regiment, Major Henry Capadose being promoted Lieutenant-Colonel,
without purchase, on the 22nd of that month.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE BARRA WAR, 1831--THE HURRICANE OF 1831--THE COBOLO EXPEDITION, 1832.

In 1826, owing to the difficulty found in obtaining a sufficiency of
recruits in the West Indies, it was decided to send a company of the 1st
West India Regiment to Sierra Leone, there to be stationed as a
recruiting company, the recruits to be sent to the head-quarters of the
regiment as opportunities occurred. The recruiting company embarked at
Trinidad on the 17th of April, 1826, in the _Duke of York_ brigantine,
and proceeded to Dominica, where it was transhipped to the _Jupiter_
transport. Captain Myers proceeded in charge of it to England, where it
was inspected by Major-General Sir James Lyon, and it finally arrived at
Sierra Leone on August 16th, 1826. Captain Myers having obtained sick
leave in England, Captain Stewart, Lieutenant Brennan, and Ensign
Russell, were the officers who had charge of the company.

The recruiting was so successfully carried on, that on July 9th, 1827,
73 recruits joined the head-quarters of the regiment at Trinidad; on
December 27th, 1828, 182; and on February 28th, 1829, 39; the last being
volunteers from the Royal African Corps. In 1829, Captain Evans and
Lieutenant Montgomery proceeded to Sierra Leone to join the recruiting
company.

The recruiting company continued being occupied with its peace duties
until the year 1831, when the Barra War broke out. Towards the end of
September, 1831, the Lieutenant-Governor of the Gambia Settlements sent
an urgent despatch for assistance to the Governor of Sierra Leone. The
news arrived at the latter place on October 1st, and on the 4th a force
under Captain Stewart, 1st West India Regiment, consisting of
detachments from the recruiting companies of the 1st and 2nd West India
Regiments, from the Sierra Leone Militia, and from the Royal African
Corps, sailed for the Gambia in H.M. brig _Plumper_, and the _Parmilia_
transport. The events which led to this movement were as follows:

In August, 1831, disturbances having occurred amongst the Mandingoes[43]
living in the neighbourhood of Fort Bullen, Barra Point, Ensign Fearon,
of the Royal African Corps, by direction of Lieutenant-Governor Rendall,
had proceeded with thirty men of his corps and a few pensioners, on the
night of August 22nd, to the stockaded town of Essaw, or Yahassu, the
capital of Barra, to demand hostages from the king. At Essaw this small
force was attacked by a large body of Mandingoes, and compelled to
retire to Fort Bullen, to which place the victorious Mandingoes
advanced, completely investing it on the land side. The day following,
Ensign Fearon, having lost twenty-three men out of his little force,
evacuated the work, which was in an almost defenceless condition, and
retired across the river to the town of Bathurst. After this defeat the
chiefs of the neighbouring Mohammedan towns sent large contingents of
men to the King of Barra; several thousand armed natives were collected
at a distance of three miles only from Bathurst, and that settlement was
in such imminent danger that the Lieutenant-Governor was compelled to
send to Sierra Leone for assistance.

On November 9th the reinforcements arrived in the Gambia, and found Fort
Bullen still in the hands of the natives, who fortunately had confined
themselves to making mere demonstrations, instead of falling upon the
settlement, which lay entirely at their mercy. On the morning of
November 11th a landing was effected at Barra Point by the force,
consisting of 451 of all ranks, under cover of a heavy fire from H.M.
brig _Plumper_ (Lieutenant Cresey), the _Parmilia_ transport, and an
armed colonial schooner. The enemy, estimated at from 2500 to 3000
strong, were skilfully covered from the fire of the shipping by the
entrenchments which they had thrown up, and from which, as well as from
the shelter of the dense bush and high grass, they poured in a heavy
and well-sustained fire upon the troops who were landing in their front.
Notwithstanding all disadvantages, however, the British pushed on, and,
after an hour's hard fighting, during which the enemy contested every
inch of ground, they succeeded in driving them from their entrenchments
at the point of the bayonet, and pursued them for some distance through
the bush. The British loss in this action was 2 killed, 3 officers[44]
and 47 men wounded.

The next few days were occupied in landing the guns, and placing Fort
Bullen in a state of defence; and at daybreak on the morning of November
17th the entire force marched to the attack of Essaw, the king's town,
leaving the crew of H.M. brig _Plumper_, under Lieutenant Cresey, in
charge of Fort Bullen.

On approaching the vicinity of the town the troops deployed into line,
and, the guns having been brought to the front, a heavy fire was opened
on the stockade. This was kept up for five hours, and was as vigorously
returned by the enemy from their defences, with artillery and small
arms. The rockets were brought to bear as soon as possible, and the
first one thrown set fire to a house in the town; but the buildings
being principally composed of "swish," and the natives having taken the
precaution of removing the thatched roofs of the greater number, the
rockets produced but little effect, as they could do no injury to the
walls. Towards noon some of the enemy were observed leaving the rear of
the town, and shortly afterwards a very superior force of natives
appeared in the bush on the British right, threatening an attack in
flank. A second body was also observed making a lengthened detour on the
left, apparently with the intention of attacking the British rear. The
men's ammunition being almost exhausted, and the artillery fire, though
well sustained, having produced no effect upon the strong stockades
which surrounded the town, it was deemed prudent to retire, and the
force was accordingly withdrawn to Benty Point, having suffered a loss
during the day of 11 killed and 59 wounded. Lieutenant Leigh, of the
Sierra Leone militia, and 5 men subsequently died of their wounds.

On December 7th, Lieutenant-Colonel Hingston, Royal African Corps,
arrived with reinforcements and assumed the command. Immediately upon
this accession to the British strength, the King of Barra notified his
desire to open negotiations, and, terms being proposed which he
accepted, a treaty was finally concluded and signed at Fort Bullen on
January 4th, 1832. The detachment of the recruiting company, 1st West
India Regiment, returned to Sierra Leone on the conclusion of the war.

In the West Indies, the detachment of the 1st West India Regiment
stationed at Barbados, had, in 1831, suffered from a violent hurricane
which visited that island on the 10th of August of that year. The
barracks and hospitals at St. Ann's were completely ruined, 36 men of
various corps were killed, and a commissariat officer, with three of his
children, and his entire household, entombed in the ruins of his house.

An officer of the garrison, who gives an account of this hurricane,[45]
says: "Describe the appearance of our barracks, I really cannot. This I
can say, in truth, that in no part of the world, a more beautiful range
of buildings, or on a more liberal scale or appropriate site, could have
been found. The establishment was complete in all respects for every
branch of a small army. It was the depôt of our West India military
possessions. Well--in two hours during this awful night almost every
building in the garrison was destroyed.... What a moment was that, when,
thanks be to Heaven, the gale in some degree abated. The officers crept
out one after the other, and the scene that followed can be compared
only to that which one sees and feels after an action--who has
escaped?--who is dead?... The first person I found wounded was Mrs.
Brocklass, the lady of an officer of the 1st West India Regiment, who,
with three fine children, finding the roof over them falling, hastened
from under it. She had the misfortune to be knocked down by some
shingles, received a blow on the head, and had two or three ribs broken;
the children fortunately escaped: her husband was on duty in a most
perilous situation.... The huts which were the quarters of the married
people of the 1st West India Regiment were blown to pieces, and four men
and one woman severely injured. The north building of the men's new
barracks accommodated the left wing of the 36th Regiment, besides which
a detachment of the 1st West India Regiment was quartered on the ground
floor. None of the latter were hurt, but two men of the 36th were
killed. The greater part of the spacious galleries was carried away,
some of the arches that supported them fell, and many were very much
broken. None of the roof remains that will ever be of service."

Towards the end of the year 1832, numerous complaints were made by
native traders who were in the habit of trading to the Sherbro and the
adjacent territories, that they were molested and their goods plundered
by a marauding party of Mohammedan Acoos, who had established themselves
in the vicinity of the Ribbie River. These Acoos were liberated
Africans, that is, slaves who had been set free from captured slavers at
Freetown, Sierra Leone, and had, contrary to the regulations then in
force, clandestinely left the Colony.

A party of volunteers, having been despatched to gather information
concerning these rebels, ascertained that they had been joined by other
parties of marauders, and had established themselves at a place called
Cobolo, on the northern bank of the Kates, or Ribbie River. The manager
of the Waterloo District also reported various outrages and depredations
committed by this band.

On December 13th, 1832, the Hastings company of volunteers, with that of
Waterloo, marched from the village of Waterloo towards Cobolo, distant
by road some thirty miles, with orders to capture and bring in the
leaders of the rebels. Next morning, as this force was approaching
Cobolo, the Acoos, who were concealed in the bush, fired upon the head
of the column, and the volunteers at once, and without firing a shot,
turned and ran in the greatest confusion; nor did they recover from
their panic till they had reached Waterloo. The Acoos pursued the
fugitives for some little distance, and killed seven of their number.

The rising, originally trivial, had now, through the shameful behaviour
of the volunteers, become serious. The news of the defeat spread with
great rapidity among the unruly tribes on the frontier of the Colony;
and a Mohammedan priest, proclaiming himself a prophet, placed himself
at the head of the movement. The Governor acted with promptitude; and
recognising the great danger of delay, despatched, on December 17th, all
the available men from the garrison of Sierra Leone, under
Lieut.-Colonel Hingston, Royal African Corps. The recruiting company of
the 1st West India Regiment accompanied the force, under the command of
Lieut. W. Montgomery, 1st West India Regiment.

The troops proceeded to Waterloo in boats, and were there joined by the
Wellington company of the Sierra Leone militia, and the Hastings company
of volunteers. At the same time, H.M. brig _Charybdis_ (Lieut. Crawford)
was sent with the York company of volunteers to the mouth of the Ribbie
River, with orders for the seamen and marines to ascend the river in
boats, co-operate with Lieut.-Colonel Hingston's column, and cut off the
retreat of the rebels.

Lieut.-Colonel Hingston's force marched from Waterloo on December 18th,
and, halting for the night at Bangowilli, about twenty miles from the
former village, advanced towards Cobolo next morning at daybreak. The
march was unusually fatiguing, and for many miles the troops had to move
through rush beds and mangrove swamps, frequently up to the hips in mud
and water. On emerging upon the dry ground near Cobolo the report of
fire-arms was heard in front, and scouts being thrown forward, it was
learned that the Kossoos, which tribe had suffered most from the
predatory propensities of the rebels, had taken up arms and were then
engaged in attacking Cobolo. The troops at once pushed on, and a few
minutes after their arrival on the scene, the Acoos, completely routed,
fled in all directions, many being killed and a great number drowned
while endeavouring to escape across a neighbouring creek.

The British force remained at Cobolo for four days, daily sending out
small parties in pursuit of the dispersed rebels. By one of these
parties Oji Corri, the leader of the movement, was shot down; and the
rebellion being at an end the troops returned to Freetown, Sierra Leone,
on December 28th; a detachment of the 2nd West India Regiment, under
Lieutenant Lardner, being left at Waterloo to watch the movements of the
Mohammedan Acoos in the neighbouring villages.

Lieutenant Montgomery, 1st West India Regiment, died at Freetown of
fever, on April 9th, 1833, and this event left the recruiting company
without an officer of the corps until the arrival in Sierra Leone of
Captain Hughes on November 29th, 1834.

In the West Indies one company had been removed from the head-quarters
at Trinidad to Tortola in May, 1834, and this detachment was, in
January, 1836, moved to St. Vincent.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 43: The Mandingoes are a warlike Mohammedan tribe, inhabiting
the territory inland from the Gambia River to Sierra Leone.]

[Footnote 44: Captain Berwick, Royal African Corps; Lieutenant Lardner,
2nd West India Regiment; and Captain Hughes, Gambia Militia.]

[Footnote 45: An account of the fatal hurricane by which Barbados
suffered in 1831, published at Bridgetown, Barbados, 1831.

"DETACHMENT 1ST WEST INDIA REGIMENT.

"Return of the men killed and wounded during the late hurricane, 15th
August, 1831:

"Killed--Henry Read, private.

"Wounded--4 privates.

    (Signed) "H. BROCKLASS, Lieut., 1st W.I. Regt."

]

CHAPTER XVII.

THE MUTINY OF THE RECRUITS AT TRINIDAD, 1837.

On April 1st, 1836, the 1st West India Regiment was increased from eight
to ten companies, and recruits being obtained with difficulty, the
Government commenced the injudicious practice of enrolling the slaves,
disembarked from captured slavers, in the West India regiments. In
September of that year the slaves from two slavers which had been
captured off Grenada by H.M.S. _Vestal_, 112 in number, were drafted
into the 1st West India Regiment. Similarly, in January, 1837, 109; on
May 20th, 112; and on May 21st, 93 slaves, recently disembarked from
slavers captured by H.M.S. _Griffon_ and _Harpy_, were sent to the
regiment. Thus, in the years 1836-7, 426 such slaves were received, 314
of them in the year 1837 alone.

The formality of asking these men whether they were willing to serve was
never gone through, many of them did so unwillingly; and it must be
remembered that they were all savages in the strictest sense of the
word, entirely unacquainted with civilisation, and with no knowledge of
the English language. The majority of them were natives of the Congo and
of Great and Little Popo, two towns on the western frontier of Dahomey;
and it may be here remarked that the negroes of these districts have
maintained their reputation for ultra-barbarism even to the present day.

The only result to be anticipated from such a wholesale drafting of
savages into a regiment was a mutiny, and every inducement to mutiny
appears to have been afforded them. Instead of dividing them
proportionately between the head-quarters and the detachments, they were
nearly all kept at the former; and but three weeks before the actual
rising, as if to further remove all check, 100 rank and file, all old
soldiers, were sent from Trinidad and distributed between St. Lucia and
Dominica. Thus, on June 18th, 1837, the day of the mutiny, with the
exception of the band, officers servants, and mess-waiters, all the men
at San Josef's barracks, Trinidad, were slaver recruits. The ringleader
of the movement was one Dâaga, or Donald Stewart, and the following
account of him, and of the mutiny, is taken from Kingsley's "At Last":

"Donald Stewart, or rather Dâaga, was the adopted son of Madershee, the
old and childless king of the tribe called Paupaus,[46] a race that
inhabit a tract of country bordering on that of the Yarrabas.[47] These
races are constantly at war with each other.

"Dâaga was just the man whom a savage, warlike, and depredatory tribe
would select for their chieftain, as the African negroes choose their
leaders with reference to their personal prowess. Dâaga stood six feet
six inches without shoes. Although scarcely muscular in proportion, yet
his frame indicated in a singular degree the union of irresistible
strength and activity.... He had a singular cast in his eyes, not quite
amounting to that obliquity of the visual organs denominated a squint,
but sufficient to give his features a peculiarly forbidding appearance;
his forehead, however, although small in proportion to his enormous
head, was remarkably compact and well formed. The whole head was
disproportioned, having the greater part of the brain behind the ears;
but the greatest peculiarity of this singular being was his voice. In
the course of my life I never heard such sounds uttered by human organs
as those formed by Dâaga. In ordinary conversation he appeared to me to
endeavour to soften his voice--it was a deep tenor: but when a little
excited by any passion (and this savage was the child of passion) his
voice sounded like the low growl of a lion, but when much excited it
could be compared to nothing so aptly as the notes of a gigantic brazen
trumpet.

"Dâaga having made a successful predatory expedition into the country
of the Yarrabas, returned with a number of prisoners of that nation.
These he, as usual, took bound and guarded towards the coast to sell to
the Portuguese. The interpreter, his countryman, called these Portuguese
'white gentlemen.' The white gentlemen proved themselves more than a
match for the black gentlemen; and the whole transaction between the
Portuguese and the Paupaus does credit to all concerned in this
gentlemanly traffic in human flesh.

"Dâaga sold his prisoners, and under pretence of paying him, he and his
Paupau guards were enticed on board a Portuguese vessel: they were
treacherously overpowered by the Christians, who bound them beside their
late prisoners, and the vessel sailed over 'the great salt water.'

"This transaction caused in the breast of the savage a deep hatred
against all white men; a hatred so intense that he frequently, during
and subsequent to the mutiny, declared he would eat the first white man
he killed; yet this cannibal was made to swear allegiance to our
sovereign on the Holy Evangelists, and was then called a British
soldier.

"On the voyage the vessel on board which Dâaga had been entrapped was
captured by the British. He could not comprehend that his new captors
liberated him: he had been overreached and trepanned by one set of white
men, and he naturally looked on his second captors as more successful
rivals in the human, or rather inhuman, Guinea trade; therefore, this
event lessened not his hatred for white men in the abstract.

"I was informed by several of the Africans who came with him, that when,
during the voyage, they upbraided Dâaga with being the cause of their
capture, he pacified them by promising that when they should arrive in
white man's country he would repay their perfidy by attacking them in
the night. He further promised that if the Paupaus and Yarrabas would
follow him, he would fight his way back to Guinea. This account was
fully corroborated by many of the mutineers, especially those who were
shot with Dâaga; they all said the revolt never would have happened but
for Donald Stewart, as he was called by the officers; but Africans who
were not of his tribe called him Longa-longa, on account of his height.

"Such was the extraordinary man who led the mutiny I am about to relate.

"A quantity of captured Africans having been brought hither from the
islands of Grenada and Dominica, they were most imprudently induced to
enlist in the 1st West India Regiment. True it is, we have been told
they did this voluntarily; but it may be asked, if they had any will in
the matter, how could they understand the duties to be imposed on them
by becoming soldiers, or how comprehend the nature of an oath of
allegiance, without which they could not, legally speaking, be
considered soldiers? I attended the whole of the trials of these men,
and well know how difficult it was to make them comprehend any idea
which was at all new to them by means of the best interpreters
procurable.

"To the African savage, while being drilled into the duties of a
soldier, many things seem absolute tyranny which would appear to a
civilised man a mere necessary restraint. To keep the restless body of
an African negro in a position to which he has not been accustomed; to
cramp his splay feet, with his great toes standing out, into European
shoes made for feet of a different form; to place a collar round his
neck, which is called a stock, and which to him is cruel torture; above
all, to confine him every night to his barracks--are almost
insupportable. One unacquainted with the habits of the negro cannot
conceive with what abhorrence he looks on having his disposition to
nocturnal rambles checked by barrack regulations.

"Formerly the 'King's man,' as the black soldier loved to call himself,
looked (not without reason) contemptuously on the planter's slave,
although he himself was after all but a slave to the State; but these
recruits were enlisted shortly after a number of their recently imported
countrymen were wandering freely over the country, working either as
free labourers, or settling, to use an apt American phrase, as
squatters; and to assert that the recruit, while under military
probation, is better off than the free Trinidad labourer, who goes where
he lists and earns as much in one day as will keep him for three days,
is an absurdity. Accordingly, we find that Lieutenant-Colonel Bush, who
commanded the 1st West India Regiment, thought that the mutiny was
mainly owing to the ill-advice of their civil, or, we should rather say,
unmilitary countrymen. This, to a certain degree, was the fact; but, by
the declaration of Dâaga and many of his countrymen, it is evident that
the seeds of the mutiny were sown on the passage from Africa.

"It has been asserted that the recruits were driven to mutiny by hard
treatment of their commanding officers. There seems not the slightest
truth in this assertion; they were treated with fully as much kindness
as their situation would admit of, and their chief was peculiarly a
favourite of Colonel Bush and the officers, notwithstanding Dâaga's
violent and ferocious temper often caused complaints to be brought
against him.

"On the night of the 17th of June, 1837, the people of San Josef were
kept awake by the recruits, about 280 in number, singing the war-song of
the Paupaus. This wild song consisted of a short air and chorus. The
tone was, although wild, not inharmonious, and the words rather
euphonious. As near as our alphabet can convey them, they ran thus:

    "Dangkarrée
    Au fey
    Oluu werrei
    Au lay.

which may be rendered almost literally by the following couplet:

    "Air by the chief: 'Come to plunder, come to slay.'
    "Chorus by followers: 'We are ready to obey.'

"About three o'clock in the morning, their war-song (highly
characteristic of a predatory tribe) became very loud, and they
commenced uttering their war-cry. This is different to what we conceive
the Indian war-whoop to be; it seems to be a kind of imitation of the
growl of wild beasts, and has a most thrilling effect.

"Fire was now set to a quantity of huts built for the accommodation of
African soldiers to the northward of the barracks, as well as to the
house of a poor black woman called Dalrymple. These burnt briskly,
throwing a dismal glare over the barracks and picturesque town of San
Josef, and overpowering the light of the full moon, which illumined a
cloudless sky. The mutineers made a rush at the barrack-room and seized
on the muskets and fusees in the racks. Their leader, Dâaga, and a
daring Yarraba named Ogston, instantly charged their pieces--the former
of these had a quantity of ball cartridges, loose powder, and ounce and
pistol balls, in a kind of gray worsted cap. He must have provided
himself with these before the mutiny. How he became possessed of them,
especially the pistol balls, I never could learn; probably he was
supplied by his unmilitary countrymen; pistol balls are never given to
infantry. Previous to this Dâaga and three others made a rush at the
regimental store-room, in which was deposited a quantity of powder. An
old African soldier, named Charles Dixon, interfered to stop them, on
which Maurice Ogston, the Yarraba chief, who had armed himself with a
sergeant's sword, cut down the faithful African. When down, Dâaga said
in English, 'Ah, you old soldier, you knock down.' Dixon was not Dâaga's
countryman, hence he could not speak to him in his own language. The
Paupau then levelled his musket and shot the fallen soldier, who groaned
and died. The war-yells, or rather growls, of the Paupaus and Yarrabas
now became awfully thrilling as they helped themselves to cartridges;
most of them were fortunately blank, or without ball. Never was a
premeditated mutiny so wild and ill-planned. Their chief, Dâaga, and
Ogston, seem to have had little command of the subordinates, and the
whole acted more like a set of wild beasts who had broken their cages,
than men resolved on war.

"At this period, had a rush been made at the officers' quarters by one
half (they were more than 200 in number), and the other half surrounded
the building, not one could have escaped. Instead of this they continued
to shout their war-song, and howl their war-notes; they loaded their
pieces with ball cartridge or blank cartridge and small stones, and
commenced firing at the long range of white buildings in which Colonel
Bush and his officers slept. They wasted so much ammunition on this
useless display of fury that the buildings were completely riddled. A
few of the old soldiers opposed them and were wounded, but it
fortunately happened that they were, to an inconceivable degree,
ignorant of the right use of fire-arms--holding their muskets in their
hands when they discharged them, without allowing the butt-end to rest
against their shoulders or any part of their bodies.[48] This fact
accounts for the comparatively little mischief they did in proportion to
the quantity of ammunition thrown away.

"The officers[49] and sergeant-major[50] escaped at the back of the
building, while Colonel Bush and Adjutant Bentley came down a little
hill. The colonel commanded the mutineers to lay down their arms, and
was answered by an irregular discharge of balls, which rattled amongst
the leaves of a tree under which he and the adjutant were standing. On
this Colonel Bush desired Mr. Bentley to make the best of his way to St.
James's Barracks[51] for all the disposable force of the 89th Regiment.
The officers made good their retreat, and the adjutant got into the
stable where his horse was. He saddled and bridled the animal while the
shots were coming into the stable, without either man or beast getting
injured. The officer mounted, but had to make his way through the
mutineers before he could get into San Josef, the barracks standing on
an eminence above the little town. On seeing the adjutant mounted, the
mutineers set up a thrilling howl, and commenced firing at him. He
discerned the gigantic figure of Dâaga (alias Donald Stewart), with his
musket at the trail: he spurred his horse through the midst of them;
they were grouped, but not in line. On looking back he saw Dâaga aiming
at him; he stooped his head beside his horse's neck, and effectually
sheltered himself from about fifty shots aimed at him. In this position
he rode furiously down a steep hill leading from the barracks to the
church, and was out of danger. His escape appears extraordinary: but he
got safe to town, and thence to St. James's, and in a short time,
considering it is eleven miles distant, brought out a strong detachment
of European troops; these, however, did not arrive till the affair was
over.

"In the meantime a part of the officers' quarters was bravely defended
by two old African soldiers, Sergeant Merry and Corporal Plague. The
latter stood in the gallery near the room in which were the colours; he
was ineffectually fired at by some hundreds, yet he kept his post, shot
two of the mutineers, and, it is said, wounded a third. Such is the
difference between a man acquainted with the use of fire-arms and those
who handle them as mops are held.

"In the meantime Colonel Bush got to a police station above the
barracks, and got muskets and a few cartridges from a discharged
African soldier who was in the police establishment. Being joined by the
policeman, Corporal Craven, and Ensign Pogson, they concealed themselves
on an eminence above, and, as the mutineers (about 100 in number)
approached, the fire of muskets opened on them from the little ambush.
The little party fired separately, loading as fast as they discharged
their pieces; they succeeded in making the mutineers change their route.

"It is wonderful what little courage the savages in general showed
against the colonel and his little party, who absolutely beat them,
although but a twenty-fifth of their number, and at their own tactics,
_i.e._ bush fighting.

"A body of mutineers now made towards the road to Maraccas, when the
colonel and his three assistants contrived to get behind a silk-cotton
tree, and recommenced firing on them. The Africans hesitated, and set
forward, when the little party continued to fire on them; they set up a
yell, and retreated down the hill.

"A part of the mutineers now concealed themselves in the bushes about
San Josef Barracks. These men, after the affair was over, joined Colonel
Bush, and, with a mixture of cunning and effrontery, smiled as though
nothing had happened, and as though they were glad to see him; although,
in general, they each had several shirts and pairs of trousers on,
preparatory for a start to Guinea, by way of Band de l'Est.

"In the meantime the San Josef militia were assembled to the number of
forty. Major Giuseppi and Captain and Adjutant Rousseau, of the second
division of militia forces, took command of them. They were in want of
flints, powder, and balls; to obtain these they were obliged to break
open a merchant's store; however, the adjutant so judiciously
distributed his little force as to hinder the mutineers from entering
the town or obtaining access to the militia arsenal, wherein there was a
quantity of arms. Major Chadds and several old African soldiers joined
the militia, and were by them supplied with arms.

"A good deal of skirmishing occurred between the militia and detached
parties of the mutineers, which uniformly ended in the defeat of the
latter. At length Dâaga appeared to the right of a party of six at the
entrance of the town; they were challenged by the militia, and the
mutineers fired on them, but without effect. Only two of the militia
returned the fire, when all but Dâaga fled. He was deliberately
reloading his piece, when a militia-man, named Edmond Luce, leaped on
the gigantic chief, who would have easily beat him off, although the
former was a strong young man of colour, but Dâaga would not let go his
gun; and, in common with all the mutineers, he seemed to have no idea of
the use of the bayonet. Dâaga was dragging the militia-man away, when
Adjutant Rousseau came to his assistance, and placed a sword to Dâaga's
breast. Doctor Tardy and several others rushed on the tall negro, who
was soon, by the united efforts of several, thrown down and secured. It
was at this period that he repeatedly exclaimed, while he bit his own
shoulder, 'The first white man I catch after this I will eat him.'

"Meanwhile about sixteen of the mutineers, led by the daring Ogston,
took the road to Arima, in order, as they said, to commence their march
to Guinea; but fortunately the militia of that village, composed
principally of Spaniards, Indians, and Sambos, assembled. A few of these
met them and stopped their march. A kind of parley (if intercourse
carried on by signs could be so called) was carried on between the
parties. The mutineers made signs that they wished to go forward, while
the few militia-men endeavoured to detain them, expecting a
reinforcement momently. After a time the militia agreed to allow them to
approach the town; as they were advancing they were met by the
Commandant, Martin Sorzano, Esq., with sixteen more militia-men. The
Commandant judged it imprudent to allow the Africans to enter the town
with their muskets full-cocked, and poised ready to fire. An interpreter
was now procured, and the mutineers were told that if they would retire
to their barracks the gentlemen present would intercede for their
pardon. The negroes refused to accede to these terms; and while the
interpreter was addressing some, the rest tried to push forward. Some of
the militia opposed them by holding their muskets in a horizontal
position, on which one of the mutineers fired, and the militia returned
the fire. A mêlée commenced, in which fourteen mutineers were killed
and wounded. The fire of the Africans produced little effect: they soon
took to flight amid the woods which flanked the road. Twenty-eight of
them were taken, amongst whom was the Yarraba chief, Ogston. Six had
been killed, and six committed suicide by strangling and hanging
themselves in the woods. Only one man was wounded among the militia, and
he but slightly, from a small stone fired from a musket of one of the
Yarrabas.

"The quantity of ammunition expended by the mutineers, and the
comparatively little mischief done by them, was truly astonishing. It
shows how little they understood the use of fire-arms. Dixon was killed,
and several of the old African soldiers were wounded, but not one of the
officers was in the slightest degree hurt.

"I have never been able to get a correct account of the number of lives
this wild mutiny cost, but believe it was not less than forty, including
those slain by the militia at Arima, those shot at San Josef, those who
died of their wounds (and most of the wounded men died), the six who
committed suicide, the three who were shot by sentence of the
court-martial, and one who was shot while endeavouring to escape
(Satchell).

"A good-looking young man, named Torrens, was brought as prisoner to the
presence of Colonel Bush. The colonel wished to speak to him, and
desired his guards to liberate him; on which the young savage shook his
sleeve, in which was a concealed razor, made a rush at the colonel, and
nearly succeeded in cutting his throat. He slashed the razor in all
directions until he made an opening; he rushed through this: and
notwithstanding that he was fired at, and, I believe, wounded, he
effected his escape, was subsequently retaken, and again made his escape
with Satchell, who after this was shot by a policeman.

"Torrens was retaken, tried, and recommended to mercy. Of this man's
fate I am unable to speak, not knowing how far the recommendation to
mercy was attended to.[52] In appearance he seemed the mildest and
best-looking of the mutineers, but his conduct was the most ferocious of
any. The whole of the mutineers were captured within one week of the
mutiny, save this man, who was taken a month after.

"On the 19th of July, Donald Stewart, otherwise Dâaga, was brought to a
court-martial. On the 21st, William Satchell was tried. On the 22nd, a
court-martial was held on Edward Coffin; and on the 24th one was held on
the Yarraba chief, Maurice Ogston, whose country name was, I believe,
Mawee. Torrens was tried on the 29th.

"The sentences of these courts-martial were unknown until the 14th of
August, having been sent to Barbados in order to be submitted to the
Commander-in-Chief. Lieutenant-General Whittingham, who approved of the
decision of the courts, which was that Donald Stewart (Dâaga), Maurice
Ogston, and Edward Coffin, should suffer death by being shot; and that
William Satchell should be transported beyond seas during the term of
his natural life. I am unacquainted with the sentence of Torrens.

"Donald Stewart, Maurice Ogston, and Edward Coffin were executed on the
16th of August, 1837, at San Josef Barracks. Nothing seemed to have been
neglected which could render the execution solemn and impressive; the
scenery and the weather gave additional awe to the melancholy
proceedings. Fronting the little eminence where the prisoners were shot
was the scene where their ill-concerted mutiny commenced. To the right
stood the long range of building on which they had expended much of
their ammunition for the purpose of destroying their officers. The rest
of the panorama was made up of an immense view of forest below them, and
upright masses of mountains above them. Over these, heavy bodies of mist
were slowly sailing, giving a sombre appearance to the primeval woods
which, in general, covered both mountains and plains. The atmosphere
indicated an inter-tropical morning during the rainy season, and the sun
shone resplendently between dense columns of clouds.

"At half-past seven o'clock the condemned men asked to be allowed to eat
a hearty meal, as they said persons about to be executed in Guinea were
always indulged with a good repast. It is remarkable that these unhappy
creatures ate most voraciously, even while they were being brought out
of their cell for execution.

"A little before the mournful procession commenced, the condemned men
were dressed from head to foot in white habiliments trimmed with black;
their arms were bound with cords. This is not usual in military
executions, but was deemed necessary on the present occasion. An attempt
to escape on the part of the condemned would have been productive of
much confusion, and was properly guarded against.

"The condemned men displayed no unmanly fear. On the contrary, they
steadily kept step to the Dead March which the band played; yet the
certainty of death threw a cadaverous and ghastly hue over their black
features, while their singular and appropriate costume, and the three
coffins being borne before them, altogether rendered it a frightful
picture; hence it was not to be wondered at that two European soldiers
fainted.

"The mutineers marched abreast. The tall form and horrid looks of Dâaga
were almost appalling. The looks of Ogston were sullen, calm, and
determined; those of Coffin seemed to indicate resignation.

"At eight o'clock they arrived at the spot where three graves were dug;
here their coffins were deposited. The condemned men were made to face
to westward; three sides of a hollow square were formed, flanked on one
side by a detachment of the 89th Regiment and a party of artillery,
while the recruits, many of whom shared the guilt of the culprits, were
appropriately placed in the line opposite them. The firing party were a
little in advance of the recruits.

"The sentence of the courts-martial and other necessary documents having
been read by the fort adjutant, Mr. Meehan, the chaplain of the forces,
read some prayers appropriated for these melancholy occasions. The
clergyman then shook hands with the three men about to be sent into
another state of existence. Dâaga and Ogston coolly gave their hands;
Coffin wrang the chaplain's hand affectionately, saying, in tolerable
English, 'I am now done with the world.'

"The arms of the condemned men, as has been before stated, were bound,
but in such a manner as to allow them to bring their hands to their
heads. Their nightcaps were drawn over their eyes. Coffin allowed his to
remain, but Ogston and Dâaga pushed theirs up again. The former did this
calmly; the latter showed great wrath, seeming to think himself
insulted; and his deep, metallic voice sounded in anger above that of
the provost-marshal, as the latter gave the words, 'Ready! present!' But
at this instant his vociferous daring forsook him. As the men levelled
their muskets at him, with inconceivable rapidity he sprang bodily
round, still preserving his squatting posture, and received the fire
from behind; while the less noisy, but more brave, Ogston, looked the
firing-party full in the face as they discharged their fatal volley.

"In one instant all three fell dead, almost all the balls of the firing
party having taken effect.[53] The savage appearance and manner of Dâaga
excited awe. Admiration was felt for the calm bravery of Ogston, while
Edward Coffin's fate excited commiseration.

"There were many spectators of this dreadful scene, and amongst others a
great concourse of negroes. Most of these expressed their hopes that
after this terrible example the recruits would make good soldiers."

The foregoing account is identical with that in the regimental records,
with the exception that the Yorubas are not in the latter credited with
so large a share in the mutiny. According to Colonel Bush's account, the
greater majority of the mutineers were Popos, Congos, and Eboes; the
Yorubas who took part in it being very few in number. On the other hand,
both Sergeant Merry and Corporal Plague, who defended the officers'
quarters against the recruits, were Yorubas.

It is, perhaps, needless to add, that after this no more wholesale
draftings of slaves into the regiment took place.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 46: Now spelt Popos.]

[Footnote 47: The Yorubas are a warlike Mohammedan tribe living in and
around Lagos. The Houssa Constabulary is largely recruited from them.]

[Footnote 48: This is the manner in which West African savages usually
fire, and it is dictated by motives of sound prudence, for the
Birmingham muskets with which they are supplied by British traders are
so unsafe (the barrel not uncommonly being made of old iron piping), and
the charges of powder used are so immense, that the bursting of a piece
is looked upon as an ordinary occurrence; and when firing they like to
keep their muskets as far removed from their bodies as possible. The
majority of the mutineers fired in this manner, because, having been
less than three weeks in the regiment, they had not yet been drilled
with arms.]

[Footnote 49: All young ensigns just arrived from England to join the
regiment.]

[Footnote 50: Sergeant-Major D. Cantrell. He had been the first to give
the alarm.]

[Footnote 51: Eleven miles distant from San Josef.]

[Footnote 52: Torrens was sentenced to death, but, at the intercession
of Colonel Bush, the sentence was commuted to imprisonment for life.]

[Footnote 53: The firing party was furnished by the 1st West India
Regiment.]

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE PIRARA EXPEDITION, 1842--CHANGES IN THE WEST AFRICAN GARRISONS--THE
APPOLLONIA EXPEDITION, 1848.

On the 7th of December, 1837, the head-quarters of the 1st West India
Regiment embarked at Trinidad for St. Lucia, leaving one company at St.
James' in the former island; and, after a detention of ten days in
quarantine at Pigeon Island, landed on the 24th of December at Gros
Islet, St. Lucia, and occupied Morne Fortune Barracks and Fort. The
detachments were stationed in Tobago, Demerara, and St. Vincent.

In the early part of the year 1839, the strength of the regiment being
very much above its establishment, owing to the large drafts of recruits
from Sierra Leone, Lieutenant-General Sir S.F. Whittingham issued an
order, dated February 1st, authorising an augmentation to twelve
companies. On the 1st of July of the same year the regiment was further
increased to thirteen companies, it being notified at the same time that
it was to be considered only a temporary arrangement, as the surplus
over 1000 men were eventually to form another corps.

On December 7th, 1839, the head-quarters of the regiment proceeded from
St. Lucia to Demerara, to relieve the 76th Regiment, which was suffering
heavily from the prevailing epidemic of yellow fever, arriving at the
latter colony, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Capadose, on
December 13th. The distribution of the regiment was then: Head-quarters
and 2 companies at Demerara, 3 companies at Barbados, 1 at Trinidad, 1
at Tobago, 1 at St. Lucia, 1 at St. Vincent, 1 at Grenada, 1 at
Dominica, and 1 at Antigua.

By Horse Guards order of the 1st of July, 1840, the Royal African Corps
and the three supernumerary companies of the 1st West India Regiment
were formed into one corps, and designated the 3rd West India Regiment;
the 1st West India Regiment remaining at the ordinary establishment of
ten companies.

New colours were presented to the regiment at Demerara on May 24th,
1841.

In September and October of the same year a violent epidemic of yellow
fever broke out in Demerara, and the mortality amongst the men of the
52nd Regiment was so alarming that that corps was moved to Berbice, and
the entire duties of the garrison fell upon the 1st West India Regiment.
The whole of the officers of the 52nd Regiment occupying the west wing
of the Georgetown Barracks fell victims to this dreadful scourge, as
did Captain French and Lieutenants de Winton and Archdale of the 1st
West India Regiment.

On the 11th of January, 1842, a detachment of the regiment, consisting
of two lieutenants (Bingham and Wieburg), two sergeants and twenty-seven
rank and file, left Georgetown, Demerara, by direction of the
Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies (Lord John Russell), to
proceed to Pirara, on the south-western frontier of British Guiana, and
expel a party of Brazilians who had for some time encroached on British
territory. The country through which the party had to pass was
unexplored and almost unknown, and the duties were most arduous. It was
intended to reach Pirara by ascending the Essequibo and Rypumani Rivers,
and, to effect this, a particular description of boat, locally called
_corials_, had to be built, each capable of holding eight men, including
the Indians who paddled. During the journey seventy-three rapids or
falls were crossed, in most instances the _corials_ being unladen and
the stores carried above the falls; and it was not until February 12th
that Lieutenant Bingham's party reached a point on the Rypumani, eleven
miles from Pirara. Next day they took possession of the village of
Pirara, which they found occupied by a detachment of Brazilian troops
who had been quietly sent over the border. Having selected and fortified
a position, and raised temporary shelter for his men, Lieutenant
Bingham--as the Brazilian commander declined to withdraw--despatched
Lieutenant Bush, 1st West India Regiment, who had accompanied the party
as a volunteer, to Georgetown for further instructions. That officer
arrived there on March 11th, and on April 19th he again started with a
small reinforcement under Ensign Stewart. This second party reached
Pirara on May 21st, and found the detachment all well, but half-starved,
as the Brazilians refused to sell them anything, and the stores had been
some time exhausted. However, on the arrival of the reinforcement the
Brazilian troops considered it advisable to withdraw across the
frontier; and, with the exception of a few occasional night forays made
by half-breeds and Indians in the pay of the Brazilians, the detachment
met with no further opposition.

In 1843 it was decided to make an alteration in the system under which
the West Coast of Africa was continuously garrisoned by the 3rd West
India Regiment, and to remove that corps to the West Indies. The West
African garrisons were to be composed of two companies from each of the
three West India regiments; and, in accordance with this scheme, two
companies of the 1st West India Regiment, under Captain L.S. O'Connor,
embarked at Barbados for Sierra Leone on March 22nd, 1843, arriving at
the latter place in the month of May of the same year. Early in 1844 the
3rd West India Regiment left West Africa for the Bahamas, and the two
companies of the 1st West India Regiment, with one of the 3rd West India
Regiment, composed the garrison of Sierra Leone, while that of the
Gambia consisted of two companies of the 2nd West India Regiment and
one of the 3rd. This arrangement was almost at once upset by the
necessity of furnishing a garrison for the Gold Coast, over which the
Crown had, in 1843, resumed jurisdiction, as it was suspected that the
Government of the merchants, which had been established at Cape Coast
Castle since 1831, connived at the maintenance of the slave trade; and,
in January, 1844, one captain, two subalterns, and 100 men of the 1st
West India Regiment left Sierra Leone for the Gold Coast.

In the same year, two companies of the regiment, under the command of
Captain Robeson, proceeded from Demerara to Jamaica, disembarking there
on June 1st. This was the first occasion on which any portion of the
corps was stationed in that island.

On the 25th of February, 1845, the head-quarters, with the Grenadier and
No. 8 Companies, embarked at Demerara in the _Princess Royal_ transport,
and sailed for Jamaica, to relieve the head-quarters of the 2nd West
India Regiment ordered to Nassau, disembarking at Port Royal on March
6th. The distribution of the regiment was then as follows: The
Grenadier, No. 1, No. 8, and the Light Company in Jamaica,[54] No. 5 at
Demerara, No. 2 at Trinidad, No. 3 at Dominica, No. 6 at Grenada, No. 4
at Sierra Leone, and No. 7 at Cape Coast Castle. During the last six
months of this year (1845) over 300 recruits joined the head-quarters
from West Africa.

In 1846, No. 5 Company was removed from Demerara to Tobago, and the
detachments at Dominica and Grenada rejoined head-quarters in Jamaica,
where No. 2 and No. 5 Companies also rejoined on the 16th of December,
1847.[55]

In the beginning of the year 1848, the King of Appollonia, a state on
the western frontier of the Gold Coast Colony, closed the roads leading
to Cape Coast Castle, stopped all trade, and maltreated several British
subjects. Messengers were sent to him by the Lieutenant-Governor
demanding explanation and redress, with no other result than the
detention and imprisonment of the messengers; and matters were at last
brought to a crisis by the murder of the French Commandant of Assinee
and his boat's crew, the pillaging of Dutch canoes at Axim, and the
capture of some Dutch subjects.

The only force Mr. Winniett, the Lieutenant-Governor of the Gold Coast,
had at his disposal was No. 7 Company of the 1st West India Regiment,
then commanded by Lieutenant E.H. Bingham; but, with the assistance of
some influential merchants, he succeeded in raising an expeditionary
force of from 4000 to 5000 natives. On the 24th of March, 1848, the
Lieutenant-Governor marched, with half the native levies and the company
of the 1st West India Regiment, from Cape Coast Castle to the then Dutch
settlement of Axim, 120 miles distant from Cape Coast and about twenty
miles from Atemboo, or Attaambu, the King of Appollonia's chief town and
residence. By the 3rd of April the whole force was concentrated at Axim,
and on the 6th, at 5 a.m., it moved onwards towards Appollonia.

The country consisting of impenetrable forest, the force had to march
from Axim to Appollonia along the sandy beach; and there were the mouths
of two considerable rivers to be crossed. The first river, the Ancobra,
was reached at 6 a.m.; and, although a very heavy sea was breaking on
the bar, the passage of the stream was commenced in canoes, which had
been brought from Axim for that purpose. The first detachment consisted
of the native allies, and, as soon as the canoes gained mid-stream,
several hundred armed Appollonians appeared on the further bank, and
opened fire on them as they came within range. Several natives were
struck, and three of the canoes being upset the remainder returned to
the bank they had just left.

It being found impracticable to induce the native auxiliaries to make a
further attempt to force the passage, this duty devolved upon the
company of the 1st West India Regiment, which the Lieutenant-Governor
had originally intended holding in reserve; and, under cover of a fire
from two rocket-troughs, it crossed the river in the canoes, driving the
Appollonians, in spite of a smart resistance, into the bush. The
remainder of the force then passed over, several natives being drowned
in the surf during the passage; and at 10 a.m. they pushed on, reaching
the Appollonian village of Asantah about 1 p.m. This place was found to
be deserted, and here the force encamped for the night.

Next morning at daybreak a further advance was made, and about 6 a.m.
the Abmoussa River--or, rather, Lagoon--was reached. A very heavy and
dangerous surf was breaking on the bar, and the dense bush on the
further bank, which grew close down to the water's edge, was observed to
be full of armed men.

The company of the 1st West India Regiment was again called upon to lead
the way, and the men, embarking in the canoes, paddled out into the
breakers. A continued and furious fusillade was at once opened by the
concealed enemy upon the men, who were unable to reply, as their
attention was entirely occupied in keeping the canoes from capsizing.
Fortunately, the Appollonians fired wildly, and their powder was of bad
quality; for, although almost every man of the detachment was struck by
slugs or fragments of iron, only eleven were wounded, and those
slightly. A canoe was, however, unhappily upset, and two men beaten
against the rocks and drowned. The company formed up on landing, and
advanced steadily through the bush against the enemy, who offered but a
feeble resistance and soon retired altogether. One man was shot dead
while stepping ashore, an ambushed native firing at him at the distance
of a few feet only. The native allies now passed over, and the march was
continued. Parties of the enemy were observed hovering round the flanks,
but no attack was made, and at 3 p.m. a halt was ordered at the village
of Barcoo.

The force was here divided into two parts, of which one, consisting
entirely of natives, was to move through the bush and prevent the king
escaping inland; while the other, consisting of the company of the 1st
West India Regiment with the remainder of the native allies, was to
march along the beach and attack the town in front. This movement would
probably have been successful, had the division of natives performed the
duty allotted to them; but, being fired upon by some ambushed
Appollonians, they refused to proceed further, and when the company of
the 1st West India Regiment reached Atemboo, they found it entirely
deserted.

The success which had so far attended the expedition, however, produced
such an effect upon the native mind that, on March 9th, the principal
chiefs of Appollonia came in to Atemboo to make submission; and, as it
was reported that the king was in hiding in the immediate neighbourhood,
parties were sent out in search of him. On the 18th his wives and family
were captured to the westward, near the old fort, and the day following,
a party of the 1st West India Regiment brought in a body of 121 men, all
heavily manacled with irons weighing from fifty to ninety pounds, and
who had been intended to be sacrificed at an approaching "custom." Two
of these men thus unexpectedly saved from a horrible death volunteered
to point out where the king was concealed, and some men of the regiment
being sent out under their guidance, succeeded in capturing him in his
hiding-place, in the midst of a mangrove swamp.

The object of the expedition being accomplished by the capture of the
king, the force moved back to Axim, on the 21st of March, and, on the
evening of the same day, the Lieutenant-Governor, with the captive king
and the company of the 1st West India Regiment, embarked on board the
merchant brig _Governor_, arriving at Cape Coast Castle on the 24th.

Lieutenant-Governor Winniett in his despatch says: "I cannot speak too
highly of the detachment of the 1st West India Regiment. During its
march of more than 120 miles, sometimes through very bad roads, and
under the powerful rays of the sun, the crossing of five rivers, and
other circumstances of disadvantage, no complaints were heard, neither
was a man seen in a state of intoxication during the campaign. Mr.
Bingham, the officer commanding the detachment, was most active in
executing all orders entrusted to his care, and I have great pleasure in
bringing him under your Lordship's notice."

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 54: The companies in Jamaica were detached thus: No. 1, No. 8,
and Grenadier Company at Up Park Camp. The Light Company between Port
Antonio and Montego Bay.]

[Footnote 55: The distribution in Jamaica then was:

    Grenadier, Light, No. 2,   } at Up Park Camp.
      and No. 5 Companies      }
                No. 1, at Spanish Town.
                No. 8, at Port Royal.
                No. 3, at Falmouth       }   To occupy posts vacated
                No. 6, at Lucea          }     by the 38th Regiment.

]

CHAPTER XIX.

INDIAN DISTURBANCES IN HONDURAS, 1848-9--THE ESCORT TO COOMASSIE,
1848--THE SHERBRO EXPEDITION, 1849--ESCORT TO RIO NUNEZ, 1850.

While No. 7 Company had thus been engaged on the Gold Coast, the
quinquennial relief for the West African garrisons had sailed from the
West Indies, No. 2 and No. 5 Companies, 1st West India Regiment, having
embarked at Jamaica on February 21st, 1848. They arrived at Sierra Leone
in April, and No. 5 Company being there landed to relieve No. 4, No. 2
proceeded to Cape Coast Castle to relieve No. 7. The two relieved
companies rejoined the head-quarters at Jamaica on July 2nd, 1848. No. 8
Company having been sent to Nassau in February, and the light company in
July, while No. 1 had been despatched to Honduras in May, the
distribution of the regiment in August, 1848, was as follows: 2
companies in West Africa, 2 at Nassau, 1 in Honduras, and 5 in Jamaica.

No. 1 Company had been sent to Honduras in reply to an urgent appeal for
a reinforcement from the Honduras Government, that colony being
threatened with the horrors of an Indian war. In 1847 a war broke out
between the Yucatecans and the Indians, and caused much anxiety to the
British colony, whose strict neutrality satisfied neither of the
contending parties. The Yucatecans, being driven out of the southern
portion of Yucatan, took refuge in our territory, and raids and
reprisals were frequent between them and the Santa Cruz Indians. In 1848
the town of Bacalar, situated on the shores of a lake, about twenty
miles from the northern frontier of British Honduras, was captured by
the Indians, and the fugitives, streaming into the colony, spread alarm
amongst the colonists. It was at this time that reinforcements were
applied for, and No. 1 Company, under Major Luke Smyth O'Connor,
despatched from Jamaica.

On arriving at Belize the company was at once moved up to the Hondo, and
towards the end of May a portion of it proceeded on escort duty with a
British commissioner to Bacalar to endeavour to arrange a peace. That
town had been the scene of the most frightful atrocities, and the
streets were found strewn with the dead bodies of men, women, and
children. Negotiations failing, the escort returned to the Hondo.

Collisions now became frequent between the Yucatecans and the Indians,
and our northern border became a rallying point for both sides. The
small British force was continually harassed by alarms and forced
marches taken to prevent violation of British territory, until towards
the close of 1848, it being rumoured that the Indians intended to cross
the Hondo and sack Belize, it was withdrawn from the north for the
protection of that town. Additional reinforcements were now asked for,
and on March 29th, 1849, No. 4 Company, under Captain Meehan, embarked
at Jamaica for Honduras.

In January, 1849, No. 1 Company had again advanced to the Hondo, and
were within a few miles of Chac Creek on that river, when the sanguinary
struggle between the Yucatecans and Indians took place. Hearing the
sound of firing the troops marched to the spot, and finding the Indians
employed in roasting the dead bodies of the defeated Yucatecans, were
only with the utmost difficulty restrained from attacking them. But the
most strict orders had been given for the preservation of British
neutrality, and nothing could be done. Indeed, the Indians were
themselves well aware of the advantages which they derived from our
neutrality, and were exceedingly careful not to come into contact with
the British; even going so far as on one occasion to shoot a chief and
flog six men, who had been accused of committing an outrage across the
Hondo.

In March, 1849, Major O'Connor visited Bacalar to endeavour to make
peace, but without success; and the two companies of the regiment
remained stationed on the Hondo, amid the same scenes of horror, until
February, 1852, when they rejoined head-quarters at Jamaica.

To return to the companies in West Africa. In September, 1848, Mr.
Winniett, the Lieutenant-Governor of the Gold Coast, received
instructions from the Secretary of State for the Colonies to proceed on
a mission to Coomassie, the capital of the Ashanti kingdom, for the
purpose of establishing friendly relations between Great Britain and
that power. Captain Powell, 1st West India Regiment, was then in command
of No. 2 Company, stationed at Cape Coast Castle, and he, with
forty-eight men of the regiment, accompanied the Lieutenant-Governor as
an escort.

The mission left Cape Coast Castle on the 28th of September, 1848,
crossed the River Prah on October 4th, and on the 8th reached the
village of Karsi, about two miles from Coomassie. There the party halted
to prepare for the entry into the capital, and, at noon, the King's
messengers having informed them that everything was in readiness for
their reception, they proceeded towards Coomassie.

Captain Powell says: "At a distance of about a mile from the town, a
party of messengers with gold-handled swords of office, arrived with the
king's compliments. After halting for a short time, we proceeded to the
entrance of the first street, and then formed in order of procession,
the escort leading. Presently a party of the king's linguists, with four
large state umbrellas, ensigns of chieftainship, came up to request us
to halt for a few minutes under the shade of a large banyan tree in the
street, to give the king a little more time to prepare to receive us.
After a brief delay of about twenty minutes, during which a large party
of the king's soldiers fired a salute about a hundred yards distant from
us, we moved on to the market-place, where the king and his chiefs were
seated under their large umbrellas, according to the custom of the
country on the reception of strangers of distinction. They, with their
numerous captains and attendants occupied three sides of a large square,
and formed a continuous line about 600 yards in length, and about ten
yards in depth. After we had passed along about three-fourths of the
line, we found the king surrounded by about twenty officers of his
household, and a large number of messengers with their gold-handled
swords and canes of office. Several very large umbrellas, consisting of
silk velvet of different colours, shaded him and his suite from the sun.
These umbrellas were surmounted by rude images, representing birds and
beasts, overlaid with gold; the king's chair was richly decorated with
gold; and the display of golden ornaments about his own person and those
of his suite was most magnificent. The lumps of gold adorning the wrists
of the King's attendants, and many of the principal chiefs, were so
large that they must have been quite fatiguing to the wearers. We
occupied about an hour in moving in procession from the banyan tree,
where we had rested on entering the town, to the end of the line
prepared for our reception; after which we proceeded to an open space
at some distance from the market-place, and there took our seats. At
3.15 p.m. the chiefs commenced moving in procession before us, and this
lasted until 6 p.m. Those whom we had first saluted in the market-place
passed us first. Each chief was preceded by his band of rude music,
consisting chiefly of drums and horns, followed by a body of soldiers
under arms, and shaded by a large umbrella. The king was preceded by
many of the officers of his household, and his messengers with the
gold-handled swords, etc. etc. When he came opposite the governor, and
received our military salute, he stopped, and approaching him took him
cordially by the hand. After the king, other chiefs, and a large body of
troops, passed in due order; and at 6 p.m. the ceremony closed."

At 9.30 a.m. on October 26th, 1848, the mission left Coomassie on its
return journey to the coast, and arrived at Cape Coast Castle on
November 4th. This was the first occasion on which a British Governor,
or a body of regular troops, had ever visited Coomassie.

In March, 1849, a further change took place in the distribution of the
regiment in the West Indies, No. 7 Company, under Captain R. Hughes,
proceeding to Nassau from Jamaica. There were thus the head-quarters and
3 companies in Jamaica, 3 in Nassau, 2 in Honduras, and 2 in West
Africa.

In June, 1849; the Acting Governor of Sierra Leone found that the state
of affairs in Sherbro, a low-lying tract of country some seventy-five
miles to the southward of Sierra Leone, imperatively called upon the
British to take steps for putting an end to the war which for a long
time had been carried on between the rival chiefs of the Caulker family,
and had utterly paralysed trade. H.M.S. _Alert_ and _Adelaide_ were to
be employed, but as a military force was required to proceed with the
naval one, the under-mentioned force embarked in the Colonial steamer
_Pluto_ on the 18th of June: Captain Grange, Lieutenant Jones, and 45
men of the 1st West India Regiment, and 44 men of the 3rd West India
Regiment. The expedition arrived at Yawrey Bay, at the mouth of the
Cockboro River, on the 19th of June, when a stockaded fort was shelled
and destroyed by the _Adelaide_. The expedition then proceeded to
Bendoo, and after some delay, owing to the difficulty in inducing the
chiefs to come in, returned to Yawrey Bay on the 29th, where
negotiations were held and a treaty of peace between the Government and
rival chiefs signed. The detachments rejoined at Freetown, Sierra Leone,
on July 7th.

On the 29th of November, 1849, Lieutenant Tunstall and 34 men of No. 2
Company of the 1st West India Regiment, left Cape Coast Castle and
proceeded to Appollonia in canoes, in aid of the civil power. After an
absence of three weeks, during which they endured great hardships from
exposure and fatigue, they rejoined their detachment at Cape Coast.

In the beginning of the year 1850, the Rio Nunez was in such a disturbed
state as to necessitate the Governor of Sierra Leone taking steps for
the protection of British subjects there. Some influential chiefs of the
river having also besought the intervention of the Government to restore
peace, commissioners were appointed, and as war was actually being
carried on at the time, a military force was detailed to accompany them.
This force consisted of Lieutenant Searle and 33 men of the 1st West
India Regiment and Captain Prendergast and 34 men of the 3rd West India
Regiment, and it embarked in H.M.S. _Teazer_ on the 22nd of February,
1850. The _Teazer_ arrived at the Rio Nunez on the 24th, and proceeded
up the river to Ropass, a town some distance up the stream, where the
commissioners landed with the escort. A "palaver" was held at this place
on March 1st, the rival chieftains being attended by large bodies of
armed men, but no satisfactory arrangement was arrived at, and next day
the commissioners and troops proceeded to Walkariah, a town higher up
the river. Here matters were finally amicably settled, and the party
returned to Sierra Leone on March 9th.

In the West Indies there had been little change since 1849, except that
on the 13th of February, 1851, the head-quarters and two companies were
removed from Up Park Camp to Spanish Town; and a detachment consisting
of half a company, under Ensign Cave, was sent to Turk's Island in
December, 1851. This latter rejoined head-quarters in Jamaica in
January, 1852; and in February, No. 1 and No. 4 Companies, under Captain
Robeson, rejoined from Honduras. In the same year, however, they again
went on detachment: No. 1, under Captain Grange, to St. Christopher's,
and No. 4, under Lieutenant Imes, to Barbados. The distribution of the
regiment in September, 1852, was thus: the Grenadier, No. 3 and No. 6
Companies, at Jamaica; the Light, No. 7 and No. 8 Companies, at Nassau,
No. 4 at St. Christopher's, No. 1 at Barbados, No. 5 at Sierra Leone,
and No. 2 at Cape Coast Castle.

In February, 1852, Major L. Smyth O'Connor, 1st West India Regiment, had
arrived at Sierra Leone and assumed command of the troops in West
Africa, and finding in May that the company on the Gold Coast was
reduced by deaths to only 50 rank and file, he recommended that it
should be recalled to Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast Corps, then almost
completed, being quite sufficient for the garrison of the Gold Coast.

In September, 1852, Major O'Connor was appointed Governor of the Gambia,
and as by Horse Guards letter of September 20th, 1852, "it was
considered expedient that he should continue invested with the command
of the troops on the West Coast of Africa, and move the head-quarters
to the Gambia," this was done in October, 1852.

The War Office having approved of Major O'Connor's recommendation, No. 2
Company, 50 strong, arrived at Sierra Leone from Cape Coast Castle on
March 20th, 1853.

CHAPTER XX.

THE STORMING OF SABBAJEE, 1853--THE RELIEF OF CHRISTIANSBORG, 1854.

On March 23rd, 1853, No. 3 and No. 6 Companies, under Captain A.W.
Murray and Lieutenant Upton, embarked at Port Royal, Jamaica, in the
troopship _Resistance_, for the relief of the West African garrisons. On
May 17th, the _Resistance_ arrived at the Gambia with four out of the
six companies forming the relief for the detachments of the three West
India regiments, and reinforcements being urgently required for the
suppression of a hostile movement amongst the Mohammedans at Sabbajee,
they were landed.

On the 25th of May, Lieutenant-Colonel O'Connor prepared to take the
field with a force of 603 men, consisting of 463 of the 1st, 2nd, and
3rd West India Regiments, 35 pensioners, and 105 of the Gambia Militia.
A field battery, consisting of 2 six-pounder field-guns and 2 howitzers,
was also organised. On the 30th May, the brigade marched from Bathurst
to Josswung, a distance of eight miles, where a camp was formed; and on
June 1st, the force advanced to the attack of Sabbajee.[56]

Sabbajee was one of the oldest Marabout towns in Combo, and boasted the
possession of the largest mosque in that portion of Africa. The town,
more than a mile in circumference, was surrounded by a strong stockade,
double ditches, and outward abattis; and the inhabitants, who could
muster 3000 fighting men, were, from their predatory and warlike habits,
the dread of the surrounding country.

On approaching the town, a strong body of the enemy was observed
stationed round the mosque, while the stockade was lined with men. A
portion of the stockade presented the appearance of having been removed,
but had in reality only been laid lengthwise, so as to form a very
formidable obstacle; while a deep trench dug in rear was crowded with
men, who, in perfect security, could fire upon the advancing British,
should they fall into the trap which had been laid for them, and attempt
to carry the town at this point.

The force was drawn up in three divisions: the 1st West India Regiment,
under Captain A.W. Murray, forming the centre division; the 2nd West
India Regiment, under Captain Anderson, the right; and the 3rd West
India Regiment, under Captain Brabazon, the left. At about four hundred
yards from the stockade the field battery opened fire, and with such
precision that after a few rounds the roof of the mosque and those of
the adjacent houses were in flames. Observing the disorder caused
amongst the enemy by the burning of their sacred building,
Lieutenant-Colonel O'Connor determined to seize the opportunity, and
storm.

The right and left divisions extended in skirmishing order, the centre
remaining in column, and the whole advanced to the assault. The enemy
kept up a heavy fire from the loop-holes of their stockade, over which
the green flag was flying; but at the same moment the three divisions,
which had in advancing formed a crescent, rushed at the stockade at
three different points, and, clambering over, got at the enemy with the
bayonet. This was more than they could stand, and abandoning their
stockade, they fled down the streets and escaped through sally-ports in
the rear of the town.

A strong body of fanatics, however, still held the mosque, the fire in
the roof of which they had succeeded in extinguishing, and, amid the
beating of war-drums and cries of "Allah" from the priests, kept up a
smart fire upon the troops as they entered the large central square in
which the mosque stood. To have stormed the building would have involved
great sacrifice of life; the men, therefore, were directed to occupy the
houses enclosing the square, and open fire, until the rockets could be
brought into play.

The second rocket fired whizzed through the roof of the mosque, the
defenders of which, however, only increased their drumming and shouts of
defiance, for they were secure in their belief of the local tradition,
which said that the mosque was impregnable and indestructible. In a very
few minutes flames began to appear on the roof, and, though the enemy
worked hard to extinguish it, it rapidly increased, until the mosque was
untenable. Dozens of the fanatics blew out their brains rather than
surrender, while others threw themselves out of the windows and
passages, and rushed sword in hand, in a state of frenzy, upon the
British. The coolness and steadiness of the troops was, however, more
than a match for the mad rage of the Mandingoes, who were shot down one
after another, until the whole of the defenders of the mosque were
killed or made prisoners. The remainder of the enemy, who fled at the
storming of the stockade, had taken refuge in the neighbouring woods,
and, the object of the engagement being accomplished by the capture of
the town, they were not pursued.

The stockade and mosque being destroyed, the force left Sabbajee on June
4th, and returned to Josswung, where, by an arrangement with the King of
Combo, a portion of that kingdom, including the town of Sabbajee, was
ceded to the British.

The mosque was a singularly strong building, and for a day and a half
resisted every effort to pull it down, being eventually reduced to
ruins by blasting the walls with bags of gunpowder. It consisted of a
large central hall, with walls made of baked clay, three feet in
thickness, and an external corridor running round the whole
circumference of the inner apartment. The roof, conical in shape, was
supported by six masonry pillars.

As the Gambia was still in an unsettled state, Lieutenant-Colonel
O'Connor deemed it prudent to increase its garrison at the expense of
that of Sierra Leone. No. 6 Company of the 1st West India Regiment was
therefore detained at Bathurst, and on June 8th, No. 3 Company, under
Captain Murray, proceeded in the _Resistance_ to Sierra Leone. On
arriving at that station, on June 17th, Captain Murray assumed the
command of the troops.

No. 2 Company embarked at Sierra Leone for Jamaica on June 22nd,
arriving at Kingston on August 5th. On October 18th the _Resistance_
returned from the West Indies with the remaining companies destined for
the quinquennial relief, and No. 5 Company, embarking in her on October
22nd, reached Jamaica on November 25th. The West African garrisons were
now as follows: At the Gambia, one company of the 1st West India
Regiment, two of the 2nd, and one of the 3rd; at Sierra Leone, one of
the 1st West India Regiment, and one of the 3rd.

In the West Indies the following changes had taken place: Nos. 7 and 8
Companies had been moved in August from Nassau to Barbados and Dominica
respectively, and, in July, the light company had proceeded from Nassau
to Jamaica. In December, 1853, the distribution of the regiment was then
as follows: 4 companies at Jamaica, 2 at Barbados, 1 at Dominica, 1 at
St. Christopher's, 1 at Sierra Leone, and 1 at the Gambia.[57]

In September, 1854, the inhabitants of Christiansborg, a Danish
settlement on the Gold Coast four miles from Accra, which had been
recently purchased by the British, rose in rebellion against the
Colonial authorities. The only armed force then on the Gold Coast
consisted of the Gold Coast Artillery, recruited from amongst the Fanti
tribes, and this body the rebels blockaded in the Castle of Christiansborg.
On the outbreak of the rebellion, the Lieutenant-Governor of the Gold
Coast at once sent to Sierra Leone for assistance; and, on the 12th of
October, the following detachments embarked at Sierra Leone in H.M.S.
_Britomart_ and _Ferret_: Lieutenant Strachan and 33 men of the 1st West
India Regiment, Captain Rookes and 46 men of the 2nd West India
Regiment, Lieutenant Haneahan and 31 men of the 3rd West India Regiment.
From the Gambia were also despatched in the Colonial steamer _Dover_, on
the 24th of October: Ensign Anderson and 25 men of the 1st, Captain
Mockler and 70 men of the 2nd, and Lieutenant Hill and 23 men of the 3rd
West India Regiment.

The troops from Sierra Leone and the Gambia arrived at Christiansborg on
the 27th of October and the 7th of November respectively. Several small
skirmishes had taken place between the Gold Coast artillery and the
rebels without either side gaining any material advantage; but, on the
arrival of the reinforcement from Sierra Leone, the siege was raised,
and the natives retired inland to some villages on the plain behind
Christiansborg. There, like all undisciplined bodies, they gradually
melted away; the chiefs, finding their followers abandoning them, were
compelled to ask for terms; and directly negotiations were opened, the
detachments of the three West India regiments re-embarked to return to
Sierra Leone, sailing from Christiansborg on the 12th of November.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 56: See map.]

[Footnote 57: This year, 1853, appears to have been particularly
unhealthy in the West Indies, to judge from the following inscription,
taken from an intramural monument in Kingston Cathedral Church:

TO THE MEMORY OF THE FOLLOWING:

Capt. Robt. Mostyn, 3rd W.I.R., died of yellow fever, at Nassau,
Bahamas, 23rd July, 1853, æt. 27.

Ensign John Alex. Gordon Pringle, 3rd W.I.R., died of yellow fever at
Kingston, Jamaica, 31st July, 1853, æt. 21.

Assist.-Surg. Walter William Harris, 1st W.I.R., attached to 3rd W.I.R.,
died at Up Park Camp, of yellow fever, 4th Aug., 1853, æt. 24.

Lieut. John Maryon Wilson, 3rd W.I.R., died at Up Park Camp, of yellow
fever, 13th Aug., 1853, æt. 22.

Eliza Chancellor Wilson, wife of the above, died at Up Park Camp, of
yellow fever, 5th Sept., 1853, æt. 22.

Cath. Elizabeth, wife of Lieut. Wm. Hen. Wilson Hawtayne, 3rd W.I.R.,
died of yellow fever at Nassau, Bahamas, 9th Aug., 1853, æt. 23.

Asst.-Surg. Gideon Jas. Wm. Griffith, 3rd W.I.R., died of yellow fever
at Lucia, 26th Aug., 1853, æt. 23.

Also, Selina Maria, wife of Capt. C.S.H. Hingston, 3rd W.I.R., died at
Up Park Camp, 11th April, 1854, æt. 23.

    Erected by the officers of the 1st and 3rd W.I. Regts.

]

CHAPTER XXI.

THE TWO EXPEDITIONS TO MALAGEAH, 1854 AND 1855.

The troops that had been despatched from Sierra Leone and the Gambia for
the relief of Christiansborg, returned to Sierra Leone, in H.M.S.
_Prometheus_, on the 25th of November, 1854, and in consequence of the
hostile attitude assumed by the chiefs of the Mellicourie and Scarcies
Rivers, and the outrages committed by natives on mercantile factories in
those rivers, the Governor of Sierra Leone decided to detain the
contingent which had been sent from the Gambia, in order to have a
sufficient force to overawe the chief of Malageah, the principal
offender, and compel him to sign a treaty of trade. With this view,
accordingly, detachments of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd West India Regiments,
numbering in all 401 officers and men, under the command of Captain
Rookes, 2nd West India Regiment, embarked in H.M.S. _Prometheus_ and
_Dover_, on the 2nd of December, and sailed for the Mellicourie River,
on which the town of Malageah is situated. The officers of the 1st West
India Regiment who accompanied the expedition were Captain R.D.
Fletcher, Lieutenant Connell, Lieutenant Strachan, and Ensign Anderson.

On December 4th, the expedition arrived off Malageah, and the
river-banks having been reconnoitred, Captain Heseltine, of H.M.S.
_Britomart_, who had been appointed diplomatic agent with powers to
negotiate, directed a landing to be made. The troops disembarked, and
meeting with no opposition, advanced on the town, seizing and occupying
the mosque and the king's house, while a second body took possession of
all the approaches to the town. By these means, a party of some 200
chiefs and Marabouts, who filled the mosque, were surrounded.

In the meantime, the 1st Division, under Captain R. D'Oyley Fletcher,
1st West India Regiment, had proceeded to a creek to the eastward of the
town, which they ascended in the boats of the _Britomart_, and then
crossing by bye-paths through the swamp and bush to the back of the
town, where they dispersed a body of 150 natives armed with rifles and
muskets, they joined the main body before the mosque.

Negotiations were opened by the diplomatic agent, and continued for
about half-an-hour; when, as it was noticed that the Marabouts were
gradually leaving the mosque and all going in one direction, a
reconnoitring party of ten men, under Lieutenant F.J. Connell, 1st West
India Regiment, was sent to the northern side of the town. Lieutenant
Connell, on reaching the town gate, found from 1800 to 2000 natives
armed with fire-arms, spears, bows and arrows, formed in a semicircle,
from eight to ten deep, facing the small picket that had been there
posted. The whole of the main body, with the seamen and marines, was at
once ordered up, and took up a position on the plateau to the north of
the town, facing the natives, while a detached party occupied the walls
and gates. At first there was a disposition on the part of the natives
to resist this movement, but it was so rapidly executed that they were
taken by surprise, and, losing cohesion, they soon after gradually
dispersed.

The king, Bamba Mima Lahi, now signified his desire to come to terms,
promised to comply with all demands, and to pay one thousand dollars as
a fine for his offences. The force accordingly re-embarked, the object
of the expedition having been effected without bloodshed, and returned
to Sierra Leone on December 6th. The following letter may be of
interest:

                                  "H.M.S. BRITOMART,
                                  "_Sierra Leone, December 6th, 1854._

    "SIR,

    "In bringing back the troops that have been embarked on board the
    _Prometheus_ and landed at Malageah, and who, whilst afloat, have
    been under my command, I beg to bear testimony to their quiet,
    orderly, and zealous conduct, both afloat and ashore, where, had it
    not been for the above good qualities, collision would have been
    inevitable.

    "To Captains Rookes, Mockler, and Fletcher, and the officers of the
    force, I beg to return my sincere thanks for their zealous and
    active co-operation; further comment on my part would be
    presumptuous.

                                 "A. HESELTINE,
                                    "Commander and Senior Naval Officer.

    "Lieutenant-Colonel Foster,
      "Commanding troops."

On the 14th of December, the Gambia contingent sailed for the Gambia in
the Colonial steamer _Dover_, and the garrison of Sierra Leone remained
at its ordinary strength of three companies.

In May, 1855, as the King of Malageah had not observed the stipulations
of the treaty that had been forced upon him, and had not paid the fine
of one thousand dollars, the Acting Governor of Sierra Leone, a
gentleman of colour, determined to take steps for his punishment. On the
21st of May, accordingly, he sent for Captain R. D'Oyley Fletcher, 1st
West India Regiment, who was then in command of the troops, and informed
him that it was his intention to send a force of 150 men, that very day,
to burn the town of Malageah, and, if possible, capture the king. He
added that the troops would proceed in H.M.S. _Teazer_, then lying in
the harbour.

Captain Fletcher, in reply, said that he could not approve of the
proposed arrangements; that since a force of 400 men had been deemed
necessary to extract a promise from the king, it was, to say the least,
injudicious to endeavour to force him to fulfil that promise with only
150 men. He stated that at the last expedition more than 2000 armed
natives had been seen, and he considered it inadvisable to proceed to
actual hostilities without a force proportionate to the duty to be
performed. He further suggested that the expedition should be delayed
for two or three days, so that the detachments of the 2nd West India
Regiment might be brought in from Waterloo and the Banana Islands, and
the whole garrison employed on the duty. The Acting Governor overruled
these objections, insinuated that Captain Fletcher was actuated by fears
for his personal safety, and finally peremptorily ordered the force he
had mentioned to embark.

In consequence, on the evening of May 21st, Captain Fletcher, Lieutenant
Strachan, Lieutenant Wylie, and 69 men of the 1st West India Regiment,
with Lieutenants Keir and Beazley and 79 men of the 3rd West India
Regiment, embarked on board the _Teazer_. Lieutenant Vincent, 2nd West
India Regiment, was attached to the 1st for duty, and
Deputy-Assistant-Commissary-General Frith and Surgeons Marchant and
Bradshaw accompanied the troops.

The _Teazer_ arrived off Benty Point, at the mouth of the Mellicourie
River, on the morning of May 22nd, and, after a delay of a few hours, in
consequence of the difficulty in crossing the bar, the expedition
arrived off Malageah.

Lieutenant-Commander Nicolas, of the _Teazer_, and Mr. Dillet, the
Acting Governor's private secretary, had been appointed commissioners,
and, by their direction, the troops disembarked about 10 a.m. A flag of
truce was flying on the king's house, and, as he showed a disposition to
come to terms, the commissioners determined to depart from their
instructions, and make an attempt to settle the affair without having
recourse to force. They accordingly informed the king that if he would
pay the fine his town would be spared; and they granted him one hour for
this purpose, warning him that if at the expiration of that time the
money was not forthcoming, the town would be shelled.

Two hours having passed without any communication having been received
from the king, the _Teazer_ at noon opened fire, and the troops advanced
on the town, covering their flanks with skirmishers. This advance would
have been unnecessary had the _Teazer_ been supplied with rockets; but
there being none, the men were obliged to set fire to the houses. It
would be difficult to imagine a worse-planned expedition.

The troops gained the central square of the town, and, in compliance
with the written instructions, set fire to the mosque, the king's house,
and other principal buildings; and ultimately the whole town appeared to
be in flames. The left division, under Lieutenant Vincent, was exposed
to a desultory fire, during the whole of these operations, from the
enemy concealed in the bush; and large numbers of natives were observed
gathering on the plateau to the north of the town. As it seemed
impossible that any portion of the town could escape the conflagration,
and as the heat from the burning buildings was intense, the troops
retired to the river bank, and embarked in the _Teazer's_ boats.
Scarcely had the seamen dipped their oars into the water, to pull out
into the stream, than a volley was poured into the boats from the dense
bush which grew close down to the edge of the water; and the ambushed
enemy then commenced firing rapidly, but fortunately with so little
precision that the troops succeeded in reaching mid-stream with a loss
of only five wounded.

The boats continued their course to the ship, and the troops
re-embarked. The town was still in flames, but they were gradually
subsiding, and before nightfall were entirely extinguished, leaving a
considerable portion of the town still unconsumed. The commissioners,
upon this, decided, as it was too late to land again that day, to drop
down the river as far as Benty Point for the night, and to return next
morning to complete the work of destruction. Captain Fletcher then
objected to any second landing being made, pointing out that the whole
country was now alarmed, and that the people of Malageah would be
reinforced by those of Fouricariah (a populous town further up the
river), and that quite enough had been done to punish the king. The
commissioners agreed with his views, but decided that their orders were
so peremptory that they could not, without running the risk of censure,
leave the river until the entire town had been destroyed.

At 5.30 a.m. on May 23rd, the _Teazer_ left Benty Point, and steaming up
the river, anchored off Malageah, in which the ruins were still
smouldering. The vessel was so ill-provided with munitions of war that
hardly any shell remained from the previous day. What little there was,
was thrown amongst the houses to endeavour to fire them, and the attempt
being unsuccessful, it became necessary to land the men. The dense bush
around the town having been well searched with grape and canister to
clear it of any lurking enemy, the troops, 135 in number, were landed on
the bank of the mangrove creek running inland towards the town, and no
enemy appearing, they advanced to set fire to the buildings that had
hitherto escaped destruction.

The advanced guard of thirty men, with whom were Lieutenant-Commander
Nicolas and Mr. Dillet, who had landed to point out which houses it was
most important to thoroughly destroy, had only advanced some two hundred
yards from the bank of the creek, when they were received with a
murderous discharge of musketry from the enemy concealed in the bush.
Almost the whole of the advanced party were shot down in this one
volley, twenty men being killed on the spot, and Lieutenant-Commander
Nicolas and Mr. Dillet severely wounded. The main body, seventy-five in
number, under Captain Fletcher, at once hurried up to prevent the
wounded falling into the hands of the barbarous natives, and behaved
with great gallantry, for though falling thick and fast under the
tremendous fire which the concealed enemy--to the number of several
hundreds--poured into them from a distance of ten or twelve yards, they
held their ground until the wounded had been safely conveyed to the
boats.

Scarcely had this been accomplished than the rear-guard of thirty men,
under Lieut. Keir, 3rd West India Regiment, was attacked by a large
number of natives who had moved through the bush, and actually succeeded
in cutting off our men from the boats. The enemy advanced with great
determination into the open, thinking to overwhelm this small party, and
they were only driven back into the bush by repeated volleys and a final
charge with the bayonet.

By this time fully one-third of the men who had landed having been
killed, and a great number wounded, the order was given to retire, which
was done steadily, the ground being contested inch by inch. At this time
Company Sergeant-Major Scanlan, of the 3rd West India Regiment, and six
men who were covering the retreat, fell, the former mortally wounded;
and some of the bolder of the natives, rushing out of their concealment,
seized Deputy-Assistant-Commissary Frith, and dragged him away into the
bush, where he was barbarously murdered in cold blood. Scanlan was
lying in the narrow path, his chest riddled with bullets, when the chief
fetish priest of the place, to encourage the natives to make further
efforts, sprang upon a ruined wall in front of him, and began dancing an
uncouth dance, accompanying it with savage yells and significant
gestures to the dying man. He paid dearly for his rashness, however, for
Scanlan, collecting his strength for a last supreme effort, seized his
loaded rifle, which was fortunately lying within reach, and discharged
it at the gesticulating savage, who threw up his arms and fell dead. The
next moment Scanlan was surrounded by a horde of infuriated barbarians,
and his body hacked into an undistinguishable mass.

The troops, sadly diminished in number, at last reached that portion of
the mangrove creek where they had left the boats. Of these there had
been originally but two, and one having at the commencement of the
action been used to convey Lieutenant-Commander Nicolas and Mr. Dillet,
under the charge of Surgeon Bradshaw, to the ship, one only remained for
the men to embark in. The tide having fallen, this was lying out near
the entrance of the creek, separated by an expanse of reeking mud from
the shore. The men, seeing their last chance of safety cut off, threw
themselves into the mud, in which many sank and were no more seen. Some
few, however, succeeded in floundering along, half wading and half
swimming, until they reached her, and climbed in. She was, however, so
riddled with bullets, that she filled and sank almost immediately.

Captain Fletcher, Lieutenant Wylie, Lieutenant Strachan, and Lieutenant
Vincent, with some thirty men, endeavoured to make a last stand upon a
small islet of mud and sand, near the left bank of the creek; but
Lieutenant Wylie was shot dead almost at once, and Lieutenant Vincent,
being shot through the body, jumped into the water, to endeavour to swim
to the ship. In a few seconds seventeen men had fallen out of this
devoted band, and the survivors, plunging into the creek, swam down
towards the river. The natives lined the banks in crowds, keeping up a
heavy fire upon the men in the water; and Captain Fletcher and
Lieutenant Strachan, who were the last to leave the shore, only reached
the _Teazer_ by a miracle, they having to swim more than half a mile to
reach her.

As the last of the survivors gained the vessel, the natives, between two
and three thousand in number, lined the banks of the river, brandishing
their weapons and uttering shouts of defiance; and the heads of several
of the killed, horribly mutilated, were held out towards the ship on
spears, amidst cries of exultation. All the ammunition for the
_Teazer's_ guns having already been expended in shelling the town and
clearing the bush, it was impossible to reply to the enemy, and the
vessel proceeded slowly down the river, returning to Sierra Leone next
day.

The casualties of this day were as follows: The 1st West India Regiment,
out of 62 men who landed, lost 38 killed and 3 wounded. The 3rd West
India Regiment, out of 73 men who landed, lost 46 killed and 8 wounded.
Total, 95 killed and wounded, out of a force of 135 men.

The casualties amongst the officers were nearly equally heavy. Out of
the ten Europeans who were under fire, three, namely Lieutenant Wylie,
1st West India Regiment, D.A.C.G. Frith and C.S.M. Scanlan were killed;
and three, Lieutenant Vincent, 2nd West India Regiment,
Lieutenant-Commander Nicolas, and Mr. Dillet, severely wounded.

It was learned afterwards that the reason so large a force was assembled
at Malageah was that it was the time for the annual gathering of the
river tribes, to hear the laws read by the Alimani. This circumstance
ought of course to have been known to the Acting Governor, who was well
acquainted with the customs of the people. The Imperial Government held
him responsible for this defeat, and, in November, 1855, he was relieved
of his post, and charged "with having, when Acting Governor, on the 21st
of May, 1855, without authority, and upon insufficient grounds, sent an
expedition against the Moriah chiefs in the Mellicourie River, beyond
the Colony, with orders to burn or destroy the town of Malageah, planned
without foresight or judgment, disastrous in its termination, and
disgraceful to the British power," and was suspended from his office of
Queen's Advocate and from his seat at the Council Board.

CHAPTER XXII.

THE BATTLE OF BAKKOW, AND STORMING OF SABBAJEE, 1855.[58]

The company of the 1st West India Regiment stationed at the Gambia was
the next to see active service, but fortunately under circumstances less
disastrous than had fallen to the lot of the company at Sierra Leone.

In June, 1855, the inhabitants of Sabbajee again began to exhibit signs
of lawlessness; and, early in July, an influential Mohammedan of that
town, named Fodi Osumanu, sent an armed party to the British settlement
at Josswung to seize a woman, whose husband he had already placed in
confinement in Sabbajee itself. In consequence of this outrage a warrant
was issued for the apprehension of Fodi Osumanu, and, as a precautionary
measure, the constables despatched to put the warrant in force were
accompanied by a small party of the 2nd West India Regiment, under
Lieutenant Armstrong, 3rd West India Regiment.

They arrived at Sabbajee on the morning of July 16th, and at first Fodi
Osumanu offered no opposition to his arrest; but, on gaining the central
square of the town, he endeavoured to break away from the police, and,
upon this signal, the Mandingoes rushed upon the British from every
street and alley. Nothing but the coolness and steadiness displayed by
both officers and men, saved the whole from destruction. Forming square,
they retreated steadily out of the town, repulsing the repeated attacks
of the natives, and retired in good order to Josswung, and thence to the
military post at Cape St. Mary's. In effecting this, two men were
killed, and the Queen's Advocate, Lieutenant Davis, 2nd West India
Regiment, and Lieutenant Armstrong were wounded, the latter so severely
as to render amputation of the right arm necessary.

Intelligence of this occurrence being carried to Bathurst in a few
hours, the Governor, Lieutenant-Colonel L. Smyth O'Connor, 1st West
India Regiment, at once called out all the available force of the
Colony; and, aware that every half-hour was of importance, as the
inhabitants of Sabbajee were receiving reinforcements from the
disaffected Mandingo towns of Jambool, Burnfut, and Cunju, and had
already burned and pillaged Josswung, he marched the same day. The force
consisted of 120 men of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd West India Regiments, with
120 of the Royal Gambia Militia; and, on arriving at Cape St. Mary's, on
the evening of July 16th, it was joined by 26 pensioners of the West
India regiments. The officers of the 1st West India Regiment present
were Lieutenant-Colonel O'Connor, Lieutenant E.F. Luke, and Lieutenant
Henderson.

Early next morning the whole force marched towards Sabbajee, meeting
with no resistance until it arrived at the wood of Bakkow. To reach
Sabbajee it was necessary to pass through this wood, a jungle of dense
tropical vegetation, only traversable by a single bush path some five
feet in breadth, and, before entering this defile, Colonel O'Connor
wisely ordered rockets to be thrown amongst the trees, with a view to
ascertaining if they covered any concealed enemy.

Hardly had the first rocket fallen than the wood appeared alive with
men, who, from every bush and tree, opened a destructive fire upon the
British. This was promptly and steadily replied to by the detachments of
the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd West India Regiments, which were in the van, and
the action became general. The militia were drawn up in two bodies, one
acting as a support to the regulars, and the other as a reserve; and the
latter, shortly after the commencement of the engagement, retreated
without orders, and without firing a shot. The party of militia in
support, as soon as they observed the flight of the reserve, fell back
hurriedly in great confusion, nor could their officers nor the Governor
himself succeed in stopping them, and both parties of militia retired
upon Cape St. Mary's, abandoning their wounded.

The detachments of the West India regiments still held their ground; but
at the end of half an hour, as it was manifestly impossible, with the
now greatly reduced numbers, to force the passage of the wood, and as
the enemy were observed extending in large numbers round both flanks so
as to threaten the line of retreat, the order was given to retire upon
Cape St. Mary's. This was effected in good order, the victorious natives
following the retreating force for more than two miles, and keeping up
an incessant fire. The combined detachments suffered in this affair a
loss of twenty-three killed and fifty-three wounded. Lieutenant-Colonel
O'Connor was himself severely wounded in the right arm and left
shoulder.

The news of this repulse was received with the greatest consternation at
Bathurst, which was entirely denuded of troops and quite at the mercy of
the rebellious Mandingoes. Preparations for defence were at once
undertaken, all the reliable natives, principally persons in the employ
of the Government or of the merchants, in all some 200 in number, were
armed, and a vessel was despatched to the neighbouring French settlement
of Goree to seek assistance. The Mandingoes, fortunately, made no
attempt to follow up their success, and the chiefs of British Combo
having volunteered their aid to the Government, a number of their men
were armed, and on July 29th some sharp skirmishing took place between
them and the Mandingoes in the neighbourhood of Bakkow, in which the
Combos lost twenty-five killed, but without reaping any success.

On the afternoon of July 30th, the French brig-of-war _Entreprenant_,
Captain Villeneuve, arrived, bringing with her eighty men, which was all
the disposable force the French Governor of Goree had at his command;
and all preparations being completed by the night of August 3rd, the
combined British and French force marched from Cape St. Mary's next
morning at daybreak. The French had brought with them three
twelve-pounder field-guns, which, with a 4-2/5-inch howitzer, and three
rocket-troughs in the possession of the British, were formed into a
battery under the command of Lieutenant Morel, of the French marine
artillery. The force was further increased by an irregular contingent of
some 600 loyal natives.

As on the former occasion, no opposition was encountered until arriving
at the wood of Bakkow, where the enemy showed in great force, and opened
a heavy fire from the shelter of the forest. The irregular contingent,
supported by the detachments of the 1st and 2nd West India Regiments,
replied to the enemy's fire in a most effective manner; but so
determined was the resistance, that the Mandingoes, when silenced in our
front, taking advantage of the cover afforded by the high grass and
clumps of monkey-bread trees, made repeated attacks on the flanks, and
even at one time threatened the rear. Shell and rockets were thrown
into the wood, and the village of Bakkow, which was occupied by the
enemy, was burned; but it was not until after two hours' obstinate
fighting, in the course of which the detachments of the 1st and 2nd West
India Regiment had four times to repulse flank attacks with the bayonet,
that the passage could be forced.

The wood being traversed, the force debouched upon the plain of
Sabbajee, a sandy level, covered with a scanty growth of Guinea grass
and dotted with clumps of dwarf palm. The guns were at once placed in
position for breaching the stockade, and fire was opened with wonderful
precision. A few rounds only had been expended, when a large body of
natives from the disaffected and neighbouring town of Burnfut made a
sudden and determined onslaught on our flank, charging furiously forward
with brandished scimetars. This was met by a party of French marines and
the detachments of the 1st and 2nd West India Regiments, who, after
firing a volley at a very close range, charged gallantly with the
bayonet and speedily routed the enemy, who took refuge in a neighbouring
copse. Being ordered to dislodge them from this cover, the detachments
of the 1st and 2nd West India Regiments advanced in skirmishing order,
and after a short but sharp conflict, drove them out on the further
side.

After a bombardment of an hour and a half, seeing that the enemy
extinguished the thatched roofs of their houses as fast as they were
ignited, and that the ammunition was becoming exhausted,
Lieutenant-Colonel O'Connor determined to carry the stockade by storm.
The detachments of the West India regiments formed up in the centre, a
division of French marines being on either flank, and the whole dashed
forward to the assault in the face of a tremendous fire of musketry that
was opened throughout the entire length of the loop-holed stockade. In a
few seconds the troops were under the stockade, which was composed of
the stout trunks of trees, standing some eighteen feet high, and braced
on the inner side by cross-beams. A temporary check was here experienced
(the men having no ladders for escalading), during which the Mandingoes
kept up a close fire from their upper tier of loop-holes, while others
crouching in the ditch in rear hewed and cut at the feet and legs of the
troops through the apertures in the stockade on a level with the ground.
The check was, however, of short duration, for the British opened fire
on the enemy through their own loop-holes, and drove them back, while
others, clambering over the rough defences, effected an entrance.

After this, the Mandingoes offered but a feeble resistance, and soon
fled into the open from the further side of the town. Here they were
pursued and shot down by the irregular contingent, who had been sent to
cut off their retreat as soon as it was seen that the stockade was
carried. The enemy's loss during the assault was exceedingly heavy, the
ditch in rear of the stockade, and in which they were principally
sheltered, being full of dead. The loss of the combined force, exclusive
of irregulars, was seventeen killed and thirty-one wounded.

Inside the stockade the 1st West India Regiment captured two
kettledrums, of which one was a war-drum, and the other a death-drum,
that is to say, a drum that is only beaten when an execution is taking
place. These drums, consisting of polished hemispherical calabashes, of
a diameter of about thirty inches at the drum-head, are now in the
possession of the regiment.

The following letter, referring to these operations, which terminated
with the capture of Sabbajee, was published in general orders at the
Gambia, on the 26th of October, 1855:

                                                "HORSE GUARDS,
                                                "_Sept. 6th, 1855._

    "SIR,

    "The General Commanding-in-Chief having had before him the
    despatches which were addressed to the Adjutant-General on July 30th
    and 6th ultimo, giving an account of the proceedings, from the 16th
    July to the 4th August last, of the force under your command against
    the Mohammedan rebel town of Sabbajee, which was eventually taken by
    assault at the point of the bayonet, I am directed to assure you of
    Lord Hardinge's satisfaction at the perusal of those despatches, and
    that he considers the gallantry and steadiness displayed by the
    troops on this occasion, and the judgment with which they were
    directed by you, to be deserving of high praise.

    "His Lordship further desired that the expression of his sentiments
    might be communicated accordingly to yourself and to all the troops
    concerned.

                                      "I have, &c.,

                                             (Signed) "C. YORKE,
                                                "Military Secretary.

    "Lieut.-Colonel O'Connor,
      "1st West India Regiment,
    "Commanding troops, Western Coast of Africa."

In the West Indies nothing of importance had occurred, and no change of
station had taken place, since December, 1853. In this year, however
(1855), No. 8 Company rejoined head-quarters at Jamaica from Dominica,
and No. 1 was moved from St. Christopher to Demerara. The distribution,
then, at the close of 1855, was: No. 2, No. 5, No. 8, the Grenadier and
Light Companies at Jamaica, No. 7 and No. 4 at Barbados, No. 1 at
Demerara, No. 3 at Sierra Leone, and No. 6 at the Gambia.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 58: See map.]

CHAPTER XXIII.

CHANGES IN THE WEST AFRICAN GARRISONS, 1856-57--THE GREAT SCARCIES RIVER
EXPEDITION, 1859--FIRE AT NASSAU, 1859.

In January, 1856, it was determined to make a further change in the mode
of garrisoning the settlements on the West Coast of Africa, and the
following letter was issued on the subject:

                                                "HORSE GUARDS,
                                                "_2nd January, 1856_.

    "In obedience to orders from the Secretary of State, War Department,
    the Field-Marshal Commanding-in-Chief is pleased to direct that
    instead of the detachments to the western coast of Africa being
    furnished, as at present, by two companies from each of the West
    India regiments, the settlements in that part will be garrisoned by
    a wing composed of six companies, to be furnished in succession by
    each of the West India regiments.

    "At the next relief the 1st West India Regiment will furnish six
    companies accordingly, each company made up and kept effective to
    100 rank and file, the force to be distributed as at present, viz.:

      "Gambia             3 Companies.
      "Sierra Leone       3 Companies.

    "The remaining four companies of the 1st West India Regiment will be
    stationed at Jamaica, as a depôt to receive and train recruits, and
    maintain the efficiency of the companies on the coast of Africa."

In anticipation of this change, and as recent events at the Gambia and
Sierra Leone had shown the necessity for an increase in the strength of
the detachments, No. 2 Company of the 1st West India Regiment, under
Captain W.J. Chamberlayne, embarked at Jamaica for Africa in the _Sir
George Pollock_ on February 19th, 1856. It arrived in the Gambia on
April 1st, and detachments to McCarthy's Island, 179 miles up the River
Gambia, and to Fort Bullen, were at once furnished from it.

No other change in the distribution of the regiment took place in this
year, with the exception that No. 5 Company, under Captain R. Hughes,
was moved from Jamaica to Barbados in December.

In January, 1857, No. 1 Company from Demerara, and Nos. 4 and 7 from
Barbados, embarked on board the troopship _Perseverance_, for Africa,
under the command of Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel Clarke, and Captains
Hughes and Macauley, arriving at Sierra Leone on February 28th.

Nos. 1 and 7 Companies were there disembarked, and the _Perseverance_
then proceeded to the Gambia, where No. 4 Company was landed. In
accordance with the scheme that the remaining four companies of the
regiment should be stationed at Jamaica, No. 5 Company rejoined there
from Barbados on April 17th; but, two months later, the scheme was again
revised, and, on June 4th, the head-quarters and four companies embarked
for Nassau, New Providence, under Lieutenant-Colonel F.A. Wetherall.

The detachments on the West Coast of Africa were very much subdivided,
that of the Gambia furnishing garrisons for Fort Bullen, Cape St. Mary,
and McCarthy's Island; and that of Sierra Leone a garrison for Waterloo.
In April, 1857, the garrison of Fort Bullen was reinforced by No. 2
Company under Captain Chamberlayne from Bathurst, in consequence of
disturbances having broken out between the King of Barra and one of his
principal chiefs named Osumanu Sajji, and was withdrawn in May, on
tranquility being restored.

In August, 1858, the natives of Sherbro threatened to plunder the
British factories that had been established on Sherbro Island, and
stopped the trade, and for the protection of the lives and property of
the Consul and British subjects, a detachment of the 1st West India
Regiment, under Captain R. Hughes, proceeded in H.M.S. _Spitfire_ to
Sherbro Island on September 1st. They there landed and remained until
October 2nd, when, all fears of an attack being at an end, they
returned to Sierra Leone. In January, 1859, however, another attack was
threatened by the Mendis, and a detachment of the 1st West India
Regiment, under Captain Luke, was sent for the protection of the
factories in H.M.S. _Trident_ on January 15th, returning to Sierra Leone
on February 18th.

In September and October, 1858, Captain Luke, 1st West India Regiment,
who was then on leave of absence on the Gold Coast, served with the
expeditionary force against the rebel Krobo stronghold of Krobo Hill.
Captain Cochrane, Gold Coast Artillery, commanding the force, in
concluding his despatch of October 26th, 1858, says: "It is not too much
to say that all who have joined the expedition have done their best to
further its interests, but I beg especially to call your Excellency's
notice to the voluntary services of Captain F.H. Luke, of the 1st West
India Regiment, whose energy, zeal, and disinterestedness, have been
warmly commended by every officer here, and are deserving of honourable
mention."

In February, 1859, the town of Porto Lokkoh, distant some forty miles
from Sierra Leone, and on the Sierra Leone River, was burned and
pillaged by a body of Soosoos who had, for some time back, established
themselves at Kambia, on the Great Scarcies River. For previous outrages
committed by them, Kambia had been bombarded by a naval squadron under
Commodore Wise on February 1st, 1858, after which the Soosoos had
entrenched themselves in a stockaded work, or war fence, near Kambia.
There they had been suffered to remain, but the destruction of Porto
Lokkoh, the chief _entrepôt_ of the Sierra Leone trade, necessitated
further measures being taken against them.

Consequently, on March 20th, 1859, the Governor of Sierra Leone, Colonel
Stephen Hill, proceeded with a force of 203 men of the 1st West India
Regiment, under Major A.W. Murray, in H.M.S. _Vesuvius_, _Trident_, and
_Spitfire_, to the Great Scarcies River, where they arrived at daybreak
on the 22nd. The officers of the regiment serving with the expedition
were Major Murray, Brevet-Major Pratt, Lieutenants Fitzgerald, Mackay,
and Mawe, Ensigns Ormsby and Temple. Colonel Hill, in his despatch,
says:

"The troops having landed to the right of the town, I formed the
detachment of the 1st West India Regiment, under Major Murray, into four
divisions; and the marines formed, under the command of Captain Hill,
2nd West India Regiment, A.D.C., another division. A party of the former
corps, acting as gunners, accompanied the Marine Artillery, who took
charge of two mountain howitzers.

"Having extended one division in skirmishing order, I advanced; and,
finding the first stockade deserted I passed on to the furthest one,
which was then occupied by the sailors of the second division of boats
under Commander Close. I then proceeded to the extreme left of all the
defences, and halted in clear ground to await the arrival of our native
allies. Shortly afterwards Commodore Wise sent to inform me that the
enemy, who had retired before us with some loss, were in the jungle to
our left at the head of some rocks, on which they could cross the river
at low water. I immediately extended two divisions of the 1st West India
Regiment as skirmishers, with the marines supporting one, and a division
of the 1st West India the other, leaving one division in reserve in
charge of the howitzers, after having first fired some rounds of shell
into the jungle.

"Our advance was most difficult, the bush being almost impenetrable.
However, we persevered, and, having reached a high point overlooking the
country around, and not seeing any enemy, I ordered a halt, and, after
some time, we retired unmolested, the Soosoos never having allowed us to
close with them. The Commodore then sent me a second message to the
effect that he had seen about 500 men, who had, on our advance, retired
across the river, over the rocks, and disappeared in the bush on the
opposite side.

"The detachment of the 1st West India Regiment, under Brevet-Major
Pratt, kept the ground during the night; and our allies having arrived,
and been placed in possession of the stockades, the troops were
re-embarked on the 24th, and we proceeded on our return to Sierra Leone,
where we arrived on the 26th.

"I have much pleasure in stating that all the officers and men under my
orders performed their duties in an exceedingly zealous and
satisfactory manner, exhibiting a cheerful obedience, and only anxious
to close with the enemy. None but those present could form a just
estimate of the difficulty attending our advance, and the consequent
physical exhaustion. The heat was intense; a great part of the jungle
had been fired, and the bushes and the high grass formed a network
through which we were obliged to cut our way."

On January 8th, 1860, the men of the companies of the 1st West India
Regiment stationed at Nassau specially distinguished themselves at an
alarming fire that there broke out at Fort Charlotte, and the following
Garrison Order was published on the subject:

"Lieutenant-Colonel Bourchier takes the earliest opportunity in his
power of expressing his thanks to Major R. D'O. Fletcher, the officers,
the non-commissioned officers, and the men of the 1st West India
Regiment, for the prompt manner in which they turned out and lent their
efforts to avert the extension of the late fire at Fort Charlotte.

"Such occasions as this test the discipline of a corps in a high degree,
the more so when, as in the present instance, the danger of an explosion
from the proximity of the flames to the magazine was imminent.

"Where all were zealous, the conduct of Ensign Bourke, 1st West India
Regiment, was most conspicuous, who, assisted by Company Sergeant-Major
Mason and a party of four men of the regiment, placed wet blankets on
the most exposed portion of the roof of the magazine, which was then
actually ignited; and it will be most gratifying to Lieutenant-Colonel
Bourchier to bring the circumstance under the notice of H.R.H. the
General Commanding-in-Chief."

At the Gambia nothing of moment had occurred since 1807, with the
exception that a violent epidemic of fever broke out at Bathurst in
September, 1859, to which one officer and several men of the regiment
succumbed.

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE BADDIBOO WAR, 1860-61.

The next active operations in which the 1st West India Regiment was
engaged, took place at the Gambia, where the King of Baddiboo, an
important Mohammedan state up the river, had in August and September,
1860, plundered the factories of several British traders, and afterwards
refused to pay compensation. The Governor of the Gambia, Colonel D'Arcy,
resolved to blockade the kingdom of Baddiboo, in the hope that the
enforced suspension of trade would compel the king to come to terms,
and, on October 10th, 1860, the gunners of the companies of the 1st West
India Regiment stationed at Bathurst embarked in the barque _Elm_ and
the schooner _Shamrock_, to close all the Baddiboo river ports. On
November 3rd additional gunners were sent in the schooner _Hope_, and
the blockade was strictly enforced, the natives not being allowed to
export any articles of produce or import anything.

While the blockade was still in force, the wing of the 2nd West India
Regiment, which had been wrecked in the troopship _Perseverance_ at
Maio, one of the Cape Verde Islands, while on its way to relieve the
wing of the 1st West India Regiment, arrived in West Africa in various
vessels, three companies at the Gambia and three at Sierra Leone; and as
in January, 1861, the blockade had manifestly failed in its object of
inducing the King of Baddiboo to indemnify the plundered merchants,
Governor D'Arcy determined to take advantage of the presence of an
unusual number of regular troops to organise a formidable expedition;
which step was rendered necessary from the fact that the numerous
Mohammedan tribes around the settlement and on the banks of the river
were narrowly watching events, and had, owing to the long delay in
punishing the King of Baddiboo, already commenced to show signs of
lawlessness.

On January 12th, 1861, the hired transport _Avon_ arrived at the Gambia
to convey the wing of the 1st West India Regiment to the West Indies,
and Colonel D'Arcy proceeded in her to Sierra Leone to make arrangements
for the services of a portion of the garrison of that settlement. On
February 2nd, he returned to the Gambia in the _Avon_ with three
companies of the 1st West India Regiment and one of the 2nd West India
Regiment.

The expeditionary force now consisted of six companies of the 1st West
India Regiment, under Lieutenant-Colonel A.W. Murray, and four of the
2nd West India Regiment, under Major W. Hill; the Gambia Militia were
called out, and the West India detachments at McCarthy's Island, Cape
St. Mary's, and Fort Bullen replaced by pensioners.

Everything being in readiness, the Governor decided to make one last
endeavour to arrive at a peaceful solution of the difficulty (although
the king's people had recently, on several occasions, fired on the
schooners blockading the river), and despatched H.M.S. _Torch_ with a
flag of truce to Swarra Cunda Creek. Commander Smith returned with the
intelligence that the natives had prepared stockaded earthworks, were
assembled in large numbers, and had refused to hold any communication
with the ship.

On February 15th, the expedition left Bathurst, and steaming up to
Swarra Cunda Creek, some forty miles up the river, anchored there for
the night. The troops were under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel
Murray, 1st West India Regiment, and were thus distributed:

The gunners of the 1st and 2nd West India Regiment on board H.M.S.
_Torch_.

Nos. 1 and 7 Companies, 1st West India Regiment, on board the Colonial
steamer _Dover_.

Nos. 2 and 3 Companies, 1st West India Regiment, on the schooner
_Elizabeth_.

Nos. 4 and 7 Companies, 2nd West India Regiment, on the schooner
_Margaret_.

The _Dover_, after distributing her contingent amongst the other three
vessels lying in the creek, returned to Bathurst the same night to bring
up Nos. 4 and 6 Companies of the 1st West India Regiment and two
companies of the 2nd West India Regiment.

On February 16th, the whole force being collected, the _Torch_ and the
_Dover_ steamed up the creek to the trading landing-place of Swarra
Cunda, towing the schooners. The earthworks were observed to be full of
armed men, who shouted and brandished their weapons, amid a tremendous
beating of war-drums. The _Torch_ anchored about 180 yards from the
earthworks, the two schooners lying above her and the _Dover_ below, in
such positions as to be able to bring a cross-fire to bear. The
Governor, being still anxious to avoid bloodshed, hailed the enemy
through his interpreter, calling upon them to surrender. They replied
with yells of defiance, and were then informed that if they did not
abandon their works the ships would open fire in half-an-hour.

The half-hour having elapsed without any result, except a considerable
accession to the enemy's strength, fire was opened from the guns of the
_Torch_ and _Dover_, while the troops poured in a destructive storm of
musketry. The enemy replied with great spirit; and, although the
sixty-eight-pounder shell were crushing through the earthworks and
carrying away large portions of the parapets, some of the warriors
continued calmly up and down in full view on the most exposed portions
of the works, to encourage the others; and it was not until this
terrible fire of shell and musketry had lasted for three hours, that the
natives began to abandon their works, retiring even then very
gradually. This movement being observed, a landing was at once ordered;
and the boats, which had been collected together under cover of the
_Torch_, pulled in rapidly for the landing-place. Before, however, they
reached the shore, some 800 natives, who had occupied the extreme right
of the earthworks, which had not suffered from our fire as much as the
other portions, rushed down to oppose them.

The landing was effected in the teeth of all opposition, the troops
wading ashore and attacking the enemy with the bayonet. Colonel D'Arcy
in his despatch says:--"Nothing could exceed the gallantry of the
landing on the part of the officers and men of the 1st and 2nd West
India Regiments; and now commenced a smart skirmish with a numerous
enemy, in which our black soldiers evinced a gallantry and a
determination to close which I felt proud to witness."

While this stubborn and hand-to-hand conflict was at its height, a
shrill cry was suddenly heard in rear of the enemy, and at once, as if
by a preconcerted plan, those natives who were disputing the landing
broke and fled, while, at the same moment, a body of some 300 cavalry
debouched from the shelter of a clump of dwarf palms, and came down at
full gallop on the troops, who were already somewhat scattered in
pursuit of the retreating enemy. The men at once formed rallying
squares, and in a moment the Mandingo horsemen were amongst them,
brandishing their scimetars and discharging matchlocks and pistols. The
fire from the squares was so steady and well sustained, that, with one
exception, the enemy could effect nothing. They rode round and round the
squares for a few minutes, uttering shouts of defiance and endeavouring
to reach the men with their spears; and finally, a good many saddles
having been emptied, galloped off as rapidly as they had come, their
long robes streaming out behind in the wind. The one exception referred
to was that of a group of three men of the 1st West India Regiment and
two of the 2nd, who, having advanced too far in pursuit, had become
separated from their comrades, and, on the sudden appearance of the
cavalry, had not time to reach any of the squares. They stood back to
back, surrounded by the enemy, until overwhelmed by force of numbers and
ridden down, being afterwards found lying where they had stood,
surrounded by eleven dead Mandingoes whom they had shot or bayoneted.

This cavalry charge was the last hope of the enemy; and no sooner was it
repulsed than they withdrew in great disorder. The troops pursued for a
short distance, but as it was not deemed advisable to scatter the small
force, especially as the day was beginning to close, they were soon
recalled, and the men bivouacked on the ground they had so ably won, the
bivouac being so arranged that the guns of the _Torch_ could sweep the
front and one flank. Wells were dug, the dead buried, and the night
passed without further disturbance.

Next morning, the 17th, the Gambia Militia Artillery, with 400 native
allies, arrived and landed, and in the afternoon the 1st and 2nd West
India Regiments, under Lieutenant-Colonel Murray, after a short
resistance, took and destroyed the stockaded town of Carawan, situated