Rosamond

Book i.O ^ O 6>

E. O 5AMO XD -CTJLBEIIT S COT.

ROSAMOND:

OR, A

NARRATIVE

OF THE

CAPTIVITY AND SUFFERINGS

OP AN

AMERICAN FEMALE

UNDER THE POPISH PRIESTS, IN THE ISLAND OP CUBA

WITH A FULL DISCLOSURE OF \

THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, WRITTEN BY HERSELF.

EMBELLISHED WITH NUMEROUS COPPERPLATE ENGRAVINGS. . . rt-ITH AN '

INTRODUCTION AND NOTES, BY SAMUEL B. SMITH,

LATE A PRIEST IN THE CHURCH OP ROME.

SECOND EDITION.

Read, blush, and weep ;— the picture stirkes with fear;—

The mask aside, what Monsters now appear! —

And must the tale he told?— ring through our land?—

It must : — for danger ur^es his command.

We blush to tell ;— -but blushes must be waiv'd,

Pop'ry expos'd, and our dear country sav'd.

NEW YORK: LEAVITT, LORD, & CO.,

BOSTON : CROCKER & BREWSTER,

Entered, According to the Act of Congress, in the year 1836, by SAMUEL B. SMITH, In the Clerk's office of the District Court of the Southern District of

- : : ; r i5fEw:YoEK. e :

STEREOTYPED BY F. P. RXPLBY, KBWYOBX.

PUBLISHERS' PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

Justice to ourselves, as well as respect for the opinions of those editors who have expressed surprise at our publication of Rosamond's Narrative, would seem to require a word of comment in issuing another edition.

We doubt not that the invectives of some of our presses have been pointed by other influences, than a regard to the public morals. Those who have been warmest in their denunciations, and when any good is attempted to be done, are ever foremost in the breach to thwart the desired purpose^ are daily outraging the public taste by their lives and letters. The influence of their papers, filled as they are with overwrought portraitures of crime and criminals — panegyrics of prostitutes — has the effect to caricature virtue, and enamel vice. The description Bertram gives ofParolles — "whose nature sickens, but to speak a truth," is not inapplicable to them.

In regard to the mechanical execution of the first edition there was room fbr criticism. Some of the engravings were illy executed, and a few more illy conceived — we have, however, availed ourselves of the first opportunity we have had, of expurgating the work in this respect — the first edition having been got up without our consultation.

The Narrative remains, as it came from the pen of the authoress, There is an honest difference of opinion (as to the propriety of its publication) from suspicions of its authenticity, apprehensions that its disclosures will not accomplish any good, or that the good will be outweighed by evils consequent on exposure of such crimes.

Vice, of whatever name or influence, to be corrected, must be exposed — the manner must be decided by the character of the evil, and the extent of its influence.

Here is an institution, enrobed with the externals of Christianity, and enjoying the respect of many, charged with the grossest abuse. The prejudices of those educated within its pale are too strong to suspect their spiritual fathers of any abuse of confidence, for they are believed to be divested of the passions of our nature ; then how " shall they hear without a preacher 1 and how shall they preach except they be sent V*

What is there in this Narrative that hundreds of American travellers do not know to characterize the Spanish and French clergy ] And has their transportation across the Atlantic washed and purified them from the infirmities of human nature ? Is it not passing strange that we should receive foreigners and foreign instructers with so much confidence ? Suppose some of our own Presbyterian clergy, professing more z^al than their brethren, should take upon themselves vows of celibacy, and devote their lives to the education of females. Let them select some beautiful site on one of our rivers ; erect spacious accommodations, and overshadow them with all the trees of the forest, and enclose them with walls impassable by men, and inscrutable to human ken. Let nature and art be taxed to contribute of their influence to array these premises in the bloom of an eternal spring. Let it be intersected by gravelled walks — emplanted by all varieties of shrubbery — enamelled with flowers of every odor and color — provided with arbors, summer houses, and retreat* — cooled by bubbling fountains, and enlivened with singing birds of every note. Now would the same inducements which preists offer, for parents to avail themselves of these institutions for the education of their daughters, be deemed satisfactory if presented by some of our home-bred clergy 1 Would professions of celibacy from them be deemed conclusive proof of the piety of 'their hearts and purity of their lives ? Would the requirement on the part of the Misses of a change of dress, assumption of another name, and vow of entire seclusion from the world and friends — be considered protection enough for the innocence of the pupils, or sufficient restraint on the passions of their teachers "? No ! common sense declares such a disguise would only aggravate rather than modify the features of the scheme.

Why then so discriminate between a Priest and Protestant 1 Are our clergymen of more passionate temperament than French Catholics 1 Does the cognomen of the latter, like a charm, dispossess its owner of the infirmities of our nature 7 Is the mantle of its name, a sufficient guarantee for the morality of all that wear it ? or are they of like passions as we are ?

But our witness, we are told, was a participator in the crimes she reveals. How shall the public learn the length and breadth of the dark habitations of cruelty except from those who have trodden them 1 Our criminal courts allow in evidence a witness to criminate associates in crime under open promise of pardon to himself. And why should we turn a deaf ear to the evidence of one, testifying without any conceivable motive but the good of others, under no influence but that of truth — under pressure of no circumstances but such as are calculated to give the greater weight to her evidence 1 "They say the tongue of dying men Enforce attention, like deep harmony — Where words are scarce, they are seldom spent in vain, For they breathe truth, that breathe their words in pain."

Introduction

In the Narrative which is now to be laid before the public, the world will have a fair specimen of Popery reduced to practice. A sure criterion by which to judge of a religion, is to consider it in all its relations, and especially, in the influence it has over the moral conduct of those who live under its control.

It is vain to tell us, pointing to a book, " there is our religion ; those are our principles ; that is our doctrine." Religion is not an abstract good ; not a mere painting to please the eye ; neither does the essence of religion consist in ceremony, nor in a firm belief in creeds and doctrines. All this is, as it were, the mere bark ; the substance and the pith lie in the heart. It is not through the bark that the sap is conveyed to the leaves, the flowers, and the fruit, but through the veins. Nothing is plainer, or more simple, than the Christian religion. It may be compared to a tree perpetually verdant, whose blossoms diffuse their fragrance all around, whose expansive branches extend a reviving shade to the wandering traveler, parched and panting with the heat of the day, and whose mellow fruit hangs in profusion, at once to assuage his thirst, and to nourish his body.

Every tree has bark, and the bark of religion is its exterior form. Every soul has a body, and it is through the senses of this body that impressions are conveyed upon the mind. Being, therefore, creatures of a compound nature, religion, although simple in its essence, is, to a certain degree, compounded for our use. It is necessary, therefore, that there should be some exterior form of worship, some bark around the trunk of this wide-spreading tree, to keep the sap to its direction, and to prevent its being dissipated by the winds. But it is not necessary that this bark should be so protuberant and complicated, as to afford shelter and concealment to vermin and corruption : much less necessary 3 that it should be overloaded with moss and fungus.

The religion of Christ has its forms, but like its divine original, these forms are comely, simple, necessary, few. In the whole system of the Christian dispensation, as it is delivered to us in the New Testament of our Lord and Saviour, the forms, or the exterior appendages of religion, are so simple and so few, that we are almost at a loss to point them out. They are all reduceable to these : the formation of a visible Church, who are commanded to worship the Father " in spirit and in truth ;" the Sacramencs of Baptism, and the Lord's Supper, and the preaching of the Gospel.

It cannot be supposed that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, in instituting his Church, introduced any thing unnecessary ; nor can we think that any thing essentially necessary relative to the government, or to the prosperity of that Church, was forgotten, overlooked, or neglected by him.

In respect to his divine mission, Jesus Christ came to offer unto God his Father, a ransom for a lost world, to preach the glad tidings of salvation, and to point out the path which leads to glory. " / have finished the work" (said the Saviour,) which thou gavest me to do" John xvii. 4. How, or where are we to find what were the works which Christ came to do, and which he tells us he has finished, except in his own Word, speaking of which the Psalmist exclaims : " Thy Word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path." Ps. cxix. 105.

Since Christ came to save sinners, and since salvation was as attainable in the days when Christ dwelt visibly upon earth, as it is now, or ever has been since his advent, all that was necessary for the salvation of man must have been accomplished by our Lord before he left the world. "/ have finished the work," says he. The work was the salvation of sinners ; — " The Son of Man is come." (said the Saviour,) " to seek and to save that ivhich was lost." Luke xix. 1 0.

Sinners cannot be saved without faith, for " without faith," (says the Scripture,) "it is impossible to please God ;" Heb. xi. 6; neither can they be saved without works, since " faith without works is dead ;" James ii. 20; consequently, when Christ was upon earth, that faith which was necessary for salvation was both preached and believed, since "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." Rom. x. 17. The works, too, without which "faith is dead" were, and must have been known and performed ; since faith and works, as the Scriptures declare, must go together. " Nov* ye are clean" (said Christ,) "through the Word which I have spoken unto you." John xv. 3.

It is true, that Christ said, addressing his disciples, " I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now" John xvi. 12. He did not tell them what those things were. It is probable he was alluding to what he would have to suffer, and also to what they would have to suffer for his sake. " Howbeit," (continues he,) " when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth." John xv. 13.

" Ye now therefore have sorrow" (continues the Saviour, still addressing his disciples:) "bid I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice." John xvi. 22. Christ, to comfort his disciples, who were afflicted at the thought of having to part with their divine Lord and Master, as to his visible presence, promises them the Spirit of truth, the Comforter, to lead and direct them in all their doubts, to strengthen them in their spiritual warfare, and to console them in their afflictions.

This was accomplished on the day of Pentecost, when " they v?pre all filed with the Holy Ghost." Acts ii. 4.

Being filled with the Holy Ghost, they were guided, as Christ had told them, " into all truth." The sum and substance of the truth, which they preached, were committed by them to writing, in the Holy Scriptures. This is the Word of God, which the true followers of Christ now hold, and ever have held, as a sufficient, and their only rule of faith and conduct ; for, as the Apostle says, " All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is prof table for doctrine, for reproof for correction, for instruction in righteousness ; that the man of God may be perfect } thoroughly furnished unto all good works." 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17.

In order, therefore, that we might " be thoroughly furnished unto all good works," the Sacred Scriptures, written by divine inspiration, have been transmitted to us from the days of th<* Apostles, down to the present time, and will continue to shine as " a lamp to our feet, and a light to our path," through the dark vista of time, to the consummation of the world.

With such a light as this, we have no need of the tinsel trappings of Popery. We prefer to follow the meek and humble example of Christ and his Apostles, to the pomp, splendor, and pageantry of the church of Rome. The Apostles and disciples of Christ lived according to the maxims they inculcated. They were plain, and unostentatious in all their ways. They were never clad in purple or scarlet. No rings on their fingers, nor crowns, nor tiaras, nor mitres on their heads — No magnificent palaces had they for the residence of Popes, or Cardinals, or Bishops — No chariot and six, had Peter, Paul, or the rest of the Apostles — No high-sounding titles to flatter piide, such as the Right Reverend, the Most Reverend, Eminently Serene, His Holiness, My Lord, Our Lord, and Most Holy.* Their names were unadorned with any epithet soever to distinguish them from the poorest and lowest of their Christian friends and brethren.

They would not even suffer themselves to be saluted with the common title Master, or Mister, as we have it in English.

To an unbiassed mind, nothing more strikingly conclusive of

* Sismondi, the Italian historian, speaking of the influence that these pompous titles had on the people of Italy, says: "These decorations always descended still lower among the commonality. Since thirty years they no longer write even to a shoemaker, •without calling him "Motto illustre.' But. in multiplying titles, they only multiplied discontent and mortification. Each one, in place of what, they granted him. only saw what they refused him: and there was no little gentleman, or dandy, and no petit officer, who did not look upon himself as mortally wounded, if, in mistake, he was saluted with the title of '■Most celebrated or Most Excellent.'' C Chiarissimo ed Ex cellrntissimo ') in place of that to which he aspired, ' Most Illustrious,' " Sismojidj Hist, Iial. T. xvi. p. 227.

I* the apostacy of the Romish church could be exhibited, than the contrast between the simplicity that every way characterized the Apostolic and primitive Church, and the pomp, splendor, and baubles, which encumber the Popish.

The glaring opposition, however, between the church of Rome and the Church of Christ, is all glossed over by the defenders of Popery, when they tell us that " the Apostles could not build palaces, and live in pomp and splendor in those days ; because the Christian Church was yet in its infancy, the disciples few in number, and their enemies powerful and intolerant. They would have dressed in scarlet and purple, have lived in palaces, have worn crowns, and tiaras, and mitres, &c. had they not been restrained by fear" ! !

Such reasoning as this is- quite sufficient to reconcile the minds of Papists to the vast disparity between the pride and splendor of their own church, and the primitive simplicity of the Church of Christ.

If these were the reasons by which the Apostles were restrained, why, at least, we would ask, did they not assume some of the glorious titles of the Right Reverend, the Eminently Serene, His Holiness, My Lord, Most Holy, &c. ? These titles they might have enjoyed with security. The reason, however, for the whole, all Jesuitical subterfuge aside, is this : — The Apostles trode in the footsteps of their divine Master, followed his precepts, and acted in conformity with the doctrines which they themselves inculcated to others. Rut the Prelates of the Romish church, on the contrary, have deviated from Apostolical simplicity, because they have wandered from the straight and narrow path marked out by Christ, and have constituted themselves the infallible judges of that, by which they are to be judged.

Having now shown, that the Bible, and not the church of Rome, is the Christian's guide to salvation, we rejoice to have it in our power to prove what we have advanced, not only from Scripture and reason, as well as from the striking contrast and opposition between the Romish church at large, and the simplicity of the Church of Christ, but by showing the practical effects of the erroneous and pernicious system of Popery as it works in its interior and more hidden recesses. The Narrative that is now laid open before the public in this volume, is a disclosure made by one who has had an opportunity of knowing, from sad experience, what the influence and effects of Popery are, in circumstances where it can have full sway.

The authoress of the Narrative was a poor, heart-broken widow, who, by the death of her husband, was left destitute, and far from her home, among strangers. Floating about, like a wreck, on the stormy sea of life, the adversity of fortune drove her to the island of Cuba. She landed at Havanna, the capital of that island, and there fell into the hands, not of the desperate pirates whose depredations are confined to the highway ocean, but into the hands of those Spiritual Pirates who, under the cloak of religion, prowl, like the midnight wolf, to seize and satiate their appetites upon the poor and wandering sheep who happen to fall into their way.

Hardly had her foot touched the shore, before one of these prowling wolves in sheep's clothing scented her out. He was one of the Reverend Fathers ; honored, revered, and worshiped, by his people, whose vices he Canonized, and upon whose credulity he lived. Disguised as a citizen, with the baldness of his head, shorn according to the discipline of his church, concealed and covered with a wig, he pays his addresses to the unfortunate stranger, gains her affections, conducts her to his house, and constitutes her, at once, Mistress of his domestic concerns. Had she known that the fond lover was a Popish Priest, never would she have yielded, as she declares, to his amorous solicitations. She knew it not, until she was his prisoner, and then the door of escape was closed.

With this fiend in human shape, (for such the sequel of this volume will clearly prove him to have been,) this forlorn and unfortunate woman lived five years.

Being Mistress of his house, and the Queen of his heart, all the domestic concerns were under her control. He poured out into her bosom the feelings that flowed through his polluted heart, and imparted to her, not only his own secrets, but those that were intrusted to him under the seal of Confession. She knew every thing ; and she tells us what she knows. She was the witness of his character under all the various shapes which it assumed : at home, under the exterior of a Priest ; — abroad, under that of a citizen. She was his companion at the ball-room, the masquerades, the gambling-tables, and the tea-parties. She accompanied him in the Promenades ; rode with him in his nigbtly excursions for dissipation; was introduced by him to his fellow Priests, who were as profligate as himself, and was conducted, dressed as a Monk, into the sacred (!) recesses of the Convents. In fine, he introduced her into all the scenes of dissipation and vice in which he was accustomed to be found Even when he was sent by his Bishop, abroad, on a parochial visit to Puerto Principe, even thither she had to go to gratify his inclinations, and to witness his atrocities. Here, poor Rosamond, for this is the name of the authoress, poor Rosamond here saw what no one but a fiend would ever have thought of perpetrating, and what none but a beast would have had the immodesty to do. This was the seduction of the daughter of his friend, a girl, or child, in fact, of but fourteen years of age. Such was his beastly lust, such the mad phiensy of that lust, and such th* more than beastly, more than diabolical pleasure he took in the exhibition of that lust, that, with a knife in his hand, he threat^ ened death to Rosamond, if she should divulge what he was going to do. He told her that she would have to be present in the room while the deed was being done. Leaving her, then, paralyzed with fear, he retires, for a short time, from her presence, and, having heard the Confession of the lamb whom he was about to sacrifice to his lust, he returns, leading his victim, the innocent Mariette, just blooming into her fourteenth year, into the fatal slaughter-house of her virtue, and there, in the presence of the fainting Rosamond, perpetrates a deed, which, we think we may say, is unparalleled in all the records of crime.

We regard these disclosures as the most important of any that ever issued from the Press; and especially, the more so, at the present juncture of events. Popery in Europe is evidently on the wane, and the United States will probably be her cradle and her throne. Europe, after being oppressed for ages, begins to feel the weight of the " Beast" upon her back. She now struggles to be free. Her convulsive throes shake the mighty " Babylon." The triple crown begins to totter on the head of the "Most Holy," (for this is the title of the Roman Pontiff,)* and, rolling his eyes over the desolations of Europe, he has fixed them upon this rising Republic, and has marked it as his own. There are still in Europe, as the Catholic Miscellany, a Popish Paper published in Charleston, states, no fewer than one hundred and thirty million Roman Catholics now in the world, and the concentration of that flood is now settling upon us.

When the influx ceases, and the dregs subside, be assured we shall be buried in the filth, or shall have to fly from our native soil. It is vain, futile, and demonstrative of ignorance too gross, for any man, who calls himself a Protestant or friend to liberty, to pretend that there is no danger from the Popish flood

* The celebrated Popish theologian, Peter Dens, treating on what is bordering upon heresy, says, " A proposition male sonans — a proposition that sounds bad, or that is offensive to pious ears I is that, which, indeed, does not convey a meaning that is openly contrary to faith, but which signifies, however, something that sounds wrong, unbecoming, and unworthy ; for instance,— if any one should say, that the Roman Pontiff is not rightly called Most Holy, (Sanctissimum,") Dens' Theol. de Virt. Fidei N. 55.

Here we see that it is bordering upon heresy, and sounds bad in Popish ears, to say, that the Roman Pontiff is not rightly called " Most Holy." Be he what he may. —ever so wicked,— and that wicked, and abandoned some have been, Papists themselves cannot, and do not deny, still he must be called "Most Holy." What can we say to this? What can any rational man think about it? What a perversion of language ! What violation of truth ! What execrable wickedness ! to call a man " Most Holy." who is known to be most unholy. It is wicked enough in the Popish church to Canonize and worship their Saints ; but here their wickedness stretches Itself to so superlative a degree of blasphemy, that they blush not to Canonize, that Us, to beatify, and to declare ''Most Holy" the very devil himself; or, what is the same thing, his image, inasmuch as an abandoned sinner, is, at least, a figure of Satan, whose image he bears. Well may we say, of those whose doctrine is such as this, ^rhat John said of the Jews, « Ye are of your father -, the devil." John viii. 44.

INTRODUCTION. \J

that is pouring in upon us. One hundred and thirty millions of these restless devotees, all fixing their eyes on our smiling valleys of the West: — the Jesuits, that horde of spiritual highwayrobbers, those restive arch-politicians, whose intrigues have convulsed the strongest monarchies of Europe, just suppressed, and suppressed forever ! by the "Royal Order" of the kingdom of Spain, (as we read even in their own "Irish Advocate," published in Montreal, September 1st, of the present year,) this horde of ruthless marauders, driven from their native Popish soil, whither can they fly, but to the wilds of our own dear country ? — Europe has again repudiated them, disfranchised them, spurns them, and confiscates their Monastic rendezvous to the public good. The Spaniards,— even the Spaniards, — the very name sounds Popish, and strikes a panic through the heart, — the Spaniards themselves have drawn that sword, which they were taught to plunge in the heart, and to stain with the blood of heretics ; have drawn it at last, to defend their rights against the Jesuits, and against their Jesuitical influence.

Whither can they fly ? — I ask again — Whither, but to our own devoted country ? — Every thing here conspires to give them complete success. Our Constitution secures unto them, and theirs, the right of suffrage. One million and a half of their adherents are already here. Their colleges, and cathedrals, and churches, and Nunneries, are rising on every hill, and spreading through every vale. The soft persuasion of their eloquence drops like honey on the carnal heart, and many are the victims, especially in the West, who are caught in the snare of these arch-fowlers. All the rabble in the land is theirs, in preference to the pure and holy Gospel of our faith. And, for a handful of their Popish gold, many is the traitor that will sell the dearest interests of his country.

But our greatest danger lies in this — the apathy, the ignorance, and the indifference of our people in relation to this momentous subject. We see, or might see, would we but open our eyes, what the experience of Europe has taught the potentates there ; and yet we hear there is no danger. The chorus of this nodanger ditty, when two millions more of these Papists arrive among us, will, I fear, be the clashing of shillalahs, — down with the heretics. This tune has already tingled in our ears in Broadway-Hall ; and the star-spangled banner of our Republic, in St. Louis, has done obeisance to the Consecrated Wafer, and has been virtually pledged to espouse the cause of Popery.

No danger still, — and no danger will be the lullaby till the fangs of the Serpent clench the very vitals of our Republic, and his fiery tail sweep us from our shores.

If the horrid picture of Popery which is laid before the public in these disclosures, is not sufficient to convince our fellow-citizens that the diffusion of it through this country, is an evil to be deprecated by every philanthropist, I am at a loss how to conceive what will convince them.

The Narrative is the unadorned effusions of a soul that has been beguiled by Priestly solicitations ; kept in captivity during five years ; deluded, — lost, — bewildered, — and undone, by Priestcraft.

She represents, not the licentiousness of a single Priest, but the general depravity of a whole country. She presents us with the picture of Popery as it exists in Cuba; and the same, we have no reason to doubt, extends through all the West-India islands that are under the Priestly control of Rome. Many of the important statements that she makes, are confirmed by testimony that cannot be rejected. This we have introduced into the notes. Among other credentials, the thirty-two letters of the Rev. Father Pies, stand not the least conspicuous.

That these letters were written by the Reverend Father, whose signature they bear, we are ready to prove by two witnesses who are now in this city. We prove them too, by confronting them with his own handwriting, which it would be futile for him to deny.

We are sorry to have it to state, that the authoress, on her way in the steamboat from Philadelphia to New-York, had her trunk stolen, or carried away by mistake. In this were some important scrips, and several letters written by her Priest, the Rev. Father Canto, and by other Priests. These would have been an inestimable appendage to the work. They would have shown, as the authoress has observed, "the Rev. Father's heart."