My Friends the Savages Part 33

The Sakai makes great use of charcoal powder in his medicinal preparations, dressing sores, wounds and the bites of animals with it.

This might make one suppose that he either knows or divines the disinfecting properties of charcoal. He also makes it a means of defence against the invasions of ants which change their direction when they find the black line across their way.

The water in which a piece of charcoal, made from bitter wood, has been for a long time infused, is according to them a first-rate remedy against debility of the organism and coughs.

The _Ala_ wisely acting for--his own good, reserves for himself the prerogative of mixing certain pharmaceutical specialities which make the patient recover if the indisposition is merely a pa.s.sing one, but help to kill him if the conditions of his health are serious.

He always keeps prompt some plasters prepared from herbs, either of a soothing or irritating nature, in case of fractures, sprains, or dislocations caused by accidental falls.

But it is scarcely worth while to discuss the merits of these cataplasms, for the Sakai, who is the first person interested in the question, acknowledges and admits their healing virtues.

All the world is akin, and the much respected _Ala_ of the forest is nothing less than an uncivilized colleague of those charlatans, inventors of miracles, who by the sale of powders, lotions, medicinal waters and ointments make their fortune in the midst of civilized society, often deceiving science and common sense by means of well placed advertis.e.m.e.nts.

One is an educated and the other an uneducated quack.

My notes finish here. They are wanting in order and art but not in verity because above all I have dedicated this writing to the truth, prompted by feelings of grat.i.tude and good will towards my kind friends the savages. I have wished to ill.u.s.trate the customs and character of a people very much calumniated, amongst whom I have found strong and devoted friends.h.i.+p free from every taint of jealousy or self-interest.

Sixteen years of a tranquil, laborious life have I pa.s.sed among the Sakais and still to-day I feel a pang of home-sickness thinking of that wonderfully fertile land and its good and simple inhabitants.

If my words have been clear to you, dear reader, you must have remarked that in those savages are to be found real treasures of uprightness, honesty and common sense. And the first seeds of these virtues were sown by n.o.body for they bud and blossom in their souls as spontaneously as from the bosom of great Mother Nature the marvellous mult.i.tude of flora rises up towards the sun, seeking light and heat.

It is not so amongst us. Civilization teaches virtue: sermons preach it; moralists condense it into precepts and aphorisms; historians honour it in the ancients in order to inspire it in the moderns; laws, and the menaces of h.e.l.l, want to impose it. And yet, notwithstanding all this, it cannot flower well for too often it is fettered by the frenzy of "getting ahead" and by the spasms of pa.s.sions which in the superb majesty of the forest, and under its sublime influence, are neither known nor understood. Here one works serenely, undisturbed by the fear that others will rob you of your profit.

I mention the fact but leave others to draw the conclusion because if I arrived at that which would seem most logical after the premise, I should be called a worse savage than those I have held up to public admiration and if I arrived at any other I should be accused (and with reason) of contradiction.

I will instead declare that, in spite of certain discouraging proofs, I firmly keep my faith in human progress, believing that Science will one day succeed in lessening the grand anguish accruing from the incessant and cruel "struggle for life".

My chief reason for ill.u.s.trating the virtues and defects of the little-known Sakais is to present them more closely to the attention of England, that, by delivering them from the contempt and able trickery of other races, might easily lead them to civilization and at the same time form important and lucrative centres of agricultural product in the interior of the Peninsula.

It is without the slightest idea of boasting that I state I have always remained among the Sakais alone and unarmed, in my work as a colonist.

In this way it was possible for me to overcome hostility and mistrust, winning confidence and affection from one of the most uncivilized of peoples. And the fact gives me the greatest satisfaction for it demonstrates in a modest, but not for that less eloquent manner, that armed expeditions however fine and imposing in appearance (according to taste) have not the practical or lasting value of peaceful, friendly overtures. Civilization which pretends to impose itself by violence, slaughter and sackage only sows hatred. The pretended saviours become oppressors, and having begun by force they are compelled to resort to force if they wish to keep the dominion which a ferment of hatred, little by little, is undermining.

Therefore no arms, no missions (tending to subst.i.tute one terror for another) but only patience and calmness are necessary for the conquest of those simple souls and to subsequently teach them, through example, to devote themselves to work. They must be made to feel that civilization is useful, the inspirer of good and not an insidious injurer.

What can savages think when they are subjected to depredation and bloodshed by those who, with these measures, have come to them to proclaim the principles of respect for other people's property and the inviolability of human life?

It is indeed a great pleasure to me finding that to-day the Sakais no longer distrust civilization and some of them, especially the younger ones, do not refuse or shrink from work as they once did and neither do they oppose such an obstinate resistance to those innovations which I too had a part in introducing among them.

I leave it to my readers to judge if I am guilty of vanity in thus expressing my contentment.

And now I have finished.