INDIAN DISTURBANCES IN HONDURAS, 1848-9--THE ESCORT TO COOMASSIE,
1848--THE SHERBRO EXPEDITION, 1849--ESCORT TO RIO NUNEZ, 1850.
While No. 7 Company had thus been engaged on the Gold Coast, the
quinquennial relief for the West African garrisons had sailed from the
West Indies, No. 2 and No. 5 Companies, 1st West India Regiment, having
embarked at Jamaica on February 21st, 1848. They arrived at Sierra Leone
in April, and No. 5 Company being there landed to relieve No. 4, No. 2
proceeded to Cape Coast Castle to relieve No. 7. The two relieved
companies rejoined the head-quarters at Jamaica on July 2nd, 1848. No. 8
Company having been sent to Nassau in February, and the light company in
July, while No. 1 had been despatched to Honduras in May, the
distribution of the regiment in August, 1848, was as follows: 2
companies in West Africa, 2 at Nassau, 1 in Honduras, and 5 in Jamaica.
No. 1 Company had been sent to Honduras in reply to an urgent appeal for
a reinforcement from the Honduras Government, that colony being
threatened with the horrors of an Indian war. In 1847 a war broke out
between the Yucatecans and the Indians, and caused much anxiety to the
British colony, whose strict neutrality satisfied neither of the
contending parties. The Yucatecans, being driven out of the southern
portion of Yucatan, took refuge in our territory, and raids and
reprisals were frequent between them and the Santa Cruz Indians. In 1848
the town of Bacalar, situated on the shores of a lake, about twenty
miles from the northern frontier of British Honduras, was captured by
the Indians, and the fugitives, streaming into the colony, spread alarm
amongst the colonists. It was at this time that reinforcements were
applied for, and No. 1 Company, under Major Luke Smyth O'Connor,
despatched from Jamaica.
On arriving at Belize the company was at once moved up to the Hondo, and
towards the end of May a portion of it proceeded on escort duty with a
British commissioner to Bacalar to endeavour to arrange a peace. That
town had been the scene of the most frightful atrocities, and the
streets were found strewn with the dead bodies of men, women, and
children. Negotiations failing, the escort returned to the Hondo.
Collisions now became frequent between the Yucatecans and the Indians,
and our northern border became a rallying point for both sides. The
small British force was continually harassed by alarms and forced
marches taken to prevent violation of British territory, until towards
the close of 1848, it being rumoured that the Indians intended to cross
the Hondo and sack Belize, it was withdrawn from the north for the
protection of that town. Additional reinforcements were now asked for,
and on March 29th, 1849, No. 4 Company, under Captain Meehan, embarked
at Jamaica for Honduras.
In January, 1849, No. 1 Company had again advanced to the Hondo, and
were within a few miles of Chac Creek on that river, when the sanguinary
struggle between the Yucatecans and Indians took place. Hearing the
sound of firing the troops marched to the spot, and finding the Indians
employed in roasting the dead bodies of the defeated Yucatecans, were
only with the utmost difficulty restrained from attacking them. But the
most strict orders had been given for the preservation of British
neutrality, and nothing could be done. Indeed, the Indians were
themselves well aware of the advantages which they derived from our
neutrality, and were exceedingly careful not to come into contact with
the British; even going so far as on one occasion to shoot a chief and
flog six men, who had been accused of committing an outrage across the
Hondo.
In March, 1849, Major O'Connor visited Bacalar to endeavour to make
peace, but without success; and the two companies of the regiment
remained stationed on the Hondo, amid the same scenes of horror, until
February, 1852, when they rejoined head-quarters at Jamaica.
To return to the companies in West Africa. In September, 1848, Mr.
Winniett, the Lieutenant-Governor of the Gold Coast, received
instructions from the Secretary of State for the Colonies to proceed on
a mission to Coomassie, the capital of the Ashanti kingdom, for the
purpose of establishing friendly relations between Great Britain and
that power. Captain Powell, 1st West India Regiment, was then in command
of No. 2 Company, stationed at Cape Coast Castle, and he, with
forty-eight men of the regiment, accompanied the Lieutenant-Governor as
an escort.
The mission left Cape Coast Castle on the 28th of September, 1848,
crossed the River Prah on October 4th, and on the 8th reached the
village of Karsi, about two miles from Coomassie. There the party halted
to prepare for the entry into the capital, and, at noon, the King's
messengers having informed them that everything was in readiness for
their reception, they proceeded towards Coomassie.
Captain Powell says: "At a distance of about a mile from the town, a
party of messengers with gold-handled swords of office, arrived with the
king's compliments. After halting for a short time, we proceeded to the
entrance of the first street, and then formed in order of procession,
the escort leading. Presently a party of the king's linguists, with four
large state umbrellas, ensigns of chieftainship, came up to request us
to halt for a few minutes under the shade of a large banyan tree in the
street, to give the king a little more time to prepare to receive us.
After a brief delay of about twenty minutes, during which a large party
of the king's soldiers fired a salute about a hundred yards distant from
us, we moved on to the market-place, where the king and his chiefs were
seated under their large umbrellas, according to the custom of the
country on the reception of strangers of distinction. They, with their
numerous captains and attendants occupied three sides of a large square,
and formed a continuous line about 600 yards in length, and about ten
yards in depth. After we had passed along about three-fourths of the
line, we found the king surrounded by about twenty officers of his
household, and a large number of messengers with their gold-handled
swords and canes of office. Several very large umbrellas, consisting of
silk velvet of different colours, shaded him and his suite from the sun.
These umbrellas were surmounted by rude images, representing birds and
beasts, overlaid with gold; the king's chair was richly decorated with
gold; and the display of golden ornaments about his own person and those
of his suite was most magnificent. The lumps of gold adorning the wrists
of the King's attendants, and many of the principal chiefs, were so
large that they must have been quite fatiguing to the wearers. We
occupied about an hour in moving in procession from the banyan tree,
where we had rested on entering the town, to the end of the line
prepared for our reception; after which we proceeded to an open space
at some distance from the market-place, and there took our seats. At
3.15 p.m. the chiefs commenced moving in procession before us, and this
lasted until 6 p.m. Those whom we had first saluted in the market-place
passed us first. Each chief was preceded by his band of rude music,
consisting chiefly of drums and horns, followed by a body of soldiers
under arms, and shaded by a large umbrella. The king was preceded by
many of the officers of his household, and his messengers with the
gold-handled swords, etc. etc. When he came opposite the governor, and
received our military salute, he stopped, and approaching him took him
cordially by the hand. After the king, other chiefs, and a large body of
troops, passed in due order; and at 6 p.m. the ceremony closed."
At 9.30 a.m. on October 26th, 1848, the mission left Coomassie on its
return journey to the coast, and arrived at Cape Coast Castle on
November 4th. This was the first occasion on which a British Governor,
or a body of regular troops, had ever visited Coomassie.
In March, 1849, a further change took place in the distribution of the
regiment in the West Indies, No. 7 Company, under Captain R. Hughes,
proceeding to Nassau from Jamaica. There were thus the head-quarters and
3 companies in Jamaica, 3 in Nassau, 2 in Honduras, and 2 in West
Africa.
In June, 1849; the Acting Governor of Sierra Leone found that the state
of affairs in Sherbro, a low-lying tract of country some seventy-five
miles to the southward of Sierra Leone, imperatively called upon the
British to take steps for putting an end to the war which for a long
time had been carried on between the rival chiefs of the Caulker family,
and had utterly paralysed trade. H.M.S. _Alert_ and _Adelaide_ were to
be employed, but as a military force was required to proceed with the
naval one, the under-mentioned force embarked in the Colonial steamer
_Pluto_ on the 18th of June: Captain Grange, Lieutenant Jones, and 45
men of the 1st West India Regiment, and 44 men of the 3rd West India
Regiment. The expedition arrived at Yawrey Bay, at the mouth of the
Cockboro River, on the 19th of June, when a stockaded fort was shelled
and destroyed by the _Adelaide_. The expedition then proceeded to
Bendoo, and after some delay, owing to the difficulty in inducing the
chiefs to come in, returned to Yawrey Bay on the 29th, where
negotiations were held and a treaty of peace between the Government and
rival chiefs signed. The detachments rejoined at Freetown, Sierra Leone,
on July 7th.
On the 29th of November, 1849, Lieutenant Tunstall and 34 men of No. 2
Company of the 1st West India Regiment, left Cape Coast Castle and
proceeded to Appollonia in canoes, in aid of the civil power. After an
absence of three weeks, during which they endured great hardships from
exposure and fatigue, they rejoined their detachment at Cape Coast.
In the beginning of the year 1850, the Rio Nunez was in such a disturbed
state as to necessitate the Governor of Sierra Leone taking steps for
the protection of British subjects there. Some influential chiefs of the
river having also besought the intervention of the Government to restore
peace, commissioners were appointed, and as war was actually being
carried on at the time, a military force was detailed to accompany them.
This force consisted of Lieutenant Searle and 33 men of the 1st West
India Regiment and Captain Prendergast and 34 men of the 3rd West India
Regiment, and it embarked in H.M.S. _Teazer_ on the 22nd of February,
1850. The _Teazer_ arrived at the Rio Nunez on the 24th, and proceeded
up the river to Ropass, a town some distance up the stream, where the
commissioners landed with the escort. A "palaver" was held at this place
on March 1st, the rival chieftains being attended by large bodies of
armed men, but no satisfactory arrangement was arrived at, and next day
the commissioners and troops proceeded to Walkariah, a town higher up
the river. Here matters were finally amicably settled, and the party
returned to Sierra Leone on March 9th.
In the West Indies there had been little change since 1849, except that
on the 13th of February, 1851, the head-quarters and two companies were
removed from Up Park Camp to Spanish Town; and a detachment consisting
of half a company, under Ensign Cave, was sent to Turk's Island in
December, 1851. This latter rejoined head-quarters in Jamaica in
January, 1852; and in February, No. 1 and No. 4 Companies, under Captain
Robeson, rejoined from Honduras. In the same year, however, they again
went on detachment: No. 1, under Captain Grange, to St. Christopher's,
and No. 4, under Lieutenant Imes, to Barbados. The distribution of the
regiment in September, 1852, was thus: the Grenadier, No. 3 and No. 6
Companies, at Jamaica; the Light, No. 7 and No. 8 Companies, at Nassau,
No. 4 at St. Christopher's, No. 1 at Barbados, No. 5 at Sierra Leone,
and No. 2 at Cape Coast Castle.
In February, 1852, Major L. Smyth O'Connor, 1st West India Regiment, had
arrived at Sierra Leone and assumed command of the troops in West
Africa, and finding in May that the company on the Gold Coast was
reduced by deaths to only 50 rank and file, he recommended that it
should be recalled to Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast Corps, then almost
completed, being quite sufficient for the garrison of the Gold Coast.
In September, 1852, Major O'Connor was appointed Governor of the Gambia,
and as by Horse Guards letter of September 20th, 1852, "it was
considered expedient that he should continue invested with the command
of the troops on the West Coast of Africa, and move the head-quarters
to the Gambia," this was done in October, 1852.
The War Office having approved of Major O'Connor's recommendation, No. 2
Company, 50 strong, arrived at Sierra Leone from Cape Coast Castle on
March 20th, 1853.