The People May
Have What They Please At Home, But No Public Drinking-Place Is
Allowed, And We Had To Take Our Own Beer And Wine For The Three
Days.
The gardens and burial-ground are beautiful, and the square
is entirely shaded by about ten or twelve superb oaks; nothing
prettier can be conceived.
It is not popular in the neighbourhood.
'You see it makes the d-d niggers cheeky' to have homes of their
own - and the girls are said to be immoral. As to that, there are
no so-called 'morals' among the coloured people, and how or why
should there? It is an honour to one of these girls to have a
child by a white man, and it is a degradation to him to marry a
dark girl. A pious stiff old Dutchwoman who came here the other
day for the Sacrament (which takes place twice a year), had one
girl with her, big with child by her son, who also came for the
Sacrament, and two in the straw at home by the other son; this
caused her exactly as much emotion as I feel when my cat kittens.
No one takes any notice, either to blame or to nurse the poor
things - they scramble through it as pussy does. The English are
almost equally contemptuous; but there is one great difference. My
host, for instance, always calls a black 'a d-d nigger'; but if
that nigger is wronged or oppressed he fights for him, or bails him
out of the Tronk, and an English jury gives a just verdict; while a
Dutch one simply finds for a Dutchman, against any one else, and
ALWAYS against a dark man.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 81 of 141
Words from 21685 to 21970
of 37925
