Part 69

The administration of Dr. Francia proved to be an absolute and perfect despotism, and that of a most severe and sanguinary character. He was a native of Paraguay, and received the degree of doctor of theology at the University of Cordova, in Tucuman. For nearly thirty years he acted the tyrant over the inhabitants of the country, and brought the entire mass into the most unresisting subserviency to his will. No personage has figured so conspicuously as Dr. Francia, in the modern history of South America. When, by consummate address, he had succeeded in getting himself appointed dictator for life, commenced one of the most extraordinary events on record. "From the moment when he found his footing firm, and his authority quietly submitted to, his whole character appeared to undergo a sudden change. Without faltering or hesitation--without a pause of human weakness, or a thrill of human feeling--he proceeded to frame the most extraordinary despotism that the world has ever seen. He reduced all the population of Paraguay to two classes; of which the dictator constituted one, and his subjects the other. In the dictator was lodged the whole power, legislative and executive; the people had no power, no privileges, no rights, and only one duty, to obey. All was performed rapidly, boldly, and decisively. He knew the character of the weak and ignorant people at whose head he had placed himself, and who had the temerity to presume that they had energy and virtue sufficient to form a republic. The inhabitants of Paraguay delivered themselves up, bound hand and foot, into the hands of an absolute and ferocious despot, who reduced them to absolute slavery, ruined their commerce and agriculture, shut them up from the rest of the world, and dragged to the prison or the scaffold every man in the country whose talents, wealth, or knowledge opposed any obstacle in the way of his tyranny. No human being was allowed to leave the country, or dispatch a letter abroad." A few only escaped, by means of the flooding of the country by the rise of the river Paraguay, and from these individuals the world has learned respecting the secrets of this more than Dionysian espionage and tyranny. No attempted conspiracies availed to secure his person or destroy his life. He managed so as to gain over his soldiers entirely to his interests. As was to be expected, he lived in constant fear of assassination or poisoning, ordering his guards sometimes to shoot those who dared to look at his house in passing along the streets, and taking the trouble to cook his own victuals. He died at about the age of eighty, in 1842, having thus enacted the despot during the long course of twenty-eight years.

The wonder of all is, that the people generally were contented and happy under this strict and unnatural regime; yet it is partly to be accounted for from the entire security of person and property which was felt, so far as the intercourse of the people among themselves was concerned. Each district was made responsible for every theft committed in it. All the inhabitants, Indians as well as Creoles, were taught to read, write, and keep accounts. Public schools were every where established, and children were required to attend them, until, in the judgment of the municipal authority, they were sufficiently instructed. The dictator also established lyceums and other liberal institutions. Every person was required to labor, and mendicity was prohibited. It has been represented, however, that there was a mitigation of the doctor's despotism, in the latter part of his life.

According to the more recent accounts, the government of this country was administered by five consuls; but this and the other matters pertaining to Paraguay, are very imperfectly known, as the country has, for so long a period, been avoided by foreigners.

WEST INDIES.

SITUATION, Extent, &c.--Inhabitants--Political Divisions.--I. BRITISH WEST INDIES: Jamaica--Trinidad--Barbadoes--Bahamas--St. Christopher--Bermudas or Sommers' Islands--St. Vincent.--II. SPANISH WEST INDIES: Cuba--Porto Rico.--III. FRENCH WEST INDIES: Martinique--Guadaloupe.--IV. DUTCH WEST INDIES.--V. DANISH WEST INDIES.--VI. HAYTI.

_Situation_, _Extent_, _Climate_, _Productions_, _&c._--The West Indies constitute the great archipelago of the western continent, extending from latitude ten to twenty-eight degrees north, between the coast of Florida on the north, and the mouth of the river Orinoco in South America. They are a large cluster of islands, in their several portions variously denominated, according to their situations or other peculiarities, but will here be considered in their political divisions. The land area of the whole group is over ninety-three thousand square miles.

These islands have a general sameness of character, in some respects, from the position which they occupy on the face of the globe. The climate, as is to be expected, is generally very warm, though moderated and made comfortable, for the most part, by sea breezes. The thermometer frequently rises above ninety degrees; but its medium height maybe stated at about seventy-eight degrees of Fahrenheit. They are visited by periodical rains, which are often powerful, and in general the humidity of the atmosphere is very great, causing iron and other metals that are easily oxydated, to be covered with rust. Hurricanes are common to most of these islands, and frequently, in their incredible fury, produce the most desolating effects wherever they extend.

The productions of the West Indies are rich and varied, and constitute important articles of commerce. From the fertile soil spring the sugar-cane, the coffee-plant, the allspice or pimento, the nutritive banana or plantain, the pineapple, the luscious fruit of the anana, the yam, sweet potato, uca, maize, and cassava or manioc, with cocoa, tobacco, cotton, various dye-woods and stuffs (fustic, logwood, indigo, cochineal), and medicinal plants; such as arrow-root, liquorice-root, ginger, jalap, ipecacuanha, sarsaparilla, &c.; the mahogany and lignum-vitæ are included in the vegetable productions of this archipelago; but to this catalogue must still be added the bread-fruit, cocoa-nut, mango, papaw, guava, orange, lemon, tamarind, fig, cashew-nut, mammee, grenadilla, panilla, panda-nut, &c.

_Inhabitants._--The white inhabitants of the West Indies are Creoles, Spanish, English, French, Germans, &c.; but the negroes are the most numerous class, though the mixed races are quite abundant. The Indians are extinct, except as mingled with negroes in a part of the island of St. Vincent. The general classes are those of master and slave, or were such before the act of emancipation took effect in the British portion of the islands. From the diversity of nations or races, several languages are necessarily in use, as the English, the French, the Spanish, with other European tongues, and the Creole, a jargon used in Hayti, composed of French and several African dialects.

_Political Divisions._--These consist of the British islands, the Spanish islands, the French islands, the Dutch islands, the Danish islands, one Swedish island, and the independent island of Hayti. The British own twenty-two islands, of various dimensions; the Spanish, two, viz: the large islands of Cuba and Porto Rico; the French, six; the Dutch, four; and the single Swedish island is St. Bartholomews. The last is a small, but fertile, island, which was ceded to Sweden by France in 1785.

I. BRITISH WEST INDIES.--The government of the British West Indies is modeled on the constitution of the mother-country. The several islands have a governor or lieutenant-governor, and a legislative council appointed by the crown; and the most of them have also a house of representatives, chosen by the people, who legislate upon all subjects of a local character.

The West Indies were formerly a great mart of that infamous traffic, the slave-trade, which, according to M'Culloch, was commenced by the Portuguese in 1542, and this nation seems disposed to be the last to relinquish it. By means of the noble exertions of Wilberforce, Clarkson, Sharp, and others, an act was passed in 1806 by the British parliament for abolishing the slave-trade; and the present age has witnessed another act highly honorable to the British nation, for the total abolition of slavery, at great expense, throughout the British colonies. By this memorable act, which was passed by parliament in 1833, the slaves were on the 1st of August, 1834, made apprenticed laborers to continue such, a part of them till the 1st of August, 1838, and a part till the 1st of August, 1840, when they were all to become completely free. To indemnify the owners of the slaves, parliament voted the sum of twenty millions pounds, as a compensation, payable in certain fixed proportions, according as each colony should be ascertained to have complied with the terms of the act.

Soon after the passing of this act, the slaves in the island of Antigua and the Bermudas were made free by the colonial governments, and acts were afterwards passed by the legislatures of Barbadoes, Jamaica, Nevis, Montserrat, St. Christopher's, St. Vincent, and Tortola, liberating all the slaves or apprenticed laborers in those islands on the 1st of August, 1838. Movements of a similar nature also, about the same time, took place in the other islands, bringing to a close the apprenticeship which had been established.[88]

A few of the more important British islands will be noticed separately in a brief manner.

1. _Jamaica._--This island was discovered by Columbus in his second voyage in 1494. It was first settled by the Spaniards in 1509. A body of seventy men were sent to it by Diego Columbus, the son of the discoverer. These were blood-thirsty wretches, who made frequent assaults on the natives, for the purpose of robbery or revenge. The progress of settlement was extremely slow--not more than three thousand inhabitants, of whom half were slaves, being found on the island in 1655, when it was taken by a British force, under Penn and Venables.

Soon after this event, Jamaica was colonized by three thousand soldiers, disbanded from the parliamentary army, who were followed by about one thousand five hundred royalists. At the period of its capture by the English, many of the slaves belonging to the Spanish settlers fled to the mountains, where they long lived in a kind of savage independence, and became troublesome to the British colonists. They have been known by the name of _Maroons_. In 1795 they were overcome by the English, as they descended from their fastnesses for the purpose of assaulting the former, and six hundred of them were sent to Nova Scotia, where they were settled on locations of land provided for them by the government. Since the occupancy of the island in 1655, the English have firmly maintained their authority over it.

2. _Trinidad._--This is a fruitful island, producing cotton, sugar, fine tobacco, indigo, ginger, maize, and various fruits. Its area is nearly two thousand square miles, and its population over forty-five thousand. Its climate is unhealthy. This island was taken by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1595, and by the French in 1676. It was captured from the Spaniards in 1797, and ceded to England by the treaty of Amiens in 1802.

3. _Barbadoes._--This island is situated on the eastern border of the West Indian archipelago. It has a large population for its size, numbering over one hundred thousand souls, on an area of less than two hundred square miles. The climate is hot, but the air is pure, and moderated by the constant trade-winds, which render it salubrious, in comparison with the other islands. The exports from the island are sugar, rum, ginger, cotton, aloes, &c. It is subject to tempests, which at times have occasioned great devastation and loss of life.

Barbadoes is supposed to have been discovered by the Portuguese, and appears never to have had any aboriginal inhabitants. In 1627, some English families settled there, but without any authority from the government. It was soon afterwards supplied with a regular colony by the Earl of Carlisle. The British settlers at length brought this rich, but uncultivated, track into entire subjection by the power of industry.

4. _Bahamas._--The Bahama or Lucayos islands consist of about seven hundred very small islands, extending over a large space of the archipelago on its northern border. Their soil is generally light and sandy, and productive only in a few places. The principal products are cotton, salt, turtle, fruits, mahogany, and dye-woods. The group among them called Turk's island, is famous for its salt ponds, which annually yield more than thirty thousand tons of salt for the foreign market.

Guanahani, or Cat island, is celebrated as being the land which Columbus first discovered. He named it San Salvador. The Spaniards first settled on these islands, but at length abandoned them, having shipped off the natives to work in the mines in other places. They remained desolate for more than a century. In 1629, New Providence was taken possession of by the English, who remained there till 1641, when they were driven out by the Spaniards in a cruel and barbarous manner. They, however, changed owners repeatedly, till, in 1783, they were confirmed to the English by treaty. For many years previous to the close of the American war, the Bahamas were the haunts of pirates, buccaniers, and freebooters.

5. _St. Christopher's._--This island, with Montserrat, Nevis, Antigua, and the Virgin isles, form one government, the governor generally residing at Antigua. The interior of the country is a rugged mass of precipices and barren mountains, the loftiest rising to three thousand seven hundred and ten feet. The island has a productive soil on the plains.

St. Christopher's is said to have been the nursery of all the English and French colonies in the West Indies. It was first visited by both nations on the same day, in 1625. They shared the island between them, engaging, by treaty, to observe perpetual neutrality and alliance against the Spaniards, the common enemy. The possession of a common property in the productions of the island, led eventually to jealousies and contentions. Whenever war broke out between the mother-countries, the colonists engaged among themselves, and alternately drove each other from the plantations; but the treaty of Utrecht confirmed the British in the possession of the whole island.

6. _Bermudas._--The Bermudas, or Sommers' islands, consist of a cluster of small islands in the ocean, opposite the coast of North Carolina, about two hundred leagues distant. They number about four hundred, but most of them are of no importance. A few of them have numerous forests, which supply timber for ship-building, thus giving employment to the inhabitants, in connection with navigation. The climate is healthful and pleasant, and the fields and trees are clad in perpetual green. Their population is nearly nine thousand. These islands were first discovered in 1522, by Juan Bermudez, a Spaniard, who found them without inhabitants. From him they received the name by which they are generally known. They were also called Sommers, from the circumstance that Sir George Sommers was wrecked on them, in 1609. Shortly after this event, the islands were settled by the English, who have retained possession of them ever since.

7. _St. Vincent._--St. Vincent is a rugged and elevated island, of small extent, but extremely fertile, and well adapted to the cultivation of sugar and indigo.

This island was first colonized, in 1719, by the French, from Martinique. They had no small difficulty, even at that late period, in bringing the fierce Carib natives under their authority. It was obtained by the British, at the peace of 1763, and, though afterwards subjected to the French arms, it was, in 1783, again confirmed to the British.

II. SPANISH WEST INDIES.--Although Spain had the honor of first ascertaining the existence of the West Indian islands, and enjoyed the privilege of settling and holding most of them for a time, yet they have all passed from her authority, except two, Cuba and Porto Rico. Cuba, however, is by far the largest of the group, having an extent of territory equal to nearly one-half of the land area of the entire archipelago.--The exports of these islands consist of sugar, rum, molasses, coffee, tobacco, and cigars, with honey, hides, cotton, fruits, &c.

1. _Cuba._--This island, as being the largest, is, in many respects, the most important in the whole cluster of the islands of the American continent. "During the last fifty years, a concurrence of circumstances has rendered Cuba the richest of the European colonies in any part of the globe; a more liberal and protecting policy has been adopted by the mother-country; the ports of the island have been thrown open; strangers and emigrants have been encouraged to settle there; and, amid the political agitations of Spain, the expulsion of the Spanish and French residents from Hispaniola, the cession of Louisiana and Florida to a foreign power, and the disasters of those who, in the continental states of America, adhered to the old country, Cuba has become a place of general refuge." Its growth and increase, within the above-named period, have been very great. By the census of 1831, it contained eight hundred and thirty thousand inhabitants. The value of its exports, in 1833, was nearly fourteen millions of dollars; that of its imports, eighteen millions and a half. In 1838, the government of Spain levied a subsidy of two millions five hundred thousand dollars on the island, to assist in defraying the expense of the civil war. These facts denote a state of things which formerly was far from existing on this island.

Cuba was discovered by Columbus in his first voyage; but he did not ascertain whether it was an island or a part of the continent. The question was not determined until some years afterwards. It was conquered by the Spaniards, under Velasquez, in 1511. Little progress was made in the settlement of the island till 1519, when it was found that the most convenient route between Mexico and Europe would be through the Bahama channel, and it was desirable to possess a sea-port on the passage. This led to the foundation of Havana, the harbor of which is the best in the world. Cuba has ever been a Spanish colony.

2. _Porto Rico._--This island is somewhat large for one of the West Indian cluster, having four thousand five hundred square miles. It possesses a great variety of surface, mountains, hills, and valleys. Its climate and productions are similar to those of the adjacent islands.

Porto Rico was discovered by Columbus in 1493, but the Spaniards made no attempt to settle it till 1509, when the pursuit after gold carried them thither from Hispaniola, under the command of Ponce de Leon. The natives, impressed by the belief of the superior nature of the Spaniards, made no resistance, but submitted to the yoke of bondage. Subsequently, they made an insurrection, and massacred a hundred of the invaders; but they were easily subdued, as soon as the Spaniards received rëinforcements from St. Domingo. Condemned to the mines, the wretched natives all finally disappeared from among the living. This island was taken by the English towards the close of the seventeenth century, but they found the climate so unhealthy, that they abandoned the conquest. It is now, with Cuba, under the government of a captain-general, who resides at Havana.

III. FRENCH WEST INDIES.--The French, at present, possess but few of the islands of this Western main, having lost some of their most important ones, as the result of oppression or warfare. Of those that remain to them, two are of some consequence.

1. _Martinique._--This island is about fifty miles long and sixteen broad. It has an uneven surface, and, in some instances, mountainous eminences. Sugar, coffee, cassia, cotton, indigo, cocoa, and ginger, are among its principal productions.

This island was settled by the French in 1635. The British took it in 1794; it was restored to France in 1802. It changed hands again in 1809, but was finally restored to France in 1815.

2. _Guadaloupe._--This island is somewhat extensive, being seventy miles long, and twenty-five broad at its widest part. In many parts, it has a rich soil, and among its productions are enumerated sugar, coffee, rum, ginger, cocoa, logwood, &c. It has been repeatedly captured by the British, and as often restored to France.

IV. DUTCH WEST INDIES.--The Dutch possess four islands in the West Indian group, viz: Curaçoa, St. Eustatius, St. Martin, and Saba. _Curaçoa_ was first possessed by the Spaniards, in 1527. It was taken by the Dutch in 1634. It is an island of thirty miles in length and ten in breadth. Its chief productions are sugar and tobacco, but its soil is not of the best quality, and for its supply of water it is dependent on the rains. St. Eustatius is said to be one of the finest and best-cultivated islands of all the Caribbees. Its chief product is tobacco. The English captured the island in 1801, but restored it to the Dutch in 1814.

V. DANISH WEST INDIES.--These islands are three in number, viz: St. Croix, St. John, and St. Thomas. They are all small, the largest, St. Croix, having only eighty square miles. St. John is celebrated for its fine and capacious harbor. It has a number of salt ponds. St. Croix has a salubrious climate and fertile soil. Every part of it is under the highest cultivation. The Danes first obtained possession of these islands, and still retain them.

VI. INDEPENDENT ISLAND, _Hayti_.--The island of Hayti, which now forms an independent negro republic, was formerly called St. Domingo and Hispaniola--St. Domingo, from the name of its chief city, and which became its common appellation in Europe; Hispaniola, meaning _little Spain_, so called by Columbus. Hayti is its original name, and, after a lapse of three hundred years, has been revived since the revolution. The island belonged, the western part of it, to France, and the eastern to Spain. It is the second in size of the West India islands, having an area of about thirty thousand square miles. It is traversed by mountains in two chains, from east to west, with several collateral branches, from which the rivers pour over the plains below.

Besides the tropical fruits and vegetables which this region affords, Hayti abounds with many valuable kinds of wood. The mahogany is of a superior quality, and a species of oak affords planks sixty or seventy feet long. The pine is also abundant in the mountains. The annual value of exports is about four millions of dollars, the principal article being coffee, with mahogany, campeachy-wood, cotton, tobacco, hides, cacas, tortoise-shell, wax, ginger, &c.

This island was discovered by Columbus in his first voyage, and became early the scene of many an adventure, as the civilized European mingled with the native Carib. In the course of about half a century, however, from the time of their settlement here, the Spaniards exterminated the whole native population, estimated at more than two millions. They remained undisputed masters of the island till 1630, when some English and French, who had been driven out of St. Christopher's, took refuge there, and established themselves on the northern coast. The French finally obtained a firm footing on the island, and, after many ineffectual attempts on the part of the Spanish government to expel them, were, by the treaty of Ryswick, in 1691, formally confirmed in the possession of the western half of Hayti. The French portion of the island became, at length, the far most important part of it in productiveness and wealth.