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Page:Haiti- Her History and Her Detractors.djvu/41

Rh of freebooters they were the terror of the West Indies. They had neither wives nor families. They entered two by two into a kind of partnership, all of whose goods were in common and to be inherited by the survivor. In case of a disagreement, which seldom happened however, blood alone could bring the quarrel to a close. Even in their dress they were wild looking. At their belts could always be seen a sabre, besides several knives and daggers. Any one of them possessing a good gun and twenty -five hunting-dogs considered himself a happy man. Many abandoned their family names and assumed pseudonyms, which remained to their descendants. Continually exposed to the inclemencies of the weather, their lives in constant jeopardy, they had as little fear of death as regard for the laws. They were fierce and desperate in their bravery; they roamed the seas in their small crafts, and would board fearlessly the largest Spanish ships. Nothing could resist the impetuosity of their attacks. The independence of their nature tolerated no restraint; and the authority of their leaders lasted only so long as fighting was going on. Improvident and careless, they would squander in a few days the valuable booty they acquired, their lives being thus continually spent either in the greatest luxury or in the utmost poverty. Want therefore excited their ardor and aroused their courage.

D'Ogeron undertook to discipline these unruly spirits and to interest them in the welfare of their new country. He thought that family ties alone could check their wild dispositions and bind them to their homes. So he requested that some women be sent from the mother country; at first but few arrived. Therefore, to prevent any quarrelling, they were awarded to the highest bidders; the less destitute among the freebooters were thus able to secure female companions. In this manner the first French families were instituted in Saint-Domingue. The freebooters were not to be trifled with; they


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Page:The prophetic books of William Blake, Milton.djvu/63

 To display Nature's cruel holiness: the deceits of Natural Religion.

Walking in my Cottage Garden, sudden I beheld

The Virgin Ololon & address'd her as a Daughter of Beulah.

Virgin of Providence, fear not to enter into my Cottage.

What is thy message to thy friend: What am I now to do?

Is it again to plunge into deeper affliction? behold me

Ready to obey, but pity thou my Shadow of Delight:

Enter my Cottage, comfort her, for she is sick with fatigue.

P. 37 THE Virgin answer'd: Knowest thou of Milton who descended,

Driven from Eternity; him I seek, terrified at my Act

In Great Eternity which thou knowest: I come him to seek.

So Ololon utter'd in words distinct the anxious thought:

Mild was the voice but more distinct than any earthly.

That Milton's Shadow heard, & condensing all his Fibres

Into a strength impregnable of majesty & beauty infinite,

I saw he was the Covering Cherub & within him Satan

And Rahab in an outside which is fallacious within,

Beyond the outline of Identity in the Selfhood deadly:

And he appear'd the Wicker Man of Scandinavia, in whom

Jerusalem's children consume in flames among the Stars.

Descending down into my Garden a Human Wonder of God,

Reaching from heaven to earth, a Cloud & Human Form,

I beheld Milton with astonishment & in him beheld

The Monstrous Churches of Beulah, the Gods of Ulro dark,

Twelve monstrous dishumanized terrors, Synagogues of Satan,

A Double Twelve & Thrice Nine: such their divisions.

And these their Names & their Places within the Mundane Shell.

In Tyre & Sidon I saw Baal & Ashtaroth. In Moab Chemosh:

In Ammon Molech: loud his Furnaces rage among the Wheels

Of Og, & pealing loud the cries of the Victims of Fire:

And pale his Priestesses unfolded in Veils of Pestilence, border'd

With War: Woven in Looms of Tyre & Sidon by beautiful Ashtaroth.

In Palestine Dagon, Sea Monster: worship'd o'er the Sea.

Thammuz in Lebanon & Rimmon in Damascus curtain'd:

Osiris, Isis, Orus, in Egypt: dark their Tabernacles on Nile

Floating with solemn songs, & on the Lakes of Egypt nightly

With pomp even till morning break & Osiris appear in the sky.

But Belial of Sodom & Gomorrha, obscure Demon of Bribes 39

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