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George White and
the Victorian Army in
India and Africa
Serving the Empire

Stephen M. Miller
George White and the Victorian Army
in India and Africa
 Stephen M. Miller

George White and the

Victorian Army in
India and Africa
Serving the Empire
Stephen M. Miller
University of Maine
Orono, ME, USA

ISBN 978-3-030-50833-3    ISBN 978-3-030-50834-0 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50834-0

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 Acknowledgments

A timely dinner with my wife, Jessica Miller, and Trina and Ian Beckett
following the 2018 “Britain and the World Conference” held in Exeter,
set me on the path to this project. I am very grateful to the Becketts for
their hospitality and for the idea!
I would like to thank John Laband, Edward Spiers, Rodney Atwood,
Tim Bowman, and Douglas Peers for help along the way. Fransjohan
Pretorius kindly read a draft of some of the chapters and provided valuable
feedback. Daniel Whittingham was nice enough to share page proofs of
his recent book on Charles Callwell when Covid-19 and the global pan-
demic shut down our University library and its lending services.
I would also like to thank Michael Lang and Wendy Morrill, History
Department, University of Maine, for their support. Dean Emily Haddad,
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and the Clement and Linda
McGillicuddy Humanities Center, University of Maine, provided impor-
tant financial assistance, as did the family of Adelaide C. and Alan L. Bird.
Mel Johnson, Greg Curtis, Deb Rollins, and Dean Joyce Rumery, Fogler
Library, University of Maine, deserve a huge thank you for purchasing
digital copies of the George White papers and for assisting in the acquisi-
tion of a number of texts. Emily Russell and Ruby Panigrahi at Palgrave
Macmillan have been extremely helpful throughout the process and a
delight to work with. The two anonymous reviewers provided substantial
assistance at the start and close of this project. I also want to thank Jason
Begy, who indexed the book. Thanks to the staff members of the British
Library, the National Army Museum, The National Archives, the

v
vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Ladysmith Siege Museum, the Devon Archives and Local Studies Service,
the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre, and the Public Records Office
for Northern Ireland.
Finally, I want to thank my boys, David and Max, who have been stuck
in the house with me for the past four months and, lastly, Jessica, who
makes everything better.
 Contents

1 Introduction  1

2 The Start of a Military Career (1853–1878) 15

3 Recognition in Afghanistan (1878–1884) 41

4 The Making of a General: War and the Occupation

of Upper Burma (1885–1889) 71

5 On the Edge of Empire: Baluchistan (1889–1892)103

6 Commander-in-Chief, India: Administrator

(1893–1898)129

7 Commander-in-Chief, India: Campaigns (1893–1898)159

8 The Outbreak of the South African War (1899)193

9 The Defender of Ladysmith (1899–1900)223

10 Ending a Career on the Rock (1900–1912)259

vii
viii CONTENTS

11 Conclusion285

Bibliography291

Index305
 List of Maps

Map 2.1 India, c. 1860. (Source: Author) 22

Map 3.1 Second Anglo-Afghan War, 1878–1880. (Source: Author) 46
Map 4.1 The Nile Campaign, 1885. (Source: Author) 75
Map 4.2 Burma, c. 1885. (Source: Author) 84
Map 5.1 Baluchistan, c. 1890. (Source: Author) 108
Map 7.1 North-West Frontier and Kashmir. (Source: Author) 161
Map 8.1 Northern Natal, 1899–1900. (Source: A Handbook of the Boer
War, with general map of South Africa and 18 sketch maps and
plans. London: Gale and Polden, 1910) 210
Map 9.1 Siege of Ladysmith. (Source: A Handbook of the Boer War,
with general map of South Africa and 18 sketch maps and plans.
London: Gale and Polden, 1910) 228

ix
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction

On the afternoon of the 28th of February 1900, a small detachment of

Imperial Light Horse and Natal Carbineers commanded by Captain
Hubert Gough approached Ladysmith in the British colony of Natal in
South Africa. A group of armed Boers situated on a low ridge of
Umbulwane, a small mountain which dominated the nearby town, stood
in their way. As “Long Tom,” the long range 155 mm Creusot gun which
had terrorized the soldiers and civilians of the beleaguered town since late
October 1899, opened fire, Gough was given an order by his superior,
Lord Dundonald, to retire.1 Eager to make it to Ladysmith in part to see
his brother, Captain John “Johnnie” Gough, VC, he “crumpled up the
note,” pushed back the Boers, and rode the remaining three miles through
open land to Ladysmith. No shots were fired.

1
Hubert Gough, Soldiering On (London: Arthur Baker, 1954), 75. In his own memoir,
Dundonald refuted Gough’s two claims that there were Boers on the ridge and that he
ordered Gough to retire. Instead, he asserted that since there was no Boer force to prevent
his movement, he told Gough to “push on towards Ladysmith, I am supporting.” Dundonald,
accompanied by Winston Churchill, arrived in Ladysmith shortly afterwards. Douglas
Dundonald, My Army Life (London: Edward Arnold, 1926), 151. White does not mention
Gough in his letters, only Dundonald, when he wrote to his sister Jane, from aboard the
RMS Dunvegan Castle, “Was it not fine, Dundonald being the first of Buller’s force to ride
into Ladysmith.” White to Jane White, 5 April 1900, White’s letters to his sister Jane White,
Mss Eur F108/97(a)-(b)(c. 1845–1910), Papers of Field Marshal Sir George White, British
Army 1853–1912, C-in-C, India 1893–98 (1845–1912), [GWP], India Office Record and
Private Papers, British Library, London.

© The Author(s) 2020 1

S. M. Miller, George White and the Victorian Army in India and
Africa, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50834-0_1
2 S. M. MILLER

As Gough entered the town late in the afternoon, the appearance of his
small force, full of health and looking nearly immaculate, contrasted
sharply with the men of the Natal Field Force they were rescuing. The
siege was in its 118th day and the material situation in the town had dete-
riorated significantly since the first of the year. Enteric fever or typhoid had
spread and the number of casualties moved to the nearby hospital at
Intombi was growing to alarming proportions. The population of over
12,000 soldiers and 8,000 civilians had been reduced to eating chevril,
horse soup, to supplement their meager rations.2 Three failed British
attempts to force the Tugela River resulting in defeats at Colenso, Spion
Kop, and Vaal Krantz (Vaalkrans) had hurt but not crushed morale.
Lieutenant-General Sir George Stuart White, VC, suffering from repeated
bouts of fever, reduced rations, and the exhaustion of maintaining
Ladysmith throughout the siege, emerged from his headquarters, the for-
mer town hall, and greeted Gough with a simple and understated, “Hallo,
Hubert, how are you?”3 White then turned to the growing crowds and
over the dim of the celebrating voices, H.H.S. Pearse, a special correspon-
dent for the Daily News, who had endured the ordeals of the siege as well,
heard White’s voice tremble with emotion as he spoke to his depleted
force. “I thank you men, one and all, from the bottom of my heart,” he
declared, “for the help and support you have given to me, and I shall
always acknowledge it to the end of my life. It grieved me to have to cut
your rations, but I promise you that I will not do it again. I thank God we
have kept the flag flying.”4
No longer reliant on runners who were captured regularly by the Boers
or the heliograph which could only function when the weather cooper-
ated, congratulatory messages flooded into Ladysmith from around the
British Empire. Queen Victoria’s telegram was one of the first to come
through the wires. Friends and fellow officers like White’s primary bene-
factor, Field-Marshal Lord Roberts, and Major-General John French and
Major Douglas Haig, both of whom had left Ladysmith just before it was

Gerald Sharp, The Siege of Ladysmith (London: Macdonald and Jane’s, 1976), 25.
2

Gough, Soldiering On, 78–9. White was well acquainted with the Gough family; he knew
3

General Hugh H. Gough, VC, Hubert and John’s uncle, from the Second Anglo-Afghan
War. There is no mention in White’s papers of the two brothers’ father, General Charles
Gough, also a veteran of the Second Anglo-Afghan War.
4
H.H.S. Pearse, Four Months Besieged: The Story of Ladysmith being unpublished letters from
H.H.S. Pearse the ‘Daily News’ Special Correspondent (London: Macmillan and Co.,
1900), 211.
 1 INTRODUCTION 3

invested, sent White their regards. Mayors and provosts from Liverpool to
Edinburgh, and leaders of social clubs in New Zealand, Canada, Gibraltar,
and Burma all chimed in. The Secretary of State for War, Lord Lansdowne,
who White had developed a close working relationship with while serving
as Commander-in-Chief in India when the former was Viceroy, messaged,
“I cannot tell you what pleasure it gives me to know that your gallant
defence which we have watched with so much admiration and sympathy
has not been in vain. I know you have suffered seriously in health from the
prolonged hardships and anxiety which you and the force under your
command have borne bravely.”5
Lansdowne was correct: White was suffering physically and emotion-
ally. He needed to go home. Although most of his officers remained in
South Africa to continue the struggle against the Boers, after the siege was
lifted, White immediately made his way to Cape Town to begin his voyage
back to Great Britain. White had been to Cape Town only twice before.
The first visit took place in 1854, when after his troopship, The Charlotte,
sank off Algoa Bay with most of its crew, White was stranded in Cape
Town for about a month while he awaited passage to Calcutta.6 The sec-
ond time was perhaps even more tragic. After arriving on 3 October 1899,
he met a “nervous and overdone” Sir Alfred Milner, the British High
Commissioner in South Africa and Governor of the Cape Colony, at
Government House.7 Assessing the situation as critical and one demand-
ing his immediate attention, White abruptly left Cape Town and hurried
to Natal. War began just a few days later on 11 October. This time, how-
ever, a visit to Cape Town brought White some much needed relief. There,
he discovered a very kind gesture made by Roberts: Jack, White’s only son
who was currently serving with the Gordon Highlanders, had been sent to
accompany his father home. In mid-April 1900, White returned to Great
Britain as the newly christened, “Defender of Ladysmith.”8

5
Lansdowne to White, Bound volume of telegrams to White congratulating him after the
relief of Ladysmith, with notes of replies sent, initialed by Beauchamp Duff, White’s Military
Secretary, Mss Eur F108/62 (Mar 1900), GWP.
6
White to James Robert White, 29 September, 18 October, and 31 October 1854, White’s
letters to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. James Robert White, Mss Eur F108/96 (1854–1870) GWP.
7
White to John White, 6 October 1899, White’s letters to his brother, John White, Mss
Eur F108/98(a)-(c) (1857–1910), GWP.
8
See, for example, Western Morning News, 16 April 1900, Newspaper cuttings relating to
the War in South Africa, Mss Eur F108/72 (1899–1905), GWP.
4 S. M. MILLER

Yet despite a long and commendable career which included a Victoria

Cross awarded in the Second Anglo-Afghan War, command of the Upper
Burma occupation force in the late 1880s and Zhob Field Force in 1890,
and, as successor to Lord Roberts, Commander-in-Chief in India, White
is a relatively unknown figure today. There are a few places where White is
memorialized, commemorated, and remembered. There is a statue of a
mounted White in Portland Place in London; a headstone at his family
plot in the First Presbyterian Church’s cemetery in Broughshane, Northern
Ireland; and a number of placards and photographs in the Siege Museum
in Ladysmith, South Africa. But White remains largely a forgotten figure
of British imperial military history. Some of this is due in part to the lack
of scholarly work on the subject. There has only been one biography to
date. The Life of Field-Marshal Sir George White was written by Mortimer
Durand, his friend, colleague, and Indian official noted for the 1893
negotiations with Abdur Rahman, the Afghan Amir, which produced the
“Durand Line,” the boundary between Afghanistan and India’s North-­
West Frontier. It would not be fair to call Durand’s 1915 biography a
hagiography; it is a thorough account of White’s life in two volumes, well-­
written, and based largely on White’s personal correspondences with his
family members.9 Yet, written just after White’s death, and supported by
White’s wife, Amy, it shies away from controversy and makes no attempt
to portray him in any but the most positive light.
Perhaps the main reason why White has largely been forgotten is
because the siege of Ladysmith was something Great Britain did not want
to remember. Although praised as the man who saved the town and its
garrison and kept the Boers from organizing a successful invasion of Natal,
White was also criticized for making the decisions which led to his force
getting stuck in Ladysmith in the first place. To make things worse, even
before the South African War ended, White became embroiled in a scandal
over messages sent between he and General Sir Redvers Buller, the former
Commander-in-Chief of British forces in South Africa, as to Ladysmith’s
ability to hold out against the Boers’ investment. Although publicly White
remained silent through it all, (privately, his letters show a very frustrated
individual unable to defend himself), and Buller was largely blamed, even-
tually being dismissed from the army, the incident convinced many that
the event was best forgotten. Leo Amery’s colorful, multi-volume series,

9
Mortimer Durand, The Life of Field-Marshal Sir George White, 2 volumes (Edinburgh and
London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1915).
 1 INTRODUCTION 5

The Times History of the War in South Africa, was very critical of White.10
And the Earl of Elgin’s 1903 hearings which produced the significant
report of the Royal Commission on the South African War also raised
concerns about some of White’s decisions.11 Perhaps ironically, as the sta-
tus and reputation of the much younger “Hero of Mafeking,” Sir Robert
Baden-Powell, grew in the years to come, that of the “Defender of
Ladysmith” shrank.
White’s career in the military, however, merits further investigation.
Although a member of Roberts’ ring or circle of close associates, as
opposed to Lord Wolseley’s rival Ashanti Ring, he never identified as such,
establishing professional contacts on both sides of that often, overstated
divide. For much of his long career he was a regimental officer—first, as a
junior officer with the 27th (Inniskilling) Regiment and later, with the
92nd (Gordon Highlanders) Regiment which he joined in 1863 after
exchanging for a captaincy, and eventually served as Colonel of the Gordon
Highlanders regiment. Although it was Roberts that he owed the most to
in gaining promotion and securing positions, it was Wolseley who gave
him his first staff position as an Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster-­
General in the force sent to Sudan to save Charles Gordon at Khartoum.12
For most of his later career, however, White saw Wolseley as a hindrance
to advancement rather than as a supporter. “Little Bobs” and his wife,
Lady Roberts, continued to remain loyal to White.
White made his name in Afghanistan at Charasiab (Char Asiab) and
Kandahar in 1879–1880, but he really came into his own and left his mark
in Burma where he served first in General Harry Prendergast’s expedition
to Upper Burma in 1885 and later as commander of the British occupa-
tion force between 1886 and 1889. From there he went to Quetta, where,
working alongside the very influential British agent, Robert Sandeman, he
strengthened the British hold over Baluchistan (Balochistan) and extended
their interests along the North-West Frontier. This part of Great Britain’s
Indian empire, remained a focus of his attention when he succeeded Lord
Roberts as Commander-in-Chief in India, and ordered expeditions to

10
L.S. Amery, ed., The Times History of The War in South Africa 1899–1902, 7 volumes
(London: Sampson Low, Marston and Co., LTD., 1907).
11
Report of His Majesty’s Commissioners appointed to Inquire into the Military Preparations
and Other Military Matters connected with the War in South Africa, 1903: cd 1789 xl, 1; cd
1790 xl, 325; cd 1791 xli, 1; cd 1792 xlii, 1.
12
White’s services were only requested after Khartoum had already fallen and Gordon had
been killed.
6 S. M. MILLER

Malakand, Chitral, and Tirah, the latter being the most substantial cam-
paign to secure the region and establish a viable frontier with Afghanistan.
As Commander-in-Chief, White oversaw some of the most significant
reforms in the Indian Army since the Rebellion.
After India, White expected his career to quietly end but with war
looming in South Africa, he was selected to secure the safety of the Natal
colony. He achieved that goal, in part. As he always maintained after the
war, had he abandoned Ladysmith and the colony north of the Tugela
River, the Boers would have been able to launch an invasion into the
south, endangering both Pietermaritzburg, its capital, and Durban, its
chief port; a strategy which the Boers identified in the month leading up
to the declaration of war as a necessary requirement to achieving a victory.
When his part in the South African War ended, White went to Gibraltar
and oversaw the reforms to the colony’s defenses made incumbent by the
advent of longer-range naval guns. Largely a ceremonial position, White
oversaw Kaiser William II’s visit just before and after his infamous speech
in Tangier in 1905 which sparked the First Moroccan Crisis. His last years
in command of the Royal Chelsea Hospital finally brought him the rest
that he always longed for but routinely rejected in exchange for active
service.
An examination of White’s career provides much more than insight
into these events and the Victorian army, in general. White was a prolific
letter writer and note taker, both in his professional and personal lives. He
saved copies of most of the letters and reports he wrote and did his best to
save the ones he received. When he died, Amy White put a request out in
newspapers for any materials related to her husband’s life to help with the
biography which Durand later wrote. This treasure trove of papers eventu-
ally made its way to the India Office and is now housed in the British
Library. A careful reading of White’s papers reveals an officer with well-­
informed and strong views on such issues as Great Britain’s forward policy
in Afghanistan and the risks of war with Russia, the fiscal pressures of
conducting military operations on the fringes of the empire, and the chal-
lenges of working side by side with civilian administrators in winning the
“Hearts and Minds” of local people not fully incorporated into imperial
governance. As Commander-in-Chief of India, White had to consider the
value of martial race theory advocated by some of his fellow officers, the
importance of investing in transportation and communication networks,
the structural problems of the Presidency Armies, and the challenges
which British legislation, such as the Contagious Disease Acts, could
 1 INTRODUCTION 7

create for local conditions. In addition, White’s correspondences show an

officer, especially after the abolition of purchase, consumed with navigat-
ing personal and professional networks in order to advance his career and
secure an improved position which could support both his ambitions and
his family and estate.
Finally, a study of White’s career can add to the literature on asymmet-
ric warfare by examining the variety of so-called small wars which he par-
ticipated in during the second half of the nineteenth century. Colonel
C.E. Callwell’s significant work, Small Wars: Their Principles and Practice
referenced all of these conflicts from the hill warfare of Tirah to the bush
warfare of Burma; and from the desert warfare of the Sudan to the varied
terrain and climate of South Africa. As an officer, White participated in, as
Callwell identified, campaigns of conquest, punitive expeditions, and wars
of pacification and suppression. These included wars fought on foreign
soil against a tangible force where there was a clear objective of defeating
an acknowledged sovereign or overturning a government; expeditions
where the goal was not to completely overrun the enemy but to decisively
defeat its army in the field; and, internal campaigns against guerrillas where
there was no central government, single authority, or organized army and
where objectives might range from the destruction of crops and stores of
grain to the raising of a village or, as Wolseley identified, “the capture of
whatever they prize most and the destruction or deprivation of which will
probably bring the war most rapidly to a conclusion.”13 White’s corre-
spondences show an officer who was always assessing the martial abilities
of his enemy and the challenges posed to his own force by technology,14
climate and terrain, and political and fiscal limitations.
Because this project covers a historical period of over 50 years in length
and spans multiple continents, it required an examination of a great deal
of historiography but it could not hope to be exhaustive. Literature on the
Victorian military has grown tremendously since the early 1970s in terms
of reach and breadth. Military historians may have been a bit slow in
incorporating the tools of social and cultural history, but when they did,
the “New Military History” produced important works examining, among
other things, institutions, social relationships, and racial and class

13
C.E. Callwell, Small Wars: Their Principles and Practice, 3rd edition (London: HMSO,
1906; Lincoln, NE: Bison Books, 1996), 19.
14
A notable example was the introduction of the expanding Mark IV bullet, the dum-dum,
developed in India when White was Commander-in-Chief.
8 S. M. MILLER

constructs which permeated all facets of the study of war and society and
the military experience. No longer content with disseminating informa-
tion through monographs and a few peer reviewed journals, military his-
torians have found new outlets for their work, particularly through
specialized conferences, the growing number of high-quality journals, and
open source media, which have promoted important discussions.
This work relies heavily on White’s personal papers. In order to avoid
the challenges associated with the problems that brings, as I learned when
writing Lord Methuen and the British Army more than 20 years ago,15 a
thorough examination of the secondary literature has been critical to this
project to validate personal claims, to provide historical context, and to
re-examine how letter-writing and journaling explicitly or implicitly cre-
ates bias. Exemplary studies of military figures exist and this work is
indebted to them.
Although the secondary literature of the Victorian military and empire
is referenced throughout this book, it is important to make note of a few
key texts and historians here. Edward Spiers’ The Army and Society,
1815–1914 and The Late Victorian Army 1868–1902 served as important
reference works throughout the process of writing this book.16 Spiers’
knowledge of the institution of the Regular Army, the relationship of the
civil (Secretary of State for War) and the military (Commander-in-Chief of
Forces), the Cardwell reforms, the regimental system, and other topics, is
comprehensive. Ian Beckett’s many works on the Victorian Army but A
British Profession of Arms: The Politics of Command in the Late Victorian
Army with its emphasis on networks and personal and professional rela-
tionships, in particular, provided an essential framework for understanding
White’s place in the British officer corps.17
Just as contemporary British officers like Wolseley and Buller often
viewed the Indian Army as a world apart, White’s long career in India
involved not just a thorough investigation of the British Army but research

15
Stephen M. Miller, Lord Methuen and the British Army: Failure and Redemption in South
Africa (London: Frank Cass, 1999).
16
Edward M. Spiers, The Army and Society, 1815–1914 (New York: Longman, 1980), and,
The Late Victorian Army 1868–1902 (London: St. Martin, 1992).
17
Ian Beckett, A British Profession of Arms: The Politics of Command in the Late Victorian
Army (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2018); also see The Victorians at War
(London: Hambledon and London, 2003), and “The Third Anglo-Burmese War and the
Pacification of Burma, 1885–1895,” in Queen Victoria’s Wars: British Military Campaigns,
1857–1902, ed. Stephen M. Miller (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021).
 1 INTRODUCTION 9

into the geopolitics of the subcontinent, the racial, religious, caste, and
regional variations in manpower and recruitment, and the demands and
needs of its military at home and abroad. The works of Douglas Peers,
David Omissi, Kaushik Roy, and T.R, Moreman were important to pro-
vide that knowledge.18 Brian Robson’s The Road to Kabul: The Second
Afghan War 1878–1881 furnished invaluable information on Afghanistan
as did Daniel Whittingham’s Charles E. Callwell and the British Way in
Warfare on late Victorian military theory.19 Finally, Fransjohan Pretorius’
analysis of the South African War is unsurpassed and his work provided
great insight into Boer strategy and the Natal Campaign.20
This book is written largely as a military biography and therefore chap-
ters will explore White’s life through a chronological narrative. However,
the goal is not simply to update Durand’s biography. It is to use White to
examine the many issues raised above which are crucial to understanding
the late Victorian army and its role in extending and maintaining empire.
It will also cast light on civil-military relations, British attitudes towards
the people it ruled over, encounters with nature and meanings of frontier,
as well as what Britishness meant to an Anglo-Irish Protestant landlord
who spent most of his life outside of the British Isles. White’s career was
so long and rich that it can be used to explore many facets of Victorian
society.
In an era of purchase, George Stuart White obtained his first commis-
sion without purchase after graduating from the Royal Military College,
Sandhurst, in 1853. Chapter 2 will examine the formative years in White’s
career when he was posted to India just before the start of the Rebellion
of 1857–1858. He served primarily in the Punjab during this period, at
cantonments and outposts in Sealkote (Sialkot), Umballah (Ambala), Fort
Attock, Jullundhur (Jalandhar), and Mooltan (Multan), as well as at

18
See Douglas Peers, “The Indian Rebellion, 1857–1858,” in Queen Victoria’s Wars;
David Omissi, The Sepoy and the Raj: The Indian Army, 1860–1940 (London: Macmillan,
1994), Kaushik Roy, The Army in British India: From Colonial Warfare to Total War
1857–1947 (New York: Bloomsbury, 2013); and, T.R. Moreman, The Army in India and the
Development of Frontier Warfare, 1849–1947 (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1988).
19
Brian Robson, The Road to Kabul: The Second Afghan War 1878–1881 (New York: Arms
and Armour Press, 1986); and Daniel Whittingham, Charles E. Callwell and the British Way
in Warfare (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020).
20
Fransjohan Pretorius, Life on Commando During the Anglo-Boer War, 1899–1902 (Cape
Town: Human & Rousseau, 1999).
10 S. M. MILLER

Allahabad, Chakrata, and Simla (Shimla). White was restless, during these
years, always worried about his next posting and seeking opportunities for
advancement and promotion, concerns which he continued to share in his
letters to home throughout his career. He saw others, like those who were
sent to Crimea, as more likely to succeed in a military career and more
than once considered returning to civilian life. Interestingly, it was only in
these years which, in his letters, he displayed racial attitudes which histori-
ans have to come to expect of Victorians. In the years to follow, however,
when his views were shaped by experience rather than the attitudes of his
peers and superiors, White became remarkably open-minded for someone
of his time and background. As a regimental officer who rarely heard a
shot fired in anger, these years were filled with drill, order, and monotony.
In late 1877, White’s regiment was posted to Sitapur. The Russo-­
Turkish War seemed to be heating up and by early 1878, White “hope[d]
the 92nd will form part of any force going from India against the
Russians.”21 The arrival of a British fleet in the Straits, however, was
enough to bring Russia to the negotiating tables and no British troops
were required. Disappointed, White took a leave of absence to return to
Whitehall, the home he inherited in Broughshane, County Antrim, and to
visit with his wife and 17-month-old baby. Afterwards, as he made his way
back to India to rejoin his regiment in March 1879, a passing soldier told
him that the 92nd was on its way to join Roberts’ column at Kurram, in
preparations for an invasion of Afghanistan. Chapter 3 examines the
Second Anglo-Afghan War, 1879–1880, the development of White’s rela-
tionship with his newly found benefactor, Roberts, and his actions at the
battles at Charasiab and Kandahar which garnered him the Victoria Cross.
Despite the laurels he gained from the military prowess and bravery he
displayed in Afghanistan, White was still just a captain in the army and, to
that point, had served for nearly 30 years. Things were, however, finally
going to change. First, Wolseley offered him a staff appointment in 1885 in
Sudan and then Roberts called him back to India where he was given com-
mand of a brigade in the Third Anglo-Burmese War, 1885. After the rapid
defeat of Burmese troops, the seizure of Mandalay, and the removal of the
Burmese king, Thibaw, White remained in Mandalay and eventually was
given an independent command over all the troops in Upper Burma with
the task of putting down the rebels, quieting the dacoits (bandits), and
pacifying the newly annexed colony. Chapter 4 investigates the two and

21
White to John White, 4 January 1878, Mss Eur F108/98, GWP.
 1 INTRODUCTION 11

half years White spent in Upper Burma where he honed his military and
administrative skills while working alongside the British political agents,
Charles Bernard and later Charles Crosthwaite, to allow for the transition
from military to civilian control and to extend the frontier of Burma to the
Chinese border incorporating Kachin, Chin, and the Shan states.
White was eager to leave Burma after a couple of years, but Lord
Dufferin, the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, as well as Roberts,
the Commander-in-Chief, India, were reluctant to let him go. In return
for remaining an additional year, White was given his choice of a number
of open divisional commands: he chose Quetta. Chapter 5 looks at White’s
three-and-half-year stint in Baluchistan from late 1889 to early 1893. As
he had worked in Upper Burma with Bernard and Crosthwaite, White
developed a close relationship with Robert Sandeman, the British agent in
the region. The Sandeman system, in which the British attempted to rule
through existing traditional institutions while securing the alliance of the
local people by recruiting them through a system of tribal levies in order
to preserve security, was already in place before White arrived. But with
White’s support it was strengthened and White also began considering
how it could be extended and utilized among the Pashtun tribes of the
North-West Frontier.22 While in Baluchistan, White personally conducted
the Zhob Valley expedition in 1890 which extended British control over
the region.
The Great Game, the political intrigue between Great Britain and
Russia in Afghanistan and along the vast Central and Southern Asian fron-
tier, was on the minds of many British officers serving in India during the
late nineteenth century and White was no exception. The divisional com-
mand in Quetta greatly heightened his interest in it and when he suc-
ceeded Roberts as Commander-in-Chief, India in April 1893, it became a
major responsibility of his to oversee British security in the region.
Chapters 6 and 7 examine White’s five-year tenure at Snowdon and his
working relationship with Lord Lansdowne and then Lord Elgin, who
served as Viceroys during this period. White was busy with issues ranging
from the introduction of new weaponry to the reform of the Presidency
Armies and from the issue of promotion of Indian high caste officers to

22
Magnus Marsden and Benjamin D. Hopkins argue that the Sandeman system was the
basis of General Gerald Templar’s “Hearts and Minds” campaign in Malaya in the early
1950s. See Marsden and Hopkins, Fragments of the Afghan Frontier (New York: Columbia
University Press, 2011), 231.
12 S. M. MILLER

the recruitment of Anglo-Indians. He also had to face the political and

fiscal costs of Roberts’ aggressive forward policy. Furthermore, during this
period, the frontier was anything but quiet. White was responsible for
launching a number of expeditions to the North-West Frontier including
those to Malakand, Chitral, and Tirah, the latter of which proved to be
Great Britain’s largest in the region. In 1898, White returned home and
briefly took up the post of Quartermaster-General to the British Forces.
Chapters 8 and 9 focus on White’s brief period of command in South
Africa in 1899–1900. In some ways the selection of White as Commander
of the Natal Field Force was inspired; in other ways, it was short-sighted.
White possessed much more experience both as a brigadier and as an
administrator in a war-zone than did his counterpart in the Cape Colony,
General Sir F.W. Forestier-Walker. He was also not beholden to Wolseley,
the Commander-in-Chief of British forces, or to Buller, who only departed
Great Britain after war was declared. Lansdowne could trust that White
would not only do his duty but would keep him in the loop. But unlike
Buller or General Lord Methuen, who arrived in November to take com-
mand of the British 1st Division which was ordered to relieve Kimberley,
White had never served in South Africa. When his regiment was sent out
in early 1881 to take part in the First Anglo-Boer War and tragedy struck
at Majuba Hill, White was in Calcutta, serving as military secretary to the
Viceroy, Lord Ripon. All his efforts to join his men afterwards failed
despite Ripon’s advocacy. The Duke of Cambridge, Commander-in-Chief
of British Forces from 1856 to 1895, believed it would be an “injustice to
other majors.”23 At the start of the South African War, therefore, without
regional experience, White was dependent on local actors to supply him
with political advice as well as knowledge about the land and its people.
This proved critical. White ultimately opted to keep troops north of the
Tugela River and move his main force to Ladysmith. White’s decision to
do this will be examined as will his leadership throughout the siege.
When he left South Africa, White took up the post of Governor of
Gibraltar. Although largely a sinecure, White’s tenure on “the Rock” was
busy to say the least. Naturally, there were the many visits by British and
foreign dignitaries which White had to oversee, none more significant
than the German Kaiser’s scheduled visit in March 1904 as well as his

23
White to John White, 7 March 1881, Mss Eur F108/98, GWP.
 1 INTRODUCTION 13

non-­scheduled return the following year.24 The British monarch, Edward

VII, also came to Gibraltar to promote White to field-marshal and person-
ally award him his baton. More critically, the development of longer-range
naval artillery guns kept White busy in Gibraltar as he had to work closely
with the admiralty office, in particular Admiral Lord Charles Beresford,
then Commander-in-Chief of the Channel Fleet, to insure the safety of the
vitally, strategic British colony. But the issue which most consumed White
psychologically and aroused great anxiety was the preservation of his
Ladysmith legacy. This was challenged first by Buller’s “amazing speech”
and the “surrender” telegram,25 then by Lieutenant-General Sir Archibald
Hunter’s claims about his role at the Battle of Wagon Hill and Caesar’s
Camp (Battle of Platrand) on 6 January 1900, and, finally, the drafts and
eventual publication of the second volume of The Times History of the War
in South Africa. Chapter 10 will discuss these issues and more including
White’s role in Indian Army reform during Lord Kitchener’s tempestuous
period as Commander-in-Chief, India.
After Gibraltar, White did not return to Antrim. Instead, in 1905, he
took up his last post as Governor of the Royal Chelsea Hospital, succeed-
ing two field marshals, Sir Donald Stewart and Sir Henry Norman, men
White knew from his time in India. His remaining years in London were
mostly uneventful. In June 1912, at the age of 76, White passed away.
Fittingly, Lord Roberts led the procession from Chelsea to Euston Station
where White’s remains were then transported to Broughshane.26
An historical investigation of White’s nearly 60 years of service reveals
much insight into the inner workings of the Victorian army. It shows an
officer very concerned about promotion and obtaining the necessary
influential contacts to succeed in his profession. It also demonstrates the
financial difficulties placed on officers on service overseas who were
required to secure servants, horses, clothing, and equipment, as well as to
obtain housing for themselves and their families, while at the same time
trying to maintain their property and possessions at home. Through his
correspondences with family, friends, and colleagues, a picture emerges of
an extremely well-informed soldier who kept up on global geopolitical
24
After giving his speech in Tangier which sparked an international crisis, the Kaiser’s
transport was damaged as it pulled out of the port and needed emergency repairs. It docked
in Gibraltar and the Kaiser was once again entertained by White.
25
White to John White, 16 October 1901, Mss Eur F108/98, GWP.
26
Order of White’s funeral procession, and a list of wreaths, including a sash sent with a
wreath from Kaiser Wilhelm II, Mss Eur F108/124 (27–28 Jun 1912), GWP.
14 S. M. MILLER

affairs, domestic politics, and troubles arising throughout the empire in

which situations might require a military presence. A new case study of
George White is not just long overdue, it provides an essential examina-
tion of the British Empire and the Victorian Army.
 CHAPTER 2

The Start of a Military Career (1853–1878)

George Stuart White was born on 6 July 1835 at Rock Castle near
Portstewart, County Londonderry.1 His mother, Frances, was the daugh-
ter of Frances Ann and George Stuart, Esq. of Donachy, County Tyrone.
His father, James Robert White, a barrister, was the second son, of James
White, Deputy Governor of County Antrim. This branch of the White
family had left England many generations earlier and had settled in County
Antrim.2 It was George’s grandfather, James, who left the Presbyterian
Church and adopted the Church of England as his spiritual home.3 George
White remained devoted to both the Anglican Church and to Ulster
throughout his life.
There appears to be no particular reason why George White chose the
military as his profession as a young man, nor, when he was older, did he
reflect on his earlier decision. His uncle John, who had served in the
Peninsular War, seems to have been the first White with any overseas

1
The site was later known as Low Rock Castle. It was torn down in 2001. “Low Rock
Castle,” Lord Belmont in Northern Ireland, accessed 18 November 2019, http://lordbel-
montinnorthernireland.blogspot.com/2013/07/low-rock-castle.html
2
According to Leo Keohane, a biographer of George White’s son, Jack, the Whites, origi-
nally Whyte, were from York and after supporting the Royalist cause during the English Civil
War, relocated to Ireland. During the Glorious Revolution, the family supported William of
Orange. Leo Keohane, Captain Jack White: Imperialism, Anarchism & the Irish Citizen
Army (Sallins, Ireland: Merrion Press, 2014), 9–12.
3
Mortimer Durand, The Life of Field-Marshal Sir George White, Volume I (Edinburgh and
London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1915), 6–7.

© The Author(s) 2020 15

S. M. Miller, George White and the Victorian Army in India and
Africa, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50834-0_2
16 S. M. MILLER

service. Nevertheless, after briefly attending Bromsgrove School in

Worcestershire, where his older brother James was a student, and then
King William’s College, Castletown, Isle of Man, White headed to the
Royal Military College at Sandhurst in 1850.
Sandhurst was a conservative institution both in temperament and in its
dedication to teaching traditional subjects.4 It began to embrace a degree
of modernization only after the death of the Duke of Wellington and the
end of the Crimean War (1853–1856) which revealed many major flaws in
the British Army. It was far from a professional institution when White
arrived, discipline was very lax, and most graduating cadets continued to
purchase their commissions.5
The few letters that have been preserved from White’s three years at
Sandhurst do not reveal much. He appears to have been mostly content as
a student at the Royal Military College and, like many of his peers, dis-
played more of an aptitude for riding and sport than academic studies.
Always a bit socially awkward, he did not make many lasting friendships.
White was eager to get his commission and to see active service and had
no interest in pursuing staff training at Farnham, an institution which was
floundering in the 1850s and would soon be redesigned as the Staff
College in Camberley.6 In November 1853, without purchase, he was
gazetted an Ensign in the 27th (Inniskilling) Regiment of Foot, and set
off for Dublin to join his regiment.7
The Irish infantry regiment, first raised during the Glorious Revolution
to defend Ulster Protestants from King James II and his Catholic allies,
was a fitting place for White to start his career. It had served during the
War of American Independence, in the Wars of the French Revolution and
Napoleonic Wars, notably at Waterloo where despite very high casualty
rates it held its ground, and most recently in South Africa during the latter

4
For more on Sandhurst, see Frederick Gordon Guggisberg, “The Shop”: The Story of the
Royal Military Academy (London: Cassell and Company, LTD, 1900); and, Hugh Thomas,
The Story of Sandhurst (London: Hutchinson 1961).
5
Anthony Clayton, The British Officer: Leading the Army from 1660 to the Present (London:
Pearson, 2006), 106, 139.
6
In a letter to his sister, Jane, shortly after arriving the Royal Military Academy, White was
already expressing his impatience in getting a commission. White to Jane White, 8 September
1850, White’s letters to his sister Jane White, Mss Eur F108/97(a)-(b)(c. 1845–1910), GWP.
7
The commission had been held by the scandalous, self-titled, Viscount Forth, George
Henry Drummond. For more on Viscount Forth, see Deborah Cohen, Family Secrets: Shame
and Privacy in Modern Britain (Oxford: University Press, 2013), 56–83.
 2 THE START OF A MILITARY CAREER (1853–1878) 17

Cape Frontier Wars. White had high expectations that his new regiment
would be sent to the Crimea where a demand by the British and French in
March 1854 had failed to convince the Russians to evacuate Moldavia and
Walachia and led to declarations of war. His older brother, James, secured
a lieutenancy without purchase, and was at the Siege of Sevastopol and the
Battle of Balaclava. James wrote to their parents who were residing at the
time in Beardiville, Coleraine, to urge his brother to try to obtain a trans-
fer to one of the regiments in the thick of the war.8 His brother needed no
urging. George had already written to his sister, Jane, “[James] is in great
luck. I wish I was a Lieutenant. It would make the difference of about 6
years service to me which is no small consideration to a man who
intends [to pursue a military career].”9 The younger brother would not
make it to Crimea, however; instead, on 20 June 1854, he travelled with
a section of his regiment to Queenstown (Cobh), County Cork and
boarded the Troopship Charlotte. His destination was Calcutta (Kolkata).10
The journey to India from Great Britain in the mid-nineteenth century
could take three to four months. White’s first voyage would take more
than six. From the start, he had a difficult time. Writing to his mother, he
was alarmed by the alcohol consumption of his regiment. “Everybody on
the ship is drunk but myself,” he complained.11 Later in his life, White
became very active in establishing temperance societies in India and gave
speeches to groups in Great Britain when he returned home for good in
the 1900s. Things were, however, about to get a lot worse aboard the
Charlotte. After three months of a “long, dull trip,” the ship hit bad
weather off the Cape of Good Hope. It continued eastward, and shortly
afterwards, it anchored off Port Elizabeth in Algoa Bay to take on drink-
ing water on 19 September. White was desperate to go ashore but he was
duty officer for the day and had to stay aboard the ship. When he was
8
James White to James Robert White, 30 May 1855, Letters from James White to his
father James Robert White and to his sister Elizabeth White, during the Crimean War, Mss
Eur F108/117, GWP.
9
White to Jane White, 9 June 1854, Mss Eur F108/97, GWP.
10
According to William Copeland Trimble, the 27th left for India on 27 June 1854.
White’s letters disputes this. The right wing of his regiment, which included White, embarked
from Cork on 20 June; the left wing, 30 June. White to James Robert White, no date, Mss
Eur F108/96, GWP. Trimble, Historical Record of the 27th Inniskilling Regiment, from the
period of its institution as a volunteer corps till the present time (London: Wm. Clowes and
Sons, 1876), 111–12.
11
White to Frances White, 27 June 1854, White’s letters to his parents, Mr. and Mrs.
James Robert White, Mss Eur F108/96, GWP.
18 S. M. MILLER

finally relieved on the 20th, the “surf was coming up” and he was advised
by his superior, Captain C. Warren, to wait for the next day. He ignored
the advice, however, later writing to his father, “with the true mischief of
an Irishman, I trusted to my powers of swimming to get on shore in case
of an upset (little knowing the strength of the surf in Algoa Bay) and the
boat was upset, and I with great difficulty reached the shore with nothing
but the clothes on my back.”12 Exhausted and cold, White made his way
to a hotel to take off his thoroughly soaked clothes.
What White did not know is that about 6:00 p.m., while he was at the
hotel, one of the Charlotte’s anchor cables snapped. The Captain signaled
to the shore for a replacement but the harbor master responded that the
water was too rough to assist. Very soon afterwards “the other [anchor
cable] went and to the horror of all on the shore we saw the Charlotte was
gone.”13 “Shrieks of the women were awful as their children were washed
overboard one after another” into the “clouds of foam,” White wrote.14
Despite being only 150 yards off shore, rescue attempts largely failed.
Ninety-nine of the 208 passengers, including 26 children, and 18 of the
24 crew members were lost.15 White spent the next couple of days helping
to recover bodies, fitting them for coffins, and attending funerals. Not
only had White lost friends and comrades, all his personal belongings were
swept away and he had no money to purchase replacements.
White and the other men of the 27th Regiment made their way to Cape
Town, the administrative center of the Cape Colony, to await their new
conveyance. This would be White’s only visit there for the next 45 years.
He quite liked the colonial town which the British had first taken from the
Dutch in 1795, and after returning it to fulfill the peace terms at Amiens,
retook it in 1805 and held on to it after the Treaty of Paris in 1815. In a
letter home, he compared it favorably to London, noting that the biggest
difference was its many “Black People.”16 White had no idea how long
they were going to be stranded in Cape Town. Rumors were rife that
another frontier war with the Xhosa was going to erupt but White was
hoping none would. “It would be a great go if we were to be kept here for

12
White to James Robert White, 29 September 1854, Mss Eur F108/96, GWP.
13
White to James Robert White, 29 September 1854 and 5 October 1854, Mss Eur
F108/96, GWP.
14
White to James Robert White, 5 October 1854, Mss Eur F108/96, GWP.
15
White was incorrectly listed in most contemporary reports as being aboard the ship when
the tragedy struck. Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Telegraph, 9 December 1854.
16
White to James Robert White, 18 October 1854, Mss Eur F108/96, GWP.
 2 THE START OF A MILITARY CAREER (1853–1878) 19

a Caffir war,” he wrote home. “For my part, I hope most sincerely we

won’t as we would run every chance of being shot and get no promotion.”17
Within two years, the Great Cattle Killing would begin which would
spread havoc and lead to the deaths of thousands, but White would be
long gone from the Cape Colony by then. In November, he boarded the
Maidstone and arrived in Calcutta early in the New Year.
As a low-ranking officer, White had no privileged information as to
where his regiment was going to be deployed. It was not until he arrived
in Calcutta on 8 January 1855 that he learned he had another journey of
over 1200 miles to make. The Inniskillings were ordered to proceed via
steamer up the Ganges (Ganga) River to Allahabad (Prayagraj) and then
to march to Lahore and onto Sealkote (Sialkot), a strategically important
position in the Punjab, which had only been incorporated into British rule
in 1849. The presence of an armed force in Sealkote helped to preserve
British interests in the northeast Punjab and influence affairs in neighbor-
ing Kashmir. Sealkote would be White’s home for the next year.
Despite referring to his new posting as a “healthy station,” by June,
newly promoted Lieutenant White was writing home that soldiers were
dying every day in “this awful hole.”18 White ascribed this to excessive
drinking of alcohol and high temperatures. Whether his assessment was
correct or not, the 30% invalid rate he reported was quite high. Life in
Sealkote became too routine for the young officer. He soon stopped dis-
cussing with his family parade, drill, shooting and riding, and doing his
best to stay out of the sun.19 But without influential friends back home, he
was stuck there. When Lieutenant-Colonel H.D. Kyle learned that White
was discussing switching regiments, he “was most indignant at the idea of
my going, [and] he spoke to me about it.”20 Nevertheless, in the New Year
when he learned that a junior lieutenant had purchased a rank which made
him now senior to White, he began negotiating with a lieutenant in the
87th (Royal Irish Fusiliers) for an exchange. His efforts however failed

17
Ibid. The wars with the Xhosa along the Eastern Cape Frontier were known as the Kaffir
(Caffir) Wars through the nineteenth and mid twentieth centuries. Kaffir is a pejorative with
its roots in the Arabic word for infidel.
18
White to Frances White, 14 June 1855, Mss Eur F108/96, GWP.
19
White to Fanny White, 29 April 1855, White’s letters to his sister Fanny White, Mss Eur
F108/99 (1855–1906), GWP.
20
White to James Robert White, 29 July 1855, Mss Eur F108/96, GWP.
20 S. M. MILLER

when the young officer’s father had “returned him for purchase.”21 White
was not optimistic about his prospects of advancement in the 27th,
because, as he wrote to his father, in India, the officers “lived very hard,”
often got into debt, and therefore could not afford to purchase up, creat-
ing a bit of a logjam. White, however, did not ask for assistance from his
father to purchase a higher rank but continued to try to secure a better
position through exchange.22
White did his best to interrupt the monotony of his duties with a trip
to the higher altitudes and cooler temperatures near the British hill station
at Dalhousie. Hiking in the hills and mountains of Central and Southern
Asia would remain a favorite past time of his throughout his career in
India. He would return to Dalhousie more than once, take trips into
Kashmir, west of Srinagar, and even found the time during the war in
Afghanistan to ascend several peaks. He also attended races and balls in
Sealkote, despite his “most fervent contempt of Indian society at large.”23
Arriving in India before the Rebellion, at a time before biological rac-
ism began to shape imperial views and martial race theory deeply informed
military recruiting policies, and growing up in Northern Ireland, race
would have meant something very different to White than to late
Victorians. Although it is possible that White came into contact with
Africans, Asians or the small Black population living in Great Britain,
mostly in London, his experience as an officer in the British Army pre-
sented opportunities to see a different world and a variety of people not
available to most Britons.24 His short time in Cape Town was eye-­opening;
his many years in India no doubt had a great impact on the convictions
which he brought with him from County Antrim. The use of the pejora-
tive “nigger” does pop up periodically in letters home during the 1850s,
as does “coolie,” although the latter is not used by White deliberately as a
term of derision, but instead to describe Indians who were employed to
carry baggage and perform menial labor, although he did not use the
word to describe personal servants. Although still deeply problematic,

21
White to James Robert White, 8 March 1856 and 22 March 1856, Mss Eur
F108/96, GWP.
22
For more on the purchasing of commissions and the eventual end of the practice, see
A.P.C. Bruce, The Purchase System in the British Army, 1660–1871 (London: Royal Historical
Society, 1980).
23
White to Frances White, 4 January 1856, Mss Eur F108/96, GWP.
24
Douglas A. Lorimer, Colour, Class and the Victorians: English Attitudes to the Negro in
the Mid-Nineteenth Century (New York: Holmes & Meier, 1978), 41.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
being greatest among them, who can afford to eat [18]Rice all the
Year round. Kid and Fowl, they have a few, and were all the
domestick Animals I saw.
Remark 4. On the Negroes here, their Clothing, Customs and
Religion.
The Men are well-limbed, clean Fellows; flattish-nosed, and many
with Exomphalos’s; the Effect of bad Midwifry, or straining in their
Infancy to walk; for they are never taught, but creep upon a Matt on
all Fours, till they have Strength to erect themselves; and
notwithstanding this, are seldom distorted. These do not circumcise,
but the Slaves brought from the Northward are frequently so;
perhaps from bordering on Morocco.
The Women are not nigh so well shaped as the Men: Childing, and
their Breasts always pendulous, stretches them to so unseemly a
Length and Bigness, that some, like the Ægyptians, I believe, could
suckle over their Shoulders. Their being imployed in all Labour,
makes them robust; for such as are not Gromettas, work hard in
Tillage, make Palm-Oil, or spin Cotton; and when they are free from
such work, the idle Husbands put them upon breading and fetishing
out their Wool, they being prodigious proud and curious in this sort of
Ornament; and keep them every day, for many hours together, at it.
Their Houses are low, little Hutts, not quite so bad as many in
Yorkshire, built with wooden Stockades set in the ground, in a round
or square form, thatched with Straw; they are swept clean every day;
and for Furniture, have a Matt or two to lie down upon; two or three
earthen or wooden Dishes, and Stools, with a Spoon, all of their own
making. They are idle, principally from want of Arts and domestick
Employments: for as I observed, they are so cautious of planting too
much, and wasting their Labour, that they are really improvident;
smoaking all day in long Reed-Pipes together; unplagued with To-
morrow, or the Politicks of Europe.
Whole Towns shift their Habitations, either when they do not like
their Neighbours, or have more Conveniency somewhere else; soon
clearing Ground enough for what Building and Culture they purpose.
Seignior Joseph, a Christian Negro of this Place, has lately with his
People left a clean, well-built Town, and removed further up the
River. Their Huts are mostly orbicular, forming a spacious square
Area in the middle, and in this, the doors paved with Cockle-Shells;
two or three Crosses erected, and round about, Lime-trees, Papais,
Plantanes, Pine-apples, and a few Bee-hives; the latter made out of
pieces of old Trees, three foot long, hollowed and raised on two
Poles.
In the middle of the Area was a great Curiosity, a large Tree with
500 hanging Nests at least upon it; this is a small familiar Bird, that
builds thus about their Towns, upon the extreme slenderest Twigs,
hanging like Fruit, and declares the Wisdom of Instinct, since it’s
designed a Security for their Young, against Monkeys, Parrots,
Squirrels, &c. Creatures of Prey, whose Weight cannot there be
supported.
Anointing their Body and Limbs with Palm-Oil, is a daily Practice
with both Sexes; some use [19]Civet, but all cast a strong,
disagreeable Smell; this mending it much like as melted Tallow is by
a Perfumer’s Shop.
Palaavers are their Courts of Judicature, where the principal or
elderly Men amongst them meet in a Ring or under a Lodge, to settle
the Differences that arise amongst themselves, or with the Factories;
the frequentest are in relation to Trade. Each salutes the other at
meeting, by a Bend of the Elbow, and raising his Hand to his Face.
When they have heard what each Party has to say, they determine
by Vote, who has the Reason of the thing on their side, and so
punish, or acquit. For Fornication, the Party (whether Man or
Woman) is sold for a Slave. If a white Man lies with another’s Slave,
he is bound to redeem her at a current Price. On a Charge of
Murder, Adultery, or if there can be any other more heinous Crime
among them, the suspected Person must drink of a red Water his
Judges prepare; which is called, purging the Criminal: that is, if the
suspected be of ill Life, or had Envy to the deceased, so that the
Surmizes against him are strong, though they want positive
Evidence; they will give him so much of that Liquor as shall kill him;
but if inclined to spare him, they politickly give less, or make it
weaker, whereby his Innocence appears the better to the Friends
and Relations of the deceased.
Panyarring, is a Term for Man-stealing along the whole Coast:
Here it’s used also, for stealing any thing else; and by Custom (their
Law) every Man has a right to seize of another at any Conveniency,
so much as he can prove afterwards, at the Palaaver-Court, to have
been defrauded of, by any body in the same place he was cheated.
Dancing is the Diversion of their Evenings: Men and Women make
a Ring in an open part of the Town, and one at a time shews his Skill
in antick Motions and Gesticulations, yet with a great deal of Agility,
the Company making the Musick by clapping their hands together
during the time, helped by the louder noise of two or three Drums
made of a hollowed piece of Tree, and covered with Kid-Skin.
Sometimes they are all round in a Circle laughing, and with uncouth
Notes, blame or praise somebody in the Company.
During our stay at this Port, we paid a Visit to Seignior Joseph,
about nine miles up the River. The Reason of his leaving the other
Town, he told me was, the frequent Palaavers he was engaged in,
on account of Differences between his People and the Grimattoes,
and the great Expence he was at, in so near a Neighbourhood with
the English. He has been in England and Portugal; at the last place
he was baptized, and took in that christian Erudition that he
endeavours to propagate. He has built a little Oratory for his
People’s Devotions; erected a Cross; taught several of his Kindred
Letters, dispersing among them little Romish Prayer-Books, and
many of them are known by Christian Names. Those of the Country
not yet initiated, never have but one. Mousi, or Moses; Yarrat, and
Cambar, are very common Names to the Men; Baulee, and Kibullee,
to the Women. Others take the Cognomen from their Disposition;
Lion, Lamb, Bear, Hog, &c. like our Danish Ancestors. Seignior
Joseph, who is very communicative, tells me, to the extent of his
knowledge, the People are cleanly, of good Temper, and docible; all
wishing some Missionaries would think their Conversion and Wants
worth regarding: But the Poverty of their Country will probably keep
them a long time from that Benefit. There is no Invitation in a barren
Soil, scarce of Provisions and Necessaries, Danger of wild Beasts a
mile from Home (especially Wolves;) and about their Houses, Rats,
Snakes, Toads, Musquitoes, Centipes, Scorpions, Lizards, and
innumerable Swarms of Ants, a white, black, and red sort, that build
to 8 or 9 Foot high, dig up the Foundation of their Houses in two or
three Years, or turn a Chest of Cloaths to Dust (if not watched) in as
many Weeks. This Christian Negro, by the Advantage of Trade, has
in some measure removed the Wants of his own Family (his Towns;)
they are tolerably stocked with Guinea Hens, Fish, and Venison;
while the Country fifty miles off, he says, have little to feed on but
Honey, and Manyoco Root. He received us in a Europæan Dress
(Gown, Slippers, Cap, &c.) and sent his Canoos out to shew us the
Diversion of chasing the Manatea; they brought one ashore in two
hours time, and we had stewed, roast, and boiled, with a clean
Table-cloth, Knives and Forks, and Variety of Wines and strong Beer,
for our Entertainment. The Flesh of this Creature was white, and not
fishy; but very tough, and seasoned high (as are all their Dishes)
with Ochre, Malaguetta, and Bell-pepper.
His Kinswomen came into the Room after we had dined, and to
them other Neighbours, saluting those of their own Colour, one by
one, by making a Bend of their right Elbow, so that the Hand comes
nigh the Mouth; the other to whom she addresses, is in the same
Posture, and mixing their Thumbs and middle Fingers, they snap
them gently off, and retreat with a small Quaker-like Obeysance,
decently and without Hurry or Laugh. They shewed likewise much
good-nature towards one another, in dividing two or three Biskets,
and half a Pint of Citron Water (we brought) into twenty Parts, rather
than any one should miss a Taste. In conclusion, Seignior Joseph
saw us to the Boat, and took leave with the same Complaisance he
had treated us.
The Religion here, if it may be called such, is their Veneration to
Gregries: Every one keeps in his House, in his Canoo, or about his
Person, something that he highly reverences, and that he imagines
can, and does defend him from Miscarriage, in the nature our
Country-Folks do Charms, but with more Fear: And these things are
very various; either a cleaved piece of Wood, a Bundle of peculiar
little Sticks or Bones, a Monkey’s Skull, or the like. To these, every
Family has now and then a Feast, inviting one another; but of this
more, under the Word Fetish.
 The GRAIN and MALAGUETTA Coasts.
We left Sierraleon and were joined by our Consort the Weymouth,
May 1, from Gambia; we found upon Conference, that both Ships
had like to have ended their Voyage at these first Ports: She had run
on a Sand in that River, wringing three Days and Nights in a Tide’s
way, with great difficulty getting off: We, at Sierraleon letting in Water
to the Ship one Evening, had forgot the Plug, till we had 5 or 6 Foot
Water in the Hold.
The Company’s Presents, we understood by them, were received
well there by the King of Barra, and he has given the Factors leave
to build a Fortification at Gilliflee, a Town commanded by a Woman,
about 15 Miles up the River; made a Duchess by Captain
Passenger, from whence the Custom I believe has been taken up, of
distinguishing the most deserving Fellows at trading Towns by the
Titles of Knights, Colonels, and Captains, which they are very proud
of. This Duchess of Gilliflee has become very much the Factory’s
Friend there, and gives all possible Assistance in their Settlement.
Cape St. Mary’s, or the Starboard Entrance of that River, they
found no Cannibals, as commonly reported among Sailors; but a
civilized People, with whom they wooded their Ship.
On the 4th we were off Cape Monte, and next day Montzerado,
both high Lands; the former appearing in a double, the latter with a
single Hommock; the Country trenching from them, low and woody;
about 35 Fathom Water 3 Leagues from Shore. From the latter,
came off a Canoo with the Cabiceer, Captain John Hee,
distinguished by an old Hat, and Sailor’s Jackett with a greater
number of thick brass Rings on his Fingers and Toes, than his
Attendants. He seemed shy of entering the Ship, apprehending a
Panyarring; his Town’s People having often suffered by the
Treachery of Ships, and they as often returned it, sometimes with
Cruelty, which has given rise to the Report of their being Savages
and Cannibals at several places; very unlikely any where, because
they could not part with their Slaves, which are but few, if they had
this Custom, nor could they have any Trade or Neighbours: Their
Fears would make them shun their Enemies (the rest of Mankind)
and all Correspondence totally cease.
The Fetish they brought off, on this dangerous Voyage, was a
Bundle of small, black Sticks, like a hundred of Sparrowgrass put
into a Bag, knit of Silk-grass, and hanging over one of their
Shoulders, seeming to place a Security and Confidence in it; for I
would have handled and tasted it, but found it put them in a Fright,
saying, to deter me, You didee, you kicatavoo, (i. e.) if you eat, you
die presently.
The mutual Distrust between us, made their present Business only
begging old Breeches, Shirts, Rags, Biskett, and whatever else they
saw, parting in some hurry, and calling to one another for that end, in
a Note like what Butchers use in driving Cattle. They have plenty of
Milhio, Rice, Yamms, and Salt hereabouts.
We found in our coasting by Bashau, and other trading Towns, the
same Fears subsisting, coming off every day in their Canoos, and
then at a stand whether they should enter: The boldest would
sometimes come on board, bringing Rice, Malaguetta, and Teeth,
but staying under Fear and Suspicion. Here we may take these
Observations.
1. Canoos are what are used through the whole Coast for
transporting Men and Goods. Each is made of a single Cotton-tree,
chizelled and hollowed into the shape of a Boat; some of them 8 or
10 Foot broad, carrying twenty Rowers. The Negroes do not row one
way and look another, but all forward, and standing at their Paddles,
they dash together with dexterity, and if they carry a Cabiceer,
always sing; a Mark of Respect.
2. Cabiceers are the principal of the trading Men at all Towns; their
Experience, or Courage having given them that Superiority: All Acts
of Government in their several Districts, are by their Votes.
 They came off to us with some English Title and Certificate; the
Favour of former Traders to them, for their Honesty and good
Service; and were they done with Caution, might be of use to Ships
as they succeed in the Trade: Whereas now they contain little Truth,
being done out of Humour, and learn them only to beg or steal with
more Impudence.
3. The Negrish Language alters a little in sailing, but as they are
Strangers to Arts, &c. restrained to a few Words, expressive of their
Necessities: This I think, because in their Meetings they are not
talkative; In their Trading the same Sound comes up often; and their
Songs, a Repetition of six Words a hundred times.
Some Negrish Words.
Didee, Eat. Attee, ho, How do you?
Malafia, } Dashee, a Present.
Govina, } Ivory. Kickatavoo, Killed, or Dead.
Malembenda, Rice. Tossu, Be gone.
Cockracoo, Fowl. Yarra, Sick.
Praam, Good. Fabra, Come.
Nino, Sleep. Brinnee, White Man.
Sam sam, all one. Bovinee, Black Man.
Acquidera, Agreed. Soquebah, Gone, lost.
Oura, Very well. Tongo, Man’s Privities.
Tomy, Arse-clout. Bombo, Woman’s.

Lastly, the Dress common to both Sexes every where, is the Tomy,
or Arse-clout, and the pleating or breading of their Wooll. The Arse-
clout the Women tie about their Hips, and falls half way down their
Thigh all round; but the Men bring it under their Twist, and fasten just
upon the girdling part behind. Both take great delight in twisting the
Wool of their Heads into Ringlets, with Gold or Stones, and bestow a
great deal of Time and Genius in it.
The Women are fondest of what they call Fetishing, setting
themselves out to attract the good Graces of the Men. They carry a
Streak round their Foreheads, of white, red, or yellow Wash, which
being thin, falls in lines before it dries. Others make Circles with it,
round the Arms and Bodies, and in this frightful Figure, please. The
Men, on the other side, have their Ornaments consist in Bracelets; or
Manilla’s, about their Wrists and Ancles, of Brass, Copper, Pewter, or
Ivory; the same again on their Fingers and Toes: a Necklace of
Monkey’s Teeth, Ivory Sticks in their Ears, with a broad head. Most
of them have one, two, or more of these Ornaments, and have an
Emulation in the number and use of them.
When the Nakedness, Poverty and Ignorance of these Species of
Men are considered; it would incline one to think it a bettering their
Condition, to transport them to the worst of Christian Slavery; but as
we find them little mended in those respects at the West-Indies, their
Patrons respecting them only as Beasts of Burthen; there is rather
Inhumanity in removing them from their Countries and Families; here
they get Ease with their spare Diet; the Woods, the Fruits, the
Rivers, and Forests, with what they produce, is equally the property
of all. By Transfretation they get the brown Bread, without the
Gospel: together, as Mr. Baxter observed, they might be good Fare,
but hard Work and Stripes without it, must be allowed an unpleasant
Change. They are fed, it’s true, but with the same Diet and Design
we do Horses; and what is an aggravating Circumstance, they have
a Property in nothing, not even in their Wives and Children. No
wonder then, Men under this View, or worse Apprehensions, should
be prompted with Opportunity frequently to sacrifice the Instruments
of it.
 SESTHOS.
We anchored before Sesthos, or Sesthio, May 10th, a Place where
most of our windward Slave-ships stop to buy Rice, exchanged at
about 2s. per Quintal. The River is about half the breadth of the
Thames; a narrow Entrance only for Boats on the starboard Side,
between two Rocks, which, on great Swells and Winds, make the
shooting of it dangerous; the rest of the breadth being choaked with
Sands.
The Town is large, and built after a different Model from those we
have left; they run them up (square or round) four Foot from the
Earth; at that height, is the first and chief Room, to sit, talk, or sleep
in, lined with matted Rinds of Trees, supported with Stockades, and
in the middle of it, a Fire-place for Charcoal, that serves a double
Purpose; driving off Insects and Vermine, and drying their Rice and
Indian Corn. Of the upper Loft they make a Store-house, that runs up
pyramidal 30 foot; making the Town at distance, appear like a
number of Spires, each standing singly.
This, and every Town hereabouts, had a Palaaver-Room, a publick
Place of meeting for the People to council, and transact the Business
of the Society: They are large, and built something like our Lodges
for Carts, open, 4 foot from the Ground; then a Stage to sit, rafted
and well covered against Rain and Sun-shine. Here they meet
without distinction; King and Subject, smoaking from Morning to
Night. At this Place, it is common to bring your Traffick; brass Pans,
pewter Basins, Powder, Shot, old Chests, &c. and exchange for
Rice, Goats and Fowls. Two or three Pipes, a Charge of Powder, or
such a Trifle, buys a Fowl. A 2 pound Basin buys a Goat; and I
purchased two for an old Chest, with a Lock to it. Such a piece of
Mechanism I found a Rarity, and brought all the Country down to
admire. A Watch still encreased their Wonder; and making Paper
speak (as they call it) is a Miracle.
They bring their written Certificates hinted above, and when you
tell them the Contents, or they are made Messengers of Notes
between English Ships, they express the utmost Surprize at such
sort of Knowledge and Intercourse; it infinitely exceeds their
Understanding, and impresses a superior and advantageous Idea of
the Europeans.
The King who commands here has the Name of Pedro; he lives
about five Miles up the River, a Sample of Negro Majesty.
As there is a Dashee expected before Ships can wood and water
here; it was thought expedient to send the Royal Perquisite up by
Embassy (a Lieutenant and Purser) who being in all respects equal
to the Trust, were dismissed with proper Instructions, and being
arrived at the King’s Town, they were ushered or thrust in by some of
the Courtiers into the common Palaaver-Room (to wait the King’s
dressing, and coming from his Palace) his publick Audience being
ever in the Presence of the People. After waiting an hour, King Pedro
came attended by a hundred naked Nobles, all smoaking, and a
Horn blowing before them. The King’s Dress was very antick: He had
a dirty, red Bays Gown on, chequer’d with patch-work of other
Colours, like a Jack pudding, and a Fellow to bear the Train, which
was a narrow Slip of Culgee tacked to the bottom of the Gown. He
had an old black full-bottom’d Wig, uncombed; an old Hat not half big
enough, and so set considerably behind the Fore-top, that made his
meagre Face like a Scare-crow; coarse Shoes and Stockings,
unbuckled and unty’d, and a brass Chain of 20lib. at least about his
Neck.
To this Figure of a Man, our modern Embassadors in their Holiday
Suits, fell on their Knees, and might have continued there till this
time, for what Pedro cared: He was something surprized indeed, but
took it for the Fashion of their Country, and so kept making instant
Motions for the Dashee. This brought them from their Knees, as the
proper Attitude for presenting it; consisting in a trading Gun, two
pieces of salt Ship-beef, a Cheese, a Bottle of Brandy, a Dozen of
Pipes, and two Dozen of Congees. But Pedro, who understood the
Present better than the Bows, did not seem pleased when he saw it;
not for any defect in the Magnificence, but they were such things as
he had not present Occasion for; asking some of their Clothes and to
take those back again, particularly their Breeches, sullied a little with
kneeling in the Spittle: But on a Palaaver with his Ministers, the
Present was accepted, and the Officers dismissed back with a Glass
of Palm-Wine and Attee, ho, (the common way of Salutation with
Thumbs and Fingers mixed, and snapping off.)
To smooth the King into a good Opinion of our Generosity, we
made it up to his Son, Tom Freeman; who, to shew his good-nature,
came on board uninvited, bringing his Flagelet, and obliging us with
some wild Notes. Him we dress’d with an edg’d Hat, a Wig, and a
Sword, and gave a Patent upon a large Sheet of Parchment,
creating him Duke of Sesthos, affixing all our Hands, and the
Impress of a Butter mark on Putty.
This was taken so kindly by the Father, that he sent us a couple of
Goats in return, and his younger Son Josee for further Marks of our
Favour; whom we dignified also, on a small Consideration, with the
Title of Prince of Baxos. Several indeed had been titled, but none so
eminently, as by Patent, before; which procured us the entire good-
will of the King; suffering us at any time to hawl our Searn in the
River, where we catched good store of Mullets, Soles, Bump noses,
and Rock-fish; and to go up to their Villages unmolested.
In one of these Towns, some others of us paid a Visit to his
Majesty, whom we found at a Palace built as humble as a Hog-sty;
the entrance was narrow like a Port-hole, leading into what we may
call his Court-Yard, a slovenly little Spot, and two or three Hutts in it,
which I found to be the Apartment of his Women. From this we
popped through another short Portico, and discovered him on the left
hand, upon a place without his House, raised like a Taylor’s Shop-
board, and smoaking with two or three old Women, (the favourite
Diversion of both Sexes.) His Dress and Figure, with the novelty of
ours, created mutual Smiles which held a few Minutes, and then we
took leave with the Attee, ho.
 From his Town we went to two others still farther up the River; at
one of them was a bright yellow-colour’d Man, and being curious to
know his Original, were informed (if we interpret their Signs and
Language right) that he came from a good distance in the Country,
where were more. Captain Bullfinch Lamb, and others, have since
told me, they had seen several; Mr. Thompson, that he saw one at
Angola, and another at Madagascar; a great Rarity, and as
perplexing to account for, as the black Colour.
Exomphalos’s are very common among the Negroes here. I saw
also one squint-ey’d; another without a Nose; and another with a
Hair Lip; Blemishes rare among them. Circumcision is used pretty
much; not as a religious Symbol, but at the Humour of the Parent,
who had found a Conveniency in it.
The Diet is Rice, Potatoes, Yacoes or Indian Corn, Parsly, and
other Vegetables; the Cultivation of which, and their domestick
Affairs, are all imposed on the Women.
In general may be observed, they are exceeding cowardly, like
other Countries undisciplined; a whole Town running away from a
Boat with white Men. Thievish on their own Dunghills; none of them
seeming to have any Notion of it as a Crime, and quarrel only about
a Share of what is stole. So lazy, that Scores of them will attend our
Searn for a Bisket, or the Distribution of such small Fish as are
thrown by; for tho’ their Waters afford great Plenty, they want the
Means or Inclination to catch them; chusing rather to loiter and jump
about the Sands, or play at round Holes, than endeavour to get Food
for themselves.
 Cape A P O L L O N I A .
From Sesthos, we reached in two or three Days Cape Palma;
weighed Anchor from Jaque a Jaques, the 28th; from Bassau, the
30th; Assmee, the 31st; and anchored here the 6th of June. In this
part of our Sailing may be observed,
1. That the Land from Sierraleon, excepting two or three Capes,
and that about Drewin, appears low, and the first Land you see (as
the Irishman says) is Trees; runs very streight without Bays or Inlets,
which makes it difficult to distinguish, and impossible for us to land
safely at; the Surff breaking all along to a great height, by means of a
continued Swell from a vast Southern Ocean; a Sea which the
Natives only understand, and can push their Canoos through. This
seems a natural Prohibition to Strangers, and whence it follows in
respect to Trade, that Ships are obliged to send their Boats with
Goods near Shore, where the Natives meet them, and barter for
Slaves, Gold, and Ivory; for at many places a Grandee Shippee (as
they call it) affrights them, and they will venture then, as I imagine
they can swim.
2. The Ground is very tough, our Consort and we losing three
Anchors in heaving a Purchase; we stopping at Nights for fear of
over-shooting Places of Trade.
3. We find pretty equal Soundings, about 14 Fathom Water, a
League from Shore, unless at one noted place, a Lusus Naturæ,
called the bottomless Pit, 7 Leagues below Jaque a Jaques, where
the Depth is all at once unfathomable, and about three Miles over.
The great Sir Is. Newton, in his calculating the Force of Gravity,
says, Bodies decrease in their Weight, and Force of their Fall, in the
Proportion of the Squares of Distance from the Center; so that a Tun
at the Surface of the Earth would weigh but ¼ of a Tun, removed
one Semi-Diameter of the Earth higher; and at three Semi-
Diameters, but the 1/16 of a Tun. In like manner their Velocities of
Descent decrease: A Body at the Surface which would fall 16 foot in
a Second, at 12000 Miles high, or three Semi-Diameters, would fall
only 1/16, or one Foot in a Second; but at all given Distances,
something, &c.
Now, according to this Rule, heaving a Lead in great depths of
Water, the Velocity should increase with the descent or sinking of it;
since in the Progress of Gravity, the falling Body in every space of
Time receives a new Impulse, and continually acting, the same
Gravity super-adds a new Velocity; so that at the end of two
Seconds, to be double what it was at the end of the first, and so on,
which here the Weight of the super-incumbent Medium should still
more accelerate. Yet a Lead-line is drawn out perceptibly slower at
the second, than the first hundred Fathoms: But perhaps this
proceeds from the increasing quantity of Line to be drawn with it, not
so equally apt to demerge, and a Nisus in all Bodies of Water, from
below upwards, contrary to Gravity.
4. The Winds were more Southerly than above, checking the
Land-Breeze, which obtaining brings strong unwholesome Smells
from the Mangroves.
5. Their Diet being very slovenly, and much of a piece in this
Track, I shall here entertain you with two or three of their Dishes.
Slabbersauce is made of Rice and Fish, a Fowl, a Kid, or
Elephant’s Flesh, the better for being on the stink. They boil this with
a good quantity of Ochre and Palm-Oil, and is accounted a royal
Feast.
A Dog is a Rarity with some: Our Master had a little Boy-Slave of
eight years of Age, in exchange for one. At other Places, Monkeys
are a very common Diet.
Bomini is Fish dried in the Sun without Salt; stinking, they put it in
a Frying-pan with Palm-Oil, then mixed with boiled Rice, snatch it up
greedily with their Fingers.
Black Soupee is a favourite Dish, as well at our Factories, as
among the Negroes; we make it of Flesh or Fowl, stew’d sweet, with
some uncommon tasted Herbs; but the ascendant Taste is Pepper,
Ochre, and Palm-Oil. At first I thought it disagreeable, but Custom
reconciled it as the best in the Country: Men’s way of Diet being
certainly a principal Reason why in all places some of Land and Sea-
animals are approved or rejected; liked in one Country, and detested
in another.
To return to Jaque a Jaques; we met there the Robert of Bristol,
Captain Harding, who sailed from Sierraleon before us, having
purchased thirty Slaves, whereof Captain Tomba mentioned there
was one; he gave us the following melancholly Story. That this
Tomba, about a Week before, had combined with three or four of the
stoutest of his Country-men to kill the Ship’s Company, and attempt
their Escapes, while they had a Shore to fly to, and had near
effected it by means of a Woman-Slave, who being more at large,
was to watch the proper Opportunity. She brought him word one
night that there were no more than five white Men upon the Deck,
and they asleep, bringing him a Hammer at the same time (all the
Weapons that she could find) to execute the Treachery. He
encouraged the Accomplices what he could, with the Prospect of
Liberty, but could now at the Push, engage only one more and the
Woman to follow him upon Deck. He found three Sailors sleeping on
the Fore-castle, two of which he presently dispatched, with single
Strokes upon the Temples; the other rouzing with the Noise, his
Companions seized; Tomba coming soon to their Assistance, and
murdering him in the same manner. Going aft to finish the work, they
found very luckily for the rest of the Company, that these other two of
the Watch were with the Confusion already made awake, and upon
their Guard, and their Defence soon awaked the Master underneath
them, who running up and finding his Men contending for their Lives,
took a Hand-spike, the first thing he met with in the Surprize, and
redoubling his Strokes home upon Tomba, laid him at length flat
upon the Deck, securing them all in Irons.
The Reader may be curious to know their Punishment: Why,
Captain Harding weighing the Stoutness and Worth of the two
Slaves, did, as in other Countries they do by Rogues of Dignity, whip
and scarify them only; while three others, Abettors, but not Actors,
nor of Strength for it, he sentenced to cruel Deaths; making them
first eat the Heart and Liver of one of them killed. The Woman he
hoisted up by the Thumbs, whipp’d, and slashed her with Knives,
before the other Slaves till she died.
From this Ship we learned also, that the inland Country who had
suffered by the Panyarrs of the Cobelohou and Drewin People, have
lately been down, and destroyed the Towns, and the Trade is now at
a stand; and perhaps the Consciousness of this Guilt increases their
Fears of us. The Ceremony of contracting Friendship and Trade, is
dropping a little salt-water into the Eye, or taking it into their Mouth,
and spurting out again; which must be answer’d, or no Trade will
follow.
At Cape Apollonia, the Natives are of a jet black, very lively and
bold, accustomed to Trade, and better fetished than their
Neighbours; have cleaner and larger Tomys, wear Amber Beads,
Copper Rings, Cowrys, and their Wooll twisted in numberless little
Rings and Tufts, with bits of Shell, Straw, or Gold twisted in them.
They have all a Dagger † cut in their Cheek, and often in other Parts
of their Body: A Custom preserved among a few, down to the Gold
Coast. The Romans and Goths, when possessed of Barbary,
exempted the Christians from Tribute; and to know them, engraved a
+ upon their Cheeks; but this seems too distant for any Analogy with
theirs. All we learn is, its being a very ancient Custom, and
distinguishes them from the Country, who they Panyarr and sell for
Slaves, naked at 4 oz. per Head; allowing 100 per Cent. on Goods,
they cost at a medium 8l. Sterling. The Cabiceers, out of this,
demand a due of 20s. and the Palaaver-Man 10s. whence I
conjecture they are more regularly trained to Panyarring or thieving,
than the Towns we have past.
There is a great deal of Ground cleared about this Cape, and
sown with Indian Corn; first brought among the Negroes, it’s said, by
the Portuguese.
 Cabo T R E S P U N T A S .
We stopped a few Hours at Axim in our Passage from Apollonia, and
anchored here June 7, most Ships doing it for the Conveniency of
watering, more difficultly supplied at any parts above. It is called
Three Points, from that number of Headlands that jutt one without
the other; within the innermost is a commodious Bay, nigh the
watering-place. John Conny, who is the principal Cabiceer, exacts a
Duty from all Ships, of an Ounce of Gold, for this Privilege; and
sends off a Servant with his Commission, a large Gold-headed
Cane, engraved John Conny, to demand it. Our Neglect herein, with
some opprobrious Treatment of the Agent, occasioned John Conny
next day to come down with a Posse and seize our Water casks
ashore, carrying away ten or a dozen of our Men Prisoners to his
Town. The Officer among them endeavouring to distinguish to John
the Difference of a King’s Ship from others, got his Head broke: John
(who understood English enough to swear) saying, by G—— me
King here, and will be paid not only for my Water, but the Trouble
has been given me in collecting it. Drink on, says he to the Sailors,
(knocking out the Head of a Half-Anchor of Brandy,) and eat what my
House affords; I know your part is to follow Orders. John, after some
trouble in negotiating, accepted in recompence, six Ounces of Gold,
and an Anchor of Brandy.
His Town stands about three Miles Westward of the watering-
place; large, and as neatly raftered and built, as most of our North or
West small Country Villages. Every Man his Coco-trees round the
House, and in the Streets (such as they are) sit People to sell the
Nuts, Limes, Soap, Indian Corn, and what is a great part of their
Food, Canky, the Work of the Women. It is made of Indian Corn,
after this manner; they pound it in a Mortar for some time, then
malaxing it with Water and Palm-Wine, they grind it still finer with a
Mull upon a great Stone, which every House almost has at the Door
for that purpose; baked or boiled in Cakes, it makes a hearty and
well-tasted Bread.
The Danish (or, as they say, the Brandenburghers) Fort was on an
adjacent Hill, of four or five Bastions, and could mount fifty Guns.
The Garison, when in being, probably taught the Natives the way of
marketing, observed only where the Factories are; but being some
few years since relinquished by them, it’s now in John Conny’s
possession, and has raised up some Contests and Palaavers with
the Dutch: for they pretending a Title of Purchase, sent a Bomb-
Vessel and two or three Frigates last Year, to demand a Surrendry;
but John being a bold and subtle Fellow, weighing their Strength,
answer’d, that he expected some Instrument should be shewed him
to confirm the Brandenburghers Sale; and even with that (says he) I
can see no Pretence but to the Guns, the Brick, and Stone of the
Building, for the Ground was not theirs to dispose of. They have paid
me Rent for it, (continues he) and since they have thought fit to
remove, I do not design to tenant it out to any other white Men while
I live. This sort of Palaaver nettled the Dutch; they threw in some
Bombs and Shot; and heating more with Rage and Brandy, very
rashly landed forty of their Men under the Command of a Lieutenant
to attack the Town: They fired once without any Damage, and then
John at the Head of his Men, rushing from under the Cover of the
Houses, outnumbred and cut them in pieces; paving the entrance of
his Palace soon after, with their Skulls.
This Advantage made him very rusty, upon what he called his
Dues from every body, tho’ just in Trade; and when we had returned
to a good Understanding, my self, with some other of our Officers
paid him a Visit: Our landing was dangerous, the Southerly Winds
making so great a Surff, nor could we do it by our own Boats, but
Canoos of his sending, paying an Accy for the Service; they count
the Seas, and know when to paddle safely on or off. John himself
stood on the Shore to receive us, attended with a Guard of twenty or
thirty Men under bright Arms, who conducted us to his House; a
Building pretty large, and raised from the Materials of the Fort. It
ascends with a double Stone Stair-case without, of twelve Steps; on