You say that they can be handled
that way, and I believe you. I have had no experience with them. But
you have had no experience with the blacks, and I ask you to believe me.
They are different from your natives. You are used to Polynesians. These
boys are Melanesians. They're blacks. They're niggers--look at their
kinky hair. And they're a whole lot lower than the African niggers.
Really, you know, there is a vast difference."
"They possess no gratitude, no sympathy, no kindliness. If you are kind
to them, they think you are a fool. If you are gentle with them they
think you are afraid. And when they think you are afraid, watch out, for
they will get you. Just to show you, let me state the one invariable
process in a black man's brain when, on his native heath, he encounters a
stranger. His first thought is one of fear. Will the stranger kill him?
His next thought, seeing that he is not killed, is: Can he kill the
stranger? There was Packard, a Colonial trader, some twelve miles down
the coast. He boasted that he ruled by kindness and never struck a blow.
The result was that he did not rule at all. He used to come down in his
whale-boat to visit Hughie and me. When his boat's crew decided to go
home, he had to cut his visit short to accompany them.
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