CHAPTER X.
The family of the Buccaneer in time increased to such an extent that itbegan to overflow the narrow limits of his island home. His sonstherefore carried their zeal and energy and their manners and customs tounknown countries. Under their hands forests disappeared, lands becamecultivated, and the aborigines changed their habits or cleared out. Itwas no business of the young chips of this ancient block, that the soilhad already its owners, if not its tillers. If these people did not likethe new order of things, they had an alternative. Of course the youngchips would commit no act of flagrant injustice, for such would havebeen against the teachings of their parent's Book, but it was generallynoticed that where they went they staid; and that they succeeded in thelong run in clearing the land of all rubbish, using for this purpose thetoes of their boots as well as their hands. Should the aborigines electto stay, they could; but then they were made clearly to understand thatthey must live respectable lives. If they had anything to sell theBuccaneers bought, putting upon the articles their own price, for itcould not be expected that the simple children of the soil could knowthe value of things. They generally gave about half of what was asked,and when the natives, to correct this, put on, to begin with, double theprice they intended to take, the Buccaneers were horrified at suchinnate depravity, which could, as they thought, only come direct fromthe devil himself. The antidote was their Book. This they immediatelypresented to these vicious, ignorant, and immoral people, with many ofthe pages turned down for reference.
Wherever the Buccaneer's sons went they always took a cargo of theirintoxicating drinks. These they sold to the gentle savage who showed hisreadiness to be civilized by getting as drunk as he could, as often ashe could, thereby manifesting again his shocking depravity. TheBuccaneer at home, when he heard of all this, turned up his eyes toheaven in pious horror, and immediately sent out a cargo of missionariesto counteract the evil effects of his cargoes of drink. These goodpeople wrestled with the devil; prayed for the savages and preached tothem, gave them more Bibles and explained it to them; told them to fearGod; to shun the devil and all his works; begged them to give up theirwicked ways and to lead new lives; to be honest and just in all theirdealings; not to be extortionists; not to seek after riches, for thatheaven was for the poor. Begged them to do unto others as they would bedone by. In the meantime the Buccaneer's sons gave a practicalillustration of this beautiful doctrine by selling strong drink andother merchandise at double and treble their value.
These missionaries were godly, self-sacrificing men, but their teachingsto the untutored mind must have sounded strange, supplemented as it wasby the actions of the Buccaneer's traders. Then again, they found thatrival sects, although they professed to follow the same great Master,preached rival doctrines, and hated each other with a peculiar fervour.At one time they painted God as the God of love, at another time theyimplanted fear and horror in the heart by depicting Him as a revengefuland malicious demon, full of the worst of human failings. They taughtthese simple savages that life was a kind of tight rope, along whichthey had to walk; holding in their hands the balancing pole of religion.If they slipped, which likely as not they would, then there was God'srival underneath ready with his net to catch them, and to throw theminto a fire that is never quenched.
It could not be expected that the ignorant savage would understand, allat once, the many nice distinctions of modern civilization. No doubt itmust have seemed strange to him that the Buccaneer, in the face of whathe preached, seldom went away empty-handed--taking indeed at times agoodly patch of land, just by way of recompense; for it was generallyfound, that, wherever his sons placed their feet, some of the soilalways stuck to the soles of them.
Thus were the first seeds of civilization sown; but other and betterthings were to follow. The nakedness of the savage had to be clothed,and the long black coat and tall hat of respectability had to beintroduced. The result of all this was not far to find. It was a naturalconsequence; for where the Buccaneer found simple human beings,worshipping God after their own way, dark if you like, but at leasthonest, he frequently left an accomplished lot of hypocrites, drunkards,liars, thieves and rascals generally, who having cast off the few ragsof virtue which their own benighted religion had clothed them in, hadput on a garment made up of most of the vices of civilization, and onlystitched together with the thinnest threads of Christian virtues, whichthreads were liable to snap at any time. Of course this was not thefault of the Buccaneer's sons. It was entirely due to the wretched soilthey had to work upon; you cannot grow figs on thistles, nor can youmake a silk purse out of a sow's ear.
What is civilization, do you ask? It is a veneer, sometimes thick andsometimes thin, which is thrown over human nature by culture and whatnot. From under this cloak the old Adam will from time to time peep outand take a good look round. Did he not peep out to some purpose amongstone of the Buccaneer's neighbours, and playing the part of Cain did henot draw his knife, called the guillotine, across many a brother'sthroat, kicking them unshriven into eternity? It is right to give everyone their due, and it must be owned that the Buccaneer's footsteps werenot always written in dust. He often found a people at war amongstthemselves, and tearing each other to pieces. These he brought undersubjection and gave them law and order, and if he could have kept hissons from selling strong liquors to them, and teaching them some of thepernicious principles of trade, he would have done very much good, butwith his Book he took his bottle, and the latter was more readilyreceived than the former.
It sometimes so happened that the ignorance of the heathen was so great,and their minds so clouded by prejudice, that they misunderstoodaltogether the nature of the missionary. Experience had taught them thatthe Buccaneer's Bible was generally the harbinger of the Buccaneer'ssword, which he cleared the way for the Buccaneer's man of business,who, it was found, generally got the advantage in any bargain that wasmade. What wonder then, if the simple children of nature, the gentlesavage, mistook food that was meant for the mind, as food meant for thebody, and consumed the missionary instead of his teachings? This is anexpensive way of converting a people, but it might be expected that adevoured missionary would not be without its effect upon the consumer.The disposition is naturally affected by the state of the body, thelatter by the food that is taken in to nourish it. A violent fit ofindigestion might bring on a deep remorse, and then the body would be ina proper state to receive the good seed, which taking root in the heartof one man even, might spring up and spread amongst a whole people.There is consolation here for those who have lost a friend or relationin the above manner.
By the simple methods thus related the Buccaneer managed to get anoutlet for his surplus population, and he then increased his dominions,until it was his boast that the sun never set upon them. There was not aclime too inhospitable for him. He conquered not only the people butevery natural disadvantage. His sons too travelled into every land asthe bearers of the veneer called civilization. Their footprints could betraced upon the desert sands of Arabia. The ring of their rifles was tobe heard in the remotest parts of India; on the wild prairies ofAmerica, and on the untrodden plains of Africa. They loved to beard thelion and the tiger in their native lairs; to shoot the alligator on thebanks of the Nile, and the wild goats high up on the slopes of the vastsnow-capped Himalayas. This to them was a pleasurable recreation, whilefor pastime they loved to climb the highest ice-bound peaks, and themangled corpse of some adventurous comrade lying at the foot of someprecipice in no way damped their ardour. They recovered the body, sang apean in praise of his temerity, gently placed him in the tomb ofoblivion, where so many good people lie, and then commenced theirdangerous climb. They were a brave and adventurous lot were the sons ofthis bold Buccaneer.
The Life of a Celebrated Buccaneer Page 10