mi 
 
 
 
 II E> HAHY 
 
 OF THE 
 U N IVE.RSITY 
 Of ILLINOIS 
 
 823 
 
 J4.ll
 
 LUTCHMEE AND DILLOO.
 
 LUTCHMEE AND DILLOO 
 
 & Stubs of »st lata $ife 
 
 EDWARD JENKINS 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES 
 VOL. L 
 
 \ i 
 
 ^/ 
 
 \?L^Jrb.:4l^ 
 
 WILLIAM MULLAH- ^SON 
 
 34 PATERNOSTER ROW LONDON 
 
 4 DONEGAL PLACE BELFAST 
 
 1877
 
 Sazell, Watson, & Viney, Printers, London and Aylesbury.
 
 tf\A3 
 ► ■I 
 
 PEEFACE. 
 
 FN' niy account of the results of the 
 Commission of Inquiry in British 
 Guiana, entitled " The Coolie : his Eights 
 and Wrongs," I tried to inform the English 
 public of the gravity of the issues that 
 arose in that inquiry. Flattering as was the 
 reception of that book by the critics, the 
 public little cared to read it. However im- 
 partial or exact I had striven to be, it was 
 no wonder that a statement which the desire 
 to be just very likely made too long and de- 
 M tailed should fail to attract popular attention, 
 ^ or to arouse popular sympathies. Not to 
 speak of the natural dryness of the subject, 
 the character of the wrongs complained of
 
 vi Preface. 
 
 was rather practical than sensational — 
 arose rather out of a permanent process of 
 treatment than from extraordinary outrages, 
 or more often from incompatible relations 
 than from direct collisions between the 
 planters and their Coolies. Meantime I 
 have waited, hoping that those in power 
 whose consciences have been made alive to 
 the necessity of action, would act promptly 
 and effectively. 
 
 But now I feel the subject to be alto- 
 gether too important to let it sleep. Ano- 
 ther Eoyal Commission has inquired and 
 reported at prodigious length about the 
 
 system of Indian indenture in the greatest 
 of the Coolie colonies, and has exposed a 
 state of things in the Mauritius which 
 may well startle the Colonial Minister, and 
 excite the alarm and watchfulness of the
 
 Preface. vii 
 
 British people. What right have we hotly 
 to discuss slave circulars, and the inviola- 
 bility of our ships of war as refuges for 
 foreign slaves, or to proclaim our sym- 
 pathies with Bosnian rayahs or Bulgarian 
 Christians, until our own Mauritius and 
 British Guiana are swept clean and gar- 
 nished ? 
 
 These vast blue-books issued by Parlia- 
 ment often entomb and hide away from 
 public eyes the injuries of Government. 
 I am going to try in this tale to disinter 
 the real wrongs and difficulties, and to 
 present them in an appreciable form to 
 those who are ultimately responsible for 
 British honour and British fame — I mean 
 the British people. 
 
 I have long since expressed the opinion 
 that a Coolie system, under proper super-
 
 viii Preface. 
 
 vision and restraint, could be made a system 
 of incalculable benefit to Asiatics. But the 
 sole condition on which we can allow it to 
 exist within our dominions is that our Go- 
 vernment shall exercise over it, in its incep- 
 tion and continuance, ceaseless watchfulness 
 and most rigid control. One need hardly 
 insist that we can only insure justice now- 
 a-days by ourselves watching the Govern- 
 ment. The worst of the whole matter is 
 that officials seem always to be convinced 
 of the satisfactory nature of an argument 
 when it can be shown that any pecuniary 
 loss or benefit to Englishmen depends upon 
 it. It is only occasionally that we get at 
 the head of an office like the Colonial Office 
 a Carnarvon, who unites a conscience and 
 a heart with a clear head and a firm will. 
 I say this the more freely and cordiallv
 
 Preface, ix 
 
 since the Minister concerned works with a 
 party with which I have no association. 
 
 There is the greater need for vigilance in 
 the present case, because a body of mer- 
 chants enriched by the labour of the people 
 whose life I have here faithfully depicted, 
 are organized, astute and powerful in the 
 defence of their interests. I do not assail 
 them for that. They are exercising an un- 
 doubted right, many of them conscien- 
 tiously. I simply call the fact to mind, to 
 show how necessary it is that philanthropy 
 should be equally organized, watchful and 
 astute on the other side. 
 
 It therefore occurred to me that I might 
 try to throw the problems of Coolie labour 
 in our Colonies into a concrete and pic- 
 turesque form. The life of a Coolie man 
 or woman, with its simple incidents, its
 
 x Preface, 
 
 petty cares and vexations, its occasional 
 events of terror or sorrow, and all the 
 various feelings, sentiments, and impulses 
 that sway an existence passed amidst the 
 relations of a bond-service, these and their 
 peculiar influences on the higher and more 
 cultivated race, do not at first sight present 
 an attractive ground for fiction. Besides, 
 the subjects and interests seem to be too 
 remote. But happily the ties of universal 
 brotherhood are ever drawing men more 
 closely together. The sorrows of Dilloo 
 or Lutchmee are the sorrows of humanity, 
 differing only in their conditions and their 
 relations from the tragedies of our own homes. 
 I have endeavoured in these pages to 
 reproduce with exact fidelity the picture of 
 a Coolie's life. Thus I thought I could 
 more clearly show what are the difficulties
 
 Preface. xi 
 
 and perils of the system of indentureship of 
 Indian and Chinese immigrants in English 
 colonies. Even should I fail from the 
 artist's point of view, which it is to be 
 hoped is not a necessity, I may yet enable 
 many persons to understand the subject 
 better, and that must lead to a more earnest 
 consideration of the questions it involves. , 
 One word of explanation is necessary as 
 to the details of the story. Though it con- 
 tains no fact which could not be verified 
 in some Coolie- worked colony under the 
 British flag, I wish it to be understood that 
 I do not credit British Guiana with all the 
 evils here represented. I have not in any 
 instance, unless I say so, drawn a character 
 from life, nor have I described under ano- 
 ther name any particular scene or estate. 
 My object has been rather to embody many
 
 xii Preface. 
 
 aspects of character and varieties of inci- 
 dent, the more picturesquely to bring out 
 the lights and shadows of the system. I 
 was obliged to select some colony as the 
 scene of the tale, and naturally selected 
 the one with which I was familiar. But 
 upon this scene will be presented phases of 
 the question which are only to be found in 
 other colonies. 
 
 To give greater variety and reality to the 
 tale, to display the system fairly in its 
 proper setting, and above all to make the 
 story a wider and therefore, I hope, a more 
 interesting study of human life, I have not 
 confined its incidents to one race, but have 
 brought into view the whole of that strange 
 mixture which constitutes West Indian 
 society, from the Queen's representative to 
 the African Creole.
 
 Preface. xiii 
 
 The field is a new one for fiction, but human 
 nature still bears out the wisdom of the poet 
 who declared that it does not change with 
 clime. The loves, the hopes, the envies, 
 jealousies and fears, the superstitions, the 
 mutual wrongs, the goodness and wickedness 
 of the human heart, bloom everywhere with 
 similar blossoms, developing into the same 
 fruits of life or death, of sorrow or of joy.
 
 CONTENTS TO VOL. I. 
 
 C«AP. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. A RUDE SURPRISE . 
 
 1 
 
 II. THE WATCHMAN 
 
 . 11 
 
 III. THE RECRUITER 
 
 . 20 
 
 IV. A LONG FAREWELL. 
 
 . , 33 
 
 V. A NARROW ESCAPE 
 
 . 40 
 
 VI. " WHERE IS HE?" 
 
 . 53 
 
 VII. A DANGEROUS ADMIRER 
 
 . 68 
 
 VIII. THE RECOGNITION . 
 
 . 81 
 
 IX. BELLE SUSANNE 
 
 . 99 
 
 X. SIMON PETY 
 
 . 122 
 
 XI. THE OVERSEERS 
 
 . 135 
 
 XII. AT HOME ! ... 
 
 . 154 
 
 XIII. A VISITOR .... 
 
 . 162 
 
 XIV. MEETING — BUT NO GREETING 
 
 . 172 
 
 XV. AGREED .... 
 
 . 184 
 
 XVI. LOST ! 
 
 . 195 
 
 XVII. CHANCE-MEDLEY 
 
 . 214 
 
 XVIII. AN ENGLISH JUSTICE 
 
 . 232 
 
 XIX. A PLEASANT NURSE 
 
 . . 256
 
 2 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 less gleams of the fire-flies ; through the 
 silence sounded far and clear the late croak- 
 ings of some unsettled crows, or the sharp 
 shriek of a kite ; and now a jackal in the 
 neighbouring jungle, or the pariah dogs in 
 the village, shrieked or barked a welcome 
 to the incoming night. 
 
 Half-reclining on the grass-grown slope of 
 a tank, whence, with her face towards the 
 setting sun, she had been gazing at the mist- 
 veiled rim of the vast sleepy orb as it sank 
 into the lap of night, was a young Indian 
 girl, whose loose white robe and jacket of 
 coloured cotton scarcely hid one line of the 
 delicate mould of her form, displayed, as it 
 was, by the abandon of her posture, in all its 
 grace, litheness and perfection. The long 
 hair from which she had been but lately 
 wringing the water, wherewith her pretty
 
 A Rude Stir prise. 3 
 
 play in the tank had saturated it, hung 
 black and dishevelled from the symmetrical 
 head, leaving her light-brown oval face, 
 with its regular eyes, arched eyebrows, 
 delicately- chiselled nostrils and well-turned 
 mouth and chin, in fine relief as they w 7 ere 
 irradiated by the parting glow of the 
 sun. She seemed half-dreaming — a pleasant 
 dream ; for now and then a sly movement 
 in her eyes, which, in cunning changes, 
 flashed with dark fire or became gentle as 
 a summer lake, betokened some lively or 
 genial thought. So she lay, reclining on her 
 elbows; joy-lit and dreamy, unconscious of 
 the rapidity with which the shades were 
 deepening round her, unaware of two flash- 
 ing eyes that were fixed upon her from the 
 shadow of a small palm-grove, not twenty 
 yards away.
 
 4 Lutcli77iee and Dilloo 
 
 Presently she began, in a low, sweet 
 monotone, to sing a simple ditty, rather a 
 rude and free paraphrase of a passage in the 
 Gitagovinda : — 
 
 " Gentle, sandal-seented air, 
 
 Blowing love -sighs from the south ; 
 To my open bosom bear 
 
 Aery kisses from his mouth. 
 
 Yet oh give me more than this is ! 
 
 Bring him to me face to face, 
 Let me feel his burning kisses, 
 
 And sweetly die in his embrace ! " 
 
 As in soft, listless cadence the song rose 
 and fell, the fiery eyes in the tope grew 
 more bright, and presently a black shadow 
 glided stealthily towards the singer, until it 
 stood behind her, looking down on her un- 
 wary figure. It was the form of a tall, 
 powerfully-built man, of extreme darkness
 
 A Rude Surprise. 5 
 
 of skin, with a shaggy head of hair and a 
 moustache and beard that added their bristly 
 terrors to a face naturally ugly and deeply 
 pitted with small-pox. Large plain rings 
 of gold decorated his big ears. He wore 
 simply a " dhotee," or loin-cloth, with a 
 short coat thrown over his shoulders and 
 buttoned at the neck. 
 
 As the girl ended her song, the man, 
 stooping quickly, pinioned the arms on 
 which she supported herself, and then, lean- 
 ing over her, pressed his rude lips against 
 her smooth forehead. Loud and long was 
 the shriek that startled the night ; but he 
 was not disconcerted. 
 
 "Lutchmee," he said, in a deep guttural 
 voice, whilst his features were twisted into 
 the caricature of a smile, " why are you 
 here so late ? Has Dilloo deserted you for
 
 6 Lutckmee and Dilloo. 
 
 Putea? I thought he never left you alone. 
 How long have I watched for such an oppor- 
 tunity as this ! The sun is down, the fire- 
 flies are flashing in the air, and the bark of 
 the jackal is angry in the jungle. Do you 
 not hear ? Ah 1 Were you waiting and 
 singing for me ? Did you linger here to tell 
 rne you would at last change your mind, 
 and be more friendly to me ? " 
 
 Perhaps this foolish hope had really 
 passed through the satyr's thoughts, for his 
 eye grew softer as he spoke, and he relaxed 
 his grip upon the delicate arms. The 
 answer to his address was a sudden and 
 violent jerk of the girl's head into his face 
 and the slipping of the two soft arms from 
 his fingers, as his prey sprang to her feet, 
 and, with another loud shriek, darted away. 
 The blood came from the ruffian's nostrils,
 
 A Rude Surprise. 7 
 
 and he was for a moment confused ; then 
 rapidly wiping away the red drops on the 
 sleeve of his jacket, he pursued, with an 
 oath, the flying elf. She would have es- 
 caped him in the dusk, for the village was 
 not far away, had not the surprise un- 
 nerved her, but, mistaking her steps, she 
 suddenly tripped over a clump of grass, and 
 came with violence to the ground. There 
 she lay senseless. The man, who could 
 just distinguish her as he came up, kicked 
 her over with his foot in the madness of his 
 fury, until her pretty little face was turned 
 upward to the sky. Then, with a muttered 
 curse, lifting his heel, he was about to dash 
 it into the delicate features, when a very 
 respectable blow on the side of the head 
 sent him bleeding to the earth. This blow 
 was delivered with the aid of a long smooth
 
 8 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 stick, by a young fellow of moderate height, 
 but, for a Hindoo, of unusually fine develop- 
 ment. He immediately stooped down, and 
 endeavoured, in the gloom, to examine the 
 young girl's face. Then he wrung his 
 hands and broke out in reproaches on the 
 groaning foe. Then he rose, and taking 
 his stick, played it with remarkable vehe- 
 mence and skill all over that person's body. 
 Again he knelt beside Lutchmee, and plac- 
 ing his hand on her heart and his ear over 
 her mouth, waited for tokens of life. In a 
 short time she began to respire, then to 
 recover, and, at length, she sat up. 
 
 " Lutchmee, Lutchmee 1 " said the young 
 man; "wake up! I am here. It is Dilloo! " 
 
 " Oh, Dilloo ! " sobbed the girl, putting 
 her arms round his neck, "is it you? I 
 have had such a frightful dream. I thought
 
 A Rude Surprise, 9 
 
 that wicked creature Hunoornaun laid hold 
 of me at the tank : then I got clear of him, 
 and ran away, but while I was running, I 
 tripped and fell down. Oh, I was sure 
 he had me at last ! " 
 
 u It was not a dream, Lutchmee : 'twas 
 well I heard you scream, my darling, I can 
 tell you. Look there ! do you see that dark 
 heap ? That is Hunoornaun. I came upon 
 him just in time to save you, and I have 
 drubbed him well with my stick. Do you 
 not hear him groaning ? That's fine music, 
 my good fellow ! " cried he to the peon. 
 " I'm glad, my Lutchmee, *I came up when 
 I did, or your pretty face would have lost 
 its beauty for ever." 
 
 "But oh, Dilloo," she said, clinging to 
 him, "what will he do to you? He will 
 kill you. Let us go away."
 
 io Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 " No fear," said the sturdy Dilloo : " he 
 is a big fellow, 'tis true, but an arrant 
 coward. Get up, you bully," added he, 
 giving his prostrate antagonist a kick : 
 " get up, and be off with you to Eumcoary 
 or Noonda ; they are the sort for you. And 
 listen to me : if ever you come frightening 
 the wife of Dilloo again, I'll finish you with 
 a knife, and not let you off with a beating. 
 You know I always do what I say. Come, 
 my Lutchmee, let us go." 
 
 The manly fellow wreathed his arm 
 round the supple waist of his wife, and, 
 half-supporting, half-fondling her, led their 
 way to the village. The baffled ruffian 
 followed as best he could, dragging his 
 stiffening limbs, and vowing a frightful ven- 
 geance on the young pair.
 
 The Watchman 1 1 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 THE WATCHMAN. 
 
 Of the Bengal village in Behar, where the 
 hero and heroine of our story were born 
 and had lived, the only other character yet 
 presented to the reader, Hunoomaun, was 
 the " chokedar," or watchman; a character, 
 at the time we are writing of, found all over 
 Bengal. The chokedars were not Govern- 
 ment police. To them, under the old 
 village system,, were assigned, on behalf of 
 the community, the general oversight of 
 the precincts. They were paid by a local 
 rate, or sometimes by the principal zemin-
 
 1 2 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 dar. These officials were of a low order, 
 both of caste and of merit, and their most 
 active occupation consisted in winking at 
 the operations of the rural dacoits (or 
 robbers), and in lending themselves to the 
 corrupt designs of one villager or village - 
 family upon another. Hunoomaun was a 
 chokedar of more than usual ability; as 
 avaricious, sensual and dishonest as any 
 Indian in the province. Prowling about 
 the village at night, on the pretences of 
 his duty, he had innumerable opportunities 
 of gratifying his envy or his passion ; and 
 his remarkable cunning, and the invariable 
 retribution that fell upon any persons who in 
 any way crossed him, had created a very real 
 dread of him through the whole community. 
 Dilloo was a tenant, under one of the 
 zemindars, of a very small plot of ground,
 
 The Watchman. 13 
 
 on which there stood a hut of mud and 
 wattle, which Lutchmee kept in beautiful 
 order ; while her husband tilled the ground 
 with an assiduity that secured a very fair 
 return. K contained about four thou- 
 sand inhabitants within its bounds. It was 
 near one of the largest villages in the dis- 
 trict, which, as a convenient centre of a very 
 populous portion of Behar, had been selected 
 as the he ad- quarters of a deputy magistrate ; 
 in this instance, a European. The vicinity 
 of this magistrate, with his sub-officials, the 
 darogah, jemmadars and burcandazes, ren- 
 dered Hunoomaun's office extremely unne- 
 cessary, and, indeed, exercised over him a 
 somewhat wholesome restraint, while it 
 made him more cunning and cautious 
 in his proceedings. He had many times 
 looked with an evil eye at the bright,
 
 14 Lutchmee and Dilloo, 
 
 lissome young wife of the ryot ; and, with 
 the confidence of a villanous experience, had 
 again and again attempted to get her into his 
 power. But her husband, Dilloo, was a for- 
 midable obstacle ; he happened to be very 
 fond of her : and he was a fine, strong, ready 
 young fellow, with a taste for athletics and 
 adventure. In his village he was regarded 
 with a certain respect. His performance 
 on the crowns of venturesome rivals in the 
 favourite exercise with the long lattey, or 
 single stick, which had proved so fatal to 
 the chokedar's designs, were famous over 
 the whole plain, among villages where not 
 a few skilful players with the same weapon 
 were to be found. In wrestling no one 
 could excel him. His thrift and industry 
 had given him a respectable position. 
 Altogether, therefore, Dilloo was a man, as
 
 The Watchman, 15 
 
 Himoomaun felt, not to be openly fought ; 
 and he had accordingly been very cautious in 
 pursuing his infatuated fancy for Lutchm.ee. 
 Lutchmee and Dilloo had, by the conven- 
 tional arrangement between their parents, 
 been betrothed before they knew what love 
 was, or, indeed, before they had ever seen 
 one another. But in this instance, when 
 at twelve years of age the pretty girl was 
 married to the boy of seventeen, the mutual 
 liking that had before sprung up between 
 them grew into a genuine and pure affection. 
 It could hardly be otherwise. Both of 
 them of unusually handsome make, of open 
 dispositions and simple hearts, they seemed 
 to have been fitted by nature for each other's 
 company. Lutchmee almost idolised her 
 strong, active husband : he dwelt with con- 
 stant pride on his wife's beauty, her obedi-
 
 1 6 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 ence, her humility, her love and attention. 
 There are many Englishmen with the 
 improved modern wife who will be inclined 
 to envy the idyllic charm of this old- 
 fashioned simplicity of things. But as for 
 Dilloo, he, a man of low caste, had, without 
 his own choice, been fortunate enough to 
 attain that which, by the ordinances of 
 Menu, the sacred acolyte was instructed 
 to seek. 
 
 " Let him choose for his wife a girl whose 
 form has no defect ; who has an agreeable 
 name ; who walks gracefully, like the pheni- 
 copteros, or like a young elephant; whose 
 hair and teeth are moderate respectively in 
 quantity and in size ; whose body has an 
 exquisite softness." 
 
 When, on a gala day, Lutchmee's hair 
 was oiled and braided, shining with a silver
 
 The Watchman. 17 
 
 pin athwart her well-formed head, and her 
 body, duly anointed, was clothed in a short- 
 armed, slight cholee or jacket, of bright silk, 
 a petticoat of calico, and over all, coquet- 
 tishly wreathed, a white muslin chudder, 
 the scarf of Hindoo women ; and her ears 
 were laden with silver rings, and her arms 
 and ankles tinkled with bracelets and 
 bangles of the same metal ; as she walked 
 with the gentle lissome motion of refined 
 indolence, the phenicopteros or the young 
 elephant could hardly have excelled her in 
 grace, and, but for her caste, she might have 
 satisfied the most bigoted disciple of the 
 great lawgiver. Dilloo was proud of his 
 wife, and Lutchmee was proud of her 
 husband — conditions such as may, even in 
 India, bear fruits of happiness. This happi- 
 ness had been alloyed by the death of 
 vol. 1. 2
 
 1 8 Ltdchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 Ltitchmee's only child a few weeks after 
 its birth, and by the occasional unpleasant- 
 ness to which the young wife's attractive 
 beauty exposed her, from Europeans and 
 from men of her own race. 
 
 Hunoomaun had been the most per- 
 sistent, as he was by all odds the most 
 disagreeable of all her admirers. Her 
 detestation of him was extreme. He had 
 annoyed her now and again with stupid 
 compliments, and had surprised her into 
 interviews which, for the sake of peace, and 
 to save the fellow's life, she had hidden 
 from her husband. But the chokedar had 
 never so far committed himself as in the 
 scene we have related, and probably would 
 not then have gone so far but for a dose 
 of arrack with which he had fortified his 
 courage. Hitherto Hunoomaun had care-
 
 The Watchman. ig 
 
 fully shirked a collision with the husband of 
 the girl whose beauty had so wrought upon 
 him. The first occasion was a discouraging 
 one. But he knew well how to revenge 
 himself. 
 
 Dilloo soon began to know something of 
 the watchman's resentment. His fowls dis- 
 appeared, his rice was trampled and de- 
 stroyed. One night there was a dacoity* 
 in his house, evidently managed with great 
 skill, by which he lost part of his savings. 
 Strong as were his suspicions, he could not 
 bring home these crimes to the chokedar, 
 and he dared not act upon them without 
 confirmation. 
 
 * Robbery.
 
 20 » Ltitchmee a7id Dilloo. 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 THE RECRUITER. 
 
 Not long after the events we have narrated, 
 
 there one clay arrived in the village of K 
 
 a stranger, a Bengalee, arrayed, save as to 
 his turban and paejamas, in an imitation of 
 a European uniform. Across his shoulder 
 and body on a belt he wore the chuprass, the 
 badge of official employment. He had the 
 air of a man shrewd and travelled. There 
 was a touch of town- culture about him, and 
 when he began to talk, as he very soon did 
 with the ease of one to whom that was a 
 vocation, he spoke with extreme hyper-
 
 The Recruiter, 2 r 
 
 bolism even for an Asiatic. It was not long- 
 before lie was sitting in an open space in the 
 middle of the village, surrounded by a group 
 of curious natives. Could it be possible that 
 this was their old friend the pilgrim-hunter 
 from Jaganath, adopted for some fresh pur- 
 pose of State by a paternal Government, 
 and turning up here in a new guise ? 
 Hitherto, from their somewhat sequestered 
 situation, such a visitor as the present had 
 never been known to these villagers. 
 
 He had taken his seat with great dignity, 
 and now calmly surveyed the gathering audi- 
 ence, which sought to penetrate him with 
 its keen glances. Presently he took off his 
 turban and slowly extracted therefrom an 
 envelope, out of which he produced a piece 
 of paper, well saturated with oil and other 
 exuded matters, and browned by constant
 
 22 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 handling with dirty fingers. This he 
 opened and proceeded to read with great 
 solemnity, as he did so rolling round his 
 eyes to mark its effect upon his hearers. 
 It purported to he a declaration hy a great 
 personage, entitled "the Protector of Emi- 
 grants " at Calcutta, in the name of Her 
 Majesty the Queen and by authority of the 
 Government of India informing all mankind 
 that Dost Mahommed,. the hearer — who 
 bowed to his own name with deep respect — 
 was, by the aforesaid Majesty and august 
 Government, duly licensed to seek for and 
 
 recruit in the district of B , persons who 
 
 were willing to emigrate as labourers to 
 other parts of Her Majesty's dominions ; 
 that is to say, to British Guiana, or Trini- 
 dad, or Jamaica, etc., etc. This license, 
 moreover, as he showed them with man} 7
 
 The Recruiter. 23 
 
 flourishes of the paper, had that day been 
 countersigned by the resident, Keginald 
 Howard Walter Wood, Sahib, not unknown 
 by disagreeable personal experience to some 
 of those now listening to him. When he 
 had concluded the reading, the traveller 
 demonstratively folded up the document, 
 placed it in its envelope, restored it to 
 the fold of his turban, and sat silent, with 
 the air of a man who deserved well of 
 his kind. Hindoos are courteous. They 
 admire one who has a good estimate of 
 himself : they hesitate to break the illusion. 
 So there was a pause. 
 
 Among those who had gathered to see 
 and hear the traveller, and had listened to 
 his recital with interest, was Dilloo. He 
 manifested, with those around him, wonder 
 as to the meaning of this mysterious docu-
 
 24 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 merit, and anxiety to hear it explained. 
 But due time must be allowed to the 
 stranger, who meantime sat silent, in order 
 to give to curiosity a stronger incentive. At 
 length an ancient Brahmin of the village, 
 who sat by, oj)ened his mouth : — 
 
 "0 Baboo," said he, "we have heard 
 with interest your recital of that long and 
 grave document, by which we learn that 
 you are a messenger of the great Queen and 
 the most august Government at Calcutta ! 
 I gather -from it that you are directed to go 
 about the country in quest of men and 
 women who may be inclined to take the 
 risk of leaving the land of their birth and 
 the society of their own people to be carried 
 over mountains, rivers and seas, and to 
 labour for Englishmen in far-off parts of the 
 world, as they do in the Indigo districts.
 
 The Recruiter. 25 
 
 Can this be so ? Wherefore should you, a 
 Bengalee, be found helping to persuade your 
 people to desert their own land, and engage 
 in adventures they know not how perilous, 
 and the end of which they cannot fore- 
 see ? " 
 
 " Ah, you are right, sir ! But, listen, 
 friends ! " said the wily Dost Mahommed, 
 taking off his turban again, and reproducing 
 the dirty envelope, which he held between 
 his thumb and finger high in air. " This 
 is the command of the great Queen to 
 me, Dost Mahommed, one of the meanest 
 of her servants, to travel about and inform 
 my countrymen of inestimable benefits, 
 boundless riches, and unalloyed happiness 
 which await them, if they like to seek 
 them, in other parts of her wide dominions. 
 It is my duty to tell you, by authority of
 
 26 L utch mee and Dilloo . 
 
 the Queen and Government of India, that 
 it is open to any one who hears me to 
 become as rich as a zemindar. Is every- 
 thing so golden here that you should not 
 do like the English themselves — take your 
 journeys in search of riches and happiness ? 
 Look around you ! You see how poor 
 millions of our Indian people are ! Every- 
 where the fields are small, the wages are 
 low ; everywhere the land is crowded with 
 people — too many mouths and too little 
 money ; too many taxes, too much govern- 
 ment. Most of you have hard work, bad 
 food, and very little of it. Look at your 
 clothes ! I see some of you only with a 
 coarse dhotee : you are obliged, many of 
 you, to be content with the meanest gar- 
 ments. You see me ! I am dressed like 
 an Englishman : I wear good quality pae-
 
 The Recruiter. 2 J 
 
 jamas and a European coat. You may, 
 if you like, every one of you, do the 
 same ! " 
 
 A delighted buzz came from the throng 
 as this dazzling prospect was held out to 
 them. It must be true, they thought, for 
 there was the chuprass on the breast of 
 the speaker to vouch for it ! Dost Mahom- 
 med pursued his advantage, and conde- 
 scended to particulars. 
 
 u All this you may have, and much more, 
 in lands where the sun is warm like the sun 
 of Bengal, and the water is plentiful and 
 pure like the streams and tanks of India, 
 and the earth is richer and more productive 
 than ours ; where the mango and banana, 
 and bread-fruit and rice, and sugarcane and 
 cotton grow. Great English sahibs own 
 these lands, and want labourers like you to
 
 28 L utch mee and Dilloo. 
 
 cultivate them. They are rich and they 
 are generous. There a man may get every 
 day of his life as much or as little as he 
 likes. The work is easy, like your own 
 garden work ; and for such labour a man or 
 a woman can make easily from ten annas to 
 two rupees "—he deliberately counted this 
 extraordinary sum on his fingers as he 
 uttered the magical promise — "for every 
 day's work, See : here is the proof! " 
 
 The crowd eagerly leaned forward to look 
 at the paper which he now produced from 
 the breast of his uniform. It was in Eng- 
 lish, but he gave a very free translation of 
 it. Eepresentations were thereby made 
 that there was a great scarcity of labourers 
 in the West Indies; that thither emigrants 
 would be carried for nothing ; would receive 
 a bounty of one hundred rupees ; would be
 
 The Recruiter. 29 
 
 indentured to kind masters ; would get 
 house-room for nothing ; when sick would 
 be admitted to an hospital, and there be 
 provided with a doctor, medicines, and food 
 free of charge. All this was vouched by 
 the authority of the Governor and Legis- 
 lature of British Guiana, and certified by a 
 sahib at Calcutta, who dated from Garden 
 Eeach on the Hooghly. 
 . It may easily be inferred what curiosity 
 and surprise were awakened in the minds 
 of the ignorant but subtle Indians by this 
 story, afterwards embellished by many ad- 
 ditional illustrations from the recounter's 
 vivid fancy. The novelty of the proposal, 
 the romantic halo which invested the un- 
 known possibilities of such an enterprise as 
 he suggested to them, the tempting bribes 
 of a heavy bounty, easy work, plenty of
 
 30 Lutchmee and Diiloo. 
 
 food, and good wages, excited the imagina- 
 tion of the natives to a high pitch. The 
 great sahib at Calcutta loomed up before 
 their excited vision as a kind divinity, 
 proffering to unworthy wretches entrance 
 into a Paradise of labour. Yet there were 
 not wanting in the crowd timid sceptics 
 whose faith was apt' to be regulated and 
 restricted by sight, and who hinted at con- 
 tingencies quite unworthy of the high 
 authorities by whom these solemn state- 
 ments were vouched. 
 
 " Bah ! " said a shrewd vendor from the 
 bazaar, with native sophistry : "if the great 
 sahibs were desirous to give us all these 
 good things, would it not be cheaper to send 
 them to us than to take us to them ? " 
 
 The fickle crowd admiringly adopted the 
 transparent fallacy, and looked to the re-
 
 The Recruiter. 3 1 
 
 cruiter for an answer. It came, however, 
 straight and sharp, from Dilloo. 
 
 " Nonsense ! " said he : " Samanee knows 
 he is talking like a fool. The baboo tells 
 us we are offered work in a distant country 
 at good wages. Does Samanee wish the 
 Government to carry the country here, and 
 drop it down in Behar ? " 
 
 Dost Mahommed led the laugh which re- 
 warded this refutation of Samanee 's quibble. 
 The tide turned again in favour of the re- 
 cruiter. He, however, understood his busi- 
 ness too well to press the matter any further 
 at that time. He knew that he must do 
 his work in detail, — in this following the 
 example of his prototype the pilgrim-hunter. 
 So he arose and announced that he pro- 
 posed to spend the night in a neighbouring 
 village, but that he would return next day
 
 Lutchma and i 
 
 to talk with any who desired to ask him 
 
 any questions. 
 
 Dilloo had listened to the man's words 
 with peculiar interest. The natural energy 
 oi his oharaoter, his taste for adventure, 
 and his imagination were all appealed to 
 by the recruiter's language. Here seemed 
 to he an opening for a new and prosperous 
 lite. His relations with llunoomaun, now 
 his sworn enemy, were likely to render his 
 life in the village unpleasant, even if it 
 were not dangerous. A man in the ohoke- 
 
 - position in India has so many ways o( 
 
 working out his vengeance, and forgiveness 
 i^ not a Hindoo virtue. 
 
 No wonder Dilloo's brain was on fire as 
 he extricated himself from the orowdj ami 
 
 slowly paced in the direction of his home,
 
 A Long Farewell. 33 
 
 CHAPTEB IV. 
 
 A LONG FAKE WELL, 
 
 When, the next day, Dost Mahommed 
 came back to the village, Dilloo was among 
 the first to seek him out. Again the re- 
 cruiter expatiated on the promises of the 
 Government, the bounty-money of fifty 
 dollars, the high wages, the free medical 
 care, the light work. He said nothing — 
 indeed probably had not himself been told — 
 of fever-swamps, of liabilities, under rigid 
 laws, to fines and imprisonments for breaches 
 
 of the proposed contract, of labour in crop 
 vol. 1. 3
 
 34 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 time for as long as twenty, twenty-five, or 
 thirty hours at a stretch, and sometimes 
 without extra pay — a not universal, but 
 frequent incident of a Coolie's life in the 
 West Indies. Dilloo's mind was gradually 
 won over, and the only remaining doubt 
 was concerning his wife. " Could she 
 go?" 
 
 Oh, yes ; the recruiter was only too 
 anxious to procure women. They were in 
 great demand. She should have the same 
 bounty and the same wages as he. 
 
 But on consideration, Dilloo began to 
 doubt whether he ought to entertain this 
 kind offer. He loved his wife too well 
 rashly to permit her to share what he felt 
 by instinct to be an uncertain experiment ; 
 and he was perplexed between his own 
 desire to venture it, and the perils to which
 
 A Long Farewecl. 35 
 
 she would be exposed were his protection 
 withdrawn from her. This difficulty was, 
 however, a few days afterwards removed. 
 Mrs. Wood, the wife of the deputy-magis- 
 trate, happened to require a maid, and being 
 rather particular, had caused considerable 
 inquiry to be made for the sort of person 
 she wanted. Dilloo took his wife to the 
 
 magistrate's bungalow 7 at T . The lady 
 
 was at once struck with Lutchmee's cleanli- 
 ness and good looks, and offered to engage 
 her. Dilloo, like most impetuous men, too 
 readily satisfied with temporary solutions, 
 considered that this sufficiently ensured his 
 wife's safety, and urged her to accept the 
 offer. She, while her heart trembled with 
 painful forebodings, was too lovingly obe- 
 dient to her husband's will to question his 
 desires.
 
 36 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 When the day of parting came, Dilloo 
 held Lutchmee in his arms a long while. 
 They could scarcely speak. The pangs of 
 an adieu amongst ourselves are keen 
 enough, but they are mitigated by the 
 knowledge that intercourse is easy and in- 
 formation certain, however far in space 
 hearts may be sundered. What, then, to 
 our young lovers must have been the 
 moment of separation which rested no 
 hopes on certainties or possibilities of com- 
 munication, which knew only that years 
 must elapse before they could meet again, 
 and that perhaps from parting to meeting 
 no single message could pass between 
 them? 
 
 " Lutchmee!" said the young man, "I 
 go away, thinking of you only. I will love 
 you faithfully all the time I am away. I
 
 A Long Farewell. 37 
 
 am promised that in a few years * I shall be 
 able to return with all the money I have 
 made, and then you and I will be well off. 
 We shall be still young, and can spend our 
 lives in prosperity and happiness." 
 
 " Ah, Dilloo ! " said the girl, with a sob, 
 " how much this is to pay for a hope : is it 
 not?" 
 
 Then, feeling that this was half a com- 
 plaint, and ashamed to raise a doubt which 
 might, at so sore a moment, begloom her 
 husband's heart, she checked herself, and 
 tried to smile. 
 
 " I shall be as happy as I can," said she ; 
 
 * The promise authorized by the Government is ten 
 years ; but it is not the recruiter's cue to be too specific in 
 his representations. That this is not an exaggeration is 
 proved by the fact that an order issued to the Indian magis- 
 trates to be careful to explain the exact incidents of the con- 
 tract seriously diminished the immigration to the West Indies, 
 and led to a protest from the planters of British Guiana.
 
 38 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 " and the time will run quickly when I 
 think of you. And you will not be afraid 
 that I shall not continue to love you, will 
 you?" 
 
 A tender pressure to his heart was the 
 pledge of Dilloo's trust. 
 
 "Do your best," said he, " to win the 
 good- will of the Mem-sahib ; and if Hunoo- 
 maun tries any more tricks with you, go at 
 once to her and ask her to protect you. 
 These English are sometimes cruel and 
 harsh themselves, but they won't allow 
 Hindoos to commit injustice. Be very wary 
 of that rascal. Never go out alone, if you 
 can help it : always go to the tank in the 
 morning in company with the other women. 
 It is well he does not live in the same 
 village with you." 
 
 Thus in simple talk these simple hear.- -
 
 A Long Farewell. 39 
 
 prepared for a parting to them so appalling ; 
 and at length, with manly tenderness on 
 the one side and tearful struggles for forti- 
 tude on the other, they bade each other 
 farewell.
 
 40 Lutchmee and Ditioo. 
 
 CHAPTEE V, 
 
 A NARROW ESCAPE. 
 
 Nearly two years have passed since Dil- 
 loo's departure. From the recruiter, when 
 he returned next year to the district, Mr. 
 Wood, whose wife had taken a fancy for 
 Lutchmee, learned that her husband had 
 sailed in good health, within three weeks 
 of their parting. The graceless Dost Ma- 
 hommed elaborated a fabulous message 
 from the emigrant, descriptive of his well- 
 being, his happiness, and his bright assur- 
 ances of success, concluding with a hope 
 that it might be possible for Lutchmee to
 
 A Narrow Escape, 4 1 
 
 join him in a year or two, should she not 
 hear from him to the contrary. This 
 message was joyfully received by Lutchmee, 
 to be pondered and dreamed of with un- 
 ceasing pleasure. 
 
 For more than a year Hunoomaun, see- 
 ing the young woman to be under the 
 protection of the magistrate's wife, and, 
 indeed, as he had, owing to the distance 
 between the two villages, but slight oppor- 
 tunities of meeting with her, left her un- 
 disturbed. She rigorously attended to 
 Dilloo's injunctions, and never went be- 
 yond the grounds, to tank or temple or 
 bazaar, unless accompanied by some of her 
 fellow-servants. At the time when we 
 resume her history, one of those rumours 
 that are periodically current in India, of 
 a projected rising of the Mussulman popu-
 
 42 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 lation, had excited alarm among English 
 residents. Mr. Wood was a brave man, 
 and really gave no credit to the rumour, 
 but he thought it right to appear to be 
 on the alert, and appointed several of the 
 most trustworthy Hindoo peons and bur- 
 candazes to act in turns as armed guards 
 of his house at night. There were always 
 plenty of these hanging about it by day. 
 Among those selected from the neighbour- 
 hood was Hunoomaun, who had cleverly 
 managed to give the magistrate the idea 
 that he was a very trusty and effective 
 fellow. At regular intervals he took his 
 station during the night on the verandah 
 in front of the deputy's house, armed with 
 a cutlass and prepared to give warning to 
 the more reliable force, consisting of Mr. 
 Wood, his clerk, and an English servant,
 
 A Narrow Escape. 43 
 
 inside. In separate buildings were the 
 justice-rooms, and there the Darogah and 
 some peons were stationed. The verandah 
 covered in three sides of the bungalow : 
 on the right side were the reception-rooms ; 
 on the other, those for sleeping and dress- 
 ing. A lattice, pierced by a door, shut off 
 the verandah leading to the latter from 
 the one in front. Lutchmee preferred 
 sleeping outside her mistress's room, in 
 the side verandah, and Mrs. Wood being- 
 attached to the girl, and often needing 
 her attendance in the night, made no 
 objection to it. The chokedar now had 
 occasional opportunities of seeing and ad- 
 dressing Lutchmee. He pretended to 
 have a fancy for another of the women, 
 and treated Lutchmee with distant cour- 
 tesy. He professed himself pained by her
 
 44 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 aversion, again and again begging her not 
 to be afraid of him, to forget the past, and 
 to believe that he no longer entertained 
 any evil designs against her. In this way 
 Lutchmee's apprehensions were gradually 
 soothed, and she allowed herself a little 
 more freedom in her intercourse with the 
 man. When he was on guard, he would 
 peer through the lattice at the young girl 
 as she disposed herself to sleep on the 
 verandah ; but he dared not venture with- 
 in, for he knew the magistrate's ear was 
 quick, and his revolver always ready. One 
 night, however, when it was his watch, 
 after he had had recourse to his old 
 prompter arrack, his quick perception in- 
 formed him that Lutchmee was restless 
 and awake, — he drew her by a gentle 
 whisper to the lattice.
 
 A A T arrow Escape. 45 
 
 "What is the matter?" he said: "you 
 do not sleep." 
 
 "I have some foreboding," replied the 
 girl timidly. "Did you hear anything 
 like a woman's cry a long way off? And 
 just now I thought I heard a rumbling 
 as of carriages or of a troop of horse." 
 
 Hunoomaun started, and listened atten- 
 tively a full five minutes. 
 
 "No," he said, "it was some distant 
 thunder, or the murmuring of the heavy 
 air over the house and through the trees; 
 and the scream, no doubt, was that of a 
 paroquet or a monkey in the wood." 
 
 "I cannot rest," said Lutchmee, "I am 
 so frightened. It seems as if some dread- 
 ful thing were going to happen. How hot 
 the night is ! " 
 
 " Come and sit down awhile and talk
 
 46 Lulchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 with me," said the peon : "it will make 
 you sleep. You are quite safe," he added, 
 judging instinctively that she hesitated, 
 though he could not see her face. " Sahib 
 and Mem- Sahib are close by, and can hear 
 us." 
 
 Lutchmee for the moment felt half 
 ashamed of her suspicions, and slipping 
 back the wooden bolt of the door, stepped 
 out on the front verandah beside the dark 
 shadow of the chokedar. 
 
 " See," he said, "we will go away from 
 the Sahib, and sit on the seat at the end 
 of the verandah until you get sleepy." 
 
 As they took their way along the veran- 
 dah, their shoeless feet passing silently 
 over the smooth hard clay, Hunoomaun 
 rapidly estimated the opportunities of the 
 situation. Could he not carry her off?
 
 A Narrow Escape. 47 
 
 She was slight, and he was a powerful 
 fellow. The thing he had so long desired 
 seemed at length to be nigh, and yet so 
 difficult of attainment. Unobserved by 
 Lutchmee he had, in closing the lattice 
 door, slipped the bolt back again with his 
 finger. The front door opening on the 
 verandah was, at that time, bolted. This 
 verandah measured sixty feet from end to 
 end, including the width of the two side 
 verandahs : no one slept on the right or 
 west side of the bungalow, which was also 
 the farther side from the magisterial offices. 
 In the middle of the verandah on that 
 side there was an opening in the lattice, 
 from which steps led to the compound 
 towards a shrubbery. The rascal's plan 
 was soon formed. He extended their walk 
 round the corner from the front verandah
 
 48 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 as far as this outlet. Quietly placing his 
 cutlass on a window-sill as he passed it, 
 he unbound the puggery from his head, 
 and, snatching Lutchmee 's hand in his 
 right, suddenly thrust the cloth over her 
 face with his left, while he said in her 
 ear, — 
 
 " Do not call out, or I will kill you." 
 He thus stifled her first cry, and after 
 a minute removed the cloth from her face. 
 But poor Lutchmee was unable to call 
 out. The suddenness of the attack and 
 the deprival of air, had produced the effect 
 which had probably been calculated on, 
 for she fell flaccid and insensible into 
 Hunoomaun's arms. Pressing her to his 
 bosom, he was in the act of carrying his 
 inanimate burden off to the shrubbery, 
 from which he could have escaped to-
 
 A Narrow Escape. 49 
 
 wards his own house, when Mrs. Wood's 
 voice was heard shrilly calling out the 
 girl's name. A disturbance immediately 
 followed, assisted by the bass voice of the 
 magistrate. The ruffian was completely 
 disconcerted. He was well aware of Mr. 
 Wood's promptitude of action. If he 
 carried the girl back he would probably 
 be met by the magistrate, and his villany 
 was certain to be exposed; if he left her 
 where she was she would, on recovering, 
 call up the household. While he hesitated, 
 he heard Mr. Wood unfastening the door, 
 and saw the flash of a candle ; at the same 
 moment his burden began to revive. There 
 was no time to retrieve and use his cut- 
 lass, with which no doubt he would have 
 revenged upon her his disappointment ; 
 so, venting an oath at his ill-luck, he 
 vol. 1. 4
 
 50 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 flung her down with all his force, and 
 darted away into the night. When the 
 magistrate, whose quick eye had detected 
 the guard's weapon, reached the place 
 where Lutchmee lay groaning/ Ite found 
 her bleeding severely from a wound in the 
 head, and with her shoulder dislocated. 
 The peon was nowhere to be seen. After 
 shouting for him in vain, and firing two 
 chance shots in the direction of the shrub- 
 bery, the resident called his servants and 
 proceeded to treat Lutchmee for her in- 
 juries. As soon as she was able to relate 
 her story, Mr. Wood, satisfied of the 
 chokedar's guilt, issued a warrant for his 
 apprehension; but that wily Hindoo had 
 already adjudicated on his own case and 
 condemned himself to a period of exile. 
 As Lutchmee recovered from the illness
 
 A Narrow Escape. 5 1 
 
 consequent upon this adventure, her mind 
 turned more and more to the absent Dilloo. 
 She felt that there was for her no real 
 safety away from him. Two years of pa- 
 tient resignedness might well have made 
 her weary of the separation, and she re- 
 called with increasingly glad recollections 
 the terms of the fictitious message delivered 
 by the recruiter. At length she decided to 
 make a bold venture and follow her hus- 
 band. The kind dissuasions of the magis- 
 trate and his wife fell on unwilling ears. 
 When at length he saw that grief and 
 suspense threatened to affect her health, 
 Mr. Wood consented that she should join 
 a party of emigrants that happened to be 
 passing the village. He wrote to the 
 depot at the Hooghly stating the circum- 
 stances of her case, and asking for her. 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
 
 52 Lutchrnee and D Moo. 
 
 as a woman of respectability, the special 
 attention of the doctor who might have 
 the conduct of the voyage. In the end, 
 Lutchrnee, with four hundred and thirty- 
 three others of different ages, sexes, origins, 
 and castes, embarked on board the good 
 ship " Sunda," bound from Calcutta for 
 the port of Georgetown, Demerara. 
 
 We have now done with India ; the 
 scene changes to other and far different 
 circumstances and conditions of life.
 
 "Where is He?" ^ 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 " WHERE IS HE ? " 
 
 The good ship u Sunda," after a voyage of 
 ninety- three days, was standing in before 
 the warm, light, north-east breeze, towards 
 the Georgetown lightship. Little could be 
 seen beyond the expanse of yellow-tinged 
 water, — coloured by the mud of the far in- 
 terior brought down by the vast rivers 
 which discharge themselves into that sea; 
 the lightship gently rolling in the swell ; in 
 the distance a dark line of shore, from which 
 here and there rose slender shafts that 
 looked like reeds — the lighthouse at George-
 
 54 L u tch mee and Dilloo . 
 
 town, and the chimneys of the coast estates. 
 From galley to forecastle the deck was 
 crowded with Coolies; some eagerly scan- 
 ning the horizon ; others entertaining their 
 comrades with childish exhibitions of joy 
 and curiosity, or with their lively babble ; 
 others crouched on their hams, their heads 
 bowed down to their knees in an attitude 
 of despondency. 
 
 Lutchmee, whose pretty face and coquet- 
 tish ways had during the voyage won upon 
 the rough English and foreign sailors, was 
 standing well forward on the forecastle near 
 the look-out, who, with grotesque English 
 and uncouth gestures, tried to make her 
 understand their progress. It was three 
 o'clock in the afternoon. The sun, nearing 
 a level, shot its hot beams sidewise on the 
 Asiatics, nearly all of whom showed signs
 
 " Where is He ?" 55 
 
 of weariness. Lutchmee alone seemed ani- 
 mated with joy. She was looking forward 
 to the meeting with Dilloo, and her little 
 heart beat, and her eyes were shining with 
 a hopeful light. The sailor noticed her 
 gladness. 
 
 " Aha, Lutchmee ! " said he, with a voice 
 like a rusty coffee-mill, — they had found out 
 that the pretty Hindoo was journeying to 
 meet her husband, — "you glad, eh? You 
 go see Dilloo ? Bah ! Dilloo marry 'nother 
 woman. Ha ! ha ! what you do then, 
 Lutchmee? Come back to me, eh?" — 
 putting his hand on what he supposed to 
 be his heart. 
 
 Lutchmee understood the good-natured 
 banter, for she had already made herself a 
 little familiar with English. She tossed 
 her head, and laughing in a silvery tone,
 
 56 L utchmee and Dilloo . 
 
 put her hands together and bowed towards 
 
 the shore. The pantomime was pretty, and 
 
 modest and sincere withal. 
 
 " No fear Dilloo : all true Dilloo." 
 
 " Hem ! " said the sailor to himself, 
 
 winking his eyes very hard, for the glare 
 was strong: "I only hope so, for the poor 
 wench's sake. If he's true, he's the first 
 honest copper-skin I ever come across. 
 Where's that clumsy tug a-drivin' to ? " 
 
 The steamer • thus spoken of soon ap- 
 proached and hailed the ship. As it was 
 getting late, the captain resolved to engage 
 her to tow his vessel into the river; and 
 before long the " Sunda" was more rapidly 
 cleaving the muddy water. Gradually the 
 long line of shore began to grow clear ; 
 then could be discerned the fringing palm 
 trees and the scraggy bush along the bank :
 
 "Where is He?" 57 
 
 then the wooden houses, here and there ; 
 and at length, just in front, the mouth of 
 the river. On the left ran a strong sea-wall, 
 at that hour the promenade of the fashion- 
 able world of Georgetown : fatigued officials 
 with their cigars, pale ladies languidly saun- 
 tering, children in their perambulators, and 
 the dark buxom nursemaids, gay with their 
 bright-coloured turbans and white dresses. 
 Up and down walked many a wealthy planter, 
 — one, a grand old figure, erect and haughty, 
 with stick on shoulder, a Scotchman who 
 had spent forty-five years in the colony, the 
 Nestor of the planting community. At the 
 corner of this promenade towered up the 
 lighthouse. On the right entrance of the 
 river the low flat banks were maintained by 
 a short piece of sea-wall ; and out from the 
 small village protected by it there stretched
 
 58 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 in lengthy skeleton the Pouderoyen Stel- 
 ling, or wharf, which was the landing-place 
 of the ferry for the west bank of the Deme- 
 rara river. Between the banks flowed the 
 stream, silent, smooth, and muddy ; sweep- 
 ing by many ships and schooners, steamers, 
 barges, and boats, anchored or moving on 
 its ample bosom. 
 
 By this time the Coolies swarmed to the 
 sides of the ship, and eagerly peered over 
 the taffrail as the great vessel swung round 
 the corner and disclosed to their eyes the 
 flat site of Georgetown — with its huge sheds 
 of merchandize, its white houses and green 
 blinds, and the familiar cocoa and cabbage 
 palms, lifting their high, graceful heads into 
 the clear air ; while in front, on the yellow 
 banks and by the stellings that jutted out 
 into the river, there went on the work
 
 "Where is He?" 59 
 
 and bustle of a thriving port. Before the 
 strangers could take in all these features, 
 the rattle of the running anchor chain 
 told them that their voyage was at an 
 end, and that now for them a new life 
 had begun. It was the rough knell that 
 marked off their native existence from an 
 experience to these poor, simple creatures, 
 more than novel, unexpected, inconceiv- 
 able ; an experience for not a few of them 
 to be embittered with intensifying and hope- 
 less aggravation until death should become 
 their truest friend. 
 
 Scarcely had the anchor sunk into the 
 muddy bottom, when a boat pulled by four 
 powerful blacks in sailors' uniform came 
 alongside : and presently there stepped on 
 board the health-officer of the port, the im- 
 migration Agent-General, and an interpreter:
 
 60 Lvtchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 The latter salaamed right and left, and the 
 people delightedly returned the welcome of 
 a countryman. The ship's doctor showed 
 his books. The health-bill was declared 
 satisfactoiy. The Agent- General, a grey old 
 gentleman of considerable activity, passed 
 round the vessel to take a survey of the 
 new arrivals, here and there putting a kindly 
 question through the interpreter. 
 
 " This lot," said he to the captain, " is not 
 a very promising one. I don't believe thirty 
 per cent, of them ever did any field work." 
 
 The captain shook his head. 
 
 " A whole lot of them were sent aboard 
 not fit to travel. You'd have thought they'd 
 have shaken the life out of themselves the 
 first time they were sick. We had forty or 
 fifty cases of disease among 'em. Look 
 there, now, there's an idiot ; and here are
 
 " Where is HeT' 61 
 
 two lepers, — there are more below. How 
 your agent in India comes to pass such 
 creatures as able-bodied, beats me to under- 
 stand. It don't require a doctor to tell me 
 such a fellow as that ain't worth his salt," 
 said he, pointing to a little dark, unhealthy- 
 looking man, who, in the favourite sitting 
 posture, was vacantly regarding them. 
 " Ask him how old he is." 
 
 It turned out he was nearly sixty. 
 
 " It's a shame ! " said the Agent-General, 
 angrily. " If I had my way, I would send 
 half this lot back again. I see by the list 
 ■five idiots are reported by Dr. Chandle. 
 But there is such a demand for labour, that 
 the planters can't afford to send them back, 
 and so they must make what they can out 
 of them. This bad selection is the begin- 
 ning of every sort of wrong and evil."
 
 62 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 "I'll tell you what," said the shrewd 
 captain, "my opinion is, those Indian 
 recruiters are a set of scoundrels. They 
 don't honestly go up the country and get 
 people really fit to work : they just pick 
 them out of the slums of Calcutta and the 
 large towns ; and your agents aren't over 
 particular either about their examination. 
 You should see them passing them at the 
 Hooghly depot. The examination is a 
 farce : Dr. Chandle will tell you so. But 
 what can I do ? I must bring 'em, you 
 know." 
 
 Probably every one concerned w^ould have 
 asked the same question, and shrugged his 
 shoulders, and, in the same way, shifted the 
 responsibility on some one else. The cun- 
 ning Indian recruiters would have shrugged 
 their shoulders, and asked, " What can we
 
 " Where is He ? " 63 
 
 do ? We must make a living." The 
 colonial agents would have shrugged their 
 shoulders, and asked, " What can we do? 
 The colony must have people, good or bad." 
 The highly-paid officials of the Indian 
 Government, whose business it was to 
 superintend the emigration, and who were 
 supposed to be responsible for the cha- 
 racter of the recruiters, and the condition 
 of the people permitted to emigrate, would 
 have shrugged their shoulders and asked, 
 " What can we do? The people want to 
 go, they understand they will be better off 
 in the West Indies, and, at all events, they 
 can be spared." The Indian Government, 
 the British Government, and the Colonial 
 Government would each have shrugged 
 their shoulders, and said, "What can we 
 do ? The evil consequences are much to
 
 64 Lutchmee and Diiloo. 
 
 be regretted ; but, really, no pains are 
 spared to avert them ! " 
 
 Thus responsibility floats in nubibus, 
 while the realities of wrong and sorrow 
 come cruelly home to the victims of a com- 
 plicated system of shifted obligations. 
 
 How many evils of this sorb remain in 
 the world unredressed only Heaven knows ; 
 but they are often infinitely more pestilent, 
 more difficult to remedy, than the direct 
 and concrete efforts of deliberate tyranny. 
 
 Mr. Goodeve, the Agent-General, had 
 noticed Lutchmee, who, clothed in her 
 finest, with her hair daintily dressed, stood 
 curiously watching the small group of gen- 
 tlemen, as they passed among her country- 
 people. 
 
 " That is a fine young woman," said he, 
 stopping to look at her.
 
 "Where is He?" 65 
 
 " Yes," said the surgeon; " and she has 
 
 behaved very well on the passage. She is 
 
 superior to any woman I ever saw coming 
 
 over. • She says that she is married to some 
 
 . man who emigrated two years ago." 
 
 "Ask her who it is," said Mr. Goodeve 
 to the interpreter. The answer was rapidly 
 obtained. 
 
 " Dilloo ! " said he. " Why, if we have 
 one, we have fifty Dilloos on the estates. 
 What ship did he come in ? " 
 
 Lutchmee did not know. She could tell 
 the year he left her, and the village he came 
 from ; but, as the latter information was not 
 kept on record by the Immigration Depart- 
 ment, identification by those particulars was 
 impossible. Nor was it of any avail to at- 
 tempt to describe her husband's appearance. 
 An agent, with thirty or forty thousand 
 
 vol. 1. 5
 
 66 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 people under his care, could not recall every 
 face that passed under his notice. 
 
 " Can I not see him ? " inquired the 
 simple woman of the interpreter. " Where 
 is he ? I want to find him." 
 
 The interpreter shook his head. 
 
 " There are many Dilloos," he said. 
 " They are scattered ahout over a great 
 country. How shall we know the Dilloo 
 whom you seek? " 
 
 Lutchmee clasped her hands, and the 
 large drops stealing from her eyes jewelled 
 her dark cheeks, as she went on her knees 
 before Mr. Goodeve, and poured out in her 
 own language a passionate appeal to him 
 to take her to her husband. The long-tried 
 patience of years, the ever-pleasing dreams 
 of day and night throughout the voyage, 
 had tended towards this hour as one of
 
 " Where is He ? " 67 
 
 unmixed joy ; and the sudden eclipse of her 
 hopes extinguished her fortitude. She had 
 never forecast the disappointment of this 
 moment. Mr. Goodeve was affected, and 
 the sailor who had been watching the inter- 
 view turned away with a dry cough. The 
 Agent-General took her by the hand and 
 spoke kindly to her, promising to do his 
 best to find her husband, " before she was 
 allotted." Lutchmee had little or no idea 
 what this meant. To her the contract she 
 had made in India was a matter of form — 
 a means of reaching her lover. She had 
 not taken the trouble to think of the nature 
 of her engagement, so absorbed had been 
 her mind in the one aim of affection.
 
 68 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 A DANGEKOUS ADMIKEK. 
 
 The next day the emigrants were disem- 
 barked in boats and conveyed to one of the 
 stellings, whence they marched to the 
 Immigration depot, a wooden barrack situ- 
 ated at the end of a flat marsh behind the 
 sea-wall. At the other end of this marsh 
 were the garrison barracks, inhabited by 
 some companies of one of the West India 
 regiments. The whole of the buildings on 
 the ground were below high-water mark, 
 and lay between open trenches. Arrived at 
 the depot, the people squatted quietly about 
 the house and beneath the verandah. Then
 
 A Dangerous Admirer. 69 
 
 the Agent-General, Assisted by sub-agents, 
 classified them, as required by the local 
 law, according to relationship, and, as far 
 as possible, by placing together friends or 
 fellow- villagers. Subject to this, allotments 
 were then arbitrarily made of batches of 
 them to various estates, in proportion to 
 the number for which the proprietors had 
 applied. Looking forward to this contin- 
 gency, it was usual for the planters to apply 
 for more than they needed. In due time 
 the agents of the estates, or overseers, 
 attended at the depot to receive their quota, 
 and the Indians were marched off in bodies, 
 some to the steamers for the Arabian coast, 
 or the Islands, or Berbice, others to the 
 east and west coasts of Demerara. Along 
 with the five idiots who were retained by 
 the Immigration Agent- General to be sent
 
 70 Lutchmee and Dilfao. 
 
 back to India, Lutchmee was kept at the 
 depot. She saw her fellow-travellers dis- 
 perse with a heavy heart, and sadly, through 
 the long hot days, she sat on the verandah, 
 gazing listlessly at the few acres of grassy 
 swamp, watching the morning and evening 
 evolutions of the troops ; or in the after- 
 noons, as the sun declined, and the pale 
 people of Georgetown gathered to catch the 
 incoming breeze, she lay upon the grassy 
 bank, looking at the yellow waves or ob- 
 serving the gloomy gaiety of the strollers 
 on the wall. 
 
 Thus a fortnight passed, and the sub- 
 agents, though they had made active inquiry, 
 had been unable to identify the missing 
 Dilloo. Six Dilloos had arrived in the ship 
 which, as they judged from the information 
 Lutchmee supplied, had brought her hus-
 
 A Dangerous Admirer. 7 
 
 band. One would have thought that no- 
 thing could be easier than to write to the 
 employers of these six Coolies and request 
 them to ascertain whether their servant of 
 that name had been married to a girl called 
 Lutchmee. And, in fact, Mr. Goodeve 
 directed the sub-agents to write to the 
 masters of the six Dilloos ; but they were 
 not bound to reply, and only one found it 
 convenient to do so. His Dilloo had only 
 one eye, and hearing a wife had arrived to 
 claim a husband, pretended to have once 
 married a Lutchmee, but she declined to 
 believe in him. Mr. Goodeve was per- 
 plexed. He had now retained the woman, 
 without allotting her, an unusual time. 
 Experience had made him suspicious of the 
 excuses of wily Hindoos, and he considered 
 that possibly, nay, in spite of himself he
 
 72 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 was beginning to think probably , her story 
 was untrue. Fortunately he had the Gov- 
 ernor's approval of what he had done ; for, 
 indeed, Her Majesty's representative in 
 British Guiana follows with all the minute- 
 ness of a tradesman the movements of the 
 Immigration office ; and the Agent- General, 
 instead of being a departmental minister, 
 with a seat in the Court of Policy, is practi- 
 cally degraded to the level of a petty clerk, 
 waiting on the nod or the wink of the 
 Viceroy. 
 
 One afternoon Lufcchmee, as was her 
 wont, strayed to the embankment. She 
 had arrayed herself with her habitual neat- 
 ness and elegance. The western end of the 
 promenade was frequented by a few of her 
 countrymen, who had interested themselves 
 in the subject of her anxiety. They were
 
 A Dangerous Admirer. 73 
 
 " unbound," that is, freed from their inden- 
 ture, and one or two of them were wealthy. 
 A lithe little Madrassee pedler and usurer 
 took special notice of her, and, having deal- 
 ings with most of the estates in the colony, 
 had caused her story to be pretty generally 
 circulated. He held out the hope of being 
 able to find Dilloo. This afternoon, as she 
 was sitting waiting for him, a tall, sharp-eyed 
 man, of middle age, with the dark face and 
 hair and strongly-marked features of a North 
 Anglian, who was taking his afternoon con- 
 stitutional at a pace rather more energetic 
 than was common among the promenaders, 
 suddenly caught sight of her, and, stopping, 
 conned with the greatest coolness and 
 deliberation her features and figure. 
 
 " Hum," said he, aloud, with unconcealed 
 satisfaction, * that's a tidy young girl. The
 
 74 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 handsomest Indian I ever saw. Where did 
 she come from ? — Whose wife you, eh ? " 
 
 " Dilloo, massa," said the soft voice. 
 
 "Dilloo? Who is D1II00? Where Dil- 
 loo live, eh?" 
 
 "No sabby, massa," replied the girl, 
 adopting the Creole patois of her new ac- 
 quaintances on the wall. 
 
 " No sabby ? What estate ? " 
 
 She shook her head : this was Greek to 
 her. Just then her Madrassee friend, who 
 knew her questioner too well, came up. 
 
 u Salaam, massa ! " 
 
 " Salaam ! Look here, Akaloo, just ask 
 this girl what estate she's on, will you, or 
 who she is living with ? " 
 
 " She no on any estate, massa. Stay 
 Goody office. No bound * yet. Just come." 
 
 * " Bound," the pigeon-English term for " indentured."
 
 A Dangerous Admirer. 75 
 
 He gave a jerk of his thumb over to- 
 wards the river, where the " Sunda " was 
 still lying. 
 
 " Not bound yet ? . How's that? All the 
 last lot have been on the estate weeks since. 
 What an old rascal that Goodeve is to keep 
 such a fine girl hanging about the depot ! I 
 shall apply for her at once." 
 
 He said this out loud, indifferent to his 
 Indian audience. Akaloo, however, who 
 had been keenly watching him, struck 
 in — 
 
 " No, no, massa. She go look for 'usbaun; 
 left her in India : come here. No found 
 'usbaun estate yet." 
 
 " Oh, nonsense : she might look for him 
 till doomsday. Tell her he's dead, or mar- 
 ried to someone else. There are four Dilloos 
 at Belle Susanne, one is very likely hers,
 
 76 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 and tell her she can have any one of them 
 she likes — eh ? " said he, laughing, and 
 patting her cheek. 
 
 Lutchmee, half gathering the meaning of 
 his words, indignantly turned her face from 
 his touch, and the ready tears rolled down 
 her cheeks. The gentleman looked at her 
 with some astonishment. Your regular 
 planter has no faith in a Coolie's feelings. 
 To him every act of an In'dian, however na- 
 tural, is acting. But Drummond shrewdly 
 suspected the acting to be this time 
 genuine. 
 
 "What," he said, "you love Dilloo? 
 Much want Dilloo ? " She nodded assent. 
 
 Akaloo explained that she was inconsol- 
 able from her disappointment, and that 
 Massa Goodeve was doing all he could to 
 find her husband. Mr. Drummond, after a
 
 A Dangerous Admirer. 77 
 
 cheering word, took his way along the wall 
 to where he knew Mr. Goodeve would at 
 that time be found taking the air, if, indeed, 
 breathing a half-furnace blast may be so 
 favourably described. 
 
 " I say, Goodeve,' ' said he, abruptly, 
 " what are you keeping that pretty girl at 
 the depot for ? This won't do : I must 
 report you to the Governor." 
 
 " Very well," .said the Agent-General, 
 ^smiling. " Do it in writing, please, and I 
 shall forward a memorandum in reply. 
 But the fact is, that girl is giving me a 
 great deal of anxiety. I have been looking 
 for a man she says is her husband. But, 
 from her story, I shrewdly suspect she is 
 not sure he is here at all. He may have 
 gone to Trinidad or St. Lucia. He left 
 India, she says, two years ago."
 
 78 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 11 Pshaw ! " interrupted the other : " it's 
 a cock-and-hull story. You ought not to 
 keep her here any longer. She must be 
 allotted. Send her to me at Belle Susanne : 
 I'll find a husband for her. I must see old 
 Tom about it." 
 
 I regret to say that the " Old Tom " here 
 referred to was no other than His Excellency 
 Governor Thomas Walkingham, who had 
 certainly not won the sobriquet by his cat- 
 like vigilance, or because his spirits were 
 sweet and above proof. He was one of 
 those steady-going mediocrities whom a 
 grateful Colonial Office is apt to value in 
 such inflammable quarters as the West 
 Indies, where the least spark of originality 
 or independence may, in certain conditions, 
 set fire to a whole community. An estim- 
 able, good-natured, easy-going man was
 
 A Dangerous Admirer. 79 
 
 Thomas Walkingham, who, never too active 
 a friend of the Coolies, and never too stern 
 a reprover of the planters, retained an 
 imperial reputation for humanity, and was 
 lucky enough to hold one of the richest 
 governments at Her Majesty's disposal. 
 
 As Drummond turned away, the Agent- 
 General looked after him doubtfully. This 
 was one of the most powerful planters in 
 the colony; a member of the Court of 
 Policy, and noted for his determined will, 
 strong passions, and practical ability. Mr. 
 Goodeve held a good opinion of him as a 
 master, though he was rather doubtful of 
 him as a man. In the present instance his 
 mind was divided between his suspicions of 
 Drummond and his own growing distrust of 
 Lutchmee. If she were telling the truth 
 he could do nothing less willingly than to
 
 80 Lutchmee and Dilioo. 
 
 put her in Mr. Drummond's power for five 
 years. Were her story untrue, even his 
 mind was not able to overcome the natural 
 race indifference to what became of her. 
 He knew too well the ordinary and inevit- 
 able fate of the small proportion of Coolie 
 women then in the colony; without clear 
 evidence that this one was unlike the rest, — 
 her good looks, indeed, being rather against 
 her, — how could he be expected to get up 
 any special interest in her fate ? Subtle, 
 indeed, but powerful are the influences upon 
 the calmest and most honest mind, in those 
 peculiar relations of a superior to an inferior 
 race, of which terms of bondage or terms 
 akin to bondage form a part. If they are 
 difficult for an analyst to define, they are 
 certainly too real and strong for the persons 
 concerned to resist.
 
 The Recognition. 8 1 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 THE KECOGNITION. 
 
 Mr. Deummond was as good as his word. 
 The next day he applied to the Governor 
 in writing, informing him that " he 'liad 
 ascertained a Coolie woman, ex l Sunda,' 
 still remained at the depot unallotted ; and 
 begging to state that as she appeared to be 
 a respectable person, and he was desirous 
 of securing as many women of that kind as 
 possible on Belle Susanne, he asked that 
 she might be allotted to that estate." 
 
 The Governor had hardly ever been on 
 an estate in his life. He was personally 
 incurious. Faith, to an official who must 
 vol. i. 6
 
 82 Lutchwiee and Dilloo. 
 
 write home long despatches about his pro- 
 consulate, is superior to sight. He could 
 affirm that the general condition of the 
 immigrants was satisfactory, and the 
 Coolie system a great success, if he 
 only came in contact with the subject 
 in letters, minutes, or despatches, or only 
 saw the people in holiday attire in the 
 course of his afternoon drives. Had he 
 been challenged to say whether he thought 
 Drummond a fit and proper person to whom 
 to deliver up a handsome young Indian 
 woman, he would have said that " he had 
 no reason from any official memoranda to 
 doubt that she would receive at Belle 
 Susanne the same satisfactory attention 
 and care which the reports he had received 
 of the estate led him to believe were 
 characteristic of Mr. Drummond' s manage-
 
 The Recognition. S3 
 
 merit." The man who can at once satisfy 
 his own conscience and his official superiors 
 with negatives of that sort saves himself 
 and them innumerable inconveniences, and 
 is deemed a most valuable person. 
 
 The Governor had already been informed 
 by the Agent-General of the reason why 
 Lutchmee had not been allotted, and had 
 approved of her retention. But there are 
 limits to governmental kindness. Mr. 
 Drummond was too powerful to be dis- 
 regarded. The matter would get talked 
 about, and talk in a small colony must 
 be avoided. Accordingly a " despatch " was 
 written by the Government Secretary to 
 the Immigration Agent-General, two hun- 
 dred yards off, stating " that he had the 
 honour to enclose a copy of a letter received 
 from the Hon. C. C. Drummond, aud that
 
 84 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 His Excellency the Governor recommended 
 that the woman ' Su?ida, 330,' should he 
 allotted to the estate of Belle Susanne." 
 
 Mr. Goodeve's humanity never slept. 
 Whatever douhts had sprung up in his 
 mind, he still desired to act the parfc he 
 deemed the law had assigned to him, of 
 Coolie protector, — a part which the planters 
 thought he acted too extravagantly.* He 
 sent for Lutchmee and told her, through 
 the interpreter, that as her husband had 
 not been found, the Governor had ordered 
 him to allot her to an estate where she 
 must discharge the obligations of her con- 
 tract made in India, but that if her husband 
 should be found she would be placed wher- 
 ever he was. 
 
 * There is an official who has sat for the portrait of the 
 Agent-General in the tent. I need not mention his name, 
 but it is well known and greatty respected in the West Indies.
 
 The Recognition. 85 
 
 Lutclirnee had gained from her country- 
 men on the sea-wall some inkling of estate 
 life. They had described to her the work 
 in the field and the " megass-yard," the 
 houses, the hospitals, and the general 
 conditions. For this she was quite un- 
 prepared. The whole impulse of her 
 engagement and voyage had been to 
 regain her husband. To lose him, and 
 find herself bound to perform labours she 
 had never thought of, almost crushed her. 
 She implored Mr. Goodeve to find her 
 husband, or send her back to India. The 
 terrible unfriended desolation of her heart 
 excited her to a loud outburst of grief. 
 The Agent- General was moved by her agi- 
 tation, bat was obliged to return a decided 
 answer. She must go to Belle Susanne. 
 
 The poor woman sat down, and covering
 
 86 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 her head in her chudder, rocked herself 
 backward and forwards, moaning piteously. 
 The interpreter vainly tried to comfort 
 her. Mr. Goodeve went to her, and put 
 his hand on the bare arm that clasped it, 
 to remove the dr artery from her head. The 
 skin was dry and burning. 
 
 " Ha ! " said he, " she has fever, and 
 very badly, too. Sammy, she must go to 
 the hospital." 
 
 The way from the immigration depot 
 to that admirable public institution, the 
 Georgetown hospital, lay along a road that 
 traversed Eveleery, the garrison fields, and 
 turning at the end of the east coast " dam," 
 or high road, which was cut short by those 
 fields, passed over a wooden bridge that led 
 across a creek to one of the principal streets 
 of the town. Beyond the garrison, right
 
 The Recognition. Sj 
 
 'a 
 
 and left of the east coast dam, was a wilder- 
 ness of unoccupied land, and on either side 
 of the dam a broad canal, which required 
 every few weeks to be cleared of its weeds. 
 The property belonged to Government, and 
 afforded occupation to a number of short- 
 time convicts, who were led out to their 
 work in gangs of about a dozen. 
 
 Lutchmee was borne along in a low hand- 
 cart covered with an awning of cotton, her 
 whole frame burning with fever, and her 
 eyes restlessly wandering over every object 
 they could reach. As the cart reached the 
 bridge, it passed a file of prisoners going- 
 out to work, who looked with interest at 
 the sick woman. Before any one could 
 interfere, one of the prisoners, suddenly 
 exclaiming, " Lutchmee ! " darted from the 
 line and clasped her in his arms. Her
 
 88 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 quick eye had taken in the familiar though 
 altered features, and she had half risen, but 
 the joy was too great, and she lay senseless 
 in the embrace of Dilloo. He was instantly 
 seized and pulled away by the foreman of 
 the gang, who took the strange act of the 
 convict for a sudden frenzy. Dilloo's teeth 
 ground together, and a fierce fire was 
 flaming in his eyes. Fortunately the in- 
 terpreter had accompanied the party, and 
 after exchanging a few words with the 
 prisoner was soon able to explain his 
 singular conduct. Meanwhile Lutchmee 
 began to recover, and, opening her eyes, 
 stretched out her arms towards her hus- 
 band, repeating his name. The warder let 
 go his hold, and in a moment, Dilloo, his 
 face wet with tears and his whole body 
 trembling with excitement, sat upon the
 
 The Recognition. 89 
 
 edge of the cart, and lifting the sick woman 
 on his knee, laid, her burning head on his 
 shoulder, and unmindful of the gathering 
 crowd of Blacks, Indians, Portuguese, and 
 Whites, soothed her with eager words of 
 affection. Among the spectators, was 
 Lutchmee's friend the sailor, who happened 
 to be lounging on shore. He drew the 
 back of his hand across his eyes, — he was 
 idiotically soft-hearted. 
 
 "Blow me," said he, "if this ain't too 
 much for me ! I never see two copper-skins 
 go on so like human bein's afore in all my 
 born days." 
 
 At this moment a light covered waggon 
 drawn by a spirited horse, and carrying a 
 gentleman with his Negro servant, came 
 swiftly along the road from the east coast. 
 The spectators blocked the bridge.
 
 9 o Lu tch mee and Dilloo. 
 
 " Get out ob de way ! " shouted the black 
 fellow, glad like all his race to domineer 
 when well supported. " What you stop up 
 dat bridge for ? " 
 
 The horse came on, the crowd gave way, 
 shouting to him to stop, and disclosing the 
 pathetic group in its midst ; but the Negro 
 never drew rein, and would have seriously 
 if not fatally damaged the interesting scene, 
 had not our sailor jumped forward and seized 
 the horse's head. 
 
 " Stop ! you black fellow," he cried. 
 " Would you bear down at ten knots on 
 human bein's like a shoal of mackerel ? " 
 
 The Negro gave one cut with his whip 
 over the sailor's brawny neck. Before he 
 could repeat it, he was seized by the collar, 
 dragged from the waggon, and pitched neck 
 and crop from the bridge into the muddy
 
 The Recognition. 91 
 
 water beneath. The previous movement 
 had turned the horse round and broken a 
 shaft. Half a dozen hands held the animal's 
 head. 
 
 "There! you wretched black-skin," said 
 the sailor, looking down upon the mud- 
 covered object that was scrambling out of 
 the shallow creek, " that will teach you to 
 keep your fins off an English tar if ever 
 you're tempted to try it again ! " 
 
 The gentleman had jumped out of the 
 waggon, and in his turn now collared the 
 sailor, amid dangerous murmurs from the 
 crowd. 
 
 " What do you mean by stopping my 
 horse and assaulting my servant in that way, 
 sir ? " said Drummond, for it was no other. 
 
 It was white man against white man 
 this time, and Drummond was powerful
 
 92 Lutch?nee and Dilloo. 
 
 and accustomed to command. The sailor, 
 though not alarmed, was subdued. 
 
 " Well, you see, sir," he replied, touching 
 his cap, " your servant warn't over polite to 
 me for a black-skin to an Englishman, as 
 you'll admit ; and moreover he was about 
 to drive over this young couple, that haven't 
 spoke or signalled one another this two or 
 three year ; and the poor wench too under 
 the weather, and being hauled into dry-dock 
 for repairs." 
 
 Drurmnond's quick eye rested on the 
 couple, and he recognised both of them im- 
 mediately. Dilloo was too well known to him. 
 He was one of the ablest of his labourers, 
 and, in his opinion, one of the worst of his 
 servants. He did his work rapidly and 
 well, but his* independence, energy, and 
 capacity gave him great influence among
 
 The Recognition. . 93 
 
 the estate's people. Instead of using this 
 in the ordinary Indian manner, to curry 
 favour with his master and advance himself, 
 he rather employed it in organising and aid- 
 ing the Coolies, against any wrong on the part 
 of their superiors. Upon an estate worked 
 by indentured labourers, that such a man 
 would be likely to become an intolerable 
 nuisance to the manager would not be 
 doubted by the most partial philanthropist, 
 though he and the planter would not draw 
 identical conclusions from the circumstance. 
 Dilloo was now suffering three months' im- 
 prisonment for an alleged assault on the 
 very groom of whose condign punishment 
 he was as yet unconscious. That was the 
 first time the cautious Hindoo had given 
 Drummond any legal hold upon him, and 
 indeed his conviction was undeserved.
 
 94 Lute km ee and Dilloo, 
 
 Drumniond was naturally a kind-hearted 
 man. The hardness that had grown in him 
 towards the dark races by whom his wealth 
 was made for him had sprung out of the 
 nature of his relations to them; and some- 
 what against the grain. In Iris mind it 
 was based on justice to himself, for he 
 had succeeded in convincing his conscience 
 that their interests and his were rarely 
 compatible, and that when there was 
 collision they ought to give way. This is 
 the inevitable tendency of these relations. 
 The glance at Dilloo and Lutchmee 
 touched a soft place in his feelings. He 
 loosed his grasp on the sailor, and at the 
 apparition of Pete, his servant, in the 
 natural dress of a crocodile, chuckled so 
 maliciously, that the crowd gave vent to 
 an inordinate chorus of delight.
 
 The Recognition. 95 
 
 " Well, you're an object, Mr. Pete. 
 You will have to walk home, and get 
 dry as you go. Keep your whip in future 
 for horses and black men — though," he 
 added, significantly, " you have not found 
 that answer, either." 
 
 The discomfited groom made off amidst 
 the jeers of his countrymen, whose huge 
 lips and shining teeth exhibited the 
 keenest relish of his misfortune. 
 
 Drummond meanwhile turned to the 
 young couple. The foreman of the con- 
 vict gang was getting impatient, and 
 ordered Dilloo to return to his place. 
 The Coolie did not hear him. Drummond 
 put his hand on his shoulder. 
 
 "Is this your wife, Dilloo ? " 
 
 The Indian looked up boldly into the 
 planter's face, and said, —
 
 96 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 "Iss, massa." 
 
 " She's a fine young woman, then. She 
 is coming to my estate — bound to Belle 
 Susanne. I wish for her sake you were 
 out of gaol. What's the matter with 
 her?" 
 
 " Fever." 
 
 Drummond's experienced hand sought 
 her pulse, and felt the burning skin. 
 
 " She's very bad. You had better let 
 her go to the hospital at once. When 
 she gets out, I'll take care of her. How 
 long have you been in gaol ? " 
 
 " Two mons." 
 
 " Well, it won't be long before you get 
 back to her. She shall live in the hospital 
 till you come home ; and I hope, now, 
 after this, you'll keep quiet and get into 
 no more scrapes."
 
 The Recognition. 97 
 
 It was with difficulty that Lutchmee 
 could be parted from her husband or he 
 from her; but she was at length removed 
 in a paroxysm of the fever, while Dilloo, 
 resuming his place among the convicts, 
 went on to complete the imprisonment, 
 of which the monotony had been so sadly 
 yet so excitedly broken. When Drummond 
 turned round to his carriage, he found that 
 the sailor, using his knife and some tarred 
 strain from his pockets, had very neatly 
 spliced the broken shaft. As he thanked 
 him the man took off his cap. 
 
 " Lookee 'ere, sir," said he, drawing a 
 gold coin from some mysterious hiding- 
 place beneath his belt, " I'm afeard that 
 there young Injin woman's a-going to be 
 very cranky this long while, and mebbe 
 they ain't over partikler how they over- 
 
 vol. 1. 7
 
 g$ Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 haul and caulk 'em in that there 'orspital. 
 Will you kindly take keer 'o this, and mebbe 
 'twill get her some extra stores and better 
 handling, and I couldn't do no more for 
 my own sister ? " 
 
 " You're a good fellow," said Drummond, 
 kindly taking his hand. " I'll see she is 
 well taken care of. She is my servant 
 now, you know, and I am bound to look 
 after her. Good-day."
 
 Belle Susanne g y 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 BELLE SUSANNE. 
 
 The estate of Belle Susanne lay a con- 
 siderable distance up the east coast of 
 Demerara, the central county or district 
 of British Guiana. Vast as is the country 
 known by that name, extending deeply 
 into the South American- continent, only a 
 selvage of it has been rescued from wilder- 
 ness by the hand of civilization. The 
 interior consists of impassable swamps, 
 open savannahs, tropical forests where the 
 gigantic trunks of the Mora or Simiri, 
 amongst which rise here and there the
 
 i oo L utchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 slender shafts of the graceful Eta or Turn 
 palms, are festooned with vast, embower- 
 ing creepers, while every nook and shoulder 
 of their massive branches is gemmed with 
 rare orchids. Beneath their shadow, great 
 spreading ferns and huge-leaved shrubs 
 exhibit the perfection of tropical vegetation 
 in a soil and climate most favourable to 
 exuberance. In these almost impenetra- 
 ble scenes, the reign of nature is disturbed 
 only by the wild animals and a few 
 thousands of wandering Indians — Caribs, 
 Arawaks, Acawoios, and Macusi. These 
 people, of light copper skin, short well- 
 made bodies and agreeable countenances, 
 range the endless hunting-grounds, where 
 nothing more dangerous than the deadly 
 Labarri snake, and perhaps nothing more 
 disagreeable than the vampire-bat is to be
 
 Belle Stcsanne. 101 
 
 found : a harmless people, in a perfect 
 state of nature, both bodily and mental. 
 
 It is the flat alluvial land along the 
 banks of the great rivers Demerara, Esse- 
 quibo, Berbice, and Corentyn, and a strip 
 bordering the sea-coasts of the colony, that 
 have alone been won from nature by 
 European energy. To bring even these 
 parts into culture, the Dutch, who first occu- 
 pied the country, were obliged to undertake 
 such vast works as were familiar to them 
 in their native land, but they had to carry 
 them out under a burning sun and in a hor- 
 rible climate. While they erected dykes 
 to shut out the sea and the rivers on one 
 side, or the vast overflowing waters of the 
 inland -swamps on the other, they were 
 obliged to create a system of canals and 
 drains to relieve the occupied parts from
 
 1 02 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 the too-domineering water, and to facili- 
 tate the conveyance of the produce down 
 the long lines of their estates. The 
 shore or river fringe varies in breadth from 
 two to six miles, and is divided by parallel 
 lines into the various estates, some being 
 not more than a hundred yards wide. The 
 road to these estates is the top of the 
 dam protecting them from the sea, to 
 which joins at right angles the " middle - 
 dam" or centre road of each estate, which 
 runs back as far as the inner boundary, 
 and is drained on either side by navigation 
 and drainage trenches. Looking from the 
 top of the dam across the vast flats, the 
 eye lights only on an occasional tree and 
 on groups of estates' buildings. 
 
 Belle Susanne was a long way from 
 Georgetown, but it would scarcely have
 
 Belle Susanne. 103 
 
 mattered up which of the branching dams 
 we turned to find its counterpart. We 
 should discover the same general features 
 and economy on all the estates. Some 
 buildings are distinguished from others by 
 greater neatness, better machinery, and the 
 evidences of more business-like conduct. 
 And Belle Susanne was conspicuous amongst 
 Demerara estates, both for handsome build- 
 ings and good management. As you ap- 
 proached the white-painted bridge which 
 connected the front dam with the estate 
 road, the canes along on the right looked 
 tall and green and juicy; and, if you noticed 
 the cane-hills, you saw that they had been 
 weeded and hoed with industrious care. 
 Through such fields on either hand were at 
 length reached the manager's house, in its 
 neat garden; the hospital, a handsome
 
 1 04 L utchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 wooden barrack, erected for a hundred 
 patients ; the overseer's quarters : all these 
 buildings elevated on piles, with broad, lat- 
 ticed verandahs, and long-sweeping shingled 
 roofs. Past these the road led straight to 
 the megass-yard, shut in on three sides by 
 its corrugated iron sheds, some hundreds of 
 feet in length, where the dried refuse of the 
 sugar-cane was laid up for the fires that 
 were to boil the next year's crop. To the 
 left was an irregular pile of wooden build- 
 ings, over which towered a tall brick chim- 
 ney, the erection whereof in that fierce 
 sun-glow must have been a Tartarean busi- 
 ness. To-day it is vomiting forth abundant 
 smoke, the noise of machinery rumbles with- 
 in the vast wooden shells, the yard is alive 
 with active men, women, and children; the 
 smithy, with its white head-blacksmith and
 
 Belle Susanne. 105 
 
 his Chinese aids, is wheezy with the blowing 
 bellows and resounding with rapid hammers ; 
 for it is crop time, and no idle hand ean be 
 allowed to exist out of the hospital. The 
 soil of the megass-yard is almost as black 
 as ink, spongy to the feet, and offensive to 
 the smell. The lees of the rum-still in the 
 corner, which we had forgotten to mention, 
 are discharged incessantly upon the surface, 
 and fermenting the damp mass of earth, 
 produce a fcetor that fouls the air to leeward 
 sometimes for miles. Yet it is beyond and 
 to leeward of this place that lie the eighty 
 or a hundred cottages, huts and barracks, 
 that constitute the "Negro-yard" — an old 
 name, which still lingers, recalling old 
 memories, though Negroes now rarely inhabit 
 any of these estate houses. No grass sur- 
 rounds the rows of wooden sheds. They
 
 t o 5 L ufckmee and Dc I loo. 
 
 are irregularly placed : here a line of thirty 
 or forty, recently built after a Government 
 pattern on a slight elevation of hard earth ; 
 there some two-storied barracks, erected on 
 piles, relics of the Negro-time, when scores 
 were penned together in their numerous 
 rooms ; there again a few Hindu-built huts 
 of wattled palm, on a hard mud floor — the 
 Coolie's palaces. By these places are open 
 ditches, some dry and some .half full of 
 foetid water. Their use is misunderstood, or 
 certainly not much appreciated, for every- 
 where one can see the evidences that the 
 surface of soil nearest the houses is con- 
 sidered the natural and proper receptacle of 
 refuse. Constant must be the vigilance, 
 and heroic the sanitary zeal of the manager 
 who would attempt to enforce on his ignor- 
 ant people the simplest health laws.
 
 Bklle Susanne. 107 
 
 At Belle Susanne, the manager's house 
 was exceptionally clean and comfortable. 
 Mr. Drummond was not married, but a 
 nice-looking Creole woman of about thirty 
 years of age served him as housekeeper, 
 quite as faithfully as she would have done 
 had she been his wife. The sitting and 
 dining-room which occupied the first floor 
 were coolly and simply furnished with a 
 few easy-chairs, dining* and card-tables, 
 manager's desk, and a settee. A table 
 crowded with chemicals proved that he un- 
 derstood the scientific parts of his business. 
 At one end of the gallery swung a fine grass 
 hammock. A large side-board graced the 
 dining-room, where the table was long and 
 flanked with a dozen chairs, for the overseers 
 were provided with their meals in the man- 
 ager's house. Missa Nina, the housekeeper,
 
 108 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 looked well after all these things, took charge 
 of the stores, dispensed from thern to the 
 hospital-cook the daily supplies and, above 
 all, superintended the preparations of the 
 substantial meals wherewith Europeans 
 fortify themselves against tropical deterior- 
 ation. Mr. Drummond prided himself on 
 his liberality to those in his employ. 
 
 Upstairs, the manager's bedroom was a 
 lofty and roomy place, under the unceiled 
 rafters. One side of it was occupied with 
 pegs, whereon hung every description of 
 male garment, giving it the aspect of an 
 old clothes' shop. Bows of boots ranged 
 beneath increased the resemblance to a 
 Dudley Street warehouse. In the middle 
 of the room stood a great iron-bedstead 
 covered with its mosquito-netting. A plain 
 deal table, a capacious wash-stand, a shav-
 
 Belle Susanne, 109 
 
 ing-glass, a chest of drawers, some trunks, 
 and two chairs completed the furniture. 
 The floor was left uncovered, and afforded 
 no lurking-place for centipedes or scorpions, 
 though it was the constant foraging ground 
 of innumerahle ants. 
 
 Under the netting, one morning, at five 
 o'clock, lay Drummond, having just been 
 waked by the attentive Missa, who had lit 
 a candle, and bore in her hand a cup of 
 coffee with a small slice of buttered toast. 
 
 " Nina," said the manager, taking the cup 
 as she raised the netting, " there is a girl 
 at the hospital called Lutchmee, landed 
 from the last ship. She is the wife of that 
 man Dilloo, who was sent to gaol for licking 
 Pete. Egad ! you should have seen Pete in 
 the mud that time ! " he interposed, with 
 a chuckle. Pete being a Methodist local-
 
 1 10 Lutchmee and Diiloo, 
 
 preacher, was a sort of favourite with Nina. 
 " She's a young handsome girl, and needs 
 to be looked after." 
 
 He was intent on his coffee, and did not 
 see the sudden lustre that lit up the dark 
 eyes of the woman, who had been standing 
 looking with admiration at the broad mus- 
 cular neck and chest which the unbuttoned 
 shirt, with its corners thrown back, exposed 
 to view. 
 
 "You had better send for her over here 
 and ration her from the house for a few 
 days. — Halloo ! what's the matter with you? 
 Do you mean to say you are jealous ? " 
 
 "0 no, massa: I ought to be used to 
 your ways by this time." 
 
 " There you go again ! What do you 
 mean by that ? See you do what I tell you. 
 I want to do the girl a kindness, and you'd
 
 Belle Susanne. 1 1 1 
 
 like to prevent it ? Go away : I'm going to 
 dress." 
 
 " What does the woman mean ? " said 
 Drummond to himself, turning uneasily in 
 his bed. " She's like all those niggers, 
 jealous and conceited. ' Ought to be used 
 to my ways by this time ! ' What does she 
 mean ? " 
 
 The fact was, the covert hit in this simple 
 sentence had gone further home than Missa 
 Nina could have expected, or than Mr. 
 Drummond would admit to himself. This 
 creature, whom he had taken as a young 
 girl from her mother's house, had ministered 
 with the fidelity of an animal to his weak- 
 nesses, his appetites, his passions. She had 
 nursed him through a dangerous illness ; 
 and her devoted attention to his comfort, 
 and patient obedience to his slightest com-
 
 1 1 2 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 mand, had made her a necessity to what he 
 called his home. But he had long ceased 
 to derive pleasure from her companionship, 
 or to give her his confidence. After all, 
 what was she ? 
 
 As for her ? Her poor mind had few ideas, 
 — her simple nature had early heen absorbed 
 in the one passion for this great and glorious 
 being, whose strength, manliness and spirit 
 seemed in her eyes so god-like. The few 
 vague notions of religion she had gathered 
 at the village Sunday-school years ago, and 
 in some occasional paroxysms of religious 
 excitement at the meeting-house in Gui- 
 neatown, seemed to have awakened in her 
 mind no suspicion that she stood in any 
 other than a proper relation to Drummond : 
 the relation proper for such a person of such 
 a race as she was to such a being of such a
 
 Belle Susanne. 1 1 3 
 
 race as his. Indeed, her shallow piety ran 
 towards him, and circled round him, and he 
 was the chief subject of her rare and simple 
 prayers. She was conscious he regarded 
 her rather as he regarded his dog and his 
 horse, as a part of his establishment, and 
 she felt that she ought not to expect to 
 monopolise the entire affection of a man 
 like that ; yet, there was something in her 
 which flamed up with fierce, volcanic energy, 
 when she saw him confer on others the 
 favours she had once arrogated to herself. 
 There are few more puzzling psychological 
 studies than these stunted mental and moral 
 natures, embodied in whole races of man- 
 kind, and seeming to stand half-way be- 
 tween the Adamite ideal and the pure, 
 unspiritual brutism of lower animals ! 
 
 As Missa Nina went downstairs from 
 vol. 1. 8
 
 ii4 Lutchmee a?id Dilloo. 
 
 Drummond's room, the tears were running 
 down her cheeks in a tropical shower. 
 "Azubah ! — Desolate — a woman forsaken 
 and grieved in spirit ! " 
 
 But she would sooner have lost her life 
 than have disregarded Drummond's slightest 
 fancy. Accordingly, by breakfast-time — that 
 is to say about eleven o'clock, when man- 
 ager and overseers met after several hours' 
 round of the estates — Lutchmee was sitting 
 on the grass under the manager's house, 
 and receiving some kindly attentions from 
 the poor Creole. The latter had no sooner 
 seen the Indian woman than she was at- 
 tracted by her beauty. Lutchmee looked 
 doubtingly at the brown, well-formed face of 
 the other, but after a while surrendered to the 
 gentle marks of favour which were shown 
 to her, and though she was unable to ex-
 
 Belle Susanne. 1 1 5 
 
 change many ideas with her hostess, began 
 to feel at home. She tried to express her 
 thanks to Missa, who at once, angrily, re- 
 pudiated any generosity on her part. 
 
 " No me like you ; Massa Drammond," 
 she said, pointing to the house above. 
 " Your massa, who live here. Massa tell 
 me do this, tell me send for Lutchmee." 
 
 "Too kind," said Lutchmee. 
 
 "Yes — too kind — much — much kind to 
 Coolie woman. Good man to Coolie woman, 
 Massa Drummond." 
 
 Nina brought this out rather convul- 
 sively, and her tone was slightly satirical. 
 Lutchmee started and gazed in the other's 
 face, but the woman avoided her glance. 
 
 "You stay here all day — stay here all 
 time," ' said Nina at length. " Massa 
 Drummond take good care of Lutchmee."
 
 1 1 6 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 " No, no ! " replied the Indian woman, 
 her heart divining some perilous mystery 
 in this arrangement. " Me go live where 
 all Coolie women live : too, too kind, 
 Massa Drummon'." 
 
 Nina's woman's instinct told her that 
 this girl was shrinking from something to 
 which she had herself readily yielded. If 
 it were a pleasure for a moment to feel 
 that here she had no rival, it was, on the 
 other hand, a somewhat displeasing reflec- 
 tion upon her, that Lutchmee should he 
 superior to so overwhelming an attraction. 
 So Missa said sharply, — 
 
 " You Massa Drummond's Coolie woman ; 
 do what Massa Drummond say. Else 
 Massa Drummond heat you, kill you ! " 
 
 " No ! " cried Lutchmee, now thoroughly 
 alarmed. " Massa Drummon' too good
 
 Belle Susanne. 117 
 
 hurt Coolie woman. You too good, too. 
 You good woman — me good woman. You 
 help me. Me go back now to other Coolie 
 women. Please, please." 
 
 Lutchmee softly touched the other's 
 cheek, and then gently leaning over, after 
 a moment's hesitation, kissed her on the 
 forehead. Nina's eyes suddenly filled — it 
 was the first pathetic chord that had been 
 touched in her heart for many a year. 
 Often had she wept the tears of passion 
 and grief, but that was the malign tem- 
 pest : this was the soft and blessed April 
 rain. She held Lutchmee 's hand in her 
 own, and silently let the showers come. 
 The Indian, with her delicate, child-like 
 courtesy, took the end of her muslin scarf, 
 and gently wiped away the trickling drops. 
 She began dimly to comprehend something
 
 1 1 8 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 of Nina's relation to Drummond, and of 
 the reason why she wept. divine inno- 
 cence and purity, so often obscured, yet 
 never wholly left without a ray, in the 
 densest and most eclipsed of human souls ! 
 
 "We two friends," said Lutchmee. 
 "Lutchmee wife of Dilloo. Missa wife of 
 Massa Drammon'. Me, no, no go to 
 Massa Drammon'." 
 
 As she said this with an energetic eleva- 
 tion of voice, Drummond, who, having 
 dismissed the overseers, had lounged down 
 the hack stairs with a cigar in his mouth 
 to take a look at her, and had overheard 
 her last words, struck in with his deep 
 rich voice : — 
 
 " Nina, what have you been doing ? 
 Setting this girl against me, eh ? Now 
 look here, I have a good mind to horse-
 
 Belle Susanne. 119 
 
 whip you. You're the most ungrateful 
 vixen I ever knew. You have everything 
 a nigger like you could wish, and you're 
 as well off as any woman of your sort in 
 British Guiana, and yet you must strike 
 in with your infernal jealousy between me 
 and my servants, and try to set them 
 against me. Go up stairs." 
 
 "It's not true," said Missa, facing him 
 with flashing eyes. "I was doing my best 
 for you, when this woman declared she 
 would have nothing to do with you, and 
 was so gentle and kind, I couldn't stand 
 her — indeed, indeed I couldn't, Drum- 
 mond," said the poor woman, sobbing.' 
 
 "Massa, massa," cried Lutchmee, with 
 her hands together, — she had half gathered 
 the meaning of the conversation, — " me 
 talk Missa, say me Dilloo woman, no want
 
 1 20 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 leave my man. Massa keep Missa : send 
 Lutchmee dis time to 'ospital." 
 
 She went on her knees and wrung her 
 hands and beat her bosom in true Indian 
 fashion. Drummond was touched. In the 
 pursuit of his whims, the remains of gene- 
 rosity and justice in his nature had always 
 hitherto restrained him from any forcible 
 assertion of his wishes. Nor did he medi- 
 tate revenge. He was good-tempered, easy- 
 going, morally indolent. As soon as he saw 
 that Lutchmee showed a determination to 
 be true to her husband, one which he knew 
 an Indian woman rarely affects unless it is 
 real and earnest, he good-naturedly ac- 
 quiesced. 
 
 " yes : no hurt Lutchmee," said he, 
 smiling at what he thought to be the 
 absurdity of the scene, and patting her
 
 Belle Susanne. 121 
 
 on the shoulder. "Lutchmee have good 
 food here, but go back to Coolie women 
 each time. Lutchmee, trust me, eh ? " 
 
 It would have been hard, even for the 
 suspicious Lutchmee, looking into the fine 
 open face and clear eyes of the manager, 
 to believe that any dangerous cunning 
 lurked behind them, or that his word was 
 a fraud. She breathed a new breath, and 
 smiled most charmingly as she took his 
 hand from her shoulder and naively kissing 
 it, bowed low to her master.
 
 122 
 
 Lutchmee ana Dilloo. 
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 SIMON PETY. 
 
 " Simon Pety," as lie was usually called 
 among his friends and relatives, was a Creole 
 African of perfect type. High and receding 
 was his forehead, crisp and close the wool 
 that clung like a black cap about his conical 
 head ; huge were his ears; well capable of 
 supporting the massive rings that strained 
 their enormous lobes. Beneath the promi- 
 nent brows which stretched like a rugged 
 bow across his front, the small dark orbits 
 of his eyes, set in their pinky whites, rolled 
 restlessly, cunningly, quizzically ; and the
 
 Simon Pety. 123 
 
 crows '-feet on either side trembled with 
 incessant motion. Froni between these 
 quaint orbs came down a nose the exact 
 resemblance of a top split in half, turned 
 upside down and glued upon the face, with 
 the similarity enhanced by the appearance 
 of two deep and rugged holes, pegged, as it 
 were, into its larger end. Then the de- 
 scending eye of the observer lighted on a 
 pair of lips brown-red, and full, — lips of a 
 satyr, yet soft and mobile in their motion, 
 and, when open to their full extent in the 
 agony of a great cachinnation, disclosing an 
 Acherontic gulf, with cliffs of rocky ivory 
 shining far within. If we add to these the 
 half-grizzly forest of beard that grew un- 
 tended on Simon Pety's chin, can our 
 reader believe us that the being we have 
 been describing was a man of gallantry
 
 124 Lutchmee and Diiioo. 
 
 and one of the lights of Mount Horeb 
 Chapel, at Guineatown, the adjacent 
 Negro village ? Yet it was so. More than 
 one damsel of dusky hue — not to mention 
 a certain widow, who, having a house of 
 her own, and a capital plantain-plot, was 
 deep in Simon Pety's regard — had evidence 
 too damning of his indifference to moral 
 laws. 
 
 Such a character as that of Simon Pety 
 is an interesting, if also a painful, study 
 in psychology. All sense, instinct, and 
 emotion, combining the shrewdness of some 
 of the finer brutes, with an intellectual 
 power of the narrowest capacity, — nay, 
 seeming rather to be endowed with an in- 
 telligence than an intellect, — this strange 
 being, half man, half animal, now and then 
 showed himself capable of spiritual appre-
 
 Simon Pety. 125 
 
 hensions far beyond his mere intellectual 
 understanding, and could at intervals be 
 swayed by moral emotions to which con- 
 science and not reason gave within him any 
 force or vitality. To do or abstain from 
 doing a thing because it was right and 
 approved itself to his mind, as abstractedly 
 the good and right thing to do, was, so far 
 as you can judge, for Simon Pety an impos- 
 sible thing ; but if you touched his religious 
 emotions, it was a fair chance that in some 
 of his moods you would be able to incite or 
 deter him in a certain course of action. In 
 nine cases out of ten, the animal within 
 him was stronger than the spiritual, — pas- 
 sion surprised and confounded devotion and 
 conscience ; and the rally was simply a 
 violent spiritual emotion in the direction of 
 penitence. What missionary who had for
 
 1 2 6 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 the first time heard Simon Pety praying at 
 Mount Horeb, with florid imagery, vivid 
 eloquence, and pathetic voice, amid the 
 sobs and exclamations and beatings of 
 the breast of the seething congregation, 
 could have believed that, on a summary of 
 Simon. Pety's life, any impartial fellow-man 
 must have declared him a hypocrite and a 
 scamp? But, since* a being of such mys- 
 teriously anomalous construction is to be 
 found, on the whole one must hold with the 
 missionary who, through many failures and 
 discouragements, has been able to redeem 
 from inhumanity worse subjects than this, 
 and who bravely sticks to Simon Pety as a 
 brand yet to be snatched, not utterly to be 
 abandoned as hopeless until he has taken 
 his last breath of earthly air. 
 
 On the evening of his misadventure at
 
 Simon Pety. 12J 
 
 Georgetown, Simon Pety, who had walked 
 home, a good five hours' business, in his 
 clay-covered suit, and had, indeed, in the 
 process managed to divest his mind of the 
 humiliation of the morning so far as to con- 
 vince himself that he had been a martyr for 
 some truth unmentioned and unknown, was 
 sitting in the house of " Missa Sankey," the 
 widow aforesaid, eating voraciously out of a 
 big basin of fou-fou soup, — the thick mucil- 
 aginous mixture of boiled plantains and 
 gravy, which is the delight of Creole 
 Africans. The spoon was large and 
 wooden, the soup was sticky, and as Pety's 
 capacious under-jaw dropped down to admit 
 the generous instalments of food, his beard 
 received fresh contributions from moment 
 to moment. 
 
 In an old rocking-chair, watching him
 
 128 L utchmee arid Dilloo. 
 
 with keen enjoyment, sat Missa Sankey. 
 She was a comely black, of shining face, 
 neat figure, and, just now, of cleanly dress, 
 — for she had on a tight-fitting calico, on 
 the bosom whereof just then Pety's progeny 
 and hers, aged two years, was being rocked 
 to sleep. On her head the invariable ban- 
 danna, of flaunting colours, diversified the 
 monotony of her own hue. She was, as we 
 have said, a comely woman, and a pleasant 
 withal; and when she spoke her mouth 
 seemed always to smile, as the regular rows 
 of white teeth glistened inside the ruddy 
 lips. 
 
 " Poah Simon Pety ! " she said, at length, 
 after watching for some time in silence 
 his greedy efforts; " dat dere white fellah 
 ought to be shot : go and serve de good 
 man so."
 
 Simon Pety, 129 
 
 Simon Pety was getting near the bottom 
 of the bowl, and was correspondingly satis- 
 fied. He paused, after a huge gulp. Like 
 many good enthusiasts, Simon Pety was 
 accustomed to air his shallow Scriptural 
 knowledge without particular regard to its 
 relativeness. 
 
 " Susan Sankey, de Lord hab said, If 
 you am smote on de right cheek, turn 
 round de left. I'se been maltreated dis day 
 by de enemy of mankind. Dat dere sailor, 
 Susan, he'm a miss'onary ob Satan sent to 
 buffet me. Ha!" said Pete, swallowing 
 another spoonful, " if dine enemy hunger, 
 feed him — it shall be an exc'llent ile dat 
 shall not break his head. I'm sartain dat 
 dere sailor fellah go to de debbil." Another 
 spoonful. "But de Lord keep us from 
 presentiments ! " 
 
 vol. 1. 9
 
 130 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 "But, Pety, why Massa Drummon' let 
 you go be treated dat way? Why he no 
 lick de saila man ? " 
 
 " Susan Sankey, you kent adop no con- 
 clusions 'bout de rules ob action whereby 
 dese yere European whites will registrate 
 dere conduc'. Deys like de 'guana.* You'm 
 got 'em yere, dare you haven't. Massa 
 Drummon' any oder day 'd a knock dat ere 
 sailor man into chips — dis day take a huma 
 cle oder way. It's all de debbil, Susan. 
 Massa Drummon' he not one ob de Lord's 
 people ; and de way ob de wicked am turned 
 upside down." 
 
 Here he heaved a deep sigh, but w T hether 
 it were at his master's depravity or at the 
 empty state of the calabash from which he 
 
 * The Iguana, a huge and very active lizard, which is 
 very good eating.
 
 Simon Pety. 1 3 1 
 
 had been eating it was difficult to guess. 
 He then rose, and, approaching Susan 
 Sankey, stooped down to give her a kiss. , 
 It was ill requited. 
 
 " Dere, you nassy man, go 'way ! Wash 
 your face. Cober my face all over wid de 
 fou-fou soup ! " 
 
 " Mos' extremely beg pardon, Susan," re- 
 plied Simon Pety, meekly, for he could not 
 afford to fall out with her. " Dese yere im- 
 perials am berry awkwid and imposing. 
 Dey ain't conducted to de consumption of 
 fou-fou soup. I'll cut 'im off if you wish," 
 added he, gallantly. 
 
 " Go 'way, you foolish niggah ! Go cut 
 off de most butiful features ob yer face. 
 Der ain't sich a whiska in Guineatown. 
 Heah ! I'll wash him for you." 
 
 And rolling the naked youngling on the
 
 132 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 ground, Missa Sankey proceeded to wipe 
 Pete's beard with a wet towel, and then to 
 brush it with the remains of a hair brush ; 
 and when this was concluded, she pushed 
 him into the rocking-chair, and, sitting 
 down on his knees, gave him a kiss. 
 
 ' " Ya ! ya ! " said a shrill voice, which 
 was immediately followed by a small chorus 
 of two or three others : " dere's de preacher 
 and Missa Sankey kissin' in de rocking- 
 chair ! " 
 
 The sounds came from the cracks of the 
 half-open door, where three or four village 
 juveniles, without a scrap to cover them, 
 had been amusing themselves by watching 
 with their dark eyes the whole of the scene 
 we have been describing. Pete jumped up 
 incontinently, rolling his burthen on the 
 baby, and rushed out after the impudent
 
 Simon Pety. 133 
 
 cynics, who tumbled off the high stairs into 
 the mud without hesitation, and were out 
 of sight in a twinkling. He was brought 
 back by the united screams of Susan Sankey 
 and her baby, the former having suffered as 
 much in her dignity as the latter had in its 
 feelings.. 
 
 " Get away, you awkwid niggah," she 
 shouted, shaking the child at him in her 
 passion. " You'm a'mos' kill de baby an' 
 me too. You call yourself a gen'leman, 
 throw me 'bout in dat impropa way. Dere 
 ain't no Christianity in dat dere sort ob 
 rudeness." 
 
 "Susan, I hab done wrong; my wrath 
 and anger was 'cited by dose juvenile 
 youngsters protruding on our sacred privacy. 
 I ought to hab born wid meekness de scorn- 
 ing ob de proud and de laughing ob de simple."
 
 134 L utchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 " You bigga fool than eber ! What you 
 come back "for ? why you no go catch the 
 little debbils ? You 'spose I ain't got no 
 character to lose ! " 
 
 And here Susan swept off into her 
 kitchen with the squalling baby, slamming 
 the door in Pete's face. He knew it was 
 useless to invade that sanctuary, so, taking 
 up his old hat, Pete ruefully departed 
 homewards, his awkwardness having cost 
 him the glass of rum which invariably 
 solaced his parting moments with the 
 widow. He knew she would not hold her 
 anger long, but he felt grieved that he 
 had lost an opportunity for one more 
 drink. 
 
 " Oh ! " said Pete, to himself, apropos 
 of nothing, — " dat I had wings like a 
 dove, den would I fly away and be at rest."
 
 The Ovet seers 135 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE OYEKSEEKS. 
 
 At Belle Susanne there were seven over- 
 seers, young men of ages varying from 
 thirty to twenty, and no two of the 
 same country. One was a Creole white ; 
 another, the eldest, a coloured man; an- 
 other was the son of an Englishwoman 
 hy a Madeiran father; the three younger 
 had been sent from England by the 
 proprietors, and represented the three 
 kingdoms ; the last was a Barbadian 
 Negro. Taken generally, they were men 
 of energy, and one or two of them of
 
 1 3 6 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 considerable ability. Their duties were 
 onerous and responsible; their life was 
 nearly the most penal that could be 
 devised for any man who is not a slave 
 or a prisoner in a penitentiary. Separated, 
 except in one or two cases, from any 
 society but that of their colleagues — 
 thrown simply, for amusement, upon the 
 wretched resources of an estate, and gene- 
 rally so hard- worked that the zest for 
 amusement was gone; constantly suffer- 
 ing from attacks of fever, in the intervals 
 of which they pursued their occupation, and, 
 debarred from the engaging and civilising 
 influences of female society, one can scarcely 
 imagine, outside a penal establishment, 
 a more dismal post than that, of an over- 
 seer on the sugar estates of British 
 Guiana ; unless, perhaps, when it is miti-
 
 The Overseers. 137 
 
 gated in the case of those who are fortu- 
 nate enough to be within easy reach of 
 Georgetown, and are privileged to enter 
 its society. 
 
 At an early hour of the morning these 
 young men turned out of their quarters, 
 to see that their gangs went off to work. 
 Crampton, the senior, looked after the build- 
 ings, the rest took charge of the various 
 gangs in the fields, such as the gangs for 
 weeding, shovelling, or hoeing. Each had his 
 book, wherein he noted the names and the 
 time and quality of the work of each person 
 in his gang, and made his remarks thereon. 
 Were any of them absent it was his duty 
 in the afternoon to compare his list with 
 the hospital entries, and ascertain whether 
 sickness was the excuse. In cases of 
 absconding and laziness he was to inform
 
 138 Lulchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 the manager, who forthwith summoned 
 the delinquent before the magistrate, and, 
 at the hearing, the overseer was expected 
 to attend to prove the case. So much 
 was this a matter of course that Mr. 
 Drummond rarely took the trouble to ask 
 his overseers whether they were able on 
 their own evidence to convict the culprit. 
 They on their part never hesitated to 
 supply it if it were wanting. The de- 
 fendant rarely understood what was going 
 on, and the mysteries of cross-examination 
 were Sibylline to him. The most con- 
 scientious magistrate could hardly be 
 expected to weigh the evidence of Coolie 
 companions who eked out their small 
 modicum of fact with obviously ridiculous 
 fictions or exaggerations, but he too often 
 received with placid confidence any rela-
 
 The Overseers. 139 
 
 tion the overseers chose to inflict upon 
 him. One overseer at Belle Susanne, a 
 young Scotchman, named Craig, had given 
 Mr. Drummond some trouble in this 
 respect. He was stupid enough to decline 
 to swear to matters not within his own 
 ken, and in consequence of this had put 
 the- manager in one or two cases to the 
 expense of fresh summonses, or had 
 obliged him to drop a case. Drummond 
 pointed out to him that, on the whole, 
 general justice was done, and that to fail 
 in a charge against a labourer was in- 
 jurious to the discipline of the estate, 
 but Craig was too Scotch to see the 
 humour of this demonstration. 
 
 The first business of the morning for 
 the overseers was to go the round of the 
 Negro-yard and rouse the people, and if
 
 140 Lutchmee and D Moo. 
 
 they proved, or were known to be, refrac- 
 tory, to enter their dwellings and turn 
 them out. In cases of sudden resistance 
 they sometimes handled the Coolies very 
 roughly. It may he imagined that this 
 often made whole gangs turbulent for 
 the day. In British Guiana I believe the 
 custom has been abandoned. 
 
 The most powerful of the overseers was 
 the youngest, whose name we have already 
 mentioned. His ability and spirit had 
 gained for him the manager's good-will. 
 An inch over six feet in height, with 
 broad shoulders, strong frame, bold regular 
 features, of blonde complexion, Craig would 
 have been remarked by any one seeing the 
 overseers together, to be as superior to the 
 rest in tone and manner as he was in 
 appearance. He came from Ayrshire,
 
 The Overseers. 141 
 
 where his father was a well-to-do farmer, 
 who had given his son as good an educa- 
 tion as was attainable before he reached 
 the age of seventeen. His mother would 
 have made a minister of the really clever 
 stripling, but to the youth himself the 
 " call" was far from clear; and hearing of 
 openings in the West Indies, he had pre- 
 vailed on his father to procure him from 
 the friend who owned the estate the 
 offer of an overseer apprenticeship at 
 Belle Susanne. Little had young Craig 
 conceived of the true nature of the work 
 to which he had engaged himself for 
 five years, and he often chewed bitter 
 thoughts over his experiences. But a 
 natural buoyancy of disposition, gradual 
 acclimatisation, and the prospect of advance- 
 ment had somewhat reconciled him to his
 
 142 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 lot. Drummond naturally took much to 
 this powerful and diligent youth with his 
 ingenuous face and marked character. 
 
 In one point Craig was peculiar among 
 his companions. They were nearly all the 
 children of adventure and misfortune. 
 For them in their young days there had 
 been little experience of domestic happi- 
 ness ; whereas he recalled with the deepest 
 affection a mother of handsome and kindly 
 face, of gentle life, somewhat of an " en- 
 thusiast," as the world would take her, 
 strictly true to the principles of Free 
 Kirk and shorter Catechism, a Puritan, 
 but withal a mild one. At her knee he 
 had listened to the simple and devout 
 eloquence with which she spoke of the 
 principles and the example of the noblest 
 life of which we have record; and from
 
 The Overseers, 143 
 
 her he had imbibed a gentleness and 
 conscientiousness not seldom found com- 
 bined in some of the manliest and most 
 rugged Scotch natures. The same creed 
 which in many minds developes the narrow 
 rigidity of the Covenanter, is in other 
 natures found to be consistent with the 
 tenderest spirit and the broadest sympa- 
 thies. Some of the mother's devoutness, 
 of her superstitious respect for the very 
 words of Scripture, had been transfused 
 into the son's being. He never professed 
 to emulate her piety; but he had a 
 reverence for the Sabbath, and adhered 
 regularly to his solitary though lamentably 
 brief " diet of morning and evening wor- 
 ship." In these habits his physical supe- 
 riority secured him against the open ridicule 
 ol his mates. They regarded these things
 
 1 4 4 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 with much, the same astonishment as was 
 manifested by a professed infidel at one of 
 our Universities, who, declaiming against 
 prayer at the table of one of the most 
 licentious of the undergraduates, was 
 rebuked by the latter, and assured that 
 he, for his part, could never begin or end 
 the day without " saying his prayers ! " The 
 result, however, of Craig's education had 
 been to give him a horror of the grosser 
 vices ; to ground him in principles of 
 honour and virtue ; and to leave generally 
 upon his mind an indefinable but real 
 influence of Calvinistic religion. 
 
 To a youth of such a mould, the charac- 
 teristics of West Indian life were some- 
 times revolting. In a community where 
 everything is done for one race and class, 
 and where, with slavery disowned, the
 
 The Overseers. 145 
 
 relation of the larger portion of the com- 
 munity is that of contemptuous patronage 
 on the one hand, and of sullen self-defence 
 on the other; where the morality of the 
 superior race is, except in a very select 
 portion of the community, unfettered even 
 hy the ordinary restraints of civilised so- 
 cieties ; and where, among the inferior races 
 animal instinct is too much the overmaster- 
 ing power, — the first sensation of a pure- 
 minded man, in Craig's situation, is one of 
 repulsion from the tone and manners of his 
 associates. They were of that low type of 
 Briton and half-breed, common in tropical 
 latitudes : their morality was only re- 
 strained by the capacity of their desires, 
 or by considerations of opportunity and 
 safety. Craig, with a large-hearted wish to 
 be on good terms with every one, could 
 vol. 1. 10
 
 146 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 scarcely govern his repugnance to the 
 language, ideas and acts of his fellow- 
 overseers. 
 
 A fortnight after the meeting between 
 Lutchmee and Dilloo, as the young men 
 were returning to their quarters from the 
 evening meal at the manager's house, 
 Martinho, he of Portuguese blood, a lithe, 
 dark, small-faced fellow, who at that time 
 was hospital overseer, said, — 
 
 "I discovered something this morning at 
 the hospital, — the prettiest Indian girl that 
 ever I saw. I believe Drummond spotted 
 her somewhere, and insisted on getting her 
 here. But what do you think ? She says 
 she is the wife of that rascal Dilloo." 
 
 " Nonsense ! It's a make-up, of course," 
 said one of the others. 
 
 " There is no doubt he knew her. They
 
 The Overseers, 147 
 
 recognised each other in Georgetown the 
 day that our psalm- singing Pete had so 
 good a ducking. But these Indian mar- 
 riages mean nothing, as we very well know." 
 
 " Yes, hut Dilloo is a determined man," 
 said the Barbadian Chester : " the most 
 dangerous man on the estate. He would 
 kill you or get up a row on the least provo- 
 cation. I always give him a very wide 
 berth. He's a good workman, too." 
 
 " I don't think I have seen much of him," 
 said Craig, whose curiosity and spirit were 
 excited by any hint of danger. 
 
 " He has been away since you came," 
 said Chester : "we were obliged to get him 
 three months at Georgetown gaol for that 
 shindy with Pete, though I believe the old 
 scamp was 'trying some of his tyrannical 
 tricks on the Indian, who is a perfect
 
 148 L utchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 demon when he gets in a rage. He shall 
 go to Massaruni next time he breaks out." 
 
 Massaruni is a penal settlement on an 
 island some distance up the river Essequibo. 
 In this strong and isolated place convicts 
 for serious crimes expiate their malfea- 
 sances in the ordinary routine of English 
 gaols the world over. For an obstreperous 
 Coolie your manager could desire no fitter 
 mode of sequestration than this well- 
 guarded home of the condemned. Within 
 sight of it, at the junction of the Massaruni 
 and Essequibo rivers, is another asylum 
 of outcasts, — the lazaretto of British 
 Guiana ; where (in spite of the Eeport of 
 the Eoyal Commission against such iso- 
 lation) those whose physical corruption has 
 made them intolerable to society, sur- 
 rounded with what alleviation their hopeless
 
 \ 
 
 The Overseers, 1^9 
 
 state admits of, sullenly drain in each 
 other's companionship the wretched dregs 
 of life. How well were it if from our social 
 life we could thus exclude its physical and 
 moral corruption, sequester and localise 
 them in lonely spofcs, and hold society safe 
 from their contagion! But alas, they are 
 sinks that never dry up : the foul scum of 
 humanity rushes up again from helow, so 
 soon as we think the horrid outflow has 
 been staunched, and again and again must 
 justice and charity set to work with un- 
 flagging efforts to skim it away ! . . . . 
 
 The overseers pursued their conversation. 
 
 " This woman," said Martinho, " is of a 
 better class than we usually get here ; and 
 a real devil for temper, I should say — as 
 bad as her husband. I gave her a pinch of 
 the arm and a pat on the cheek, and she
 
 150 Lutchmee and Dill 00. 
 
 was as savage as Miss Marston would be if 
 I were to take the same liberty with her, 
 —eh, Craig?" 
 
 He looked at Craig, but something in his 
 eye warned the Portuguese not to pursue this 
 line. The fellow would not have dared even 
 to address Miss Marston, still less to pinch 
 her arm or pat her cheek ; so he went on 
 about Lutchmee. 
 
 " She jumped up and faced me like a 
 tigress, and said, ' Massa no put hand on 
 Coolie woman : Dilloo wife ! ' " 
 
 " Ah, she'll soon get over that ! " said 
 Loseby, the Englishman, a heavy, sensual- 
 looking youth, of unwholesome colour, who 
 was wont to regard the world in general 
 with cynical stolidity. " Virtue is not an 
 Indian woman's best reward in these 
 regions,— eh ? "
 
 The Overseers. 151 
 
 He chuckled quietly over his own joke, 
 which one or two of the rest received with 
 appreciative laughter. 
 
 " I would recommend any one to let her 
 alone while Dilloo has charge of her," said 
 Chester. 
 
 " Why, one would think you were afraid 
 of this fellow Dilloo," put in Craig, himself 
 fearless of anything hut dishonour. 
 
 Chester repudiated the impeachment ; 
 but, in truth, he had good reason to be 
 timid of the Hindoo. We have explained 
 that the estates of British Guiana extend in 
 the rear for a great distance : hence the 
 inner portion is always spoken of as 
 "back." The backdam of Belle Susanne 
 was three miles and a half in a straight line 
 from the buildings : the labourers in its 
 furthest fields were far from sight or sound
 
 152 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 of other men. Out there one day with a 
 powerful gang, Chester, who was riding on 
 a mule, had found Dilloo surrounded by a 
 small crowd of his "matties," or mates, 
 whom he was excitedly haranguing. Work 
 had so far suffered. The Barbadian, in a 
 rage, raised his whip to cut the Indian 
 over his naked shoulder ; but before it had 
 descended, the latter had avoided the 
 stroke, and, leaping up on the mule behind 
 the overseer, clasped his strong arms 
 vigorously round the latter's neck. But 
 for Dilloo's companions, Chester might 
 have been before many minutes ready 
 for unceremonious burial in the adjoining 
 jungle. They pulled the two on the 
 ground, and drew off their angry com- 
 rade ; but, holding out a threat of instant 
 vengeance in case he should be so unwise
 
 The Overseers. 153 
 
 as to tell, they exacted from Chester 
 a solemn promise of silence. He was too 
 great a coward to face the horrible prospect 
 of assassination, or the chances of an 
 application to the Obe man to poison him ; 
 and had held his tongue about the affair, — 
 not only because he knew that it would 
 lower him in the estimation of the manager 
 and overseers, but for the sake of his life : 
 he was glad, therefore, to change the 
 subject. The languid interest of his col- 
 leagues in Lutchmee had been satisfied for 
 the present. 
 
 In a short time, as night had closed in and 
 their work called them up before the sun, 
 they had all tumbled beneath their mosquito 
 nets, and were enlivening the night and the 
 watchful peon under their verandah with a 
 chorus of snores.
 
 154 L iitchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 CHAPTEK XII. 
 
 AT HOME ! 
 
 A few days after the scene between Drum- 
 mond and Missa, let us pass through the 
 Negro-yard to a wattled hut beyond its 
 extreme end — a house well-built of its kind, 
 its roof of Eta palm leaves, rising to an 
 apex, its floor of smooth well-hardened mud, 
 its interior divided by a light bamboo and 
 leaf partition into two rooms or stalls, the 
 whole illuminated and ventilated only 
 through the small doorway. Outside is a 
 limited terrace on which deft hands have 
 moulded a clay fireplace. This tabernacle,
 
 At Home. 155 
 
 a daring Hindoo had taken advantage of the 
 leisure hours of a single Sunday to uprear, 
 without leave asked or given; thither he 
 had removed his household gods, and out 
 of it, the manager, who knew it to he as 
 good and healthy as any dwelling he could 
 provide, did not care to eject the tenant. 
 That daring Hindoo was Dilloo ; and here 
 to-day, in a neat white vest and skirt, 
 Lutchmee was sitting in the cool interior, 
 rubbing, in a sort of mortar scooped out of 
 the hard floor, the rice for their evening 
 meal. She was humming to herself in low 
 tones, but neither with the animation nor 
 the joyous lightness of the song she was 
 singing when we first surprised her in her 
 native home far away. Only the day 
 before yesterday had Dilloo, released from 
 his imprisonment, brought her to his house.
 
 156 Lutchmee arid Dilloo. 
 
 He was loving and tender as ever. When, 
 taking her hand on the verandah of the 
 hospital, and bearing her little bundle of 
 clothes, he led her to the hnt of which he 
 had never expected to see her a tenant, 
 there was a touch of sadness about the joy 
 with which, secure from human eye, they 
 indulged the transports of affection. Lutch- 
 mee saw and felt that there was a change 
 in her husband. Not only did he look 
 older, but he was graver and more stern in 
 manner. Moreover, she remarked in him 
 a novel habit of reserve. You will say this 
 was quick apprehension, but it was the 
 intuitive intelligence of love. Just then, 
 however, they were very happy. 
 
 " Lutchmee," said he, " I rejoice to see 
 you here, my lily, and to clasp you once 
 more in my arms. But this is not the kind
 
 At Home. 157 
 
 of place I had hoped to find when I listened 
 to that cursed recruiter, and came away 
 herein search of riches I shall never win. 
 My poor Lutchniee," he said, stroking her 
 hair with his supple hand, " you know not 
 what you have come to in looking for your 
 lost Dilloo. How unhappy you will be ! " 
 
 " Dilloo, why do you talk so ? I am 
 always happy with you. With us, so 
 loving and true, hard times cannot make 
 hard hearts. I cannot be sad so long as I 
 can see you and follow you about and work 
 for you." 
 
 " Ah ! my darling, that is not all you will 
 have to do. You know you are ' bound ' 
 now to this estate. Massa Drummond has 
 you in his hands for five years. He and six 
 or seven other sahibs can almost do what 
 they like with you — unless I tvatch them
 
 158 L utchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 closely ! " said he, in a grim undertone,, as 
 he clenched his hands and teeth. "You 
 must work every day in the megass-yard, 
 carrying your burden swiftly, under a 
 Negro-driver, and for very poor wages. 
 And you are pretty, you are graceful and 
 sweet as ever, my own Lutchmee," — with 
 softening eyes he drew her to his bosom, — 
 " and scoundrels of every race will have 
 opportunities of tempting you and threaten- 
 ing you, and even me." 
 
 " No fear of that ! " replied Lutchmee, 
 forcing a smile. "I am true to you, Dilloo, 
 and you are true to me, are you not? I 
 was true to you all the time we were apart. 
 Do you know, that vile Hunoomaun again 
 attacked me, and I was only saved at the 
 last moment by Wood Sahib. He was 
 driven away from the country, and some-
 
 At Home. 159 
 
 times I tremble to think lie might have 
 gone to bind himself and come here." 
 
 " What do you say? " exclaimed Dilloo, 
 with some excitement; " Hunoomaun went 
 
 away from K ? Then I think he really 
 
 is here ! When I was being taken to 
 Georgetown prison, I met a body of new- 
 bound men coming along the road from the 
 ship to one of these plantations ; and I 
 thought I saw him among them, but could 
 not believe it ; yet I thought I knew the 
 villain ! He must have come in the ship 
 before yours. He may even be on this 
 estate or the next one." 
 
 Lutchmee's heart grew cold with appre- 
 hension as she heard this, and she clung 
 tightly to Dilloo' s shoulder, not as of old, 
 freshly oiled, soft, and springy as the 
 shoulder of a young deer, but dry, toil-
 
 160 Lutckmee and Dilloo. 
 
 stained, and hard. In an instant there 
 flashed through her mind all the possi- 
 bilities of this unwelcome conjunction. 
 
 " Never mind," said Dilloo ; " see ! I 
 have the means of defending you." Placing 
 his hand down a crevice formed by the 
 meeting of the wattle and the low mud 
 wall, he drew forth a cutlass, about two 
 feet long, made in one piece, and used for 
 cutting the canes in crop-time. " Do you 
 see that? " he cried, in a loud determined 
 voice : " I always keep it well sharpened. 
 It shall protect my honour and yours, my 
 Lutchmee, and, if not, we shall die 
 together." 
 
 As he stood up there in the dark hut, 
 fierce and glowing, Lutchmee shrank before 
 the fire in her husband's eyes. It was not 
 so much ilke the frank lionhood of his
 
 At Home. 161 
 
 former days, as it seemed to her to resemble 
 the sullen savagery of a tiger. 
 
 u Dilloo," she said, covering her eyes 
 with her little hands, " yon frighten me!" 
 
 He dropped the weapon into its hiding- 
 place, and coming back to her side, wound 
 his arms around her, but said nothing. 
 
 Thus it was that Lutchmee and Dilloo 
 met in the golden fields and paradisiac 
 working-grounds of Dost Mahommed, the 
 Government recruiter ! 
 
 vol. i. 11
 
 i 62 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 CHAPTEE XIII. 
 
 A VISITOE. 
 
 It was on the second day after Dilloo's 
 return that, as we have said, Lutchmee 
 was sitting in the house preparing the 
 evening meal. Outside, in the fireplace, the 
 brushwood crackled and smoked beneath 
 the pot.. As she energetically worked the 
 wooden pestle, the doorway was darkened 
 by the figure of a woman. 
 
 " Salaam ! " said the woman. 
 
 " Salaam ! " replied Lutchmee very 
 quietly. 
 
 The woman unceremoniously sat down
 
 A Visitor. 163 
 
 and watched Lutchmee, who, with Eastern 
 gravity, went on with her work. Her 
 visitor had a not displeasing face, though 
 she was evidently much older than Lutch- 
 mee, and her teeth, when she smiled, 
 showed gaps in their blackened rows. She 
 wore a very limited jacket, exposing her 
 plump shoulders ; a not over-clean calico 
 skirt ; and she was without a scarf. But 
 round her neck were two heavy necklaces 
 — one, a solid collar of silver, the other 
 formed of florins linked together. In her 
 ears, which -were pierced with many holes, 
 were rows of rings. Her nose was decorated 
 with a gold ring set with a doubtful stone ; 
 and her arms and ankles were loaded with 
 silver bangles. 
 
 " Where did you come from?" said the 
 woman.
 
 1 64 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 "From Behar," replied Lutchmee. 
 " Oho ! then you are from the country — 
 a real villager?" exclaimed the woman, 
 scrutinising Lutchmee's face and dress. 
 "We get very few of your sort here, I 
 can tell you," she added, when she had 
 concluded her survey. "How pretty you 
 are ! " 
 
 "Why, who are you?" inquired Lutch- 
 mee, innocently. 
 
 " Well, I was a dancing-girl when I 
 was younger," replied the other, laughing. 
 "You know what that means, even at 
 
 K , don't you ? But, you see, I was 
 
 born in Benares, and lived there all my 
 life. Then I went to other places and 
 lived as best I could. It is very hard 
 living in great bazaars, so I was glad of 
 the chance of coming here as a respectable
 
 A Visitor, 165 
 
 woman " (she laughed shrilly), " when I fell 
 in with a recruiter who offered me bounty- 
 money and so many good things." 
 
 " And do you like this place?" asked 
 Lutchmee. 
 
 "I should think so; I have good reason. 
 The voyage was pleasant. I was sent to 
 this estate — one of the best in the country. 
 I soon found I could have my pick of a 
 husband, and plenty of money besides. 
 See ! " she added, with feminine vanity, 
 " I have had all these given to me : they 
 are worth three hundred dollars. I have 
 five cows, and I pay a man to keep them." 
 
 " Who gave you all these : your hus- 
 band?" 
 
 The woman laughed again at Lutchmee's 
 simplicity. She had exceeded the woman 
 of Samaria in the number of her husbands,
 
 1 66 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 though she was unlike her in a sense of 
 shame. A husband, among Coolie women 
 in British Guiana, is a varying factor. You 
 cannot understand much that takes place 
 there without knowing this. 
 
 Lutchmee's ideas of modesty and sense 
 of delicacy were, no doubt, far inferior to 
 those of an English girl ; yet she, by some 
 God-given instinct, shrank from her visitor's 
 bold confessions. She knew not what to 
 say, so she said, — 
 
 " What is your name ? " 
 
 " Eamdoolah. Tell me, is Dilloo really 
 your husband? " 
 
 " Yes;— why?" 
 
 "I did not believe he was married at all, 
 though he used to say so. He is a close, 
 clever man ; and so handsome ! Any woman 
 on the estate would have married him. I
 
 A Visitor. 167 
 
 know I wanted to ; but he never would look 
 at me." 
 
 Lutchniee sprang to her feet, her eyes aglow, 
 her lissome body trembling with passion. 
 
 " Stop ! you vile woman!" she cried. 
 " Hold your abominable tongue ! You 
 speak of my husband, who is a man too 
 good and noble for such carrion as you 
 even to look at. Begone, or I shall tear 
 out your eyes ! " 
 
 Kamdoolah, also, had risen. She was 
 not a woman, after her experiences, to be 
 afraid of the nails or the tongue of a young 
 girl, and was certainly not moved with 
 bodily fear ; but the moral air and posture 
 of Lutchmee were too commanding to be 
 matched with any weapons at the disposal 
 of the bazaar- woman. So she tried to laugh 
 it off.
 
 1 6 8 L utchmee and Dilloo . 
 
 "Ha! my fine girl," said she; "you are 
 too good for this place, I see. I wouldn't 
 he you for a good deal. Your pride will 
 soon he taken down, or my name is not 
 Eamdoolah ! " 
 
 By this time the younger woman, in 
 uncontrollable fury, had rushed to the 
 place where the weapon was hidden, and 
 drew forth the cutlass, at sight of which 
 Eamdoolah beat a retreat. Outside the hut 
 she met Dilloo. 
 
 "Go in, my handsome lad," she cried, 
 smiling maliciously; " go in, and look after 
 your princess ! She's a fine girl to put on 
 such airs. Won't they be taken out of her 
 before long, that's all ! " 
 
 When Dilloo, without replying, hastily 
 entered the hut, he found his wife there, 
 standing flashing and furious as a Pythoness,
 
 A Visitor. 169 
 
 with the cutlass in her hand. In a moment 
 the weapon dropped on the floor with a 
 clang ; and she hung, sobbing, on his neck. 
 
 " Dilloo ! Dilloo ! That wretched 
 woman has been speaking to me about 
 you, as if you were a common fellow that 
 would speak to the like of her. To think 
 you should have been even named by her 
 lips ! I could bear it no longer. Have I 
 done wrong? " 
 
 " Lutchmee," replied Dilloo, gravely, 
 sitting on the floor, and making his wife 
 sit beside him, " hear me. There is not 
 one woman on this estate who came of a 
 respectable stock. They were poor crea- 
 tures from great cities, like Lucknow, 
 Benares, or Calcutta. We should think 
 of them pitifully. I should say they are 
 better here than they were there. They
 
 1 7° Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 get married, some of them many times 
 over; and a few happily forget their old 
 condition and become better women. I 
 would never have anything to do with 
 them. They cause nearly all the trouble 
 among Coolies in this place. Two men on 
 this estate have been hung for murdering 
 women who were not faithful to them. But 
 you must not quarrel with anyone. We are 
 now obliged to live among them for five 
 years, and your peace and our safety depend 
 on our being on good terms with these 
 people. They are Indians, after all, you 
 know ; and we have far more dangerous 
 enemies in the English. Once give this 
 woman a chance, and she might ruin us 
 both. She is the most treacherous woman 
 on the estate." 
 
 "0 Dilloo ! I cannot bear this any longer.
 
 A Visitor. 171 
 
 Let us run away from this dreadful 
 place." 
 
 " There is no running away from this 
 place, my Lutchmee. The interior lands 
 are wild and swampy, full of snakes, and 
 no runaway could live there. The roads 
 are all kept by Negro police, black people, 
 who hate us. They stop any Coolie travel- 
 ling without a written pass from the manager. 
 No : our plan is to be patient, watchful, 
 careful of our money ; and, perhaps, in a 
 year or two we may be able to buy our 
 freedom and go back to India." 
 
 " I will do anything you tell me, Dilloo," 
 said his wife, with her head on his breast ; 
 " but, please, put away that cutlass where I 
 cannot find it."
 
 172 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 CHAPTEE XIV. 
 
 MEETING — BUT NO GREETING. 
 
 Dilloo had been working for nine hours, 
 and was hungry. His little wife soon 
 quelled her apprehensions and set to work 
 with recovered spirits to prepare his meal. 
 He meanwhile went out to the trench, not 
 many yards off, to wash, away the thick 
 clayey soil which coated his legs and hands 
 and arms. Dilloo was one of two or three 
 Coolies on the estate who were able to 
 make wages approximating to the promised 
 two rupees a day. It was by hard work, 
 however, though work of which both im-
 
 Meeting — but no Greeting. 173 
 
 migrants and Creoles are very fond. For 
 trench- digging the highest wages was paid. 
 Eighty or ninety cents for twelve and a 
 quarter feet of trench twelve feet wide and 
 five feet deep was the usual remuneration. 
 
 Standing nearly naked, the labourer digs 
 out the soft wet clay with a long-handled 
 scoop by the sheer strength of arms and 
 shoulders, and then throws it out of the 
 trench some three or four yards. Negroes, 
 being generally more powerful, are preferred 
 for this work, but few of them could surpass 
 at it our lithe and brawny Bengalee. There 
 was this difference between them, however, 
 to the planter. Scarcely any Negro would 
 work more than two days a week, at most 
 three, while Dilloo's indenture, spite of the 
 law, was held by manager and magistrate 
 to bind him to at least five days' labour,
 
 1 74 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 and he often was obliged to work six. In 
 fact, by the system in vogue, the more a 
 Coolie did the more he was compelled to 
 do. The Negro thus had the advantage, 
 for, after making an effort for a day or two, 
 he could lounge for the rest of the week. 
 It spoke well, however, for the effect on 
 Dilloo's constitution, of his steady work, that 
 he was rarely in the hospital. One good 
 result of his industry was a handsome hoard 
 of silver pieces, two cows, and a wonderful 
 conglomerate dress, which he had purchased 
 of a Georgetown dealer, and which looked 
 like the cast-off garments of some stage- 
 strutting monarch. At the Tadja festival 
 it was his wont to come out conspicuous in 
 this gorgeous attire. Quite a trade is done 
 among Coolies in ancient uniforms and 
 coats of many colours, which you may see
 
 Meeting — but no Greeting. 175 
 
 them carrying on their heads until they 
 approach their own homes ; and then, 
 vanishing behind a hedge, they will reap- 
 pear in a state of decoration that ravishes 
 their friends. 
 
 As Dilloo, now of course wearing nothing 
 but his "babba " or loin-cloth, was washing 
 his feet in the canal, a knot of the new- 
 service immigrants who had been employed 
 at the "back " came along the dam. They 
 looked weary. They had been working in 
 the sun from early morning, and had walked 
 three miles out and three miles home. One 
 man among them was remarkable for his 
 height and size. The villager from Behar 
 stood above the poor weavers and sweepers 
 of Delhi or Calcutta. ' It was Hunoomaun. 
 Dilloo recognised him in a moment, but 
 preserved his composure. Hunoomaun was
 
 176 L u tchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 more surprised. Though he had heen three 
 months on the estate, and knew that one, 
 Dilloo, among others, was in gaol at 
 Georgetown, it had not occurred to him 
 that it was his old antipathy at K — . He 
 therefore lifted up his hands, and cried, — 
 
 "Dilloo?" 
 
 " Yes," replied the other, drily. " Hunoo- 
 maun, you see Dilloo ! You have followed 
 me to this place. We live together on this 
 estate." 
 
 "Is it peace or war?" inquired the 
 other, looking doubtfully at the fine limbs 
 of Dilloo, which glistened in the afternoon 
 sun. 
 
 " I hold no grudge," replied Dilloo, 
 cautiously. "Years have come and gone 
 since you by your evil-doing made me your 
 enemy. Since then you have been more
 
 Meeting — but no Greeting, 177 
 
 base and brutal than ever, and rny wife, 
 who is with me here, has told me of your 
 wickedness and flight. I had a mind to 
 kill you," — Dilloo looked straight at the 
 chokedar, and his eye glared a moment so 
 fiercely that Hunoomaun went back a pace, 
 — "but I am willing to forget the past if 
 you will do so. You must confine your 
 attentions, though, to the other women on 
 the estate. Any one who troubles Lutchmee 
 I will cut into pieces ! " 
 
 Hunoomaun read a determination in 
 Dilloo's eyes that could not be misinter- 
 preted. He was too cowardly to challenge 
 it just then. 
 
 " I will be friendly," said he. 
 
 "No," said Dilloo, "we can never be 
 friends : let us agree not to be enemies. It 
 will be better for you ! Do not cross my 
 
 vol. 1. 12
 
 1 7 8 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 path, and I will not cross yours. That is 
 my house ; do not go near it at your peril. 
 We are obliged to live on this estate to- 
 gether, and all Coolies should agree to help 
 each other, and not quarrel among them- 
 selves. All the Coolies here look upon me 
 as their leader," he added, more loudly, 
 with an Asiatic touch of self-assertion. 
 
 Some of the others who had listened to 
 this conversation with curiosity testified 
 their assent to this. 
 
 " All Coolies trust Dilloo." 
 
 The chokedar's overbearing nature, though 
 he was a coward, resented Dilloo' s tone, but 
 he held his tongue, while he mentally re- 
 solved that the eminence of his foe should 
 not be unassailed if he could help it. 
 Hunoomaun was a man of great acuteness 
 and tact. He had managed, during the
 
 Meeting — but no Greeting. 179 
 
 voyage to Deinerara, to win the good 
 opinion of the officers of the ship, and was 
 formally reported as a good immigrant. 
 Among his countrymen on board he had 
 gained some respect. About forty Coolies 
 from his ship, the "Benares," were allotted 
 to Belle Susanne. He had not spent many 
 days on the estate before he began to ac- 
 quire a very fair idea of its economy, and of 
 the means by which he might better his 
 condition. He found that, as a rule, there 
 were placed under the overseers, in imme- 
 diate charge of the gangs, persons called 
 "drivers," — a name of no small significance, 
 which had come down from the old Negro 
 times, but was used now to indicate a 
 person acting in the capacity of a foreman. 
 Almost universally these drivers ' were 
 Negroes. They were with the gangs all day.
 
 1 80 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 They watched the men at work. It was their 
 duty to see that the task was properly done. 
 They took notes mentally, for none of them 
 could write, of the amount of lahour done by 
 each person in their gang, and the accuracy 
 of their memory in these particulars was 
 astonishing. Their reports about the in- 
 dividuals in their charge were listened to 
 with attention by the overseers, conse- 
 quently they wielded a great deal of in- 
 fluence in the estate community. They 
 could play all sorts of tricks with a man's 
 work; could get him sent the long three 
 miles " back " to reach it ; or, on the other 
 hand, could favour him by keeping him 
 nearer the buildings, or assigning him 
 lighter tasks : could help to cheat him out 
 of his wages ; in fact, they could either 
 make a man feel the full weight of his
 
 Meeting — but no Greeting. 181 
 
 obligation or reduce it to an agreeable load. 
 Hunoomaun's quick mind at once fastened 
 on this office as the key of the position. 
 It could be made by an unscrupulous man 
 even more powerful than that of an over- 
 seer. He inquired if it was ever held by a 
 Coolie, and found that the Dilloo, who was 
 then in gaol, had held it a short time, but 
 had been degraded because he had taken 
 the part of his former "matties," or com- 
 panions. This was a misuse of power of 
 which the former chokedar was not likely 
 to be guilty. He ascertained, also, that 
 there were other Coolie "sirdars" on the 
 estate, and resolved to give all his efforts 
 to the attainment of this position. 
 
 His plan was to retain the influence he 
 had won on board ship over his fellow- 
 travellers. For the first week of their
 
 1 8 2 Lutchmee and Dilloo . 
 
 arrival they were allowed to lounge about 
 the Negro-yard and do as they pleased, 
 getting rations from the hospital. Each 
 man then received from the stores a cutlass, 
 which he was instructed by the old hands 
 how to sharpen and to smooth at the 
 handle. They were then set to carrying 
 megass, and afterwards to weeding and 
 clearing brush. This is the rank and rapid 
 growth of reeds, bushes, creepers, and weeds 
 which in the tropics a very short time 
 suffices to, produce on a fallow field, and it 
 presents the hardest and most tiresome of 
 all the labours to be performed on an estate. 
 Hunoomaun soon learned how to do this 
 work, and made it his business to help his 
 companions to become adepts at it, in this 
 way securing their good will at the same 
 time that he gained the approval of drivers
 
 Meeting — but no Greeting. 183 
 
 and overseers. Hence the " Benares' lot " 
 pleased Drummond vastly. They were 
 every way the best addition he had made 
 to the personnel of the estate ; and all this 
 was due to one clever man among them, 
 who produced this result in pursuing his 
 own ends. At the time when Dilloo and 
 Hunoomaun met, the latter had already 
 won a place in the esteem of his employers 
 and the regard of the people. The more 
 galling, therefore, was Dilloo's patronizing 
 air to the wily chokedar. However, he and 
 Dilloo managed to exchange " salaams " 
 without any further indication of feeling 
 for that interview.
 
 1 84 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 CHAPTEK XV. 
 
 AGEEED. 
 
 On the Sunday succeeding the day when 
 Dilloo and Lutchmee had encountered 
 Hunoomaun and Bamdoolah, the two latter, 
 invested in their cleanest and brightest gar- 
 ments, were sauntering together, in the sul- 
 try evening, along the smooth, sandy shore, 
 which the ebbing tide had left in front of 
 the fringe of brush to the edge of which it 
 used to flow. The Coolie gentleman, nomi- 
 nally occupying the position of Kamdoolah's 
 husband, was at that moment engaged at a 
 little opium shop in the Chinese quarters,
 
 Agreed. 185 
 
 kept, with an affectation of secrecy, by 
 Ching-a-lung, the ugliest Chinaman outside 
 his own country, — a hopeless dead-weight 
 to managers and overseers, by whom, from 
 mistaken motives of kindness, his illegal 
 traffic was winked at. Achattu, the hus- 
 band in question, was one of the earlier 
 importations from India, and a Madrassee. 
 At one time he had by thrift and cleverness, 
 as an able-bodied Coolie may do in the 
 West Indies, made a considerable sum of 
 money. He became the owner of three or 
 four cows : he paid a Negro man to look 
 after them, — a change of race relations not 
 unknown in B.ritish Guiana. But Achattu 
 had one want — a wife.. The number of 
 women on the estates was at first so limited 
 that it would have been impossible for him 
 to get a wife for love or money. As the
 
 1 86 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 proportion of female immigrants increased 
 through the exertions of the Colonial Govern- 
 ment and its officials, more opportunities 
 were afforded the wealthier Coolies to select 
 partners, too seldom for life. A curious 
 circumstance was wont to diminish their 
 chances : the long sea voyage worked mira- 
 culous results upon the affections. On the 
 discharge from a ship of a cargo of im- 
 migrants, sometimes as many as thirty or 
 forty couples were found to have made 
 engagements on the voyage to tie their 
 fates together ; and in order that the rule 
 of allotment of relatives to the same estate 
 might he applied to their case, the immi- 
 gration-depot at Georgetown became the 
 theatre of a comic scene. The Agent- 
 General caused the aspirants for matrimony 
 to be arranged in two JRoger-de-Coverley
 
 Agreed. 187 
 
 lines, the women on one side and the men 
 on the other, each, it is to he hoped, facing 
 the desired partner. Between the lines 
 passed the Agent- General, accompanied hy 
 an interpreter, haranguing the parties on 
 the duties, temptations and perils of 
 matrimony. Since many dialects were 
 represented, and the interpreting resources 
 of the Georgetown depot are limited, the 
 pertinency of this performance must often 
 have been a puzzle to those concerned. At 
 the end of his exhortations, the official, by 
 a single and simple ceremony, made the 
 forty couples happy or miserable, as chance 
 might develope. When so many of the 
 single women were withdrawn from com- 
 petition before they reached the estates, it 
 may be imagined that the residuary chances 
 left to the older and richer Coolies were
 
 1 8 8 L utchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 neither extensive nor brilliant. Hence 
 Achattu had lived to himself. He lent 
 money to his needy brethren at astonishing 
 rates of interest ; he kept silver dollars in a 
 large chest in his room carefully locked, and 
 secretly disposed of some of his specie in 
 unfrequented parts of the estate ; he did 
 not care to let the officials know how rich 
 he was, by depositing it all in the Savings' 
 Bank. But a subtle Chinaman, suspecting 
 Achattu's wealth to be greater than was 
 known, made it his business to study the 
 latter's habits for some months, and followed 
 him till he had discovered the closest of his 
 hiding-places. One day Achattu found him- 
 self poorer by several hundred dollars than 
 he had been the day before. All the hair 
 he forthwith pulled out of his head and 
 beard, — all his exertions in dancing a regret-
 
 Agreed, 189 
 
 ful fandango about the outraged spot would 
 not assuage his grief. He took to arrack, 
 and made himself drunk : he sought out the 
 bench of the opium shop, and made himself 
 terribly sick, and, finally, he came across 
 Eamdoolah, who knew all about him, and 
 willingly undertook to soothe his sorrows. 
 He gave her a necklet and a cow : he paid 
 her existent husband another cow and thirty 
 dollars to purchase a voluntary divorce, a 
 mensa et thoro, and took Eamdoolah to his 
 heart and home. Through these combined 
 influences Achattu's wealth dwindled away. 
 Eamdoolah soon carried about on her person, 
 in the shape of armlets, necklets, and bangles, 
 most of his secret hoards. The big chest 
 yielded up its deposits, and became an in- 
 solvent bank. His debtors were pressed to 
 return their loans; and, as these came in,
 
 i go Liitchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 Ching-a-lung, or the gambling-room of Chin- 
 a-foo — another institution on the estate — 
 swallowed them up. It can hardly be 
 wondered at, therefore, that Eamdoolah 
 was looking out for another engagement, 
 and was now coquetting with the gallant 
 Hunoomaun ; for her practical shrewdness 
 told her that at Belle Susanne he was a 
 coming man. Let us conceal ourselves in 
 the brush and overhear a little of their con- 
 versation. Eamdoolah is speaking : — 
 
 Eamdoolah. There is a beautiful country- 
 girl who has come here lately, named 
 Lutchmee, who is the most respectable 
 Hindoo woman I ever saw in this place. 
 
 Hunoomaun. I know her well. She 
 came from my own village : she is a great 
 fool, audi owe her a grudge. If it had not 
 been for her, I should not have been here.
 
 Agreed, 1 9 1 
 
 Eamdoolah. You did not care for her, 
 did you ? Was she ever a friend of yours ? 
 
 Hunoomaun. No, no. A friend of mine, 
 a peon, took a violent fancy to her, and 
 tried to make too free with her. She 
 declared, most falsely, that I was the 
 person. That cursed fellow, Dilloo, be- 
 lieved her, and collecting a number of his 
 friends, gave me a beating. He is my 
 enemy till one or other of us dies. As 
 for the girl, he left her behind him ; and 
 she, out of sheer spite at my taking no 
 notice of her, denounced me to the magis- 
 trate with whom she lived, and I was 
 obliged to fly from the place. 
 
 To a woman of Eamdoolah' s character, 
 it seemed so natural for another Indian 
 woman to behave in the manner described 
 by the peon, that she gave a ready belief
 
 1 9 2 L utchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 to his story, and hastened to take advan- 
 tage of the information. 
 
 Kamdoolah. The little slut! I went in 
 to see her one day, and indeed she is 
 very pretty, but I found her as proud as 
 a bird of paradise, and as haughty as the 
 highest Brahminee. She treated me as 
 if I were the filth of the streets, and when 
 I talked of Dilloo — who, as you say, is an 
 ill-conditioned brute of a fellow — as he 
 deserved, she seized a cutlass, and, . had 
 I not escaped, would have wounded me. 
 
 Hunoomaun. Oho ! She did so, did 
 she ? The creature ! Then you and she 
 are enemies, of course. You see, our 
 interests are the same. We must agree 
 to live together, and then we can help 
 each other to work out our revenge. How 
 are you to get rid of Achattu?
 
 Agreed. 193 
 
 \b 
 
 Eamdoolah. Oh, you must manage that ! 
 You have only to fill his stomach for a 
 few weeks, lend him a little money, en- 
 courage him to drink and gamble, and he 
 will be in your hands. He will then 
 readily sell me to you. 
 
 Hunoomaun. (In reality caring little for 
 Eamdoolah, but having arrived at the 
 belief that she was the cleverest woman 
 on the estate, and would be a powerful 
 ally in working out his various plots.) 
 Well, my sweet one ! delight of my heart ! 
 and lustre of my eyes ! I will do all that 
 is necessary to win possession of one so 
 handsome, so clever, so desirable. With 
 your help I can secure the highest position 
 of any Coolie on the estate, and all my 
 wealth shall be thrown at your feet. 
 
 Eamdoolah. It is a bargain, my friend. 
 
 vol. i. 13
 
 1 94 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 Give me ten dollars as the earnest of it, 
 and then I shall be yours ! 
 
 The shrewd Hindoo showed no hesita- 
 tion, though he inwardly felt some chagrin, 
 as he disengaged, from a fold in his babba, 
 ten silver dollars, part of his bounty money, 
 and counted them into the outstretched 
 hand of his business-like fiancee.
 
 Lost i 195 
 
 CHAPTEK XVI. 
 
 LOST ! 
 
 In accordance with his engagement with 
 Bamdoolah, the peon had now to wind 
 Achattu in his toils, and bring him to a 
 state of mind in which he would consent 
 to part with his wife. Poor Achattu had 
 been indentured three times on as many 
 different estates, and had also spent an 
 interval of several years as a free man. 
 His talents and wealth had procured him 
 a good name and position among his 
 countrymen. He was well known on both 
 the coasts, as they are termed, of the
 
 196 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 Demerara county, in Berbice, and even 
 on the less accessible Arabian or Aroebisce 
 coast, beyond the river Essequibo. The 
 place he had once held as a banker and 
 money-lender had been more than filled 
 by Lutchmee's first friend in the colony, 
 Akaloo, who was a free man and travelled 
 from estate to estate in the pursuit of his 
 business. It is from new Coolies that 
 these money-lenders chiefly derive their 
 profits. In the process of acclimatisation, 
 the poor people, from their awkwardness 
 at the unaccustomed labour, or from sheer 
 physical incapacity, often fall behind in 
 their receipts, in spite of the bounty- 
 money with which they begin, and find 
 that they cannot live on their earnings. 
 Though they were afc the time when these 
 events occurred, by the law and by its
 
 Lost! 197 
 
 administration kept strictly to their part 
 of the contract, made in India, and forced 
 to work at least five days a week, the 
 corresponding promise of ten annas to two 
 rupees a day, offered by authority of the 
 Governor and Court of Policy of British 
 Guiana, was not recognized as a contract 
 in the colony, and could not be enforced. 
 A more singular instance of Christian and 
 official easiness of conscience could scarcely 
 be cited than this fact. The legislature 
 of British Guiana, with the connivance 
 and sanction of Her Majesty's representa- 
 tive, passed resolutions affirming a state- 
 ment of current rates of wages, at a time 
 when it was well known that scarcely an 
 immigrant in the colony was earning any- 
 thing of the kind. Nay, the recurring 
 injustice of enforcing one side of a con-
 
 1.98 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 tract and overlooking the other was alike 
 disregarded by Governor, legislators, and 
 administrators of the law, so that, as a 
 fact, Coolies who, disheartened by the 
 fraud, failed or refused to work for the 
 indifferent wages available to them, were 
 again and again brought before the magis- 
 trates to be fined and imprisoned. 
 
 It was in such cases as these that men 
 like Achattu and Akaloo proved to be, to 
 their own profit, real benefactors to their 
 fellow-immigrants. They lent them money 
 to pay off their fines, or to procure the 
 food they could not earn. By this means 
 new Coolies, becoming gradually acclima- 
 tised, were at length able to do more 
 work, and thus to earn enough to pay off 
 their debts. Many remained hopelessly in 
 debt during the first fLYe years of their
 
 Lost! 199 
 
 indenture, and upon re-indenturing them- 
 selves for another five years were obliged 
 to sacrifice to their creditors the greater 
 part of the bounty-money they then re- 
 ceived. Though these Indian money- 
 lenders were avaricious enough, they per- 
 formed many acts of forbearance and 
 kindness to their needy brethren, and 
 were by no means commonly regarded 
 with the aversion that attaches to such 
 tradesmen elsewhere. If a Coolie with 
 twenty-five dollars desired to purchase a 
 cow worth fifty or sixty, he could get the 
 necessary sum, at a certain rate of in- 
 terest, from Akaloo. Various shops were 
 kept on some of the estates, and to their 
 adventurers Akaloo frequently furnished 
 the capital. On occasions of some par- 
 ticularly unjust decision by a magistrate,
 
 200 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 involving a fine, both Akaloo and Achattu 
 had been known to pay it off gratuitously. 
 
 But, as we have seen, poor Achattu had 
 long given up the pursuit of business. 
 Dollars and "bitts," or fourpennies, as soon 
 as they were earned, now went directly to 
 the opium-shop, or were more rapidly lost 
 in another Chinese den, the gambling-house 
 of Chin-a-foo. This estate " hell" of Mr. 
 Chin-a-foo was a queer place. It was on 
 the westward border of the village, an old 
 tumble-down tenement, ostensibly forbidden 
 to the <3oolies by the manager, who to an 
 inspector would have shown surprise at the 
 discovery that anyone professed to inhabit 
 it, or would have alleged that immigrants 
 preferred that sort of tenement, and that it 
 was impossible to keep them out of it. A 
 simple expedient open to the manager in
 
 Lost! 20 1 
 
 such cases appeared never to have occurred 
 to him, namely, to pull down the house. 
 
 However, here, in a room which the in- 
 jurious Chin-a-foo had enlarged hy a low 
 half-underground out-building of wattle and 
 mud, with door and windows carefully closed ; 
 lit by a wretched petroleum lamp, that threw 
 out a dismal glimmer in the reeking atmo- 
 sphere, there squatted on the floor fifteen or 
 twenty Coolies, most of them Chinese. 
 The Hindoos, at the time of which we are 
 writing, rarely indulged in either of the 
 Chinese dissipations of opium-smoking and 
 gambling, though since then there is no 
 doubt that these vices have largely bitten 
 the Indian immigrants. On a low bench of 
 boards, two Chinese and an Indian — a 
 woman — lay in the helpless torpor that had 
 succeeded their inhalation, of the horri-
 
 202 Lutchmee and Dilloo, 
 
 ble narcotic. Bound the lamp the rest 
 squatted or stood, pitting their bitts on the 
 throw of some bamboo dice ; eager, yet 
 silent, the strange, unimpressive faces of 
 the Chinamen contrasting with the starting 
 eyes and clenched teeth of the two or three 
 Hindoos. In the midst, most excited of 
 all, was the Madrassee, who, when first he 
 entered that place, had been received with 
 surprise and respect, but who was now 
 regarded with contempt, even by Chin-a- 
 foo himself. That gentleman was an old 
 gambler from Hong-Kong, with a face it 
 would be a work of art to describe. The 
 lines in its bleared and yellow surface were 
 marked out by long- established deposits of 
 dirt. It seemed to have been crumpled 
 and kneaded and flattened by one of the 
 grotesque idol-makers of his own country
 
 Lost! 203 
 
 into the nearest possible resemblance to a 
 broken-nosed monkey that could be reached 
 by any human artist. The leery slits he 
 used as eyes were only opened sufficiently 
 to let in the knowledge which their owner 
 wanted, and to give no clue to the observer 
 of the emotions or thoughts of the spirit — 
 if there were a spirit — within. In the com- 
 bination of his features his gums and teeth 
 appeared to have been a matter of difficulty 
 to the designer, and to have been fortui- 
 tously placed in the least appropriate relation 
 to his other features. The blue shaven head, 
 with its short grey pigtail, was in har- 
 mony, if I may so say, with the grotesque- 
 ness of his countenance. Thick was his 
 neck ; short, sturdy, and powerful his body, 
 which was clothed in a dirty blue blouse 
 and paejamas of cotton. In a belt round
 
 204 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 his waist, but concealed under the wide 
 paejamas, was a knife about two inches 
 broad and fifteen long, tapering to its end, 
 and kept in a state of suspicious brightness. 
 There were few men on the estate who 
 would have tackled Chin-a-foo. He was 
 considered altogether a dangerous problem to 
 solve, and no attempt to solve it was made 
 by any one. Drummond had observed him. 
 He could, when he chose, be a good worker; 
 and when his earnings at the gambling- 
 house failed, as they sometimes did, he took 
 his share, with great address, in the labour 
 of the sugar-house. But more frequently 
 he wandered away to the back of the estate, 
 or a short distance into the savannah behind 
 it, and sometimes brought home birds or 
 snakes, or the iguanas he had caught. 
 Drummond knew that the immigrants at
 
 Lost! 205 
 
 Belle Susanne would find some means of 
 gambling on the estate, or would go to the 
 next estate for it, so he directed the over- 
 seers not to see too much of Mr. Chin-a- 
 foo's business, at the same time warning 
 the sullen rascal that any breach of the 
 peace occurring in his hut would be followed 
 by instant punishment. 
 
 To-night, having thrown off his upper 
 garment, thus disclosing from the waist 
 upwards his muscular trunk, the Chinaman 
 glided softly through the place, bearing a 
 coarse jar and a half-cocoa-nut, offering to 
 his patrons and guests some of the illicit 
 arrack which he kept concealed in a corner 
 of his hut. 
 
 " Arrack, Achattu ! " said he, with a 
 motion of the face intended for a grin, and 
 shaking his diabolical head at the rest of
 
 2c6 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 the company, as he stopped at the Mad- 
 rassee, whose heavy eyes betokened that he 
 had already had enough, though they were 
 still fixed on the fatal pieces of bamboo 
 with their rude marks ; and he was staking 
 his last coins on, the chances. Achattu 
 shook his head. 
 
 " No." He showed his empty hands. 
 " Trust me?" 
 
 Chin-a-foo was decided in his negative. 
 
 "You owe me seven dollars. I cannot 
 trust you any more." 
 
 Achattu hung down his head. It was a 
 shame, indeed, to have fallen so low that 
 Chin-a-foo would not trust him. 
 
 " How much do you want ? " said a deep 
 voice from the door-wa^y. 
 
 Every one started. The voice was a 
 strange voice in that company : it was,
 
 Lost! 207 
 
 indeed, that of Hunoomaun. He came for- 
 ward towards the light. 
 
 " I am going to try my luck with my 
 friend Achattu," said he, sitting down beside 
 him. " You do not seem to have done well 
 to-night, Achattu ? " 
 
 Achattu recognised the peon as a new 
 Coolie, and Chin-a-foo, who, when first 
 startled by the interruption, had looked 
 round nervously with a quick glance, im- 
 mediately began to play the host to the 
 new-comer with many professions of respect. 
 The fellow had made himself an adept in 
 the language of the Indian Coolies. 
 
 " Will my friend drink to the good of my 
 house, since he has placed his worthy feet 
 inside my door ? " said he. 
 
 Hunoomaun took the cocoa-nut, and, 
 nearly filling its bowl, drank off the sting-
 
 208 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 ing liquor at a pull. It seemed to have no 
 effect on him, and the boldness of the act 
 was noted with more admiration by the 
 guests than by their wily host, who had 
 conscientiously watered the spirit in rather 
 excessive proportion. 
 
 "Now," said the chokedar, "I and my 
 friend Achattu are going to play together 
 against the whole company, if. they like. 
 Achattu," he whispered, "I will lend you 
 five dollars." 
 
 The Madrassee's face brightened up, and 
 he called for more liquor. The half stupor 
 of his drunkenness seemed to pass from 
 him. He again exhibited the keen, eager 
 frenzy of a gambler's hope. 
 
 The two won. Hunoomaun was cool and 
 apt, and evidently acted upon calculation. 
 The other had the usual gambler's super-
 
 Lost! 209 
 
 stitions, and would fain have pressed them 
 on his wily partner, but the latter would not 
 listen. After an hour's play there were 
 four dollars to he divided between them. 
 Achattu was in an ecstasy. He drank 
 again and again ; he placed his arms around 
 Hunoomaun's neck, and covered him with 
 maudlin caresses. The peon rose as if to 
 go, when Achattu challenged him to a few 
 farewell throws. 
 
 " No : I cannot stay. You play for too 
 small stakes. I must go to sleep." 
 
 " Wait," said the other, feverishly, hold- 
 ing out the dollars which Hunoomaun had 
 lent him and the two others he had won. 
 " I will toss you for any stake you like ; 
 one dollar, two dollars, if you please." 
 
 The peon instantly sat down and took 
 up the box. The Chinese and Indians, to 
 
 vol. 1. 14
 
 2io Lirfchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 whom such high play was a rare sight,' 
 leaned forward over the pair in great 
 excitement. 
 
 " Let it be two dollars, then," said Hun- 
 oomaun. " Now, what do you say ? " 
 
 " Three ! " cried Achattu. 
 
 " Six ! " said the peon. 
 
 He threw five. It was nearer his guess 
 than the other's. 
 
 " You have lost." 
 
 The Madrassee seized the box with a 
 trembling hand. It was made from a thick 
 bamboo. He gave it a nourish. 
 
 " Seven ! " said Hunoomaun. 
 
 " Three ! " cried Achattu, again. 
 
 It was his favourite number. He had 
 thrown it exactly. The excitement grew 
 hotter. The lamp was dying out. The 
 circle pressed forward so eagerly that there
 
 Lost! 211 
 
 was scarcely room on the floor between the 
 players. Their half-naked bodies glistened 
 with the dew of heat. The dim radiance 
 played weirdly on the strange countenances 
 about it. From the doorway, against 
 which he was leaning, lowered the sweating 
 face of Chin-a-foo, to w^hom these last 
 moments were always periods of anxiety. 
 The next throw was won by Hunoomaun ; 
 the next, and the next. In ten minutes the 
 Madrassee's hand was empty. He seized 
 his hair and cursed his fates, and took 
 another pull at the cocoa-nut. 
 
 " Lend me one ten dollars more ! " he 
 cried. 
 
 The chokedar coolly counted them into 
 his hand, and said, "I will throw you five 
 times for the ten dollars." 
 
 He won three out of five throws. Achattu
 
 2 1 2 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 threw down the dollars. As he made an 
 effort to rise from the squatting posture he 
 had maintained for three hours, he stumbled, 
 and fell down insensible. The Chinaman, 
 after coolly examining him, without a word 
 picked him up and, with the assistance of 
 two others, proceeded to carry him to his 
 house. 
 
 As the men lifted their senseless burden, a 
 woman, who, through a crevice in the 
 wooden wall, had been closely watching the 
 scene, glided swiftly away and ran before 
 them to Achattu's house, which she reached 
 and entered unperceived. It was Eamdoo- 
 lah. The bearers deposited the Madrassee 
 silently on the bank, outside his hut. The 
 woman inside, breathless, listened to the 
 whisperings of the men. 
 
 " Shall we call up Eamdoolah ? "
 
 Lost! 213 
 
 "No," replied the Chinaman, coolly: 
 " he will soon come to himself and go in." 
 
 Eamdoolah was of the same opinion, and, 
 after listening a few minutes, without hear- 
 ing any movement on Achattu's part, she 
 fell asleep.
 
 14 Lutchmee ana DiUoo. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 CHANCE-MEDLEY. 
 
 The overseer who, the morning after 
 Achattu's unlucky " corroboree," went the 
 rounds to wake up the Coolies, found the 
 Madrassee lying on the bank as he had been 
 left by his companions. He was stiff and 
 cold. The fact was that the wily China- 
 man had the night before discovered the 
 fatal issue to his customer of the last throw, 
 but he kept the information to himself. 
 
 Eamdoolah, on being awakened, pro- 
 ceeded to fill the village with herululations. 
 These, however, were regarded with great 
 stolidity by the crowd of males and females
 
 Chance-medley. 2 1 5 
 
 who soon gathered to look at the body. 
 Hunooinaun, always an early riser, was one 
 of the first to arrive on the scene, and 
 he slipped away to warn Chin-a-foo. That 
 gentleman, looking more dirty and ghastly 
 than usual, then appeared, pulling violently 
 at his pig- tail, holding up his hands, giving 
 vent to nasal and guttural exclamations of 
 great variety and force, and meantime, as 
 they came up, whispering to any of the 
 spectators who had been present at his 
 house the evening before that they were to 
 know nothing about Achattu's last moments. 
 For the poor Madrassee there was a general 
 expression of sympathy. He had once been 
 a head man among them, and jjpf creatures 
 are so degraded as to be insensible to the 
 reverses of fate in the case of a life that is 
 familiar to them. They recalled the wit of
 
 2 1 6 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 the lively Madrassee ; his once genial, easy 
 manner, his strength and aptitude, and his 
 occasional acts of generosity. The feeling 
 gradually grew stronger and stronger against 
 the influences which had brought the poor 
 fellow to his fate, and sarcastic exclamations 
 were uttered by the crowd to the disadvan- 
 tage of both Chin-a-foo and Eamdoolah. 
 
 " She may well cry ! See all those silver 
 ornaments he gave her ! " said a woman. 
 
 " Ah! she'll get over that," said a man, — 
 no other than Nobbeebuckus, who had once 
 made a futile attempt to seduce her from 
 the dead, " as soon as some one else is kind 
 to her." 
 
 " I expect he died in good time for her," 
 said another ; " she is making too much 
 noise to be in earnest." 
 
 By this time three or four overseers were
 
 Chance-7nedley. 2 1 7 
 
 on the spot. Kamdoolah, who, her head 
 wrapped in a chudder, was sitting on the 
 ground beside the body, still exhibiting con- 
 siderable animation and vigour in her grief, 
 was sternly ordered to adjourn her lamenta- 
 tions to a fitter season ; an injunction she 
 obeyed with admirable self-command. 
 
 " Do you know how he came to be lying 
 dead outside your house ? " said Crampton 
 to the woman. 
 
 " No, massa ; no see my man last night. 
 Me go sleep — no see him." 
 
 The overseer did himself the credit not 
 to believe a word of this. • 
 
 " Well," said he, " any other Coolie see 
 him ? Chin-a-foo, you sabby Ingliss, sabby 
 Indian talk; ask any Coolie see Achattu 
 any time ? " 
 
 The Chinaman, peering through the slits
 
 z 1 8 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 in his face, and preserving an impassive 
 aspect, pitched his voice in the key and 
 tone of a question, but really instructed his 
 rnatties not to know anything about the 
 dead man's business last evening. Every 
 Coolie present instantly shook his head. 
 Chin-a-foo also opened his palms, and half- 
 shrugging his shoulders, expressed a regret 
 that he had not seen Achattu the night 
 before, since he bad apparently been so ill. 
 The Chinaman professed to be something 
 -of a doctor. Hereupon Drummond, who 
 had been sent for, arrived. He first of 
 all carefully examined the man, and ascer- 
 tained that there were no marks of violence 
 upon him. He took note of the fact that 
 he had been drinking. And lastly, opening 
 the clenched hand, he quietly slipped there- 
 from the die which the poor fellow had
 
 Chance- medley 219 
 
 thrown in his last bout with fortune. 
 Drurumond's suspicion was that the man 
 had been poisoned. 
 
 " Ha ! Mr. Chin-a-foo, this Coolie go your 
 house last night, eh ? Who put 'ee here ? " 
 
 " No, massa," replied Chin-a-foo, with 
 exeniplary calmness. " Achattu no money, 
 no trust 'im : no come to Chin-a-foo house 
 diss too long time." 
 
 "Look here, sir! Do you see that? I 
 just found it in the man's hand." 
 
 The face and hands of Chin-a-foo dis- 
 played the most grotesque astonishment. 
 
 " Yours is the only gambling place on the 
 estate, you know," continued Drummond, 
 talking ordinary English in his excitement, 
 " and the last thing the man was doing was 
 evidently gambling. Lay hold of that fel- 
 low, Craig ! "
 
 220 JLutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 Craig's powerful grasp was on the China- 
 man's shoulder in a moment. The next 
 instant there was a flash of steel in the 
 morning sun, and a knife was driven into the 
 side of the young Scotchman, — driven by a 
 steady and accustomed hand. Before the 
 villain could repeat his blow, Drummond's 
 fist had felled him to the ground and his arm 
 had caught the fainting youth. Two over- 
 seers disarmed and secured the Chinaman. 
 
 All this passed too quickly to be told, but 
 its effect on the Coolies was extraordinary. 
 At sight of the blood on the one hand, and 
 of their " mattie " in the hands of the over- 
 seers on the other, the Chinese, especially, 
 became hysterical in their excitement, and 
 loud cries arose on every side. The pigtails 
 brandished their knives, the Hindoos ran 
 for their latties.
 
 Chance-medley. 221 
 
 There was a Babel of outcries. "Well 
 done, Chin-a-foo ! Take him from them," 
 and the like. 
 
 Some pressed forward on Drummond, 
 who supported Craig on his left arm, as he 
 shouted to the overseers to stick to the 
 Chinaman at all hazards. At the same 
 moment his right fist levelled a too-auda- 
 cious Coolie who came within reach of it. 
 The mob closed about him and the over- 
 seers, and began to use their sticks. The 
 noise brought out the whole village. The 
 women, with loud shrieks, encouraged the 
 men to the attack. Simon Pety, bravely- 
 running to the rescue, excited the mob to 
 such frenzy that he was fain to cut and run 
 for his life, pursued by some infuriated 
 Chinese females. All the pigtails turned 
 out of their quarters, flourishing their
 
 222 L utchmee and DHL 
 
 00. 
 
 knives ; and the rest of the overseers arriv- 
 ing on the scene did good service with both 
 sticks and fists. But Indians and Chinese 
 in a fury are not easily quieted. The Coolies 
 not only held their own, but were getting 
 the better of the Whites. Two overseers 
 were seriously wounded. The Negroes on 
 their way to work watched the fray at a safe 
 distance. Drummond, hampered by his 
 burden, could scarcely keep up under the 
 storm of blows that now rained upon him. 
 At this juncture, Dilloo, with several others, 
 arrived from the extremity of the village. 
 Seeing Drummond nearly overpowered by 
 the numbers who pressed upon him, and 
 observing, in a moment, that the row was 
 over the Chinaman in custody, the Hindoo, 
 without asking a question, dashed into the 
 mtUe, and with his redoubtable lattey began
 
 Chance- medley. 223 
 
 to play about among the Chinese in a way 
 that soon cleared a circle round the manager. 
 His companions seconded him, at the same 
 time calling upon their matties to stop 
 righting. Hunoomaun, who, to tell the 
 truth, had been standing aloof from the 
 fight, meditating which side he should take, 
 was now seized with a sudden zeal for law 
 and order, and took his place by Dilloo. 
 Nothing could stand before those two men. 
 The immigrants, finding themselves opposed 
 by their own friends, began to fall off, and 
 in a few minutes, carrying off their wounded, 
 retired to the Chinese quarters, where they 
 prepared for a desperate resistance to the 
 now inevitable visit of the police. 
 
 Craig was removed to the manager's house 
 and laid on Drummondk's own bed. The 
 loss of blood had rendered him insensible ;
 
 224 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 but Drummond, having stripped him and 
 examined the wound, came to the conclu- 
 sion that it was not mortal, though he saw 
 that the youth had had a narrow escape. 
 The gambler's nerve and quickness had 
 been trained to a nicety, and his blow was 
 aimed with devilish skill. The doctor, who 
 arrived an hour later, confirmed Drummond's 
 opinion. Any wound is dangerous in that 
 hideous climate, but with rest and quiet and 
 incessant care, he hoped to be able to save 
 the life of the strong and healthy youth. 
 
 A force of police soon arrived from the 
 police-station at Guineatown, marching 
 with their rifles to the front of the manager's 
 house, where the inspector in command 
 drew them up in military line. Order is 
 maintained in colonies where Coolies labour 
 and black men are citizens as it is in Ire-
 
 Chance-medley, 225 
 
 land, by constables armed with rifles and 
 muskets. There was some hesitation about 
 the course to be pursued. The noise from 
 the Negro-yard indicated a continuance of 
 the excitement. It was clear that the 
 advance of the police would give rise to a 
 serious riot. Drummond was anxious to 
 avoid a collision, and proposed to go down 
 and address the men. This was imme- 
 diately objected to by everyone but Dilloo. 
 He offered to accompany the manager, and 
 assured him of his safety. 
 
 " You, Dilloo ! " said Drummond, look- 
 ing into the Indian's open countenance, 
 and at a dull bluish mark in his brown fore- 
 head, where a lattey had left the record of 
 its visit. " You fight for manager this day, 
 kill manager to-morrow ! " 
 
 " Massa," replied the other, proudly, 
 vol. 1. 15
 
 226 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 " me no want massa die, cos Dilloo go 
 prison. Too much Coolie fight massa : 
 Dilloo help him." 
 
 "Ha! Then a Coolie may have some 
 sense of honour and fair play ! " 
 
 Here, Hunoomaun, who had been closely 
 watching the conversation, struck in. 
 
 " Hunoomaun too — new Coolie — fight too 
 for manahee. Me and massa go to Coolie 
 people." 
 
 Dilloo looked sardonically grave, but said 
 nothing. He felt sure the peon would not 
 risk his skin among the Coolies just then. 
 
 "Then shall we all go?" said Drum- 
 mond. 
 
 "No," said Dilloo. "Massa Drummon' 
 and Dilloo one; Massa Drummon' and 
 Hunoomaun one." 
 
 Hunoomaun clearly shrank from facing
 
 Chance- medley . 227 
 
 those with whom he had been fighting, 
 unless he were covered by the rifles of the 
 police. 
 
 "Very well," said Drummond. "Look 
 here, Dilloo, I'll trust you. My life will be 
 in your hands, you sabby." The Indian nod- 
 ded. " But you fought bravely just now, 
 and saved my life, so I will trust you again." - 
 
 The police were ordered to withdraw into 
 the road. When Drummond and Dilloo 
 appeared boldly advancing towards the 
 Chinese quarters, where three or four hun- 
 dred immigrants, of whom thirty were 
 Chinese, were assembled, some excited by 
 arrack they had plundered from the cellar 
 of their -hero, Chin-a-foo, the enterprise 
 seemed to be one of no little danger ; but 
 Dilloo, holding up his hands, explained in a 
 word or two that they had come unarmed
 
 2 28 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 and unaccompanied with any police, to talk 
 ivith the people ; and he asked them to sit 
 down and listen. After a few minutes' 
 hesitation the influence Dilloo had gained 
 among his countrymen told. They squatted 
 on their hams, or lounged against the build- 
 ings, and the Coolie and manager walked 
 among them. 
 
 " Now," said Drummond, characteristi- 
 cally swearing at them, " what has taken 
 you all to get up a mutiny in this way ? 
 and over that scoundrel Chin-a-foo, of all 
 others ! Am I not kind to you ? " 
 
 " Iss, massa," was the reply of those who 
 spoke ; the rest nodding their assent. 
 
 " I never heat you ? " 
 
 " No, massa : ovaseah beat Coolie." 
 
 Drummond winced at this naive rejoinder. 
 
 " Well, what possessed you to beat me.?
 
 Chance- medley. 229 
 
 Overseer beat you, tell me,— every time tell 
 me. You know Chin-a-foo rascal. Eh ? 
 look here ! " He took off his hat and 
 showed them blood on his forehead, and 
 held out his arm, which was also bleeding. 
 " Coolie do that." 
 
 There was a dead silence. The manager 
 could not have produced a better effect by 
 the most elaborate argument than he did 
 by this illustration. The gentle-hearted 
 people, now that a break had been effected 
 in the torrent of their excitement, were 
 completely transformed : they hung down 
 their heads ashamed, all but the Chinese, 
 who remained sullen and angry : Drum- 
 mond might count that he would never 
 make it up with them. Dilloo took advan- 
 tage of the moment : he spoke in a lan- 
 guage common to both the parties.
 
 230 L utchmee and Dilloo, 
 
 " Massa no punis Coolie, s'pose Coolie 
 all still, go work, all shaky hand, no more 
 fight, no more bad heart. Massa and 
 Coolie friend." 
 
 As Drummond nodded assent, the Coolies 
 rose, and, crowding round him, put him 
 through a course of hand-shaking worthy of 
 an American President at his installation ; 
 and then quietly disappeared along the 
 dams to their work. 
 
 In a short time, Mr. Chin-a-foo having 
 been handed over to the police, and the 
 overseers having received directions from 
 Drummond as to their conduct towards the 
 rioters, the manager and Missa devoted 
 themselves to the wounded overseer. The 
 scalp and flesh wounds of the others were 
 treated by the doctor, and formed the sub- 
 ject of lively conversation at breakfast. It
 
 Chance-medley, 231 
 
 was a curious proof of the confidence that a 
 manager may acquire among his people, 
 that, after they had received Drummond's 
 pledge of forgiveness, those Coolies who 
 had been wounded in the affray came freely 
 to the hospital to be treated, and made no 
 attempt to conceal their complicity in the 
 disturbance.
 
 $2 L utchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 CHAPTEE XVIII. 
 
 AN ENGLISH JUSTICE. 
 
 The house of the magistrate of the Macusi 
 district was situated on the other side of 
 Guineatown, about two miles from Belle 
 Susanne. Keeping along the monotonous 
 road, after one had passed the flat swamps, 
 the dirty drains, the jagged and rutted 
 dams, amidst which there seemed to stalk 
 about in straggling discomposure the tim- 
 ber-legged huts and hovels of the villagers 
 of Guineatown, you came upon a barn-like 
 building, shingle-roofed, of unpainted wood 
 raised upon very lofty piles, and with a
 
 An English Justice, 233 
 
 steep flight of steps leading from the garden 
 to the verandah. 
 
 The garden that surrounded this ugly 
 tenement was really one of great beauty. 
 Divided by dipt hedges of thorny orange, 
 its squares of black rich soil were gay with 
 varieties of shrubs and flowers, some of 
 which were not to be matched even in 
 Guianian gardens ; in the forks of the 
 branches of shrubs and trees, such as the 
 Frangipanni, the Cannon-ball tree, the Guava 
 or the Tamarind, grew precious specimens of 
 the orchids, with which, in infinite variety, 
 the trees of the interior forests abound. In 
 a broad trench at the end of the garden 
 floated sleepily the great cups of the Vic- 
 toria Kegia and its mammoth prickly rafts 
 of leaves. The long line of cocoa-palms 
 beyond, the lime and orange trees with
 
 234 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 their shining leaves and fruit, the arhour 
 where no one would have dared to sit, for 
 marabuntas, and ants, and centipedes, and 
 those tiny scourges, the betes rouges, had 
 long since established their kingdom there, 
 and resented the intrusion of foreigners ; the 
 straggling, overpowering Stephanotis, with 
 its wealthy festoons of ivory bugles, sharing 
 with a great Passion-flower the decora- 
 tion of the entire verandah, made altogether 
 an embowering Paradise for the homely 
 though comfortable barrack which was the 
 head-quarters of justice in that neighbour- 
 hood. 
 
 Here, shaded from the level rays of the 
 early morning sun by the jalousies of the 
 wide verandah, with its rocking-chairs, the' 
 invariable hammock, one or two small tables, 
 on which appeared tokens of feminine occu-
 
 An English Justice. 235 
 
 pancy, sat, at a large secretary-table, a man 
 of about fifty years of age. Stout, but 
 evidently quick and energetic, from the way 
 in which he turned and spoke when inter- 
 rupted by some one who suddenly emerged 
 from the dining-room! he was a man on 
 whom time had written the marks of care 
 and disappointment. The dark, wiry hair 
 on head and chin and cheeks was beginning 
 to change its colour, and there were wrinkles 
 on his low, broad forehead — the hieroglyphs 
 of old troubles and passions. As he sat in 
 his shirt-sleeves, his portly form was well 
 displayed in the white-duck waistcoat and 
 trousers it so neatly filled. You would have 
 said, at the first glance, that his face evinced 
 firmness and resolution ; but, had you 
 watched him shrewdly, you would have 
 detected that the resolution was that of a
 
 236 L utchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 ready, impulsive man ; that about the well- 
 formed though too full lips there played the 
 movements of doubt ; that the eye was un- 
 certain and fitful in its gaze, varying, in- 
 deed, with rather extraordinary changes of 
 expression ; and, as he sat at his work, the 
 real nature of the man would have dis- 
 covered itself to you in his movements. 
 Sometimes he laid down his pen in the 
 middle of a sentence, when his eye had 
 lighted on something in his previous manu- 
 script, or one of the books that were open 
 about him ; or perhaps to throw himself back 
 and yawn, and dream a moment about some 
 matter plainly disconnected from his occu- 
 pation. Once he half rose to pursue a 
 mosquito, more intemperate, keen, and per- 
 tinacious than its fellows; and then, sud- 
 denly changing his mind, took up his pen
 
 An English Justice. 237 
 
 and rattled off with renewed application. 
 Or, again, he leaned back in his chair and* 
 watched the impudent marabuntas, as, with 
 loud trumpet accompaniment, they built 
 their clay nests under the joists of the 
 verandah. In fact, Mr. Marston, except for 
 the lack of that element of energy which 
 not only makes a man resolute to begin but 
 to persist in every work he undertakes, 
 might, with his abilities, have raised him- 
 self to an almost distinguished position at 
 the English bar. But his study, as well as 
 his practice, had been fortuitous and capri- 
 cious, whence he had found it convenient 
 to offer to his country talents that seemed 
 incapable of supporting himself. The Colo- 
 nial Office, that last refuge for mediocre and 
 distressed rank or genius, with a charity 
 that, to begin with, hopeth all things,
 
 238 L utchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 though it is ofttimes not so enduring as 
 many of its clients would desire, had given 
 him the appointment of a stipendiary magis- 
 trate in Demerara, where he had now spent, 
 with few intervals of absence, nearly twenty 
 years of his life. Five years before, he had 
 lost his wife, who left him six children, — a 
 terrible charge upon a man in his position, 
 with an Englishman's notions of his duty to 
 them in the matter of education, and an 
 Englishman's ideas of what was due to 
 himself in the way of living. 
 
 How much trouble and sorrow their 
 proud, but unpractical and extravagant 
 views bring upon fellow-countrymen of ours 
 in all parts of the world it would be hard 
 to estimate, if not, indeed, to exaggerate. 
 The struggles to make both ends meet, the 
 thriftless and unheroic heroism of many a
 
 An English Justice. 239 
 
 poor gentleman and lady, brought up in 
 luxury, and schooled, after they have left 
 school, in repression and want, and an 
 economy they never know how to apply, 
 would form a story, the satire of which 
 would need no added bitterness from the 
 pen of sarcasm, so strong is the gall of 
 actual facts. It would be a tragedy none 
 the less real because it was not intensified 
 by its murders, suicides, and fatal passions. 
 This is not the time or the place to consider 
 how far this might be remedied, how far it 
 is possible to change in whole classes of 
 society unpractical ideas and the results of 
 foolish upbringing for a training in the 
 school of utility and restraint. Those who 
 neglect to instil the principles of common 
 sense and economy in earlier years pass on 
 their wards to an academy of adversity,
 
 240 L utchmee and Dilloo . 
 
 wherein the scholars too often ignominiously 
 perish. 
 
 The person who, as we have said, inter- 
 rupted the magistrate in his vigorous phy- 
 sical and mental exercitations, was a young 
 girl of slight figure, which happened, on this 
 morning, to be well shown off in a plain 
 white dress, involving from neck to feet the 
 symmetry of her form. She was not tall, 
 but was moulded in the exquisite perfection 
 of outline and proportion whereof tropical 
 countries sometimes give such fine speci- 
 mens in the earlier stages of life. Her 
 delicate features seemed to shine with a 
 glorious light. The dark hair, smoothed 
 over the ivory forehead, and braided in a 
 coronet on her head, — the pencilled eye- 
 brows, — the large, deep, lustrous eyes, 
 fringed so coyly by the long lashes, — the
 
 An English Justice. 241 
 
 slightly aquiline nose, with its chiselled 
 nostrils, — the tender, small, sweet, cherry- 
 lips, the little dimpled chin, that curved, in 
 magic beauty of outline, — and the neck, 
 whereon this perfect mask was lifted up — 
 an alabaster tower so small and yet so grand 
 in its proportions — altogether gave Isabel 
 Marston a loveliness lily -like and attractive 
 beyond the play of words to picture. 
 
 " Bell," said her father, glad of the inter- 
 ruption, — he suffered from endless ennui, — 
 " why are you so restless ? You have been 
 going in and out all the morning, and you 
 know how important it is I should have this 
 minute finished. The Governor requires me 
 to send it in by to-morrow." 
 
 " That is very cool of you, you naughty 
 justice, when you know that if I sit here 
 you talk to me every five mimites, and work 
 
 vol. 1. 16
 
 242 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 far better when I am away. There ! " said 
 she, pulling back the big, grizzly head, and 
 printing a kiss on the man's forehead, "that 
 is a fine for my absence ; and now I want to 
 tell yon about something." 
 
 " Gonzales sent for his bill again, I sup- 
 pose. Is there no one who will rescue me 
 from the fellow, and do to death 
 
 — That valiant but ignoble Portuguese ? , 
 
 Why, these Madeirans are worse than Jews ! 
 Ay, and confound it, worrying a magistrate 
 for money ! I'll commit him for contempt 
 — I'll imprison him — I'll give judgment 
 against him the very next case he has 
 before me — I'll send him to Massaruni — 
 
 I'll " 
 
 "Hush! you know perfectly well you
 
 An English Justice. 243 
 
 won't do anything of the kind, papa, and 
 he knows it too, or he would never bother 
 you ; but someone might overhear you, and 
 take some of your jokes in real earnest, you 
 know." 
 
 " Ha! ha ! " laughed the magistrate, re- 
 velling in the impossible idea. " It would 
 be fun to see Gonzales' face if I were to 
 pay him off every ' bitt,' and leave him 
 without a grievance ! The fellow imagines 
 he gets some benefit in his petty-debt cases 
 in my court, because I am obliged to be 
 civil to him ; but he doesn't , you know. I 
 am always on my guard to give the poor 
 devil he sues the best of justice — treble X. 
 Ah ! by the way, did Cumming Brothers 
 send that bottled ale yesterday? We'll 
 have some for breakfast. . . . Yes, the best 
 of .justice. I tell you what, I very nearly
 
 ? 44 Lutchmee ana Diaoo. 
 
 convicted him that time the bottle of rum 
 was found in his bed." 
 
 At this moment, after a preliminary knock, 
 not at all of a ceremonious character, on 
 the post of the open doorway which led 
 from the verandah to the steps, a short, 
 sturdy man, dressed in dark clothes and 
 wearing a Panama hat, stepped into the 
 gallery. His straight hair, dark eyes, and 
 brown face, with the ruddy tint in the 
 cheeks, discovered the Madeiran, the identi- 
 cal " devil " of the conversation. 
 
 " Good-morning, Gonzales ! " cried the 
 volatile magistrate, while Isabel drew back 
 with a scarlet face. " What are you doing 
 in this neighbourhood, and so early in the 
 morning ? Do you want a summons against 
 anybody, or are you stripping some poor 
 nigger's plantains ? "•
 
 An English Justice. 245 
 
 " No," replied the other, speaking in 
 tolerably good English, and very delibe- 
 rately ; "that is not the cause of my visit 
 to-day. I have been at my shop in Guinea- 
 town, after visiting my cattle farm at 
 Mahaica." 
 
 " Ah, you lucky Portuguese ! You are 
 buying up the whole country." 
 
 " And the magistrates too — eh ! eh ! " re- 
 plied the other unadvisedly, as he rubbed 
 his hands together and chuckled to himself. 
 
 The Englishman's blood flushed to his 
 face. It is dangerous for a foreigner, espe- 
 cially if he be a creditor, to rally a Briton 
 on his debts ! Marston, however, restrained 
 himself, and said, with dignity, — 
 
 "Well, Mr. Gonzales, we poor officials 
 are put in your hands by the Government, 
 which refuses to give us the necessaries of
 
 246 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 life. They forget that we may be tempted 
 to sell justice to make it up ! But you 
 must remember, too, this is an English 
 colony, and your claims are protected by 
 English laws. Don't be too grasping, my 
 Mend." 
 
 "Eh?" said the other, shrugging his 
 shoulders good-humouredly — he could afford 
 to be genial; "the protection of English 
 law is a very fine thing, eh — eh ? This 
 planters' government swindles me at every 
 turn ! I am obliged to hide my money to 
 save it from them, — in America, you know," 
 he added, feeling he had admitted too 
 much. 
 
 " Oh, don't be afraid of me, Gonzales : 
 I'm not the Inspector-General of Police! 
 It is no business of mine to inquire into 
 your resources."
 
 An English Justice. 247 
 
 " Well, let it pass. Protection — eh ? 
 They charge me, for instance, five thousand 
 dollars for my spirit licence in Georgetown ; 
 twelve hundred dollars at Berbice. I have 
 to put twice as much water in the rum since 
 they passed the new ordinance. I can't 
 keep a drop of spirits or wine in my own 
 house. Always those sub-inspectors, be- 
 cause they get half the fine, and divide it, 
 mind you, with the magistrate, — keep still, 
 sir : not you — you have not the chance ! — 
 are coming into my place, turning my wife 
 out of bed, shaking up the mattresses and 
 pillows, looking into " 
 
 " I know all about it. But; Mr. Gonzales, 
 not to refer to your own unspotted honesty 
 and notorious integrity, some of your coun- 
 trymen are great scoundrels. I admire the 
 candour with which you own to me, as a
 
 248 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 magistrate, to watering your rum. You 
 cheat the excise and the public too, and no 
 one can catch you. The Government must 
 raise a revenue." 
 
 "Yes: out of Portugee and Coolie. 
 Planters' goods, machines, guano, hogs- 
 heads, all come in for nothing ; hut Coolie 
 rice, ghee, salt-fish, American pork, rum, 
 everything we eat and drink, heavy duty. 
 Ah, you precious English : your protection 
 is expensive, my friend ! " 
 
 " But what did you want with me ? " 
 said the other, rather offended at the 
 familiarity of the Madeiran. " You did 
 not come here to talk about this." '. 
 
 " No, I forgot," said the other, glancing 
 at the young lady; "I drove hack from 
 Guineatown. There has been a row at 
 Belle Susanne. One overseer nearly killed
 
 An English Justice. 249 
 
 and several wounded : all the police 
 out." 
 
 " Indeed! " cried the magistrate, getting 
 up excitedly. 
 
 The young lady turned pale and red by 
 turns. 
 
 " Who was hurt so badly, Mr. Gonzales, 
 did you hear ? " she said. 
 
 "Yes. The best man on the estate: a 
 fine young man, very fine young man, 
 name of Craig, stabbed by a Chinee. . . . 
 Eh, eh ! look here ! What is the matter 
 with the young lady, eh ? " 
 
 The father and visitor ran together to 
 Isabel, who lay back in the cane tfhair, 
 with an ashen face, quite motionless. 
 There was the hubbub usual on such 
 occasions. Servants came, water was 
 brought, and presently, after a decent
 
 250 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 suspense, Isabel opened her eyes : she 
 was carried away in her father's strong 
 arms and laid on a bed. He satisfied 
 himself that it was only a swoon, caused, 
 as he imagined, by a sense of danger ; 
 and, assuring her they were quite safe, 
 he returned to his visitor. 
 
 " This young man, Craig, is a friend of 
 your young lady, eh ? " said the acute 
 Gonzales. 
 
 " We know him. He is a respectable 
 youth, and comes here sometimes : a 
 Scotch farmer's son." 
 
 " I am sorry I spoke his name so quick : 
 the young lady perhaps likes him. No ? 
 Pardon. Ah, you English are very funny 
 about those things ! Well, let me tell 
 you he is the best young overseer in the 
 colony. Never do for this colony. Mister
 
 An English Justice. 251 
 
 Drummond soon gets tired of him. He 
 has spoke to you about the treatment of 
 Coolies, eh?" 
 
 The magistrate turned round sharply. 
 
 " Gonzales, you are too inquisitive : you 
 have no right to ask me about private 
 conversations. What are you, driving at?" 
 
 " Eh, eh ! Well, no matter. Look here, 
 Mister Marston," — the Portuguese put his 
 finger on Marston's arm, and commanded 
 his attention, for he now spoke in a low, 
 serious tone, — " there is danger : I came 
 to warn you of it. This is not the last 
 row there will be. I travel all over the 
 colony : I know every estate. All Coolie 
 shopkeepers buy my goods ; and I tell you 
 things look very bad : bad hearts, bad 
 looks everywhere." 
 
 " Yes : these Coolies are never satisfied."
 
 252 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 " If you spoke to your young friend, 
 Craig, he will tell you why. Overseers 
 interfere with wives, drivers beat Coolies, 
 swindle in hospital, cheat at pay-table ; 
 all which Mister Drummond pretends not 
 to know. But I know he does." 
 
 "Hush!" said the magistrate, getting 
 up and looking out to see that no one 
 was eavesdropping. "I cannot hear any- 
 thing against Drummond. He is a friend 
 of mine. Besides, he is a plaintiff or 
 defendant in every court I hold." 
 
 "Yes, yes, I understand. Well, I only 
 say he gets the money they cheat the 
 Coolies out of." 
 
 The Portuguese put his fat forefinger 
 on his lip and nodded, as if to hint more 
 than he said. " The same on many other 
 estates. Manager cheats Coolie, cheats
 
 An English Justice. 253 
 
 owners too. Makes money both ways, 
 eh?" 
 
 " And you grudge him the opportunity, 
 eh? Trust a Portuguese if he could get 
 such a chance." 
 
 The other gave a shrug of his shoulders. 
 He did not pretend to peculiar virtue. 
 He was not ready to proclaim himself in- 
 sensible to temptation. The man was as 
 queer a mixture of cunning and good- 
 heartedness as could be found among the 
 wonderful variety of incongruous natures 
 in this medley of a world. 
 
 " Coolies they are all unsatisfied, Mister 
 Marston, from end to end of the colony. 
 Berbice, bad hospitals, stopped wages ; 
 Mahaica, stopped wages, bad hospitals ; 
 same in Demerary, same on East Coast, 
 same on West Coast, same at Essequibo,
 
 254 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 same at Wakenhaam and Arabian Coast. 
 All this is very dangerous. If these people 
 rise nothing will be safe. All our property 
 and lives go." 
 
 " Oh ! then the Portuguese are getting 
 frightened, are they ? Well, if there is a 
 rising, we shall have twenty thousand of 
 you on our side, and all the blacks." 
 
 The other shook his head. 
 
 " No, sir. Portugee will not fight against 
 the Coolies for you English. We have 
 some spite for you. You are a magistrate 
 and my friend. Let me tell you not to 
 trust that. No Portugee, no black men 
 will help you. But I must go. 'Spose 
 you will ride over to Belle Susanne. 
 Eh?" 
 
 " Ah ! yes, I forgot, I suppose I must. 
 Well, good morning. By the way, I am
 
 An English Justice. 255 
 
 going to pay you off that loan. The in- 
 terest is too heavy." 
 
 "Eh?" The Portuguese shrugged his 
 shoulders slightly, stretched out his hands 
 in deprecation, made a grimace, silently 
 raised his hat, and went away.
 
 256 L utchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 CHAPTEK XIX. 
 
 A PLEASANT NUESE. 
 
 Ckaig's wound for a day or two progressed 
 favourably. Drummond watched at his 
 bedside day and night. The doctor came 
 twice a day. Every appliance that could 
 mitigate the tendency to inflammation was 
 used. Early each morning Pete drove into 
 Georgetown for ice. Missa devoted herself 
 to the sick-room, and quite fell in love with 
 the strong, brave youth who lay so helpless 
 and was yel so patient. On the fourth day 
 the doctor saw with alarm symptoms of 
 inflammation. The feverish heat, quick
 
 A Pleasant Nurse. 257 
 
 pulse, and wandering eye of the sufferer told 
 a story of danger. Drummond's anxiety 
 increased. He would have remained hy the 
 young man's bedside all the time, but it 
 was impossible to neglect the estate, and, 
 strong as he was, he could not afford to lose 
 his sleep. It was necessary to find someone 
 to help Missa. After a short consultation, 
 they jointly decided on asking Lutchmee to 
 undertake the duty. When Dilloo had been 
 sent for, and had heard the manager's re- 
 quest, he readily yielded to the proposal, 
 and Lutchmee herself, no longer afraid of 
 her empktyer, agreed at once to act as an 
 assistant-nurse. She accordingly took her 
 place at the bedside of the overseer and 
 hardly ever left it. Though entreated to 
 take certain periods for sleep, she refused, 
 and sat upon the floor hour after hour, 
 vol. 1. 17
 
 258 L utchmee and Dilloo . 
 
 watching all the changes of the wearisome 
 fever that now set in. She seemed always 
 fresh and always on the ' alert, possessing 
 that faculty invaluable in a nurse, of being 
 able to take her snatches of rest unobserved. 
 Thus it was that in his delirium Craig 
 seemed to become conscious of a gentle 
 presence continually moving about him with 
 noiseless ease; and with the softest and 
 deftest of hands placing the ice on his 
 burning brow, or fanning his fevered face ; 
 or, anon, holding down the blankets over 
 his chill-stricken limbs. He could not see 
 its features or distinguish its voice, but he 
 called it " mother." And often, during his 
 wild wanderings, Lutchmee stood with 
 clasped hands and palpitating heart to hear 
 him address to her as " mother " a torrent 
 of affectionate phrases ; or when the infinite
 
 A Pleasant Nurse, 259 
 
 longings of his excited heart to be once 
 more at home expressed themselves in 
 peevish reproaches to the absent one for 
 ever letting him out of her sight, though 
 Lutchmee could not understand him, many 
 a flood of pure, strange sympathy poured 
 from her eyes. 
 
 But, in more lucid moments, Craig's 
 mind, now somewhat awakened to the dan- 
 ger he was in, turned back to the serious 
 lessons of his early boyhood. Several ex- 
 clamations which Drummond overheard 
 induced him to send across the next estate 
 to the clergyman in charge of the parish 
 church. British Guiana was, after its 
 English occupation, divided into parishes, 
 in each of which the majority of parishioners 
 were permitted to choose a parochial form 
 of religion. Hence, in some parishes An-
 
 2 6 o L utchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 glicanism, in others Presbyterianism, had 
 the superiority. It was scarcely of much 
 consequence, since all religious bodies are 
 equally endowed by the colony. 
 . Mr. Telfer, the incumbent, was an Eng- 
 lishman, a Cambridge graduate, of indifferent 
 origin, whose plodding zeal had won him 
 a respectable degree at the University, but 
 was unequal to advancing him in the carnal 
 world. Hundreds of such men, reasonably 
 polished by education and the moderate 
 contact they have had during their College 
 career, with a better society, and who, 
 adopting the Church as a profession, do by 
 and by succeed in working themselves into 
 something of. a cleric o- spiritual frame of 
 mind, are scattered here and there in the 
 rural districts of England, and dispersed 
 among our colonies. If they are rather
 
 A Pleasant Nurse. 261 
 
 insipid, they discharge the formal duties of 
 their office with neatness and dispatch. An 
 ingenious use of a few familiar rhetorical 
 formula, of conjunctions and interjections, 
 and of Bible texts, enables them to con- 
 struct a sermon. They are always re- 
 spectable units at a provincial or colonial 
 dinner-table, where they generally contrive 
 to obtrude as little as possible of the clerical 
 element. Beginning their earthly walk in 
 a cottage, or a garret, or a four-room flat ; 
 or the back-room of a tradesman's shop, 
 they start on their heavenly career from 
 college halls and cloisters, under the bene- 
 diction of a Bishop's hands. The work is 
 respectable, though the pay be small. They 
 are content to achieve all possible distinction 
 at one leap, by the simple process of ordi- 
 nation, and they quietly roll along a
 
 262 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 narrow-gauge tramway which appears to 
 have heen expressly constructed for them to 
 the top of Pisgah. It is fortunate for the 
 Church of England that she leans not on 
 such slender ministers as these, — that she 
 is able to appeal to higher and nobler classes 
 of men as the apology for her existence. 
 
 Mr. Telfer was a fair specimen of the 
 sort of clergyman we have been describing. 
 His father had been a successful shoemaker 
 at Cambridge. It was because the old 
 man's affectionate pride would not allow the 
 fact of his relationship to be idle or silent 
 that the son found it convenient to change 
 the scene. He accepted a living in British 
 Guiana, whither it was scarcely probable 
 that the senior Telfer would, in face of 
 yellow fever and mosquitos, extend his too 
 demonstratively paternal regard.
 
 A Pleasant Nurse. 263 
 
 The Eeverend Adolphus Telfer's charity 
 "was suited to his mind, — it was narrow. 
 He rigidly restrained it within the bounds 
 of his own communion. Presbyterians, 
 Wesleyans, Jews, Turks, infidels, heathen, 
 and Coolies shared none of it. No more 
 ^admirable parochial person could have been 
 devised for British Guiana. He could be 
 on good terms with the planters without 
 entertaining any ingenuous sympathies with 
 either blacks or Asiatics. The young of the 
 former he utilised in white stoles for the 
 services of the church. He baptized their 
 numerous illegitimate children with exem- 
 plary catholicity, and when they were dead 
 he read the burial service over them with 
 the same freedom from affectation as he 
 would have shown over the body of a 
 deceased planter. Within the narrow pre-
 
 264 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 cincts thus described, however, Mr. Telfer 
 was a tolerable, good-hearted fellow. His 
 clerical clothes seemed too stiff or too thick 
 to let any natural feeling exude through 
 them. Nevertheless when he came to visit 
 Craig, and found him lying in a precarious 
 state, and heard him appealing so frequently* 
 to his absent mother, or unconsciously 
 repeating scraps of prayer and verses taught 
 him in childhood, the clergyman's mind 
 opened a little to the pathos of the situation. 
 He often came back to the sick youth, and 
 would read to him in his calmer moments 
 passages of Scripture or try to solace him 
 by reciting a few prayers and collects of the 
 Church. Craig, too feeble to resist any 
 impression, seemed to be grateful for these 
 clerical attentions, and bore them with an 
 evidently not displeased patience.
 
 A Pleasant Nurse, 265 
 
 One person, however, watched these ex- 
 ercitations with singular jealousy. We 
 have said that Lutchmee always remained 
 by the bed-side of the sick man. In her 
 simple mind, as day by day she rendered 
 her services with instinctive quickness and 
 propriety, there had been developed a vague 
 yet powerful interest in her patient. She 
 had never so particularly watched an English 
 face ; and this strong youth, with his ruffled 
 auburn locks and pallid features, excited in 
 her mind a sort of fascination which it 
 would be hard to define. It was a pleasure 
 — an honest, simple pleasure — to be near 
 him, to look at him, to cool his brow and 
 fan his face, to touch him, and sometimes 
 to rest that fever-stricken head on her 
 shoulder as she administered a potion. She 
 was too natural to attempt to^denne these
 
 266 L utchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 feelings to herself : she only began to ex- 
 perience a keen and exquisite delight in 
 every act she could perform for the object 
 of her care. Certainly it was nothing like 
 her strong, deep love for Dilloo, — rather 
 was it a strange, half god- worship, than 
 like any mere mortal affection. Had Lutch- 
 mee been able to analyze her own feelings, 
 she would have detected danger in the acute 
 jealousy excited in her mind, by the inter- 
 vention between her and the sick youth of 
 anyone but Missa, for whom she now had a 
 true regard. The clergyman was her special 
 aversion. On his first visit he had looked 
 round carelessly, and said to Drummond, 
 who had brought him in, — 
 
 " Who is this person ? A Coolie woman ! 
 You had better send her away." 
 
 " She is one of my Coolies, and acts as
 
 A Pleasant Nurse. 267 
 
 nurse," replied Drummond. "If you are 
 going to say anything that may shock her 
 or do her harm, I will get her to wait out- 
 side. But she may be wanted. And be- 
 sides," added he, maliciously, " who knows 
 what good she may get from you ? " 
 
 The other was too self-involved to see the 
 irony of Drummond's remarks. 
 
 " I fear it is no use," said he, naively. 
 " All I have seen of these people convinces 
 me that attempts to convert them are mere 
 loss of time." 
 
 Drummond was silent, but he could not 
 help reflecting that when he had any busi- 
 ness in hand he was wont to exercise more 
 hope and energy in it than was displayed 
 by this minister of the indefatigable Christ. 
 
 Lutchmee, for her part, could not com- 
 prehend the remarks that had passed, but
 
 268 L utchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 she divined that the " missionary " had 
 tried to exclude her from the room, and her 
 feelings towards him took shape accordingly. 
 When he used to come and read, or, open- 
 ing a hook, knelt down and prayed, she 
 scornfully turned away. The moment he 
 was gone, she tried every method her simple 
 ingenuity could invent to divert Craig's 
 thoughts from the minister or his conversa- 
 tion. One day, far on in the illness, she 
 found him in tears after the clergyman's 
 departure. She wiped them away and 
 very prettily scolded the absent visitor for 
 making her. massa cry. / 
 
 "Oh ! " said Craig, half to her and half 
 to himself, " don't say anything against the 
 poor man. He does his best, and I feel the 
 better for it." 
 
 This was the first time that Craig had
 
 A Pleasant Nurse. 269 
 
 thoroughly noticed Lutchmee, He had 
 often, since the recovery of his senses, re- 
 garded her dreamily and carelessly, as a 
 qniet, useful attendant. The crisis of the 
 fever was now over, and the doctor was 
 beginning to hold out hopes of pulling his 
 patient through in safety. 
 
 Craig, this afternoon, somewhat inte- 
 restedly watched the lissome figure and 
 silent motions of the nurse. 
 " You're Lutchmee ? " said he. 
 " Iss, massa." 
 " Have I been sick long ? " 
 She held up three ringers " Tree weeks, 
 massa." 
 
 "Oh! I remember; there was a row, 
 wasn't there ? Why, I must have been 
 wounded. I can scarcely move. Here, 
 come and help me to sit up."
 
 270 Lutchmee and Dilloo. 
 
 11 no, massa : no sittee up dis too long 
 time." And in a moment, Lutchmee' s two 
 little arms were holding down the young 
 giant, and her brown smiling face hung 
 over his as she shook her head. 
 
 " You're about right," said he, looking 
 at her with a sort of half-affectionate feeling 
 that any kindly nurse may excite in her 
 helpless patient. " When you can hold me 
 down, you little minx, I must be weak in- 
 deed." 
 
 She smoothed his hair with her hand, 
 smiling the while, to see him better. This 
 she did with the same fondling simplicity 
 with which a dog would have rubbed his 
 head against his master's hand. 
 
 " Massa Telfer make um well," she said, 
 thinking she might have done the clergy- 
 man an injustice.
 
 A Pleasant Nurse. 271 
 
 Craig was lost in thought and did not 
 notice her. He had been ill so many weeks, 
 and, as he now began for the first time to 
 apprehend, very dangerously. The words 
 Telfer had read to him had recalled vividly 
 to his mind his home life, from the influ- 
 ence of which he felt as if a great gulf 
 just then separated him. A sense of ex- 
 treme loneliness came over him. Here he 
 was with nothing nearer or more affection- 
 ate than this simple and ignorant Coolie 
 woman. The repugnance of race, which, 
 spite of their proverbial adaptability to any 
 circumstances, I fancy to be as extreme in 
 Scotchmen as in other people, forbad the 
 budding of any affectionate esteem in his 
 heart, but he felt arising within him a strong 
 sense of gratitude for her attentions ; and, 
 deeper and more insidious than that, a sort
 
 272 
 
 Liitchjnee and Dilloo. 
 
 of pleased admiration of her pretty features, 
 lissome figure, and graceful ways. Was she 
 not a pretty animal ? Then, in a flash, his 
 mother's face came before him, a homely 
 yet a noble countenance, and, almost to his 
 own surprise, happy as was the vision, it 
 threw a curious, unpleasant light back upon 
 his previous thoughts. Yet he could not 
 recall to his mind one idea that his con- 
 science could, reprehend as improper. The 
 difference between the two beings, that 
 absent mother and the present slave, was 
 too great to suggest any comparison of his 
 feelings about them. His analysis was nei- 
 ther deep enough nor acute enough to in- 
 form him that probably the revulsion caused 
 by the remembrance at this moment of his 
 purest ideal and real in life must be rather 
 from some hidden and unconscious tendency
 
 A Pleasant Nurse, 273 
 
 of his previous thoughts than from any in- 
 herent evil in the thoughts themselves. 
 
 So subtle are the beginnings within a 
 man's soul of the conflict between the 
 spirits of Good and Evil. 
 
 END of vol. 1. 
 
 VOL. I. l8
 
 //