My two--Samuela and Polly--were not very big
men, but sturdy, nimble as cats, as much at home in the water as
on deck, and simply bubbling over with fun and good-humour. From
my earliest sea-going, I have always had a strong liking for
natives of tropical countries, finding them affectionate and
amenable to kindness. Why, I think, white men do not get on with
darkies well, as a rule, is, that they seldom make an appeal to
the MAN, in them. It is very degrading to find one's self looked
down upon as a sort of animal without reason or feelings; and if
you degrade a man, you deprive him of any incentive to make
himself useful, except the brute one you may feel bound to apply
yourself. My experience has been limited to Africans (of sorts),
Kanakas, natives of Hindostan, Malagasy, and Chinese; but with
all these I have found a little COMARADERIE answer excellently.
True, they are lazy; but what inducement have they to work? The
complicated needs of our civilized existence compel US to work,
or be run over by the unresting machine; but I take leave to
doubt whether any of us with a primitive environment would not be
as lazy as any Kanaka that ever dozed under a banana tree through
daylight hours.
Pages:
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304