Martinique
334
Sketches.
singular and pretty names in vogue among the Creole population,— Acélie, Avrillette, Mélie, Robertine, Célianne, Francillette, Adée, Catharinette, Sidollie, Céline, Coraline ;—and the ages given are from sixteen to twenty-one, with few exceptions. Yet these liberties were asked for and granted at a time when Louis Philippe had abolished the tax on manumissions. . . . The same " Bulletin " contains a list of liberties granted to colored men, pour service accompli dans la milice, only ! Most of the French West Indian writers whose works I was able to obtain and examine speak severely o f the hommes-de-couleur as a class,—in some instances the historian writes with a very violence of hatred. As far back as the commencement of the eighteenth century, Labat, who, with all his personal oddities, was undoubtedly a fine judge of men, declared : — " T h e mulattoes are as a general rule well made, of g o o d stature, vigorous, strong, adroit, industrious, and daring (hardis) beyond all conception. They have much vivacity, but are given to their pleasures, fickle, proud, deceitful (caches), wicked, and capable of the greatest crimes." A San Domingo historian, far more prejudiced than Père Labat, speaks of them " as physically superior, though morally inferior t o the whites " : he wrote at a time when the race had given to the world the two best swordsmen i t has yet perhaps seen,—Saint-Georges and Jean-Louis. Commenting on the judgment of Père Labat, the historian Borde observes : — " T h e wickedness spoken of by Père Labat doubtless relates t o their political passions only ; for the women of color a r e , beyond any question, the best and sweetest persons i n the world—à coup stir, les
meilleures
et
les
plus
douces
personnes
qu'il
y
ait
au
— ("Histoire de l'Ile de l a Trinidad," par M. Pierre Gustave Louis Borde, vol. i., p. 2 2 2 . ) The same author, speaking of their goodness o f heart, generosity to strangers and the sick, says " t h e y are born Sisters
monde."