I may, and ought to be, asked for a remedy. I answer, let the following limits be considered : 1. The propriety of enacting a general law, fixing the minimum and maximum of sick allowance, in the same way as it now fixes the minimum of contributions. (Vide 13th General Law.) 2. The like of a general law, which would fix justly and safely by a scale the amount of sick money that ought to be paid by Lodges, when the contributions are a certain sum. 3. The like of prohibiting Lodges, out of the ordinary contributions, paying an old age allowance. 4. The like of creating by separate levies, or say out of fines, honorary members' initiation, or otherwise, a fund, chargeable with all costs of management and incidental expences. 5. The like of making the charges for sick a District fund, the same as in the present funeral laws, and levying accordingly. 6. The like making it imperative on all Lodges in their District to be governed by one code of laws. 7. The like of appointing the C. S. of each District to be a District Auditor, to check errors, frauds, and illegal charges, drawing abstracts, keeping registers of mortality and sickness, &c. 8. The like of directing the G. M. and Board of Directors from time to time, as to them may seem best, to draw out and recommend codes of by-laws for Districts and Lodges, for the information and adoption of such Districts and Lodges. 9. The like of a compulsory establishment of old age funds, on a certain basis. 10. The like of the amalgamation of all District Funds. 11. The like of all Lodges investing their moneys in the names of substantial trustees, to prevent fraud. I throw these queries out for consideration; all of them, I think, are practicable, and most of them, in my opinion, could be acted upon immediately with the utmost safety. With your permission, I will discuss their utility in future numbers. In my next paper I will compare ours with other benefit societies; and running the risk of being "written down an ass" for my pains, I profess to be one of those who do not consider the present foundations of the Order safe, And am, Mr. Editor, Yours, most faithfully, ROBERT DAWSON FERGUSON. Percy Lodge, Alnwick District, Jan. 16th, 1844. THE CHILDREN OF THE GOLDEN LYRE. BY ROBERT ROSE, THE BARD OF COLOUR. YES! 'tis a bitter thought! I pray thee go, And leave me lonely to my chosen theme; Albeit 'tis not of joy, but deepest woe 'Tis more than all mirth's mockery can redeem. Recall familiar shapes unto my mind, Of bells near his blest home, where sisters kind Yet a sad thought will shade his manly brow, May be where he, and all, alas! must bow; NINETEEN MONTHS' RESIDENCE IN COLOMBIA. CHAPTER III. FROM Puerto Cabella we started to our destination, on the 3rd of August, and next morning were landed at the place which was, for the next eighteen months, to be our home; and some idea may be formed of our feelings on seeing the place of our location. It is situated on the sea-beach, without a house nearer than seven miles, and then there is only one house; and on any other side, the nearest habitation is from fourteen to sixteen miles distant. The village itself consisted of a large house, (built with mud and covered with red tiles,) belonging to the works, and about half a dozen mud huts, covered with Indian corn and straw, and some merely covered with mud. It is built on a small semicircular peninsula, of about two hundred yards diameter, and completely surrounded with wood. Here we were in a strange land, where a strange language was spoken, in the midst of people noted for their treachery and cowardly deceit―people who entertain the greatest hatred to Englishmen and everything English, and entirely destitute of the means of defending ourselves against an attack on their part. My companion was entirely ignorant of their language, and I nearly so; and many times, when surrounded by a score or two of Negroes and Mulattoes, all attired with knives, some talking Spanish, which I understood but imperfectly, and others speaking the papimento, which I understood nothing of, I think I may say, without being accused of cowardice, that I was quite frightened enough to wish myself in "my own dear land again." After going up from the sea-beach to the houses, the first thing that met our eyes was an old man brought to his home with his back dreadfully lacerated by the kind embraces of a large tiger, which sprang upon him as he was going to work in his conooco, or garden, with his gun on his shoulder. After the tiger had made the first spring, the old man shot it through the head, and in the agonies of death it sprang again upon the poor old fellow, and held him in its dying grasp until his son, who was following him to work, found him lying under the animal in a state of exhaustion, whilst the tiger was quite dead. The same day, in going to see the works, accompanied by Mr. Syers, of La Guayia, one of the partners in the works, (of whom I shall have to speak hereafter) he nearly set his foot upon a snake, about nine feet in length, and from five to six inches round in the thickest part, and of a black and yellow colour; after killing it, we found that its mouth was capable of taking in the largest sized fist. These two circumstances occurring in the same day, and that day the first of our being there, were certainly sufficient to cast a little damp over our European ideas of South American society. We soon, however, became so much accustomed to snakes, scorpions, centipedes, and other reptiles and vermin of all descriptions, that they began to fall in for a very small share of our attention. The greatest plague in a tropical climate are the musquitoes; in damp or wet weather they are very annoying. We were obliged to sleep with a mosquitero, or net, made of muslin, over the hammock, or cot, in which we slept, and during the time we were inside of the net we were at ease; but from sunrise in the morning until bedtime, there was no rest for the wicked." Amongst the many comforts which an European enjoys in a tropical climate we may first mention what is generally called the "prickly heat." The only complaint at all similar to this is the itch. The body is sometimes entirely, and sometimes only partially, covered with postules, and the irritation is almost unendurable; many people are troubled with this several times in the year, which would be bad in England, but nothing in comparison to what it is in a hot climate. Then comes the list of fevers and agues, yellow fevers, &c.; but as these are generally known to most readers, we will pass them, and go on to mention the reptiles, vermin, &c. First, then, are the numerous family of snakes, by which in all country places you are surrounded; in no place are you secure, within doors nor without. The most destructive snake to human life is one called the mapanary snake; it is of a black color, with some streaks of dirty grey. Its bite is generally fatal in from twenty to twenty-one hours. They are most destructive to human life from their being generally about the thatch on the houses, and in the mud walls. On one occasion I was putting on a pair of long water boots, and finding something stirring, I took the boot in my hand, shook it, and out came a large mapanary, two feet in length. On another occasion one of my peones, or workmen, was bit on the ankle by a mapanary, and died in about nineteeen hours. The Creoles pretend to have a great many charms to cure the bites of snakes; but I never heard of one succeeding with a person who had been bitten by a poisonous snake. Many have themselves inoculated with the sap of a poisonous tree, which they say prevents the poison of the snake from affecting them so much; but this I fear is only imagination. There are many other poisonous snakes, amongst which may be named the rattlesnake, and some smaller ones, which are very dangerous; but they do not generally come so near to the dwelling houses, although they sometimes do, for I have shot a rattlesnake at the door of a hut in the village, and have seen another killed inside of a hut. Next are the scorpions and centipedes; of the former there are two kinds, the red and black. The bite or sting of the red scorpion is easily cured, but that of the black one is often fatal. I have seen a Mulatto girl, of about nine years of age, die in four hours after having been bitten by one; and a grown up young man, who was bitten in the arm, lived a week or nine days. From the appearance of his arm I fancy mortification must have taken place; but this is only fancy on my part, for I did not see him until he had been dead twelve hours, and being a very black man, I could not judge so well from the colour of his arm. The centipede's is a very painful bite, but not fatal. I was bitten in two places by one about twelve inches long; my arm swelled very much, and was exceedingly painful, but by applying "Fryar's Balsam," (the only thing I had by me,) the swelling was soon allayed, yet the pain continued for some days. There is another creature of the lizard kind, called in Spanish toceca; it is generally in the roofs of the houses, and will drop down in the night upon persons sleeping, and bite them; but its bite, although troublesome, is not dangerous. To these may be added the numerous kinds of ants that infest every place, both in doors and out; you cannot sit down to a meal without having your table crowded with them. The walls of your room, your bed, and in fact every place, are completely covered with them. There are also cockroaches, house lizards, and a variety of other insects and vermin, which, although harmless, yet are very annoying, and make an European's residence in a tropical climate anything rather than desirable. CHAPTER IV. The three former chapters having fairly placed us in the mud hut, which was for the future to be our "castle," we may now go on to give some account of the country, the coal and ironstone districts, the manners and customs of the natives, &c. The place of our location was situated on what is called the Coro coast, about one hundred and thirty miles N.W. of Caracas, the principal city of the republic, and about forty miles S.E. of the Dutch island of Curacao. The country with which we were acquainted, namely, from La Guayia and Caracas, to Maricaibo, a distance of more than three hundred miles east and west, and for several miles interior was, with very trifling exceptions, uncultivated, and covered with woods; the cultivated parts merely consisted of the small "conoocos,' or gardens, of the labourers, and the sugar, coffee, and cotton estates of the more wealthy inhabitants. Most of the poorer classes have a mud hut, and a conooco around it, which supplies them with plantains, Indian corn, coffee, water, melons, &c.; and all the cultivation they bestow upon it is merely to clear the ground, and then plant the seed, without either digging or manure, and if they happen to get a few showers of rain until the crop covers the ground, they are sure to have a good harvest; but it frequently happens that in certain places there will be no rain for two or three years. Near to Maricaibo, some time ago, there was no rain for nine years, and the consequence of this was a complete failure of all vegetation. In the higher, and more interior parts of the country, they have the regular "rainy season," but such was not the case with us; for at the place where we lived there had been no rain for more than two years and a half previous to our arrival; we were, however, not long there before we had plenty of it. Besides the conoocos, and sugar and coffee estates, the only things having the least appearance of an inhabited country are the savanas, or cattle plains; some of these are of very great extent, and have numerous herds of cattle grazing on them. The person of whom we bought our cattle for supplying the rations to the peones, was owner of ten, and part owner of five savanas, on which he grazed from eighteen to twenty thousand head of cattle, horses, mules, and donkeys; the three latter might amount in the whole to a thousand, and the remainder were horned cattle. He guaranteed all our cattle to weigh five hundred and fifty pounds, and the price was only twenty Colombian dollars, or about three pounds six shillings sterling. Donkeys and mules were considerably dearer; the former from forty to fifty dollars, and the latter from eighty to one hundred, and even more. The price of horses was much the same as in England. Goats and pigs were very cheap; a goat might be bought for one dollar, and a pig for from one to three dollars, according to size and condition. The principal beasts of burden are mules and donkeys, as being better able to travel the bad roads than horses. The whole of the cotton, coffee, and indigo, is brought down from the interior to La Guayia, Puerto Cabella, Maricaibo, &c., on mules and donkeys, each carrying 200tbs. Every Wednesday and Friday hundreds of loads of the above articles are brought into the seaport towns for exportation to Europe and the United States; each muleteer driving from twelve to twenty mules, or donkeys. The muleteer's dress generally consists of a hat and a long shirt, without any other article of clothing. After disloading their animals, they drive them to the nearest place where they can graze for the night, and then light a fire, and either sleep on the ground, on their covigo, or blanket, or hang up their hammock between two trees. They think nothing of sleeping in the midst of the woods amongst tigers and snakes; and though the fire keeps off the tigers, yet it attracts the snakes; but they say that if even a snake does come when they are asleep, if they do not stir, it will not bite them. This may be true, but it is an experiment that few Europeans would be at all ambitious of proving by their own experience. Sometimes parties are bitten whilst sleeping on the ground, but cases of this kind are not of general occurrence. Some of our peones were men who had served under Bolivar, the liberator of Colombia, and during the war they were for the greater part of their time obliged to sleep on the ground in the woods, or plains, and several of their companions had been from time to time destroyed in this way; and many were the accounts they gave us of their comrades, or companeros, who had fallen a prey to snakes and tigers. One man, whose arm we have seen, and have every reason to believe his account of the affair, in company with others, was encamped on a savana, and it being a moonlight night, the soldiers were enjoying themselves at their favourite amusement, cards, until late, and when he and his brother went to where they had left their blankets, a large rattle snake was coiled upon one of them, and being a little excited by drink, he immediately grasped the snake by the neck, telling his brother at the same time that he would do what no other man durst attempt. In an instant it had coiled itself round his arm, and broke it in two places, and would have bitten him had not his brother, with the greatest presence of mind, struck off its head with a cutlass. The strength of these snakes is very great. We have seen a snake caught with a noose round its neck whilst asleep, and pinned to the ground with a pretty stiff walking stick, which it broke as if it had been a rotten twig. CHAPTER V. The Colombian, or Venezuelan, coal and iron district is situated on the north coast of Venezuela, adjoining the Caribean sea, commencing on the east from fifty to sixty miles N.W. of Puerto Cabella, and extending, westward, to Maricaibo, a distance of from two hundred and twenty to two hundred and forty miles; its general width is from nine to fourteen miles. In stating its length we merely speak of what is known; for on the east there is every reason to believe that it extends many miles under the sea, and on the west we could obtain no accurate information of the probable extent of the coal mines, for coal is found in the interior of that part of the country. On the east side, where we were engaged, there are several veins of coal rising towards the sea beach, varying in thickness from two to five feet; all of which can be got by levels under the banks. Intermixed with these are many good veins of ironstone, varying from four feet down; several are between twelve and twenty inches in thickness, and many of them, in quality and superiority, are equal to any of those in the great iron district of Wales. The coal is of the same quality as that known by the name of "cannel coal;" and although not possessing the durability of the Welsh steam coal, yet it is very well adapted for steam purposes, or iron making. There being plenty of wood (which can be had for the cutting of it) to make charcoal, such a situation in the hands of an able and spirited company might be made of great value and profit to the parties; but at present it happens to be in the hands of a mixed multitude of English, Scotch, Yankees, Creoles, &c., most of whom have no ideas beyond serving a yard of tape, or a ball of cotton, over the counter; and in such hands it can never succeed. We might give a more lengthened account of the coal district, but it is apprehended that it would be uninteresting to a majority of readers, and consequently we stop here, and proceed to the best of our powers to give some descriptive account of the natives, premising that we do not pretend to describe the natives generally, but merely such traits in their characters and habits as came from time to time under our own notice. It will be known to most readers that the country, since the time of Pizarro, Cortes, &c., had been in the hands of the Spaniards until the year 1811, (I believe) when, by the noble exertions of the brave and patriotic Bolivar, it was declared an à independent republic. Many were the battles fought by this brave man, and many were the difficulties he had to encounter through the jealousy and stupidity of his countrymen, from the time he said he would free his country, until that object was accomplished. And after it was accomplished, what was his reward? Shame on his ungrateful countrymen! through their jealousy, and the machinations of some of those whom he had raised from saveros to generals, he was sent to Santa Marta to die broken-hearted! But in a few years his countrymen did honour to his ashes, by removing them from Santa Marta, to the capital of the republic, Caracas. This ceremony we had the pleasure of witnessing in December, 1842; and when we saw one of the self-same generals, who had been chiefly instrumental in banishing the liberator from his house and home, shedding tears over his ashes, we could not help thinking of the crocodile, which is said to shed tears over the head of a man after having eaten his body. Mechanics' Lodge, Llanelly District. [To be continued.] H. RIDLEY, P. G. SONG. BY ROBERT GILFILLAN. Tune," Roy's Wife." FARE thee well, my bonnie Mary! The fairest flowers first fade away The nearest friends, alas! must sever- A sister's love thou leav'st behind, For one, afar, who shall caress thee; Thy sunny face and placid brow Each look we'll mind, each word thou'st spoken; Love's chain, though lengthen'd, is not broken. Fare thee well, my bonnie Mary! Since longer here thou wilt not tarry, May health and joy attend thee, Mary! *It is stated that at a convivial meeting of the Spanish authorities and citizens of Caracas, the subject was discussed (pro et con) after dinner, what were the advantages, or otherwise, of being under the Spanish government. Bolivar strongly advocated the separation from Spain, when the Spanish general laughingly said,-"The man is not yet born who will separate Colombia from the dominion of Spain;" Bolivar immediately said, in the same jocular manner,-" General, I'am that How he kept his word is well known to the world. man." |