Roume de St. Laurent ... A Memoir

"A creole cocktail of political thriller, historical romance and dashing picaresque replete with pirates and lost gold, corrupt financiers, ravishing coquettes, rabid revolutionaries and future emperors (Dessalines, Naploeon), Roume invites us to consider modernity in the New World, or what Besson frequently refers to as “the nightmare nest of slavery”. In dramatic fashion Roume examines the entanglement of Europe and the Caribbean on the cusp of the Haitian Revolution, the crossroads where the spirits of outmoded European feudalism and nascent capitalism, Enlightenment libertarianism and universalism collided with and contested the magical realism of an Afro-Creole worldview uneasily yet expediently allied with the ambitions of the offspring of the entanglement – the conflicted mulattoes.”

(Simon Lee,  Trinidad Guardian, 3 October 2016)

"Roume ‘works’ as a story from beginning to end, always moving and exciting, always unveiling inner truths about the Trinidadian or Caribbean spirit but also about the human spirit. It is never sensational, not even when you’re describing the horrors of the French Revolution. You ‘explain’ Trinidad better than any author I’ve read, although ‘explaining’ Trinidad is not your main goal. (Or is it?)
Most impressive to me is how you are able to display everywhere in your account such a keen sense of the virtue of restraint and subtlety.  I kept waiting for excess but never found it, not even once. The ‘poetical’ passages and touches are always deeply moving, and plausible, too. The whole thing is stunning.”

(Arnold Rampersad, Letter to the Author, 12 August 2016)

"Philippe Roume de Saint Laurent—who was he? Was he one of Trinidad’s heroes? He’s been called the “coloniser” of the island; he had a lot to do with the 1783 Cedula of Population and the subsequent waves of French migration here, which did indeed “populate” the island and open it up to plantation development….This long, sprawling novel reads like an epic romance, even though the basic facts about Roume’s career are accurate. There’s piracy in the Caribbean, hidden treasure (buried in a cave in Gasparee), revolution and war in France and Saint Domingue/Haiti, intrigues, villainies, manhunts and plots…. Besson’s exciting and lushly written novel gives us a romantic and fascinating view of Trinidad, France and the Caribbean during the era of Revolution—the best and the worst of times, as Dickens famously wrote at the start of his A Tale of Two Cities.”

(Bridget Brereton, Trinidad Express, 2 June 2016)

ISBN: 978-976-8244-21-5
530 pages
Softcover / Kindle

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Making room for Creole history
Review by Simon Lee
Published in the Trinidad Guardian, 3 October 2016

"Jerry Besson’s latest foray into the not so distant but largely forgotten past –a fictionalized memoire of Philippe Roume de Saint Laurent, the man who engineered the 1783 Cedula for Population which birthed modern Trinidad – ebulliently mixes genres in a stampede of individual and historical narratives, exploring aspects of Creole sensibility which have slipped through the seine of recent Caribbean historiography.
 Yet this heavyweight, at close to 500 pages and hugely ambitious in its scope (tracing the creolization of Enlightenment ideals and centering the ‘peripheral’ Caribbean at the heart of the ill-fated French and successful Haitian revolutions) lightly sidesteps the tedium of much historical fiction. Roume immerses readers intimately in the lives of such unforgettable imaginary characters as Sarusima the Carib or the demented white Creole Tante Mam’zelle, along with historical figures like Roume’s shape-shifting second wife Marianne ‘Soubise’ Rochard, the Grenadian mulatresse, whose fictional journals both anchor her husband’s narrative of opportunism and also provide another, insider’s point of view of the events he engaged in.
 A creole cocktail of political thriller, historical romance and dashing picaresque replete with pirates and lost gold, corrupt financiers, ravishing coquettes, rabid revolutionaries and future emperors (Dessalines, Naploeon), Roume invites us to consider modernity in the New World, or what Besson frequently refers to as “the nightmare nest of slavery”. In dramatic fashion Roume examines the entanglement of Europe and the Caribbean on the cusp of the Haitian Revolution, the crossroads where the spirits of outmoded European feudalism and nascent capitalism, Enlightenment libertarianism and universalism collided with and contested the magical realism of an Afro-Creole worldview uneasily yet expediently allied with the ambitions of the offspring of the entanglement – the conflicted mulattoes.
 Although the Haitian Revolution/War of Independence has attracted the attention of writers across the region from Walcott and Lamming, to Cesaire, Glissant and Carpentier, only historians like Laurent Dubois have attempted to chart revolutionary movements throughout the Caribbean at the end of the eighteenth century. In fiction it is only Besson who has made the connection between the Haitian uprising of 1791 and the Fedon uprising in Grenada of 1795, which like similar uprisings in St Vincent and St Lucia challenged the institution of slavery and European hegemony. It is the figure of Roume, a white Grenadian-born creole, who allows Besson to make the connection. Roume’s life journey took him on the wings of ambition and opportunism from Grenada to Trinidad, South America, Europe, Tobago and twice to Haiti, first as an agent of the French crown and then as High Commissioner of the French Revolution.
 Besson characterizes Roume as Frontier Man and Creole by birth and sometime conviction, embodying in him the contradictions of the Caribbean white massa slave-owning class, tainted by the legacy of the nightmare nest of slavery. When his first European-born wife Fanny recoils from him, still reeking from his latest sexual encounter on their Grenadian estate, he dashes her exotic fantasies (“a life of adventure, a sensual mixture of fecundity and elegance in a place on the frontier of the New World…she saw herself with him in paradise”) with all the callousness of those who viewed the slaves as property at worst, or “intelligent animals…without souls” at best. “You had to cover them, conquer them, breed them,” he rages at her with plantation pragmatism.
 Ironically it is a product of precisely this brutal regime, the mulatresse Soubise Rochard, who becomes his second wife, soul mate and companion for life. Born as Marianne Katronice, the illegitimate daughter of an estate owner and his slave mistress, she crosses the divide erected by the aristocracy of the skin when freed by her dying father. However, in pre-Fanon style, for survival purposes, she cultivates a Creole identity as Soubise, only reverting to Marianne when occasion demands.  She is aware of the common ground which unites her with Roume and which ultimately severs him from the Old World despite his manoeuvring: “As a Creole, descendant of Europeans born in these islands, Philippe had an understanding of the land, climate and the blacks…The salt of the Caribbean Sea ran in his veins…we, Philippe and I understood things differently –Phillipe’s imagination contained a great deal of my own.”
 Soubise also recognizes Roume’s fluid identity, knowing “he possessed the actor’s gift of being all things to all men. A born Creole.” His central belief in free will and choice, allied to his insatiable drive to be an agent of change lead him to a major role in the worst excesses of the French Revolution, when as a “blooded Jacobin” he embraces the period of The Terror drawing on an internalized legacy of violence: “we of the slave islands understand how to live without a sense of humanity.”

By positioning Roume at the centre of the revolution in France, Besson echoes the theory of CLR James and others that the modern world was birthed in the Caribbean, in Haiti. Some of the best elements of Enlightenment philosophical theory (equality, liberty) were compromised, betrayed and eventually reversed by the French, because philosophy makes for bad economics and the French Revolution depended financially on slavery as much as the Ancien Régime. As one of the metropolitan characters puts it when dismissing the slaves’ claims to the Rights of Man: “ Rights, human rights cannot apply to them. Soulless, they have not the faculty of choice. Anyway that would mean a collapse of the economy. France cannot afford to free her blacks.” It took the “soulless creatures” of Haiti to effect the praxis of Equal Rights and fight for them successfully, establishing the world’s first free black republic at the same time as Napoleon swept aside the vestiges of the French Revolution to re-establish the old order, in the new guise of an empire.
 Roume’s decline is directly linked to the ascendancy of both Toussaint l’Ouverture  and Napoleon. Sent back to Hispaniola as the Republic’s High Commissioner in 1799, Soubise recognizes the dilemma he faces: “ You must make up your mind, are you of the Caribbean, or do you belong on the other side, the Atlantic.” Although Roume has by now arrived at a common understanding with Toussaint whom he reveres (“both believed that a Caribbean interpretation of the republican ideal could be arrived at. This belief had at its centre the certainty shared by them that the African…was a complete human being.”) he elects to put down his bucket with Napoleon, rejecting Toussaint’s offer “Stay and this nation will honour you…You will stand, an equal, with the men who have liberated the New World.’ Roume’s hestitation can be read as symptomatic of the Creole malaise of failing to fully embrace first liberty and much later independence, the same psychopathology Fanon and Naipaul highlighted, which is still with us in the postmodern Caribbean.
 Roume can stand alone as a viscerally entertaining text, dramatizing the genesis of the modern Caribbean. Viewed in the context of Besson’s prolific oeuvre, both historical and fictional, we can also read it as the continuing expression of a minority or sidelined narrative in the post-independence history of the Caribbean – the Afro/French-Creole story. Political correctness, politically manipulated Afrocentrism and some of the worst aspects of globalization and (under) development have obscured or obliterated this narrative, which we must all be grateful to Besson for retrieving, in the interest of better understanding who we are now and how we got here."

Circumstances surrounding the Fedon Revolution of 1795, Grenada

Grenada 28th February 1795

My Lord Duke,

                           I have the honor to receive Your Grace’s Circular Letter of the 3rd December enclosing copies of the Regulations adopted by the Board of Ordinance in passing the accounts of their accountants, and of The King’s Regulations in respect to the carrying on of Fortifications or other Military Services, to which I shall strictly conform.

                           I am also honored with Your Grace’s letter No 5, of the 10th December. I have fully explained to Sir John Vaughan the circumstances which render a strong Military Force of peculiar importance in this Island, and he has promised to remember it as soon as the reinforcement shall arrive. In the mean.

His grace

The Duke of Portland KG

&c                  &c                  &c

Page 2 missing?

Grenada, 28th Feb 1795 

Lt. Gov. Home

R 21st, April

ITEM:                                    Letter (Pages 1 to 5)

DATED:                        15TH March, 1795

FROM:                                    General Sir John Vaughan, Martinique

TO:                                    The Hon Henry Dundas

RECEIVED:                        1st June, 1795 (Duplicate – original not received)

ANSWERED:

SUBJECT:            Advising

 (a) Receipt of letters dated 3rd, 5th and 9th March from the Council of Grenada informing him that the Enemy (French) had landed at Grenville, had murdered many unresisting people, and had captured Lieut. Gov. Home plus about 30 other planters.

(b) That HMS Quebec (Captain Rogers) followed by HMS Resource had gone to the Island and that HMS Roebuck, outfitted as a hospital ship, was in Grenada at the time the French had landed.

(c) That he had sent Brig. Gen. Lindsay with a small party to take the Command, and that Lieut. Col. Shaw[1] of the 68th Regt. with a detachment of 140 men from the 9th and 68th had been sent from St. Lucia.

(d) That Gen. Seton of St. Vincent informed him that on 10th March the Caribs, abetted by the French, had attacked on that Island and that he had sent a Company of the 46th and 9th Regiments plus, at Gov. Seton’s request, enough arms and ammunition to arm 500 Negroes to assist in defending the Island.

(e)  That Major Malcolm’s force was holding the French in check in St. Lucia and that he had every confidence in Brig. General Stewart’s command in that Island. However, the Enemy was also threatening Antigua and other Colonies. His Squadron was blockading the made Harbour at Guadeloupe, but the French have been using small vessels to escape at night, each with 40 or 50 men bound for St. Lucia, St. Vincent and Grenada.

(f) That he was extremely mortified at the situation and most disappointed at the long delay in sending reinforcements and provisions for the Fleet etc.

ENCLOSURE:            A letter captured from the French was enclosed with General Vaughan’s letter, but a copy of that enclosure is not held.

[1] Also seen spelt as Schaw in letters from Gov. Mackenzie of Grenada

ITEM:                                    Letter (Pages 1 to 7)

DATED:                        28TH March, 1795

FROM:                                    K. F. Mackenzie – Acting Governor, Grenada

TO:                                    The Duke of Portland, K.G. – Whitehall, England

RECEIVED:                       

SUBJECT:            Advising

 (a) General insurrection of French Free Coloured people on 2nd March, massacre of White English inhabitants at Grenville, capture of White English inhabitants at Charlotte Town, including Lieutenant Governor (Ninian) Home who was on his way back to St. George’s by sea,  and  others from several estates in the Country.

(b) That he, Mackenzie, as the then senior member of the Council, had assumed command of the Island and had immediately placed the Island under Martial Law and sent Express Boats to inform the Governors of St. Vincent and Trinidad, the Captains of any British ships which the Express Boats might encounter, and the commanders of the British Land and Sea Forces (based, at the time, in Martinique)

(c) That, for a number of reasons,  attacks ordered against the Insurrectionists had all failed and that, with the assistance of a party of marines under the command of Captain Rogers from HMS Quebec, and of 40 soldiers and three armed ships sent by Governor Chacon of Trinidad, he had decided to focus on defending St. George’s until reinforcements arrived.

 (d) That Brigadier General Genera Lindsay had arrived from Martinique on the 12th March to take command but that, after initial success in capturing the lower of the enemy’s three Posts, (at what is now called Fedon’s Camp)had contracted fever and, in a fit of delusion, had committed suicide.

(e)  That Lieutenant Colonel Schaw of the 60th Regiment, who took over command of the Troops, and other officers had all concluded that their Force was to small to mount an effective attack against the remaining two Posts. As a result, he, Mackenzie, was forced to act on the defensive until reinforcements could arrive.

(f) He ends by praising the assistance provided by Captain Rogers and by Gov. Chacon and Don Churruca, the commanding officer of the Spanish force from Trinidad, but severely criticizing works at the Richmond Hill Prison..

No 22 Secret                                                                                          4--

                                                                    Martinico the 16th April 1795

                                                                                                 170

         Sir,

                  My last letter to you of the 27th March inclosed(sic) the latest account I had then received of affairs in Grenada.                                                                     The Convoy under the orders of R. Adm. Parker arrived at Barbados on and about the 30th March. The situations of the Islands of St. Lucia, St. Vincent and Grenada were equally critical and pressing for support – In the first the Enemy comprised bodies of revolted Negroes, headed by people from Guadaloupe, had increased in Numbers and arms so that we were reduced to the possession of M. Fr…. And the Town; the Enemy had taken Post upon two different points at a short distance from the ------ which they threatened to attack.-                                            

At St. Vincent the Charibs(sic) notwithstanding their defeat on Dorsetshire Hill, were in full possession of all the windward country, and we could not – more than guard Kingstown and the Fort.The interior of Grenada was wholly exposed to the Enemy in that Island, who were gaining daily in seducing the Negroes to their cause, and the untimely death of Brig. General Lindsay had again let the Command devolve upon a Gentleman respectable as a civilian but totally unqualified for the conduct of Military operations. As Grenada is a very valuable Colony, I (thought) deserved the first attention. I therefore sent Major Picton D.2. Maj. Gen. to meet the Convoy at Barbados with order to detach from thence without delay three of the Battalions most fit for service, and a strong Party of artillery; which I had reason to think was a force adequate to restore tranquility upon their appearance.

Unfortunately in this instance, as in many others, the evil effect of the Reinforcement being not half the strength which from your letters I had expected, has been much experienced – Major Picton finding the weakened state of the number of Troops in the Convoy, consulted with Colonel Nicolls, and with his advice ordered but two Battalions to Grenada, the 25th and 29th under the Command of Lieut. Col. Campbell.

I had left some discretion in the Orders which I sent by Major Picton, and he considered that as the whole Force arrived was smaller than was looked for, that the several parts must be proportional- I approved of this Reason; being of opinion that even two Battalions, if fit for Service, would accomplish the Business without much Difficulty.-

This Force landed at Grenada on the first Instant, and such a Disposition was made, as the president had upon Reflection and Knowledge of the Country thought and decided to be the best –

On the 12th Instant the Account reached me that the Troops had failed in an attack made upon the Enemy’s principal Post, with some loss.

I cannot enter into a detail of these transactions, it would require a great deal of Time, and that I can refer you for particulars to the several inclosures(sic)—the subject which I transmit from Mr. President MacKenzie and Lieut. Col. Campbell –

I must acknowledge that this turn of affairs was unlooked for by me-

As it was evident that a Commanding Officer was wanting, I instantly sent off Colonel Nicolls whom I had promoted to the Rank of Brigadier to take the Command. He left this on the 12th Inst. with every direction for his conduct which I could think of, but it is yet too soon to hear from him.

The remaining three Regiments which arrived at Barbados were ordered immediately here; as I have no doubt that they would be greatly inferior to the 46th and 61st Regts I had these Regiments in perfect readiness to embark, which they did the following day: the 46th I sent to St. Vincent, and the 34th and 61st to St. Lucia – The Battalion of the Queens and 45th were landed at Martinico.

It is very mortifying to me that the imminent danger to which each of the three abovementioned Islands were reduced, indeed this disposition unavoidable, by which the acting Force was in three Divisions_

A few days previous to receiving the Reinforcement and indeed, previous to the arrival of the Troops at Barbados Brig. Gen. Stewart at St. Lucia had fail’d in our attempt to dislodge the Enemy from one of their strongholds- I had given him Notice that he should soon be able to act offensively again, and desired him to be prepared with a plan of Operations-

When the 34th and 61st Reg. with a Detachment of Royal Arty. arrived, the Brigadier endeavoured to cut off the Enemy from the interior of the Country but in this he did not succeed; they retreated and he could only burn their Camp. He is now engaged in an attack upon Vieux Fort and Neighbourhood which is their principal Rendezvous, and where they receive their supplies.-

St. Vincent has been more fortunate in attacks upon the Enemy. The 46th Regt enabled Governor Seton to attempt three Posts of the Enemy in the night of the 10th inst. which were all successful and this barbarous Enemy driven to the Mountains with the loss of their Guns, but they have destroyed by Fire almost every Plantation on the Windward side of the Island.

In this Situation we now remain.

The other Islands have also been in a state of Danger, which required the utmost exertion on their own parts to ward off.

In Antigua and St. Kitts the inhabitants have been under arms for several weeks and  must remain so.

Necessity has convinced the Legislature of these Islands, however averse they were to the Principles, that they must have recourse to such Negroes, as they think they can rely on, for the defense of their Properties; and accordingly in each, they have arm’d and embodied a large Number._ I had no Troops at my command to send them although the important Garrison of Brimstone Hill consists only of about seventy Invalids which were sent from Guadeloupe unfit for duty in the month of October last, for the recovery of their health_ It has there given me the greatest concern that I have not rec’d His Majesty’s approbation for forming strong bodies of Blacks.. Nothing in my opinion can be more certain than the indispensable necessity there is for this measure _ It is to the Black forces under Lieut. Colonel Soter that we owe the possession of Martinico at this Moment.

It is to the lately raised Corps of Blacks under Capt. Malcolm that we have been able to retain our footing in St. Lucia. I do aver that had it not been for the Services of these two provincial – that both these Islands would before now have been lost._ It is in these Islands that my recommendation to establish Corps of Blacks is meant, the English Islands having Governors and Legislatures of their own, may judge for themselves.

I believe all of them have more or less adopted the plan and in compliance with their earnest solicitations I have supplied them with considerable quantities of Arms and Ammunition for their Militia and Negroes.

St. Vincent has only saved the small part of the Island which remains undevasted(sic) by the arming of Negroes. With all these proofs in support of an opinion I had formed since I cannot but with infinite Regret reflect that a set of self-interested Merchants who will not give a small part to save the remainder, should be attended to in the conducting of Operations in this Country, in preference to an officer commanding in Chief, who can have no motive but his own Credit, and the success of His Majesty’s Arms. I hope that Ministry will yet weigh this important Point with the attention it deserves.

Confident of His Majesty’s approbation, I had ordered Soter’s and Malcolm’s Corps to be augmented to four Companies each, of One hundred men per Company. The men for this service are obtained from the Colony, and the proprietors are to be paid their value by a Tax upon the whole Island.

It is an unpleasant part of my Duty to state to you the condition of the 45th Reg. I hesitate not to say that it is totally unfit for Service in any climate and more particularly here. It is chiefly composed of Boys, who have not strength to carry arms, and the Regiment has no article of Clothing suitable to this Country. It is injustice to expect successful service from such a Battalion. I speak not as a fault to be imputed to their officers, as the Regiment was completed, I understand, by a large number of raw Recruits previous to Embarkation.

The Battalion of the Queens appears better but have only three or four of their own officers, the others being from independent Companies.

Your letters No: 2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9.10 and 11, with the dispatches directed to the Dutch Governors of their several Colonies in the West Indies, I had the Honor to receive last Night; and the Chesterfield packet arrived with the duplicates at the same time.

It is my first desire to execute all His Majesty’s Commands; and I should with the utmost sense of Gratification, proceed upon the Directions contained in our letters relative to the Dutch Colonies, with the Forces under my Command adequate to the service; But Sir, as they are unequal at present, and are struggling to maintain our own Colonies; they are consequently still more unequal for the further service in question.

For this obvious Reason it is not to be expected any of the Dutch Colonies can be guarded by us if they are disposed to receive our Troops as Friends --we are able to secure the quiet possession of our own.

The Situation of the several Islands, and indeed the importance of great attention to the interior of Martinico has made it absolutely necessary for me to remain in this Colony as the center of all, and the most advantageous to receive or transmit Orders and Supplies from and to all the others; But for this I should certainly have been at St. Lucia and Grenada.

The Admiral has appointed a Convoy to sail from St. Kitts on the first of May, by which will be sent the Officers and Non Com. Officers of the drafted Regts. including the 58th and 64th. Also the French prisoners to the amount of above Seven hundred; as many of them are people of a very dangerous class here, I shall transmit with them an account of all who are of this description. The Enemy still retains their Prisoners at P.a Pitre, contrary to the Treaty of Capitulation.

I have the honor to be Sir, your Very Obedt. Humble

Servant                                        John Vaughan

Right Honorable,                                                  Henry Dundas

The Admiral will dispatch a Frigate immediately to the Governor of Demerary to deliver the dispatches of His Serene Highness the Prince Stadtholder; and a joint Letter from us to your Letter No. 11-

Quarter Mas. Genl. has received 5000 shoes, Flannel Waistcoats and drawers: and I request another supply of these articles as soon as they can be sent –

NB. 5 Inclosures

No. 23

Martinico – sixteenth April 1795

188

Sir,

The Enemy having gain’d to their cause many of the French Inhabitants and Negroes in Grenada, and concerted measures for raising an Insurrection in that Colony, which from the perfidy of the inhabitants alluded to, they were invited to attempt.

They convey’d to that Island early in last March a quantity of arms and ammunition, with a small Number of Troops, which secretly joining themselves to the Conspirators appear’d suddenly in arms.

Lieut. Governor Home, and many other Gentlemen in the Country, were surprised and made Prisoners. His Majesty’s Troops being employ’d on many points, this dangerous Revolt could not be immediately suppressed; though from the Exertions of Capt. Rogers, H.M.S. the Quebec, and of the small Garrison there join’d to the Militia they were kept in cheque. (sic).   

The unfortunate death of Br.General Lindsay, ----- I sent to command there/ a few days after his arrival, retarded the Operations against them upon the arrival of the Reinforcement under the Command of Rear Adm. Parker at Barbados, two Battalions with a detachment of Royal Artillery was order’d to Grenada,

Several Skirmishes have happen’d since their landing in one of which, on the tenth Instant, it is with concern I have learnt that Captain Stopford[1] of the 9th Regt, Capt, Hewan[2] 25th and Baillie of the 29th were kill’d; and about twenty men killed and sixty wounded; owing entirely to their attempting the side of a steep Mountain defended wit abbatis(sic)[3].

Brig. General Nicolls whom I have sent to command there, will I am satisfied make every exertion to subdue this Enemy; and I trust soon to receive good Accounts from him.

I am sorry to add that the Enemy has committed many acts of Barbarity.

In St. Vincent, the Charibs(sic) instigated by the French and joined by most of the French Inhabitants, seized a favorable time most treacherously to attack the English Inhabitants of that Colony: the Acts of cruelty which they have committed upon defenseless Men, Women and Children are beyond Description; and burning every Plantation in their power.

Fortunately by Governor Seton’s Exertion, and of the Navy under Capt. Skinner of the Zebra, with the spirited behaviour of the Garrison and Inhabitants, they were                                                                                                                   (cont’d on page 3)

Beaten from a Post they occupied over Kingston, with the loss of their Chief; and the arrival of the 46th Reg. has enabled the Governor again to attack them, which he did on the tenth instant; and succeeded in driving them from three positions, with considerable loss on their side, and but small upon ours.    

I am in hope they will experience a just Punishment for their inhuman and unprovoked conduct.

The Colony from their Devastations is reduced to a very distressed Situation.

Frequent skirmishes pass at St. Lucia but as Brig. Gen. Stewart has received a considerable Reinforcement I flatter myself he will be able to make such an Impression upon the Enemy as will restore the Island to order.-

                              

I have the Honor to be,

                                    Sir

                                    With Great Respect

                              Your Most Obed.Hum. Servant

                                    John Vaughan

Right Hon’ble

      Henry Dundas

            ????

[1] Henry Stopford

[2] Tho. Barftow Hewan

[3] Abatis. A defense made of trees with boughs pointed outwards.

Most private

190

Martinique –18 April 1795

Sir,

     I am very sorry to find by your letter of the 19 February that in consequence of the opinions of some West India Planters and Merchants in London, you disapprove of the arming of the Blacks to be commanded by British Officers for the defense of the Colonies and that His Majesty desires I will refrain from the measure at least for the present.

I must confess that I am not surprised at this opinion of the x x Merchants and Planters in England, because six or eight months ago, I am well informed that the Planters resident in these Islands thought exactly in the same manner. But the late transaction at Guadaloupe first opened the eyes of the most enlightened and least prejudiced amongst them: and what has lately at St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and Grenada has left no difference of Sentiment on this subject in their breasts. It is fair to argue that those who are on the spot, and see themselves and families exposed to dangers of the most trying kind, are more fitted to form an opinion on this subject than those who are at the distance of three thousand miles, and who have nothing but loss of property to contemplate.

For my own part, when I see that the war in this part of the Globe is carried on in the unexampled manner it now is; that the enemy avail themselves of the aid, not only of the native white men, but of the negroes who are incured(sic) to the Climate, can brave the dangers of it, and can be easily procured in such great numbers, whilst we are confined to the use of European troops, few in numbers, and in discipline, and exposed to the ravages of an unhealthy climate with which they are unable to contend, and to which they fall such numerous victims, I cannot hesitate to declare it as my opinion that unless His Majesty will be graciously pleased to sanction and promote this measure of xx forming negroe(sic) men into Regiments xx commanded by British Officers; or will send out a greater number of veteran British troops than has usually been done, I am afraid all these colonies will be wrested out of our hands and at no great distance of time.

Had it not been for the French negroes, which I suddenly and on the pressure of the moment armed in this Island and sent over to St. Lucia under the command of Major Malcolm, I am persuaded that Colony would have been long since lost to us. Nor are you a stranger to the great utility which Lieut. Col. Seton’s Company of blacks have been of in preserving tranquility in the interior of this Island. Besides it will be prudent at this ^time to keep alive the animosity which it is well known has hitherto subsisted between the English and French Blacks by arming the former against the latter. As otherwise it is to be feared that in case of invasion of any of our old Islands by the French, our slaves may be induced by the alluring offer of freedom to join their brethren in arms.

Some of the Islands, particularly those of Antigua and St. Kitts, have since the disasters of Grenada and St. Vincent, already armed large bodies of their negroes, and occasionally muster and discipline them for their internal defense in case of invasion, and I have little doubt but that ere long some if not all of these Colonies will spontaneously offer a certain proportion of their slaves to His Majesty to constitute a part of his army here. Should this offer be made to me as His Majesty’s confidential servant here, I cannot but confess that I shall feel myself very awkwardly situated. The struggle within my breast on this occasion is very great. My Inclination, no less than my Duty points out to me the strictest obedience to His Majesty’s will.

I must beg leave to state to you that the war in these Colonies is now carried on in a manner totally different to what it was before, even in Sir Charles Grey’s time, for the enemy now make it a war of posts, instead of making the xx Sovereignty of the Island their only object as before. They endeavour by every means to harass and weaken our regular forces hoping thereby, and by myriads of negroes they have at their command, ultimately to wrest from us these valuable Colonies.

 I undertook this Command with the sole view of promoting the good of my Country, and securing the Dignity and Honour of my Gracious Sovereign, and my most unremitted endeavours shall never be wanting to attain such desirable ends.

I have the honour to be with the greatest respect

                                    Sir

your most obedient and most humble servant

                                          

John Vaughan

Grenada, 24th April, 1795

                                                                                 

My Lord Duke,

                           In my letter of the 28th of March I had the honour to acquaint Your Grace with the particulars of a General Insurrection which had broken out in this Island and of the situation of our affairs to that period.

In pursuance of the Plan which I then stated to your Grace, one hundred Regulars and Militia under Captain Gurdon of the 58th Regiment embarked on two armed vessels with orders to effect a landing at Grenville Bay, and a party of fifty Militia were stationed at the Observatory, a commanding situation at five miles distance, to watch their debarkation and march to support them.—Captain Gurdon not thinking it advisable to enter Grenville Bay landed his party at Levera at the windward end of the Island, and joined the Militia at the observatory from whence he marched on the 2nd of April towards Grenville Bay but finding the Enemy in possession of the Pilots Hill, which it was intended he should occupy, and protected apparently by two pieces of Cannon, he thought his Force insufficient for the Enterprise & returned to the observatory. An extract of his Letter to me of the 3rd of April is enclosed for your Grace’s further information. (No.1)

         Under the idea that the landing place at Grenville Bay would be secured by Capt. Gurdon’s Detachment, I dispatched an express to meet the Commanding Officer of our expected Reinforcements, stating our situation, and desiring him to .land his Force in three divisions at Grenville Bay, Charlotte Town and St. George’s; as the only effectual Way of subduing the Insurgents would be by making a General movement towards the different avenues of their Camp at the same moment. My messenger found the 25th & 29th Regiments on their way from Barbados under the command of Lieut. Col. Campbell of the 29th to whom he delivered my Letter No. 2.

Lieut. Col. Campbell proceeded with the Fleet to Charlotte Town & there disembarked the two Regiments on the 1st instant.  On hearing of his arrival I had an interview with him to concert the best measures for employing his force, and I communicated the letter from Capt. Gurdon the moment I received it.  A detachment of three hundred men was re embarked for St. George’s under Major Mallory[1] of the 29th and a detachment of 250 men under the command of Major Wright of the 25th Regiment marched through the woods to support Capt. Gurdon[2].   Major Mallory’s detachment was intended to take post at Michel’s, a hill beyond the Grand Etang which commands the principal communication between Grenville Bay and the Enemy’s Camp, and from whence it was judged that their heavy supplies might be intercepted and their retreat cut off.

This detachment marched from St. George’s on the 4th, dislodged a party of the Enemy posted at Madame Ache’s, about 5 miles from the Town, and halted there for the night.

Ill health and a wound prevented Major Mallory from proceeding next day, and obliged me to order Lieut. Col. Eshe of the 68th Regiment from Charlotte town to take the Command which he assumed on the 6th, and had the Instructions No. 3 for his guidance, but as he thought his Force unequal to the difficulties which were to be encountered, no further progress was made by him.          I refer to his two letters of the 8th, my letter of the 9th and his reply of the same date for your Grace’s further information.

Major Wright’s detachment joined Captain Gurdon’s at Mount Horne, an estate above Grenville Bay, but as Major Wright’s detachment were much fatigued by the march and Capt. Gurdon had left some sick men and a Guard at the observatory, it was agreed to return to that Post and apply for some Artillery provisions and necessaries, to enable them to make their attack. These were immediately sent; and landed at Levera on the morning of the 7th, but Major Wright made no further movement; and unfortunately on the 8th a schooner from Guadeloupe escaped our Cruisers and brought the Enemy a supply of ammunition and officers. Major Wright’s letter to Lieut. Colonel Campbell written on the 9th (No. 7) will show the state of his detachment and the letter No. 8 from the officers of the Enemy’s Post at Grenville Bay to Fedon their Chief, which has fallen into my hands, will show their situation previous to the arrival of the schooner.

The failure of these two enterprises put an end to the plan of a general cooperation of the different detachments against the Enemy’s Camp, on which alone I had built my hopes of restoring our tranquility, but as delay was of every ill consequence to us and of every advantage to the Enemy, it was judged best to make an assault upon their Camp from the post before Belvidere which was still in our possession. Captain Watkins of His Majesty’s Ship Resource, gallantly offered his services, and collected one hundred and fifty volunteer seamen to assist Lieut. Col. Campbell and the Troops in the enterprise.

The Party moved on the morning of the 8th and the Enemy abandoned their lower camp on its approach, and retreated to their upper Post, which was found to be strongly defended by the inaccessible nature of the Ground, and by fallen trees interlaced in the nature of an Abbatis (sic). The ardor and resolution of the seamen and Troops led them to press forward notwithstanding these difficulties, and endeavour to gain possession of a Gun which was advanced from the summit of the Enemy’s position, but the heavy rains which had fallen made it scarce possible for the men to keep their feet- in climbing the hill and making their way through the fallen trees and underwood, their arms were of no service to them, and they were exposed to a very heavy and galling Fire from the Enemy, and after a painful and gallant effort, they were forced to retreat. I have the honour to enclose Your Grace, a Return of the killed and wounded. (No. 9)

Such, My Lord, were the Plans which I formed for the re-establishment of our affairs. They were the best which I could devise; but untoward accidents, in every instance, prevented their being carried into execution. I therefore considered it essential for His Majesty’s Service that the command of the Island should be put into the hands of a General Officer; under whom it was probable the army would act with more vigour and confidence than could well be expected from them under a Person whose profession was not Arms; and who could enforce that degree of discipline which is necessary on active service. I accordingly sent a letter by Express to Sir John Vaughan containing the particulars of our situation, stating the necessity of a vigorous and united effort against the Enemy, and making an earnest request that he would without delay send us a General Officer vested with the full command- who by making the whole Force of the Country act in concert, might rid it of an evil which threatened its ruin. Brigadier General Nicolls arrived here, and took the Command on the 16th in consequence of this application. The embodying and arming of trusty Negroes for internal defence having been found an advantageous measure in some of the other Islands, he has adopted a similar plan in this, and near three hundred Negroes in the Town and its Neighbourhood have enlisted. The post at Mde Ache’s is withdrawn, and the General is making preparations for an attack on Pilot’s Hill, where the Enemy are said to be now strongly in trenched.

From the long continuance of this Insurrection, the defection among the Plantation Negroes has become general and the Enemy are daily training them to Arms. The uninterrupted licence which they have had to wander at large thro’ the Country, and to plunder and burn the Estates, has ruined them for every valuable purpose, and it must be a length of time before the Colony returns to its former tranquility, even should success attend the future operations against the Enemy. On this subject, I fear to be sanguine. The 25th and 29th Regiments are composed of men unaccustomed to Service and unseasoned to the climate, and the delays which have taken place, have given to the Insurgents strength, numbers and confidence.-

[The Colony has already been put to a very heavy expense in supporting the Militia, and maintaining a number of vessels which it has been necessary to employ in the public service, and it is to be feared these expenses must be continued a considerable time. Hitherto, I have been able to make a sum which remained in the hands of the Colony Treasurer answer for such advances as were immediately necessary. But as this sum is daily lessening and as there is no possibility of levying any tax in the present confusion, I much fear it will not be in my power to avoid making some drafts on His Majesty’s Treasury for the support of our Public Credit. Your Grace may be assured that I shall not adopt this measure but upon the next pressing necessity and that I shall use the best precautions in my power to make the Legislature responsible for the repayment of the sum as soon as the situation of the Colony will any way permit it.]

It is with sincere concern I must add, that from different accounts we have received by Negroes who have escaped from the Camp, there can remain little if any doubt that the Lieutenant Governor and his unfortunate fellow Prisoners were massacred on the day of the attack by an order of Julien Fédon, except the Revd. Mr. McMahon, Dr John Hay and a Mr. Kerr, who it is reported have been sent prisoners to Guadeloupe. Two negroes are here who say they were present, one at the commencement and the other during the whole of the Butchery.

I have also the great mortification to acquaint Your Grace with the death of Capt. Rogers of His Majesty’s Ship Quebec, an excellent Officer and a Good Man, whom this Colony will long remember with gratitude for his zealous and unremitted exertions in its favour.         He was seized with a violent attack of fever on the 21 and died this afternoon –

                                                            

   I have the honor to be

                                                      My Lord Duke,

                                                               Your Grace’s

                                                               most obedient and

                                                               most humble Servant

                                                                        K. F. MacKenzie

[1] Major John Mallory

[2] Throughout his “Short Account of The Insurrection”, D.G. Garraway spelt the name as Guerdon. However, the published list of the officers of the “Fifty-eighth (or the Rutlandshire) Regt. Of Foot” gives his name as Ph. Brampton Gurdon; the spelling found in this and other letters.

Lieut. Governor Home[1]         

Sir,

No. 8                  I have received and laid before the King your letter of the 20th of February last.

I highly approve of the steps which you have taken for the preservation of the Island under your Government and I have no doubt but the same exertions will be continued until such an effectual Reinforcement shall arrive as cannot fail of completely re:establishing our Authority in that Quarter.

I have been, for some time, under great uneasiness, on account of a report which has been current here that the French have landed in Grenada, and committed some depredations in that Island, but as no official accounts have been yet received in confirmation thereof, I am, on many accounts, in anxious expectation of further information on this subject.

                               

     I am  ..

                                             Portland

[1] At the time this letter was written Governor Ninian Home and some 47 other English inhabitants had already been massacred by Fedon at his Camp at Belvidere Estate, in response to an attack on the Camp by the British Forces  on the  8th April, 1795

Grenada 16th May 1795

My Lord Duke,

I had the honor in my letter of the 24th April to state at large to your Grace the situation of the Public affairs of this Colony to that Point. Two days after our Posts in the heights above Charlotte Town were evacuated, and the expedition against Grenville bay was undertaken, but the Enemy abandoned Pilot Hill, and retreated to the heights on the second night after landing of the Troops in the neighborhood.

Brigadier General Nicolls has since occupied Pilot Hill, established Posts at Sauteurs and at Negrin, and reinforced Charlotte Town.

The remainder of the Troops and Militia are in garrisons in the Town & Fortifications.

By this arrangement, the principal landing places are in some measure protected but the interior of the Island is left open to the Enemy and but few of the might explain the Plans which I had adopted for the restoration of public order, and the circumstances which had rendered them ineffectual. The principal part of these Papers have been already communicated to your Grace in my letter of the 24th April.- Such as were omitted I now add. (No. 13) – No. 14 contains a Resolution of the House of Assembly after having considered these Papers.

 I have the honour to inclose a State of His Majesty’s Council on the 8th instant (No. 15) and regret the vacancy which has happened by the resignation of Mr. Thomas Campbell, one of the oldest and most respectable Inhabitants of this Colony, but his health was so reduced, that an immediate removal from the Island became indispensible – As it was necessary to have a sufficient number of Councillors to form a Board, I appointed John Garraway and John Tate Esquires, to act as Councillors until His Majesty’s pleasure should be known – These Gentlemen are respectable Merchants resident in St. George’s, and the former commands the St. George’s Militia. I beg leave to recommend them to His Majesty, for confirmation.

The French Schooner which I mentioned in my last letter as having arrived from Guadeloupe with succours to the Enemy early in April, brought over a number of Copies the inclosed printed Paper (No. 16) which have been industriously distributed in the Island.- Altho’ the gross misrepresentations which fill this Paper are apparent to any Person in the least acquainted with what has happened.  I thought it might be attended with good effects upon the ignorant, the wavering, and the inconsiderate, to make a short and plain comment on the Proclamation of the 4th of March, and on

  (No. 17) this Decree, and to publish them together. The arrival of Brigadier General Nicolls, who thought differently, prevented this publication from taking place.- I cannot, however, but be of opinion that strictures of this nature, published occasionally by Government in the West Indies, would be attended with good effects, as they would, in some instances, counterwork the French Publications, which evidently 

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