Islam the religious leaders> Sokoto exercised political cattle Fulani considered gs exerci ‘ Se Political pow, ver north; trangers fr on Before the Ang change the Status quo ee 0. demarecati : in 1893, Cameroon coe Naas Cameroon-Nigeri communities. In the South- ec the’ 'ttade zone os many Nan Mee theibeo east, the Efik of Calabar had e; abl ee ee ne Ke Of the coast of Cameroon for lon; Co ee ee Poe ee oA ae through trade contacts, John Fe a a. a ‘and was under the influence of Calabar Chief The » Up to the western foothills of Mount Cameroon. Sain -German was lar; fern. f : ea,” So i : their prosperity, the Efik wealthy class ae eh eee 3 In the Efik-Balondo trade, the Balondo supplied slaves, i produce. The Efik middiemen supplied the Balondo with : Ue ee goods such as drinks, cloths, salt, iron goods, guns and gun-powder. The Efik also traded with the Ejagham who were middlemen in trade with the Banyang, Bali, Balong, Bafaw and Bakossi. From these groups, the Ejagham bought Kola nuts, Beans, Tobacco, Meat, and Slaves and supplied to the Efik. In the slave trade, the Efik acquired grasslands slaves through Banyang and Bangwa middlemen and put them to work in oil palm plantations, to harvest nuts, srocess the oil and transport it to the port. This trade did not only introduce Nigerian commercial influence, it also led to the wide use of Pidgin English by he traders. Calabar developed as a commercial center, a source of guns even for “ameroon traders and a plantation town.’ “Ikom Yams” or Calabar Yams were ntroduced in Mamfe and were later widely cultivated in the Southern >ameroons by Cameroonians and resident Nigerians The middle belts were also linked by trade. There were important trade igerl lands, rasslands to Nigeria. From the Bamenda grass! . ee as on re exported to Nigeria by Bum, ts and wild pepper wel : ae ee Bee one distance traders. Fulani and Hausa traders Ween = a OSS. ) Cameroon items like, Beads, Stenciled cloth from ee aes slaves 1e Northern region, trade consisted of the exchange © ivory, . m in Southern Nigeria 1881-1922, London, , El roe, Ofonagoro W. Ibekwe, (1979), Trade and Imperial OK Publishers International, p. 311. (bid. p. 312. Fei ait ute haa ty my me jae! ay clvilisa apt Nae as “a 4 de cots thao a aaudes & gees & jer 3, Hl a ravaille sur WS more & ts gests ; a valet tour & tour, chee o sso be VART I2IHEDN & Moorpeliee. © ph de Pais et enfin Enseigaaiat = 2 exer Lon Maas 92 Mal anatin ie de conferences, Dos ta “i Université de Douala ne la Faculté des il est auteur de no ser wsone 2 eu articles ef &Raphael Achou Etta is g Univ P Alvine Henriette université de Yaour Arthur Banga est docteur en histo} Houphouét-Boigny 'Abidjan. 1] stoire d’Abidjan Edouard Bokagne Betobo est histor civilisations. Il exerce présentement com, de Bambili André Dia est Docteur en histo "Université Paul Valery de Montpe exploitation des renseignements, [I associé aux CRISES et membre associé de aussi membre actif du GEMPA de Université de Maroua. Samuel Efoua Mbozo’o est Maitre de co Leures et Sciences Humaines de 'Univ VESIG. Spécialiste du Parlement, il ¢ plusieurs ouvrages. Ferdinand Paul Enoka est historien formé & ESSTIC, Auteur de plusieurs art "Ecole Normale Supéricure de Maroua. ESD Fomin is Associate Professor of Hist the Department of History at the University Rught at ENS Bambili, University of Yaoun is area of specialization is Social History : bas published several scholarly books, 2 P| Joumals and many book chapters.Foga Konefon est enseignant associé au département d Il s'intéresse aux questions des. migr, Willy Didi de I’Université de Yaoundé I internationales, les frontiéres et le cyberespace, etc. Membre du CODE est auteur de quelques articles dans les revues nationales et international Nicodéme Glo est doctorant en histoire a I’'Université de Ngaoundéré Gwanfogbé Mathew Basung Associate Professor of History, Univers Yaounde I, E.N.S. Annexe Bambili. Has published 7 articles in Internati, Joumals, 5 teaching/Leaming books for Primary and Secondary Schools » Published thesis, titled Changing Regimes and the Development of Educatiy Cameroon. Titulaire d'un Doctorat Ph.D, Faustin Kenné est charg département histoire de l'Université de Yaoundé, Auteur de p il s'intéresse particuligrement 4 'histoire politique internationales. Sieurs artic des te Michael Kpughe Lang holds a Ph.D religious history and teaches at the Higher Teacher Training College of the University of Bamenda. His is « alumnus of the Study of United States Institute on Religious Pluralism and Public Presence, and is active in professional societies Hanse Gilbert Mbeng Dang est Docteur en Histoire-Politiqu Relations Internationales. Enseignant-chercheur au Département d’Histoie FLSH-Université de Douala. Il est auteur de nombreux articles Blaise Mbué Ngappé est Officier supérieur de la Marine Nationale camerounaise. Diplémé de I’Université de Yaoundé I et de 'Univ Yaoundé Il. Titulaire du Brevet d’Etudes Militaires Supérieures de 2e dee est actuellement Chef Service Historique des Armées et Secrétaire Génér Commission Camerounaise d’Histoire Militaire Enseignant associé Supérieure Internationale de Guerre de scientifiques. Ndikum Azieh est Officier Supérieur de I’Armée de Terre, en service dans les Bataillons d’Interventions Rapides. Il est diplomé de l'Université de Yaoundé I. Pascal Ndjock est enseignant au département d'histoire de l'Université de Douala. Mfi Joseph Lon is a lecturer of History with the Univ ersity of Bamenda w Many publications on issues of ethnicity and identity. He is also Head of Division for Research and Cooperation, HITL-UBa. Edmond Ngagoum est doctorant en histoire 4 l'Université de Douala département d’ Histoire, 432Germain Otabela est doctorant au département d’hj y istoire ee a loire ‘Aimé Raoul Sumo Tayo est doctorant en Histoire a yeoundé 1 Il est en attente de soutenance d'une | ay pune Qu ; er Z x thése de Phy : “Heritage colonial et gestion des conflictualités eres i D intituée ae ‘a seueniea des frontigres Internationales de] Université de professeur titulaire a l'Université de Yaoundé 1, Albert Pascal Ti specialiste de la colonisation allemande, auteur de deux ouvra: Seale ma ges et vingtaine d'articles dans les revues scientifiques. ee Christian Célestin Tsala Tsala est Maitre de conférences au département @histoire de ! Universite de Yaoundé I, Spécialisé en Histoire politique, il est auteur de plusieurs articles et ouvrages. Maitresse de conférences, Virginie Wanyaka Bonguen O. est enseignante- chercheure a |’ Université de Yaoundé I, Instructeur civil a I’EEM et enseignante associée a l’ESIG. Spécialiste de Vhistoire militaire et des questions sécuritaires, elle est auteure de nombreux articles et de deux ouvrages.SOMMAIRE 9 Allocution du Dr Fritz Président de la plate-fo ; et les communes d’arrondissements de Doual ouverture du premier Colloque national hist sous la présidence de M Chargé des Anciens Combattants et Vietimes di ii Rigen de Monsieur le Secrétaire d’Ecat a la Défense Chargé des Anciens ‘ombattants et Victimes de Guerre, 4 Voccasion de la cérémonie d’ouverture du premier Colloque national d'histoire militaire... carats Note de la rédaction ... 17 Legon inaugurale du colloque sur te Cameroun et la Grande Guerre (1914- 1916) Daniel Abwa .. 1? La recherche en histoire militaire dans le contexte camerounais Blaise Mbué Ngappé.... Bl Mercenariat et exploitation des Kamerunais par les forces de pénétration allemandes, de 1884 a la formation de la Schutztruppe (1894) Ferdinand Paul Enoka.......:...-.- ek 51 Nigerianisaion of the British war effort in the allied campaign in Cameroon, 1914-1916 Joseph Lon Nfi... La géographie du Cameroun et les contraintes tactiques pendant la campagne du Kamerun 5 Aimé Raoul Sumo Tayo.... ees Mora dans la Premiére Guerre mondiale plement ceipueramuesalis oie Nicodéme Glo... assent crate re Les résistances allemandes a la conquéte franco-britannique du C apes s es rési ae i 1914-1916 Albert Pascal Temgoua..... if stratégie deNsanakang, champ de bataille et lieu de mémoire : esquisse dune } Pree nieidelibieremierel Guerre mondiale auKamerun (191410 { ean -1916) Virginie Wanyaka Bonguen et Willy Didié Foga Konefon ' wv ‘a ede "7 9 é ay ‘ La bataille de Banyo (1915) : étude stratégique et tactique a Virginie Wanyaka Bonguen O.. i a by 5 mil 4s F; iB 4 Les opérations militaires frangaises au Kamerun durant la Grande G ‘ ral Arthur Banga a ae a pro Reais ir y The Ejagham of Cameroon in the First World War f a E. S.D. Fomin and Raphael Achou Etta... Sos sontnond Reco L’armement dans la campagne du Kamerun bie Ndikum Azich et Aimé Raoul Sumo Tayo... : ; y Joon Mot L’Est-Cameroun : une pice centrale dans les dispositifs des beligérant Afrique centrale pendant la Premiére Guerre mondiale a Toas Hanse Gilbert Mbeng Dang et Edmond Francois Ngagoum a au The First World War in Cameroon: An Historical Analysis of its Implicati 4 ms on the Territory’s Christian Religious Landscape Dise Michael Kpughe Lang. aA Com La Retraite des troupes allemandes avec certains chefs traditionnels du oe Kamerun vers la Guinée Espagnole pendant la Premiére Guerre mondiale: Le: Repli stratégique ou capitulation ? ‘ ‘S Samuel Efoua Mbozo’o et Hanse Gilbert Mbeng Dang...... 259 Le renseignement militaire et humain ’assaut du Cameroun pendant la Premiére Guerre mondiale André Dia.. Premiére Guerre mondiale et effritement du prestige de Cameroun C. Christian Tsala Tsala et Jean Germain Otabela..........::-::0sseene 303 fale et les mutations des frontiéres internat Vhomme blane au La Premiére Guerre mondi ionales du Cameroun Faustin Kenné La Commission Permanel de la Société des Nations au des conséquences de la Grande Guerre Alvine Henriette Assembe Ndi ire de la Grande Guerre ux morts Particle 22 du Pacte nte des Mandats et le respect de ais ou la gestion Cameroun sous mandat frang: entre-deux- ameroun dans |" s fp Jébration du Lvart et la mémoi eG guerres: le réle du monument at (de Douala) et de 11 novembre dans le souvenir d Isidore Pascal Ndjock Nyobe... 363 fe 1914-1918WWI in Cameroon: German Military the Bamenda Grassfields Gwanfogbe Mathew Basung Atrocities and Civilian Resistance in 385 La Grande Guerre dans le passage du Cameroun du fuit colonial a Vaffirmation d'une identité nationale; esquisse de reconstruction d'un Processus de mutation sociale de type déterministe Edouard Betobo Bokagné 401 Recommandations du Premier Colloque d’ Histoire M tenu du 5 au 8 aodt 2014 a Douala..... Mot de remerciements du comité scientifique Toast du Général de Division commanda du repas de cldture du premier Colloque national d’histoire mil organisé en sa résidence.. Discours de Monsieur le Seerétaire d’Ltat dla Défense Ch Combattants et Victimes de Guerre, Al’occasion de la cer de cléture du premier Colloque national histoire militaire ...... 26 des Anci monie 427 431 Les auteurs.Commis »n camerounaise d’ histoire militaire Cameroon Commission of Military History Le Cameroun et la Grande Guerre (1914 - 1916) Cameroon and the Great War (1914 - 1916) VA ri tien é anaChapter Eleven Fernando Po and the cruise of the Eden spite the apparent finality of Leven’s ho i F Re great African drama had yet to eee oes oye shores of Africa once more, before he took his leave of that mighty Cones The closing months of 1826 passed for him in a haze of hydrographic glo ‘ and domestic bliss. Slowly the official business of the African aed i cleared up, including the argument over the publication of the charts, and he settled down to write his book. Characteristically and encouraged by his young surveyors, he threw all his energies into the task. According to Bayfield’, who saw much of the Owens at this time, he might have gone on to complete it, if the Admiralty had not recalled him. When the call came, he immediately put aside the unfinished manuscript and his notes (and thereby delayed publica- tion for another six years), and hastened back into active service. A few months before Christmas 1826 Sir George Cockburn revealed the Lords Commissioners’ new plan for West Africa®. It was very different from their original intention to send him, soon after his return home, to chart the entire bulge of Africa and the Gulf of Guinea. Captain Owen's survey of the Windward Coast, but more especially the mounting pressure on the Wes African Squadron to suppress the coastal traffic in slaves, had obliged them t alter their intentions. They now proposed to send, in addition to a survey ship a vessel to establish a colony for freed slaves on the island of Fernando Po, t which the court of Mixed Commission could be transferred from Sierra Leone A second British Colony lying closer to the Slave Coast was envisaged, an Captain Owen might well have seen himself as the founder of anoth Freetown. Cockburn offered him command of Eden, an interesting if agetr frigate, as well as the post of Superintendent of Fernando Po, and he accept 179S unique tme, g their human camog a | % them - had chosen, Pe. t possible Training for Feaael returning to Afftica on very di or officers of the Wes Afi odore and - increasingly, ocabulary. “I believe he actson hist k proper to send him”, Bayfield wrote to shipped across the Adiantic in the 18205 e Cos d, although the pattem of trade was to ivory and palm oil, the principal industry of ytown, Old Calabar, the Rio del Rey and the t we traffic. It was the staple income of the ve forms of so-called legitimate trade had to be be weaned of it. This was a gradual process and at its end the European penetration of e. First local treaties were made, then European along the coast, and finally Crown Colonies were nous population. The seed of modem Nigeria - ave Coast - was sown, ironically, on Femando Po in Owen, although his settlement had long been abandoned Coast was elevated to a Crown Colony in 1861. For y years before that dare, the West African Squadron of the Royal Navy was policing the Gulf of Guinea and capturing slavers to haul before the Court of Mixed Commission in Sierra Leone. It was a disheartening task, particularly for the first ten years of its operation, because of the difficulties. When Commodore Sir George Collier, a veteran of the American Ward {S12-15 formed the Squadron in November 1819, his instructions sounded sufficiently clear - he was to encourage legitimate trade and prevent, t0 the umost of his power, any illicit traffic in slaves*. But both Collier and his wccessor, Commodore Mends - an interesting character who had lest hs 180cured slaves illegally Were an even greater dete: for naval a certain measure of Abolitionist fire Trent: it took in th takes were high: the prize money was eis prepared 7 ines 7y, and the race was certainly w: _ ticularly discouraging. For ee ae ae difficul- spicious vessel on the Bonny Rive © Squadron might 2 , 'y River, perhaps with several flags ed papers, and even slaves or slave equipment, on board. ‘ould be condemned and the slaves released, the “prize” had s and all, to Sierra Leone 2,000 miles away, and many might the journey. Even then the lottery was not over, because the Court- on Iways evident to a naval officer in the heat of pursuit - might sla er illegally taken, and punish the officer instead! If the Court the officer and the slaves were freed, the problem arose of how to them: there was no room or work at Freetown, and they could turned into the hands of their captors on the coast. Finally, there or officers’ continuous complaint about Sierra Leone. Could nota ase be found, they all asked, where ships could be repaired and nd crews could recover their health? commodores said the same thing - Collier, Mends and then e officers in 1825 captured seventeen ships and released 3,589 es. Forcibly Sir Charles Bullen restated his predecessors’ views: if the slave to be effective - indeed, on this scale of operations, if it was to all - anew base for the Squadron was required. It had to be closer the Slave Coast, possess a healthier climate and offer greater certainty of pairs and supplies. In effect, his recommendation was: Abandon Leone for a site closer to the great Bights. he problem was the unhealthy climate. Later in the nineteenth century, Aloysius Hom (the legendary traveller, Trader Horn) described the Niger Delta and the Bights of Benin and Biafra as “the most pestilential and feverstricken coast in the whole world”’. By now it had received the well- merited name of “the White Man's Grave”’. Earlier, the Bights Division of the West African Squadron established its reputation as the worst station for ordinary seamen: Jack Tar discovered the truth of the old sea shanty, Beware and take care of the Bight of Benin, There's one comes out for forty goes in- 181eand di Bryson, a naval year between 152 ne Home Fleet. But in certain years the rate weg 755.1 - more than one in four. The vast majoring . ellow fever. ; fda Various persons are credited with the choice of Femando Po in ig9¢ site of the new Jerusalem of the west African slave trade. ose the s Captain Owen’, but the latter had neverseen Buon, sented uted the idea to 5 ate ad wrrten was based on hearsay from Alexander Fe ints’ other officers, who in March 1826 surveyed a Sander Vill the north-western side of the island where they had anchored. Thigh a 9 visited that year by Commodore Bullen, who named it Mas p and strongly recommended the settlement offen ska ly chart of Fernando Po that Barmacouta cared ge acti was als Bay after his flagshi at this spot. The onl t 3 ae bay on the west side of the island, which had been surveyed erste Geome’s Bay (Bahia de San Carlos) in 1821 by Captain Marwood = yof Pheasant®, at the request of Commodore Collier. Collier's words carried weight in high places’. His Annual R ; ‘Admiralty, which were published by order of Parliament, presaged ae tole for the Navy, including the use of Fernando Po, in suppressing the oe ee ere. They are likely to have been well received at the Adm because Barrow and Cockburn knew the Atlantic well: in 1815 on Banos, nivice, the Lords Commissioners directed Cockbum to take the Emp ; Napoleon into exile on Saint Helena, andhe had spenta year thereasthefa: Governor of the island. By 1826 Fernando Po was focused in the public’s eye. The Quarterly Resins in a survey of the state of the slave trade, wrote*: i “If we are to keep up the police establishment for the suppression of this mae, the plan. . . istomake the island of Fernando Po the principal station on thems of Africa; to remove thither the Mixed Commission now resident at Sierra Leo: to have two or three steamboats of light draught of water, properly armed, tome the numerous rivers that fall into the bights of Biafra and Benin; to sweep het banks of all the traffickers in slaves; and to protect the legitimate trader. . -Iriset the utmost importance that the slave-ships captured in the Bight of’ Benin shodlite brought in for adjudication as speedily as possible. The horrible state in which B= poor wretches are found admits no delay in liberating them from their dungeons disease and death. The passage to Sierra Leone is from five to twelve weeks ads 182ca vended its eat moray». ay tthe foe evo bight, wold be sufflent to cary ther ~eanarrid ge they ml vine be employed in cutting down timber, (ageing otlen at a Po a ing de ground for culeivadon, In the prose ony ve cavage natives produce the finest yams in the world Sait fowls, A refreshing breeze constancy blow fang gars wi dantcy it has plenty of good anchorage in mone places thar re esscls, and C shun front and fo if clear running vate and i i 40 stated, a to ovo a dant he whole Bight of Biafta and the numer sve dat ll e rps enthusiastic account of the salubrity of Fernando Po was ill-founded and aorrect» 1 was based on the assumption that the 20-mile strait which tes the island from the mainland protects it from the pestilential afflic- tions of the coast Such hopes were dashed by Captain Owen's subsequent experience ; sland’s history. Discovered by one of Prince Henry the Navigator's explorers in the fifteenth century, Fernando Po was Hea by the Portuguese to the Spanish Crown in 1778. Soon afterwards, a settlement was attempted on the island, Reputable records relate’ that a Jisastrous illness swept through it some time later, which all but wiped out s, only 67 of the original 547 souls reached their native soil again. aniards made no further attempt to settle Fernando Po, and in 1826 they acceded to a British request to be allowed to plant a slave colony there. The agreement dealt only with slaves captured or emancipated by naval patrols ting under the Slave Trade Abolition Treaties'°, and the question of ceding Fernando Po did not arise: the island remained sovereign Spanish in and, indeed, by the territory: Eden took five months to make ready. On 3 February 1827, the very day after the officers were appointed, Captain Owen sent Lieutenant James Badgley who had served under him in the Leven to Woolwich to start commissioning vessel. A few days later he himself moved on board, and Mrs Owen and the little girls joined him. The task of commissioning proved no less vexing than it had been in 1821. There were arguments with Croker about items of equip- ment such as chronometers — some of these Captain Owen won (“Let him have them”") and others Croker (“Disallowed”). An innovation was the Fisher pump, an apparatus for delivering water from the shore to ships, which was eventually discarded as useless’? Sixteen wooden frame houses were prefabricated at Chatham, and the sections stowed in Eden's transport, Diadem. Six eighteen-pounder cannons were also loaded for the defence of Fernando Po. On Sunday 1 July Captain and Mrs Owen attended Divine service at the local parish church with the officers and crew, and the next day ft 183ca vended its eat moray». ay tthe foe evo bight, wold be sufflent to cary ther ~eanarrid ge they ml vine be employed in cutting down timber, (ageing otlen at a Po a ing de ground for culeivadon, In the prose ony ve cavage natives produce the finest yams in the world Sait fowls, A refreshing breeze constancy blow fang gars wi dantcy it has plenty of good anchorage in mone places thar re esscls, and C shun front and fo if clear running vate and i i 40 stated, a to ovo a dant he whole Bight of Biafta and the numer sve dat ll e rps enthusiastic account of the salubrity of Fernando Po was ill-founded and aorrect» 1 was based on the assumption that the 20-mile strait which tes the island from the mainland protects it from the pestilential afflic- tions of the coast Such hopes were dashed by Captain Owen's subsequent experience ; sland’s history. Discovered by one of Prince Henry the Navigator's explorers in the fifteenth century, Fernando Po was Hea by the Portuguese to the Spanish Crown in 1778. Soon afterwards, a settlement was attempted on the island, Reputable records relate’ that a Jisastrous illness swept through it some time later, which all but wiped out s, only 67 of the original 547 souls reached their native soil again. aniards made no further attempt to settle Fernando Po, and in 1826 they acceded to a British request to be allowed to plant a slave colony there. The agreement dealt only with slaves captured or emancipated by naval patrols ting under the Slave Trade Abolition Treaties'°, and the question of ceding Fernando Po did not arise: the island remained sovereign Spanish in and, indeed, by the territory: Eden took five months to make ready. On 3 February 1827, the very day after the officers were appointed, Captain Owen sent Lieutenant James Badgley who had served under him in the Leven to Woolwich to start commissioning vessel. A few days later he himself moved on board, and Mrs Owen and the little girls joined him. The task of commissioning proved no less vexing than it had been in 1821. There were arguments with Croker about items of equip- ment such as chronometers — some of these Captain Owen won (“Let him have them”") and others Croker (“Disallowed”). An innovation was the Fisher pump, an apparatus for delivering water from the shore to ships, which was eventually discarded as useless’? Sixteen wooden frame houses were prefabricated at Chatham, and the sections stowed in Eden's transport, Diadem. Six eighteen-pounder cannons were also loaded for the defence of Fernando Po. On Sunday 1 July Captain and Mrs Owen attended Divine service at the local parish church with the officers and crew, and the next day ft 183eamer to Northfleet to take after landing Mrs Owen, aa guns er day, iden was towed by st and jay she got uncer 3 on her course out of the Thames two days later, and hy he Poi Plymouth. ca a an A Eden’s list of officers is striking for the names miss; Chant nissing from j nde None of the senior surveyors but what of Alexandes Vida trie Bowl than, Captain Owen's senior officers were shadowy fi tudge and Rid gn Cooke Harrison (1794-1829) was his official Me Command Ove death, both as Superintendent of the colony an ae in the cma Heke him not much is known apart from the site "3 Commander or Richard Vidal, Alexander's eldest brother, ret IS grave on Fe, Ely twenty years to serve again under Captain Peg after a ae By, had held the rank of lieutenant for almost as lon, a as Senior Lietten tt him professionally. For the first eight years a, ‘Ortune and fa te he then followed three miserable years in charge of e War he was eng Channel. From this drudge Captain Owen r oer vessel in th at loyalty, to help him gain the promotion a oy him, Pethaps ae ss served loyally on Fernando Po for a year until h eluded him, Rae health by fever. The midshipman whom Captai eo hone Richard Vidal was Henry Kellett (1806-1875) iol aaa stl name as a naval surveyor in the Pacific and w: ae para mate his eos ee ne became an admiral'’. 2S Prominent in/Arétcemla t least five were veteran midshipms ies Cannon was Admiral Sir ao eee sung ang ae Mercer had helped to make the Gambia s ee igley and Charles Gepp Robinson. The I: Wie recuperated their health in Mauritius, both a Oe ro experienc euual ) were excellent draughtsmen andbj n’s stay in Ph Ps. ate a ae so coincided with a splendid naval occasion oni ee Cea ne Wea a fn Admiral, had arrived with the Duchessand HR ne, Trash a ty in the yacht Royal Sovereign and he held dally heocieaeene a undred captains and other officers waited upon him, le cout eypot. It was a dazzling scene on Plymouth Hoe, ™! Chichen ae naval officers in full dress coming and goings"! arden ati one breakfast. Captain Owen dined with his brote! the Duke, held the offi ward Owen, now a tear admiral and agreat favourite” hares office of Surveyor of the Ordnance and he was soo" tojon uncil. Clearly, the Royal favour extended to Feman those present. Hecla, it is true, ; w 184eamer to Northfleet to take after landing Mrs Owen, aa guns er day, iden was towed by st and jay she got uncer 3 on her course out of the Thames two days later, and hy he Poi Plymouth. ca a an A Eden’s list of officers is striking for the names miss; Chant nissing from j nde None of the senior surveyors but what of Alexandes Vida trie Bowl than, Captain Owen's senior officers were shadowy fi tudge and Rid gn Cooke Harrison (1794-1829) was his official Me Command Ove death, both as Superintendent of the colony an ae in the cma Heke him not much is known apart from the site "3 Commander or Richard Vidal, Alexander's eldest brother, ret IS grave on Fe, Ely twenty years to serve again under Captain Peg after a ae By, had held the rank of lieutenant for almost as lon, a as Senior Lietten tt him professionally. For the first eight years a, ‘Ortune and fa te he then followed three miserable years in charge of e War he was eng Channel. From this drudge Captain Owen r oer vessel in th at loyalty, to help him gain the promotion a oy him, Pethaps ae ss served loyally on Fernando Po for a year until h eluded him, Rae health by fever. The midshipman whom Captai eo hone Richard Vidal was Henry Kellett (1806-1875) iol aaa stl name as a naval surveyor in the Pacific and w: ae para mate his eos ee ne became an admiral'’. 2S Prominent in/Arétcemla t least five were veteran midshipms ies Cannon was Admiral Sir ao eee sung ang ae Mercer had helped to make the Gambia s ee igley and Charles Gepp Robinson. The I: Wie recuperated their health in Mauritius, both a Oe ro experienc euual ) were excellent draughtsmen andbj n’s stay in Ph Ps. ate a ae so coincided with a splendid naval occasion oni ee Cea ne Wea a fn Admiral, had arrived with the Duchessand HR ne, Trash a ty in the yacht Royal Sovereign and he held dally heocieaeene a undred captains and other officers waited upon him, le cout eypot. It was a dazzling scene on Plymouth Hoe, ™! Chichen ae naval officers in full dress coming and goings"! arden ati one breakfast. Captain Owen dined with his brote! the Duke, held the offi ward Owen, now a tear admiral and agreat favourite” hares office of Surveyor of the Ordnance and he was soo" tojon uncil. Clearly, the Royal favour extended to Feman those present. Hecla, it is true, ; w 184days befor ve weighing anchor on] Auguse 1827) f » av Owen by coach fom the Admire, eo Cape vere a parson and his wife for Siena Leone, and » ind in A few reach ental heseenant, James Holman (1786-1857), the “Blind Traveller" stone year on Eden before continuing his trave' - a wt Then sublished made him a legend of ee oe at sea, Captain Owen immediately set the pattem of shipboard life Eden for the three-month voyage. On 1 August he entered in his Diary: “Cheat weather, mustered by divisions, examined clothing. Exercised at small “sand sails as usual, and the young gentlemen at Nautical Astronomy, as at Sst ports of call were Madeira and the Canary Islands, where they eed many casks of wine and rated the chronometers. At Praia in the Cape Verde Islands they visited the graves of Captain Bartholomew and Midship- eer Edward Tudor, and took several large animals on board. Eden now resembled Noah’s Ark, with bullocks and sheep, and the asses and horses which had to be slung up in canvas in bad weather to protect them from injury: Beyond Cape Verde, the tropical humidity brought its problems: the English sheep grew too hot and Captain Owen ordered them to be slaughtered for meat, and the seed maize became so damp in the hold that it had to be aired each day on deck to prevent it from germinating. Freetown had not changed. A tender came out to Eden with the news that the Governor was dead and his successor was expected any day. Food and other supplies remained unobtainable. And the suspicion still lingered, above the stench of corruption about the place, that a substantial part of the coastal slave traffic was conducted from here, under the very nose of the Court of Mixed Commission. At Freetown Eden received the garrison for Fernando Po _ a white sergeant and 62 black troops of the Royal Africa Corps, the illdisciplined rabble whom Captain Owen had first encountered off the Iles de Los. In addition, about 160 skilled artisans and one hundred labourers embarked. Most of them were liberated slaves but a few were Europeans, and they were to erect the buildings of the colony. The steamer African, which. had been laid up in the harbour since the Gambia survey, was offered to Captain Owen and he accepted. He also purchased Horatio, a 150-ton. schooner with one gun, as a tender for Eden. James Badgley took charge of African and George Dashwood, a mate, of Horatio. On 4 October the little fleet weighed anchor and made for the Gulf of Guinea. As they hugged the shore, they passed Cape Palmas, Cape Coast ("the cleanest and neatest place we have seen on the coast”) and Accra (‘resembles Madras in its features”), and reached the Niger Delta. Three and his passengers 185days befor ve weighing anchor on] Auguse 1827) f » av Owen by coach fom the Admire, eo Cape vere a parson and his wife for Siena Leone, and » ind in A few reach ental heseenant, James Holman (1786-1857), the “Blind Traveller" stone year on Eden before continuing his trave' - a wt Then sublished made him a legend of ee oe at sea, Captain Owen immediately set the pattem of shipboard life Eden for the three-month voyage. On 1 August he entered in his Diary: “Cheat weather, mustered by divisions, examined clothing. Exercised at small “sand sails as usual, and the young gentlemen at Nautical Astronomy, as at Sst ports of call were Madeira and the Canary Islands, where they eed many casks of wine and rated the chronometers. At Praia in the Cape Verde Islands they visited the graves of Captain Bartholomew and Midship- eer Edward Tudor, and took several large animals on board. Eden now resembled Noah’s Ark, with bullocks and sheep, and the asses and horses which had to be slung up in canvas in bad weather to protect them from injury: Beyond Cape Verde, the tropical humidity brought its problems: the English sheep grew too hot and Captain Owen ordered them to be slaughtered for meat, and the seed maize became so damp in the hold that it had to be aired each day on deck to prevent it from germinating. Freetown had not changed. A tender came out to Eden with the news that the Governor was dead and his successor was expected any day. Food and other supplies remained unobtainable. And the suspicion still lingered, above the stench of corruption about the place, that a substantial part of the coastal slave traffic was conducted from here, under the very nose of the Court of Mixed Commission. At Freetown Eden received the garrison for Fernando Po _ a white sergeant and 62 black troops of the Royal Africa Corps, the illdisciplined rabble whom Captain Owen had first encountered off the Iles de Los. In addition, about 160 skilled artisans and one hundred labourers embarked. Most of them were liberated slaves but a few were Europeans, and they were to erect the buildings of the colony. The steamer African, which. had been laid up in the harbour since the Gambia survey, was offered to Captain Owen and he accepted. He also purchased Horatio, a 150-ton. schooner with one gun, as a tender for Eden. James Badgley took charge of African and George Dashwood, a mate, of Horatio. On 4 October the little fleet weighed anchor and made for the Gulf of Guinea. As they hugged the shore, they passed Cape Palmas, Cape Coast ("the cleanest and neatest place we have seen on the coast”) and Accra (‘resembles Madras in its features”), and reached the Niger Delta. Three and his passengers 18533 Clarence Cove, Femando Po, probably by Thomas Botelerweeks after leavin Maidstone Bay (Fig. 33) lewasa moment of intense excitement and expectati tspmoined by thescene that unfolded before their eyes: Fen arestingly beautifl sland,a lush tropical paradise wth one of ‘aifall in the world. Through the shimmering heat they #¥ 8° of the sland (Pcode Sana Isabel, about 10,000 fet) above Srooved by deep ravines and is foor swathed in clouds. Iwas the coast by a'belt of thick, almost impenetrable junsle 186 a Leone, Eden reached Fernando Po, anit ne est o andthe ve nie 5 ie33 Clarence Cove, Femando Po, probably by Thomas Boteler weeks after leaving Sierra Leone, Eden reached Fernando Po, anchoring in Maidstone Bay (Fig. 33). It was a moment of intense excitement and expectation, and they were not disappointed by the scene that unfolded before their eyes. Fernando Po is an arrestingly beautiful island,a lush tropical paradise with one of the highest rainfalls in the world. Through the shimmering heat they saw the great petk of the island (Pico de Santa Isabel, about 10,000 feet) above them, its sides grooved by deep ravines and its foot swathed in clouds. It was separated in the coast by a belt of thick, almost impenetrable jungle extending ©! 186shore. Brushwood and trees were everywhere even on the peninsula of high round to their left, which Alexander Vidal and his officers had called Bullen Point on their chart of Maidstone Bay published in the previous year At that time, Thomas Boteler made a panorama of the scene from the deck of 11.5 feet long and | foot high, using rich t ereen colours and peopling it with natives in the canc icouta Measuring brown and yes with the curious plumed reeds at the bows. Itcapcures timelessly the essence of Fernando Po its tropical and primeval ambience, and it records almost photographically the scone that confronted Captain Owen on Eden in October 1827 (Fig. 33)Clarence Cove, 1827 34Clarence Cove, 1827 34rhe British Navy had stumbled) almost b snd safest natural harbours of west Afri ; Tee Be eee ; or Clarence Cove, the eastern half of Maidstone Bay, bounded k Clarence Cove, ay, bounded by Bullen Po! ind by the Fiaawilliam Islets on the y Bullen Point on the eastside est. Within it there is a basin of dee water ‘ covers by car ful sounding by Alexander Vidal and his surveyor formed bythe el sreaking into the crater of an extinct volcano. Although mall, Boteler noted that the basin lay close to the landing point used by the natives, and that it offered perfect security to lan cara e vessels, Here Captain nodern port and town of >0, capital of Equatorial Guinea) ion came in the first week on Eden, moored offshore Maidstone Bay, when he was obliged to ch« Se ees had only to look about him, at the decks Owen created Port Clarence, the forerunner of the santa Isabel?® (now Mi His moment of decis! site for the settlement. He ccked with humans, animals and equipment, to be reminded to waste no time over his choice. While he carried a copy of Captain Marwood Kelly's chart of George's Bay - the westerly inlet which Barracouta had failed to find - Vidal's and Bullen’s advice and his own eyes convinced him that Clarence Cove was the spot to choose. By the nd of the week he had made up his mind, They had found a spring of fresh svater as well as evidence of an early Spanish habitation on the high ground ear Point Bullen - which they renamed Point William - and they began to clear a path to it, On 1 November Captain Owen entered formally in his Journal: “Captain Owen being now decided that no point on the island oened to offer such advantages for an Establishment as Point William, he ”, Next day 150 in to clear the steep west face of the Point and a decided that all exertions should now be directed he: workmen from Eden be permanent wate hole was sunk. Henceforth Bullen Cove beca Coane Port Clarence, after the Royal title of the Lord High Admiral Firvailliam Islets became Adelaide Islands off Adelaide Point, after his wife, the Duchess (later Queen Adelaide). The north-westem limit of Maidstone Bay, Cape Commodore (Punta de Europa) was also known as Cape Bullen ne Clarence Thoughts of security dominated all activities during the first few weeks Alexander Vidal and Boteler had reported the natives shore. Although . sit, Captain Owen ran no spuile and even-tempered during Barracovta’s vi coc ne cuourernclearing the Roinzwere guarded const ly bya platon of troops, and all except the guards rerummedon board each night sosleep: On of OP ts ceionevatettelensingy he semble! the local chiefs ané h thigh ron was pad tothe amount of hice med the settlement Clarence*'. The Sierra Seren huts on the Point a across formally purchased the Point - bars”. At this ceremony he ni Leone labourers and artisans were 189rhe British Navy had stumbled) almost b snd safest natural harbours of west Afri ; Tee Be eee ; or Clarence Cove, the eastern half of Maidstone Bay, bounded k Clarence Cove, ay, bounded by Bullen Po! ind by the Fiaawilliam Islets on the y Bullen Point on the eastside est. Within it there is a basin of dee water ‘ covers by car ful sounding by Alexander Vidal and his surveyor formed bythe el sreaking into the crater of an extinct volcano. Although mall, Boteler noted that the basin lay close to the landing point used by the natives, and that it offered perfect security to lan cara e vessels, Here Captain nodern port and town of >0, capital of Equatorial Guinea) ion came in the first week on Eden, moored offshore Maidstone Bay, when he was obliged to ch« Se ees had only to look about him, at the decks Owen created Port Clarence, the forerunner of the santa Isabel?® (now Mi His moment of decis! site for the settlement. He ccked with humans, animals and equipment, to be reminded to waste no time over his choice. While he carried a copy of Captain Marwood Kelly's chart of George's Bay - the westerly inlet which Barracouta had failed to find - Vidal's and Bullen’s advice and his own eyes convinced him that Clarence Cove was the spot to choose. By the nd of the week he had made up his mind, They had found a spring of fresh svater as well as evidence of an early Spanish habitation on the high ground ear Point Bullen - which they renamed Point William - and they began to clear a path to it, On 1 November Captain Owen entered formally in his Journal: “Captain Owen being now decided that no point on the island oened to offer such advantages for an Establishment as Point William, he ”, Next day 150 in to clear the steep west face of the Point and a decided that all exertions should now be directed he: workmen from Eden be permanent wate hole was sunk. Henceforth Bullen Cove beca Coane Port Clarence, after the Royal title of the Lord High Admiral Firvailliam Islets became Adelaide Islands off Adelaide Point, after his wife, the Duchess (later Queen Adelaide). The north-westem limit of Maidstone Bay, Cape Commodore (Punta de Europa) was also known as Cape Bullen ne Clarence Thoughts of security dominated all activities during the first few weeks Alexander Vidal and Boteler had reported the natives shore. Although . sit, Captain Owen ran no spuile and even-tempered during Barracovta’s vi coc ne cuourernclearing the Roinzwere guarded const ly bya platon of troops, and all except the guards rerummedon board each night sosleep: On of OP ts ceionevatettelensingy he semble! the local chiefs ané h thigh ron was pad tothe amount of hice med the settlement Clarence*'. The Sierra Seren huts on the Point a across formally purchased the Point - bars”. At this ceremony he ni Leone labourers and artisans were 189base they threw a defence line including a blockhouse. Near the end of the Point they planted a flagstaff and began to dig the foundations of a hospital, On the choicest site of all, another team began work on the Govemors House. This was the ground at the foot of the Cove, overlooking the anchorage, which Captain Owen called Paradise, “it being the garden of Eden’. The clearing immediately behind the house was used to exercise the troops, and a small adjacent grove became the cemetry. Here were to he buried, in addition to the Colony’s dead, the casualties of the West African Squadron and several famous African explorers. Close by arose, much later in the century, the Spanish Cathedral of Santa Isabel, which today faces the main square of the town. Dealings with the natives were hampered by ignorance of the lingua franea of the island. Captain Owen enjoined his men to do nothing to provoke unfriendly acts, aware of his dependence on them for food. The indigenous yam was as staple a diet in the Gulf of Guinea as the potato in Ireland, and from the first day he had several hundred mouths to feed. He devised a system of barter - so many yams for so much iron - and encouraged them to come to the Point to trade. But they were great beggars and soon they swarmed over the lines in such great numbers that Captain Owen grew uneasy and moved the market, for reasons of security, beyond Paradise. The natives took affront ~ but not for long, and Captain Owen continued to fill the pages of his Diary with accounts of his meetings with Bottlenose, Thieving Dick, Cut Throat and others. These meetings were animated affairs, but scarcely a meeting of equals, and after the novelty had gone the enjoyment must have been one-sided! 28 November 1827. Five chiefs took a ram on board. They killed the ram by taking all the skin off the throat first, then cutting at the wind pipe. Alll that attached to the skin was gnawed and eaten raw. Also the liver and lights. The entrails had their contents pressed out and after just passing over the coals were also eaten. Chameleon was the Chief Butcher, Cut Throat ate a part of the neck with the vertebra bones and all after grilling them very little. In short, nothing could be more cannibalish than their feasting . By the end of 1827 Captain Owen had successfully launched the settlement, and a semblance of rule and order reigned in Clarence. By that time, also, he realized that land beyond Point William was necessary to accommodate the ever-growing population of liberated slaves. In talks with the chiefs, he was able to purchase all the land adjoining the Point, extending from Hay Brook to Cockburn Brook. On Christmas Day he staged a ceremony of annexation. Elaborate prepar®” 190 | : | |tions «drilling the troops, ¢ ecting the flagstaff, making the flag - ensured the hony: At 7 am the officers acca ind sailors came ashore and paraded, uccess of the cere sand a detachment of marines The entire shore settlement was there, including Cut Throat and his followers. ( ‘aptain Owen re ind hoisted the Colours to take forn al possession of the | rest of the flotilla fired a Royal salute, muskets. After Divine service, 1 a Proclamation id, Eden and the nd the soldiers discharged their Captain Owen entertained the officers to at which twenty-one sat down, including Hannah the wife of an artisan and the only English woman on the island. The clamation ~ now in the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich?! - was igned by all thediners, including Mrs Weeksand Lieutenant Holman, as well 1s by twelve marine, 58 black troops of the Royal Africa Corps and over one hundred freed Africans. The latter, all numbered and illiterate, made their crosses, thus: “31, Never X Fear”, “38. Pea X Soup” and “40, ‘Tom X Longpipe On Adelaide Point the men dug up a Spanish coin dated 1774, as well as everal defence trenches, and Captain Owen concluded that they had unco- linner party ashore ered the site of the old Spanish settlement. He possessed records stating that when it was abandoned in 1782, the cannons had been buried. However, no race of them was found. He decided to mount some of the eighteen-pounders from Eden on Adelaide Point to provide defence for Clarence Cove. There was fresh water on the adjoining islands and Captain Owen had them cleared and garrisoned, in order to concentrate all the ship-building and repairing ictivities on them. In this way he hoped to meet the demands of successive mmanders of the West African Squadron for a proper repair yard. The main ource of fresh water was Cockburn Brook, and he laid plans to pipe the water the ships with a modified version of Captain Fisher's “engine”; an earlier © of the device had nearly poisoned the crew during tests at Sierra Leone. and the only one which took Captain Owen away from Clarence in the first weeks of the settlement - was a detailed hydrog- sphic survey of Fernando Po. Early in December he embarked on the steamer n three days. As African circumnavigated mmiliar English An essential ta African and charted the coast line the island in a clockwise direction, the surveyors bestowed names on the prominent capes, bays and offshore islands; these appear on the Admiralty Chart of the island, drawn soon afterwards by James Badgley (Fig 35). Most of them have disappeared in the intervening 150 years of Spanish and independent rule: the northem-most point of the island, Cape Bullen or Cape Commodore, is now Punta de Europa; the southernmost one, Cape Barrow, is Punta de Santiago; on the eastside, Horatio Island, Cape Vidal and 191tions «drilling the troops, ¢ ecting the flagstaff, making the flag - ensured the hony: At 7 am the officers acca ind sailors came ashore and paraded, uccess of the cere sand a detachment of marines The entire shore settlement was there, including Cut Throat and his followers. ( ‘aptain Owen re ind hoisted the Colours to take forn al possession of the | rest of the flotilla fired a Royal salute, muskets. After Divine service, 1 a Proclamation id, Eden and the nd the soldiers discharged their Captain Owen entertained the officers to at which twenty-one sat down, including Hannah the wife of an artisan and the only English woman on the island. The clamation ~ now in the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich?! - was igned by all thediners, including Mrs Weeksand Lieutenant Holman, as well 1s by twelve marine, 58 black troops of the Royal Africa Corps and over one hundred freed Africans. The latter, all numbered and illiterate, made their crosses, thus: “31, Never X Fear”, “38. Pea X Soup” and “40, ‘Tom X Longpipe On Adelaide Point the men dug up a Spanish coin dated 1774, as well as everal defence trenches, and Captain Owen concluded that they had unco- linner party ashore ered the site of the old Spanish settlement. He possessed records stating that when it was abandoned in 1782, the cannons had been buried. However, no race of them was found. He decided to mount some of the eighteen-pounders from Eden on Adelaide Point to provide defence for Clarence Cove. There was fresh water on the adjoining islands and Captain Owen had them cleared and garrisoned, in order to concentrate all the ship-building and repairing ictivities on them. In this way he hoped to meet the demands of successive mmanders of the West African Squadron for a proper repair yard. The main ource of fresh water was Cockburn Brook, and he laid plans to pipe the water the ships with a modified version of Captain Fisher's “engine”; an earlier © of the device had nearly poisoned the crew during tests at Sierra Leone. and the only one which took Captain Owen away from Clarence in the first weeks of the settlement - was a detailed hydrog- sphic survey of Fernando Po. Early in December he embarked on the steamer n three days. As African circumnavigated mmiliar English An essential ta African and charted the coast line the island in a clockwise direction, the surveyors bestowed names on the prominent capes, bays and offshore islands; these appear on the Admiralty Chart of the island, drawn soon afterwards by James Badgley (Fig 35). Most of them have disappeared in the intervening 150 years of Spanish and independent rule: the northem-most point of the island, Cape Bullen or Cape Commodore, is now Punta de Europa; the southernmost one, Cape Barrow, is Punta de Santiago; on the eastside, Horatio Island, Cape Vidal and 191Scape Loan y 3 | J | J ; Leven Island retained their names for at least a century; and on the SRE there is Punta Owen and Punta de Islote o de Padgley (sic Cape Balsa several reminders in the Bahia de San Carlos (George's Bay) of the Captain Marwood Kelly - Rio Marivood (sic) and Punta de Cabras © po Point William is now Punta Feranda and Maidstone Bay Bahia Isabel”. : Throughout the early months of 1821 Captain Owen drove his 192Scape Loan y 3 | J | J ; Leven Island retained their names for at least a century; and on the SRE there is Punta Owen and Punta de Islote o de Padgley (sic Cape Balsa several reminders in the Bahia de San Carlos (George's Bay) of the Captain Marwood Kelly - Rio Marivood (sic) and Punta de Cabras © po Point William is now Punta Feranda and Maidstone Bay Bahia Isabel”. : Throughout the early months of 1821 Captain Owen drove his 192lise House with Captain Harvison’s tomb in front oft, Clarence Cove build Clarence. He himself lived in Eden but spent each day ashore, inspect- hhe works, dispensing justice and parleying with the natives. For the first seven months he never left the settlement, apart ftom the three days while circumnavigating the island. When Commodore Sir Francis Augustus Col- lier (died 1849), commander of the West African Squadron, arrived in mid-February to inspect it, there was: much to show him. The Point and the foot of the Cove had been cleared, the boundary line between Hay and Cockburn Brooks was marked off, and the buildings were going up. Artisans were roofing the Commissioners’ House, laying the floor of the Civil House and foundations for the Governor's House at Paradise (Fig. 36). On Adelaide Point the guns were in place and the carpenters were fashioning anew mast for Horatio. The Hospital on the Point was already in use. Close by it in the native village lived the freed blacks from Sierra Leone, drunken and potentially mutinous Collier was a seasoned veteran, as hard as nails, who had seen as much of the world as Captain Owen. At one point their professional paths had almost crossed: in 1818 Collier commanded the frigate Liverpool when it carried British troops to the Persian Gulf to flush out the pirates of Ras el Khyma who threatened the security of Seyyid Said in Muscat Seyyid Said purchased Liverpool as his own flagship and Collier returned home as a passenger in another ship. Three years after this successful venture Captain Owen in Leven sailed into Muscat, and had his interview with the Seyyid (see Chapter 9). In December 1826 Collier succeeded Commodore Mends on the West ‘African Station. He and Captain Owen were & match for each other, and the visit started badly. Collier came ashore from his flagship Sybille to find 193lise House with Captain Harvison’s tomb in front oft, Clarence Cove build Clarence. He himself lived in Eden but spent each day ashore, inspect- hhe works, dispensing justice and parleying with the natives. For the first seven months he never left the settlement, apart ftom the three days while circumnavigating the island. When Commodore Sir Francis Augustus Col- lier (died 1849), commander of the West African Squadron, arrived in mid-February to inspect it, there was: much to show him. The Point and the foot of the Cove had been cleared, the boundary line between Hay and Cockburn Brooks was marked off, and the buildings were going up. Artisans were roofing the Commissioners’ House, laying the floor of the Civil House and foundations for the Governor's House at Paradise (Fig. 36). On Adelaide Point the guns were in place and the carpenters were fashioning anew mast for Horatio. The Hospital on the Point was already in use. Close by it in the native village lived the freed blacks from Sierra Leone, drunken and potentially mutinous Collier was a seasoned veteran, as hard as nails, who had seen as much of the world as Captain Owen. At one point their professional paths had almost crossed: in 1818 Collier commanded the frigate Liverpool when it carried British troops to the Persian Gulf to flush out the pirates of Ras el Khyma who threatened the security of Seyyid Said in Muscat Seyyid Said purchased Liverpool as his own flagship and Collier returned home as a passenger in another ship. Three years after this successful venture Captain Owen in Leven sailed into Muscat, and had his interview with the Seyyid (see Chapter 9). In December 1826 Collier succeeded Commodore Mends on the West ‘African Station. He and Captain Owen were & match for each other, and the visit started badly. Collier came ashore from his flagship Sybille to find 193Captain Owen and is officers in tropical undress and sporting beads, ang at once accused them of behaviour unbecoming naval officers and gene men. Captain Owen took the criticism as a personal affront and _ manner of senior officers down the ages when their honour is touched fanned the flames of discord. A flurry of letters flew back and forth Clarence Cove before the affair was amicably settled. Collier had come to see the ships. Apart from Eden and the steamer African, he found a small flotilla moored in the harbour, which they ha assembled for vietualling and hunting slavers. Femando Po was ideally situated for the latter purpose, and Clarence lay within easy sailing distance by schooner or cutter of the great entrepats of African slavery - Old Calabar, Cameroon, Rio del Rey and the Niger Delta. Alll the small vessels had familiar names: a schooner was called Admiral Owen, a cutter Cockbum anda pinnace Royal Admiral, to celebrate contemporary influential friends. A gig was named Leven, and two small converted slavers Portia and Comelia after the Owen daughters. During visits by the Commodore and other vessels of the West African Squadron, Clarence Cove was filled with sailing ships, During the first six months the junior officers captured five ships and landed seven hundred slaves on the island. The first two prizes, a brig and a schooner, were brought in by Lieutenant Badgley only a few days after Eden had dropped anchor. It set the pattern of future operations for Richard Vidal and the younger officers in the small craft. Whenever news reached them from the coast - or if a suspicious sail was spotted on the horizon, one of the small armed vessels would slip out of Clarence in pursuit. Sometimes they blockaded a river port or shadowed a particular vessel for several days, waiting for its master to load his cargo. Abolitionist circles in London ensured that their exploits were the focus of anti-slavery publicity’. The haul in the last three months of 1828 was six ships and nearly two thousand slaves. The act of freeing slaves - humane and noble as it was in its concept, posed huge practical difficulties for the liberators, especially on Femando Po. ‘The insistence of the British Government that liberated slaves had to be brought before a court, meant that they could not be legally kept on the island. Thus, each seizure had to be justified in the Court of Mixed Commis sion in Sierra Leone before the slaves were free and before their benefactors could claim prize money. For Captain Owen this firm instruction of the Secretary of State proved a blessing in disguise, because food supplies were @ Permanent anxiety. The Quarterly Review might write excitedly of the si#® and profusion of the yams that grew there, but the fact was that the island ™® not self-supporting, nor ever likely to be so. In the first year there were se Across 194periods of acute shortage, when supplies from the r native market, the coast trade and Sierra Leone all failed, ere : ne Such a period occurred in October 1828 hen Captain Owen took a census of the settlement and found that including the crews of Eden and the other smaller vessels, there was: “Total 679 mouths to feed on rations”, Of these, about two hundred were Europeans The only business which took Captain Owen awa the 20 months of his Superintendentship, ay from the island during were the problems of supplies and prize money. Early he pinned his faith in Duke Ephraim, the chief of Old Calabar, to supply food and livestock. This the wily old rogue did at a high price, but the sheep, bullocks and meat shipped to the is Portia and in Horatio and was all that lay between them and a pure diet of yams, In June 1828 Captain Owen sailed to Prince's (Principe) and Ascension Islands, and then to Freetown. On Prince’s he obtained seeds for planting and at Ascension a gardener - and probably seeds as well, sine plants indigenous to Asc e compiled a list of the herbs and nsion, which was later printed in his book. From scension he arranged to ship supplies of lime to Clarence, to whitewash the buildings of the settlement. At Freetown (where another Governor had died) he appeared successfully before the Judge of Court to have three vessels with 365 slaves condemned. But there was no prospect of stores and Eden returned to Clarence loaded only with what they were able to buy at Cape Coast About a year after the founding of the settlement, the British Government lecided to transfer responsibility for Fernando Po from the Admiralty to the Colonial Office. The decision marked official approbation of Captain Owen's success in creating a colony, but it presented him with a cruel personal choice, The same despatch that offered him the governorship of the island relieved him if the command of Eden. It was a hard decision. After considering his position for ten days, he declined the offer. At 54 and seemingly with the best part of his career yet to come, he was unwilling to turn his back on the Navy. Personal considerations may have played a part, since Mrs Owen was unlikely ever to be allowed to join him at Clarence. Before he left England she had done her best to dissuade him from going, and once he had sailed she was determined to follow. At first the Admiralty refused permission - Cockburn would not hear of it, and she had to wait for him to give way to the Lord High Admiral before obtaining it, In October 1828 Horatio brought the news to Clarence that she would arrive on Britomart in a month or so. Captain Owen's Diary contains references of touching solicizude in anticipation of this event All hands were deployed to complete the peepeneots bseten iS sage toe eres prmmecle avegee-camcer the narve Marcha Oehs Te that lady's yacht”. But all his plans came to nothing: Britomart was sig) 195periods of acute shortage, when supplies from the r native market, the coast trade and Sierra Leone all failed, ere : ne Such a period occurred in October 1828 hen Captain Owen took a census of the settlement and found that including the crews of Eden and the other smaller vessels, there was: “Total 679 mouths to feed on rations”, Of these, about two hundred were Europeans The only business which took Captain Owen awa the 20 months of his Superintendentship, ay from the island during were the problems of supplies and prize money. Early he pinned his faith in Duke Ephraim, the chief of Old Calabar, to supply food and livestock. This the wily old rogue did at a high price, but the sheep, bullocks and meat shipped to the is Portia and in Horatio and was all that lay between them and a pure diet of yams, In June 1828 Captain Owen sailed to Prince's (Principe) and Ascension Islands, and then to Freetown. On Prince’s he obtained seeds for planting and at Ascension a gardener - and probably seeds as well, sine plants indigenous to Asc e compiled a list of the herbs and nsion, which was later printed in his book. From scension he arranged to ship supplies of lime to Clarence, to whitewash the buildings of the settlement. At Freetown (where another Governor had died) he appeared successfully before the Judge of Court to have three vessels with 365 slaves condemned. But there was no prospect of stores and Eden returned to Clarence loaded only with what they were able to buy at Cape Coast About a year after the founding of the settlement, the British Government lecided to transfer responsibility for Fernando Po from the Admiralty to the Colonial Office. The decision marked official approbation of Captain Owen's success in creating a colony, but it presented him with a cruel personal choice, The same despatch that offered him the governorship of the island relieved him if the command of Eden. It was a hard decision. After considering his position for ten days, he declined the offer. At 54 and seemingly with the best part of his career yet to come, he was unwilling to turn his back on the Navy. Personal considerations may have played a part, since Mrs Owen was unlikely ever to be allowed to join him at Clarence. Before he left England she had done her best to dissuade him from going, and once he had sailed she was determined to follow. At first the Admiralty refused permission - Cockburn would not hear of it, and she had to wait for him to give way to the Lord High Admiral before obtaining it, In October 1828 Horatio brought the news to Clarence that she would arrive on Britomart in a month or so. Captain Owen's Diary contains references of touching solicizude in anticipation of this event All hands were deployed to complete the peepeneots bseten iS sage toe eres prmmecle avegee-camcer the narve Marcha Oehs Te that lady's yacht”. But all his plans came to nothing: Britomart was sig) 195December, and he went out to meet her: “Left 7 pm expecting Mrs Owen inher but was disappointed. She was detained because the ship was to gat She had missed her last chance because the Lord High Admiral was already ou of office and Cockburn back in the Admiralty. Herhusband’s dsappointmes aftr being separated for twenty months, would have been even more acu he could have known that they were not to be reunited for another two ang half years. ’ Caprain Owen waited until he had told Commodore Collier of his decison carly in the New Year, then he wrote his despatches for Britomare to any home. Months went by while the Government studied his refusal of superintendentship. In April a successor, Lieutenant-Colonel Nicholl ofthe Royal Marines, was appointed, and he sailed out with a garrison of marines in the Champion. They arrived in Clarence on 14 June and Captain Owen handed cover the following day. However, in the early months of 1829 the position a Clarence had altered so much for the worse, that the future of the settlement was now in jeopardy. Yellow fever, the dreaded black vomit of the sailor, is endemic on the coast of West Africa, and the epidemic of 1829 was unusually virulent. In 1847 Alexander Bryson wrote that the populations of Femando Po and Eden had been decimated by its ravages*. It was a joke among the sailors that the standing orders of the labour corps on the island was “Gang No. | to be employed in digging graves as usual. Gang No. 2 making coffins until further orders”. Until the epidemic broke out, the mortality had been relatively low 26 deaths in about sixteen months - and Captain Owen in his official despatches stoutly defended the salubrity of the island. He was a sharp critic of traditional methods of medical treatment and when Captain Harrison died of fever in February, he recorded in the Diary that his untimely end was ‘the effect, it is thought, of our insufficient knowledge of medicine”. By this time, life was disrupted at Clarence. On the day that Harrison was buried before the Superintendent's house overlooking the foot of the Cove, nearly all the European artisans were ill with fever. He was the last surviving senior officer - Richard Vidal had returned home in the previous October - and immediate promotions were now necessary to ensure the continuity of com- mand. The important promotion was to commander, as that officer would be in command of Eden when Captain Owen was ashore. For this post he chose James Badgley. The two veteran midshipmen, Sam Mercer and James Dun- can, became lieutenants. Yet again in his professional career, disease rather than war had deprived Captain Owen of all his senior officers. At this low ebb in the fortunes of Clarence, with most of the Europeans 196 disa tha’ The harDecember, and he went out to meet her: “Left 7 pm expecting Mrs Owen inher but was disappointed. She was detained because the ship was to gat She had missed her last chance because the Lord High Admiral was already ou of office and Cockburn back in the Admiralty. Herhusband’s dsappointmes aftr being separated for twenty months, would have been even more acu he could have known that they were not to be reunited for another two ang half years. ’ Caprain Owen waited until he had told Commodore Collier of his decison carly in the New Year, then he wrote his despatches for Britomare to any home. Months went by while the Government studied his refusal of superintendentship. In April a successor, Lieutenant-Colonel Nicholl ofthe Royal Marines, was appointed, and he sailed out with a garrison of marines in the Champion. They arrived in Clarence on 14 June and Captain Owen handed cover the following day. However, in the early months of 1829 the position a Clarence had altered so much for the worse, that the future of the settlement was now in jeopardy. Yellow fever, the dreaded black vomit of the sailor, is endemic on the coast of West Africa, and the epidemic of 1829 was unusually virulent. In 1847 Alexander Bryson wrote that the populations of Femando Po and Eden had been decimated by its ravages*. It was a joke among the sailors that the standing orders of the labour corps on the island was “Gang No. | to be employed in digging graves as usual. Gang No. 2 making coffins until further orders”. Until the epidemic broke out, the mortality had been relatively low 26 deaths in about sixteen months - and Captain Owen in his official despatches stoutly defended the salubrity of the island. He was a sharp critic of traditional methods of medical treatment and when Captain Harrison died of fever in February, he recorded in the Diary that his untimely end was ‘the effect, it is thought, of our insufficient knowledge of medicine”. By this time, life was disrupted at Clarence. On the day that Harrison was buried before the Superintendent's house overlooking the foot of the Cove, nearly all the European artisans were ill with fever. He was the last surviving senior officer - Richard Vidal had returned home in the previous October - and immediate promotions were now necessary to ensure the continuity of com- mand. The important promotion was to commander, as that officer would be in command of Eden when Captain Owen was ashore. For this post he chose James Badgley. The two veteran midshipmen, Sam Mercer and James Dun- can, became lieutenants. Yet again in his professional career, disease rather than war had deprived Captain Owen of all his senior officers. At this low ebb in the fortunes of Clarence, with most of the Europeans 196 disa tha’ The harjisabled and much of the work at a stands f much at a standstill, word came from Sierra Le that none of Eden's prizes had been brought before the ces aie The reason was not clear, but Captain Owen was told that they all lay in the harbour awaiting his presence. Suspec % pecting a “foul conspiracy” . immediately in Eden for Freetown, ee ay 1829. Waited on Gover 5 1 May 1829. Waited on Governor and Commissary Judge - found 4 prize ships. 2 May. All misunderstandings cleared up. Captain Owen dined with Chief 11 May. Arranged all our affairs with the Court. C: our affa e Court. Cz en gave e command of Eden to Captain Badgley. nail td The purpose of this arrangment was to enable his young Commander to sail Eden back to Clarence to gain more experience, but for Captain Owen personally it was a providential decision. He took passage to Fernando Po on another vessel and reached Clarence on 30 May, in time to witness the climax of the epidemic. A few days later Cornelia arrived from Freetown with the news that yellow fever was raging there and all along the coast, and on Ll June Eden dropped anchor in the Cove. The survivors on board tolda dreadful tale on the very day that Captain Owen left the ship in Freetown, yellow fever had broken out, and hardly a day had since passed without additions to the sick list. Captain Badgley died on 23 May and was buried on the coast Altogether 37 had died, including the Captain and the surgeon Dr Burn and his two assistants. ‘The men were dying daily, amidst almost incessant rain and frequent tomadoes, accompanied with much thunder and lightning; the main decks tons eroweded with sick and constantly wet. The moral effects of these scenes ame palpable in every countenance; while, from the want of medical seendanee, it was impossible to pay that attention to the ventilation of the ship, or even to the personal comforts of the sick, which the situation required”®. Eden reached Clarence with 35 ick on board allher officers, with theexception of one lieutenant and the gunner, were either dead or confined be to bed. Ihe midst of isolating the sick on Adelaide Point, a second vessel arrived with yellow feveron board. This wasChampion, which had left England on 21 April conveying the new Superintendent of Fernando Po, Lieutenant- Colonel Nicholls, and his retinue. Captain Owen recorded in his Diary: “15 June 1829, A very fine day. The two superintendents ‘employed cleaning out the Eden. Swore in the new magistrates, then Captain ‘Owen gave up the Cast co GaHINcholles landed avo horses rom siete Leone and they rode out on the new roads together”. After this brisk transfer of power, Captain 197jisabled and much of the work at a stands f much at a standstill, word came from Sierra Le that none of Eden's prizes had been brought before the ces aie The reason was not clear, but Captain Owen was told that they all lay in the harbour awaiting his presence. Suspec % pecting a “foul conspiracy” . immediately in Eden for Freetown, ee ay 1829. Waited on Gover 5 1 May 1829. Waited on Governor and Commissary Judge - found 4 prize ships. 2 May. All misunderstandings cleared up. Captain Owen dined with Chief 11 May. Arranged all our affairs with the Court. C: our affa e Court. Cz en gave e command of Eden to Captain Badgley. nail td The purpose of this arrangment was to enable his young Commander to sail Eden back to Clarence to gain more experience, but for Captain Owen personally it was a providential decision. He took passage to Fernando Po on another vessel and reached Clarence on 30 May, in time to witness the climax of the epidemic. A few days later Cornelia arrived from Freetown with the news that yellow fever was raging there and all along the coast, and on Ll June Eden dropped anchor in the Cove. The survivors on board tolda dreadful tale on the very day that Captain Owen left the ship in Freetown, yellow fever had broken out, and hardly a day had since passed without additions to the sick list. Captain Badgley died on 23 May and was buried on the coast Altogether 37 had died, including the Captain and the surgeon Dr Burn and his two assistants. ‘The men were dying daily, amidst almost incessant rain and frequent tomadoes, accompanied with much thunder and lightning; the main decks tons eroweded with sick and constantly wet. The moral effects of these scenes ame palpable in every countenance; while, from the want of medical seendanee, it was impossible to pay that attention to the ventilation of the ship, or even to the personal comforts of the sick, which the situation required”®. Eden reached Clarence with 35 ick on board allher officers, with theexception of one lieutenant and the gunner, were either dead or confined be to bed. Ihe midst of isolating the sick on Adelaide Point, a second vessel arrived with yellow feveron board. This wasChampion, which had left England on 21 April conveying the new Superintendent of Fernando Po, Lieutenant- Colonel Nicholls, and his retinue. Captain Owen recorded in his Diary: “15 June 1829, A very fine day. The two superintendents ‘employed cleaning out the Eden. Swore in the new magistrates, then Captain ‘Owen gave up the Cast co GaHINcholles landed avo horses rom siete Leone and they rode out on the new roads together”. After this brisk transfer of power, Captain 197Owen reumed comand of Fide and prepared her fOr 8 Ih the honey restoring the health of the erew ee Whachappened nexton board, was the worst outbreak of yellow aver dy inCh sable to find to record, Bien's rence proved to hy Bryson in 1847 was ! worse was yet to come, The 45-day voyage to Pringgy no more than a respite: shemare. The main deck and Saint Helena Islands was a nif + crowd throughout with the hammocks o! fever patients, and death was a daily aan rtnee, The toll in June was 3 ancl in July 32, then in August ay they approached Saint Helena it fell, Of the 33 men left in hospital at ¢ nee, coy seventeen were alive on Eden’ return there: In four months she lose) of her original complement of 135 men**, ‘The mortality in the ships ofthe West African Squadron was appalling) in 1828 and 1829 it lost 288 men (of whom only five died violently), and over two hundred of th warships, Sybille, Eden and Hecla, in the latter part of 1829. The most bizarre event of Eden's voyage was the temporary madness of the sungeon, The surgeon, a substitute for his dead colleague, fel ill with fever when Eden was five days out of Clarence, He immediately drugged himself into a state of stupor with opium and contrived to remain so for the rest of the : were on the voyage, ceasing altogether to care for the sick. Captain Owen promptly suspended him from duty and treated the sic k himself. Bryson, in recounting the incident from the entries in Eden's log, observed that Captain Owen was “peculiarly fitted” for this task His treatment of (tropical fever) was simple, but more successful than any thathad nt and hitherto been adopeed. Having witnessed the frequ al result of energe tic treatment’, he had imbibed a kind of horror of bleeding the same tim sures, probably from observing the greater nd a predilection in favour of milder n success that attended the simple means employed by the natives and resident Europeans, The abstraction of blood did not therefore form any part of his treatment, He commenced with some brisk purgative, and after its operation, patiently waited for a remission of the symptoms, when he prescribed quinine and continued its use, until the patient got well From Saint Helena Eden returned to Clarence via Ascension and Sierta Leone, and arrived in the middle of November. Captain Owen, now simply one of the commanders of Commodore Collier's Squadron, was paying & routine visit to the settlement: it was his final leave of Fernando Po ant Africa, Ie was a pity that he had been obliged to return. He had identified himself so completely with the infant colony, thathe would have found fault had his successor been an angel from Heaven. Colonel Nicholls had been at death's door with fever, and affairs had run down badly. A quarrel wis inevitable. 198Found Clarence in ade: erate state of decay” « he wre In his Diary on 17 s nearly complete and the waterfall house now fiteec; and all the trees left for ornament and shade had been cut down + but here ended all the positive work except a few bits and pieces. All the fences here ¢rroken down, all the buildings neglected, public stores in the greater Hisonderand confusion . . . Everybody disgusted, in short the Supt is mad, but ‘mania of stupidity and avarice ‘ November. “A ramp road w The Colonel has an open shop for beer and mall wares, and he serves grog to the artisans contrary to positive orders from the Colonial Office. But he is the purser ” Small wonder that Nicholls saviour, When Commodore Collier arrived the following week, he was embroiled in the argument and later Crol Barrow - treading familiar ground with Captain Owen - invited the Commo: Ac comments, before a reply was sent to the Colonial Office Collier brought orders for Captain Owen to t ake Eden to South America. Accordingly Captain Owen weighed anchor on 23 December 1829, bidding farewell to the scene which Thomas: Boteler recorded during Hecla’s visit to Clarence in the previous month (Fig 34), Boteler made his colour wash from he same spot as his panorama of Maidstone Bay, therefore Hecla must have been moored where Barracouta had been in March 1826. Within weeks of xinting it, Boteler died of fever off ¢ Yd Calabar. Colonel Nicholls, despite ( iptain Owen's criticism, remained to consoliae Fernando Po as the a eof protested about the Captain's b Braish endeavour in the Gulf of Guinea. Explorers of the Niger as well as Royal Navy captains sought the shelter of his home, Here Richard Lander River in 1830, nd Fernando Po was his base for his steamboat expedition up the river two ears later. In February 1834 after being wounded on the Delta, he was taken voxs to the istand and he died in Nicholls! house. His grave lies close to the ered after his successful exploration of the mouths of the Nig Cathedral in the centre of Santa Isabel, Because the Spanish consistently refused to consider a transfer of sovereignty throughout the years of British occupation, Clarence was eventually abandoned in 1848. By that time, English had become the common. language of the nc rth coast of Fernando Po, snd still is - the only surviving legacy of the slave colony founded by Captain Owen in 1827°°. The South America towards whic continendiniemoll (lem mgampesrty four cen ES the controlled their lucrative American empire from the Viceroy's palace in Lima, now it was being shattered into fragments Napoleon's inv ssion of Spain and Portugal in 1806 had been the signal f revolt, and by 1830 the process was he Continent, Simon Bolivar had liberated hh Eden sailed at the beginning of 1830 was Spaniards had almost complete. In the north of ¢ 199Found Clarence in ade: erate state of decay” « he wre In his Diary on 17 s nearly complete and the waterfall house now fiteec; and all the trees left for ornament and shade had been cut down + but here ended all the positive work except a few bits and pieces. All the fences here ¢rroken down, all the buildings neglected, public stores in the greater Hisonderand confusion . . . Everybody disgusted, in short the Supt is mad, but ‘mania of stupidity and avarice ‘ November. “A ramp road w The Colonel has an open shop for beer and mall wares, and he serves grog to the artisans contrary to positive orders from the Colonial Office. But he is the purser ” Small wonder that Nicholls saviour, When Commodore Collier arrived the following week, he was embroiled in the argument and later Crol Barrow - treading familiar ground with Captain Owen - invited the Commo: Ac comments, before a reply was sent to the Colonial Office Collier brought orders for Captain Owen to t ake Eden to South America. Accordingly Captain Owen weighed anchor on 23 December 1829, bidding farewell to the scene which Thomas: Boteler recorded during Hecla’s visit to Clarence in the previous month (Fig 34), Boteler made his colour wash from he same spot as his panorama of Maidstone Bay, therefore Hecla must have been moored where Barracouta had been in March 1826. Within weeks of xinting it, Boteler died of fever off ¢ Yd Calabar. Colonel Nicholls, despite ( iptain Owen's criticism, remained to consoliae Fernando Po as the a eof protested about the Captain's b Braish endeavour in the Gulf of Guinea. Explorers of the Niger as well as Royal Navy captains sought the shelter of his home, Here Richard Lander River in 1830, nd Fernando Po was his base for his steamboat expedition up the river two ears later. In February 1834 after being wounded on the Delta, he was taken voxs to the istand and he died in Nicholls! house. His grave lies close to the ered after his successful exploration of the mouths of the Nig Cathedral in the centre of Santa Isabel, Because the Spanish consistently refused to consider a transfer of sovereignty throughout the years of British occupation, Clarence was eventually abandoned in 1848. By that time, English had become the common. language of the nc rth coast of Fernando Po, snd still is - the only surviving legacy of the slave colony founded by Captain Owen in 1827°°. The South America towards whic continendiniemoll (lem mgampesrty four cen ES the controlled their lucrative American empire from the Viceroy's palace in Lima, now it was being shattered into fragments Napoleon's inv ssion of Spain and Portugal in 1806 had been the signal f revolt, and by 1830 the process was he Continent, Simon Bolivar had liberated hh Eden sailed at the beginning of 1830 was Spaniards had almost complete. In the north of ¢ 19937° The South American Cruise of Eden, 1829-31 20037° The South American Cruise of Eden, 1829-31 200she Captaincy of New Granada, to gain Colombia, Bolivia and Venezue tres, independence. Farther south, viceregal authority collapsed fist in Fasenos Aires, and from there in 1817 Jose San Martin led an ee bus tte to liberate Chile. In Peru, the Spaniards made thei last stand around ara, and when their troops surrendered the Real Felipe fortress at Callao in 1826. the last remnant of their Amencan empire passed into history. Men from the British Isles played leading parts in this movement - probably ssn reater degree than anyone outside the Iberian Pen . paw che map of modern sula, they helped to ‘outh America. They participated in three ways First, British soldiers of fortune planned and in some areas led the revolt sainst Spain, and they staffed the new republics. During the first decade of dependence, the Chilian head of state and the chief of the Chilian navy were spectively an Irishman and a Scot, az the same time that the Commander of he Peruvian army was an Englishman! Secondly, there was the commercial invasion. The British Foreign Secretary, Canning, was prompt to recognize he republics as they were proclaimec and British money and goods flooded into South America to build roads, railways, mines, and to transform society Si here was no major seaport on the Atlantic or Pacific coast that did not dent English merchants. have its colony of re The third line of penetration was more subtle. It was the invisible Pax ssitannica which the Royal Navy enforced, by surveying the coasts, hunting sal savers and protecting the merchants - in short, “showing the Flag”. fer 1815 the Navy enjoyed undisputed supremacy on the high seas, and its treks in South America did not conflict with the Monroe Doctrine. This lat (1823) was concerned only with preventing possible Buro- ebrate van colonisation of the Americas, and not with legitimate trade or hydro- raphy, Suppression of the Brazilian slave trade later in the 19th century was sev andl almost solely due to the effective patrols operated by the Royal Bey of Rig de Janeiro and the River Plate. In 1822, when Captain Owen ey eted Rio in the Leven he found a large and well established British community x6 che Navy forged the final link in the chain of events which opened p the South American Continent to European trade detailed hydrographic survey of the coast south of the River Plate. This was the dreaded part of the vate from Europe to the West. Coast around Cape Hom through the Seatof Magellan, which separates the mainland from Tierra del Fuego. This SE ene aa ae ey er Net net ips, Adoene. ane Ne ender, the brig Beagle. The surveyors used “heir own names and those of their South American Station for the geographical es and ships on the colleag 01she Captaincy of New Granada, to gain Colombia, Bolivia and Venezue tres, independence. Farther south, viceregal authority collapsed fist in Fasenos Aires, and from there in 1817 Jose San Martin led an ee bus tte to liberate Chile. In Peru, the Spaniards made thei last stand around ara, and when their troops surrendered the Real Felipe fortress at Callao in 1826. the last remnant of their Amencan empire passed into history. Men from the British Isles played leading parts in this movement - probably ssn reater degree than anyone outside the Iberian Pen . paw che map of modern sula, they helped to ‘outh America. They participated in three ways First, British soldiers of fortune planned and in some areas led the revolt sainst Spain, and they staffed the new republics. During the first decade of dependence, the Chilian head of state and the chief of the Chilian navy were spectively an Irishman and a Scot, az the same time that the Commander of he Peruvian army was an Englishman! Secondly, there was the commercial invasion. The British Foreign Secretary, Canning, was prompt to recognize he republics as they were proclaimec and British money and goods flooded into South America to build roads, railways, mines, and to transform society Si here was no major seaport on the Atlantic or Pacific coast that did not dent English merchants. have its colony of re The third line of penetration was more subtle. It was the invisible Pax ssitannica which the Royal Navy enforced, by surveying the coasts, hunting sal savers and protecting the merchants - in short, “showing the Flag”. fer 1815 the Navy enjoyed undisputed supremacy on the high seas, and its treks in South America did not conflict with the Monroe Doctrine. This lat (1823) was concerned only with preventing possible Buro- ebrate van colonisation of the Americas, and not with legitimate trade or hydro- raphy, Suppression of the Brazilian slave trade later in the 19th century was sev andl almost solely due to the effective patrols operated by the Royal Bey of Rig de Janeiro and the River Plate. In 1822, when Captain Owen ey eted Rio in the Leven he found a large and well established British community x6 che Navy forged the final link in the chain of events which opened p the South American Continent to European trade detailed hydrographic survey of the coast south of the River Plate. This was the dreaded part of the vate from Europe to the West. Coast around Cape Hom through the Seatof Magellan, which separates the mainland from Tierra del Fuego. This SE ene aa ae ey er Net net ips, Adoene. ane Ne ender, the brig Beagle. The surveyors used “heir own names and those of their South American Station for the geographical es and ships on the colleag 01