and the adit tightly packed with sand and gravel to the mouth. When allis ready, the conduéting wires are conne¢ted with the ele¢tric battery and the charge fired from a safe distance. Large quantities of powder are used. The report mentions one of no less than 50,000 lbs. fired in a drift 275 ieet long with cross drifts by means of which 150,000 cubic yards of earth were loosened ready for treatment by the hydraulic pipe. Gunpowder is not the only explosive used. The E 2
36 TIMEHRI.
family, of which dynamite is the most familiar member, contributes largely to mining blasts.
In gold mining several implements are used, such as pans, cradles, toms and sluice boxes. In California the placer miner’s pan is of iron, preferably stamped out of a single sheet since solder is obje€tionable; its usual dimensions 1o inches diameter at bottom, 16 inches at top, and 2 2-r1oths inches deep, with a rim strengthened by a strong iron wire rolledin. In Mexico ahorn spoon is used for small quantities, but the Brazilian batea, or as it is called here battel, appears to be better. It should bea disk of seventeen inches diameter, which being turned conical 12 degrees, gives a depth of 1% inches from centre of surface. The thickness may be 3 of an inch. The other edge perpendicular to axis (which is scientific for ‘‘bottom”) will require wood 24 inches thick. The best wood is Honduras Mahogany. The ‘“battels’” imported for use here are of similar shape and dimensions to these, but are of Poplar. Of course we have in British Guiana wood as good for the purpose as Mahogany or Poplar, but the cost of manu- faéture precludes the bateas or battels being made here.
The iron pan is thus used in California :—the super- ficial soil having been removed, a portion of the alluvial matter containing gold is placed in the pan, which is then sunk horizontally below a stream or pond; when full the pan is placed on the miner’s knees or on some convenient stone. The miner breaks the lumps with his fingers and stirs the contents of his pan until a soft mud is formed, then the pan is sunk below the water and is so agitated that gold gravel (in California) and coarse sand sink to the bottom, while the lighter particles flow
GOLD MINING NOTES. 37
over the rim and escape. In time the contents of the pan become clean. Then all large pebbles are examined, and if worthless thrown away by a motion of the thumb (which has to be learned), and the coarse particles remain- ing are raked out and rejected. The pan is now inclined but only partly, under the water, and its contents agitated so that the coarse sand or material flows over the edge in a thin stream which the miner watches so that no particle of gold escapes. When but a small quantity remains in the pan it is lifted out of the water, and the concentration and perfeét separation of ‘the gold is commenced by an undulatory motion being given to the pan- causing the sand to flow with the water across its bottom, revealing a cluster of gold particles. The pan is then inclined towards the sand, leaving the gold stranded in one portion and the sand and water in another, and the miner by pouring water behind the sand, washes it away, leaving in the pan only gold, which is thus colleéted wholly by its specific gravity or weight.
The batea or battel is used in much the same way. Several pounds of pulverized ore or gravel are placed in the batea which is held under the surface of water, and broken up with the fingers into mud and a circular motion is given to the batea which causes the lighter particles to flow over the edge and the heavier to sink and colle& at the centre. The batel being lifted, the water remaining in it is made to sweep round the centre, while an edge is depressed towards which the heavier particles of gold &c. gravitate. A blow struck on the side of the bowl assists the operation and the settlement of the gold.
The miner’s cradle is like the old-fashioned child’s cradle mounted on rockers and rocked in the same way.
gs TIMEHRI.
The machine is described as about four feet long and two wide, with an inclination, and the open lower end allows the water and tailings free outlet. At the upper end there is a box or hopper with a sheet-iron bottom pierced with half inch holes. This hopper can be easily removed and’ replaced. Under it there is acanvas apron inclined towards the head of the cradle at an angle of thirty degrees, but touching neither the floor of the cradle nor the bottom of the hopper. Across the floor of the cradle and trans- versely to the flow of the water are nailed two riffle bars each an inch high, one near the lower end and the other near the middle. The machine is placed on level hard ground neara convenient, but not necessarily large water supply. The miner sitting or kneeling near the machine, rocks it with one hand and with the other dips and pours water, while his partner places the carefully sele€ted “ pay-dirt”’ in the hopper. By rocking and pouring water the finer portions and the free gold pass through the holes and are with the water thrown by means of the canvas apron to the extreme upper part of the floor, and thence flow downward and escape at the lower end of the rocking floor, the gold and heavy black iron sand being arrested by the riffle bars. The larger stones, &c., remaining on the iron plate are from time to time picked out and thrown outside. The smaller ones when accumulated in any quantity are well washed in the hopper, and care- fully examined for any gold nuggets among them. The hopper is then lifted out and the pebbles being jerked out, is replaced. ‘Cleaning up” at the close of the day means removing the hopper and thoroughly washing the canvas apron so as to secure any particles of gold
GOLD MINING NOTES. 39°
entangled in it. The apron being removed, the cradle is set up on end and the floor washed into a miner’s pan or bowl, and the gold colleéted as before described. The rocking motion not only mixes the contents of the hopper, but by agitating the sand on the floor allows of the gold particles being arrested by the riffle bars and the lighter sand being carried off by the flow of the water.
If the claim is unusually rich, a “ clearing up” is made as often as advisable but the final wash up is always made at the end ofthe day. When the gold is very finely divided, it is found to be an advantage to place the hopper over the lower end of the cradle and use an apron of thick woollen cloth or blanket, whgn frequently the gold is arrested by the nap of the A
The inclination of the cradle is governed by the con- dition of the gold and of the earthy matter in which it is contained. The cradle, however, is not an economical apparatus as from its rude constru€tion much of the free gold is lost, as is proved by some of the earlier placers being worked over again and again with equal success. It is now used by only the Chinese miners. The rocker after being known and used for hundreds of years has been superseded by the “Long Tom,” which in its turn has been discarded, at least in California, for the “ Sluice-box.”’ The Long Tom which was used in California is described as a wooden box or trough 12 or 14 feet long, two feet wide at the upper and three feet at the lower end. The bottom is covered with iron sheets overlaying each other like shingles. The sides ten inches high are at right angles to the bottom. The lower end is closed with a sheet iron screen punched with holes, and the top of this screen is turned up ata slight angle. The Tom is
40 TIMEHRI,
placed on some convenient support and tilted at an angle of from 6 to 10 degrees. The screen at the end projeéts over a riffled box extending in the same direétion and at the same angle of inclination. Six or more cleats are nailed across the bottom of the box. A constant stream of water is direfted through the upper box or Tom, and the dirt thrown in by several men who keep it well stirred, the larger stones being thrown out with a fork like an agricultural fork.
As, however, the longer the ‘‘dirt’’ is subje€ted to the a€tion of water the more fully is it disintegrated and the gold set free, and the larger the number of riffles the more impediments are offered to the escape of the gold, these greater advantages are obtained by the use of the Sluice-box.
This is made in twelve-foot long se€tions varying in width from one to two feet, and about ten inches high, out of three boards riveted together with open ends. One end is a little wider than the other so that the various sections may be joined telescope or stove-pipe wise. The support is of trestles—widened to the requisite degree—and upon it are placed the se€tions, each entering the lower one for about four inches. In lieu of trestles piles of stone or heaps of earth are some- times used. This construétion of triangles is extended as far as the miner judges proper. Movable riffles are placed along the floor of these troughs, and water is brought to the head of the sluice, when the “ dirt” is shovelled in—an inclined board having been first nailed to the side of the trough opposite each shoveller, so as to prevent the dirt being thrown beyond the sluice. The number of shovellers is limited by the supply of water,
GOLD MINING NOTES. Al
and the character of the “dirt,” which is not supplied faster than it can be completely reduced to mud by stirring. The large stones are forked out as when the Long Tom is used. The sluice is usually inclined 6 inches for each se€tion of 12 feet. The riffles are made in sections of 4 feet in length, and wholly cover the floor of the sluice to which they are fastened by cleats or wedges. These riffles form wooden gratings with bars one to four inches long and four feet wide, laid length- wise, and held in place by two or three cross-pieces halved together, so that the cross-bar thus formed arrests the gold and heavy earth which would otherwise be lost.
After the dirt has been running for some time, a little quicksilver is poured into the openings at the lower end of the riffles, and a larger quantity at the head of the sluice which arrests the gold and assists its colleétion. 500 to 600 lbs. of quicksilver are sometimes used at one operation. The day’s work is usually ten hours but on _ occasions goes on for twenty-four continuous hours. Cleaning up is done once a week—usually on Sunday— by letting water run through the sluice till it comes out clear at the other end. The upper riffles are removed and the sand, gold and mercury washed down to the lower ones remaining. Some loose sand washes over and the rest is scooped up and put in a bucket. When all is cleared up, the result is finished in the miner’s pan where all the movable impurities are washed away and nothing but mercury and amalgam remain. The super- fluous mercury is colle€ted by squeezing the mass in a thick canvas or chamois leather bag and the amalgam taken out.
The State Mineralogist gives “a tip’
F
’ as to how to
42 TIMEHRI.
rob a sluice, which it appears is frequently done. Dip a silver spoon into the mercury, then stir up with it the stuff lying above the cross riffles, and when the spoon is well loaded with amalgam, wipe it off with finger and thumb, and proceed as before. Like samphire gathering, it is, however, a dangerous trade, for when taken the thief is not only well shaken but often strung up. Complete and rapid amalgamation only occurs when perfeétly clean gold is exposed to the a€tion of pure quicksilver. The faét of gold being alloyed with other metals does not prevent this if its surface is bright. Often, however, gold found in placer mines is slightly tarnished by oxidation of the alloy, and amalgamation is hindered. In California, much of the placer gold is wholly or partly coated with silica cemented by sesqui- oxide of iron—if entirely so coated, mercury has no a€tion on it—and if this rusty gold, as it is termed, has its iron coat dissolved by means of hydrochloric acid, the silica easily drops off and amalgam is easily formed. The treatment of rusty gold was described in a Report of the State Mineralogist for 1880, which is not included in those sent to the Society. From a paper read in 1874 before the Royal Society of New South Wales, it appears that the best mode of destroying the mineral compounds, which by enveloping the gold pre- vented the aétion of mercury upon it, was by roasting in a furnace devised for this purpose. The resulting sand is made damp and ground with an equal weight of mercury for # hour, under an ordinary Chilian mill—the finely ground sand keing carried off by a stream of water to the “ concentrator,” leaving the amalgam in the mill. Fresh sand is passed through the mill until
GOLD MINING NOTES. 43
sufficient amalgam has colleéted. When this is cleared out, the sand in the concentrator is slowly stirred for a quarter of an hour, to allow any mercury or amalgam to subside. The water and sand is then passed through a second and smaller concentrator after which it is allowed to run to waste.
The amalgam when removed from the sluices is placed on a strong table on which is placed a large iron kettle into which the collected amalgam and quicksilver solution, amalgam one ounce to each flask of quicksilver, is put, and the whole stirred. Water is poured into the kettle, and the mixture stirred. The sand and mud which rise to the surface are removed with a large sponge, and this is repeated till the surface is clean. The whole is then stirred with the hands—the dirt which still. comes to the surface being scraped off with a card, or bit of leather drawn over thesurface. ‘This is repeated with occasional stirring until the quicksilver seems clear. It is then poured into conical bags of canvas through the pores of which the mercury runs leaving the amalgam in the bag. The sodium amalgam should be prepared by the miner and used at once, since if long kept, it becomes oxidised and inative and the coal oil in which it is kept is detrimental to the colleétion of gold.
The sodium amalgam is easily prepared from metallic sodium, which can be kept ina wide mouthed bottle in large pieces covered with naphtha. Aclean and dry frying pan is allthatis necessary. Six pounds of clean mercury are poured into it and dried with a sponge, and then heated hotter than boiling water, but no more. A piece of sodium is wiped dry with a rag, and cut into small cubes; and then the pan being placed in the open air with the
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44 TIMEHRI.
operator on the windward side, one of the small sodium cubes is by means of a wire placed on the mercury. A flash follows and some of the mercury is volatilized ; another cube is put in the same place until after three or four cubes have been used, the sodium will sink quietly without any flash. At the proper moment, a solid mass of amalgam will be observed in the centre when the contents may be safely stirred, and the addition of a few more cubes of sodium will change the whole to a mass of crystals of sodium amalgam which can be put into closely stoppered glass bottles—without any addition. A bottle should hold what is wanted at a time, since when opened the residue spoils.
Many of the Californian mines which were abandoned long ago when methods of mining and milling were in their infancy, and when proper machinery, water power, &c., were hardly obtainable, have been worked over with satisfa€tory results. At one time it was thought that auriferous stone would only be found in paying quantities near the surface ; but it is the case that ‘‘ paying rock” is now met in the deep workings of the Californian mines, and that the best dividend-paying mines are getting their rock from depths of from one thousand to fifteen hundred feet. Mr. MELVILLE ATTWOOD of San Francisco, a praétical gold miner of long experience, believes that every increased foot in depth at which paying quartz is found, means prolonged permanency of the gold produc- tion of the distriét. That this is the case with Australian mines, is shewn by the returns from six of these quoted by Mr. ATTWOOD.
Many Californian mines have been abandoned when zones of poor quartz have been met, where, had the
GOLD MINING NOTES. A5
miners sunk a few feet deeper, rich rock would have been met. The charaéter of the rock or “ wall” inclosing these lodes has much to do with the produétiveness of the latter, and if their walls be, as it is termed, ‘ uncon- genial,” little or no gold is to be found. In some places, as in the Clogan Gold Mine in Merionethshire, the lodes are only produétive when the walls are formed of igneous rocks and not so when they are of slate, &c.
Quartz mining is carried on by breaking up the quartz reef by blasting and manual labour. The gold is extraéted by crushing the rock into a fine mud or “pulp ” by means of water and mercury under a power- ful stamping mill. The Reports do not contain a description of a Stamping Mill, but except that the process is or was conduéted in California by means of hides or blankets over which the resulting mud or pulp flows, the machine does not materially differ from those in use in Australia. One of the best construéted was exhibited at work by Queensland in the Colonial and Indian Exhibition. An ancient writer, AGRICOLA, in his work De Re Metallica, published in 1621, gives figures of a stamping millin all essentials the same as that now in use, and he also describes sluices, rockers, and pans similar to those of the present day.
The mills now used are capable of crushing 40 to 70 tons a week. The quartz broken into small fragments by hand is fed into a hopper. The stampers are of solid wrought iron weighing from 600 to 800 lbs., and are raised and lowered about g inches some 80 times a minute. In the Australian machines these stampers work in a cast iron box of considerable depth to prevent splashing, and the muddy liquid flows through steel wire strainers 40 meshes
46 TIMEHRI.
to the inch, and over a series of copper plates covered with mercury, arranged in terraces so that the particles of gold stick on to these plates where they become amalgamated with the mercury. Cross channels or riffles traverse the terraces and intercept the coarser auriferous mineral, and the stream at last falls into a frame consisting of a long shallow box fitted with inclined trays, to which a movement is given by mechanical means, causing the heavier mineral refuse to travel up stream while the lighter particles flow to waste.
The auriferous mineral is ground finer in contaét with mercury by being fed into a circular iron cistern, over the bottom of which segments of iron are dragged—by which means, the mineral and mercury are rubbed together and the gold amalgamated.
It may be safely assumed that the method adopted in Queensland in 1886 is an improvement on the Californian Milling, described in the Reports under notice.*
Mr. ATTWOOD’S paper embodied in the fifth report gives ample instruction for sampling auriferous quartz.
[* Most of the Gold quartz of California contains in addition to the free gold, a large proportion of the metal so intimately associated with pyrites (‘‘sulphurets ”) that a separate process, is required to extract it. The recent method, known as Chlorination, as described by Mr. Durden, late Aéting Secretary of the State Mining Bureau, is as follows :— After as much gold as possibie has been extraéted by amalgamation with mercury the remaining material is passed on to “concentrators”? which separate the auriferous pyrites from the worthless rock. The pyrites are then roasted in a reverberatory furnace, dampened and placed in false-bottomed tubs coated with asphaltum, and then subjected to the continued aétion of chlorine gas, by which means the gold is converted into a soluble chloride, which is subsequently washed out thoroughly with water from the insoluble residue. From this solution, the metal is precipitated by proto-sulphate of iron, and is then melted into bars.—Ep,]
GOLD MINING NOTES. ry |
He recommends that the quartz to be tested should be as true an average of the rock in sight as can possibly be obtained, and be not less than thirteen cubic feet. This is broken to the size of macadam stuff, or road material, with ‘‘cobbing’’ hammers, and the result well mixed. Two cwt. of the broken fragments are then placed on a piece of canvas two yards square, in the centre of which is a stamp-die, and then with hammers the quartz is reduced small enough to pass atwo-inchriddle. The die is removed, the broken quartz well mixed, and two samples of 4 lbs. each taken. A ‘‘bucking hammer” formed of a piece of iron 6 inches square and one inch thick, fixed on a wooden handle, anda “bucking iron” placed on a piece of canvas so arranged that it colleéts what flies from under the hammer, will reduce the macadam stuff more rapidly than the “cobbing” hammer. The 4 lb. samples are then passed through TAYLOR’S hand rock crusher till fine enough to go through a sieve with 30 holes to the linear inch or even finer. It is difficult, however, to explain the construction and aétion of this crusher without the aid of diagrams. It is rapid in a€tion, and does not as is the case with the grinding aétion of the pestle and mortar, reduce the gold into scales which have a tendency to float and be lost. The crushed quartz is treated so as to separate it from pyritic matter and earthy materials by the “ pan” before described, which Mr. ATTWOOD says is better than any other utensil. Its utility would be enhanced by the addition of a small riddle with about 8 holes to the linear inch, to which two long handles are attached. The riddle with the gravel or crushed quartz placed init, is immersed in a tub of water, and by a quick half rotatory
48 TIMEHRI.
motion the soil is removed from the gravel or quartz. The portions which will not pass through the riddle are exam- ined for any nuggets or ‘ cement’ that require crushing. The “ horn spoon,” also previously referred to, is men- tioned by Mr. ATTWOOD, who considers it too small for testing purposes—and it is not recommended for other reasons.
The batea or battel has been already described, andis that devised by Mr. ATTWOOD, whorecommends that when an accurate test is required, two bateas should be used, so as to allow of the “tailings” or refuse of the first operation being washed a second time. It is a curious fa€t that the grease, which it seems one always has at one’s fingers’ ends, causes the loss of gold in these washing operations. It is, I presume, because the grease prevents the adhesion of the water,and the air occupying the space thus formed is sufficient to float the small particles of gold which are carried away in the washing. It is therefore recommended that rubber finger stalls should be placed on the right hand fingers, and ammonia occasionally used to prevent grease-contact.
When the gold and pyritic matters have been concen- trated in the centre of the batea they are covered with one or two inches of water, and then by means of a bar magnet the magnetic iron removed. ‘This done, the gold which lies in the centre of the batea is converted into hard amalgam by the addition of mercury, the operation being assisted by rubbing the mass with a stall-proteéted finger.
The amalgam yielded by thus treating the residuum of the 4 lb. samples, is put on a piece of charcoal, and the mercury driven off by a blow-pipe, when the value per
GOLD MINING NOTES. 49
ton of rock is ascertained by weighing the resulting gold. The following table is furnished by Mr. ATTWOOD :— Prospectors’ and Miners’ Gold Table to determine free Gold per ton of 2000 lbs. average. Sample for working test 4 1b. avoirdupois, 25,000 grains.
Weight of washed Gold 4 lb. Sample in
Fineness 780/Fineness 83o\Fineness 875|Fineness 920
‘value per oz.| value per oz. | value per oz. | value per oz.
Grains&tenths,| $16 12. $17 15. $18 08 $19 o1 5 Grains........; $ 83 97 $ 89 36 $ 94 20 $ 99 05 AME \ iscsi nic as 67 18 71 49 75 30 79 24 SIME 3) ciascag <x 50 38 53 61 56 52 59 43 PERN ce 2. 33. 59 35 74 37 68 39 62 I Fi oD OROC EE 10 79 17 87 18 84 19 81 BOP I cats Secs 15 11 16 08 16 95 17 82 FOP. artanaaes 13 43 14 29 15 07 15 84 RIMM sim oatet' sien Il 75 12 51 13 19 13 80 SDs lresetsvec sé 10 07 10 73 II 30 “11 88 POMiarst sak ent sce. 8 40 8 93 9 42 9 90 CARS Sak lc, 6 71 7 14 a. Be 7 92 BSE teye aac m= 5 03 5 36 5 65 5 94 PON ee ata a 3 30 357 Bs FG) 3 90 Cl hin AEE ROLE I 68 1 78 1 88 1 98
The importance of such tests is much insisted on in the Reports, and examples are given where their absence has occasioned the expenditure of vast sums of money which were utterly lost, while the fallacy of gauging the value of a rock by pounding in a mortar bits taken here and there, and washing out the gold with greasy fingers in a horn spoon, and then by means of a magnifying glass guessing the gold contents of the rock, is also pointed out.
The weight of the gold which results from the above
G
50 TIMEHRI.
separation is to be ascertained by means of a pocket balance which is described in the report, and which seems to be simple and not liable to get out of order, and is said to weigh the zoos part of a grain.
The fineness of the gold resulting from the operations above described, is ascertained by the use of touch-stone needles made in the manner following :—
Copper wire is drawn through a wire plate with square holes to about the size of the square point ofa ten-penny nail and then cut into five lengths of two inches each. Ten grains of pure gold are melted before the blow-pipe on charcoal, hammered square, and soldered to the end of one of the copper wires. The gold is then filed down even with the sides of the wire which is stamped 1000 representing pure gold. For the other end, an alloy of nine grains pure gold and one of pure silver is carefully made on charcoal, hammered square, soldered on to
the other end of the needle and is stamped goo. The other four needles are made in the same way,
Grains Gold. Grains Silver. Stamped. 8 2 560 ss. 800 7 3 700 6 4 «se 600 5 5 500 4 6 400 3 7 300 2 8 200 I 9 one » 100
The second set is made in exaétly the same way, except that copper is substituted for silver in the alloy.
Care must be taken not to make the solder so hot that the alloy is melted and a new and unknown alloy made by fusing with it; and the alloy should be much larger than the needle, so that it can be filed down and the solder removed from all parts except where the copper is joined to it.
The true touch-stone is a black quartz called basanite, found in Bohemia, Saxony and Silesia, and is best
GOLD MINING NOTES. 51
bought. The mode of using the needles-is as follows: The metal to be tested is rubbed on the touch-stone and leaves a metallic streak, which is compared with the needles placed in succession beside it, until one is found which appears to the eye the same in colour. A streak is then made with this needle near the streak to be tested, and both are compared under a common lens. If they are exaétly alike, the test streak is supposed to be of the same fineness as the needle; if not, other needles are tried and the result is confirmed by touching the two streaks with nitric acid on a glass rod.
Greater accuracy is of course obtained by assay, full direétions for which are contained in the report, which it is not deemed necessary to transfer to this paper. For all praétical purposes, the test needles will give suffi- ciently exaét results, and having ascertained the amount of gold in a 4b. washed sample, and the fineness by the process just described, the table given by Mr. ATTWOOD and transcribed on p. 49, will shew the amount of free gold per ton of 2,000 pounds avoirdupois.
In the Fourth Annual Report, that for 1884, there are full dire€tions for conduéting an assay of bullion, but space does not allow of their being transferred to these pages; besides which, the operation is a delicate one, requiring praétice and experience, and therefore more properly left to professional persons.
The amalgam is treated in the following manner called retorting, to drive off the mercury employed, and obtain a residuum of gold. The retort used for small operations is a bowl-shaped vessel of cast iron—its top edge smoothed so as to be in complete contaét with the planed edge of the cover so that the two form a perfeét joint.
G 2
52 TIMEHRI.
‘An iron tube rises from the cover and bends down at an angle of 2odegrees. The balls of amalgam being placed in the bowl, wood ashes and clay mixed with water into a thick paste are applied as a lute to the edges, and the cover being fitted, the whole is firmly fixed by means of a clamp and set screw. The superfluous luting being removed, the retort is placed over a moderate fire. The end of the pipe is placed just below the surface of water conveniently placed, and if the fire is properly regulated the pipe need not be cooled. To prevent adhesion of gold to the retort, as may happen, the interior of the retort may be chalked, or the amalgam placed on a piece of paper. Two stakes driven into the ground, with a rod between their tops on which the retort is hung, with a fire of small wood built round it, is a convenient arrangement. When the retort is dull red hot, and no more mercury comes over, the fire is withdrawn and the retort allowed to cool. The bullion which ought to be metallic in appearance and of a gold color, is then ready to be melted.
A caution is given not to open the retort before it is cool, nor to hasten its cooling by water, as great injury will accrue from the poisonous mercurialfumes. Larger quanti- ties of amalgam are refined in large cast iron retorts like those used in gas manufaétories, with movable doors and arrangements for aiding condensation by water.
Care in cleansing amalgam before putting it into the retort is essential—negleét of this sometimes causes the bullion to be black, and attempts to remedy improperly retorted bullion by treatment with acids, are almost sure to result in loss. Any impurity in the bullion is best eliminated in the crucible when melting it.
GOLD MINING NOTES. - 53
It is believed that in the foregoing extraéts is con- tained all the information of value to British Guiana Miners which can be gathered from the Reports in question, except some matters of detail, which of course can be obtained by reference to them.
Our Cable Communications.
By Saml. Vyle, Government Electrician.
HE West Indian in London desirous of tele- 4| graphing to Demerara finds himself, according to Whitaker’s Almanack 1888, privileged to pay the very highest rate per word that is known there.
For the sum of two-pence per word, he can wire his orders to Belgium, and for a single half-penny more he may communicate with France. The three-penny rate is enjoyed by both Germany and Holland ; whilst Algeria, Denmark, and Norway, only seek for an additional half- penny. Austria, Italy, and Spain, are within telegraphic reach for four-pence-half-penny ; whilst Gibraltar, and Portugal, require but another penny. Far-off New Zealand, however, claims the aristocratic fee of “ half-a- guinea ;”’ but it is reserved for gold-producing British Guiana, to contribute the almost prohibitive rate of fourteen shillings per word, or three shillings and sixpence more than New Zealand, notwithstanding the faé& that its distance from London is nearly ten thousand miles
less.
Under such circumstances the question arises, ‘‘ How can such things be ?”’ The world’s news, as it is under- stood or known in London, is considered to be the latest, and most accurate, of any part of the globe; and it is daily transmitted, far and near, by the various Telegraph and Cable Companies. The political changes which are constantly taking place so very largely affeét the general commercial interests of the whole civilized world, that
OuR CABLE COMMUNICATIONS. 55
such items of intelligence, together with the prices current, stocks, consols, &c., are matters of vital and necessary importance to commercial men, far distant from, but doing business with Great Britain, Europe and America. To supply this desideratum as early as possible is the special work of the Telegraph Companies, for the performance of which duty the West Indian Colonies pay very handsome subsidies.
Recognizing these faéts is it not matter for surprise— at first sight at least—that all the news received in Demerara should come by the apparently roundabout way suggested by the headline “via New York” ? Especially is this so, when the British and Continental Sugar Markets have such an intimate influence upon our staple manufactures, or when questions such as that involving the boundary of the colony are being discussed. Surely it is not too much to expect that we might know each morning what has taken place in the Imperial Parlia- ment overnight, notwithstanding the difference in time, so that cable-istic replies, or corrections, might be sent if need be, and oftentimes prevent the spread of wrong ‘and vexatious information. For ordinary state purposes, and the better control of the Fleet, &c., the argument is in favour of the West Indian Colonies being at a less distance—by time—from the Mother Country. In short, a quicker means of communication than at present exists is desirable, to say nothing of a cheaper; and if thereby only an alternative route be provided, great benefit would result therefrom. Great Britain with its ten cables to the United States, is always ex rapport with America, upon every question of interest to the whole commercial community; and as to a daily
56. TIMEHRI.
summary of the world’s news, why the Press Association of London would so improve upon our present American supply as to gladden the heart of every merchant, and give our local Editors room for enterprise, of which they are now unable to afford us illustrations. But as matters are, the large number of times a message has to be repeated precludes the possible hope of lengthy messages ever being sent from England to the West Indies. Passing over so many separate Company’s lines, necessitates, as a matter of course, delay and a total heavy charge; though no single one out of the ten or eleven Companies, can claim a very large sum, even out of the fourteen shillings per word, now demanded.
So far as can be gathered by the writer from the public sources open to him—and one of the latest is to be found in the November number of the Lezsure Hour for last year—a message addressed to London is sent by Demerara to Trinidad (1); thence to Santa Cruz (2), [provided the through cable between those two points be in good working order, otherwise it must percolate “up'the Islands” to the station named], and in succession to Santiago de Cuba (3), Havannah (4), Key,West (5), Punta Rassa (6), Lake City (7), and New York (8). There is then the link betwixt that city and Newfound- land (g) to be wired over, before it is ready to be cabled across the Atlantic to Valentia in Ireland (10). Then by ~ one last operation through the Irish land lines, the cable across the Irish sea, and the land lines from South Wales to London—all leased from the British Postal Telegraph system,—the message is finally received in London (11). After such a journey, and passing as it must through so many different hands, the feeling excited is rather one
Present Telegraphic Route with proposed New Line.
aby
H ] < f F ‘ J H }
NORTH
\—
AMERICA
-PERNAM BUC
is)
hares ATLANT IC AN aie:
be,
OuR CABLE COMMUNICATIONS. 57
of wonder and thankfulness, that, as a rule, messages arrive with so few serious errors in them. This proves that the fault is not with the staff, but rather with the sys- tem which is wedded to so roundabout a route between Demerara and London. London is ina far better position to supply us with American news, plus its own, and Euro- pean news generally, than,the United States ever could be with regard to London, &c.; and therefore, as the best market for news is the Metropolis of Great Britain, towards that spot should our cable steamers point when laying any new cables from Demerara, rather than in the opposite dire€tion. Further the British Government is now engaged in taking over, and working, the cables that touch its shores, and a scheme has also been hinted at of dire€t communication by cable between the Colonies and the Mother Country.
But a protest against things as they are is not sufficient. It is necessary to go a step further, and to boldly answer the question arising to every one’s lips, ‘Can a better route be suggested?” Having given this matter con- siderable attention and thought, I am convinced that such a route is feasible.
In the skeleton map attached there is shewn the present cable conneétions, and also the suggested new route (with dotted line) for communication with Great Britain. It will be seen that there already exist duplicate lines of cables from Great Britain to Pernambuco, touching at Madeira, and the Cape de Verdes. In 1874 there was a€tually laid, and, for six months, worked, a cable between Demerara and Para, with a conneétion into Cayenne (French Guiana). It gave out at the end of the time named, and has never since been repaired. Now instead
H
58 TIMEHRI.
of following the coast plan to Pernambuco, I would suggest the laying of a dire€t cable between Demerara and Cape de Verdes, thereby avoiding the delay and cost of sending telegrams over the Brazilian lines, before being fairly started across the Atlantic. The distance it will be observed between Cape de Verdes and George- town is not much greater than from Cape de Verdes to Pernambuco, which is recorded as 1844 knots. It may therefore be taken roughly as 2,000 knots from Cape de Verdes to British Guiana. Now, if a cable were laid between the points named, Demerara would be placed by that single conneétion, within easy telegraphic reach of Spain, France, Great Britain, &c.; and through these countries, to all parts of the world. Besides, there would be, through Cape de Verdes, almost direét communication with Pernambuco (but one transmission at Cape de Verdes) for the Brazils, River Plate, Chili, Ecuador, and Panama, into Mexico ; and even finding in that way a new route into the United States itself. Panama would also by this route give a new outlet to messages for Jamaica, &c.; and should the proposed new French cable be laid from Cayenne to San Domingo and Jamaica, messages could then be conveyed to the French Guiana, which now appears quite cut off. Further, Para and Venezuela would also be opened up to Demerarians at a cost very trifling to that now charged, as a message has to traverse the route outlined above to reach Great Britain, and then to pass over the cables to Cape de Verdes and Pernambuco, before reaching its own lines proper.
From an eleétrical and engineering point of view the proposed single cable between Georgetownand St. Vincent, Cape de Verdes, would at least be equal to the single one
OuR CABLE COMMUNICATIONS. 59
now at work between Georgetown and Trinidad—though it is always advisable to duplicate each route, for however smartly our cable ships can now repair these lines, under the sea, time is always involved, and telegraphic isolation is a thing to be avoided as far as possible. British Guiana has had its little experience of this silence to the outer world, as witness the recent reduétion of subsidy ’ to the existing Telegraph Company, by the Court of Policy. That there is dissatisfaétion with the present cable communication with Great Britain was shewn by the influential Conference that met at Barbados in the year 1881, to which British Guiana sent its representa- tive in the person of the Hon. W. F. HAYNES SMITH. The outcome of that gathering was, not only to express its disapproval of things as they were (and now are) ; but to recommend a scheme for conneéting the West Indian Islands and Colonies with Nova Scotia, via Ber- muda. Now Demerara is not specially interested in opening up telegraphic communication with Bermuda, and hence that scheme would not be of much benefit to the colony over the present one. The cost was to be the good round sum of one million pounds sterling, and it was proposed that the Home Government should contribute the sum of three hundred and fifty thousand pounds thereto, and the Colonies—including Jamaica, British Guiana, Trinidad, Barbados, and the Leeward Islands—with Bermuda, the remaining six hundred and fifty thousand pounds. The Imperial Government, how- ever, after referring the matter to the Postmaster General, did not approve of the scheme, and the Engineer in Chief of the British Postal Telegraphs—than whom I do not know a more competent authority—pointed out the H 2
c-
6o TIMEHRI.
difficulties in the way of the proposal, as also the faét that its adoption meant the extinétion of the existing Telegraph Company.
In the result the Government declined to sanétion it, notwithstanding that they recognized the need of better communication. Even if it had been adopted there would still be the gap across the Atlantic not in the hands of either the Colonies, or Great Britain; and thus one of the vital points now sought for by the Imperial Government would be lost, viz: to have the Telegraph Cables as much as possible in the hands of the Govern- ment, by the shortest routes. Five thousand miles of cable was proposed to be obtained, and_ laid, and a large supply of new instruments were to be provided for all the new stations. With the modest proposal now put forward only some two thousand miles of cable is asked for, and in- stead of a solid million the sum required would be about a quarter of that amount, viz., two hundred and fifty thousand pounds. The up-keep, or maintenance, would be of the cheapest possible kind, as there would be an absence of heavy shore ends—the cable to Cape de Verdes being in one se€tion and without any inter- mediate instruments. On the same grounds it is to be assumed that the cost of working would be less, a matter of economy not to be lost sight of. © As to the probable price of messages over the proposed route, let us take the rate now in force between London and Spain. The length of cable is eight hundred and eighty six knots, and the cost per word is only fourpence-halfpenny. From Lisbon to Cape de Verdes is one thousand eight hundred and nine knots which would be the point of
Our CABLE COMMUNICATIONS. 61
departure for the new cable. Counting the distance thence to Demerara as two thousand knots more, then we have a means of approximating @ price which will be cer- tainly below the half of fourteen shillings. Asimple rule- o{-three sum gives us the result as about two shillings per word. If, however, a five-shilling or even seven-and- sixpenny rate, could be adopted with a quicker service, great benefit would result. The lessened number of transmissions also would greatly aid more rapid delivery ; and we might then reasonably look for sum- maries of the overnight’s Parliament, in our daily newspapers. London might even wire as far as Cape de Verdes, and if such were the case the transmission there, instead of the list given above, would place Demerara telegraphically as near to London as we now are to Suddie.
Such a scheme is, I think, enticing enough to arouse new energy, and enterprise, in the existing Telegraph Company ; or it might invite separate Colonial co-opera- tion for the common benefit of Demerara and the West Indian Islands.
NotTE.—Since the above was written Mr. HENNAKER Heaton, M.P., read a paper before the Colonial Institute, London, strongly advocating cheaper postal and cable rates between Great Britain and her Colonies. He however considers that ‘‘ Australasia” embraces the whole of the Colonies of the Mother Country, for he did not even name the West Indies in his list of cable rates charged from London. It is therefore all the more necessary for the West indies to look after themselves,
and at present I see no more promising scheme of quick and cheap cable communication than the modest one here advocated.
The Beetles of British Guiana.*
By the late Rev. William Harper, M.A.
cl pay = natives of the temperate regions of the earth % sig are, as a rule, but little troubled by inseéts, and LSJ be)
generally take very little notice of them. With the exception of being occasionally bitten by a bug or flea they are rarely annoyed by them, but when they come into tropical regions like British Guiana the case is different. Here the new-comer is at once assailed by mosquitoes which suck his blood, inje€&t poisonous matter into his flesh, and disturb his slumbers by their perpetual buzzing.t His hands and feet are not unfrequently attacked by chigoes attempting to build their nests, or rather to deposit their eggs in them. He soon finds that his rooms are overrun with ants of different sizes, which attack everything edible, that the binding on his books and blacking on his shoes are eaten off by cock- roaches, that the posts and beams of his house are being reduced to hollow tubes by termites or white ants, that every corner of his house is invaded by spiders, that some of the trees in his garden are stript of their leaves by ants, and that others are bored or striated by beetles.
* Examples of the greater number of species referred to in this paper, are on view in the British Guiana Museum.—Ep.
+ This popular supposition that a mosquito injects a venomous liquid into the subjeét attacked, seems to be based on the faét of the local irri- tation caused by the punéture. Up to the present time, no Dipterous inse&t has been shown to possess glands for the secretion of such poisonous matter ; and the irritation is most likely due to the laceration caused by the barbed mandibles.—Ep.
BEETLES OF BRITISH GUIANA. 63
People naturally complain of such inseéts as nuisances, and think more of the injury they do or the trouble they give than of the habits of the inseéts themselves or of the part which they play in the economy of nature ; and still entomology is a very interesting study, and so fas- cinates some of those who devote themselves to it, that they sigh because life is so short and entomology so long. British Guiana affords those who live in it, and more particularly those who spend a good deal of their time out of doors, many favourable opportunities of studying this subjeét. In a paper like this I can only notice briefly a few of the salient points of the science, hoping that this short and imperfeét sketch may induce some of those who read it to look farther into the matter.
Since the time of LINN4@UuS the Coleoptera or Beetles have stood at the head of the inset division of the animal kingdom. They are sometimes said to be among inseéts what the lion and the tiger are among quadrupeds, or the eagle among birds, and are marked by the com- pactness, solidity and symmetry of their stru€ture. Their great size as insects, their fantastic forms, and the diversity of their colours, some of them being very brilliant, attra€t attention, while the faét that they are easily preserved in living beauty has long rendered them favourite subjets of study. This order contains some of the largest and probably also some of the smallest inseéts in existence. Certain of the Phasma family are longer than any beetle, and some of the larger butterflies and moths are broader across the wings, but if we take length, breadth, and thickness together, no insect approaches the larger beetles in massive bulk. British Guiana is comparatively rich in _ beetles.
64 TIMEHRI.
This is mainly owing to the faét that it has a luxuriant vegetation which in its moist tropical climate decays and is renewed very rapidly. The term Coleoptera (wings in a sheath) is derived from two Greek words koleos a sheath, and szera, wings, and has been applied to beetles since the days of ARISTOTLE (384-322 B.C.). Though not striétly applicable in every case, it is on the whole the best word that can be got. As my object is merely to notice some of the more conspicuous species and groups, | cannot undertake to confine myself to any scientific arrangement, but I hope that the system which I adopt will enable readers to follow me and remember something of what I write.
Beetles are sometimes classed according to the number of joints in their tarsi or feet. For this purpose the Greek word meros, a joint, is used with a numeral or an adje€tive, or both prefixed to it. In this way we get Pentamera (five-jointed), TZetramera (four-jointed), Trimera (three-jointed), Heteromera (unequal-jointed), and Pseudotrimera (false three-jointed.) The charaéters of the antennz or feelers of beetles are also used in classification. In this case the Latin cornu, ahorn, is generally adopted, and some qualifying word prefixed to it. This is the origin of such words as Lamelli- cornes (leaf-horned), Serricornes (saw-horned), Clavi- cornes (club-horned), Longicornes (long-horned), and Pectinicornes (comb-horned).
A number of interesting beetles are included in the Pentamera, some of the largest of which come under the sub-division Lamellicornes. In this division are the Scarabzidz or dung-eating beetles which have their type in the Scarabzus or sacred beetle of the Egyptians.
BEETLES OF BRITISH GUIANA. 65
Some-of the largest beetles of this genus are met with in British Guiana. The largest and in some respeéts the finest beetle of this genus which I have seen here, is the Scarabzus hercules or Hercules beetle. It is some- times nearly six inches long, and the head of the male has on it a long thick horn armed with two or three teeth, and bent downward towards the point. Its head and thorax are black, polished and shining. The elytra or wing-cases are said to be sea-green, and this may be so in the living inseét, but all the specimens I have examined were dead and in every instance the wing- cases were ashy grey peppered with black spots.* I have not seen any of them about the coast, but they are met with in the interior of the country, and they are also found in the Antilles, and as far south as Rio Janeiro. These beetles are now generally classed with the Dynas- tidz, 1.e , powertul beetles on account of their great size and strength.
The Megalosoma or big-bodied beetles, which also belong to the Scarabzean family, have not a few formi- dable representatives in British Guiana. First among these comes the M/egalosoma elephas or elephant beetle, which is a formidable looking inse&t, being sometimes from four to five inches long and two inches broad. Its head is well-developed and armed with a horn about two inches long, bent upward like the letter C, and boldly forked at the point. Its front legs are arched horizontally. The ground colour oi this inseét is black, but the most of its body is covered with a yellowish grey, thick set down.
* A specimen of this beetle in the Museum still shews the green of its natural colouring, but it is toned to a greenish grey.—Ep,
66 TIMEHRI.
The Megalosoma actzxon, another beetle of this genus, closely resembles the inseét described above, but is slightly inferior to it in size, and has a wrinkled surface. The classical proper name A€tzon has been applied to this inseét because its horn resembles that of a stag, ACTON being a famous hunter who, fable says, was changed into a stag by DIANA. Beetles of this genus are sometimes called Oryctides from the Greek word Oryx, a long-horned antelope. Both the species which I have noticed above are sometimes found about the mouth of the Essequebo, and occasionally in Wakenaam and the Troolie Islands.
The Strategus or Scarabzus aleus which also belongs to the family of the Scarabzidz, is rather an imposing beetle, being about an inch and a quarter long, and three quarters of an inch broad. This beetle bores into the earth, and if it gets under young cocoanut trees kills them. In young cocoanut plantations it is often very destruétive and if not carefully watched might kill every plant. It is generally brought to the surface by pouring oil or strong lime-water into its hole. Though apparently able to breathe in water, it cannot breathe in oil or water saturated with lime, and consequently when its hole is filled with either of these fluids it has to come out and may then readily be destroyed. Strategus is a Greek word meaning General, and possibly when the Rev. F. W. HOPE gave the beetle this name he had in his mind some General like Prince Maurice of Nassau, whose favourite method of taking strongholds was by digging mines or subterranean passages under them. AL@us was the reputed father of the giants who threatened the Olympian gods with war, and the term
BEETLES OF BRITISH GUIANA. 67
has been the specific name of this inseét since the time of LINNAUS.
The Phanzus is another genus of this family, and all its species are remarkable for the variety of their size and colour. Phanzus means conspicuous, and appears to have been applied to this genus of beetles on account of their fine colours and strange forms.
The Phanzus lancifer is a very fine beetle, being often about an inch and a half long, rather more than an inch broad, and having a thick massive body. Its head is black and has on it a long angular horn bent back- ward, hence it is called /anczfer or lance-bearer. All the upper side of this inseét except the head is violet, having a green refle¢tion in certain lights. This beetle is said to be rare, the British Museum possessing only one specimen which was brought from Para by Mr. BATES. I have had one or two specimens in colleétions which I made here, but they were comparatively small. There are several other species of Phanzeus in British Guiana, and the Coprides or Dung-eating beetles (from kopros, dung), which closely resemble the Phanzeus in their habits, and of which there are several species here, are sometimes included in this genus.
Some of the beetles of the Scarabzean family are called Geotrupes, i.e., earth-borers (from ve, the earth, and trupaein, to bore). The Geotrupes stercorarzus is well known here. It is a fair-sized beetle, black above, tinged with violet on the margin and steel-blue below. Its wings are deeply striated.
The Hardbacks which sometimes invade our houses at night also belong to the Lamellicorn tribe, but I suppose they are so familiar to every
12
68 -TIMEBRI.
one that a description of any of them is quite unne- cessary.
The Lucanidz or Stag-beetles which form the second division of the Lamellicornes, have but tew representatives in this part of the world, though the Lucanus zbex appears to be common in Brazil. LINNAUS was in- clined to include the Passalides in this family and called Passalus interruptus, Lucanus interruptus, but this group is now looked upon as a _ conneéting link between the Pe€tinicorn and Lamellicorn Bee- tles. The finest of the Passalides is the Passa- lus interruptus. This inse€t is about an inch long and has a shining black colour, though about the upper part of the head there is a good deal of silky golden down which sometimes gives an orange tinge to that part of the inseét. Its wing-cases which turn somewhat abruptly over its body, are marked by ten striz on each, and as the stria which runs from the shoulder on each elytron, extends only half-way the beetle has received the specific name of exterruptus. Passalus means a wooden pin for boring, and is probably applied to this inse& on account of its penetrating into decaying trees, for both larva and beetle live in rotten wood. I have observed that some of the large species of this genus make a strange hoarse sort of noise for sometime after they are caught. I suppose there are about eight or ten species of this beetle in British Guiana. All the species I have seen resemble this one, having elongated black shining elytra striated longitudinally, but they are all smaller and some of them much more active.
The Serricornes which are another important sub- division of the Pentamera, include a number of fine
BEETLES OF BRITISH GUIANA. 69
‘beetles though they ‘are inferior in size to some of those ‘already noticed. This seétion contains among other ‘things’ our fire-flies or luminous beetles such as the Elaterides and Lampyrides. The phosphorescent organs ‘of these inseéts consist of a mass of spherical cells filled with a substance finely granulated, and surrounded by
numerous trachez or air-tubes. In daylight these organs have a sulphurous appearance, but in the dark they shine
something like a candle. The light is supposed to be
caused by slow combustion, sustained’ by air passing
through the trachea. The Elaterides give out their light
from two yellow spots on the lateral margin of the thorax,
- but, when they fly, they exhibit a brighter light on the
“hinder part of the thorax below. One may sometimes
get a glimpse of this light by putting the inseét on its
back and irritating it. The Lampyrides emit their light
from the last segment of the abdomen which is covered “with a very thin skin.
-Elater is derived from the Greek word elater, a
- driver, and the name is given to this family of beetles, ~ because they are capable of making a sudden leap by a quick motion of the articulation between the thorax -and abdomen. Probably the most remarkable, though
not the largest of this genus, is the Elater noctilucus
“sometimes called Pyrophorus (i.e. Fire-bearing) ‘zocti-
ducus. It is about an inch and a half long, and illus-
trates in a forcible manner, the light yielding powers of
this family. Its prevailing colour is brown, but it has
two yellow semi-transparent spots on the sides of its
thorax from which there issues in the dark a rich mellow
light. When it flies, a brighter light is seen ‘under its
“thorax. ‘This is the finest fire-fly with which I'am
70 TIMEHRI.
acquainted. It does not give out any light after it is dead, but, if the luminous matter is taken from it immediately after death, and put upon paper, it will for a time shine like phosphorus. There are other lumi- nous species of this genus which give out their light in the same manner as the above, but all that I have seen in this part of the world are inferior to it in size and brilliancy.
The Elater porcatus is even more bulky than the Elater already described. Its body is shining black, but this colouring is somewhat concealed by white and green scales. The under surface of its body and its legs are green if the scales have not been rubbed off them. Its elytra or wing-cases are deeply striated, and the furrows generally filled with white scales. I have watched it closely for hours in the dark, and never saw it give out any light. It is sometimes found on the trunks of trees, but it often flies slowly in mild weather with its body nearly perpendicular, and may be caught on the wing.
The Lampyrides are a family of the Malacodermes (from malakos, soft, and derma, a skin) or soft-skinned Beetles, and includes the Lampyridz, Glow-worms and the Telephorz, Soldier and Sailor Beetles. Lampyris is derived from the Greek verb /ampezn, to shine, and the glow-worm should be an objeé& of interest to English- men. Many of us must remember having read in our school-boy days the tale of the Nightingale and the Glow-worm. The Lampyrides resemble the Elaterides, but have more flexible wings and softer bodies, and are inferior to them in size. Their bodies are elongated, generally slender, and somewhat compressed. Their head is, as a rule, buried in the thorax; their antenne
BEETLES OF BRITISH GUIANA. 71
eleven jointed and inserted on the front of the head rather closely together.
I am not aware that I have seen any inseét of this family here more than half an inch long, though some of them are said to belonger. The Lampyris phosphorea, LIN; and the Lampyris ignita, FAB., are most com-
monly met with in British Guiana, and may be picked up almost anywhere. Three species of this genus, viz., Lycus servatus, Lycus tricolor, and Lycus limbatus, were placed by FABRICIUS among the Lycide (from lukos, a wolf) or ‘“‘ wolf beetles”, but subsequent writers have changed the generic name of these beetles. The home of the wolf beetles is Africa. The luminous Lam- pyrides only emit light from the last segment of the abdomen, and this light is almost always fitful or twink- ling, and much feebler than that given out by the Elaterides. When the earth is enveloped in sable night, the fire-flies often form one of the most striking features of the tropical landscape. When a traveller from the temperate zones arrives in the tropics, he is almost at once struck by the size and brilliancy of the stars which shine in the tropical sky, and has thus suggested to his mind TENNYSON’S beautiful lines :—
“ Larger constellations burning, mellow moons and happy skies, Breadths of tropic shade and palms in cluster, knots of Paradise”. As soon, however, as he begins to view the landscape after dusk he discovers that it too has its stars, The first sight of the tropical fire-flies strikes all new comers with wonder. I have sat for hours in the gallery of one of the mountain residences among the hills of Jamaica during a moonless night in the rainy season, and watched the varied lights on the landscape and sky
72 TIMEHRI.
without being able to decide which was. the finer, or. which should be the more admired. There are some beautiful allusions to fire-flies on the landscape in the second part of SOUTHEY’S ‘“ Madoc’”’ and other poetical works, and from among these I have seleéted the follow- ing lines which have been quoted oftener than once, for
insertion here :— “ Sorrowing we beheld
The night come on; but soon did night display
More beauties than it veiled ; innumerous tribes
From the wood-cover swarmed, and darkness made
Their beauties visible; one while they streamed.
A bright blue radiance upon flowers that closed
Their gorgeous colours from the eye of day ;
Now motionless and dark eluded search,
Self-shrouded ; and anon starring the sky,
Rose like a shower of fire”. The Buprestidz also belong to the serricorn sub-division, but unlike the Elateridz they are incapable of leaping. The word Buprestis is derived from the ‘Greek words bous, an ox, and pretho, linflame. These inseéts are distinguished by their bright metallic colours, azure, emerald, and gold. They were known to the old ento- mologists as euchroma, 2.e. beautiful colour. The most important species of this inseét so far as British Guiana is concerned, is the Buprestis gigantea of which there are several varieties. The typical form comes from Cayenne, and is most common in collections. Another form is found in Para, and athird in British Guiana. This beetle is oval-shaped, nearly two inches long and about an inch broad. Its elytra or wing-cases are of a brilliant copper-colour with marginal and sutural regions green, but its whole colour varies a good deal according to the light in which a specimen 1s viewed. The Indians
BEETLES OF BRITISH GUIANA. 72
use the wing-cases of this handsome beetle in making ornaments. ‘Tearing the elytra from the back of the inseét they pierce them with a hole at the humeral angle, and thread them on strings like beads. In this way they make for themselves anklets, armlets, and necklaces. From an examination of the wing-cases in one of these ornaments which I sent to Dr. GRIERSON’S Museum in Thornhill, Scotland, Dr. DAviD SHARP concluded that more than one variety of this species of Buprestide might be found in Demerara.
The Tetramera or Four-jointed division of beetles contains among other things the Curculiontide, Rhina, Rhynchites, and Rhynchophora, t.e. Weevils and Snout- bearing Beetles, among which are some of the most destructive insects of the Beetle Family. Prominent among the Weevils of Guiana is the Calandra palmarum or Palm Weevil which often commits such havoc among our palm trees. This beetle is rather more than an inch long, and has a strong beak. It deposits its eggs in the soft parts of the stem of cocoanut trees, near the top, where they are soon hatched, and the larve are pro- te€ted and concealed by the imbrication of the lower part of the fronds. These inse€ts are very voracious and eat vigorously into the soft stem of the cocoanut tree, their presence being generally unknown, until the branches of the tree begin to droop and fall off. This is the reason why the stems of some of our cocoanut trees are striated vertically with rough irregular furrows. In many distri€éts the cocoanut trees have to be watched, and periodically cleaned to prevent their being des- troyed by this inse€t. When full grown the grub is from two to three inches long and is either of a flesh colour
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74 TIMEHRI.
or a dirty white. ! have seen more than a dozen of these grubs taken out of one cocoanut tree. The loss which a cocoanut farmer suffers from the attacks of these insects is often very serious. In order to get rid of them, branches and bunches of unripe cocoanuts have often to be torn off, the trees are generally weakened by their depredations, and if they are not dealt with in time the inse€& eats into the heart of them and kills them. Lamp oil, fine salt, and lime are often used to drive and keep them away. When about to enter the chrysalis state they weave for themselves neat oval cocoons with stripes torn from the stem of the cocoanut tree. This grub is known as the Gru-gru worm, and is said to be eaten alive by the natives like an oyster, but, though I have heard and read of this, and it may be quite true, I have never seen any body eat one. They evidently attack other palms besides the cocoanut. I have seen the beetles assemble in numbers when a mountain cab- bage tree was felled, and I understand they attack the sugar-cane.
The Rhina barbicornis or Bearded-beaked Weevil belongs to the same family as the inseét described above. It is readily distinguished by its hairy snout and long slender legs. When looked at with the naked eye this inseét appears to be striated and speckled, but I under- stand when viewed through a microscope it is found to be richly decorated. It is smaller than the Palm Weevil, but varies very much in size. I have not seen this inseét in Wakenaam or Leguan, but have met with it in Fort Island.
The Calandra saccharia, Sugar Weevil, or Cane Borer also belongs to this family. It is a comparatively
BEETLES OF BRITISH GUIANA. 15
small beetle, being rarely more than half an inch long, and rather slender. Its colour is yellowish brown dotted with dark spots. Though it generally attacks the sugar- cane I have found it on other plants, but it prefers plants which exude saccharine matter or sweet juice. I under- stand this inseét does very little harm to the sugar-cane plant itself, but it not only consumes the cane-juice, but also damages any of it with which it comes into conta& to such an extent that it will only make molasses. When juice damaged in this way is even mixed with sugar it is a very serious matter and one never knows what his strike of sugar may be worth.
I might mention many other destru€tive beetles of the Weevil Tribe, for I scarcely know a useful or ornamental tree which has not its enemy in the shape of a weevil or borer. The illustrations, however, which I have already given may enable readers to find borers or weevils for themselves. I shall, therefore, conclude my remarks on this family of beetles by a short account of the following weevil: Some years ago Mr. HENRY TAYLOR, then missionary at Buck Hall, in Essequebo, called my atten- tion to the faét that in some of the beans of the locust- tree there is a beetle about the size of a small pea, though there is apparently no hole in the shell of the bean through which itcan enter. Having satisfied myself that this was the case I forwarded one of these beans to Dr. DAVID SHARP, who observed traces of a small punc- ture near the stalk, through which he inferred the mother had inserted an egg when the bean was young and its shell soft. In the same bean he discovered the chrysalis of a moth, and a small parasitic Hymenopterous inseét, a fair variety of inseéts in so small a world,
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76 TIMEHRI.
This weevil is the Cryptorhynchus stigma. It is yellow with black spots on the wing-cases. I have obtained another fair-sized weevil of the Cryptorhynchus family which I am informed is deposited in the same way in a larger locust-tree bean found about the foot of Roraima. The prevailing colour of this beetle is brown, but it has four irregular yellow spots on each of its elytra and one on each side of its thorax. Cryptorhynchus is made up of two Greek words meaning “ hidden-snout,” and the name is giyen to this family of weevils, because they are capable of concealing their snout by bending their heads downwards and fitting the snout neatly into a deep groove on the under surface of the thorax. When these insects are disturbed they are in the habit of dropping from trees and disguising themselves on the ground, where they remain motionless until the cause of their alarm has passed away. In this way along-legged, long-nosed weevil can, by drawing its legs under its body, and bending its head downwards so as to bring its beak into the groove under its breast, in a moment assume the form of a pebble or fallen seed. In this dis- guise it is often not easily dete€ted even by those acquainted with it.
The Longicornes or long-horned beetles are another important se€tion of the Tetramera, their most prominent family being the Przonidz (from the Greek przon, a fan) or Sawyer Beetles. Probably the most interesting species of this genus is the Przonus cervicornts or deer- horned sawyer. This is a large flattish beetle varying a good dealin size. The specimens which I have seen here are from two to three inches long and rather more than an inch broad, but I understand much larger speci-
BEETLES OF BRITISH GUIANA. 17
mens are found.* The first thing which one notes about it are its formidable mandibles, which are longer than its head and thorax together, bent or arched inward towards each other, and each armed with seventeen sharp teeth, the tooth in the middle of each jaw being longer than the rest. Its head and thorax are of a rusty brown colour and the latter is armed at the sides with three sharp spikes. The ground colour of its wing-cases is a dark brown striped longitudinally with numerous narrow bands of reddish yellow which interrupt and run into each other. This gives the inseét a very pi€turesque appearance. The under part of its body and its legs are ofa tame rusty colour. This inseét is said to seize the twigs of trees and shrubs between its powerful jaws, and to whirl its body round and round until it cuts them through. Both WATERTON and LACORDAIRE believed this, though neither of them seems ever to have seen the beetle cut off a twig. Ihave myself once or twice seen _ twigs in the bush which appeared to have been sawn off their tree or shrub by something, and only the other day when waiting for the tide at the mouth of a small creek about twenty-five miles up the Essequebo I saw an apparently healthy green twig fall quietly from a height of about thirty feet into the water below. A native who was with me at the time assured me that the twig had been cut off by a sawyer-beetle of which he had given me a specimen the previous day. The mouth of the creek was so encumbered with mud, fallen trees, and bush, that I found it impossible to get near the twig
* A specimen of this beetle, presented to the British Guiana Museum by Mr. JoHn WILKIE, measures more than six inches in length.—Ep.
78 TIMEHRI.
or the tree. The specimen which my friend, the native gave me, asserting that it was the true Sawyer Beetle, is not a large beetle, and closely resembles the Lamia subocellata, though apparently a different species. There is a very general opinion that there is a Sawyer Beetle, but I scarcely think that people are agreed as to which beetle it is, or what is the nature of its operations. It is quite possible that there are more than one.*
The Prionus corticinus or Bark Sawyer is about an inch long, is somewhat depressed, and has elongated wing-cases nearly the same breadth throughout its length. Its prevailing colour is brown, but in some parts it appears to be yellow. It is more commonly met with here than the previous beetle.
The Cerambycidz (from the Greek kevambux, a kind of horned beetle) or Horned Beetles resemble the Prionidz in the general appearance of their bodies, but, though their antennz are long, their mandibles are about the normal size and nearly alike in both sexes, while
* After making all possible allowance for the fact that there may be more than one beetle which cuts off the twigs of plants, there scarcely seems reason to doubt that the reputed sawyer beetle is the ‘* Prionus cervicornis,’”’ since it is the most likely beetle here which, from the structure and size of its mouth parts, can be considered able to cut through the comparatively large branches which are said to be cut through by the beetle and which give every indication of being cut through by such an agency. I have been assured by a bushman who has seen the beetle at work, but at such a height that it has always been impossible to procure the specimen, that instead of whirling its body round and round by means of its wings, the sawyer beetle after seizing the branch between its long and toothed powerful mandibles, simply walks round and round the branch, Possibly the inseét steadies itself by means of its unfolded wings while thus engaged.—Ep.
BEETLES OF BRITISH GUIANA. 719
among the Prionide the abnormal development of the jaws and teeth is confined to the male sex. ‘This family of beetles is largely represented in British Guiana. The Cerambyx barbicornis, called by LATREILLE Lophono- cerus barbicornis from the Greek Jophos, a tuft, and keras, a horn, belongs to this family. The five lowest joints of the antennz are covered with tufts of blackish hair; the apexes of these joints and the six naked joints towards the extremities of the antennz are yellow. Its head and thorax are dull yellow, spotted with black, and its wing-cases are black, variegated with reddish yellow. It is seldom met with on the coast, but may be found a short distance inland.
The Chlorida festiva isa handsome green beetle of this family which sometimes makes its appearance in our houses in the evening.
Another interesting se€tion of the Longicornes is the Lamaria (from /amza, a witch). This family differs from the former mainly in the struéture of their head and palpi. The most singular of these is the Acrocinus longimanus or Harlequin beetle. On looking at it, one is struck by the disproportion of its parts and the grotesque variety of itscolouring. Its antennz are about twice as long as its body and its front pair of legs are fully as long as its antennz, hence it is called Jongi- manus or “‘long-handed.”’ Its ground colour is black, variegated with red and grey mixed somewhat like the dresses worn by the stage clowns, from which circum- stance it is called the Harlequin beetle. There are two triangular patches of red on its head, and two lines of red on its thorax; there is also a band of red on each of its legs near the second joint, and its wing-cases are
80 TIMEHRI.
ornamented with waving lines and angular figures of red and grey. Its thorax and elytra are armed with spines and its under part is covered with down of a grey colour. It is said by Mr. DUNCAN in the Waturalist’s Library and also by the Rev. J. G. Woop in his “ Inseé&ts Abroad” to be very fond of the juice of a yellow-wooded tree called the Bagassa Gutanensis, but I have never. seen any one who could tell me what this tree is.
The Lamia subocellata already referred to belongs to this family. It isa fair sized beetle of a brownish black colour covered with a silky down. A stripe of yellowish white runs down the centre of its head and thorax, and its wing-cases are marked with round spots of the same colour. I have already noticed the resem- blance between this inseét and one of the reputed sawyer beetles. If these beetles really cut twigs, which they may do to get at the sap of trees and shrubs, I think, they must use in doing so the acute spines on their thorax.
The Cass¢dz or Tortoise Beetles are another family of the Tetramera. Their name is derived from the Latin cassts,a helmet, and is given to these beetles because their thorax is helmet-shaped. They are generally flat- tened and spherical, their outer shell overlapping the body, so that the legs can be drawn completely under it. The species are numerous and in some cases highly ornamental. The Cassida barbicornis is sometimes found here. It is a small bluish green beetle with black antennz. Its wing-cases are pun¢étured and have a long obtuse spine projecting sidewise from each shoulder. The Cassida perforata also found in British Guiana is a somewhat singularly shaped inseét. Its colour is yel- lowish red, dull above, but. shining beneath, It has a
BEETLES OF BRITISH GUIANA. 81
short transverse thorax tapering to a sharp point at each side. Its wing-cases are nearly triangular, and ending the thorax form an acute point at the basalangle. There is also a perforation at the base of each of the elytra from which the inseét receives the specific name of perforata.
The Casszda luctuosa, another of our beetles, is a small roundish inseét, nearly black on the upper side, but reddish towards the edges of the wing-cases and below. It has a short thorax running into very acute angles at the sides.
The Cassida sexpustula, which is sometimes found here, is nearly circular in exterior outline, and is green above, and black below.
The Cassida discoides is a green beetle with large yellow spots running across the middle of its elytra.
. These are some of the better known Cassidz met with in
this part of the world, but a number of other species are found here.
We have also several beetles of what is called the Eumolpus family. The word eumolpus means “ good- singer,’ and is avery strange name to give to a voice- less beetle, for it neither gives us any idea of the appear- ance of the inseét nor of its habits. It is also a proper classical name. These beetles do not differ very much from the Cassidz, and are sometimes classed with them.
The Doryphora (from the Greek doru, a spear or spike, and phero, | carry) or spike-bearing beetles are easily distinguished from their kindred genera. If one looks at a specimen from above he sees no spike or spear, but if he looks at the thorax or breast below he at once perceives that the middle of it projects in a sharp
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82 TIMEHRI.
spike-like form. Some of these beetles are very prettily marked, and are worthy of notice on account of their colouring. The Doryphora tessellata which is found in our neighbourhood, though | have never seen a specimen of it here, is one of the finest of these. Its ground colour is yellow, and its elytra are crossed by five rows of square chestnut spots. The thorax is plain chestnut.
The name Chrysomelides, i.e. “Golden Apples,” is sometimes given to beetles of this sort. As their figures are rounded, and their colours rich, this name is rather appropriate, but it has been somewhat capri- ciously used. There is a considerable quantity of these inseéts here, and they present an agreeable variety of colours such as scarlet, azure, gold, and green, brought out with lustre. They are all plant-eaters, and some of them are gregarious in their habits.
The Trimera, Three-jointed, or as the Rev. J. G. Woop has it, Pseudotrimera, False Three-jointed, is another general division of Coleoptera. Mr. Woop asserts that, though the tarsi of these inse€ts seem to have only three joints, they have really four, the third one being very minute, and hid in the doubly lobed end of the second. This division contains a somewhat mis- cellaneous colle€tion of beetles, and some of the families in it appear to be but slightly related to one another. The families or groups with which we have mainly to do at present are the Erotylidz and Coccinellidz. Ero- tylide means “little darlings,” being derived from the Greek erotis, darling. There are about 130 species of this genus, and most of them are small, and some of them are very beautiful. Their bodies are mostly oval and generally raised in the middle, and their antennz
Re a a
BEETLES OF BRITISH GUIANA. 83
terminate in a flattened club formed of three points. The Evotylus histrio a somewhat cosmopolitan species, is often seleéted by authors as a type of this genus. It is about an inch long, and when looked at from above it appears diamond-shaped. Its ground colour is black, but its wing-cases are crossed by six or seven bands formed of confluent yellow spots. It has also a reddish spot on the shoulder and apex of each wing-case. There are a good many species of Erotylidz in British Guiana, and M. LACORDAIRE, a brother of the great preacher of that name, who was well acquainted with the Coleoptera of this part of the world, has written an excellent monograph on this genus.
The Coccinellidz are familiarly known to us as lady- birds. Coccinella is a diminutive of the Latin word coccum meaning a kernel or seed of a berry. These inseéts are small and closely resemble each other. There are said to be more than 1,000 different species of this family, but it is often very difficult to distinguish one species from another. ‘They are semi-spherical in shape and their colour is generally red or yellow spotted with black. They are asarule rather minute, but may be seen shining like gems on the leaves in our gardens after a shower of rain. Their larve are said to be very useful, © inasmuch as they eat the plant-lice.
The Heteromera or Unequal-jointed beetles are con- sidered by most authors the second general division of Coleoptera, but they are not very conspicuous among the beetles of British Guiana. Their four anterior tarsi have five joints each, and the two posterior ones only four. The habits of both the larve and perfect inse€ts of this division are very diverse and donot appear to have been
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84 TIMEHRI.
well investigated. Some of them are found under the bark of trees, others in fungi, and others in farinaceous substances such as corn, meal, and biscuits. The latter are known to science as 7enebriontide or meal-worm beetles of which the Tenebrio molztor is the type. Most of the Heteromera hitherto observed in British Guiana have been placed in this family, but I believe that a care- ful scientific examination of the species met with here would be a benefit to Coleoptera.
Beetles like butterflies undergo complete metamor- phosis, but the chara€ters of their larve and chrysa- lides vary very much, and the changes which take place during metamorphosis generally occur in the ground or under the bark of trees and are not readily observed. Unless one has extensive grounds and plenty of time and patience he is not likely to make much of observing beetles pass from one state to another.
Mr. Froude’s Negrophobia, or Don Quixote as a Cook’s Tourist.
By N. Darnell Davis,
—a)INCE ANTHONY TROLLOPE visited the West Indies and wrote Zhe West Indies and the Spanish Main: a work which, by the way, may be classed with the brightest of his Novels: no Traveller’s tale of this part of the Empire has excited such general interest as has Mr. FROUDE’S The English an the West Indtes, or the Bow of Ulysses.
Mr. JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE is, pace Mr. FREEMAN, an Historian, and his fame as such is mainly founded upon his having discovered that, after all said to the contrary, that most dread Sovereign King HENRY VIII. was a highly respeétable personage. It needs an exuberant imagination to whitewash so eminent a Blue Beard as was King HAL, but then, imagination was, and is, Mr. FROUDE’S strong point. Let any one who-knows the West Indies well, but read The English in the West Indies, and he will readily admit that imagination plays a very active part in that Traveller’s
Romance. He seems, indeed, to think it only neces- sary to fancy his faéts, and then to set them down as but truisms. To go into all Mr. FROUDE’S inaccuracies, and into all his contradi€tions of himself, is not the purpose of this paper, which will treat principally of the rampant Negrophobia displayed by that gentleman. At the same time, attention must be drawn to the grave
86 jTIMEHRI.
ignorance shown by Mr. FROUDE of main faéts in the History of the English conneétion with the West Indies, Sir RALPH ABERCROMBIE was the Commander of the Expedition which captured Trinidad in 1797, but Mr. FROUDE says PICTON took the Island (p.63). He says, in the same place, that until that conquest, the Island ‘“was alternately Spanish and French,’ a statement wholly unfounded, as the French never held the place. It was in Gros /slet Bay, St. Lucia, that RODNEY col- le€ted his Fleet before giving battle to DE GRASSE, and not in the harbour of Castries as Mr. FROUDE imagines (p.132). It was Sir SAMUEL HOOD who took posses- sion of the Diamond Rock, and not Lord HOWE (p. 140). Mr. FROUDE fancies that DRAKE tried to take Havana and failed: and that PENN and VENABLES failed, in a similar venture (p. 291). DRAKE did not fail in any such attempt, as he made none, but he got the worst of it in an attack upon San Juan, Porto Rico, in 1595. Asto PENN and VENABLES, Mr. FROUDE is evidently mixing up with Havana the disastrous attempt of those Commanders upon San Domingo. Lastly, DRAKE did not die in the Bahama Channel (p. 338). He died off Porto Bello, and his coffin was thrown overboard near a rock by the Castle of St. Philip, which stood opposite to Fort St. Jago. Mr. FROUDE tries to set the Barbadians right as to the origin of the name of their Island. The Islanders hold that a species of the Ficus Indicus, or banyan, which abounded in the Island, presented a ‘bearded’ semblace to the Discoverers. Mr. FROUDE says, “I disbelieve in this derivation. “ Every Spaniard whom I have consulted confirms my “ own impression that ‘barbados’ standing alone could
—-
Mr. FROUDE’S NEGROPHOBIA. 87
‘no more refer to trees than ‘ barbati’ standing alone * could refer to trees in Latin. The name is a century “ older than the English occupation, for I have seen it in ‘a Spanish Chart of 1525. The question is of some ‘“ interest, since it perhaps implies that at the first dis- “ covery there was a race of bearded Caribs there.” (p.p- 38, 39). Now, the faét is that Barbados did not, ori- ginally, standalone. The full name was Los Arboles Bar- bados, The Bearded Trees, as Mr. FROUDE may find set forth in Ramusio. As Mr. FROUDE’S life’s work has been the writing of History, it might have been expeéted that, at all events, in his own particular line of study, he would have taken pains to be accurate, but, it is only too patent that The English in the West Indies is a mere piece of Book-making, con- taining no real study of the past History, and still less of the present life, of the English and African Races in the West Indies. Of the aétual condition of the British West Indies of to-day Mr. FROUDE knows as much, and as little, as a Cook’s Tourist, even when personally conduéted, might pretend to. How could it be other- wise ?.
Mr. FROUDE arrived at Barbados on the rath of January, 1887, and left Barbados for England on the 3rd of April following. In all, he spent 81 days in the West Indies, British and Spanish. Of this time, how- ever, about 25 days were occupied in journeying to and fro between Jamaica and Cuba and in staying three weeks in the latter Island (p. 336). He contrasts the presence in numbers of the Spaniards in Cuba with the absence of Englishmen from the British West Indies, quite forgetful of the faéts, that, the climate of Cuba is
88 TIMEHRI.
much more like that of Spain, than is the climate of the British West. Indies like that of the United Kingdom, and that Cuba is for the Spaniards, their Canada, Aus- tralasia, South Africa, and West Indies combined (pp. 292, 332, 303). Of the 56 days left to Mr. FROUDE ior doing our part of the West Indies, he devoted a fort- night to Barbados (p. 109), the same time to Dominica (p. 172), and, apparently a week to Trinidad and a fort- night to Jamaica. Voyaging among the Islands gave him about a week on board Royal Mail Steamers, as to the officers of which he says, “ never on any line in the ‘“ world have I met with officers so courteous and culti- ‘“vated.”” He seems to have spent about 12 hours at St. Lucia: just long enough for him to fall into the error of stating that St. Lucia is under the jurisdiétion of Barbados (p. 136). At Grenada he was ashore for dinner, but, alas, his dinner seems to have disagreed with him, for, of this now flourishing little colony, which the Black Man, by industry, is turning into a garden, | he preserves such painful reminiscences, that throughout his pages he holds up Grenada, not as an example, but as a warning. The late Sir GEORGE STRAHAN, when Governor of the Windward Islands, spoke of Grenada as a little Paradise, where everybody had plenty and everybody was happy ; but then, with Sir GEORGE STRAHAN the Black Man was somebody, whereas with Mr. FROUDE the Black Man is nobody in the political system. Mr. FROUDE did not visit England’s great West Indian Colony, British Guiana, onthe Mainland of South America, although the Magnificent Province is within 36 hours steam of either Trinidad or Barbados.
In order to appreciate at their proper value the opinions
Mr. FROUDE’S NEGROPHOBIA. 89
which Mr. FROUDE has formulated in his book, let us enquire what means he took to inform himself of the real state of affairs in the West Indies. In Trinidad he stayed with an official whom he indicates as Mr. G., and whom he describes as “a distinguished lawyer and mem- “ber of the Executive Council of the island, a charming “companion, an invaluable public servant, but with the “temperament of aman of genius, half humorous, half “melancholy, which does not find itself entirely at home “in West Indian surroundings.” As Mr. FROUDE’S mind seems to have received an unmistakable bias from his half humorous, half melancholy host, it is to be re- gretted that the full name of his informant has not been printed. Mr. GARCIA is the only distinguished lawyer in Trinidad whose name begins with the letter G., but he is neither an Official nor a person of melodramatic tem-
_perament. The last part of the description points to a
_ type of official which is the bane of the West Indian
‘Islands—the man who, obtaining his appointment by
interest, holds high office rather than fills, it; who does not identify himself with the interests of the Colony that feeds him, but is ever ready to take the best ap- pointment that may be going. No large measure for the Public Good can be associated with the name ofan official of this kind. Unprodu€tive though he be, he is bound to extol himself at the expense of the colonists, of whom he knows little, and for whom he cares less. Whilst in Trinidad, Mr. FROUDE took no sufficient steps to learn what was the life of its people. There, as elsewhere, he does not judge for himself, but is content to be posted with the prejudices of others. His artless admission as to his mode of acquiring information is characteristic of M
go TIMEHRI.
a man of books rather than of a man of the world. His own words are:—‘“In Trinidad, as everywhere else, “my own chief desire was to see the human inhabitants, “to learn what they were doing, how they were living, ‘“and what they were thinking about, and this could ‘‘ best be done by drives about the town and neighbour- “hood”! (p. 73) CARLYLE, whom Mr. FROUDE has served as worshipper and iconoclast in turn, killed with ridicule the idea of respeétability being founded upon a gig. It does not, however, require a CARLYLE to dete&, in Mr. FROUDE’S idea of learning by “ drives about’, what men were thinking about, the mode of ‘ doing’ places, of a Cook’s Tourist, rather than the method of enquiry of a man of affairs.
So far from seeking, or making, opportunities for obtaining a knowledge of the true state of things in Trinidad, he devoted himself to admiration of the Flora of the Island, which he found quite as beautiful as his friend CHARLES KINGSLEY had depiéted it, and man alone was vile. An exceptionally good opportunity oc- curred, during Mr. FROUDE’S short stay in the Colony, for learning something of the people of the place, the manner of men they were, and what their aspirations were. But, when formally requested to attend the Public Meeting held in Port-of-Spain in favour of the introduc- tion of popular representation; a solid part of the Islanders desiring that some portion of the Legislative Council of the colony should be eleéted by votes of the Taxpayers, instead of, as at present, all the members being nominated by the Crown ; he declined the invita- tion, on the ground that he knew too little of their affairs to make his presence of any value to the
Mr. FROUDE’S NEGROPHOBIA. gi
reformers. Now, had he been a Statesman, instead of the mere pedlar in Politics that he is, Mr. FROUDE would have gone to the Meeting, not to assist at it,
but, on his own account, to study the men themselves who were taking part in it, and to judge for himself
as to the nature of the movement: but no, he was
but a man of letters on his tour, and he was quite satis-
fied to adopt the prejudiced views of others. Ignorant as. he is in matters political, Mr. FROUDE says he could not help asking himself of what use such a possession as Trinidad could be either to England or the English
Nation (p. 66). A simple enquiry at the Government Offices would have informed him that, in 1886, the year previous to his visit, of 1,196,076 tons of shipping entered and cleared at the ports of the colony, no less
than 774,916 tons were British. Other people are well aware that besides its own value, agricultural and com-
mercial, Trinidad is invaluable on account of its splen- did strategical and commercial situation at the very mouth of the Orinoco. In the result, Mr. FROUDE left Trinidad, taking in his pack not only his own prejudices which he had brought with him, but the prejudices of other prejudiced persons as well.
At Barbados, Mr. FROUDE was a guest at Government House, and he does not omit to do justice to the re- nowned hospitality of Sir CHARLES and Lady LEEsS. At their numerous dinner-parties he no doubt met many of the leading men of the Island, but his Book offers no evidence that he made any study of the inhabitants or of their institutions. He wrongly describes the con- stitution of Barbados as consisting of an Assembly of thirty-three members, nine of whom the Crown nomi-
M 2
92 TIMEHRI.
nates, the rest are elected (p. 103), whereas there are separate chambers of the Ceuncil and the Assembly. The Assembly, or local House of Commons, was in Session, and Mr. FROUDE did attend one meeting of that body, but he cared for none of those things, and frankly says :— ‘The most interesting part of the thing to me was the ‘ hall in which the proceedings were going on” (p. 111). He spent a day at Farley Hill with the late Sir GRAHAM BRIGGS, whose subsequent death he describes as depriving Barbados of one of the ablest of her legislators, although that gentleman had not for years sat in the Legislature. He found Sir GRAHAM very down upon his luck, and very sore on account of the falling through of a movement in 1886 for a Treaty with the United States, by which the West Indies would have secured a good market for their produce. Of the veto put upon that Treaty by the Imperial Government, Mr. FROUDE says in one place (p. 108), “‘ The Board of Trade had, no doubt, excellent ‘“‘ reasons for obje€ting to an arrangement which would “ have flung our whole commerce with the West Indies ‘into American hands, and might have formed a prelude “to a closer attachment. It would have been a violation “also of those free-trade principles which are the ‘“‘ English political gospel.” In another place (pp. 371, 372), our unreliable author thus denounces that same veto: ‘‘ The English Government, on some fine-drawn crotchet, refused to Colonies which were weak and help- less what they would have granted without a word if demanded by Victoria or New South Wales, whose resentment they feared’’! Those who knew the late Sir GRAHAM BRIGGS will not need to be told that, if he did say anything to fjustify Mr. FROUDE’S conjecture
7
Mr. FROUDE’S NEGROPHOBIA. 93
that Sir GRAHAM and other West Indians were ready to become American citizens, the deceased gentleman said it in his haste, and when smarting under a sense of wrong. Few, indeed, are those who sincerely desire such annexation, if there be any such. Our hearts, our pride, are in the Old Country. Personally conduéted by Colonel ELLIOTT, the Inspe€tor General of Police, Mr. FROUDE drove about the Island, seeing things from the outside, and not going beneath the surface. The Church of St. John and its churchyard seem to have interested him more than the people he saw “thick as rabbits in a “warren” (p. 114). It was so much more easy to gather information at second hand than to go himself in search of faéts, that he simply lounged life away in Barbados, “ perfectly idle and perfe€tly happy” (p. 110). Having in this manner ‘ done’ the colony, our worthy Tourist, in hurrying on to Jamaica when returning from Dominica, had no need to land at Bridgetown, so, with a clear con- science he sets down in his Book—‘“‘ At Barbados there ‘was nothing more for me to do or see. The English “ Mail was on the point of sailing, and I hastened on ‘ board’’!
At Dominica, Mr. FROUDE was the guest of the Administrator of the Government of the Island, Captain SPENCER-CHURCHILL. To his guest, Captain SPENCER- CHURCHILL talked sorrowfully enough of his own situa- tion and the general helplessness of it (p. 147.) Despite, however, our author’s aversion for desponding people, he admits that his host made his fortnight’s visit a very pleasant one, and that he left “Captain C. witha warm hope “that he might not be consigned forever to a post which “an English gentleman ought not to be condemned to
94 TIMEHRI.
“ occupy; that if matters could not be mended for him “where he stood, he might find a situation where his “courage and his understanding might be turned to ‘useful purpose.’ It is a thousand pities that our author has not described the various schemes matured by his host for the improvement of Dominica, and the various large measures of public utility initiated by him, but which have fallen flat, presumably through the pur- blind obstru€tion of that local Council, which Mr. FROUDE describes as ‘‘ contrived to create the largest ‘‘ amount of fri€tion,-and to insure the highest amount of “ unpopularity to the administrator.”
With his magical pen, Mr. FROUDE paints in charming style the wonderful beauties of scenery to be found in Dominica. As elsewhere, he saw something of the out- side of things. He rambled about Roseau and _ its neighbourhood, and marooned in the mountains of the Island, but he saw little of the inner life of the Colony, sufficient for his purposes being the one-sided statements of those with whom he consorted. He gets the length of enquiring as to the rate of servants’ wages, which he finds surprisingly low. In the market-place of Roseau he even exchanges badinage with some of the women he found there. Our philosopher thus pleasantly records his rencontre with some of the black belles :—
“Two or three of the best looking, seeing that I ‘‘ admired them a little, used their eyes and made some “laughing remarks. They spoke in their French pafozs, “ clipping off the first and last syllables of the words. “ ] but half understood them, and could not return their ‘shots. I can only say that if their habits were as “loose as white people say they are, I did not see a
Mr. FROUDE’S NEGROPHOBIA. 95
“single licentious expression either in face or manner. “ They seemed to me light-hearted, merry, innocent “ young women, as free from any thought of evil as the peasant girls in Brittany.” On reading the conclusion come to in the latter part of the foregoing extract, one cannot but deplore that, during his limited visit to the West Indies, Mr. FROUDE consistently refrained from coming into contaét with any but the dominant classes in the Colonies. His chaff with the market women is one of the only two or three instances recorded in his book, where he talked with any of the labouring classes, whilst not a single instance can be recalled of any attempt on our author’s part to make himself acquainted with those intermediate classes who, wz//y nzlly, are the coming people of the WestIndies. He was not unaware of their existence, but he studiously ignored it when he might have made acquaintance withit. The main burden of his book is, however, a fulmination against the growing importance of those classes.
The general state of Dominica appeared to our Tourist as one of general dilapidation. Bad as things were they were going to worse, and it was all the fault of the Imperial authorities, who failed to apply the system of Indian Administration to this and the other West Indian Colonies. The local Council, with its Island Hampdens, was to him nothing less than anathema. He says cultivation is annually becoming less, and that this is the result of the present form of Govern- ment (p. 143).
But our Tourist, although he might not propose, himself to study what men were doing with the land in Dominica, was not to be let off making some personal observation
g6 TIMEHRI.
of the working bees of the Island. He was to see what could really be done in Dominica by an English gentle- man who had gone the right way to work there (p. 164). Dr. ALFORD NICHOLLS, a gentleman who does not trust to the local Council to grow his crops, or to the Colonial Office to give him good prices, sent Mr. FROUDE “‘an in- “‘vitation to call on him and see what he was about.” It is observable that Mr. FROUDE, who came out to study the condition of men and things in the West Indies, did not seek this opportunity—it was thrust upon him. He says, however, that he was delighted to avail himself of it. He found a small plantation in a high state of culti- vation, producing mainly limes and Liberian coffee. Dr. NICHOLLS had every hope of profit from the produce. Mr. FROUDE thus records the experience of Dr. NICHOLLS on the labour question :—
‘“‘ Tn apparent contradiétion to the general West Indian experience, he told me that he had never found a diff- “culty about it. He paid them fair wages, and paid “them regularly without the overseer’s fines and draw- “ backs. He knew one from the other personally, could ‘“ call each by his name, remembered where he came from, “ where he lived, and how, and could joke with him about ‘his wife or mistress. They in consequence clung to “ him with an innocent affection, stayed with him all the “ week without asking for holidays, and worked with “ interest and good-will. Four years only had elapsed “ since Dr. NICHOLLS commenced his undertakings, and ‘he already saw his way to clearing a thousand pounds a year on that one small patch of acres. I may mention “ that, being the only man in the island of really superior “ attainments, he had tried in vain to win one of the seats
Mr. FROUDE’S NEGROPHOBIA. 97
” Over-
“in the elective part of the legislature (p. 165). anxious to put a sting into the tail of his statement, Mr. FROUDE does not see that heis at the same time refleét- ing upon the Executive of the Island. Dr. NICHOLLS should have sat in the Council as a Government nominee. It should not have been necessary for him to seek a seat as an ele€tive member. As it was, he failed to secure in the Legislature his ele€tion, not because he was a man of superior attainments, but because he was a Government Officer receiving a superior salary. The electors knew what they were about. A Government Officer who serves in
a Legislature as an elective member, is expeéted to vote
with the Government. Should he fail to do so, he would promptly be informed that his serving in a Legislative capacity was incompatible with the efficient discharge of his official duties. Should he demur, he would be told that he must resign his appointment if not his seat. This is all right and proper, but, surely, there is no ground for reflection upon the electors of Dominica, because, know- ing ‘the hang of things,’ they should have preferred a representative who was not in the service of the Govern- ment. The main faét remains, however, that, not- withstanding all Mr. FROUDE’S jeremiads over the existence of the ele€tive principle in Dominica, an English gentleman who goes the right way to work, can do very well for himself there.
A few pages earlier in his Book, Mr. FROUDE had himself been moralising upon the short-sightedness of young Englishmen who might seek their fortunes in Dominica, but did not doso, He says there:— _
‘“‘ Here was all the profusion of nature, lavish beyond ‘all example, and the enterprising youth of England
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“were negle€ting a Colony which might yield them ‘“‘ wealth beyond the treasures of the old sugar planters, ‘going to Florida, to Texas, to South America, taking “their energy and their capital to the land of the ‘foreigner, leaving Dominica, which might be the gar- ‘den of the world, a precious emerald set in their own “ Antilles, encircled by the sacred memories of glorious “English achievements, as if such a place had no ex- “istence’”’(p, 160). Asked now, by Dr. NICHOLLS, why young Englishmen went planting in so many other countries, ‘‘ went even to Ceylon and Borneo, while “comparatively at their own doors, within a fortnight’s “sail of Plymouth, there was this island immeasurably ‘more fertile than either,” our Sir Oracle thus gravely delivers himself :— .
“The explanation, I suppose, is the misgiving that “the West Indies are consigned by the tendencies of ‘‘English Policy to the black population, and that a “local government created by representatives of the “negro vote would make a residence there for an ener- “ getic and self-respeéting European less tolerable than “in any other part of the globe.” (p. 165). Surely, this is somewhat hard upon Dr. NICHOLLS. Does Mr. FROUDE not consider him an energetic and self-respecting European? Dr. NICHOLLS might well have asked Mr. FROUDE why Englishmen go to Texas, Florida and South America, when they might go to Ceylon, with its government modelled on the Indian fashion The negrophobist writings of Mr. FROUDE are hardly likely to encourage young Englishmen to try their fortunes in Dominica.
Things are not so bad in Dominica, as Mr. FROUDE
Mr. FROUDE’S NEGROPHOBIA. 99
allows himself to believe. That colony may be said to have ‘turned the corner’ towards a brighter state of things. The value of the Exports from the Island in 1886, the year which ended just before Mr. FROUDE’S visit, was substantially greater than in either of the two preceding years. Dr. NICHOLLS is not the only man in the colony who is trying ‘ mixed cultivation,’ and ‘ minor industries.’ Others are doing the same thing, though on a smaller scale. All of these are following in the footsteps of the late Dr. IMRAY, the pioneer of the movement. So far from the English connection with the Island languishing in favour of the French, of the total of 304,423 tons of shipping entered and cleared there in 1886, no less than 302,063 were British. Mr. FROUDE writes that a boatful of soldiers from Martinique could take the Island. He seems to be ignorant of the faét that Martinique itself has often been taken by the English, who might have retained possession of it to this day, but for the faét that in the old days of Proteétion, and when the West Indian interest was all-powerful, it did not suit English owners of West Indian property to have larger quantities of Sugar brought into their market by the annexation of French Sugar Colonies. As to our Negrophobist’s statement that scarcely one of the inhabi- tants of Dominica, except the officials, would lift a finger to save the conneétion, that is a mere instance of his Froudacity. ‘‘ You forget that we beat you at Waterloo”’! said an English Black Man to a’French Black Man by way of silencing the latter. For one thing, at all events, the inhabitants of Dominica should feel thankful to Mr. FrRoupDgE. In his anxiety that they should be well governed, he recommends the appointment N 2
eye) TIMEBRI.
as their Governor of men of the stamp of the late Rajah BROOKE of Sarawak, and of Mr. SMITH of Scilly. If none such can be secured, then says Mr. FROUDE ‘even a SANCHO PANZA would do.’ Here he draws the line. At all events he does not propose that SANCHO PANZA’S Master shall govern Dominica. Evidently Mr. FROUDE does not himself contemplate putting into practice the principles of that kind of Government of which he affe€ts to be the High Priest.
Remounting his Rozinante, in the shape of a Royal Mail Steamer, the modern Knight of La Mancha again set out in quest of other wind-mills. Careering across the Caribbean sea, on his way to Jamaica, he was com- pelled, by the route taken by the Mail Packet, to stop at the Port of Jacmel, in Hayti. How much Mr. FROUDE was able to learn of the true state of things in Hayti, from his hour ashore at Jacmel, it would be difficult ‘to say. His own statement :—‘ My hour’s leave of absence “was expired. I made my way back to the landing- “place, where the Mail Steamer’s boat was waiting ‘for me,” shows that he landed for an hour only (p. 188). Later on, when returning from Cuba to Jamaica, Mr. FROUDE again set foot upon Haytian soil. This time it was at Port-au-Prince. The Royal Mail Steamer remained in harbour there but a few hours. He landed. His own account of the time he was on_ shore says:—‘‘I stayed no longer than the ship’s busi- “ness detained the captain, and I breathed more “ freely when I had left that miserable cross-birth of “ferocity and philanthropic sentiment” (p. 345). Mr. FROUDE had assured Chief Justice REEVES of Barbados that he was going to Hayti to learn what he could, on the
Mr. FROUDE’S NEGROPHOBIA. 101
spot. He somewhat modestly observes :—“I could not “expeét that I, on a flying visit, could see deeper into “the truth than Sir SPENCER ST. JOHN had seen, but,” he adds, with a fine touch of irony, “at least I should “not take with me a mind already made up, and 1 was “not given to credulity’? (pp. 127, 128). An hour ashore at Jacmel, and perhaps one or two hours at Port- au-Prince, constituted Mr. FROUDE’S mode of going to Hayti to learn what he could on the spot. This isa re- markable travesty of CA&SAR’S vent, vid1, vicz / but then, Mr. FROUDE is not CASAR ; he is merely a worshipper of Czsarism. Would any earnest seeker after truth have thus turned his back, not once, but twice, upon the opportunity for clearing up those doubts as to the dread charges made against the Haytians, which he told Chief Justice REEVES he entertained? Nay, was not the Knight bound, in honour of the lady DULCINEA DEL ToBoso, to have remained in Hayti, and with his magic pen, so much more powerful than any sword, to have slain, in the sight of all the world, the grim giants who were keeping the beautiful damsel HAYTIA, in the Castle of darkness and in the chains of Vodu? His illustrious prototype, as described in the pages of CERVANTES, would certainly not own him as a true Knight, or Cheva- lier sans reproche.
Of Jamaica, the Queen of the British Antilles, for- metly England’s most splendid Colony, Mr. FROUDE has nothing fresh tosay. He stayed at King’s House with Colonel JUSTICE who was then administering the Government of the island, and who, he thinks, had very likely never heard of the great Mr. FROUDE (p. 141) ; at Miss Roy’s boarding house in Mandeville, and with
102 TIMEHRI.
the Commandant at Port Royal. On his homeward voyage from Cuba, he again landed at Jamaica, and then was the guest at Cherry Garden of Mr MARESCAUX the local manager of -the Colonial Bank. Haunted throughout his trip by the Irish Question, our Tourist indulges in a soliloquy upon Irish affairs, whilst on board the Royal Mail Steamer in Kingston Har- bour. Mr. GLADSTONE is to Mr. FROUDE, as King CHARLES’S head was to Mr. DicKx. The exuberant imagination of the one cannot tolerate the exuberant verbosity of the other. At last Mr. FROUDE was taken in hand by the then Colonial Secretary of Jamaica, Mr. NOEL WALKER, who was formerly Assistant Government Secretary of British Guiana. Mr. WALKER, now Colonial Secretary of Ceylon, was one of the few persons Mr. FROUDE came across who had a good word to say for the Black People. With his twenty-five years’ experience of them, Mr. WALKER’S testimony must have some weight as against the hostile criticisms of Mr. FROUDE’S nameless informants, even though our Tourist, from general conversation gathered that the sanguine views of the Célonial Secretary were not widely shared. (p. 213).
It does not appear from his book, that when, on his tour, Mr. FROUDE visited a single Sugar Estate. He hada soul above such things. In Jamaica, the opportunity for inspecting plantations was given him, but, says he, “I ‘“‘ declined to be taken over sugar mills, or to be shown ‘the latest improvements. I was too ignorant to under- "stand in what the improvements consisted, and could “take them upon trust. The public bakery was more ‘interesting ”. It is only from the author’s supercilious reference to the ‘‘ latest improvements ”’, that his readers
Mr. FROUDE’S NEGROPHOBIA. 103
can learn that in Jamaica, at all events, Planters are keeping abreast with the times, in the process of manu-
faéture. On the other hand, the refusal to be taken over “ Sugar-Mills,” is but an illustration of Mr. FROUDE’S want of savoir fazre, if he really felt a sincere desire to study the condition of men and things in these Colonies. Had he visited a number of the plantations in the Islands he stopped at, he would have learned what men of African and of mixed Races are doing, better than he could “ by drives about the town and “ neighbourhood.” He would have then realised the progress in skilled labour, and in the power of organiza- tion, made by members of those races. He would have found plantations, large and small, in the working and management of which not a single white man had part. And, if the faculty to endure hard times without disorder be a test of social advancement, our Tourist might have learned how well the labouring classes have borne the heavy reduétions of wages, which the Bounty System has necessitated throughout the West Indian Colonies.* It was not, however, in such folks as these that our author was interested. His sympathies were with the English in the West Indies. After all, however, sugar
* Machinery is cheaper, Freights are lower, and other things have tended towards economy, but the main reduction has been in wages. The following extract from a paragraph in the European Mail of the 3rd of May 1888, speaks volumes: —‘‘ Needs must when the devil drives.” Ten years ago, when the price of cane sugar was about double what it is now, the Colonial Company produced 17,111 hogsheads of sugar at a cost of 2al. 2s. per ton. Last year they produced 25,720 tons at a cost of tol. 14s. per ton! True it is, as the deputy chairman, Mr. R. Gilles-
te
pies, said, “ Adversity sometimes teaches a useful lesson,” and we are
glad to find that lesson has not been lost on the directors.
104 TIMEHRI.
still remains the staple of these Colonies, and no one but a mere Bookman would have dreamed of enquiring into the condition of men and things in the West Indies, without making an opportunity for observing life on plantations. Still less should a self-constituted special correspondent of the British Public have “ declined to be taken over sugar mills,” when the opportunity was made for him. Our Knight Errant was in quest of Wind Mills, not of Sugar Mills.
Mr. FROUDE in his “drives about’ observed that on market days the roads in Jamaica were thick with coun- try women, who tramped into Kingston with baskets of fruit and vegetables on their heads. Here and there, astride of a mule or donkey, was a Black Man, pipe in mouth and carrying nothing (pp. 239, 263). It does not seem to have occurred to our author that these men might be riding into town on Estates’ business, or on their own; or, that they might have come from greater distances. On the contrary, he jumps to the conclusion that these men were lazy fellows who were taking it easily while the women, poor things, were the beasts of burden, slaving.for these very wretches. So far from dreaming that in the thousands he met, the riders were - going on quite a different errand to that of the women who went a-foot, he seems to have taken the former as ‘‘ drivers’, or foremen, of the latter, and he sets down that “ the road was thronged with women plodding along with ‘‘ their baskets on their heads, a single male on a donkey, “‘ to each detachment of them, carrying nothing, like an “ officer with a company of soldiers” (p. 263). On one market day it so befell that, as our Knight was taking a drive to Cherry Garden, he met numbers of these
Mr. FROUDE’S NEGROPHOBIA. 105
country women, with their escort of dark cavaliers
_ Remembering his vows and the service sworn to his
lady of Toboso, he turned upon his Squire: in this case not SANCHO PANZA, but an African coachman: and rated him roundly upon the shame of “ the poor crea- “ tures toiling so cruelly, while their lords and masters
“amused themselves” (p. 263). The coachman only
laughed, and said “‘ Ah, Massa, women do women’s “ work, men do men’s work—all right.” To the question put by the Knight, “ And what is men’s work’? the coachman made no direét answer, but observed triumph- antly, ‘‘ Look at the women, massa—how they laugh— “how happy they be! Nobody more happy than black “ woman, massa.” During this tilt at a windmill the Knight had so badgered his poor Squire, that the latter lost his way, with the result that the household at Cherry Garden was alarmed for the safety of their expeéted guest, until he arrived late and weary. Excepting this unfortunate coachman, no other man of African or of mixed race, appears to have had the honour of conversing with Mr. FROUDE, in Jamaica, save only Mr. MARES- CAUX’S butler. So much, therefore, for our Tourist’s study of the great bulk of the human beings in Jamaica.
As Mr. FROUDE would have Englishmen believe that the West Indies, generally, arein a very bad way indeed, it is pleasant to find that one who was really in a position to judge what was the financial position of Ja- maica, could speak hopefully of business prospeéts. Mr, FROUDE visited the West Indies at a time when those involved in the sugar industry were reeling under the swashing blow which the Bounty System had struck them. This notwithstanding, Mr. MARESCAUx, the
O
106 TIMEHRI.
Manager of the Colonial Bank in Kingston is described, as giving him the following cheery account of things :—
“No one understood better than Mr. M the “troubles and dangers of the Colony, but he was in- ‘clined, perhaps by temperament, perhaps by knowledge, “to take a cheerful view of things. For the present ‘“at least he did not think that there was anything serious “to be feared. The finances, of which he had the best ‘“‘ means of judging, were in tolerable condition. The debt ‘‘was considerable, but more than half of it was repre- ‘“sented by a Railway. If sugar was languishing, the “fruit trade with the United States was growing with ‘“ the liveliest rapidity. Planters and merchants were not ‘‘ making fortunes, but business went on.” (pp. 267, 268.) Such was the state of things in Jamaica, at a time when its most important industry had well nigh suffered from a catastrophe. Surely, the outlook was rather a hopeful one. And yet, according to Mr. FROUDE, the colony’s future was imperilled by the privilege the Taxpayers enjoyed of electing a certain number of the Members of the Legislature of the Island. (pp. 354, 355-)
It cannot but be regretted that Mr. FROUDE should have seen so little of the soldier-statesman who has for the last four years and a half so ably and so happily filled the office of Governor of Jamaica. When Mr, FROUDE made his first stay in the Island, Sir HENRY NORMAN was away in England, whither he had been summoned on public business of an exceptional nature. Of him, when absent, our author writes thus:—‘‘ The ** Governor, Sir HENRY NORMAN, of Indian fame, I was “sorry to learn was still absent ; he had gone home on ‘“some legal business. Sir HENRY had an Imperial
i
Mr. FROUDE’S NEGROPHOBIA. 107
“reputation. He had been spoken of to me in Barbados “as able, if he were allowed a chance, to aét as Viceroy “ of all the islands, and to set them on their feet again. “ T could well believe that a man of less than Sir HENRY’S ‘reputed power could do it—for in the thing itself there “ wasno great difficulty——if only we at home were once “ disenchanted, though all the ability in the world would “be thrown away as long as the enchantment continued.” (pp. 180, 181.) As it came about, Mr. FROUDE did, on his second stay at Jamaica, make the persona! acquaintance of Sir HENRY NORMAN. Again, our author writes in terms of hopeful anticipation —" Sir « HENRY NorMAN had been one of the most eminent of “ the soldier civilians in India. He had brought with him “a brilliant reputation ; he had won the confidence of all “ classes and all colours. He, if any one, would under- “stand the problem, and from the high vantage ground “ of experience would know what could or could not be “done to restore the influence of England and the ‘prosperity of the colonies. Unfortunately, Sir HENRY “ had been called to London, as I mentioned before, on “4 question of the conduét of some official, and I was afraid that I should miss him altogether. He returned, “ however, the day before I was to sail. He-was kind ‘‘enough to ask me to spend an evening with him, and “] was again on my last night, a guest at King’s House.” (p. 353). Was Mr. FROUDE disappointed in his expec-
‘tations of Sir HENRY NORMAN? Let him speak for
himself, with that modesty which so eminently distin-
guishes him :—‘“ A dinner party offers small opportunity
“ for serious conversation, nor, indeed, could I expe& a
“sreat person in Sir HENRY’S position to enter upon O 2
108 TIMEHRI.
“‘ subjects of consequence with a stranger like myself. “T could see, however, that I had nothing to correét in ‘the impression of his charaéter which his reputation “ had led me to form about him, and I wished more than “ ever that the system of government of which he had been ‘“so admirable a servant in India could be applied to his ‘present position, and that he, or such as he, could ‘have the administration of it.’ The Man of Letters and the Governor then spoke of mutual friends. The Governor spoke of REYNELL TAYLOR as the ‘very soul of chivalry’: whereupon Mr. FROUDE observes of Sir HENRY NORMAN that he ‘ seemed himself to be a man ‘of the same pure and noble nature, perhaps liable, ‘from the generosity of his temperament, to believe “ more than I could do in modern notions and in modern ‘ political heroes, but certainly not inclining of his own ‘ will to recommend any rash innovations” (p. 353). It is noteworthy that Mr. FROUDE ‘‘ had nothing to correét” in the impression of Sir HENRY NORMAN’S charaéter, which the Governor’s reputation had led Mr. FROUDE to form about His Excellency. It is also noteworthy that Mr, FROUDE formed the opinion, after meeting Sir HENRY NORMAN, that the latter was certainly not a man “ in- “ clining of his own will to recommend any rash innova- “tions.” There was further talk between the Governor of Jamaica and his guest, the gist of which is thus set down by the latter :—‘‘ I perceived that like myself he ‘felt no regret that so much of the soil of Jamaica was ‘passing to peasant black proprietors. He thought “ well of their natural disposition; he believed them “capable of improvement. He thought that the pos- “ session of land of their own would bring them into
Mr. FROUDE’S NEGROPHOBIA. 109
“voluntary industry, and lead them gradually to the “adoption of civilised habits. He spoke with reserve, ‘Cand perhaps I may not have understood him fully, but “he did not seem to me to think much of their political “ capacity” (p. 354). Our Tourist then tried to pump Sir HENRY for his opinion upon the Local Boards, but Sir HENRY was not to be pumped. Mr FROUDE had himself heard a very bad charaéter of these Boards. Although his few days’ visit had been spent in Kingston and its neighbourhood, and at the boarding-house in Mandeville, he makes the thoroughly Froudacious state- ment that “in all'parts of the island’ the Local Boards
“inflamed centres of pecu-
had been described to him as ‘lation and mismanagement.” He inferred, that Sir HENRY NORMAN had no great belief in a federation of the islands, in responsible government and ‘ such like,’ as within the bounds of present possibilities. Nor, did Sir HENRY ‘“‘ think that responsible statesmen at home had any such arrangement in view”’ (p. 354). Much as he admired Sir HENRY NORMAN, Mr. FROUDE appears to have dete€éted a something unorthodox about the Governor’s views upon political questions. The fact was, Mr. FROUDE knew from a sure hand that it had been in contemplation, a few years ago, to give the West Indies what is known as responsible Govern- ment, and so he tells his readers what he did not like to break to Sir HENRY NORMAN. His inveétives against such an arrangement, extend to Ireland, Hayti, and Mr. GLADSTONE. There must, indeed, have been a smell of sulphur at King’s House, as Mr. FROUDE explains, “I “ could not say what I felt completely to Sir HENRY, “who, perhaps had been in personal relations with
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“Mr. GLADSTONE’S Government” (p. 355). For the sake of the West Indies one cannot but wish that Mr. FROUDE had seen more of the capable man who rules Jamaica, but, for Sir HENRY NORMAN’S own sake his conversation with his literary guest appears to have been all too long. It is understood that Sir HENRY’S observations upon the New Guinea question have not been corre€tly represented by Mr. FROUDE. (pp. 355, 356.)
West Indian newspapers have dealt with Mr. FROUDE’S several inaccuracies in the manner these deserve. There is no need to refer in detail to the good work done by those journals. One incident described by Mr. FROUDE has, however, been explained by The S#. George’s Chronicle of Grenada, in such a manner as illustrates well the Froudian system of making up fa€ts as the Tourist goes on his way. Voyaging, to Trinidad, from Barbados, the Royal Mail Steamers touch on their route at St. Vincent and Grenada. When Mr. FROUDE him- self was a passenger from Barbados for Trinidad, Mr. SENDALL, the Governor-in-Chief of the Windward Islands, came on board at St. Vincent, an Island where there are not more than two hundred whites, although Mr. FROUDE says there are two thousand. (p. 45). When His Excellency reached Grenada; where he was to disembark, the government barge came off to the Mail Steamer for him. The Harbour Master, whose duty it is to board every ship arriving at the Port, also came off in his boat to the Mail. Now, it so happened that, at the time of Mr. FROUDE’S tour, the Office of Harbour Master was held by a man of such solemn aspeét that his friends nicknamed him The Reverend. No doubt, Mr. FROUDE overheard some familiars addressing
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Mr. FROUDE’S NEGROPHOBIA. III
the Harbour Master as Reverend: whilst he beheld the Governor’s barge flying two flags, when The Reverend’s bore but one. The true genius knows what is what by inspiration. No enquiry was needed. Mr. FROUDE took in the true state of thingsat aglance. So he writes down in his book “ Mr. S landed in an “ official boat, with two flags, to distinguish it from a “‘ missionary’s boat, which had only one”’! (p.53) While Mr. FROUDE was inventing his fa€ts, he might have given a less puerile reason than he has offered for a Governor’s barge bearing two flags. He might, too, have des- cribed the Harkour Master as a clergyman, or a minister, instead of as a Missionary, had it not been that, Grenada being in his eyes an embryo Hayti, he could not then have made the point that he was at the time, indeed, 7% partibus. No other modus operandi than that of inventing his faéts, was open to a Tourist who, in a few weeks, was by “drives about the town and neighbourhood,” to see the human inhabitants, and “ learn what they were doing, how they were living, and what they were thinking about” (p. 73).
Readers of his book cannot fail to observe that Mr. FROUDE is a superior person. Indeed, he is a most superior person. ‘The Captain of the Royal Mail Steamer in which our Tourist travelled from Barbados to Jamaica had but one eye, but even that single eye “‘ was quick to “see if there was any personal merit in a man, and if “you deserved his respe€t you would have it” (p. 79). But, superior persons have a way of lumping together, without any distin€tion, all people whohappen not to move in their own charmed circle. So it is with our Tourist. Consorting with the Government House set wherever he
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went, he takes no cognizance of the intermediate classes between the dominant party and the black peasant pro- prietors. There are, nevertheless, many persons who have not the extrée to Government House, and whom Mr. FROUDE would not meet among the seleét of society, who might yet be thought worthy of being per- mitted to live. Some of these are whites, some are persons of mixed race, others are Africans pure and simple. It does not, however, suit Mr. FROUDE’S book to make any distinétions. With him, the question of allowing the Taxpayers to eleét some of the Members of Council is a question between the white planters ‘ and their emancipated slaves’ (p. 351). Thus. it comes about that, save some disparaging allusions (pp. 88, 97, 155, 211), Mr. FROUDE does not seem to recognise that the people of mixed race form an impor. tant faétor in the life of the West Indian Colonies. He learns at Jamaica, apparently for the first time, that some of these people are somebodies. ‘They had even been seen at Government House. ‘ There were mulat- toes,” he says, ‘‘ in the island, of wealth and consequence, “and at Government House there are no distin€tions ; “ but the English residents of pure colonial blood would ““ not associate with them, social exclusiveness increasing ‘with political equality. The blacks disliked the mulat- “toes; the mulattoes despised the blacks, and would not “intermarry with them. The impression was that the * mulatto would die out, that the tendency of the whites “and blacks was to a constantly sharpening separation, “and that if things went on as they were going for “ another generation, it was easy to be seen which “of the two colours would then be in the ascendant.
Mr. FROUDE’S NEGROPHOBIA. I12 J
““ The blacks were growing saucy, too, with much else of “the same kind. I could but listen and wait to judge “ for myself” (pp. 213, 214). Asto judging for himself, our Tourist took no steps to get evidence. Gossip was sufficient for him. Had Mr. FROUDE visited the West Indies as an ordinary Tourist, he might have been as socially exclusive as he chose. Coming’ as he did, as a self-appointed special Reporter to the British Public he ought not to have turned his back upon the oppor- tunities which presented themselves to him at King’s House. The future of the West Indies belongs to the Mixed Race. So far from the mulattoes dying out, they number one to every four Africans in Jamaica. But, it is not in Jamaica only that there are mulattoes of wealth and consequence. The same is the case in all the West Indian Colonies. In Barbados, they have a cultivated Society of their own, but, of course, our Tourist, although bent upon carrying out his self- imposed task of letting the British Public know the real condition of men and things in the West Indies, did not think information about them worth the seeking. At Barbados, it is true, Mr. FROUDE did make the ac- quaintance, at a dinner party, of one man of mixed race, in the person of the Chief Justice of the Colony, whom he describes as ‘(a negro of pure blood,” although Mr. REEVES has an admixture of white blood in him (p. 124). Mr. FROUDE, of course, looks upon Mr. REEVES asa ‘ phenomenon’: and well he might, having regard to the intense prejudice which has in past times prevailed among the whites of the old colony of Barbados. Our Tourist writes of Mr. REEVES as having risen to his high posi- tion as a Jawyer only, and, regarding him only as ‘ an P
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African of pure blood,’ refle€ts as to the Chief Justice’s chances, had he been a citizen of Hayti or Dahomey. It would hardly suit Mr. FROUDE’S book to recognise that Mr. REEVES had risen to eminence as a politician rather than as a lawyer. In such a case, there would be the inconvenient admission of political capacity in the people of colour. What are the faéts, however? Some years ago some political pick-pockets attempted to steal from the Barbadians their old, and cherished constitution. The whites, and the coloured people, strenuously resisted. Mr. REEVES, then Solicitor General, resigned his office, joined the opposition and became its leader. The Islan- ders gained the day. In gratitude to Mr. REEVES, they made him a handsome present, and, not thinking that sufficient, they wanted him to be their Chief Justice, when this appointment became vacant. Desiring to gratify the Colonists, the Secretary of State of the day appointed Mr. REEVES to be Chief Justice of Barbados. It is not in Mr. REEVES that Mr. FROUDE has found a phenomenon. It was the condué& of the whites of Barbados that was phenomenal. The fact is that, able lawyer as Mr. REEVES undoubtedly is, he had not been