THE TWO EXPEDITIONS TO MALAGEAH, 1854 AND 1855.
The troops that had been despatched from Sierra Leone and the Gambia for
the relief of Christiansborg, returned to Sierra Leone, in H.M.S.
_Prometheus_, on the 25th of November, 1854, and in consequence of the
hostile attitude assumed by the chiefs of the Mellicourie and Scarcies
Rivers, and the outrages committed by natives on mercantile factories in
those rivers, the Governor of Sierra Leone decided to detain the
contingent which had been sent from the Gambia, in order to have a
sufficient force to overawe the chief of Malageah, the principal
offender, and compel him to sign a treaty of trade. With this view,
accordingly, detachments of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd West India Regiments,
numbering in all 401 officers and men, under the command of Captain
Rookes, 2nd West India Regiment, embarked in H.M.S. _Prometheus_ and
_Dover_, on the 2nd of December, and sailed for the Mellicourie River,
on which the town of Malageah is situated. The officers of the 1st West
India Regiment who accompanied the expedition were Captain R.D.
Fletcher, Lieutenant Connell, Lieutenant Strachan, and Ensign Anderson.
On December 4th, the expedition arrived off Malageah, and the
river-banks having been reconnoitred, Captain Heseltine, of H.M.S.
_Britomart_, who had been appointed diplomatic agent with powers to
negotiate, directed a landing to be made. The troops disembarked, and
meeting with no opposition, advanced on the town, seizing and occupying
the mosque and the king's house, while a second body took possession of
all the approaches to the town. By these means, a party of some 200
chiefs and Marabouts, who filled the mosque, were surrounded.
In the meantime, the 1st Division, under Captain R. D'Oyley Fletcher,
1st West India Regiment, had proceeded to a creek to the eastward of the
town, which they ascended in the boats of the _Britomart_, and then
crossing by bye-paths through the swamp and bush to the back of the
town, where they dispersed a body of 150 natives armed with rifles and
muskets, they joined the main body before the mosque.
Negotiations were opened by the diplomatic agent, and continued for
about half-an-hour; when, as it was noticed that the Marabouts were
gradually leaving the mosque and all going in one direction, a
reconnoitring party of ten men, under Lieutenant F.J. Connell, 1st West
India Regiment, was sent to the northern side of the town. Lieutenant
Connell, on reaching the town gate, found from 1800 to 2000 natives
armed with fire-arms, spears, bows and arrows, formed in a semicircle,
from eight to ten deep, facing the small picket that had been there
posted. The whole of the main body, with the seamen and marines, was at
once ordered up, and took up a position on the plateau to the north of
the town, facing the natives, while a detached party occupied the walls
and gates. At first there was a disposition on the part of the natives
to resist this movement, but it was so rapidly executed that they were
taken by surprise, and, losing cohesion, they soon after gradually
dispersed.
The king, Bamba Mima Lahi, now signified his desire to come to terms,
promised to comply with all demands, and to pay one thousand dollars as
a fine for his offences. The force accordingly re-embarked, the object
of the expedition having been effected without bloodshed, and returned
to Sierra Leone on December 6th. The following letter may be of
interest:
"H.M.S. BRITOMART,
"_Sierra Leone, December 6th, 1854._
"SIR,
"In bringing back the troops that have been embarked on board the
_Prometheus_ and landed at Malageah, and who, whilst afloat, have
been under my command, I beg to bear testimony to their quiet,
orderly, and zealous conduct, both afloat and ashore, where, had it
not been for the above good qualities, collision would have been
inevitable.
"To Captains Rookes, Mockler, and Fletcher, and the officers of the
force, I beg to return my sincere thanks for their zealous and
active co-operation; further comment on my part would be
presumptuous.
"A. HESELTINE,
"Commander and Senior Naval Officer.
"Lieutenant-Colonel Foster,
"Commanding troops."
On the 14th of December, the Gambia contingent sailed for the Gambia in
the Colonial steamer _Dover_, and the garrison of Sierra Leone remained
at its ordinary strength of three companies.
In May, 1855, as the King of Malageah had not observed the stipulations
of the treaty that had been forced upon him, and had not paid the fine
of one thousand dollars, the Acting Governor of Sierra Leone, a
gentleman of colour, determined to take steps for his punishment. On the
21st of May, accordingly, he sent for Captain R. D'Oyley Fletcher, 1st
West India Regiment, who was then in command of the troops, and informed
him that it was his intention to send a force of 150 men, that very day,
to burn the town of Malageah, and, if possible, capture the king. He
added that the troops would proceed in H.M.S. _Teazer_, then lying in
the harbour.
Captain Fletcher, in reply, said that he could not approve of the
proposed arrangements; that since a force of 400 men had been deemed
necessary to extract a promise from the king, it was, to say the least,
injudicious to endeavour to force him to fulfil that promise with only
150 men. He stated that at the last expedition more than 2000 armed
natives had been seen, and he considered it inadvisable to proceed to
actual hostilities without a force proportionate to the duty to be
performed. He further suggested that the expedition should be delayed
for two or three days, so that the detachments of the 2nd West India
Regiment might be brought in from Waterloo and the Banana Islands, and
the whole garrison employed on the duty. The Acting Governor overruled
these objections, insinuated that Captain Fletcher was actuated by fears
for his personal safety, and finally peremptorily ordered the force he
had mentioned to embark.
In consequence, on the evening of May 21st, Captain Fletcher, Lieutenant
Strachan, Lieutenant Wylie, and 69 men of the 1st West India Regiment,
with Lieutenants Keir and Beazley and 79 men of the 3rd West India
Regiment, embarked on board the _Teazer_. Lieutenant Vincent, 2nd West
India Regiment, was attached to the 1st for duty, and
Deputy-Assistant-Commissary-General Frith and Surgeons Marchant and
Bradshaw accompanied the troops.
The _Teazer_ arrived off Benty Point, at the mouth of the Mellicourie
River, on the morning of May 22nd, and, after a delay of a few hours, in
consequence of the difficulty in crossing the bar, the expedition
arrived off Malageah.
Lieutenant-Commander Nicolas, of the _Teazer_, and Mr. Dillet, the
Acting Governor's private secretary, had been appointed commissioners,
and, by their direction, the troops disembarked about 10 a.m. A flag of
truce was flying on the king's house, and, as he showed a disposition to
come to terms, the commissioners determined to depart from their
instructions, and make an attempt to settle the affair without having
recourse to force. They accordingly informed the king that if he would
pay the fine his town would be spared; and they granted him one hour for
this purpose, warning him that if at the expiration of that time the
money was not forthcoming, the town would be shelled.
Two hours having passed without any communication having been received
from the king, the _Teazer_ at noon opened fire, and the troops advanced
on the town, covering their flanks with skirmishers. This advance would
have been unnecessary had the _Teazer_ been supplied with rockets; but
there being none, the men were obliged to set fire to the houses. It
would be difficult to imagine a worse-planned expedition.
The troops gained the central square of the town, and, in compliance
with the written instructions, set fire to the mosque, the king's house,
and other principal buildings; and ultimately the whole town appeared to
be in flames. The left division, under Lieutenant Vincent, was exposed
to a desultory fire, during the whole of these operations, from the
enemy concealed in the bush; and large numbers of natives were observed
gathering on the plateau to the north of the town. As it seemed
impossible that any portion of the town could escape the conflagration,
and as the heat from the burning buildings was intense, the troops
retired to the river bank, and embarked in the _Teazer's_ boats.
Scarcely had the seamen dipped their oars into the water, to pull out
into the stream, than a volley was poured into the boats from the dense
bush which grew close down to the edge of the water; and the ambushed
enemy then commenced firing rapidly, but fortunately with so little
precision that the troops succeeded in reaching mid-stream with a loss
of only five wounded.
The boats continued their course to the ship, and the troops
re-embarked. The town was still in flames, but they were gradually
subsiding, and before nightfall were entirely extinguished, leaving a
considerable portion of the town still unconsumed. The commissioners,
upon this, decided, as it was too late to land again that day, to drop
down the river as far as Benty Point for the night, and to return next
morning to complete the work of destruction. Captain Fletcher then
objected to any second landing being made, pointing out that the whole
country was now alarmed, and that the people of Malageah would be
reinforced by those of Fouricariah (a populous town further up the
river), and that quite enough had been done to punish the king. The
commissioners agreed with his views, but decided that their orders were
so peremptory that they could not, without running the risk of censure,
leave the river until the entire town had been destroyed.
At 5.30 a.m. on May 23rd, the _Teazer_ left Benty Point, and steaming up
the river, anchored off Malageah, in which the ruins were still
smouldering. The vessel was so ill-provided with munitions of war that
hardly any shell remained from the previous day. What little there was,
was thrown amongst the houses to endeavour to fire them, and the attempt
being unsuccessful, it became necessary to land the men. The dense bush
around the town having been well searched with grape and canister to
clear it of any lurking enemy, the troops, 135 in number, were landed on
the bank of the mangrove creek running inland towards the town, and no
enemy appearing, they advanced to set fire to the buildings that had
hitherto escaped destruction.
The advanced guard of thirty men, with whom were Lieutenant-Commander
Nicolas and Mr. Dillet, who had landed to point out which houses it was
most important to thoroughly destroy, had only advanced some two hundred
yards from the bank of the creek, when they were received with a
murderous discharge of musketry from the enemy concealed in the bush.
Almost the whole of the advanced party were shot down in this one
volley, twenty men being killed on the spot, and Lieutenant-Commander
Nicolas and Mr. Dillet severely wounded. The main body, seventy-five in
number, under Captain Fletcher, at once hurried up to prevent the
wounded falling into the hands of the barbarous natives, and behaved
with great gallantry, for though falling thick and fast under the
tremendous fire which the concealed enemy--to the number of several
hundreds--poured into them from a distance of ten or twelve yards, they
held their ground until the wounded had been safely conveyed to the
boats.
Scarcely had this been accomplished than the rear-guard of thirty men,
under Lieut. Keir, 3rd West India Regiment, was attacked by a large
number of natives who had moved through the bush, and actually succeeded
in cutting off our men from the boats. The enemy advanced with great
determination into the open, thinking to overwhelm this small party, and
they were only driven back into the bush by repeated volleys and a final
charge with the bayonet.
By this time fully one-third of the men who had landed having been
killed, and a great number wounded, the order was given to retire, which
was done steadily, the ground being contested inch by inch. At this time
Company Sergeant-Major Scanlan, of the 3rd West India Regiment, and six
men who were covering the retreat, fell, the former mortally wounded;
and some of the bolder of the natives, rushing out of their concealment,
seized Deputy-Assistant-Commissary Frith, and dragged him away into the
bush, where he was barbarously murdered in cold blood. Scanlan was
lying in the narrow path, his chest riddled with bullets, when the chief
fetish priest of the place, to encourage the natives to make further
efforts, sprang upon a ruined wall in front of him, and began dancing an
uncouth dance, accompanying it with savage yells and significant
gestures to the dying man. He paid dearly for his rashness, however, for
Scanlan, collecting his strength for a last supreme effort, seized his
loaded rifle, which was fortunately lying within reach, and discharged
it at the gesticulating savage, who threw up his arms and fell dead. The
next moment Scanlan was surrounded by a horde of infuriated barbarians,
and his body hacked into an undistinguishable mass.
The troops, sadly diminished in number, at last reached that portion of
the mangrove creek where they had left the boats. Of these there had
been originally but two, and one having at the commencement of the
action been used to convey Lieutenant-Commander Nicolas and Mr. Dillet,
under the charge of Surgeon Bradshaw, to the ship, one only remained for
the men to embark in. The tide having fallen, this was lying out near
the entrance of the creek, separated by an expanse of reeking mud from
the shore. The men, seeing their last chance of safety cut off, threw
themselves into the mud, in which many sank and were no more seen. Some
few, however, succeeded in floundering along, half wading and half
swimming, until they reached her, and climbed in. She was, however, so
riddled with bullets, that she filled and sank almost immediately.
Captain Fletcher, Lieutenant Wylie, Lieutenant Strachan, and Lieutenant
Vincent, with some thirty men, endeavoured to make a last stand upon a
small islet of mud and sand, near the left bank of the creek; but
Lieutenant Wylie was shot dead almost at once, and Lieutenant Vincent,
being shot through the body, jumped into the water, to endeavour to swim
to the ship. In a few seconds seventeen men had fallen out of this
devoted band, and the survivors, plunging into the creek, swam down
towards the river. The natives lined the banks in crowds, keeping up a
heavy fire upon the men in the water; and Captain Fletcher and
Lieutenant Strachan, who were the last to leave the shore, only reached
the _Teazer_ by a miracle, they having to swim more than half a mile to
reach her.
As the last of the survivors gained the vessel, the natives, between two
and three thousand in number, lined the banks of the river, brandishing
their weapons and uttering shouts of defiance; and the heads of several
of the killed, horribly mutilated, were held out towards the ship on
spears, amidst cries of exultation. All the ammunition for the
_Teazer's_ guns having already been expended in shelling the town and
clearing the bush, it was impossible to reply to the enemy, and the
vessel proceeded slowly down the river, returning to Sierra Leone next
day.
The casualties of this day were as follows: The 1st West India Regiment,
out of 62 men who landed, lost 38 killed and 3 wounded. The 3rd West
India Regiment, out of 73 men who landed, lost 46 killed and 8 wounded.
Total, 95 killed and wounded, out of a force of 135 men.
The casualties amongst the officers were nearly equally heavy. Out of
the ten Europeans who were under fire, three, namely Lieutenant Wylie,
1st West India Regiment, D.A.C.G. Frith and C.S.M. Scanlan were killed;
and three, Lieutenant Vincent, 2nd West India Regiment,
Lieutenant-Commander Nicolas, and Mr. Dillet, severely wounded.
It was learned afterwards that the reason so large a force was assembled
at Malageah was that it was the time for the annual gathering of the
river tribes, to hear the laws read by the Alimani. This circumstance
ought of course to have been known to the Acting Governor, who was well
acquainted with the customs of the people. The Imperial Government held
him responsible for this defeat, and, in November, 1855, he was relieved
of his post, and charged "with having, when Acting Governor, on the 21st
of May, 1855, without authority, and upon insufficient grounds, sent an
expedition against the Moriah chiefs in the Mellicourie River, beyond
the Colony, with orders to burn or destroy the town of Malageah, planned
without foresight or judgment, disastrous in its termination, and
disgraceful to the British power," and was suspended from his office of
Queen's Advocate and from his seat at the Council Board.