The History of the First West India Regiment

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

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

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

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

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

In 1846, No. 5 Company was removed from Demerara to Tobago, and the detachments at Dominica and Grenada rejoined head-quarters in Jamaica, where No. 2 and No. 5 Companies also rejoined on the 16th of December, 1847.55

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CHAPTER XIX.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CHAPTER XX.