27/01/2024
Dance is their favorite passion, there is no people in the world more attached to it than they
are. When their master does not allow them to dance on the plantation, they will travel three
or four leagues after leaving work at the sugar mill, Saturday at midnight, to be somewhere
where they know there is a dance ....
[description of the calenda, a dance or dances whites regarded as African.)
Laws have been passed in the islands to prevent these calendas not only because of the
indecent and lascivious postures of this dance, but also to avoid overly large congregations of
slaves who, finding themselves so joyfully thrown together, usually under the influence of
brandy, could stage a revolt, an uprising, or thieving raids. However, in spite of these laws and
all the precautions that the masters can take, it is practically impossible to prevent them,
because of all their entertainments this is the one that pleases them the most and to which
they are most sensitive. In order to make them forget this infamous dance, they have been
taught several French dances, like the minuet, the courante, the passe-pied and others, as well
as branles and round dances, in order that they can dance several at once and jump as much as
they want to. I have seen many who acquit themselves well at these exercises and whose ear is
as fine and whose steps as measured as many folk who pride themselves on dancing well.
Several among them play the violin, fairly well and earn money playing at congregations and at
marriage celebrations. Nearly all play a type of guitar made of half a gourd covered with a skin
scraped down to the thickness of a parchment, with a fairly long neck.
Their music is not very pleasant and their chords not very steady. Nevertheless there are folks
who enjoy this harmony as much as that of Spanish and Italians peasants, who all have guitars
and play very badly. I do not know if they are right.
It is very appropriate to always have all one's slaves in one's home on holidays and Sundays, not
only to prevent accidental fires that can be started in the canes, or for other reasons, but also
to prevent them from running to the neighbors and causing some problem. I would rather
permit ours to dance all sorts of dances, except the calenda than to let them go outside. I often
paid a violin player and I had them given several jars of brandy to entertain each other all
together. I firmly believe that in spite all my precautions they dance the calenda as hard as they
can when they are not afraid of being discovered. Their passion for this dance is beyond
imagining; it animates the old and the young right down to children who can barely stand up; it
is as if they had danced it in their mother's belly.
Father Jean-Baptiste Labat, Nouveau voyage aux isles de l'Amerique
Describing his visit to Saint-Domingue in 1700
Translated by John Garrigus
We call those who sail the seas without commission forbans [pirates]. Properly speaking these
are public thieves who attack any and all nations and who, in order not to be discovered, sink
vessels after having attacked them and slit the throats or throw into the sea those crew
members who would not join them.
The name "forbans" comes from "forbanis," which is an old French term meaning banished or
outlaw. The pirates are ordinarily "flibustiers" or privateers, who having grown accustomed to
this libertine life in wartime when they had a commission from their sovereign to prey on
enemies of the State, were unable to decide to return to work when peace is made, and
continue to raid shipping at the expense of whomever appears. Encountering them is to be
feared, especially if they are Spaniards, since most of these are only mulattos, cruel and
irrational, they rarely spare anyone. It is considerably less risky to fall into the hands of the
French or English; they are more humane and willing to bargain, and after escaping their initial
furor, one can reason with them and get out of the affair.
These sort of folk carry their sentence with them. Whoever takes them has the right to hang
them on the spot from the yardarm or to throw them into the sea. Only two or three are held
has witnesses for the ruling on the vessel in which they were taken, after which they are
treated like their comrades had been. We feared meeting some of these gentlemen, because
we knew that some of them preyed on the coast [of Saint-Domingue], where they had already
taken several vessels. But since we knew they were French, we hoped to meet up with a group
and be rid of them for a few barrels of cognac, of which our vessel had a considerable supply.
We arrived on Saturday, a little before midnight, at the wharf of the town of Petite Riviere,
which is in the large district called Leogane. Because of the hour, we spent the rest of the night
in the boat.
Sunday January 16, we paid the captain from Nantes who had carried us and we went ashore.
Our religous brothers who had somehow learned of our arrival at the cape, were sure that were
in the vessel that they saw anchored in the harbor that morning. In fact, we found Father
Bedarides waiting for us at the seashore.
I had heard such fine things of this district that I was surprised that my ideas were so far from
what I found on shore.
The houses of the town were mostly [built] of branches [stuck into] the earth, daubed with
mud. Some were built of lumber, with a second story and shingles. All these houses, about 60,
were occupied by merchants, by a very few workers, and by a lot of taverns. The rest were
storehouses where the planters put their sugar and other merchandise waiting to be sold or
loaded.
The parish church was about 200 steps from the town, so covered and hidden in the brush that
we had trouble finding it. We entered and found nothing but a sorry-looking table and a
miserable ship's trunk, where we found the church vestments, which were about as dirty, torn
and badly cared for as any in the world. The rest of the church was no better, as much out of
poverty as of filth.
This put out Superior General into such a foul temper [that he] sent for slaves and had the
church and its surroundings cleaned as much as the solemnity of the day and the weather
permitted.
The planters, arriving at the church at the hour of Mass, were surprised by the harangue our
Superior General directed at them, because he threatened to condemn their church. However
he persuaded them so effectively that at the end of the service they promised to pay for the
construction of a new and more decent church, and in the meantime they would have work
done from the next day to put this one in the best condition possible.
The superior of our Saint-Domingue mission was a priest from the Limoges convent named
Father Naviere. He was 38 to 40 years old, very active, with an extraordinary talent for
exhausting himself without accomplishing anything, an excellent priest for the cloister, but
inept for anything outside, the greatest squanderer of property, and the most unorganized in
his business that I have ever known. This was the basis of the complaints that the [other] priests
had made against him and the subject of our trip and my commission. He had leased our slaves
to a neighbor for the sum of 10 thousand francs a year in a season when he could have made
more than 30 thousand livres in sugar, and, not content to have made this bad arrangement
against the wishes of the other priests, he had included the lands of the parish in this lease,
with the vicarage and its outbuildings, so that we found him living in borrowed lodgings in one
of the cafes of Sieur de Laye, from which he might be ejected at any moment with no other
resource than to build or rent a house in the town. We found our mission very bad and
frightfully filthy.
As soon as we had eaten, the Superior General had the orders read by which he made me
representative/steward ["commissaire"] and inspector of the mission with all the power I would
want. He ordered the priests to acknowledge my position, and immediately left on horseback to
go the Esterre district, three leagues from there, where he had decided to stay while I carried
out my orders.
After the usual formalities I gave Father Naviere five days to prepare his accounts and to
provide me with a report of the debts of the house. I also left him a list of the topics about
which I wanted more information, and I left with Father Bedarides to go to Esterre to join the
Superior General, with whom I was to stay.
Esterre is a town three leagues from Petite Riviere. Though I had been unhappy with [the town]
where we landed, with its parish church and vicarage, on the other hand I was quite pleased
with this one, and with the beauty of the lands and the route we took to get there. It seemed to
me to be that great roads of the park at Versailles. The town was larger than Petite Riviere.
Most of the houses were in lumber, two stories, securely built, closed with boards, covered
with shingles, occupied by rich merchants. The parish church was not sumptuous but sufficient.
There was even a pulpit for the preacher. In a word, we found everything in good condition and
the Superior General had reason to be quite content with the church and the cure, whose zeal,
piety, exactitude and good example were praised by everyone. This was Father Bedarides.
Not long before we arrived in Saint-Domingue a Gascon [from the region around Bordeaux]
gentleman, or a man claiming to be such, took advantage of a woman [in such a way that] the
authorities could not intervene. We were told the story which is too remarkable not to tell it
here as it was told to us. I have added nothing to it. [Translator's note: Noblemen from this
southwestern region of France were frequently stereotyped for comic or literary purposes as
poor, overly-proud, but not very hard-working. Gascons were held to be smooth-talkers, with a
distinctive accent. Perhaps the most famous Gascon in French literature that most Americans
might know is D'Artagnan, the fourth member of Alexander Dumas' The Three Musketeers, an
historical novel written in the 19th century.]
This gallant man, whose name I withhold, having heard of the generosity of [the French
governor] M. du Casse, came to him, sure that he would do for him what he had done for so
many others. M. du Casse, indeed, offered him [a place at] his table and house while he waited
for an opportunity to serve him. He told him to see the country and to find something that
suited him.
Our gentleman saw a number of planters who had many slaves and since Gascony is more a
land of invention than industry, he suggested that M. du Casse encourage each of these large
planters to give or lend him a slave. For, he said, the work of their plantations will not be
diminished by one less slave, and when I have 50 or 60 I will be able to build a fine plantation
and reestablish myself.
M. du Casse, for amusement, proposed this plan to a large party who ate at his house, and,
observing that no one was in the mood to subscribe to this scheme, he told the Gascon that he
would have to think of something else, nevertheless there was no hurry, for his house was still
at his disposal, and he advised him only to choose well, and that, if he was inclined to marry, a
gentleman was sure to find substantial advantages in this country.
This gambit pleased the Gascon, he set to work, he searched, he discovered and decided to try
his luck. He told M. du Casse that he had found a nest, that perhaps the bird would be difficult
to take, but with his protection, he hoped to see it through.
The bird was an old widow from Dieppe who had buried six or seven husbands, and her nest
was a prosperous plantation, well furnished with slaves and with all everything that a wealthy
person can be admired for. It was between Esterre and Petit Cul-de-Sac.
The Gascon, having made his plans carefully, dressed in his best clothes and rode one of M. du
Casse's horses. He arrived at this plantation about dinner time; on
the pretext of needing shelter from a bit of rain, he entered and paid his compliments to the
old woman in a manner which pleased her all the more since it had been some time since she
had heard anything so witty. She had him stay for dinner, as is the custom. While they were at
the table, he did his best to court her and he was happy to notice that these attentions did not
displease the old woman. He asked for his horse sometime after they had left the table and,
find an excuse to stop by the kitchen, he passed some money to the servants, who were at once
at his service.
The old woman noticed that he had forgotten his boots as he mounted his horse (for
apparently he had had his boots removed before dinner), she reminded him; but he replied that
he had left more than his boots with her and that he feared he might never regain it. The old
woman understood what he meant and was pleased. He left and slept under some other
pretext at a plantation two leagues from there. He was sure to return the next day at the same
time he had come the day before. The servants, won over by his generosity, hurried to inform
their mistress of his arrival and to take his horse; he entered in the same time as the woman
and after greeting here:
--Madame, he said, do not think that I came to take what I left here yesterday; it is no longer
mine, you will possess it for ever.
The old women, believing or pretending to believe that he was talking about his boots, thanked
him and said that this was not her way and immediately told a servant to bring them. But the
Gascon told her that this was not about boots, that it was his heart that he had left here, that it
was so happy that it didn't appear to want to leave and that, in this case, it was right that he
stay where his heart had settled down. He continued to keep at her in this way throughout the
meal and afterwards. As night approached, the old woman told him that his horse would be
brought to him whenever he wished.
--He! What for, Madame? he said. My heart will never leave here, it is made for yours, I would
be attempting the impossible were I to try to separate them. As a good Frenchman, Madame,
he continued, this means that I love you and that I believe that you have too much taste not to
reciprocate and become my wife.
To this point the sweet-talk of the Gascon had pleased the old woman, but the word marriage
frightened here. She grew serious, she tried to get angry: the Gascon, unperturbed, continued
his sweet nothings and finally swore that he would not set foot outside her house unless she
married him.
They supped, and although the old woman was in a bit of a bad mood, he did not stop talking of
his love nor trying to persuade her that she loved him but that she thought it improper to
declare it so soon. After supper he found a bedroom ready and retired there, after walking the
old woman to hers and wishing her good night.
He knew from the servants that a certain merchant from Nantes named Gourdin was courting
their mistress, that things were quite advanced and that he should come to see her the
following morning. Based on this information he decided that the old woman's bad mood was
due to this [visit] and he resolved to rid himself of this M. Gourdin.
When daylight came and the lady had risen, he conversed with her while waiting for M.
Gourdin, and, having seen him come, he installed himself at the door of the house with a large
cudgel at his side. M. Gourdin, dismounting, was a little surprised to see a man in, [gold] braid
and feathers at the door of his intended. He nevertheless approached in a humble manner. But
the Gascon, raising his voice:
--What do you want, Monsieur? he asked. With whom do you have business?
--Monsieur, replied the Nantes merchant humbly, I wish to speak to Madame NN.
--To Madame NN? said the Gascon. You are mistaken! It is me you need to speak to, now.
Would you by chance be M. Gourdin?
--Yes, Monsieur, said the merchant. At your service.
--Oh, learn, little merchant from Nantes, that Mme NN deserves a gentleman like me and not a
nobody like you. You are M. Gourdin, and here is M. Cudgel (taking the cudgel in one hand and
his sword with another) who informs you that if you ever have the courage to think of Madame
NN, he will break your arms and legs!
And without further ado, he set upon him. The old woman came out to prevent a disturbance,
but M. Cudgel, who continued his activity, forced M. Gourdin to flee to his horse. The slave who
held him dropped the bridle and fled, afraid to be given his share of what his master was
receiving; the horse did the same and M. Gourdin ran after both of them, still accompanied by
M. Cudgel, until the speed of his legs took him out of range.
The triumphant Gascon returned from his expedition and throwing the cudgel down with a
fistful of coins:
-- Voila, Madame, for the owner of the cudgel, because it is right to compensate those who
participated in Madame's defense.
Then, addressing the old woman, who was angry or pretended to be:
-- Voila, Madame, a sample of what I will do for you and how I will treat those who lack respect
for you. I did not want to push things too far, so this rascal witnessed my moderation, and at
the same time got an example to keep other foolhardy souls in line.
Our Gascon took care to advise M. du Casse of all that occurred and he turned the old woman's
heart so well that the following Sunday they published their wedding banns, and married on
Monday, having made each other the full beneficiary of all their property, present and future.
Unfortunately M. Gourdin did not survive the loss of his mistress. He took to bed the day after
the wedding and died in less than 5 or 6 days.
The marriage was all the talk of the island and the speed with which it was concluded surprised
everyone. When the old woman's neighbors expressed their amazement to her, she replied,
with characteristic Dieppoise naivete:
--He! what the devil do you want! I had to marry to get this Gascon out of the house, for he had
sworn not to leave unless I did!
Petition from the Free Mulattos and Nègres in the Prisons of Fort Dauphin to the
Superior Council of Cap Franqais (1765)
Translated by John Garrigus
Translator's note: This petition reflects some of the changes brought to Saint-Domingue by the end of
the Seven Years' War (1756-1763). France's loss to Great Britain highlighted the military vulnerability of
the colony. After 1763 the royal government greatly expanded its presence in the colony, and increased
the level of militia service of all free people in the colony, especially free men of color. [Source: French
National Archives, Colonies C9bbis.]
To our Lords: the Counsellors of the Superior Council of Cap,
The free mulattoes and negres of this colony, very obedient and very faithful subjects of his
majesty the King of France, humbly beseech
That it please you, our lords, to be informed by them in your office of the excessive hardships
and the terrible distress that they have suffered on account of the loyalty they have always had
and will ever have for his Majesty, however that be expressed.
The utmost rigor, exactitude, bravery, enthusiasm and courage that they have always shown
and made known to you and before the eyes of your lordships for the safety of His Majesty's
royal scepter had always given them hope and had even convinced them during the unhappy
times of these late wars that peace would end their misery, but on the contrary [this was] only
a vain hope, [and] our misfortune, for this is the reason for our chains.
We were to be forced to enlist in a newly established Legion, and subjected to a perpetual
slavery to which we and our descendants would be reduced, without possessions or even
claims to property and this is the means to besmirch [ternir] our posterity and yet, however, we
had seen that his benevolent Majesty, whose august person your lordships represent, had
granted us liberty in the full force of time and expressed in Article 59 of the Black Code and Civil
Code of 1685 which, as you know our lordships, is written thusly.
We grant to manumitted slaves the same rights, privileges and liberties enjoyed by persons
born free; desiring that they merit this acquired liberty and that it produce in them, both for
their persons and for their property, the same effects that the good fortune of natural liberty
causes in our other subjects. Our lords to try to force us to enlist and to have us thrown into
irons to constrain us to enlist is to take that liberty from us; we have always served His Majesty
faithfully without pressure, we were yet the first to arrive and the last to return from those
places threatened by some enemy attack and moreover we went promptly, still without
pressure, every holiday and Sunday to practice with canon and Tuesdays and Thursdays with
field pieces and other mandatory work and details, like loading and unloading munitions for the
artillery, carting the gun carriages of cannons that had to be moved, constant sentinel duty for
my lords the Governor and Intendant, mandatory work in the field, and musket drills and
everything [was done] with affection, courage and enthusiasm, in all nothing could shake or
diminish our loyalty, to pay punctually all the tariffs and taxes and contributions due to His
Majesty and all that earned them nothing.
It seems instead that this was a crime, that this has brought upon us the harsh treatment that
we are suffering, some others of us have been taken to the Turk Islands to work there, today
we are brought to a prison cell, fettered like criminals transfered from one prison to another
and from our birthplaces to sites unknown to us to kill us in misery, in irons, crushed by blows
from soldiers' musket butts, [threatened] with transportation, with being sold back into slavery
for the profit of the King, and with the confiscation of our property and in this despair we are
not even protected from the insults of our inferiors, that it please you, Our Lords, to investigate
the distress heaped upon your poor citizens, and the void that this causes for this colony whose
fathers you are, for, seeing ourselves so oppressed, we no longer believe we could be moved to
fight for that fatherland [patrie] no longer wanted -- that be ours[;] we can draw only very
grievous consequences from this [situation] for ourselves and our descendants, who as children
born from us will have only the status of slaves, since we recognize that we are mere
unfortunates, oppressed, not resisting with the courage that we have always shown in
defending a fatherland that is no longer to be ours, since we are effectively forbidden property
we will have none and henceforth we will be unable to acquire any and to use it; we see our
wives and our children are little more than a band of wretches and we hope for their
obliteration, we beg our lords to see with the eyes of your Holy Justice, that we are your
citizens and your children, since you are the fathers of the whole colony and that we are
subjects very attached to this fatherland [patrie] from which we are to be separated, and that
we are useful to it, and very fond though indeed wretched, and that we have no other support
than that of your justice to which we run as if to the sole fount of mercy, which could put an
end to our misery, we ask you, Our Lords, in the name of God, and of our King and of your holy
justice to cast off our chains and end our misfortunes which we hope will move and horrify your
justice our lords, and that you will be pleased to order that no more such violence be done to
us [who do] not reject that duty that all militias will be established to do, and the same duty as
them; in consideration of this, our lords, may it please you to order the end of these pains and
to deliver from their irons [men who] will never cease all their lives to offer their prayers to
heaven for the safety and prosperity of our liberators and benefactors.
Signed, Lambert, M. Marseille, Vincent, Carre in the prisons of Cap, J.b. LeChatz, Pierre Imbers,
Claude lmbert, Luis Lavalee, Lareene, J.B. Mila, E. Chauileau, Labonne faim, Le Maux, Sombre,
Lavignac, Tolete Senipee, Dutil, Froget, Holie, Baussier, E. Meigner, P. Millot, J. Foreau, Pl
Grandan, Lacomble, J. Viar, Delbieq, Pouget, Bauny, Jacques leRoy, Francois Piraumeau, Le
Chevreuil, Alexis Pironneau
A free man of color tracks a maroon slave
Source: French National Archives, Section Outre-mer, notary Gaudin, Nippes, register 738.
Translated by John Garrigus
Translator's Note: Dompète or Dom Pedro was a new form of vodun or Voodoo that had been
identified in the 1760s in Saint-Domingue's southern peninsula, not far from where this
affidavit was filed. Strongly identified with Congo slaves, the largest African ethnic group on the
southern peninsula, the Petro rite was associated with a formidable array of supernatural
powers. In 1814 Drouin de Bercy identified the Petro cult as "the most dangerous of all the
black societies ... its members are thieves, liars, and hypocrites and they offer evil advice that
destroys livestock and poultry. It is they who distribute that slow and subtle poison that kills
whites and other blacks who have displeased them." In a book published in 1806 the naturalist
Michel Descourtilz reported that "Dompète, it is said, has the power to uncover with his eyes,
in spite of any material obstacle all that happens, at no matter what distance .... The members
of this sect have access to magic to inflict their vengeance."
December 31 1781, seven o'clock in the morning; before notary Guadin there appeared:..the so-called Francois Picau [crossed out: "free griffe"; added in the margin: "honorary
cavalier in the constabulary brigade of the town of Ance a Veau, for the purpose of acquiring his
liberty free of charge, according to the regulations of this colony"] & overseer on the plantation
of the lady widow de Raymond and de Saint Germain; and Joseph, called Aubert, free mulatto,
living at the Barradaires
Who said to us, that because of the troubles the so-called Sim called Dompète, n***e, native of
the Cayes du fond region, had caused by his presence in the vicinity of the above mentioned
Barradaires in this Nippes district, at Preandes, because of the results of poison, that Sieur
Frottin, former sergeant of the constabulary, residing in the said Barradaires near the Salt River,
had gone with several free people of color, at the urging of several residents of the said place,
to find and pursue the said n***e Sim, called Dompète, to try to capture him or destroy him,
which they were not able to do. That the said comparants [persons appearing in court], in view
of the importance for public welfare and for the security of the citizenry, in order to destroy
this n***e Sim called Dompète, if possible, having been given several clues, voluntarily set out
for the woods of the Great Wilderness, between the Barradaires and Jeremie [crossed out
"yesterday"] last Saturday, 29th of this month, about seven o'clock in the evening, under a full
moon. They walked the rest of the night, the first armed with a pair of pistols "Darecon" and a
machette [manchette]; the other with his musket and a sword. At daylight, finding themselves
near the plantation that formerly belonged to one Roux, [now] abandoned they spent the day
there, hidden in the woods near the highway hoping to meet and see pass the said n***e Sim
called Dompète; who they had been told the night before could take no other road to go to the
place called Lamachotière in the Jeremie region. The day passed without seeing anything; as
night fell, both of them constantly in the highway, where they walked not far from one another
in order to be able to help each other in case of some meeting and to more easily capture the
subject they were after.
That around eleven o'clock in the evening, thanks to a magnificent full moon, the said Francois
Picau, one of the comparants, saw someone dressed in white before him, coming towards him.
Soon, at his side, he recognized this to be an unknown n***e, carrying a sword under his arm
and a white hat on his left side, with a macoute bag hung from his shoulder, to him he said Is it
you [vous] is it you [vous] is it you [toi] Sim. Immediately, without any response, having stepped
back two or three steps, putting his hand on the sword with which he was armed [he] began to
defend himself against him. Having seen this the said Picau and the said Aubert who was
behind him, hand no further doubt that they were contending and fighting with the negre Sim,
called Dompete. The said Picau defended himself with his manchette, with which he had
expressly armed himself; after several blows from one and the other with these weapons
[armes blanches] without doing either one the slightest harm. Repeated to the n***e Is this you
[toi] again who is Sim: believe me, give yourself up or I will have your head if you don't have
mine. That despite all his words he did not stop fighting without offering a single word. The said
Picau, seeing that the fighting was leading into the woods, despite himself, suspecting that his
enemy had fi****ms in his macoute because of the efforts he was making while fighting to put
his left hand in his macoute. He said to his comrade Aubert; My friend, since because of the
position of this place you can not use you sword to help me defeat this courageous n***e Sim
who prefers death to life, fire your musket at him in his body if possible. Aubert having
immediately tried to do this, his musket misfired, the primer [amorce] only burning. This
determined the said Picau to fire one of his pistols, hung at his waist, loaded each with two
balls, at the said n***e Sim; that this pistol shot, that he thought hit him in the body, instead of
weakening him, only gave him more courage and powers dangers for them, reminding this
negre of the efforts he had to make to take from his macoute the fi****ms that it might contain;
still without saying a single word. This gave Picau the idea to fire his other pistol shot at him,
which, hitting him and soon weakening not the courage but the strength of the said Sim, who
shortly thereafter fell stone dead to the ground because of the great amount of blood he had
lost from the two pistol shots he had taken. Which was the compensation [crossed out "the
success"] of a brave battle which lasted at least three hours, in which success belonged to the
comparants. That afterwards they cut the head from the trunk of [crossed out "the dead
enemy"] their dead enemy to take it, with his sword and his macoute to show the lot to M. the
Acting Royal Attorney of the Royal Court at Petit Goave for this district to make a deposit and
an affidavit as is the law.
Contents of the said macoute
• two small packets of red cloth tied with mahu and at each end different colored animal feathers,
one having attached to it two tiny long grains of red verve, the other also attached to two red
branches with different contours
• another little packet wrapped in white rabbit or cat skin, having several different colored
feathers and also tied with mahu
• Another closed packet of blue cotton cloth, bound similarly having at the end several black
feathers;
• three other little packets about the size of a nut, one in white canvas, the other in crimson
taffeta and the last of blue canvas
• two small pieces of a casse stick, pierced with several holes purposefully made three small
bones of a fowl
• a elon with a small piece of whalebone at one end and a little wad of string
• a sea puselage whose opening is chewed, at each end of which is stuck a round escalin coin, and
in the middle also is stuck a small piece of bottle glass and within is a piece of string about two
and a half feet long coming and going at each end with a little piece of rolled blue cloth
• five tiny black tree seeds
• a small piece of white wax
• fourteen small red and green parrot feathers bound together
• four different metal shoe buckles
• a small gourd
• a money purse of blue velvet with a white millère all about
