MARY SABINA, THE VARIEGATED DAMSELJessie Dobson, B.A., M.Sc.

Curator of the Anatomy Museum, Royal College of Surgeons of England

IN THE ExHIBITION Hall of the College there hangs a painting of a piebaldnegro child. The condition shown is very rare; and the picture hasmany other points of interest. The inscription at the bottom right handcorner reads:

" The true picture of Mary Sabina, who was born Oct. 12th 1736 at Matuna,a Plantation belonging to the Jesuits in the city of Cartagena in America, oftwo negro slaves named Martiniano and Patrona." (Fig. 1.)

The earliest mention of this case of partial albinism seems to have beenthat made by Jose Gumilla, a priest in charge of the Jesuit College at" Cartagena of the Indies," that is, in Columbia. In his book El Orinocoilustrado, y defendido, historia naturel y geographica de este gran rio,published in Madrid in the year 1745, he relates how, when visiting thesick in the plantation hospital, he saw a negress who had with her a sixmonths old child of so extraordinary an appearance that he was convincedhe would be accused of exaggeration in his description of it. He advisedthe mother to guard the baby very carefully lest someone should castthe evil eye upon it: and he mentions that many careful drawings weremade of it. Gumilla attributed the black and white markings of the skinto the fact that the mother had in her possession before the birth of thechild a black and white dog with similar pattern. Naturally, the littlegirl attracted much attention throughout the district and the directorsof the English factory at Cartagena directed that a portrait of her shouldbe madefor despatch to London.A further contribution to the story comes in 1765 in a letter addressed

to the Earl of Morton, President of the Royal Society, and later publishedin the Philosophical Transactions, written by James Parsons, M.D., F.R.S.This was in reference to a white negro boy who had been brought beforethe Fellows a short time previously. Referring to similar cases that hadcome to his notice, Parsons gives the following information that he hadreceived from a lady of his acquaintance formerly resident in Virginia.This was that Admiral Franklin had found upon a captured Spanish shipa picture of a boy who " was as beautifully mottled all over with blackand white spots as any dog that ever was seen." Several copies of thepicture were made in Carolina and it was said to be the portrait of a childborn of negro parents upon the Spanish Main.

In the Monograph on " Albinism in Man," prepared by Karl Pearson,E. Nettleship and C. H. Usher, and published in 1911, it is pointed out,in regard to this case mentioned by Dr. Parsons, that there was noAdmiral Franklin on the West Indies station at this period; but there wasa Captain Thomas Frankland, afterwards Sir Thomas Frankland, whowas stationed in the Bahamas and who captured a Spanish ship,

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" La Concepcion," bound from Cartagena for the Havannah, which wastaken to Charleston, S. Carolina. The mistake about the sex of the childis probably of no consequence.

There is a further complication in this story since Georges Louis Leclercde Buffon (1707-1788) includes in Volume IV of the Supplement to his

Fig. 1.

Histoire Naturelle an engraving of a piebald child who is indubitably theone described by Gumilla and the subject of the College painting. Theoriginal of the engraving, he says, was a coloured portrait sent to him byM. Taverne, formerly burgomaster of Dunkirk, accompanied by a letterdated 10th September 1772 giving the information that the painting

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MARY SABINA, THE VARIEGATED DAMSEL

had been found in an English prize captured by the Corsair La Royale.Below the picture, says Buffon, was the inscription, in English:

" Mary Sabina, born the 12th October 1736, at Matuna, a plantation belongingto the Jesuits of Cartagena in America, of two negro slaves, named Martinianoand Patrona."

" Je pense," says M. Taverne in this letter, " malgre ce que porte lalegende Angloise qui est au bas du portrait de cet enfant, qu'il est provenude l'union d'un blanc et d'une negresse, et que ce n'est que pour sauverl'honneur de la mere et de la Societe dont elle etait esclave, qu'on a ditcet enfant ne de parens negres."

In his reply, dated 13th October, Buffon remarks that he had neverpreviously come across such a condition. Though he was at first inclinedto agree with M. Taverne that this was the offspring of mixed parentage,he goes on to point out that " lorsqu'on fait reflexion qu'on a mille etmillions d'examples, que le melange du sang negre avec le blanc n'ajamais produit que du brun, toujours uniformement repandu, on vienta douter de cette supposition, et je crois qu'en effet on seroit moins malfonde 'a rapporter l'origine de cet enfant a des negres dans lesquels il y ades individus blancs ou blafards, c'est a dire, d'un blanc tout different decelui des autres hommes blancs ... Je penserois donc que si quelqu'undes ascendens de cet enfant pie etait un negre blanc, la couleur a pureparoitre en partie et se distribuer comme nous la voyons sur ce portrait."

In a further letter, dated 29th October, M. Taverne gives more preciseand probably more accurate details of the provenance of the portrait:" L'original du portrait de l'enfant noir et blanc, a ete trouve a bord dunavire ' Le Cretien' de Londres, venant de la nouvelle Angleterre pouraller a Londres; ce navire fut pris en 1746, par le vaisseau nomme' Le Comte de Maurepas,' de Dunkerque, commande par le capitaineFranqois Meyne." The writer courteously admits that Buffon may becorrect about the cause of the condition; but firmly points out that:"Malgre mille et millions d'examples que vous citez, que le melange dusang negre avec le blanc, n'a jamais produit que du brun toujoursuniformement repandu; je crois qu'a l'example des quadrupedes, leshommes peuvent naitre, par le melange des individus noirs et blancs,tantot bruns comme sont les mulatres, tantot tigres a petites taches noiresou blanchatre, et tantot pies a grandes taches ou bandes comme il estarrivee a l'enfant qi-dessus." And he proceeds to give instances of suchmarkings in horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, dogs, cats and rabbits-so whynot in Man ? Indeed, he maintains, it is surprising that it does not occurmore often.

Buffon, however, was not convinced, though he could provide noirrefutable proof for his own theory, and, seemingly, the correspondenceclosed. The engraving that is reproduced to illustrate his remarks wasmade from the picture supplied by M. Taverne and forms Plate II in

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Volume IV of the Supplement to the Histoire Naturelle (Fig. 2). It isundoubtedly the same child as is shown in the College painting; but thebackground is entirely changed, the loin cloth is not shown, and thefigure is reversed. The last may have been an error on the part of theengraver, for in the Complete Works of Buffon this is corrected (Plate 16,Vol. V). What became of the original picture used by Buffon is not known.

In the records of the University of St. Andrews there is evidence ofanother portrait of Mary Sabina There it is stated that on 11th May 1753" a picture of a girl, black and white, born of two black slaves at Matunain America" was presented to the University by Sir James Home ofBeachader. This is no longer in possession of the University nor isthere any trace of the time or circumstances of its disposal. It does notseem likely, however, that this was the picture that M. Taverne sent toBuffon in 1772.

Nearly a hundred years elapse before any further mention is made ofMary Sabina or her portraits. In his lectures on dermatology delivered in1870, Erasmus Wilson makes the following statement about the portraitof " our little variegated damsel": " That original picture having latelycome into my possession, I have the oppcrtunity of exhibiting it hereon the present occasion. I may remark upon the admirable painting of thework...." In the series of lectures that Sir Erasmus gave in 1876, headded the information that this portrait had been offered for sale to theCollege. This offer not being accepted, he bought the picture himself andlater gave it to the College. Enquiries have not revealed the name of theprevious owner or owners and so the problem of the portrait remainsunsolved. Were there, in fact, three somewhat similar paintings, oneowned by M. Taverne, now lost, one by Sir James Home, also lost, andthe third now in the possession of the College, the early history of whichis unknown; or was only one portrait brought to Europe, a portraitthat seems to have had a somewhat adventurous career ?

According to the extensive evidence collected by Pearson, Nettleshipand Usher, " the piebald is rare, far rarer than the complete albino."Although it might appear from the historical accounts that the conditionwas more common a couple of centuries ago, this may be a fallacy, for inmany cases the individuals were unnamed and records made by differentwriters might, in fact, refer to the same person or persons. It is interestingin this connection to mention a case of partial albinism recorded byJohann Friedrich Blumenbach and a water colour portrait of undoubtedlythe same individual among John Hunter's collection of drawings (Fig. 3).This was John Richardson Primrose Bobey, who was born on 5th July 1774at Guangaboo, near Kingston, Jamaica, where his parents were slaves.At the age of twelve he was sent to Liverpool but some three years latercame to London where he was bought by a showman named Clarke.It was in Clarke's exhibition at Exeter Change that John Hunter mostprobably saw him. In 1791, Blumenbach visited London for the second

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time and on this occasion saw the piebald youth, an illustration anddescription of whom he included in the third edition of his NaturalVarieties of Mankind, published in 1795 and dedicated to Sir JosephBanks.

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