THE

them. »

“The principles which now animate the But what the Germans have accomplished whole German nation are peculiar. They in one most important branch of human rehave no one point in common with the lations is both remarkable in extent and pe. equality which the French have boasted of culiar in variety and character. This branch since 1779. They are the doctrines which relates to "THE INTERCOURSE BETWEEN alone can elevate the whole human race, and MORE AND THE LESS CIVILIZED RACES,' be. Germany alone is thoroughly imbued with tween powerful Christian nations, and the

It is not very clearly shown by comparatively feeble natives of the New this writer what these all-important doctrines World, of Africa, Asia, and the South Seas. are, and his pretentions, which are not new, This intercourse, as is well-known, has have been disposed of by at least as able a hitherto been fatal to the weaker and less German pen as his own, and in terms upon civilized parties. But the generally destruc. which those who share his opinion will do tive character which it bore during many cen. well to ponder.

turies, has of late been considerably modified “The historian of mankind,” says Herder, through good men's efforts, largely, although "must take care that he chooses no tribe ex- indirectly, shared by the Germans. clusively as his favourite, nor exalts it at the Of these efforts the obvious examples are, expense of others, whose situation and cir- the attempts to abolish the slave-trade from cumstances denied them fame and for- Africa to America ; the more humane treat. tune. The Germans have derived infor. ment of slaves ; and the partial abolition of mation even from the Slavians : the Cimbri negro slavery ; yet these are only the com. and Lettonians might probably have becoine mencements of humane enterprizes, calculatGreeks, had they been differently seated with ed to change the condition of all the remot. respect to surrounding nations. We may er regions of the earth. rejoice that people of such a strong, hand. It will not be attempted here to follow out some, and noble form, of such chaste man. completely any of the operations of the Gerners, so much generosity and probity as the man mind, which have promoted these reGermans, possessed the Romar, world, instead sults, for the vastness of that inquiry far experhaps of Huns or Bulgarians; but on this ceeds our limits; but the sketch proposed account to esteem them God's chosen people to be madle of these operations will open a in Europe, to whom the world belongs in subject less studied than its importance de. right of their innate nobility, and to whom serves.

The missionaries of that country, other nations are destined to be subservient such as the Moravian brethren ; its philo.

; ; in consequence of this pre-eminence, would sophical writers, such as Herder, Schiller, be to display the base pride of a barbarian. and Schlegel ; its linguists, travellers and The barbarian domineers over those whom geographers, the Forsters, Adelungs, Chahe has vanquished; the enlightened conquer- missos, and Von Humboldts, have altogeth. or civilizes those whom he subdues. t" er produced materials which throw a clear

But without being troubled by patriotic ex. light upon the subject : and it will not be aggeration it will readily be admitted that difficult to infer from these some distinct the circumstances of the German people for views of what has long been contemplated some centuries past have been singularly by eminent Germans, and to conclude how propitious to the steady progress of civili far their objects have been realized. The sation, and that these circumstances have utility of such an inquiry is obvious. Vices greatly aided the natural advantages which common to all Europe, and false opinions, favour the regions between the Baltic and prevalent among the most civilized people, France. The territorial riches of the Ger- contribute to the ruin of the coloured races ; mans; their various resources in trade; and to rescue them it is indispensable to im. their learning ; their ancient free spirit, prove both the conduct and the sentiments of which, in spite of general political enslave. enlightened Christians generally on the ment, has produced many ameliorations in whole subject, in order that the oppressed their laws; and their unchanging military may have some chance of protection; that prowess, requiring only a better direction to the ignorant may be adequately instructed; restore political freedom ;-all these things and the debased elevated every where. give them enough influence in the world to The grand characteristic of Germany on justify a high degree of national self. this head is, that a national colonial interest respect.

does not exist there to bias the national judg.

ment, and harden the popular feelings in re* Braga. Heidelberg. 1838, pp. 295 and 311.

gard to uncivilized tribes. The German | Herder's Philosophy of History, (English trans consequently has during three centuries looklation) 2d vol. p. 361, 2d edition. 8vo. London. ed impartially upon the relations between 1803.

a

ven

maritime government on the other. The | santly occupied in making predatory incurunion of Spain and its American dominions sions upon their neighbours. At length they with the German empire in the person of were completely defeated by the Lombards; Charles V., created a brief exception to this whom they had grievously oppressed, and exclusion from colonial power and preju- foully insulted. Meeting with deserved chasdice. Two hundred years afterwards, a tisement from this kindred tribe, the Erulians vigorous attempt was made by another Em- migrated, and were kindly received by the peror of Germany, Charles VI., to obtain a Roman emperor Anastasius, until their insoshare of the Indian trade; but without suc-lence again brought down a severe cess. This was in the beginning of the last geance. Under Justinian they preserved century, when the Ostend Company was their old perverse character as a people, but formed under favourable auspices, but was were incorporated with the provincial Rofinally ruined through the jealousy of the mans in the north of Italy. A portion of Dutch and English. The Prussians have this tribe, however, emigrated to a far more subsequently met with less formidable diffi- remote land;-the real Thule perhaps of the culties in the same quarter; and since the ancients-a country lying beyond the ocean, general peace of 1815, as many as 20,000 west of Denmark, of ten times the extent of Germans emigrate yearly to America and Britain, and where the sun did not set for other new countries to the west, and a large forty days in summer, and in winter was ennumber to Russia; but in no part of the tirely lost for many weeks. This country, world have they yet formed colonial settle- the Greenland of our days, was then peopled ments of their own ;-a fact which is par- by numerous tribes, of whom the Scrithifins, ticularly worth attention at this moment when or Esquimaux, fed on little but animals, and three other great nations, the Russians, the were clothed in skins. people of the United States of North Ame rica, and the English, are literally bringing the ends of the earth together, and covering large portions of the uncivilized world with new settlements, beyond all example extensive and rapidly formed; and when France and Portugal are struggling to pursue the same career in Northern, Western and Eastern Africa. It is well in this state of things that one great civilized people should stand apart; and exercise a calm, disinterested, and enlightened judgment upon the way in which other nations use their power and prosperity.

The Erulians were received in Thule with great cordiality; obtained lands and became sufficiently flourishing to furnish their people who took refuge in Italy, with a king from the royal stock which accompanied the Transatlantic emigration."

It deserves a passing notice, that, three or four centuries later, the same parts of the world were visited by the North men, ac. companied, it is recorded, by Germans who recognized the grape of America from its resemblance to the fruit of their own vine. On this occasion the conduct of the voyagers to the Scrithifins, who appear still to have existed, was not such as to ensure them a warm welcome in the new country.

But we hasten to less apocryphal times. The discovery of America found the Germans of the 15th century perfectly capable of appreciating all the wonders, present and probable, of that great event. If they were not yet nationally interested in the financial results of this opening of supposed new routes to the rich countries of the East, or in those of the real benefits Europe was to derive from the West, still no people devoted more intense, or more continued attention to all that was daily related and written concern. ing the latter land. At this period Germany itself was the fairest country in Europe, no extensive part of even Italy excepted, and supplied, almost alone, all other lands with the finer products of its industry. The gold

The history of the German race has indeed been very remarkable in regard to the nature of its migratory intercourse with other nations. That intercourse for a long time varied but little from the common career of a powerful people; it was characterised by unscrupulous conquests, and not unfrequently by a merciless extermination of the conquered, such, for example, as took place in at least a large portion of Britain after the first Saxon invasion; and presents but few claims to the love or respect of mankind. Rovers by sea and land, the Germans were long characterised by several of the bad as well as good qualities which spring from a precarious course of life. A brief record preserved by Procopius of the Erulians aptly illustrates their early history. This tribe, which inhabited a country north of the Danube, were highly superstitious, and addicted to human sacrifices: they even required wives to put themselves to death at the graves of their husbands. They were pow- Hafnia. 4to. 1837; and see also Foreign QuarAntiquitates Americana Ante-Columbanæ, erful, and prone to war; savage, and inces-terly Review, No. XLI.

* Procopius, de Bello Gothico, lib. ii., cap. xiv

and xv.

and raw productions of other countries flow. I lished in French in the collection of M. ed thither to reward that industry. The Henri Ternąux ; and more impartial testisplendour of its public buildings was only monies could not be desired to show how equalled by the refined adornment of pri. little German DOMINATION in the new world vate habitations. If the Germans did not differed from that of Spain, or England, or keep up with the Spaniards and Portuguese Portugal. in their progress over the ocean to the West One of those works, the narrative of Nicoand South, they were remarkable for the las Federmann, appeared originally in print ability with which they studied all the im- at Haguenau in 1557. The author com. portant branches of knowledge connected manded a party of Spanish soldiers and Ger. with the extension of geographical science, man ininers sent in 1529 to Venezuela : and and with the spread of civilisation into re. his first intercourse with the natives does not mote regions. It was a native of Franco. place him in a favourable point of view. He nia, John Muller (Regiomontanus), whose very calmly, and quite as a thing of course, astronomical Ephemerides, published at Nu. set about seizing the natives for interpreters remberg in the fifteenth century, were used and guides; and exhibits the recklessness of on the coasts of Africa, America, and India the practice by taking prisoner a poor wo. by Diaz, Columbus, Vesputius, and Gama; man who complained of the injustice of their and it is justly said by the writer whom we conduct, as she and all her tribe were the are following, and who in this particular de. Christians' friends. He also mentions with. partment of science has himself done so out a word of reprobation the marauding ex. much for the honour of his country, that the pedition of anoiher German commander names of Regiomontanus, and Martin Be. during eight months in the interior, where hem, a native of Nuremberg and the friend one hundred of the men were either killed in of Columbus, alone give to Germany a attacking the natives, or died of diseases. large share in the glory of discovering the These disasters did not daunt Federmann, new world; and that the geographical re. who, in his turn, set out in September, 1530, nown of the latter has even suggested, for upon an expedition that might procure him America, the German name of Western some “ advantage.” The party consisted of Bohemia.*

one hundred and ten armed footmen and sixIt is probable, indeed, that more books teen cavalry, with one hundred friendly In. on all topics concerning African and Amer. dians. They were absent six months, makican discovery were during the half centuries ing a circuitous route through an unknown before and after the voyages of Gama and country towards the Pacific, which they Columbus, published in Germany than in reached at Xaragua. The remotest point any other country; and Von Humboldt of their route was at seventy iniles distance again justly notices the extent to which the from Coro, the place of departure. The ob. earlier writers carried their speculations upon jects of the expedition were, to collect gold the nature of the newly-found tribes of men, by any means; to subjugate the natives to almost anticipating the philosophical inqui. the emperor and to his grantees, the bankers ries of later times.

of Augsburg : and to convert them to Chris. But these speculations produced no bene. tianity by force if persuasion should fail. All ficial effect upon any of the practical men these objects Federmann pursued with a spirit who then went to the new world to get gold, of perseverance worthy of a better cause, and and who were all utterly regardless at what quite regardless of the claims of humanity. cost of blood and tears to the natives it was He encountered (wenty-two tribes upon obtained. Germany in the sixteenth centu. this expedition ; eleven were friendly, and ry must be included within the strict terms eleven hostile. of this condemnation. The Emperor Charles With the former, amicable communica. the Fifth gave a province in America to the tions were held by means of interpreters, begreat merchants of Augsburg, the Welzers, fore the arrival of the whites at the villages who had lent him large sums of money. This of the Indians. In the latter, the Indians cession led to the occupation of Venezuela were never approached with caution or conby Germans for above twenty-six years. sideration, and were often attacked by surSome of them wrote full accounts of the prise. This uniform correspondence of va. country at that period, and their books were rious results with the various character of published in the original language soon af- the proceedings of the party, speaks power. terwards. They have been lately repub- fully in favour of the more humane system

of conciliating the friendship of strange and * Examen critique et historique de la Geographie

uncivilized tribes by at leasi the simple step du Nouveau Continent. Par Alexandre de Hum. of opening communications with them, through boldt. Paris. 8vo. 1836: vol. i. p. 274. competent interpreters. The following sum.

mary account of a part of the occurrences | cealed themselves in a corn-loft; having will be found highly characteristic ; and killed eleven of them after a desperate conleaves no doubt of the fact, that German au. Alict, I caused the survivor to be tied to a post, thorities in the sixteenih century in America and to be left in that condition when we de. differed little from those of other Christians, trymen when they should come in of the

parted, in order that he might tell his coun. in regard to the rights of the Indians.

vengeance all might expect who should deal Afier describing several sanguinary con. treacherously with us. We took some of the flicts, which he attributes to their treachery, people of this village in irons as our guides; Federmann states, that he caused two of the and on discovering that they were mislead. chiefs who had accompanied himn willingly, ing us, we tortured some, but they persisted to be seized and tortured, in order to com, to be cut in pieces to terrify the rest ; in

in their story. I then ordered two of them pel them to confess why they had assembled which object we failed, for they preferred their people in arms, and why they had ill. death to being in our service, and hoped to treated a party whom he had left behind, have destroyed us by conducting us throughrefusing them provisions, which it was his out a country without provisions, and without practice to demand without payment. They water ; this plan almost succeeded.”—p. 190. bore the pain without acknowledging their offence; and one was then shot in cold blood

These atrocious acts seem to have excit" for an example.” Federmann adds that ed no attention at the return of the party to the promise of life induced the other to con- the capital of the new colony ; and the comfess that an attack upon the Christians had mander of the expedition proceeded to Eu. been concerted. Thereupon he amused the rope, undisturbed either by the Imperial followers of these chiefs, above eight hundred prosecutor's investigations or by the stings in number, with friendly discourse, and tak.

of conscience. ing his measures properly, put five hundred

The cool way in which Federmann purof them to death by surprise; the cavalry of sued his vocation of religious missionary, the Christians easily dispersing this body, the shows that he was in no very imminent dan. infantry " stabbing them like pigs."

ger from the latter.

One day,” says he, Upon another occasion his people, assist.

receiving a friendly chief and sixty of his ing one tribe against another, destroyed great tribe, I caused them all to be baptised, and I numbers of the enemy and made 600 prison. explained the Christian doctrines to them as ers, of whom he kept the able-bodied for his well as I could, which, it will easily be credown use, but gave the wounded, the children, ited, was poorly enough. This preaching is and old men, as slaves to the chiefs of his indeed a senseless affair, for it is through Indian allies.

compulsion only that their profession of our The close of the expedition was signalized faith is obtained.” by acts of extreme barbarity :

Certainly the clerical aid furnished for the

expedition indicates that force, not persua. "We now reached the Caquaties,” says sion, was depended upon for making conFedermann," and took our usual course. verts. The religious teacher, a monk, parReaching a village at an early hour, when took more of the character of Friar Tuck they take breakfast, we surprised them so than of Las Casas, or Xavier. Upon the completely that, not being able to escape, only occasion on which he is personally men. they barricaded their houses. Hereupon I signified to them that their alarm was need-lioned by Federmann, he saves some of the less, but that if they would not open their soldiers from a huge panther at the risk of doors I would burn down their town. They his own life, by bravely closing with the futhen communicated with us, apparently in a rious animal, and stabbing it with his halfriendly manner. But it being soon perceiv- berd. ed thai the women and children were gradually withdrawing from the place, a step the empire from Spain in the persons of the

After a few years, upon the separation of that usually precedes hostilities, I told their cacique that the strange Indians he saw wilh

successors of Charles the Fifth, Germany us in irons were thus punished for endeavour- ceased to have a national interest in Ameriing to betray us; and that if he persevered ca ; and whilst the maritime powers of Eu. in his treachery, the same fate awaited him. rope, -Spain, Portugal, Denmark, France, Alarmed for his personal safety he attempt- Sweden, England, and Holland, gradually ed to escape, and when my men laid hold of acquired possession of half the new world, him he uttered loud and piercing cries to his Germany shared their acquisitions only people for aid. To prevent a tumult I order. through private adventurers ; either by oced a soldier to stab him. We then set upon casional drafts of soldiers hired to fight par. the Indians, and, after killing many of them, came back to the chief's house, where we

ticular battles ; or by a few emigrants, such had deposited all the gold collected in our as from time to time have sought a refuge expedition. Here twelve Indians had con- from religious persecution at home; or,

a

finally and indirectly, by the attention which and show clearly in what manner those learned men have given to the progress of countries which are less favourably circum. discovery.

stanced, may best and most directly turn this The lead taken by Germany towards the German purity towards the correction of end of the sixteenth century in Geographic. their own errors. To this end it will be al studies, independent of any colonial inter-found, that large contributions may be obtain. est, is proved by the encouragement given ed from the researches of science as well as to these studies there, when it has been re. through religious conviction,- and that the fused elsewhere. The works of this class philosophy of German professors may be published by our Hakluyt in that period, consulted with advantage by the statesmen bear a deservedly high reputation ; they un- of every land, upon most of the great ques. questionably tended greatly to the founding tions which concern mankind at large. It of our old North American Colonies. But is extremely probable that the condemnation the works of Levinus Hulsius, a refugee, far of negro slavery, for example, by those pro. surpass them, not only in extent but in cha fessors, preceded its discussion in England; racter. Mr. Asher of Berlin, whose inter- and no where has British negro emancipaesting Essay on the Collection of Voyages Lion been hailed more cordially than by Gerand Travels, edited and published by him man writers. and his successors, ought to have a more ex- They who claim for Germany the very tensive circulation than sixty copies can give highest pinnacle of glory, to the exclusion of it, is doing a public service by his enlighten. other nations, are so far at least in the right, ed labours on the subject. In pursuing that there has been in that country more than those labours we hope he will not forget De elsewhere a continued pursuit of objects Bry's early works of the same class, to tending to the general good of mankind. which Herder attaches the credit of having Although the German language may have supplied almost the only drawings of objects been but recently polished, studies and prinfound in new countries, used by speculative ciples, which are prevalent in that country writers from the 16th to the 18th centuries. at the present day, were in high estimation

The difference of national position clearly there in times far removed ; and the catacreated a difference of principle in the na- logue of illustrious names, to be selecied as tional mind; and accordingly, it was from those of the men who long represented the Germany that first proceeded opposition to genius of the land, will spread not very unthe enormous wrongs which coloured men equally over the whole of the last four cenhave so long suffered from Christian colo. turies. The age that produced Luther is nists. Upon this point the testimony of the rightly asserted to have been the true parent ablest writer on the general history of the of that cheering spirit which the people at United States of North America is positive, large are now beginning to share.

Thence although even short of the whole truth. “On besides those who have already been men. the subject of negro slavery, the German tioned, and many more who need not be mind,” says Mr. Bancroft, the historian al. named, came Ulrich von Hutten, Melanc. luded to,“ was least enthralled by prejudice, thon, Keppler, Leibnitz, Zinzendorf, Haller, because Germany had never yet participated Wolff, Moser, Iselin, Lessing, Kant, and in the slave trade. The little handful of Fichte; nor need we prolong the list by the German Friends from the highlands above addition of those who have not yet ceased to the Rhine, resolved that it was not lawful do their country honour. for Christians to buy or to keep negro

Principles which most beneficially affect slaves. This occurred when the general uncivilized nations might be easily deduced meeting of the English Quakers hesitated from the writings of those great men, and to make the only just decision on the ques. formed into an admirable system; and mistion !"*

sionaries, settlers, geographers, physiologists, The same freedom from contaminating but in especial, political philosophers, have interests prevails still in Germany; and unless all liberally contributed to this result

. The we greatly err, it has long been working a land of Luther was not likely to be backward degree of purity in public opinion there on in Missionary efforts among the heathen ; these questions concerning the coloured and the interest felt in Germany in favour of races, that has produced very remarkable those efforts has never been contined to, what results in the public mind. A rapid survey may be considered a somewhat interested of more recent facts that seem to justify this party-namely, the actual Missionary la. observation, will fully explain our meaning, bourers. Bui such men also as Herder and

Goethe studiously consulted their records, * Bancroft's History of the United Staten, vol. watched their proceedings with vigilance, ii., p. 403.

applauded their success, and frankly noted